hey all... new video of Lizzie helping me start of christmas right by setting up my favorite manger scene. christmas is officially here!

Our first Gotcha Anniversary!

Happy Gotcha Day!

It is hard to believe that a year ago at this time we were in China, anxiously awaiting September 1^st to come so we could finally meet our daughter. We have been such pathetic bloggers, but all the emotion of our one year anniversary has inspired me to summarize the incredible journey we have been on since Lizzie joined our family.

This year has been quite a roller coaster ride with lots of ups and downs. So much joy and laughter but also lots of screaming (on Lizzie’s part) and frustration (my part). We realized early on that Lizzie was every bit as strong willed as the rest of us and that parenting her wasn’t going to be easy but a blessing none the less. I have stopped to thank God for our life more times in this past year than I think I ever have before. I feel so honored that we were picked to be Lizzie’s parents. I marvel at how God put things together.

At the same time that I marvel at the beauty of adoption and the honor that I feel being Lizzie’s mommy, I ache for her birth parents and grieve all that they lost when they gave her up. I wasn’t prepared for how tied to them I would feel. I think of them often and wonder if they let themselves think or dream about their daughter. I wish somehow I could let them know what a fantastic little girl she is and that she is well loved.

So after a year of being a Kedl, I would say that Lizzie fits right into our family and is doing GREAT. She is full of life, energy, and enthusiasm. She loves to laugh, read books, do puzzles, jump on the trampoline, chase her brothers, and boss us all around. The boys are incredible big brothers to her. They are very patient with her and still delight in all her antics. Of course we all think that she is so ridiculously cute and “off the charts” beautiful. We often wonder what we did without her. I guess we must have been pretty boring before she entered our lives.

The big challenge for Lizzie is language. She is working really hard at learning to talk. She hasn’t figured out how to control her palate yet and struggles with forming words but she certainly understands everything and is determined to talk to all of us. I know it will come eventually. We are doing speech therapy twice a week and hoping that the words come soon because she is really eager to communicate better.

I guess the way I would sum up the last year has been BEAUTIFUL. It is amazing that this little girl who was born so far away and was such a mystery to us a year ago could come and fill our lives with so much hope, joy, promise, and anticipation for all God has in store us. My heart is so full and I am truly thankful.

And so the journey continues…

Lizzie's surgery went very well on Friday.  The surgeon said Lizzie had plenty of tissue to work with and he thought things went as well as they could go.  She got out of surgery around 5:00.  Ross and I stayed with her in recovery for about an hour and then we were moved to her hospital room.  Right off the bat she was drinking out of a syringe and taking her medicine without any problems.  This was shocking because her tongue and lips were so swollen and it looked like a bomb had exploded inside her mouth.  The nurses called her a little "rock star" because she was handling everything so well.  We expected lots of crying on Friday night but she just whined a little off and on.  By Saturday morning, she had filled a couple of diapers and she was looking good, so the doctor sent us home.  She pitched a big fit when we got home.  I think she thought that once she was home things should be back to normal and since they weren't, she got really mad.  She also started getting a lot more picky about drinking.  She had some fluids at home but not much.  Today she has barely had anything to drink and it is starting to get a little stressful for us.  She needs to have food in her system in order to take her pain medications, but in order for her to want to drink anything, she needs to have her pain medications in her system.  Please keep us in your prayers over the coming days, as I think this eating thing is going to continue to be an issue.

Lizzie has to wear splints from her wrists to her shoulders to keep her from putting anything in her mouth.  We thought she was going to really hate this but she doesn't seem to mind much right now.  When she starts to feel more like herself again, I am sure she will be pretty frustrated with them, but for now she seems to be a little fascinated by them.  She still manages to play with toys and clap her hands with them on.

Overall, I have to praise God for getting her through this so successfully.  We have felt all your prayers with her and with us.  I (Anne) have somehow managed to stay pretty calm through the whole thing and am so thankful to have the worst part over.  Hopefully, the recovery ahead will go as well as the surgery did.  I wish Lizzie could understand all the support and love she is surrounded by.  Thanks for all your prayers, thoughtful words, and support that you have offered our family.

belated update

Hey all... sorry for not keeping all up to date on the ongoing saga of the Kedl Five.  I thought i would post a few pictures and a movie or two.  overall Lizzie continues to do remarkably well and has adjusted to the Kedl family far better that any of us could have hoped.   The other day Justin said that he knows we have only had Lizzie for 2 months, but it was getting hard to remember what the family was like without her.   we all agreed with that assessment.  

we have had a few conversations with a couple of surgeons and Lizzie's cleft palate surgery is no scheduled for november 14th.  the whole operation sounds pretty brutal and has a somewhat long recovery time for it... 3 weeks at least, during which a good part of the time she has to have splints put on her arms to make sure she does not put anything into her mouth and ruin the surgery.  we told the boys we were going to get them splints to wear too so she does not feel so left out.... that or a big cone to go around their necks... they they said they preferred the splints ;-).   anyway, we figured we'd get it out of the way well before christmas so we were not having to worry about it back in Minnesota  (for all those back in Minnesota, we will be there from christmas day to new years day).   there are many opinions on when is the best time to do this kind of surgery in an international adoption, but one train of thought is that, assuming a good degree of bonding and attachment with the family, it is best to do the surgery as soon as possible in order for the whole speech process to not get too far behind.  Lizzie is already quite a communicator, making lots of word-like noises and sounds in an effort to communicate, so we think she will likely be a big talker... just as soon as she can learn to talk which brings us back to the timing of the surgery.  we will try and keep everyone posted on how she is doing when she has the surgery.

otherwise, life as a family of five is a very good thing.  most of the pictures are self explanatory, some i'll mention here.  one is Ben just after one of his cross country races (he got 4th) and i love how far down he has to bend in order to put his head on Anne's shoulder.  others are with Lizzie and her ubiquitous Ritz crackers.  she also got a little chair just her size and she positively revels in it as you can see.  there are some of halloween as well with Lizzie in her bumble bee outfit, me as Jimi Hendrix, and Justin as a Haz-Mat worker.  he got a glow stick and some green Jello to put in his biohazard bucket which managed to make it glow in an unholy sort of way while trick or treating... it turned out very well indeed.  

We love and miss you all very much and are looking forward to seeing as many as we can over christmas.  

Love,

 the Kedl 5

belated update

it is 8:00 in the morning after a good nights sleep... Lizzie slept all the way to 6:30 this morning!  this is unusual.  the typical night has her waking up a number of times starting around 11:00 PM.  it was good for both Anne and I to be able to catch up on some much needed sleep.  other than sleep, or the lack thereof, life with Lizzie continues to go along remarkably well.  she has met all her admirers in the neighborhood and at church.  the first day back at church was something of a red carpet affair... everyone was lined up to meet her.  the same for the first day out in the culdesac.  the girls across the street from us are quite taken with Lizzie and have decided to wrap up many of their toys they had when they were Lizzie's age and bring them over as presents.  we have come home many days to find a wrapped gift waiting for us on the door step.  

the first days back into our normal routine went very well.  with the boys back at school and me back at work, i wondered if Lizzie would pine away for her adoring entourage.  however, she has her favorite person in the world by her side, mommy, so what more is there to look around for.  we are still learning much about her, but are starting to get familiar with her little personality quirks.  she does NOT like to go down to sleep, either for a nap or bedtime, 2-5PM is her whiny time of day, she loves to run laps in the house from about 6-9PM, and when she wakes up in the morning she has this wonderful half an hour or so where she is just calm and contemplative and likes to roll around in bed and snuggle.  she also likes to pinch and pull hair.  gotta work on that one somehow. 

we have also gone to see a surgeon, Stacey Folk, about her palate and whatever other surgeries we will have to think about.  She (the surgeon) said that Lizzie's lip repair that she had in china looked really good and she did not think we would have to do any more with that.  Lizzie's scar is pretty noticeable right now, but the surgeon said that that a scar is always the biggest about 3 months after a surgery, which is where we are now.  we have some scar treatment stuff to put on it and when Lizzie is out for her palate surgery, they will probably inject a bit of steroid into it to make it do down faster.  the surgeon also said that Lizzie's nose looked really good for now as well.  apparently as Lizzie grows, her nose will do some of its own straightening and they only look to do any surgeries when she is around 5, just as she is entering kindergarten and she starts paying attention to how she and others look, and around 13-14 when she is really concerned about her appearance.  apparently, the asian nose is notoriously flexible compared to the stiff nose of your average caucasian, and usually their noses end up looking great.  it was good to know that for both her lip and her nose, Lizzie is in a good place for now.

as to her palate surgery(ies), she will probably have it in the next couple of months, early november most likely.  the recovery from it takes a few weeks so hopefully we will have her back in comfortable, good eating condition for the holidays.  she will have to have splints on her arms for some time after the surgery so she does not put the wrong thing into her mouth, and we all just can't WAIT to see how she likes that!  the surgeon we talked to came very highly recommended and we will definitely have her do any cosmetic surgeries we need in the future, but it turns out our insurance does not cover using this surgeon for now.  however, she recommended a good ENT doc at Childrens and the University who is covered by our insurance and with whom we are in communication.  we will keep you all posted as we find out more.

some of the pictures i have here are from last weekend when we went on a family picnic at a lake (or reservoir as they call them out here) not too far from our house.   it has been beautiful weather since we came back and a welcome relief to the tropical heat and humidity we had down in Guangzhou.  we did a brief hike down a trail with Ben starting out carrying her in the backpack carrier.  Lizzie was happy with that but then, as much as she likes me (Ross) now and even reaches for me often, we tried to switch the back pack carrier to me and she threw a fit until we put it back onto Ben.  i think she must have had a bit of PTSD and a flashback to what we now refer to as the "great wall of china incident".  if you have not heard that one, let me know and i'll tell you sometime.  

i put in the video too because it shows you how much she likes nodding for things.  she also has this double fist pump she does when she wants more of something... not sure when she got a chance to see Arsenio Hall while in china, but it is pretty funny.

all for now.  sorry to have been so delinquent in getting things on the blog site, but home life leaves me with much less time for this than traveling in china.  more as it comes.  

Ross.

Home Sweet Home!

Home sweet home!!  It is wonderful to be back in America and not living in a hotel room!  Lizzie did really well on the long journey back here.  The first flight we were on was 4 plus hours long.  There were 12 newly adopted children on that flight.  Much of the flight there was a chorus of cries going.  Lizzie threw a couple of fits but they didn't last long.  The 12 hour flight from Tokyo to Minneapolis went surprisingly well.  We got to see some family in Minneapolis which was wonderful.  Lizzie met 2 Grandmas, one Grandpa, 2 aunties, one uncle, and 3 cousins.  She is already so well loved and welcomed.  Given how happy she seems, I think she knows it!

Introducing Lizzie to her new home was lots of fun.  Our wonderful neighbors decorated the front of the house in anticipation of our homecoming, complete with a lantern in honor of the upcoming chinese Moon Festival (you knew that, right guys?).  Lizzie explored around the house and once we got to her room, she clapped and smiled.  She seems really comfortable here but is very busy and into everything.  We spent the day baby proofing things. 

She truly is such a blessing to us.  This whole experience has blown us away.  There were many other adopting families with us in Guangzhou and watching all of them love and embrace their new children was so beautiful.  Most of the kids we saw had some type of "special need."  It is hard not to feel sad realizing that often these kids were abandoned because of medical needs with which their birth parents could not cope financially or emotionally, but what a blessing it is  to know that they will get the care they need now and that their future is full of possibilities.  It gave me a picture of how beautiful it is to be adopted into God's family.  I often take this concept for granted but have been given a renewed sense of the privilege that it is.  We are all so truly loved even with all our unique flaws and "special needs."

My neighbor told me that Lizzie looked like she belonged in our family.  I am not one to believe in fate or predestination, but I really do believe that God hand picked this little girl for us and that she truly was meant to be our daughter from the very beginning.  Life is still hard and the world is fallen, but God is good and we are so thankful for all He has done!

So the saga of Lizzie's life continues.  We, again, thank you all for participating in this journey with us.  we cannot tell you how much it has meant to us.  While we know little of the twists and turns ahead, we know this for sure... Lizzie is now, and will always be, a Kedl.

   

Last post from China

internet was down last night so i could not get on to write any significant last words.  we leave this morning to the airport to head to tokyo, then Minneapolis, then back home to Denver.  we went to the consulate to "swear the oath" yesterday, which means that 30 adoptive families all gathered together in one big room with their new kids to raise their right hands and swear that all the information they had given was true.  that was it.  we all said, "yes" and then it was over.  kind of anticlimatic for all the work it has been.  very cool though to be in that room with all those families and kids.  kind of like a picture of redemption.  since coming to Guangzhou, we have gotten to meet many  adoptive families here and have learned we have even more to be thankful for than we realized.  some families got their kids from orphanages that were in pretty tough conditions, so just because ours was in pretty good shape, does not mean the whole system is doing fine just yet... it is better, but not all what it needs to be.   we are so thankful for Lizzie and all that has prepared her for being part of our family (or may i should say the center of our family just now).

There is much more than can be said about our last 2 days here, and we will hopefully have time to do so soon.  We know our journey is just beginning, but we are grateful that this first phase is over and we are coming home.  thank you all again for all your prayers and support.   We are so looking forward to introducing Lizzie to all of you in person.  see you soon.

The Kedls