Chen Chronicles

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