On the 12th Day

she slept! It really did take Julia 12 full days to get over jet lag. The 1 day recovery for each hour of time difference rang true for us. Unfortunately for us, Julia is now teething and was up at 2:30am the next morning! It's always something isn't it? She fell back asleep quickly though so not as bad as it could have been. Last night we were graced with almost 9 hours of straight sleep. I can't remember the last time that happened. I think both of the girls were exhausted from their visit with Nana & PawPaw (Dave's parents) and all the new goodies they brought. They also were up later than usual, maybe we should do that more often!

Maya is starting to really come around to Dave. She's been letting him feed her, change her and even putting her into her booster seat to eat. Although, I have to say, she may let anybody put her into her booster seat. The girl loves to eat. I can't say that enough. She LOVES to eat. She gets all giggly and smiley when it's time to eat. It's too funny. Not only does she love to eat, she can really pack it in. Maya is starting to get a belly! The other night we didn't feel like cooking so ordered some Chinese food. I had to get a picture just to show you guys how much she can eat. Keep in mind that she had a afternoon snack of strawberries and a side vanilla yogurt to dip them in (she is hooked on dipping) and some crackers about an hour and a half or so before.

Before & After:


Yes, it's a lot of rice. She loves it though. She must have had it for every meal in the orphanage. When she has it now, she eats it like she hasn't eaten for days. This meal was also followed by Daddy feeding her some Gogurts. Our little piggy!

Pictures

Maya pointing out the big monster aka the Dog
















This was a pretty cute scene. Julia kept trying to get Maya's egg. Maya was not a happy camper about it.

Getting By

These past couple of days have not been so bad. I'm almost afraid to say it because I don't want to jinx myself. Honestly though, the nights are worse than the days. Julia is still getting up at night. The times have changed a bit but she's still not sleeping through the night yet.The girls have been pretty easy to manage during the days so far (knocking on wood). We even got out of the house a couple of times yesterday.

Julia has been napping twice a day and Maya napping once a day. They both nap at the same time in the afternoons so I get a little break. It's been pretty nice. For Julia's naps, I have been putting Maya in her crib but then getting her out when Julia goes down. For the 2nd nap, I put Maya in her crib and leave her with the door open. She eventually falls asleep.

Maya is still waking up crying every time, naps and in the morning as well. I think it's a mix between getting disoriented and getting emotional. She's pretty easy to calm but it's just the initial crying, whimpering that gets me. I feel bad for her. Julia still doesn't seem phased by her new sister. We're lucky in that Julia is a very easy going baby. There doesn't seem to be any jealousy at all with Julia. Now there's plenty the other way around. Maya sometimes does not like to share me. She's getting a little better in this department. I think she's finally realized that this is the way it's going to be.

Maya's starting to pick up on some more words. She can't say many of them clearly but at least she's trying to say them. We are continuously working with her from morning to night. Sometimes she goes on these streaks where she just loves to point, hear us say the words and try to say them herself. It's pretty cute.

After Maya's dinner, Dave has been spoon feeding her these Go Gurt things. It's yogurt in a plastic tube geared for kids. Really, it's sugar with a splash of yogurt in a tube but she LOVES them. Dave's been doing this for the past few nights and it seems to be helping her warm up to him a bit.

A friend of mine had a great idea. She suggested making Maya a small photo album that she can carry around with pictures of Dave. This would get her used to seeing Dave. We'll try it, it couldn't hurt.

I hope everyone had a nice Easter. Sadly, we never made it to church and never got the girls dressed up. We were still so exhausted plus the girls didn't get up until late. My mom and stepdad came over with dinner and Easter baskets for the girls. Out of all of the stuff Maya got, I hate to say it but she loved the little plastic eggs the best. She plays with those things all day. She even took a couple in the bath with her.

We're still just taking everything day to day. It's hard trying to figure out what the right thing to do is. I'm still really coddling Maya. She's just so fragile. We don't really know what else to do. Is she too fragile for a bout of "tough love"? We just don't know. I do know that I am carrying her a lot less. Now, I usually only carry her when she's going to her crib or coming out. All in all, I feel that we're making some progress. We're told that these things take time. It's just so easy to get impatient and want things right now.

One Day at a Time

That's been the motto in our household. We're all still trying to adjust to normal life here. Dave's back to work now so I've got both girls to take care of. When Dave was home he pretty much looked after Julia while I took care of Maya. Needless to say, I really miss him and I'm sure Julia does too! We're still trying to get a routine together but right now it's a little difficult because a certain little one is still suffering from jet lag. I read somewhere that it can take babies one day per hour of time difference. That's 12 hours = 12 days. We're up to 9 days now. Julia does seem to be getting better, if you call getting up from 10pm to 1:30 am instead of 1-4am better. We keep saying that once Julia gets back on track things will be easier, I hope this is the case.

As for my first full day alone with the girls, let's just say this is hard! I think Dave will have to commit me when this week is up. I've got Maya suffering from extreme Separation Anxiety and Julia who is fighting sleep and both of them seem to get great enjoyment out of crying at the same time and at full volume. I just have to laugh at it sometimes, either that or I'd be crying too, ha! The naps are the hardest part of the day. Julia has been a pill and Maya doesn't want to be alone. If Maya is in the room with Julia, Julia won't sleep. So, what I've resorted to is putting Maya in her crib and going to put Julia down for a nap. Maya cries for a bit but if her door is kept open, she calms pretty quickly. We'll see how this goes for now.

Maya is making small steps each day. She's still pretty hot and cold with Dave. She still won't show him any affection and depending on her mood, will ignore him altogether. I know it's really hard for Dave to deal with but he's being very patient with her. I have to laugh to myself because I know how this is going to pan out in the future. Dad is the big softie around here so it won't be long until little Maya figures out she can score big being Daddy's Little Girl. For now though, we're not really sure what else to do but to keep doing what we're doing and hope that eventually she will warm up to him. If anyone has any ideas in this department, please let us know.

Last week, we took the girls and went out for sushi. Maya was a trooper! She had her first taste of sushi and she liked it! She had a California roll minus the seaweed (I thought it would be choking hazard so I took it out) and some eel. She ate it all! Her appetite never seizes to amaze me. I pray that she continues to go through the toddler years open to trying new foods.

Maya's language development is moving, slowly but still moving. She can say baby, dog, Julia and ball and know what they mean. We're working hard on "more" right now. As much as she eats, we need to get this one down quick! She sometimes still insists on pointing and grunting, so we're trying really hard to get away from that.

This has actually been a big week for Julia. Julia turned 7 months old. The time just goes by so quickly. We started her on solids last week. We had waited until the Bangkok trip to start her on foods. Julia has/had some food sensitivities and we just didn't want to deal with all of it while traveling. So far she's loving sweet potatoes and bananas. We're going to try butternut squash next. Julia also got her first haircut. The poor girl has been walking around with a mullet, we just couldn't do that to her any longer. I just trimmed the long "newborn" hairs that never fell out along the back & sides. It really wasn't much but she looks so much better.

I've got some more pictures to post and a Bangkok wrap-up that I wanted to post. I will try to get them posted when I have a few spare moments. Right now, the girls are asleep and I need a nap!

Oh, I forgot to update Maya's test results. We're still waiting on all the blood work to come back but we do know that she doesn't have Tuberculosis. Whew.

Maya Photos

4 Days

It's been 4 days since we got back to the States. We're all still trying to kick this jet lag. OmoMaya seems to be doing ok with it. I think the fact that this kid can sleep anywhere, anytime has really helped things. Julia on the other hand, not so good. She's up from about 1-5am nightly, well, daily. Dave and I are still just so exhausted but I think once we get Julia back on track, things will be much better.

Little OmoMaya is adjusting well. She had her first Dr's appointment today. The poor thing got jabbed 3 times with a needle. She was a mess. The Dr wanted to check her prior immunizations/vaccinations so that required quite a bit of blood. She also got a needle in the forearm checking her TB status. Her paperwork states that she has been vaccinated against TB but everything is double checked when it comes to International Adoption. The Dr said that with some countries like Russia, they automatically re-vaccinate. He wasn't so certain about Thailand. Nobody seems to have a clear cut process on Thailand as it seems to be an obscure place to adopt from, maybe I should say was an obscure place to adopt from. With all of the delays in China, Hague Convention issues with Guatemala and possible shut down in Vietnam, adoptions through Thailand have hit an all time high.

Anyway, the blood work was a nightmare. The phlebotomist had the hardest time trying to find her vein. She stuck the needle in, found the vein but then lost it. At this point, Maya had lost it too. I was holding her on my lap and another nurse was holding her arm, while the 2nd nurse tried to find the vein. After about 40 seconds of the nurse digging around, the nurse started panicking, literally panicking. Her hands started shaking and I mean shaking! I have never seen anything like that before. I know she felt bad but come on Lady! I'm thinking to myself, "Get yourself together would you!" The scene from Airplane where they all get in line to "calm" the woman freaking out came to mind. Sheesh. After still no luck on the right arm, she pulls out the needle and says she wants to try the other arm. Thank God for little OmoMaya that this vein was a nurse's dream. They had to get 5 vials of blood so this wasn't a walk in the park. After a minute, she was done. Phew. Little Maya walked out the door with so many bandages it had looked like she was beaten!

Overall, the pediatrician said she looked great. She does have excema on her face and a little on her neck. She has a little bit of fluid in one ear but it could be because of the bronchitis she was getting over in Bangkok. The only other thing she had was wax build up in her other ear. The Dr prescribed a some drops to clear that up. When we were in Bangkok, Maya sounded pretty rough. Her lungs were full of congestion. You could actually hear her lungs cracking. Dave and I were pretty concerned about this, not only for her health but also for her exposure to Julia. We tried to do our best to keep the separate, including separate toys. Our Agency rep got us some antibiotics to clear it up in case it was viral. Some thing worked because the Dr said her lungs sounded great. He even said there was no need to keep the girls apart. Good stuff.

The Dr's main concern was Tuberculosis. Maya was vaccinated against TB as a baby as Thailand is a country that sees their fair share of TB cases. As a precaution, regardless of prior vaccinations, they test all international adoptees. Maya got the TB test on her forearm. I always remembered getting a tine test as a kid, you know with the 4 prongs? Maya didn't get that. She got a needle injected directly under the skin of her forearm. Anyway, we go back on Friday to check the results. We also have to bring some stool samples to check for parasites. Fun fun. heh.

The Dr made an interesting comment. He said that she 'looked' smart. I never knew you could see smart. He said that she had bright eyes and he could tell that she was smart by the way she was taking things in. Who knows if there's any validity to that comment but hey, as a proud parent we'll gladly accept that compliment.

Maya is transitioning well. She starting to become a lot more at ease. She doesn't scream when getting into her car seat anymore but now just whimpers. Hey, progress is progress. She is coming around to Dave a lot more but still no hugs. He's been able to interact with her more so this is really great news. Dave's latest thing is bribing her for kisses. It's very sweet. She loves potato chips and whenever Dave's eating them, which is pretty often because he loves potato chips even more, Maya wants some. She will look at me and point and I tell her to ask Daddy. She will then walk over to Dave and point. He then asks for a kiss on the cheek . The first few times she would balk at him. Here, lately, she has been putting her cheek up to his. It's so cute! It's getting better with those two. This morning Dave got her out of her crib. She screamed big time but then calmed quickly when she saw me. We were giving her her space with not too much change so now we're thinking we may try to just force the issue a bit, a tiny bit. Nothing too drastic or anything but Dave may start getting her out her crib.

Maya has also started to come around more with Julia. She is still very jealous of Julia when I carry her but it's getting better. I'm still worried about trying to put Julia down for naps when Dave goes back to work. Dave has been putting Julia down for almost all of the naps so this hasn't been too much of an issue. I did try once yesterday to put Julia down. Because Maya panics if I leave the room so I may have to try to put Julia down with her in the room. The downside is then Maya cries because I'm holding Julia. Patience right?

Maya did the sweetest thing last night. Julia was in her high chair and dropped her toy. Maya bent down, picked it up and put it on her highchair tray. It was cute. A few minutes after that, I had stepped outside just for a second to go feed the dog. When I came in, Julia had 4 toys on her tray. Maya had actually put 2 of her own toys on Julia's tray. Very cute.

Maya has become more curious about the dog. She's not as fearful of him so this is a good thing. He has come very close to her and she froze just like a popcicle! But, hey she didn't cry! Progress!

Overall, she seems to be getting a lot more comfortable in her new home and her new family. She's a very inquisitive little girl and we can literally see her try to soak everything in. Her eating habits are still going pretty good. We've been trying to feed her a ton of variety and she seems to be pretty accepting. So far our little girl is quite the international eater. She's already had Thai, of course, Chinese, Mexican, Japanese and Italian. The only thing that she wasn't too fond of was applesauce. Strange because yesterday Dave gave her apples and she loved them. We just chalked it up to Toddlerhood and we'll try it again.

Stroller

US Airways found our stroller and delivered it last night. It was a pleasant surprise!

Home At Last

There's just nothing that compares to being home and in your own bed. We're all home and trying to get settled in. Maya slept pretty well last night in her crib. I stayed with her in her room until she fell asleep and then snuck out. I needed some sleep so badly and my bed was calling me. Before I left, I set up some pillows and threw a blanket over it to make it look like I was still in there. I was desperate at that point. Something worked because she didn't wake up until about 7:30am this morning.

Julia was so happy to be home. Dave got the biggest kick out of her because when he put her in her car seat at the airport she giggled and grinned. She knew she was home! Julia hit her crib at about 9pm and didn't wake up until 10:30 this morning. Poor girl was exhausted.

Thailand was really great. The people are just incredible; so nice and willing to do anything for you. Dave keeps saying that he wants to move there. He absolutely loved it. The love that the Thai's have for children is palpable. It's this love for children that saved us from missing our return flight home.

I think the last post left off on Thursday so that's where I will follow up.

While we were waiting for Maya's visa on Thursday we sat at a cafeteria and just hung out with the girls. We had a sandwich bag filled with Goldfish for Maya. Let me tell you, this girl can eat some Goldfish. We just handed her the bag and let her go. Big mistake!! One by one, she started shoving the Goldfish into her mouth. Literally, stuffing them in until she was gagging. We had to take them away from her and only give her a few at a time. She would point at the bag for more. We kept telling her to finish what was in her mouth and then she would get more. Between gestures and repeating the same words, she finally understood. She would eat the Goldfish that we set down in front of her, open her mouth to show us she was done and then point for more. Of course, there were times when she hadn't swallowed them yet. That's become a regular thing now. I don't know if she's hoarding food or what, but she loves to keep stuffing food into her mouth until she gags. Now, we repeatedly have to ask her to show us her mouth. Nothing like seeing chewed up food on a regular basis.













After we got Maya's visa on Thursday, we went back to the hotel and the girls got some much needed naps. We went out to dinner and did some shopping. Maya is becoming so great at eating out and just being in public period. She's also showing us daily just how smart she is. We were playing around in the room when Maya started pointing at things. Everything she pointed to we would say what it was like 3 or 4 times, at one point she started to say the things. It was awesome. The highlight of it all was when she grabbed this little pig. I said, Pig, Pig, Pig. Within seconds, she looks up at me and says PIG. Dave was in the bedroom and heard her clear as day. It was just amazing. I know I'm like a broken record but she's very, very smart. She's just absorbing everything like a sponge.

Friday we got the girls all suited up and ventured down to the pool. Julia loved it, Maya not so much. This is as far as we got with her:


After the pool and some naps for the girls, we went souvenir shopping. We took the double stroller but once again, Maya wanted no part of it. Dave said to me that we really needed her to get used to the stroller because it would make things easier on us at all the airports. Every time we had tried to put her in it before, she screamed her head off. I knew Dave was right so I just did it. I picked her up, put her in and strapped her in. She wailed but the instant we started moving, she stopped. She loved it! One small victory for us!

Friday night we packed up and hit the road at about 9pm to catch our midnight flight out. We got to the airport at about 10pm to find it absolutely packed with people. The airport was so busy. Dave and I are both stressed out and kept watching the clock. We had not checked in and still needed to go through Immigration and security in 1.5 hours.

We stood in line at the Thai Airways check in panicking. After about 20 minutes, a Thai Airways rep spotted us and called us to the side. He said, Baby? (as he was pointing to Julia) Come with me. He pulled us out of line and brought us to the front. As we're checking in, the counter agent asks us for papers for Maya. Um, what papers?!? The only papers we had was a sealed envelope that was to be opened by Immigration States-side. Another small panic here for us as we started rummaging through all of our luggage trying to find something, anything that would get us out of the country with Maya. We finally come across a piece of paper from the board meeting that was just what we needed. We were able to check in and get all of our seats. Thank God.

Next stop was the Immigration line. Another huge line. We try to find a spot in the sea of lines while maneuvering the double stroller through. Once again, we get spotted by an airport agent. She doesn't speak any English but motions for us to follow her. You betcha! She points us in the direction of a really short line designated for delegates. Got to love it. At this point, it was 45 minutes until take off and still the security line. Definitely stressed but ok, we can do this. We finally get called up by the Immigration officer, hand him our passports and Maya's Visa. He asks us for our departure sheets. Departure sheets? Um, what departure sheets. He proceeds to hand us 4 slips of paper that need to be filled out with everybody's identifying information including passport numbers. Oh jeez.

Dave and I hurriedly scribble the much needed information and hand them over. He then tells us that he needs to take individual photos of Dave, Julia and I. Tick, tock, clock is ticking. He takes the pictures and tells us we can proceed but I must take Maya to this other window. I take Maya over to the Thai citizen/visa desk. The agent was working with another woman and we had to wait. The stroller was kind of in the way so I maneuvered it a bit to where the stroller was almost directly in front of the desk. The woman glances over, sees Julia (who was sleeping at this point) and Maya in the stroller and mouths "baby". She stops what she is doing with the woman she was helping and grabs Maya's Thai passport out my hands. She proceeds to stamp and mark the necessary paperwork and sends me on my way. Woohoo.

Dave is carrying 2 carry on bags and Julia's car seat and I'm pushing the girls in the stroller as fast as I can. Off to our gate with 25 minutes and counting. Figures that our gate is on the far end of the airport. As we're trying to find our gate, we realize that each section has it's own security. Perfect. How busy can it be? We're huffing and puffing to our gate when we spot, Section D on the signs. Sweet! Almost there. As we start to get closer, we begin to see a crowd in the distance. Oh, we think, they must be getting ready to board their plane and just gathering. As we inch closer, we realize we are dead wrong. Section D security was packed and I mean packed! Oh no! 20 minutes to go and we are seriously panicking. We talk about whether we should approach one of the officers and let them know our situation or asking the people in front of us if we can cut them in line. We decide to just wait it out and see what happens as the time gets closer. You want to talk about adrenaline.

Surprisingly, the line is moving. 10 minutes to go to take off and we're making progress. We finally get to the head of the line and start putting our stuff on the belt for the x-ray machine. At this point, we were going to use all we could to save time. Julia was still sleeping in the stroller so I kind of turned it a bit so they can see her. I point to her and ask if I have to take her out and collapse the stroller to put through the x-ray machine. She looks at Julia and makes the "aww" face and starts looking around for a spot for me to squeeze through. We weren't going to have to deal with taking the girls out and collapsing the stroller. I ended up pushing the stroller, the girls and all through the metal detector. I swear only in Thailand. You got to love it though. The actual gate was about 30 feet away. Would you believe we all got on the plane at 12:00am for our 12:05 am flight? I can not even describe how relieved we were.

We find our seats and get the girls situated. We bit the bullet and bought seats for the girls as well. It wasn't cheap but it was the best decision we ever made. We had the four seats in the center row to ourselves. We out Maya in an aisle seat, me next to her, then Julia and then Dave in the other aisle seat. We weren't sure how Maya was going to do being belted in and not being in my lap, but she did great! She was just so interested in all the stuff going on, the tv in front of her and the people around her that I don't even think she noticed that she was belted in. I gave her a bottle so she would have a way to 'pop her ears' during the ascent.




















I have to mention that this girl can sleep and I mean sleep. I swear she must have slept 15 out of the 17 hour flight, no exaggeration either. One couple stopped me to tell me how good Maya was being. I guess being at an orphanage with all those children, you learn to sleep through anything. She did get to eat though. I don't know if I mentioned this before but they feed you very well on Thai Airways. The menu consists of a choice of two options for each meal. There was normally an Asian option and another option. One meal we had was Salmon Souffle, that was followed by a Thai chicken curry. The food was pretty good too considering it was airplane food. They always came around with wine, drinks and then Cognac after dinner. The meals included fruit, crackers & cheese, rolls or croissants, an entree and a dessert followed by coffee or tea.

On the flight home, Maya ate fresh mozzarella and grape tomatoes in a basil vinaigrette, pork noodle stirfry, steamed carrots, broccoli, vegetable fritatta, sausage, fruit salad, cheese & crackers, yogurt with fruit, chicken thighs in a hoisin sauce and creme brulee. We are so proud of her that she is so willing to try all of these new things even more proud that she eats it! You should have seen her eat the creme brulee. I would give her a spoonful, she hadn't even close her mouth before she was pointing for more. Speaking of more, I had been teaching her the sign for more. Would you believe that she actually signed it?? I about fell out of my chair. We haven't seen her do it again but hey, we'll take it!

I did want to add this little story. Maya was sitting awkwardly in her seat. Her leg was sticking out in the aisle. I didn't realize this until people tried to walk by and had to move to the other side to get by. When I noticed, I picked up Maya's leg and moved it back to the front. As soon as I did that the little bugger moved her leg right back to the aisle. I once again picked up her leg and moved it, this time followed by a "No". Well, the little stinker did it again. Once again, picked up her leg, moved it and followed with several firm, "No's". Well, our little toddler Maya, while looking straight at me with a smirk on her face, proceeds to inch her leg back out slowly. What a punk!!

The flight itself went great. Both girls were just so exhausted that they slept the majority of the time. Perfect. We got into NY at about 7 am. We had do go through Immigration for Maya. This time all of our documents were accounted for. They processed her Visa and Maya was allowed to enter the country! Yeah Maya! My Dad and brother picked us up from the airport and took us to my Dad's house while we waited for our next flight at 3pm. Dave and I were worried about how she would take being strapped into the carseat. Well, let's just say she's predictable! She screamed her head off for about 5minutes. She finally gave up and just looked around.

We had a great visit with my family. It was a nice break from our traveling. Maya got to meet her Grandpa, Great Aunt Karen, Uncle John, Aunt Kelly and cousin Leah. Our almost 4 year old niece Leah just loved being with Maya and Maya adored Leah. It was very sweet to see the two of them together. Leah was very motherly to Maya and Maya couldn't get enough of it. Very sweet. Dad cooked us up a great meal and we got to fill our bellies before leaving.

We headed to the airport around 1pm. This time we got there with plenty of time to spend. We had both girls in the stroller so it was easy to get around. Unfortunately, we had a layover in DC. The layover was pretty uneventful. There was a slight delay but we got on okay. We gate checked our stroller like we had done the entire trip so we can use the stroller right up until the we board. It worked out great until now. When we got off the plane at our home airport it was pouring rain. The plane was one of those commuter planes that let you out on the tarmac and you have to walk up the steps into the terminal. Because it was pouring rain, they made an announcement that all gate checked luggage would be placed inside at the baggage claim so we wouldn't have to get wet waiting for our bags on the tarmac. We head over to the baggage claim and within minutes spot all of our bags. Hmmm. No stroller. We wait and wait, still no stroller. Wait more, no stroller. After an hour of waiting and dealing with the baggage department, yes, they lost our stroller. Can you believe we go halfway around the world with this stroller and they lose it at our home airport?!?

We called this morning and still nothing. Sigh. They are still looking for it but we don't have much faith. Because it was gate checked, it doesn't have our flight info tag on it. I did put one of those little paper tags that you put your info on that the airport hands out. So, maybe. We loved that stroller too. Hopefully, they can find it but we're not holding our breath. We were just so glad to finally be home. To think we left at 9am on Friday Eastern Time and got home at 9pm Saturday night. 36 long hours.

Maya is doing really great. She's doing much better with Dave. She pretty much will let him do things for her: anything and everything but no affection and hugs. Dave is taking it really well. I feel so bad for him, I know all he wants to do is hold his little girl but he's being very patient and giving her her space. She will come around. She's doing so well already considering the short time period. I doubt it will take much longer for her to open up to Dave.

Maya is a little freaked out by our 100lb dog. They haven't officially met and probably won't for a couple of days. We do notice her getting more curious about him so that's a good thing. Maya is adjusting to her new home nicely. She's loving all of the toys and random things around. She seems to also be getting comfortable with her crib. I just put her in it for nap and she didn't cry when I set her down in it. I was shocked. Of course, I did stay in there until she fell asleep (the room, not the crib, heh).

We want to thank our wonderful friends for decorating the house, surprising us with gifts and by straightening up our house for us. It was so sweet of you guys. We also want to thank you for stocking the fridge with all of the wonderful goodies. You guys are the greatest! What a sweet surprise it was to walk into Maya's room and see those beautiful butterflies! We absolutely love them but not as much as Maya. She keeps pointing to them. Karen- Maya loves her new pajamas & shirts! They are so pretty! The snacks came in handy too!

We want to send huge thank you's to our terrific neighbors for taking care of our dog while we were away. We appreciate so much! Thank you, thank you and Mr. Cody Brown thanks you!

We are so happy to be home and can not wait for each and everyone to meet our little addition. I know Maya is just going to love you all as much as Dave and I do.

Thanks again for everybody's support. We could not have done this without you.

Some Pictures

Here are a few pictures. The ones with Maya in pink are from "gotcha day" and the ones with her in yellow are from the Thai Adoption Board Meeting. I have some more pictures and latest update to post tomorrow.

The Missing Post

This was the message that was supposed to be posted the other day. Some of it may be repetitive but in greater detail:

Monday:

Monday morning we headed over to the orphanage at about 10am. We were both so nervous it was ridiculous. Between the excitement, the anxiety and throw in some added stress because our cab driver got lost big time and we were late, Dave and I were a mess! We finally show up about 20 minutes late. The orphanage/ children’s home is situated in a fairly large residential home. When we got there all of the children were playing on the porch, we spotted Maya instantly. She was so sweet. We walked up and she walked away. She’s a very timid little thing. The director Saovanee told us to take pictures of her with our digital camera & camcorder and show them to her. It’s funny how even in Thailand kids love the digital era. Dave tried to do this initially but she wouldn’t go to him. They told me to try and she actually sat with for maybe 5 seconds. Saovanee proclaimed, she can go with you now because she didn’t cry. They told us that Maya is very, very shy and has some stranger anxiety. I keep calling her Maya but I have to admit, we have not called her Maya yet. Her nickname at the orphanage is Omo. That’s all they have ever called her. We didn’t want to totally screw her up so we’ve been calling her that. We’re going to start calling her OmoMaya soon and then eventually drop the Omo.

On the flight over, Dave asked one of the flight attendant what Omo meant. She said it’s a laundry detergent. We all thought well, maybe we’re not saying it right. Needless to say, when we got to the orphanage we asked. Yes, laundry detergent. There’s a laundry detergent named Omo with a slogan whiten things white or something along those lines. Saovanee named her Omo because she’s white, as white as a Thai person can be. It’s nothing that we would have noticed but after they said that, yeah, I guess she’s a little paler in comparison. It was funny though.

We probably spent about 20 minutes at the home most of the time was spent going through some paperwork with Saovanee. Saovanee gave us all of Maya’s medical records, photos since she was a newborn, information on Maya’s mother including photos, Maya’s passport and more legal paperwork. After this, Saovanee told us we needed to leave soon. She didn’t want Maya to think that we were just volunteers. Here’s where it got really, really sad. Maya was scared to death. She knew something was up. A cab pulls up for us and a couple of the nannies tell her it’s time to go. She freaked out. Dave and I felt horrible. It felt like a kidnapping. Maya would not go in the cab at all and started to panic and fight against the nannies. They told us to get in the cab. We both get in and then they picked up Maya and put her in the cab on my lap. She completely broke down. She wailed while holding onto me so tightly. Dave and I felt horrible. Our heart was broken for this sweet little girl. She cried for just a quick few minutes and then it was almost like she went into shock, catatonic-like. I swear it was as if she knew that she was never going back there again.

I can only describe that entire day as bittersweet. Maya was a mess the rest of the day. She was just devastated and freaked out. She did not eat the entire day, as much as I tried she just wouldn’t do it. I did get her to drink this formula that the orphanage gave us so she got some nourishment. She cried most of the day and would not let me out of her sights, usually not out of my arms. She fought sleep that night so I stayed by her side the entire time. At about 11pm, she followed me into the kitchen area and stood there. As I turned around, she started to vomit on the floor and on herself. She seemed fine afterwards and hasn’t done it again. Poor sweet Maya. She was just so sad and just so scared.

You have to realize that she had never really left the confines of the children’s home except for some blood work and to get her passport. Now, not only was she with complete strangers but she had the entire world to absorb. I’m talking the little things that we all just take for granted, a car, people walking, elevators, crowds, random noises and etc. She completely freaked out when we went up the escalator at the hotel. I mean freaked out. She almost leaped out my arms to have Dave hold her. The biggest hurdle has been her exposure to men or rather lack of. They don’t see many if any male volunteers at the home so spending 24/7 with Dave has been a huge shocker to her. She still hasn’t warmed up completely to Dave but she is coming around. She’s not crying every time when he comes around her so we are making HUGE strides. It will take time but she is going to LOVE her dad. Monday was a hard day for all of us. Maya finally fell asleep at about midnight. Julia woke up at about 1am and was up to about 5am. I ended up sleeping for about an hour that day. It was tough dealing with everything on so little sleep. To be brutally honest, at one point that night I thought to myself, what have I done? I think we’ve made a huge mistake. After saying that, I have to follow up with I am so happy to have this little girl in our lives. Each day I have seen her grow so much. It’s absolutely amazing. She’s going to fit in to our family perfectly!

Tuesday:

On Tuesday, I took Maya along with our on-ground agency rep to get some photos done for her visa and then to the hospital to get an exam for the visa. I was so exhausted but we had to get this stuff done. Dave stayed back at the hotel with Julia. It just didn’t make sense the drag the entire Griswald family out. We were gone from 12pm to about 5pm. The Immigration office needs a physical exam and current vaccinations in order for an orphan to be let into the country. The day went great. I actually got a little glimpse of her true personality then. At one point, she was actually walking in front me alone. This was a huge step. She had wanted me to hold her constantly and I mean constantly. I can’t even walk away without her crying. So, she goes with me everywhere, yes, even the bathroom. Heh. I think the poor girl is afraid I am going to leave her so she has become attached to my hip. This is actually a good thing when it comes to adoptions. She’s let me do everything for her: change her, dress her, give her bottles and feed her food.

Wednesday:

This day was huge. We had our meeting in front of the Thai Adoption Board at 9:30am. This is where the Thai government approves your adoption. We had my mother watch Julia this morning. The 3 of us and our rep, John headed over to the meeting. It was a little nerve-racking to say the least. Dave was at ease but I wasn’t. This was huge! Anyway, we get in front of the Board and it was kind of funny. I wish I would have taken a picture. It was me, Dave and Maya sitting at this long table. Across from us were probably about 16 people sitting in 2 rows. We all had microphones in front of us, like at the UN. I cracked up when I saw this because they were like uh, 15 feet from us, max, maybe even less. We could have just spoken and they would be able to hear us. Maybe it was an intimidation thing, quite funny though. They would each take turns asking us random questions and then we’d answer and then silence while someone else thought of another question. There were questions like, Why Thailand? Why did you adopt when you did? What are our plans for education, specifically kindergarten? (I thought that was odd- not even college but kindergarten) We answered them as best as we could. We told them it was all none of their business. Haha, just jokes of course.

We told them that we felt very strongly about education and that our plans were for college for her, I am part Thai, gave them our fertility saga blah blah blah. At one point, they asked what we called her. We told her Omo, like the detergent. They got the biggest kick out of that story. They would take turns saying, “Omo!” into the microphone, watch her turn to them and all start cracking up. They must have done it about 6 times. Too funny really. It was a very conservative group so this was a huge ice breaker. After everything was said and done, there was a bit of silence and the woman in charge spoke into the microphone, “We trust you and we approve you. We also want you to come back and adopt a boy next time.” What a relief and what a compliment!

After the meeting, we headed back to the hotel, got Julia and took a taxi to the Homeland Security office to get approval to apply for a visa. We had a ton of paperwork to turn in and evidently, some things were missing. Our rep John, is a 60 yr old Australian that takes no crap, really funny guy actually. He got a little lippy with the “gatekeeper”. I don’t know if that was that or just bad luck but after all the paperwork was corrected; we ended up waiting an additional 2 hours. We were the first adoptive parents in that office and the last ones out (there were about 5 families that were adopting from the States all at the same board meeting). The crappy part about waiting is that if you didn’t have approval by 3pm, you had to wait until the next day to make an appointment at the US Embassy for the visa application. We were at the office at 1pm and did not get in for an interview until 3:30pm. We knew we were screwed and would have to make two trips the next day or wait a very long time. We had Dave holding Julia who was way overdue for a nap, Maya who was tired and was not letting me put her down and me trying to juggle paperwork. Not pretty. I don’t know if they felt sorry for us or didn’t want to hear Julia crying anymore but all of a sudden a woman comes out with our approval and says that she called the Embassy and that they are waiting for us. It was 3:45pm so you can imagine how psyched we were to hear this.

We trek over to the Embassy which is right across the street and submit all the paperwork. Once again, missing document: Maya’s birth certificate. Argghh! The agent must have felt sorry for us (Julia & Maya both not doing well at this point or she was ready to go home herself) but she let us submit it all without it. She told us to bring in the birth certificate tomorrow for our appointment at 9am. Woohoo!! What a day. We ended up back at the hotel at about 5pm, everybody was exhausted. All that was left for us to do at this point to get Maya into the States was to get in for our visa interview in the morning.

We had to do something to “fix” Julia’s schedule so we decided to take the gang out that night for some shopping and dinner. We brought a double stroller with us but Maya won’t go anywhere near it yet. We put Julia in it and I carried Maya. I would put her down and get her to walk often though. She got really brave several times and walked quite a ways away from me. Huge strides- pun intended. I know I mentioned how the Thais love Farang babies before but man, last night Julia reached celebrity status. Dave and I were at a sunglass stand in the shopping center when a small crowd gathered around the stroller. Next thing we know, people started taking out their cell phones and taking pictures of Julia!! It was the most bizarre thing. Dave looked up at me and just started cracking up. It was hilarious.

We ended up going to a Japanese restaurant that night. Two really big things happened. One, Maya let me put her down in the chair next to me instead of sitting on my lap. Yeah, Maya! Number two, she ate and okay, number 2.5, she fed herself! In case you were curious, she had some vegetable spring rolls (the fried ones) and some Yakitori (Japanese style chicken). This girl has made major progress in just two days. She comes out of her shell a little more each day, a tiny bit. We can’t wait for her to take to Dave but we’ll take what we can get right now. She’s a smart girl though and it won’t take her long to figure out that she could have Dad right under that little thumb of hers.

Thursday -today-

Long story short, after spending the morning at the US Embassy we got her Visa!!! We can leave the country now. All of our paperwork is done! We feel like we had a boulder lifted off of our shoulders. Maya did pretty well today too. She sat in a high chair at breakfast and ate a ton of food: eggs, bacon, potatoes, sausage and fruit. The girl loves her fruit. She also has a thing for freshly squeezed orange juice. Little snob.

Random thoughts:

Julia has done amazing on this trip. We are so proud of her. Even with all of her lack of sleep, she’s still a happy little camper. Dave said he’s so proud of her that he’s going to buy her something. It starts.

Maya is a champion sleeper. This is where the orphanage pays off. The girl can sleep through anything. The funniest thing is we don’t know if she’s fighting sleep or if she’s freaked out but she falls asleep standing up. She stands against the narrow side of the crib and leans back so her arms are resting on the top rails, she looks ‘cool’. Anyway, as starts getting drowsier, she starts wobbling forward. I’ve tried to lay her down but she gets right back up again. She catches herself and rights herself up but then the drowsy’s hit again. This time she falls on her knees. This goes on a couple of times more until she falls over completely and stays there for the night. She doesn’t hurt herself or anything because she hits the mattress. Does it make us bad people that we laughed? ;)

Every day is getting better. Maya is slowly adjusting, grieving but adjusting. I have to say, we are now 100% that she belongs to us. She is our daughter.

Still here

I am so sorry that we haven't checked back in sooner. Things have been so crazy since we got Maya that I haven't gotten a chance to get to the business center to use the computer. I had this really long post that I typed out and it's now gone. Rats! This one may be shortened a bit.

As you guys know, we got Maya on Monday. It was bittersweet. The whole process was kind of crappy really. We went to the orphanage at 10am and spotted Maya immediately. She's a little thing! We sat down and tried to get her to come to us. She was not having it. She's a scared little girl so is not very fond of strangers. They told us to break out our digital cameras,snap some photos and show her her picture. Dave tried it and she would not go to him at all. They then told me to try it and it worked, for a moment she sat next to me and then she was gone. We then watched her for a bit longer, not much, maybe 5 minutes. The Director, Saovanee, called us into her office to give us some paperwork. She has a nice collection of Maya through the years and even a photo of Maya with her mother. She also provided us with all of Maya's birth mother's information address, ID # and everything. She asked us to promise her that when and if Maya wants to contact her birth mother that we go through them first. This was pretty understandable so we promised. After all of the paperwork was wrapped up, say about 10 minutes, we headed back out to where the children were playing. We sat and watched for another 5 minutes when Saovanee said, "It's time to go". It was that quick.

They called us a cab and as soon as the cab showed up, they pretty much shoved us out of the door. They told told us to get into the cab. As soon as we got into the cab, they 'shoved' a screaming, kicking and crying Maya into it and shut the door. It was horrible. Dave and I felt like we were kidnapping this poor child. I can't even tell you how tight Maya clung onto me. She wailed and tears ran down her face for about a couple of minutes. She also shook. Then it was the weirdest thing, it looked like she went into shock. I would describe as almost catatonic. No expressions, no movements, nothing. I think she knew that she was never going to go back there again. We were so heartbroken for her. We still don't understand why they do that to their children but it wasn't our place to say. Saovanee is the boss and these were her rules. But if you ask us, there's definitely a better way to handle things.

She spent the rest of the day in between tears and attached to me. She wouldn't eat a morsel and barely drank anything. She finally fell asleep from exhaustion at midnight. Poor girl. The last few days since we got her have gotten progressively better. Baby, baby steps. She's still not comfortable with Dave at all and will not let me leave her sight. We're working on it though. Every day we make a little progress. On a good note, she's become a champion eater. They pretty much ate only rice and a meat or egg and rarely some fruit at the children's home. It's pretty cute to watch her eat all of these things that she's never tried before. She also never fed herself at the orphanage. We spent yesterday showing her how to feed herself and she took off. So not only has she become a champion eater but she's also feeding herself. Yeah Maya!

She hasn't shown any interest to Julia but Julia on the other hand just wants to grab her all the time. Maya's not really sure what to think of her. I doubt she's ever seen such a big baby in her life. Life has changed for sure. The first day was so, so rough. We were still battling jet lag and Julia's horrible schedule that I swear we weren't going to survive. I do have to say that each day gets better. To watch Maya absorb everything like a sponge is just amazing. She's a smart little girl and a very fast learner.

I have a bunch of pictures to upload and will do so when I get back. I may try to post them tomorrow but I don't know if we'll have time. We fly out tomorrow night at midnight and have a ton of things to do before then.

An Update

The last few days have been so crazy. We were suffering from some serious jet lag. I don’t think it would have been so bad with just Dave & I but add Julia to the mix and things got a little hairier. She still doesn’t have her days & nights I order but each day it gets better. Last night she actually slept from 8pm to 1:45am then back down from 3am to 6:30am. Better. At this point we’ll take what we can get.

The flight here was 17 hours long and to be honest, it wasn’t as bad as we thought it would be. Major props to Thai Airways, they really made things comfortable. We were so worried about Julia holding up on the flight. Come on, who likes to fly with a crying baby?! How about a crying baby for 17 hours?! We were so worried about it that Dave grabbed a ton of ear plugs from work just in case. That was a great ice breaker when we started handing them out before the flight took off. People got a kick out of them. Fortunately for us, they were never used. Julia was not an angel by any means but she really wasn’t that bad. She just didn’t sleep much and would yell, not cry but yell. One of us would get up and walk with her. Needless to say, we quickly became friends with flight attendants. At one point, the head flight attendant took Julia from Dave and started carrying her around. It was pretty funny. We did feel a lot better about things when we landed and a couple that was sitting in front of us turned around and said, “She really did great”. That was sweet of them.

The flight itself was bearable. Each seat came with its own TV screen. This was great. There was a huge selection of movies, tv shows, games and etc. Great time killer. The service on the flight was outstanding. We were served 3 full meals, a couple of snacks, non-stop drinks including wine with meals and a couple of rounds of hot towels. Would you believe the flight attendants evens changed their outfits twice?!

The hotel has been great too. The room is so nice and huge! There is a sliding door separating the bedroom from the living area and this can not be more on time. We also have a full size refrigerator and a microwave. I can not tell you how perfect this has been for making Julia’s bottles. The Pathumwan Princess Hotel is inside a shopping center and wow, this shopping center is crazy. It reminds me of Chinatown with all of the stalls. It’s 8 stories tall and has everything you can imagine. It’s a little overwhelming though.

Speaking of overwhelming, the Thai’s have some strange fascination with Farang babies. Farang is the Thai slang term for the white folk. I don’t think I can describe how how much they love farang babies. It’s very strange and borderline creepy. We can not walk 20 feet without getting accosted by Thai women trying to touch Julia. It’s killing me! Julia loves it though but mom, not so much. I don’t think I ca carry enough anti-bacterial wipes. Yeah, I’m neurotic so what! Seriously though, it’s ridiculous. They touch her hands, legs, tickle her, play peek a boo. One woman even kissed her hand. You should have seen me after that one. Sheesh. She was in her stroller so she was easy game. Don’t get me wrong, it’s very endearing but slightly out of hand.

I have to briefly mention the food. Dave and I have been chowing on some serious Thai food. Oh man, it’s just so good. The first night though we learned a major lesson. Dave and I are not prudish when it comes to spicy food. We ordered a couple of Thai dishes that usually aren’t too painful back home. Well, let me tell, the two of us CRIED throughout our meals. It was soo ridiculously hot. It was to good to not eat so we just kept eating it. We’re a couple of masochists sometimes. I swear I could picture the chef saying, “Heh, heh, heh, silly Farang .”

On to more important things, in 2 hours we will be meeting our daughter. We head over to the children’s home at 10am Bangkok time. While you guys are sleeping, we will become a family of four! Dave and I are nervous. Even more nervous since our Rep told us yesterday that he thought we might have a hard time with her. We’ll do whatever we can to make things easy for her. That’s all we can do right now. Hopefully, everything will work itself out in due time.

I will try to check back soon with pictures from our day and our new daughter.

We're Here!

We are finally here！We got to our hotel, Pathumwan Princess, Saturday at about 7pm Bangkok time (we're 12 hours ahead here). The hotel is great, the room even better!
The flight was actually not as bad as we thought it was going to be. I will have to get to you guys on the details as I am being rushed right now.

We will post more later. I really just wanted to let you guys know that we made it here okay and have settled in. We meet Maya tomorrow!

Here We Grow

We're on our way to Bangkok, Thailand this Friday morning at 11am to go get daughter #2. We are flying to NY Thursday evening and spending the night with Samantha's dad so we can be at JFK bright and early Friday AM. We are so excited and nervous. It's a non-stop flight from JFK to Bangkok totaling 17 hours. Baby Julia is going to go with us too. We just couldn't leave her home while we went halfway around the world. I haven't even left her for one night yet. Yep, just couldn't do it. So this will be our first family trip. I don't think it could be any more fitting. It won't be easy but nothing good is ever easy (for us at least).

Here is a recent picture of Maya. She will be in 2 yrs old on April 21st.















We meet Maya on Monday morning at 10am or Sunday night at 10 pm (EST) for you guys on the East Coast. There is zero transition time. We go to the orphanage, meet her, fill out some paperwork and then leave with her. Dave and I are really worried about this abrupt transition. We hope things aren't as bad as we think they're going to be. How does that saying go? Expect the best but prepare for the worst. That's us. We're also worried about any paperwork snags that may arise at the US Embassy or the Immigration office in Bangkok as we try to get a Visa for Maya. We think we have everything we need but you just never know with government paperwork.

Please send us all of your positive thoughts and prayers that things go well for us on this trip as we need all the help we can get. Hugs & kisses to all. The next time you see us we will be a family of FOUR!