Adoption Video

We finally finished our adoption video:) Enjoy! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Q4rJ6Mf7Mc&feature=youtu.be

New Family Pictures

I posted these on facebook already, but forget about my friends that aren't on that yet:) My friend Janie Jones was kind enough to take our family pictures. Thanks Janie!!! Ruby is doing really good. She needs a clogged tear duct unclogged and tubes in and adenoids out, but other than that, really good! She's on antibiotics for her ear infections, and doing her physical therapy, and taking her Vit. D and fish oil gummies like a champ:) She has been a lot of fun!!

Pictures

Update

I've been told I haven't updated my blog in a while, which is true, I tend to just post things on facebook. So, thought I would give a quick update on Ruby.

She is doing great! She is adjusting and bonding amazingly well. She sleeps from 7pm to 7am every night. She was sleeping in our room for the first week, but was getting up a lot, because she could see me and I must just look like a party about to happen laying there at 3 am every night:) So, we moved her in her own bed in her room she shares with Emma, and then, bamm, she sleeps throught the night:) So awesome for everyone involved! I think my cough was keeping her up too...

She is a ball of energy all the time! She still prefers mama most of the time. She does great with Dennis and the kids when I'm not in the room, but prefers me if she can see me. She would really like to be walked around the house on my hip all day or outside all day. She brings me my coat because she would prefer to just live outside I think. She was deprived of it before, so she's trying to make up for it now:) She is all energy, except when it's bed time. Then, as soon as I sit in the rocking chair in her room, she snuggles like noone else did! I could sing and rock to her for 30 minutes, and she would just lay there hugging me the whole time. It's so awesome. I have the best of both worlds!

She's doing better about eating different things. Since she was given bottles and spoon fed blended up stuff in the transition home before, she refuses to use a spoon or try anything with a spoon now. Stinker! She also would prefer to do everything herself. If I cut up a piece of pizza, she'll throw it off her tray, but if I hand her the whole piece, she'll eat it. Same with pb sandwiches, chicken, tacos, etc. But, she'll eat raw broccoli, cauliflower, green peppers, celery?? So strange:) We're still giving her a bottle, but now it's just 3 a day instead of 6 like she had in ET. She loves her new straw sippy cups, but the doctor said to do formula and bottles until age 2 with her, since it's good for bonding and extra nutrition.

She got her new braces for her feet Wed, and her first pair of shoes:) She actually really likes them. We have her just wear them for a few hours at a time, so her muscles aren't too sore and we can see if they braces are rubbing her skin anywhere, and after I take them off now, she brings them to me to put back on. She was practically running with them today.

All her medical tests have come back great. Her TB test was even negative, which means she probably never had it, but the medicine they gave her when they thought she had it did help her recover and gain weight, so praise God for that! She had congestive heart failure at the time her infection was so bad the fluid backed up from her lungs to her heart. All her blood tests were good, and I got all her shot records from the transition home, so we'll have to see what she still needs there. Still have a couple more specialty doctors to go to this week, and another hearing screening, then we'll have completely checked her out:)

She is really just such a happy baby almost all the time. It's rare if she does actually cry (she squalks a lot when she can't say things) Julie Clark says she sounds like a pterodactyl, and she really does:) We didn't have any pictures of her at all smiling before we brought her home, and barely got one when we visited there the first time, but she smiles and giggles all the time now. She teases us, tickles us, blows strawberries on our stomachs. She is just really fun to have around! We are all really enjoying her. She has been such a blessing to us. When people say that she is so lucky to have us, I say, and truly mean it, that we are the lucky ones! God has answered our prayers in such a awesome way!

We are Home!

Well, after one cancelled ticket, one missed layover, mechanical plane problems, a new airplane, a broken stroller, and Ruby and I covered in poo, we made it home:) So, so glad to be in the US. It seems like a dream that we are finally home with Ruby and can start to be a "normal" family again:) We started our paperwork for the adoption over 2 years ago... The waiting has been hard, and the process has been frustrating, but she is definitely worth it.

She still really, really likes her mama:) She loves playing with the kids for a little while, will even let daddy give her a bottle after a lot of mussing and crying, but then just wants mama to hold her, standing up and not sitting down, all 27 pounds of her:) Then she snuggles in my neck and holds on tight and plays with my hair, and I don't mind at all... She is a good hugger! Complete with the grunting noises for hard hugs each time! She is really a sweet little baby girl. We're having a hard time with her trying new foods, but found out she loves Mexican:) and banana puffs and jello and anything bread... She loves her bottles still, and we're switching her from the Ethiopian Bebelac formula, which isn't as healthy, to Similac, which has more of what she needs. I'm down to my last can of Bebelac, so should make the switch completely by next week!

She had her first outside play time today and she loved it! The kids are sooo enjoying fighting over her and loving on her. We let them stay home from school Thursday and Friday, it's not every day that you get a new sibling that's 18 months old from Ethiopia:) So, back to school tomorrow. She might be a little bored with just Dennis and I, but she has LOTS of doctors aptmts this week, so we will be running around a lot!

I'm trying to post pics on facebook when I can. I'll try to attach one here:) Thank you to everyone who has been bringing us meals, we soooo appreciate it! I'm still having trouble with my asthma and she's still not sleeping at night, so the meals are perfect and extremely helpful right now, thank you!!!