Great Time with Family

This will be my first of many posts to update everyone on what Ms. Bing Bing has been doing.  She has had a BIG time with family the last few weeks and has done great!!!  The pictures below are from when my dad was here.  We are missing some of the pictures from his trip???

I have gone through thousands of pictures over the last month!  I am going to begin posting more today during her nap.  I am off now through the end of the year!! YAY! :)  We are so very excited about Olivia's first Christmas home!!!

Poo Poo in the Potty

Halloween and More

I know it keeps taking me a month to post new items but it is never my intention to wait that long!  Our little pumpkin is EVERYWHERE!!!  She is a "busy busy bee" as daddy says :)

She was a lady bug for halloween in a last minute costume.  I am not big into halloween, but I got harassed from friends and family so we caved in and bought a costume.  Olivia handed out candy to our front door visitors.

This is a picture Danny took off our back deck.  He was just capturing how beautiful the fall is in Philadelphia.

Thought she looked adorable in her pigtails

We sent her this coat in China.  They were sweet to send it with her.  It still fits :)  It's a 12 month :)

Getting ready for winter :)

Feeding Hunter doggie ice cream

I was a little lady bug for halloween. 

Getting candy ready for trick or treaters.  She put candy in their buckets (or pillow cases they are now carrying)!!  We could only keep her out there for like 2 minutes b/c she has been fighting a cold

We let her taste a twix and kit kat :)

Loving on my daddy.  He bought her black tights :)

 Will write more later - just wanted to get some pictures up.  We are still waiting on our precious girl to start talking!!!  We can't wait to hear what she has to say.  I should clarify - we believe she is speaking fluent Chinese but we just can't understand any of it. :)

She is hilarious too!  She tries to make us laugh all the time.  She is asleep now so I am going to go enjoy a really yummy cup of coffee...

Continuation of Last Post

Okay - I was able to download one of the videos

Please ignore how HORRIBLE I look!  Danny wasn't supposed to capture me in the video - only Olivia :)

Alive and Well in PA

I can't believe it's already been 2 entire weeks!!!  All is well this football Saturday as we navigate our way through this 1000 mile move.

As I type, my poor angel has a VERY runny nose and terrible cough. :(  We went to the pediatrican yesterday for vaccines and she said she sounded very good and that it doesn't appear she is "sick".  Apparently just a runny nose is going around with a little congestion.  Poor thing had 3 injections yesterday and has to have more in 30 days to complete her immunizations.

The last 2 weeks have not gone without challenges.  Bing and I both cried everyday last week (our first week here)!!!  I just stopped putting on eye makeup until I arrived at my office b/c I would just cry it off anyway.  Leaving her is the hardest thing I've ever had to do.  Everyone at work is SO supportive and assures me it will get better.  I am thankful to be with her every morning and every night!  It was also a difficult adjustment for Olivia, but this past week - she didn't cry - she just walked right in to her class.  Danny and I were thankful those days!  They said she is doing SO well!  She is in the infant room for now and getting lots of one-on-one attention.  Soon though she will go into the class with children her age and we will be excited when that happens b/c she will most likely love that.  Bing LOVES other children.  She takes to other children instantly - where adults she isn't so sure.  She is a social butterfly!  She now waves at any and everyone.  We think it is so cute. 

We had our 1st round of appointments at CHOP and Olivia is officially in the Single Ventricle Survivorship Program!  We are so excited!!  They said she looks fabulous and that her next and final heart surgery would most likely be March of 2013.  We are thankful it looks so far away.  The director of the program, Dr. Rychik, will also serve as Olivia's primary pediatric cardiologist.  We also met with a GI specialist associated with the program, Dr. Rand.  Olivia is also looking great from a GI perspective since her surgery.  We still have some episodes of throwing up, but not anything like it used to be!!  We are indeed thankful!  She also did very well at all the appointments this time.  Before, even getting her weight caused a breakdown,but this time no crying almost at all!!! :)  The cardiac program did a very thorough screening including 4 blood pressure checks on both arms and both legs, her oxygen level, weight, length, head size, EKG, echocardiogram, etc...  It was extensive and she held up great!  She started to wear down during the echo but thankfully we were almost done by then.

We are enjoying our new home although it is pretty much still a disaster!  This is our 4th relo, but with our little Bing Bing and we are finding it much more difficult to find the time to organize (parents can chuckle now as you laugh at our effort :)).  She is the apple of our eye and our pure joy!  Everyone told us that love would overtake all the difficulty and it is so true!  I love her more than my simple words are able to express!  It is our honor and joy to raise this little girl!  We are so very lucky to have her presence in our lives!  I love her energy (although a moment of rest wouldn't be so bad), I love her spunk, I love her fight, I love her asian eyes, I love her 10 new teeth, I love her jet black hair, I love to hear her breath when she sleeps!! 

We miss our southern friends and family, we miss our church, we miss lovers of college football!!  But, we are also enjoying navigating through our new northern life!  One of our neighbors brought us chocolate chip cookies the other day!!  This week was better than last and no doubt this coming will be even better - or least that's our prayer!!! 

And yes, we now say, "Go Phillies" :)

I am still an Alabama fan!! (No - not Auburn :))

Getting ready to take a Hunter for a walk

 

I got some new snow boots :)

In my pj's and new snow boots

She LOVES Hunter and he loves her!

I just found this in our camera!  A precious look back when we had first come home!  Look - no teeth yet!!

I'm trying to post a couple of videos, but it isn't working right now???

Time Flies...

I can't believe we will leave our Mississippi home in one week from today!  This has been our favorite place to live by far!!  This home is where we grew to a family of 3 and began our lives together.  We love our church, Longview Point Baptist Church, our pastor, our Sunday school teachers, and our friends!!!  Thank you all for making our 2 years in Hernando some of the best of our married life!!  It's hard to imagine that God has called us to the NORTH!!!!  I know - Philly of all places!!! :)...  We are excited but anxious about our upcoming move.  There is much to be done to be ready to leave next Saturday.
The movers arrive Thursday and will pack through Friday.  Saturday they load the truck and begin the journey to our new home in Downingtown, PA.  Danny, Olivia, and I will drive to Birmingham to spend the weekend and then my mom and I will make the 15 hour drive to PA arriving Tuesday afternoon.  Danny, Olivia, and Danny's mom will fly up Tuesday afternoon.  We want to have our car there so we will have some household goods before our furniture truck arrives.  Please pray for safe travels for all!  We close on our new home the 21st (please also be praying that our home in MS will sell quickly) and should move in the 22nd or 23rd.  We both start work on the 26th.  The 26th is also the day Olivia will start preschool :(.  I know she will love spending time with other children, but my heart is broken over being away from her.  That is one more thing to add to your prayer list :)...

BTW - Bing is totally walking now!!!!!  A little wobbly, but walking. It is almost impossible to believe how far she has come in 5 months!  She turned 20 months old yesterday and we got to skype with Ron and Sue again.  If you remember, they are the Australian couple who were living in China and took Bing her first 10 weeks of life.  I've said it a hundred times, but without these 2 precious people - our Bing Bing would most certainly not be here today.  We are so thankful our great God had other plans and that he used Ron and Sue in those plans!  This time she touched their faces on the computer screen - it was precious!  They speak Chinese to her and we think she remembers some of it because of the way she looks and listens.  They got to see her walk!  She calls them Sue ni-ni (not sure I'm spelling any of this correctly) - means grandmother, and Yeah-Yeah (sp?) - means grandfather.

So sorry that I don't have any pictures - I do have some precious short videos on my iphone, but not sure how to get them over.  If you know how to do it - tell me so I can put them on here. 

Much Love!!

Danny, Julie, and Bing

Olivia Post Surgery (and some from before)

Well, it's been a very good week post surgery for our little one.  She is recovering so well!  We are keeping a close eye on her incisions since the fear of infection is worse for her with no spleen.  One looks a little red, but we're watching it closely.  We haven't left the house since coming home - just to be safe.

We have changed the way we give her pedisure and you know what - we haven't really had a throw up since coming home.  YAY!!!  We don't want to get too excited, but we are so thankful.  We don't know if it's the surgery, the new way of giving her milk (smaller amounts more often) or a combination of both, but we are indeed thankful!

She is 19 lbs now too :).  She is also outgrowing ALL of her 9 month outfits.  We are starting to buy 18 month clothes - I can't believe it!!  Our little pumkin is getting so big!!!

Here are 2 pictures of Olivia since coming home.

Here are some pictures we took last month when my sister was in town.  Olivia was not happy about the photo shoot! :)

She stopped crying as soon as she got to stop posing, but she definitely didn't want to pose on this day.

We couldn't get the sweet smile she gives right after we both kiss her cheeks, but it is precious!  You can almost see it here ;)