Happy 1st Referral Anniversary Maya!

Today marks Maya’s 1^st referral anniversary! She has changed SO much, as Madeline stated in a Facebook post…

“Last year today I saw my sister’s picture 4 the first time ever. The adorable little baby with chubby, rosy cheeks wearing a pink and yellow snowsuit has turned into a beautiful almost 3 year old. She has eyes that sparkle, a personality that can make anyone laugh, and a smile 2 die for. She has a family now, a house, a closet full of clothes, and toys. Her life has changed for the better so much. I love u Maya!”

Here is our referral story that we will be telling Maya forever…

We had been looking through the Waiting Child list for a long time. None of the wonderful children on the list seemed to be a good fit for our family. We knew one day we would have a wonderful little girl that would be part of our family, but we just didn’t know when. So after a long day on June 25, 2010, we had some of our family and friends over for a fun night outside. Unfortunately, John was stuck in Baltimore due to flight cancellations! After the fun night, Madeline and I were cleaning up. It was about 11 pm and the phone rang. Who could that be? It was Cori from our adoption agency! Madeline and I both looked at each other, and Madeline said, “Mom! I think you should answer it!” I answered the phone and Cori said “Hi Kris! I’m sorry I’m calling so late, but I think I found you a little girl! I locked in her file for you! She has a repaired cleft lip and a cleft palate, she will be two soon. Do you want me to email you her file?” I was breath taken, all I could say was “YES! Thank you so much Cori!” I screamed “WOOOO!” And Madeline and Will already knew that this was the big day! We waited what seemed like years for her file to get here. You’d think after almost 2 years of paper work, and other nonsense a 20-minute wait would be simple. Not at all! I got the file and I yelled to Madeline “Her name is Ji Zhou Lu!” Madeline ran in and we looked at the list of many files sent to us. “What should I open first?” I asked Madeline. “The pictures of course Mom!” (Duh Mom!) J We opened the file and the first picture we saw of her was…well not a good picture at all. It was blurry, her head was turned and it was “mug-shot” style. We scrolled down and saw the beautiful picture of our gorgeous girl with her beautiful smile. It was an amazing day that will ALWAYS be remembered. And my friend Lisa Silverman will always remember this story too!  She was with me the day after when I made the call to Cori that we were accepting Maya’s referral! 

Our sweet girl’s 3^rd birthday party is tomorrow!  50+ people have been invited.  Am I nuts or what?!  YES!  Completely insane John will tell you.  And yes I had big bashes for both Madeline and Will’s 1^st birthdays!  Fair is fair!  J

The referral picture!

6 Words

Maya is being a stinker today.

Maya's "Minor" Surgery Day 1!

Hey it's Madeline! Today Maya had surgery to fill her 3 cavities and she got 4 crowns as well (they put her under of course.) I wasn't there today because it was my last day of school :) The dentist said her teeth aren't formed right and its a birth defect. He also warned my parents that her face would be swollen and poofy until Sunday- it is! When she woke up from surgery she was NOT happy. She was screaming, thrashing, hitting, and pinching. She is MAD. Once my parents got home they took her upstairs hoping she would stay asleep but instead she woke up just as mad. It was not fun holding her down with my dad while my mom tried to give her Advil. She still looks cute as usual even though she has chipmunk cheeks :) We'll post pictures later!

Picture of the Day

Yep...that's Maya for you :)

Our May Update!

FINALLY!  I am getting around to a new posting on the adventures of Maya!  And yes, every day is an adventure with Maya!  She had her first trip up to our cottage in northern Michigan over Memorial Day Weekend.  She LOVED it.  She fits right in with all the craziness up there.  She went on boat rides, made a trip to the sand bar to play in the water and had a campfire at Grandma & Papa’s cottage.  And of course got some mosquito bites too!  Our neighbors up north were so excited to meet Maya and they all got a kick out of her silly personality like everyone else does the first time they meet Maya!  Maya will be having a bunch of dental work on Friday, June 10^th (the last day of school for Madeline and Will).  She needs 4 crowns and 3 cavities filled.  Holy Moly!  Of course they’ll be knocking her out completely for this procedure.  My poor baby is all I keep thinking!  But, we know all of this is necessary.  Maya has been enjoying her time at Miss Jen’s house every week.  Jen is my friend from the school district who runs the BEST day care out of her home.  Thankfully she had room for little Maya.  She goes 2 days/week for 4 hours.  She was a little nervous in the beginning but she’s fallen into a good groove now and loves her friends there.  Jen is one of the few people I can trust my little one and I know she’s in great hands while she’s there.  I’m sending her there so she gets some interaction with other kids and it also gives me a little alone time to run errands and get some things accomplished that’s almost impossible when I have my little firecracker around.  I am beyond thankful to Jen for taking Maya those 2 days every week!  As the weather has warmed up in Michigan (hard to believe), Maya has made the great outdoors her new obsession.  I swear she wakes up every morning and the first word out of her mouth is, “Outside!”  She loves going for walks, playing in yard, drawing on the cement with her sidewalk chalk and getting in the way of her big brother and his friends while they play basketball in the driveway.  She also cracked up when she saw Lola catch her first snake (personally it grosses me out).  Maya really has enjoyed going to Madeline’s track meets.  She goes from one mom to another seeing what kind of snacks they brought with them.  She also loves to cheer on Madeline and her friends!  We had our first visit to John’s office.  Maya acted like she was running the show (what’s new?).  She went right in John’s boss’ office, got on his chair, picked up the phone and studied charts like she was making some big decision.  Once again, Maya got a lot of laughs from everyone.  We got to eat lunch with some friends there and they even put a cartoon on one of the projectors for her in the conference room.  I think Maya was more interested in visiting people in their offices and cubicles!  Maya has been doing great in her speech therapy!  She loves her speech pathologist, Cecilia.  She also loves to make Cecilia run in circles at some of her sessions!  I think Cecilia is looking forward to some rest this summer!  As the school year winds down and the summer is finally approaching, it’s hard to imagine that Maya has been with us almost 6 months.  She’s come so far and she fits right in with our family, friends and community!  What a lucky girl…and how lucky we are to have her in our lives! 

Finally...Our Gotcha Day Video!

Please ignore the last 2 minutes of the video where John was video taping the wall!

Sunshine and Fun!

We just got home from sunny Florida!  It was a fun & exhausting trip.  Keeping up with Maya on the beach and by the pool had us all running in circles.  She absolutely loved the ocean…just like her sister and brother.  The condo we rented was in Hollywood right on the ocean.  I attached some photos of the view off our balcony plus some of the kids enjoying their vacation.  William wanted to throw his football nonstop.  I was ready for John’s arm to fall off from passing it to him so much.  Madeline took Maya swimming a lot and got her comfortable in the water.  We had some huge waves a couple of the days so the kids were able to body surf and use the boogie boards!  They had a riot.  We also managed to collect some great seashells to put in a glass jar at our cottage.  Will became the pro at finding the unique shells.  I think the only bad thing that happened on our vacation was when Maya fell in the pool.  She was playing with Will pushing him off the side.  She put a little too much effort into it one time and bam; she went in!  Luckily we were sitting right in front of her.  I jumped in and John then pulled her out.  She coughed up some water and cried a little bit in my arms, and then amazingly, she wanted to go back in the pool.  This time she wore her life jacket!  I swear my heart stopped beating when I saw her fall in!  On another note, we went to Key Largo one day to hang out.  Not a whole lot going on there so we went on to the next island, Islamorada.  We ended up finding some family owned “Sea World” type establishment.  It was hotter than blazes but we still had fun seeing huge sea turtles, colored fish, nurse sharks, alligators, sea lions, parrots and a fun dolphin show.  Maya loved the talking parrots.  As much fun as we all had, it was nice to get home.  I think we all missed our beds.  Maya missed her toys.  And of course we all missed Lola who spent the week being spoiled by grandma and papa. 

I want to update you all on Maya’s cleft palate too.  She did pop a small hole in the back of her mouth.  Her surgeon expected that because of her age and how large her cleft palate was.  He said she probably did it with her tongue.  Other then that, she healed up great.  She missed her crackers and chips, but we got through it.  Dr. Shaheen is going to repair the small hole in a couple months.  It won’t be as long or complex of a surgery as the first time, but she’ll have the same recovery…liquids and soft diet.  UGH!  We had her speech evaluated and she’ll be going to speech sessions 2 days/week for about 30 minutes per session.  The speech pathologist doesn’t foresee any problems with Maya’s speech because of her ability to repeat everything we say and how far she has already come with her language and speech skills. 

We’re looking forward to some warm weather arriving in Michigan and opening up our cottage.  Seeing how Maya was around the ocean and pool, I think I’m going to keep a life jacket on her permanently while we’re up there.  Happy spring everyone!  

  The great view from our condo balcony!

Maya was always SO proud of herself after jumping to her baba.

Cutie pie!

Maya's signature "wrinkle-nose" smile :)

Maya's new favorite food: Chocolate cake.

The great dolphin show in Islamorada!!