Falling in Love

I am humbled and overwhelmed at what God has done in my baby girl's heart in just 2 months! He truly is the healer of the brokenhearted, as we have experienced first-hand in the Mason home. Eden is thriving. We have settled into a routine, and even amidst all of the doctor visits she is growing more trusting and secure with us each and every day. I even left her in the church nursery with a close friend last night for the first time and she did great! Glory to God for His work in her life. It's been a while since I posted so I'm going to give you a quick run-down of what we've been up to around here. I have also posted photos that kind of go along with the post.

We went to the Lifeline Adoption Agency's Annual Reunion earlier this month. The theme was "Game Day" so we bought Eden her first Auburn cheerleader outfit. We enjoyed meeting other families who have experienced the blessing of children through adoption. There was a book fair there as well and we got a few books for Eden. One was a book about going to the doctor that has a doctor's kit with it (since she's going to spend a lot of time with doctors). The kit came with these hilarious red glasses that she loves to wear. Then we got her a cute Panda book and a really cool book called, "My First Thousand Chinese Words." This last book has 1,000 Chinese words with the pronunciations and pictures, so mama and ba-ba can learn with Eden! For those of you who may be interested in this book it's an Usborn book and I'm sure it's available on Lifeline's website.

We also were able to get together with two of the families who we traveled with to China. The Pintaro's adopted sweet Lilly, and the Young's adopted precious Sadie. We had lunch at the Cracker Barrel a couple of weeks ago. I've included a photo of Eden with her Chinese "Gi Gi's," this means "big sister." That's what Eden calls them. It was so good to see these life-friends and to see how far God has brought their families.

We had our ENT appointment and found out that Eden will have tubes put in her ears on October 12th. While we were there they also noticed (thanks to Eden screaming at the top of her lungs) that Eden is "tongue tied." This means she has a small membrane (lots of kids do) under her tongue that they are going to snip while she's having her tubes. This will help her with language development.

We also found out that Eden has the TB germ. She does not have TB, but she had a reactive skin test that shows she was exposed to TB so we are going to have to treat her with medicine for that. She is in NO WAY contagious to others. The reason for treating her is to protect that germ from ever attacking her organs later in life. Her lung x-ray looked great so we can rest assured she does not have Pulmonary TB. We go to the health dept. tomorrow to pick up her medicine.

Lastly, the 3 of us were able to go to the lake on a mini vacation this past weekend. There was no water because of the drought, but our friends have a beautiful home they let us borrow and we enjoyed the fall weather. Thanks to the Watkins family - it was such a blessing to get away! We slept in, ate hot breakfasts, watched movies, and played with Eden. She has started this thing where if she is reading a book that has a hat in it, she runs and gets one of her hats to wear. There is a photo of Gene reading to her in her hat.

The three of us are falling in love, us with Eden and Eden with us. It's so amazing how your love grows daily for your children, isn't it? I can't help but think that this must be one of the ways that we are "created in God's image." It blows my mind to think that as much as we love our children, God loves us even more than that. What a good God He is!

Big Weekend!

We had a very busy weekend. It started off with us traveling to Knoxville, TN for our friends Daniel and Andrea's rehearsal dinner and wedding. Then, Sunday Eden and I went to Anniston so she could meet her grandparents for the first time (my dad and step-mom who live in Key West, FL). We had so much fun! Then we spent the night with my mom and step-dad in Anniston and came home Monday morning. Eden missed her ba-ba (daddy) very much since he was unable to go to Anniston with us. I don't have much time to post but I'm going to post a lot of pictures of the weekend events.

Here's the problem, I'm not a very experienced blogger so I don't know how to put captions on the photos unless I do separate posts, so that's why there are so many. And, I don't know how to make the "tall" pictures upright so they are sideways. Sorry! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Swimming

Here's Eden swimming with her best friend, our 80 pound labrador Maggie, in the new bathing suit Mare-Mare and Big Daddy gave her.

Family Photos

Eden met her Big Daddy and Mare-Mare for the first time on Sunday. They were so sweet and brought her a HUGE bag of fall clothes. Thank you so much!

Wedding Day Photos

Hello? Maggie?

Eden LOVES the telephone - not the toy ones, the real thing. She picked it up in our hotel room and called our dog, Maggie. She said, "Hello? Maggie?" But the way she says it sounds like, "Herro? Gaggie?" It is adorable!

Eden, Daddy and the Groom

Eden and the Bride at Dinner

Eden just loved the rehearsal dinner location (Calhoun's on the River). She enjoyed looking out the window and saying her new word, "wa-wa" (translation - water).

Eden at a Rehearsal Dinner

Cleft Clinic Appointment

Well, the appointment was fabulous. I cannot say enough good things about everyone we saw. We saw Dr. Grant (the plastic surgeon), an audiologist, speech pathologist and a geneticist. The reason for the genetic consult was to rule out that her cleft was a part of any "larger" syndrome that would affect other areas like learning development, kidneys, heart, etc. Here's the scoop on what we found out.

First, Dr. Grant said he will NOT have to repair her cleft at this time because her palate is essentially closed. The hole she has is due to the cleft of her gum so language development shouldn't be an issue and she is eating fine. He said that as she grows older, she will learn to control the liquids coming out of her nose when she eats because it will start to bother her. Her first surgery will be around 4 years of age. At that time he will do some work on her nose to put some length between the nose and the lip, and he will revise her scar since her lip will have grown. He called it "fixing her up for school."

Then, her gum cleft will be repaired at around 2nd grade (that's average age; it can be done as early as 6 years old but it depends on her teeth, I think). An oral surgeon will do this surgery and it will actually be a bone graft from bone in her hip to build in the cleft. They said the cleft part is not bad but the bone graft is pretty painful. Dr. Grant said she looks great and everything is "normal" for a cleft.

Then, we saw the audiologist who tested Eden's hearing. They can't test each ear at this young of an age but said she is hearing normally with both ears. Her eardrum is not moving as much as they would like (probably due to the fluid) so they referred us to an ENT to see about putting tubes in.

Next, the speech pathologist listened to Eden a little bit and said she is making all of the sounds she should be able to at this age. She said they don't even evaluate internationally adopted children until they've been home for 6 months but everything sounds great. She gave us some handouts to help us know what sounds/words she should master over the next year.

Lastly, we saw a genetics doctor. This is where things got interesting. You may have noticed in Eden's photos that she has 2 indentations on her bottom lip. It almost looks like she's bitten her lip. Well, this is actually salivary glands that are "in-grown," so to speak, and it is an indicator of a genetic syndrome that I can't remember the name of. This syndrome only causes clefts, and if Eden has it there is a 50% chance that her children would have cleft. Dr. Grant said when he revises her scar he can actually drain those and her bottom lip will smooth out. They drew blood to check for a certain chromosome that will tell us if she does have this syndrome. We hope that the test is positive because if it is, the doctors will know that her cleft is NOT part of any larger genetic issues. And, Eden will know that her own children have a high chance of having a cleft as well. This is priceless information for a child abandoned with no family history. I'm not sure what the next step will be if the test is negative. The geneticist said they start with tests that they think will be positive and work from there.

So, we had to make another trip to the lab for yet another "ouchie." They drew blood from the vein in her arm but we didn't have to hold her down this time because it was only 1 vial. She did great. She screamed but as soon as I told her it was over she did the sign for "all done." Then, mommy whipped out the secret stash of teddy grahams I had been saving. That did the trick.

We will go back every 6 months for follow up until her surgeries are all done. Dr. Grant said to go ahead and take her to the dentist because cleft kids have a higher risk for tooth decay so they will want to start seeing her around 2 years of age. And, he said start saving for orthodontics. They will refer us to an orthodontist that specializes in clefts when the time comes for that. What a resource this cleft clinic is!

Overall, it was a great visit and we walked away humbled that God has surrounded us with the resources to meet every one of Eden's needs. Every doctor that saw her just raved at how well she is doing, saying "We see a lot of adopted kids and she is doing SO WELL." This gave me a chance to brag on her foster mother in China and again acknowledge the incredible gift that she gave my precious daughter.

As we left Eden waved, said "thank you," and blew kisses. As the nurses teared up at how sweet she is, I was reminded again of what blessings these children are, and that Gene and I have been part of an incredible miracle of God giving an orphan a family. "Lord, please don't ever let me grow numb to what You have done. May Eden be a daily reminder of Your goodness, grace and faithfulness." Amen

Shots Galore!!

Well, we had our first pediatrician visit yesterday and it wasn't pretty. Eden is doing great, but we got 5 shots, a TB skin test, and a finger prick. I felt so horrible for Eden. She actually did well, though...probably because it was the first time and she didn't know what she was in for. The reason the doctor went ahead and did them all on this visit is because now she is up to date on shots until kindergarten. Thank goodness for that! Eden has gained about 2.5 pounds since we adopted her. The pediatrician was really pleased with her weight gain, eating, pooping and sleeping habits. She is doing so well. What really blew Dr. Albert away was how much she is talking - in English. It really is amazing how quickly she is learning the language.

She woke up today with a fever and stuffy nose. I gave her Motrin and her fever is gone. She seems to be feeling better. It may have been from all those shots, or I think she may be cutting some teeth. I did my first rectal temperature on her this morning. I couldn't help but wonder, "Who discovered this way to take a temperature?" Can you imagine the first time it was done? It's really gross and weird if you think about it. Anyway, Eden was pitiful this morning so we did a lot of snuggling and she's down for her second nap right now. Hopefully tomorrow she'll be better.

Speaking of tomorrow, we have our appointment at the Cleft Clinic with Dr. Grant at 8:00 a.m. in the morning. We hope to get some idea of a treatment plan for Eden's Aviolar (spelling?) cleft and the small hole in her palate. We will post on the blog what we find out tomorrow.

And, Gene and I are so honored that we will be sharing our adoption experience with prospective adoptive couples tomorrow night at the Lifeline Information Meeting. Eden will go with us also. I remember like it was yesterday when we attending this meeting in October of 2005. A couple brought their newly adopted daughter from China and I was HOOKED!! It's such a privilege to speak out on behalf of the world's orphans. I pray God will give us the words to say so that He will speak to those future parents that He has picked out for precious orphans. What an incredible God that He uses these adopted babies in such amazing ways to inspire others to trust Him and walk this faith journey of adoption.

This weekend we are going to Knoxville for our friends Andrea and Daniel's wedding. They are precious friends and we're so excited that Eden made it home in time to celebrate with them. Then my dad and step-mom are coming in town Sunday and they haven't met Eden yet so we're going to my grandmother's house for lunch Sunday. I'm so excited for them to meet Eden and for her to meet them.

I know everyone likes pictures, so I've posted some of me feeding Eden with the chopsticks we bought in China. We're doing what we can to instill a love for her Chinese culture, even at 20 months old! And, I put a photo of us with Heather and Caleb Platt at the airport on the day we arrived home from China. The Platts adopted Caleb from Khazakstan in March and we are trying to arrange their marriage. Just kidding, but they are becoming fast friends through play dates. Heather and I met when we both were doing our home studies for our adoptions and our friendship has grown and become so precious to me. It has been so great to have someone to walk through this process with. And Caleb and Eden are close in age (4 months difference). Isn't he so cute? You have to admit they make a cute couple.

Well, I'm going to go clean the bathroom before Eden wakes up. We'll post again soon.