Oh my goodness how the girls have changed! They have been through so much in such a short time. Here is the cliff notes version:
HALLIE:
*Did a whole BUNCH of medical tests. Discovered the her medicals from Russia were 100% bogus. She does not have hydrocephalus, she does not have a heart defect, she is not current on her immunizations. Also they said her eye sight was normal and we discovered she is legally blind. They also said her hearing was normal but she has moderate hearing loss in one ear. Basically threw them away because nothing on the Russian medicals were right!
*Discovered she had sleep apnea and was aspirating fluids. Got her tonsils and adenoids removed and it solved both problems.
*She had chronic ear infections and so we put tubes in her ears. It seems to have worked.
*She had surgery on her eyes and now she can see!
*She is now standing, cruising furniture, eating like a champ and loves to dance.
*She adores her family and we LOVE her!
ALISA:
*We had almost no medical history on her so there wasn't much to be wrong.
*Did an echocardiogram to discover that she had a massive AV canal in her heart that was repaired in Russia. So grateful they did that!!
*Discovered she had sleep apnea so we also had her tonsils and adenoids removed. Solved the problem!
*She had tubes put in her ears for chronic ear infections. Not sure how well they will work as she has another ear infection right now :(.
*Had a ton of medical testing done and she is basically healthy!
*She has learned soooooooooooo much since coming home. She knows a ton of English and American Sign Language. She has learned the family rules and is such a good girl.
*She has bonded to her family, loves living on a farm and her family thinks she is absolutely adorable.
New Pics!
The girls are doing soooooooo great! What a massive blessing they are to our family! Look how much they have changed in just 2 months!
Airport Pictures!!
My fabulous sister-in-law Jennifer came to the airport in the middle of the night to greet us. She took these fabulous homecoming pictures!!
Fun Pics of Novosibirsk
I just had to share these fun pics of Novosibirsk.
This little fence in the park next to Lenin Square surrounds a small fountain in the warmer months. If you can't tell, click on the pic to make it bigger, it is covered in locks. Couples when they get married place a lock on the fence and then throw away the key representing their commitment to eachother. :)
This little fence in the park next to Lenin Square surrounds a small fountain in the warmer months. If you can't tell, click on the pic to make it bigger, it is covered in locks. Couples when they get married place a lock on the fence and then throw away the key representing their commitment to eachother. :)
In Novosibirsk, they do not shovel any of the sidewalks, parking lots or anything but the streets. So strollers are impossible. Instead you find these all over town. Parents pull their children in sleds! There are a wide variety of pull or push sleds just like there are a wide variety of strollers here. Super fun way to get around town.
This was our room this time at the Sibir. We decided to upgrade to the 2 room suite since we would have the girls with us. It was soooooooooooooo much nicer then their tiny rooms and we got a great deal on it. It was very cute and having the extra space was a life-saver!
CNN
My cute girls on CNN! We were interviewed in Moscow.
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2013/01/25/pkg-black-russia-adoption-ban.cnn
http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/world/2013/01/25/pkg-black-russia-adoption-ban.cnn
Day 7: Flying home (cont)
The flight home was LONG. The girls did great (better then the moms). There is nothing more exhausting then 15 hours on a plane!
Day 7: Homeward bound!
We made it through Russian immigration! We have sailed through every obstacle! We have angels at our side. Even little things have fallen into place.
For example, at the airport, the girls both had bad diarrhea and before we even got on our flight, we had gone through all the baby wipes. We still had hours and hours to go with no baby wipes! What were we to do? The out of the blue, a little old lady who does not speak any English suddenly handed Melinda a package of baby wipes. How did she know? Why did she have baby wipes? Obviously she was an angel on earth. We have had lots of these angels (both seen and unseen) on our journey. Thank you to all of them! Thank you to those who prayed for us, contributed financially, helped put on fundraisers, spread the word about our girls, and more! We very literally could not have done this adoption alone. Impossible. But with God and His angels, ANYTHING is possible. You have been part of a miracle! And there are two little girls who are ORPHANS NO MORE!!
A special thank you to the Reeces Rainbow family! www.reecesrainbow.org Without them we would have never found our girls. Without them we would have never had the funds to adopt them. Without them, we would not have had the courage, support and knowlege to complete this journey. Thank you!
A special thank you to WACAP, our adoption agency www.wacap.org. They are putting special needs orphans first and creating families and miracles every day!
And most of all thank you to those who supported our adoption and were encouraging to us. We had so many people be discouraging and try to tear us down. It is because of the love and support of dear friends and family members who believed in us that we were able to follow the Lord's call and adopt these divine girls!
They are HUGE blessings in our lives. They have the most amazing personalities and are such adorable additions! We cannot imagine our family without them now. As a good friend once said, children with Down Syndrome are the sprinkles on the cupcake of life.
For example, at the airport, the girls both had bad diarrhea and before we even got on our flight, we had gone through all the baby wipes. We still had hours and hours to go with no baby wipes! What were we to do? The out of the blue, a little old lady who does not speak any English suddenly handed Melinda a package of baby wipes. How did she know? Why did she have baby wipes? Obviously she was an angel on earth. We have had lots of these angels (both seen and unseen) on our journey. Thank you to all of them! Thank you to those who prayed for us, contributed financially, helped put on fundraisers, spread the word about our girls, and more! We very literally could not have done this adoption alone. Impossible. But with God and His angels, ANYTHING is possible. You have been part of a miracle! And there are two little girls who are ORPHANS NO MORE!!
A special thank you to the Reeces Rainbow family! www.reecesrainbow.org Without them we would have never found our girls. Without them we would have never had the funds to adopt them. Without them, we would not have had the courage, support and knowlege to complete this journey. Thank you!
A special thank you to WACAP, our adoption agency www.wacap.org. They are putting special needs orphans first and creating families and miracles every day!
And most of all thank you to those who supported our adoption and were encouraging to us. We had so many people be discouraging and try to tear us down. It is because of the love and support of dear friends and family members who believed in us that we were able to follow the Lord's call and adopt these divine girls!
They are HUGE blessings in our lives. They have the most amazing personalities and are such adorable additions! We cannot imagine our family without them now. As a good friend once said, children with Down Syndrome are the sprinkles on the cupcake of life.
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