G'byeah G'byeah

From Karin:
I feel like it has been forever since my last update. I will try to keep it short and sweet. Yeah, right.

Surgery was a huge success. Five days ago Lulu had the two lateral horizontal muscles of the eyes shortened. It was a long but well supported day and she was amazing. I do have to say that Swedish Hospital in Seattle really handles pediatric surgeries amazingly as does Dr. Epley.

The most major challenge beyond the long day, and surgery of course was that Lulu responds so well to anesthesia that she slept for four hours at the hospital and we couldn't go home until she would eat and drink. When we did get home, her only desire was to sleep and only if sitting right on Mommy. When we tried to put a crashed out sweetie in her own bed, she would have nothing to do with it until Quin was to be in his neighboring bed. She made her requirements very clear and we had to comply or else her tears looked Iike something out of Tru Blood (Vampire TV show for the uninitiated).

Adoption from China was also a theme that day because we met a boy, adopted from Henan Province years ago, in a hospital play room. In the first recovery suite, one of the nurses was an adoptive mother of a daughter from Guangdong who is now 4 and home for 3 years. When we advised all the nurses that we would need to have both parents in the first recovery room due to the fact that Lulu is still in the phase of her attachment process where she has Mommy and Daddy both near her 99% of the time, they told us that it would unfortunately be only one person in recovery because there were so many children that day. They expressed understanding but still could only take back one. When I went back to be with her as she was coming out of anesthesia, she did exactly what we said she would. She cried for Mama and was immediately consolable by me. Then she wanted Daddy too and the nurses realized right away that she was certainly stable and needed both of us. They swiftly arranged for a move to the second recovery level and on the way there, let me carry Lulu to find her Daddy. She was absolutely content and spent the next few hours sleeping on one or the other of us.

I have to say that it is so phenomenal to have the privilege of loving and caring for this trusting and precious little girl who has only been united with her family for less than two months. Last night when we said goodnight to Lulu, she said, "Goodnight Sweet Mom! Goodnight Sweet Dad!". Wow.

Luli is doing great with her English and is turning out to be quite the little linguist. The massively talkative household as well as attending pre-school (with Daddy present at school until the New Year for attachment) have all helped with communication. She relates mostly in English now but with some Mandarin mixed in, although, of course the Enlgish phrases are much shorter than she would like them to be. As she is a person who really likes to talk, she ends up sometimes giving an entire story in practice English which we respond to with something like, "great!" or "really?" or "that's interesting" or "thanks for telling me".

She and Quin love to relate in Chinglish and they have their own insider jokes. They love to shout the word for sleep (shuijiao) in a variety of hysterical and loud tones. They like to help each other pick out toys or clothes and ask whether the other likes the item in Mandarin (Ni xihuan ma. Answered with xihuan or bu xihuan for like or don't like). The most long-standing term is from when Lulu spent each evening trying to keep the boys up and checking on people. After a few nights of being up far too late and being miserably tired, we doting parents told the boys that they had to stop participating in the entertainment. That didn't stop anything so we told them that they would lose privileges if she kept getting out of bed. Wrong answer. They were so desperate not to lose video games or something that when she got out of bed, they screamed , "GET BACK In BED!" at her. We told them immediately not to do that again as we assumed that it scared her and we also realized that they just needed to pretend to be sleeping and that she would lose interest. That did help but the next time one of them tried to put a foot on the floor, she screamed, "G'byeah g'byeah!". This was 5 weeks ago, mind you. Well, it lead to a volley of "G'byeah g'byeah"s back and forth across the room followed by hysterical laughter. It is still a beloved phrase in this house and no longer limited to bedtime. It's like an after dinner mint enjoyed all day long.

The best news after the surgery to uncross Lulu's eyes was the news that she will be a candidate to either have lens implants placed into the anterior chamber of her eyes- the ideal location. If the anterior chamber won't support a lens, it will go in the posterior chamber. This is fantastic news because the closer to the correct location, the better chance she has of improving her vision and improving optical brain connections. Her lack of eye coordination is the biggest long term challenge and the sooner this can be done, the better. So, Lulu will have one lens implanted in two months and one more about 4 weeks later.

I am mildly apprehensive about the toll that surgery takes on her but that is massively overridden by my gratitude that she is a candidate for these surgeries and that they are now available to her. Lulu has so much zest for life and wants so much to be able to do everything a child can do. Who wouldn't? We already see how much better it is for her with better glasses. Just imagine having eyes that see straight (feel free to pray that the changes in the muscles turn the eyes forward) and having actual lenses in one's eyes. I thank God every day for bringing Lulu into our life. She is truly a gift to our family as are all three of our children. Those nephews and our niece are amazing too. Gotta love these funny little people!

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