Chen Chronicles

Time flies when you're busy (or having fun)!!!  Motherhood has been wonderful and Aaron enjoys being a Father so very much!  As we approach Father's Day, we don't have to celebrate another year without Aaron getting to be "proud," to be a father.  So much has happened and I am much more of a Facebook addict than I am at posting on my blog, but I need to do this for the benefit of memories.  We will soon be moving to Baltimore, Maryland for Aaron's new job. He finished up his full-time Air Force service on May 31st and is in Vermont this week finishing the requirements for his Master's degree.  We move to Baltimore (Odenton) on July 8th and into our new (rented) town house on July 17th.  It's going to be a lot of change, but also exciting.  We will miss our friends here in the Dayton area but are so happy that Aaron has gotten a good job that will allow me to continue to stay home with Katie. As for her, she amazes ALL her doctors on the progress sh

So, this morning, I received a great phone call from the International Adoption Clinic at Cincinnati Children's Medical Center.  When Katie's lab work was done at the Air Force Base, something with awry with the testing because the lab at Cincinnati Children's re-tested her to see HOW deficient she was with G6PD and she is not deficient at all!!!  This is such a praise to God!!!   So far, everything has checked our perfectly with our princess and she is VERY healthy and growing more and more everyday!  She eats anything...to include LOVING Olives at the Olive Garden yesterday.  Her Nanny (Aaron's mother) is in town this week and until May 2nd and we are all having a blast.  I will have to post some photos and videos from the week when I get a chance.   I do post them on Facebook so if you are following this blog, please request my friendship on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/aprilannchen and tell me who you are so you can see more of our little princess!  Sh

Last week, Aaron and I found out that Katie has Favism or G6PD Deficiency.  I think through this I want to spread awareness about this.  The web site:  http://g6pddeficiency.org/index.php , gives a great deal of info about this, but we will find out more this Wednesday when we go back to the International Adoption Center in Cincinnati.  It has to do with Katie's red blood cells breaking down (hemolysis) and causing hemolytic anemia if she eats certain foods or ingests certain drugs.   Please pray with us as we work toward a clear understanding of what Katie can and can't eat.  She likes to eat EVERYTHING!!!!  :-)  She is also such a trooper too because she had an appointment at her regular pediatrician, Dr. Slojic, at WPAFB Pediatric Clinic on Friday.  He ordered an EKG and to have her ears irrigated.  The EKG was to be sure she does not have the incomplete bundle of a set of nerves in her heart called the His' and that was normal.  So, he will consult with the cardiolog

So, I wanted to briefly write and say that Katie is checking out very well with all her labs, eating and everything. Since we have had her home, she has gained from 17lbs to 25.5lbs!!!  She loves anything that doesn't eat her first!!!!  I will say that one child is enough for Aaron and I at the moment, though.  However, we will probably adopt another in the next couple of years.  We are moving to Baltimore at the end of June and we'll revisit the idea then.  For now, I would like to share a few of the best photos of Katie from our Easter/Spring Family photos.  Enjoy!!!

So, yesterday I was just too exhausted to post this because it was a LONG day for us ALL!  Katie was SO tired that she slept in this morning until 10:30am! The International Adoption Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital is awesome! Those guys did some in depth testing to include the following: evaluation by nursing staff, the pediatric nurse practitioner, an occupational therapist, a social worker and the infectious disease pediatrician. We won't hear about her labs for a couple of weeks, but they drew lab work to insure that she has received all of her immunizations and what she will or won't need. They immunized her for Pneumococcal diseases and gave her a TB skin test.  I must say to make it through a four hour appointment and deal with being stuck three different times at the end. So, here's how they ranked her (and we are VERY pleased with this ranking) because since she lived in an orphanage for over two years of her life, she is doing amazingly well!  Most

So, this previous Friday we took Katie to a follow-up to see the Air Force pediatrician, Dr. Slojic, whom we REALLY like!  It was hilarious because the nurse was trying to decide who she looked like most (she didn't know we had adopted her).  This was hilarious and it is awesome (not that we ever plan on keeping her history from her as being adopted is something to be proud of).  I still often think about the little ones in her class and pray every day that they will, too, get a forever family like our Katie did.   So, she gained 1/2 a pound in a week and still ranks on the 4th percentile.  The studies on her stool came back normal, but they are waiting on the parasite test to come back and we should know about that one on Monday.  Our pediatrician is VERY thorough and has put in referrals for her to be evaluated by Speech Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Audiology, Optometry and to see the pediatrician at the International Adoption Center in Cincinnati.  We are doing this on Mo

I never thought I'd be one to get "behind" on posting things online, but there seems to be not even a spare moment to eat these days....much less post.  But for me, writing is therapeutic and I need a little therapy right now, so here goes:   Katie is rejecting her Daddy unless he's acting like a monkey at the moment, but she's slowly but surely warming back up to him.  I think it was because:  1) She's been sick with something.....not sure what...waiting on labs and tests to come back and we have a follow-up at the Air Force base peds clinic tomorrow afternoon. 2) I am on the only person she REALLY remembers since I spent three weeks with her alone in Russia.   3) We took her away from everyone and everything she has ever known for her whole life....the smells, the foods, the people and even the language. So, with that said...I am trying to back off and let Daddy be daddy so I can be a sane, calm mother.  She feels my stress and it's been one

One day, I may turn all this into a book!!!!  I guess I already wrote some about this appointment, so I am sorry for the duplicate post, but I don't feel like deleting and editing....so you get to read it again.  :LOL  I seriously have "mommy brain.." or something...because I didn't even remember writing that! So, there was an appointment (amazingly), available at the WPAFB Pediatric Clinic and we were able to get our little Katie into see Dr. Slojic on March 4th.  We were skeptical when making the appointment at first because he is a resident, but he is VERY thorough and was so good with Katie.  She was also really awesome at her doctor's appointment and just laid on the table so calmly during the exam, whereas I think most children would cry.  She ranks in the 4th percentile for height and weight and the pediatrician did not seem to concerned about that.  He put in referrals for us to go the International Adoption Clinic in Cincinnati for that evaluation a

Hello from the wonderful U.S. of A!!!  I am so GLAD to be home and in our own environment!!! Our air travel didn't exactly go as planned and we made it home after 1am!  She is SUCH a trooper and handled the flights miraculously!!!  She slept the entire flight from Vlad to Moscow.  The first night in Moscow she went right down to bed and did wonderfully!  The flight from Moscow to Washington D.C. was quite a different story for little miss!  She didn't want a SINGLE toy that I packed for her to play with or even anything to eat.  There were a lot of Russian men on the plane and she must have went up to every one of them, charming them and then they picked her up and said something to her in Russian and this trend continued for the 9 1/2 of the ten hour flight.  She did not sleep but just for 30 minutes on that long flight from Moscow, so neither did I.  (I am about to go to sleep as Aaron has stepped in and kind of taken over until I can get my body into a decent rhy

New English words our daughter says: "Bye, Bye, stinky, mama, dada (looks at pics of her Daddy), eat, la la lu...(sings all the time), Katie (her name when prompted), baby, beep beep...it seems like she learns a new English word each day. I have a feeling she will not be behind in her speech development for long! She's also attaching to me as mommy quite well and will not go to anyone else, so I don't think we have to worry about . Please continue with the prayers...as we still have a little over a week before we get to go home to Ohio! :-)   We can't wait to introduce her to all our family and friends...and let her see her new room full of toys.  I get all giddy inside when I think of her reaction when she sees a room that is ALL hers and toys she does NOT have to share!  :-)  Though, sharing is a great quality and she learned those skills at the orphanage so they will come in handy at church.  We are just SO glad that she is as smart as she is.  God couldn't h

So, Daddy (Papa) as Katie calls him (Aaron) had to come back to the States one week ago today.  Wow, I have been SO busy with our little princess that I have had very little time to write this, hence why I am writing it now at 2am.  I am tired, but her adjustment to me is getting faster.  She is an amazing little princess and we both just love her so much!  There aren't enough words to explain that.  In just about ten days, we will be home in Ohio and will be able to show Katie her new bedroom and she can meet her (Quisas)....Russian for Cats.  We have two. It will be interesting to see how they act around her.  I am thinking Nala will just run away and Skye will think she's a toy to play with.  At any rate, they will have to learn that they are no longer number one!  This adjustment period with Katie and without Aaron has been very hard, but the bonding time between her and I has just gotten stronger. She LOVES taking a bath!!!  This is amazing to me because she never got to e

So, court was not nearly as bad as we expected.  Aaron got most of the questions and they actually picked on him about not being a "handy man."  Because in Russia, it is expected that the men fix things, do plumbing etc. and the prosecutor asked Aaron the silliest question...and I paraphrase: "So, if you, your wife and your child were on a desert island and you're not a handy man, how would you build a house?"  I forget how he answered it, but it was ridiculously silly to ask such a thing.  We were told that in Russia renting an apartment means that you can't afford a house and that you are not stable.  So, they don't understand that when you rent in a luxury apartment in the U.S. that all the maintenance is included.  Aaron explained it best by saying yes he does help me around the house with chores and left it at that.  I got asked why I stopped working since I had SO much education and on my toes, I said.." Well, having more education makes you a

The day has finally come that we must prove to the judge with answering questions and with our photos that we are the best parents for this precious gift from God.  All I know is Aaron and I will be doing what we were told by Oksana and that is to speak from the heart and be genuine.  The hardest part about this is being almost lumped together with those recent cases where Russian orphans were adopted and abused.  There are two recent cases to note.  I mentioned before on our blog about the child who, last year, was sent back with a one way ticket.  Our coordinator, Oksana, stated that he came from Vladivostok and is still in an orphanage outside Moscow.  It's really, super sad that we have to be judged by what one lunatic does.  Also, here's a recent case that we are very likely to receive questioning about: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/02/04/russian-uproar-adopted-boys-punishment/ I must comment on this and say that I believe that this woman's expectations for her

I know I keep on saying this....but Aaron and I feel so blessed that this little girl was handpicked, we believe by God to be our daughter.   We are still a bit jet lagged and tired, but that all goes away when we walk into the room and see our princess.  Court is Friday and Oksana is preparing us during our 1hr and 30min drive to the orphanage each day.  She says our judge is open to listening, but thinks we are young first time parents to be adopting.  I predict there will be quite a few questions about our infertility and so Aaron and I are making sure we are on the same page about what we want to say about that.  In the preliminary hearing last week, the judge did ask Oksana why we did not try IVF and other procedures beyond just a trial period of Clomid.  I know enough about the health risks that large doses of those hormonal medications can do to you to intelligently answer her question and Aaron and I will review that tonight since she will probably ask those quest