Leah is in Beijing

We were told this morning that Leah was supposed to have been in Beijing on the 23rd, which would have been sometime Saturday night our time.  We were also told that upon arrival they determined that she needed surgery immediately.  We would assume that happened over the weekend, although we have not had any confirmation of that.  Please continue to pray for her recovery process and how that recovery factors into our ability to come get her in China as she is supposed to be in her home province for the adoption.

Thank you for your prayers.

Cameron 

Leah is improving

We got word yesterday that Leah has been getting a little better, is able to keep some food down, and hopefully is gaining some strength.  I wish I could tell you what to pray, but I don’t know!  How about, just pray that what God wants done gets done.  If that is going to Beijing, then so be it.  But if she goes to Beijing she has to come back.  So if that isn’t the best option (although in our Western way of thinking, why wouldn’t it be?) then whatever God wants is fine with us.

Thank you again for all the support everyone has been giving us. I will continue to update this as soon as I get information.

Cameron 

Leah still in Wuzhou – Additional Prayer

We received a couple of updates on Leah this morning.  Apparently she has not been moved to Beijing yet.  She is in a hospital in her home city of Wuzhou.  Her condition has not changed much and she is very weak.  They feel that she is too weak right now to travel to Beijing.

We would ask that you continue to pray for Leah that the doctors use wisdom in how they treat her, that she would gain strength so that she can be moved to Beijing, that any dehydration or malnutrition issues be dealt with swiftly, and that we can get her and Riley home quickly…

Thanks,
Cameron 

 

Update on Leah and Riley Pictures

We received a lot of additional news on Leah today.  It appears that she has had a partial bowel obstruction over the past month that they have been trying to manage conservatively.  This is probably due to the adhesions from previous surgeries.  We would imagine that she has probably become a little dehydrated and malnourished during this time.  That said, we contacted a lady we know that works with Half the Sky, an orphan advocacy group that works in China and has had worked with Leah before.  With the help of our adoption agency, Madison Adoption Associates, who spent much of the day contacting people (thank you Diana and Margaret), Half the Sky quickly rallied and are working to move her to Beijing this week.  They will have her seen there and be attended to in one of their China Care Homes.  They will provide a nanny for her and make all the arrangements.  They are a wonderful organization and we are lucky to have them involved in Leah’s care.  Their Medical Director has agreed to keep us updated upon her arrival and a local well-renowned pediatric colo-rectal surgeon at Cincinnati Children’s has agreed to review the information and provide us local support and then evaluate and treat her upon her arrival to the US.  For now, it looks like things are progressing as well as we can expect.  We have asked for medical expediting, but it will be awhile before we hear back on that, or what that might even look like.

Leah is still a sick little girl and we still are requesting your prayers for her quick recovery and protection until we can get there.  We are hoping that the situation does not dictate two separate trips to China this year, but that is in God’s hands right now.

That said, we did get some pictures back from our agency director of the time she spent with Riley two weeks ago while on a trip to China.  I have attached them below.  Hoping that we can get both these girls home SOON!

Cameron

Prayers for Leah

This past December, Leah had surgery to repair some of her bladder issues.  Not long after that surgery, it appears that she had to have emergency surgery for a bowel obstruction, possibly due to a lot of adhesions that she has from the previous surgeries.

This afternoon we were told that Leah has again been admitted to the hospital and may have to have or may already have had surgery for another bowel obstruction.  The information is sketchy at best right now, and since it is already the weekend there, we probably will not get a significant amount of additional information before Monday.  However, one person last week said she is doing ok and another this week said the situation is “dire”.  Not the words you want to hear.

Please be praying for Leah, her doctors, and the staff in China that they give Leah the best care possible.  We know she is greatly loved there and have no doubts that the decisions being made are in her best interests, but we hate not being a part of that  Pray with us in our process and how this may change things going forward.  There are lots of moving parts, but this may possibly require us to make two trips to China, one for Leah and one for Riley.  However, that may not even be possible, because of some of the changes going on in China may make it very difficult to even attempt some sort of medical expediting.

We are waiting on our LOA and, even under the best circumstances, could really benefit from that being in place this month yet.  So, you can pray for that also.

On a happy note, a friend of ours was able to spend time with Riley this past week and she is doing very well.  She had some sort of minor infection that they put her on IV’s for three days.  They seem to do that frequently with these girls.  Ali told us it happened to her several times.

Riley is a different personality than Ali, but it does appear that she understands that we are coming for her and hopefully she is ready to come with us!  She is somewhat of an independent personality … should fit right in …

Thank you for your prayers and support.  I know I haven’t been updating much lately.  It is like taking pictures of your kids.  You take a million shots of your first, 25 of your second, and scrounge around to try and find one or two that you took of the third!  Same with blogging.  Was great with Mia, but I’m afraid I have been slacking on this one.  But I will update fairly frequently over the next several weeks as we get more information.

Cameron

The One With the Completed Paperwork

This week we received our letter from the US Immigration Service stating that they have approved our adoption.  Now that paperwork has all been authenticated by the required parties and has been sent to New York City to be accepted by the Chinese Consulate there.  We should have that back in our hands by late next week, at which point it gets sent to China and we wait for their approval.  This is one more step in the process and, while it has not been without some challenges, things ARE moving forward. 

In the meantime, we did get some more pictures of Leah and I have included them below.

Cameron

The One With the Overdue Update

Yeah, I know.  I started this blog and then haven’t updated it in a few weeks.  But there isn’t much going on!  Kelly and I went down to Cincinnati a couple of weeks ago to get fingerprinted for US Immigration.  We are waiting for Zach to get home next week so that we can go get his fingerprints completed.  Since he is considered another “adult” in the household, he has to go through the same background checks and fingerprinting requirements that Kelly and I do.  As soon as his prints are finished, we just have to wait for US Immigration to approve our adoption!  So it is pretty much, hurry up and wait.

In the meantime, here is a new pictures of Leah that we just received.  We have not received anything new on Riley, but as soon as we do, I will post!  Today I took pictures of Ali today for her US passport.  One more box checked!

Obviously, Leah is the one in the pink!  So nice to see her smiling.  We see Riley smiling all the time!

Cameron