Celebrating Three Weeks at Home!!!

As we come up on three weeks home with Maria and Suzanna tonight at 11:00 p.m., I realize it will take me so long to update you first on our trip and then on all the many things that are going on in our home now that the girls might be getting married before I ever catch up! So for now I’m going to change tactics and fill you in on our life as a family of seven first, then I will continue to journal our trip to Liberia, as we still want to share those experiences with you as well.

Life for the last three weeks has been very full, sweet, difficult, exhausting, fun, busy, loud, and most of all blessed! The girls are doing amazingly well in adjusting to their new home and lives despite all the health issues they are also having to deal with. They are sleeping wonderfully all night long and eating well on the days they feel good.

Each week has had its high points and its low points. During their first week Maria and Suzanna were introduced to the movie Sound of Music, ice cream, a neighborhood and neighbors, the tall buildings of downtown Houston, lots of new foods like vegetables, cutting down a Christmas tree and decorating it, and playing football and kick ball in the cul-de-sac with their brothers, sister, and some new friends. Maria was the best about trying new foods and eating them. She is not much of a sweet eater and it took three nights to find an ice cream flavor she liked. Suzanna really doesn’t like the healthy foods like vegetables and fruits, but really likes the sweets.

The first Wednesday they were home we took Maria and Suzanna to the Texas Children’s Hospital International Adoption Clinic. We quickly found out that poor Suzanna is deathly afraid of needles. It took two nurses and both David and I to hold her down so they could draw blood for the many tests they had to take. I have never seen fear like hers before; it broke our hearts. Thankfully she recovered quickly and was smiling, laughing, and singing on the way back home. We also learned she is double jointed as she completely turned her arm around when the nurse stuck the needle in; we thought she had pulled her arm out of its socket! Needless to say this was a traumatic day, but a much needed one in diagnosing any health problems. We are also fortunate to have a place like the international adoption clinic to work with.

The next day we decided to do something much more fun and went and cut down our Christmas tree and brought it home and decorated it. They had lots of fun, but are definitely not used to being cold! Both girls had hot cocoa for the first time; Suzanna loved it and Maria was not so fond of it.

Friday we had to go to our pediatrician to get the girls’ TB test results read which both thankfully were negative. Then off to the Social Security Administration office to apply for Social Security numbers!!! We really know how to have fun don’t we?!?! We then met a wonderful couple from our church, Mark and Nicole Watson, who took the kids’ Christmas picture for our annual Christmas letter. Poor Maria fell asleep on the way and then just was not in the mood for smiling for a camera. Nicole took lots of pictures and we just hoped we would find one good one to send. We were walking away when suddenly Maria asked Nicole to please take her picture. Well the model in little Miss Maria came out then! I wish you could have seen her pose and flash her beautiful smile that we have all come to love. We quickly hustled all the kids back and Nicole began to take lots more pictures. As you can see we finally found one and the girls are definitely fitting into the silly Young clan very well!

Communication has been more difficult than we expected. Liberians drop all the last sounds of every work plus speak very quickly. We keep asking the girls to repeat things very slowly for us. What’s funny is that if one girl is trying to say something and we don’t understand it, the other girl then will come up and clearly say, “She said,” and then the rest is a carbon copy of the fast and non-understandable words we didn’t understand in the first place.

We are also finding out that they don’t always understand us. That first Saturday the three girls were cleaning the kitchen after breakfast as I was making my hot tea. I watched as Suzanna rinsed her fork off and then proceeded to try to put it back in the silverware drawer instead of the dishwasher. Although all of us had been teaching the girls how to clean the kitchen each day, she just didn’t get this. Of course we promptly put all the silverware in the dishwasher not knowing how many times she had done this!

One of the funniest miscommunications took place the second week the girls were home. On Monday of that week Suzanna spiked her first temperature with her malaria and became very ill. (More on the malaria later.) Of course I didn’t know it was malaria that day and thought she had just picked up a virus that I didn’t want everyone in the house to catch. That afternoon I made her a pallet to sleep on in the playroom and was asking her questions to see if I could determine what was wrong with her. She told me her stomach hurt and nodded yes when I asked her if she felt like she was going to throw up. I quickly went and got our small bathroom trashcan that the kids always use in these circumstances just in case they don’t make it all the way to the bathroom. I explained several times what she should do if she felt like she was going to throw up and couldn’t make it to the bathroom and she nodded that she understood. Later I heard her in the bathroom and when I went to check on her I saw the trashcan in the bathroom. I knew she hadn’t vomited so I asked her why the trashcan was in there. She didn’t answer so I walked over to look and found urine in the trashcan! So much for my detailed explanations! David said that at the orphanage when the children were sick they might have put bowls or cans next to their beds for them to use. We know that many families in Liberia use cans for toilets so who knows. This will be something a year from now we can all reminisce about and have a good laugh at.

The most difficult part of communication is that some of the time the girls just won’t answer us. This is especially hard when we are trying to determine why they are pouting (a huge cultural thing) or why they are sad. These children just aren’t used to sharing their feelings and have trouble even naming them. The most important thing I have to learn is not to take it personally. When the girls first got here they mostly talked with each other, which is to be expected, but this was especially hard on Aubrey. Unfortunately, Aubrey has inherited from her mom the tendency to have high expectations and want everything perfect and wonderful for everyone. Thankfully all three girls are communicating more and better with each passing day. One night last week after we had put the girls to bed, Aubrey got up and came to ask me if she and her sisters could stay up just a few minutes longer and talk! I could hardly contain my excitement. When I hear the three of them having fun and laughing together it is beautiful music to my ears!

Now on to some of the health issues the girls are having which all started during their second week at home. As I wrote earlier, Suzanna spiked a high temperature on Monday of last week complete with terrible shivering and a headache. She woke up the next morning feeling great but then the same thing happened that evening. I called the doctor at the international adoption clinic and she said it could be a virus or it could be malaria. The doctor explained that malaria is cyclical with its symptoms; in other words she would have the symptoms approximately at the same time every day. The symptoms are high fever, shivering, sweating, and a headache, all of which Suzanna had. I took her to our pediatrician on Wednesday to have her blood tested for malaria. Thursday we found out she indeed had malaria. We were not able to get her the medication until Saturday. The medication used for treatment is the same that David and I had to take before, during, and after our trip to Liberia. Suzanna had to take twice the dose though. We started her treatment on Sunday morning and were told it could make her sick at her stomach. Two hours later she began vomiting, spiked another temperature, and was shivering uncontrollably. I sat in the bathroom holding her for hours. It was terrible. The doctor on call for the adoption clinic finally asked me to take her to the emergency room to make sure that the malaria had not deteriorated her health or that the malaria parasite had not grown past what we could treat her with on an outpatient basis. Poor Suzanna had to have blood drawn again! Tests all came back looking good and they sent us home with a prescription for an anti-nausea medication. She took this each day with her malaria medication and had no more problems! The whole way to the emergency room that afternoon I cried and just thanked God that she was now home where we could take care of her. She was probably infected as an infant and has had spells of this disease on and off her entire life. I just couldn’t help but think of the times when she was sick and wonder if there was anyone holding her when she was vomiting and shivering, or comforting her. Suzanna had blood drawn again yesterday for the fourth time since she’s been home to see if the medicine has completely eradicated the disease; we should know something early next week.

Maria also has some health issues that we have to take care of. The doctor at the clinic heard a heart murmur that she believes to be benign but wants it checked out anyway. We took her in yesterday for an EKG. She also tested positive for a parasite and Hepatitis B. She had additional blood tests yesterday that will be sent to a liver specialist that we will see next Friday. These tests will tell us more about her hepatitis like if she is a carrier or actually has the disease. I went in for the first of my three immunizations against Hep. B yesterday. David, Riley, Luke, and Aubrey already have been immunized. We are still waiting on tests to see if Suzanna has immunity to it or if she has to be immunized as well. Maria was given a strong antibiotic for her parasite that almost immediately affected her great appetite. She no longer wanted to try anything new and just picked at her food. By Christmas day she was hardly eating anything. She was no longer smiling and only wanted to sleep. She did enjoy Christmas morning but all went downhill after that. On Christmas night she began to cry and told me she missed her friends. We talked about this for a while and then prayed for them. The next morning Maria began vomiting. She continued for the rest of the morning, but then ate a pretty good lunch and her smile came back for a couple of hours. She took a nap again and woke up sad again and not feeling well at all. She threw up again right before supper and fell asleep in David’s lap right after we finished eating. The next morning she started vomiting again. I took her to the pediatrician where she threw up again. I was so worried; she had lost three pounds since the previous Friday. She does not have three pounds to lose. Maria is in the 5th percentile on her weight and age. The doctor said that the parasite and the medication were at war with each other and making her very sick. She gave her the same anti-nausea medication Suzanna was taking along with another medication to treat the parasite with. Our adoption clinic doctor said it was not as effective in treating the parasite so we will have to check her to see if the parasite is gone for good next week. By Thursday evening our sweet Maria was back to herself again. She was smiling, laughing, having fun, and best of all eating better. Maria also gave her Daddy and I the best gift we could ever ask for that night. After saying our prayers, the girls each gave Daddy kisses goodnight and when David told Maria he loved her she said, “I love you, too.” I then put all three girls to bed with kisses and was leaving the room blowing kisses, saying sweet dreams and I love you girls when Maria said those same beautiful magic words, “I love you, too!”

David and I have decided that it is going to be hard to really determine their behavior and what it means until they are healthy again and feeling well. It is also difficult to do any obedience and character training. They truly behave just like toddlers, but not only do we have to train them, we have so much unteaching to do, also. These precious girls only know “survival of the fittest” and now have to learn to be part of a family, something Suzanna knows nothing about and Maria knows very little about. God in His amazing grace has prepared us for the challenge!

Now we will talk about more fun moments during the last three weeks. Late in the second week the girls received cards and some money from my best friend in college and her husband from Roswell, New Mexico. This was a real answer to prayers because the girls really wanted bikes which they call cycles. That evening we went to Wal-Mart and let the girls pick out their bikes and helmets. They had so much fun! The next day, Friday, which is David’s day off he began to teach them how to ride. After a while he came in the house and said he was going back to Wal-Mart to buy training wheels. The girls had just completely missed the important developmental skill of learning how to pedal a bike. He needed them to concentrate only on that and not on both balancing and pedaling. They were just too heavy to hold up while teaching them to pedal. We both worked with them all afternoon just trying to get them to keep their feet on the pedals and to pedal forward instead of backwards. That night as we fell into bed exhausted we looked at each other and both said we were too old for this! The next morning we were at again and the girls did much better. Each day they improve just a little; before long we will be able to remove the training wheels. They both love their cycles!

Christmas was wonderful! They both enjoyed all the little gifts like hair accessories and jewelry in their stockings. We gave both girls Itty Bitty baby dolls from American Girl and they love their babies. Maria named her baby, Little Angel, and Suzanna named her baby, Princess. All three girls spend lots of time taking care of, bathing, feeding, and dressing their babies. Suzanna has put Princess in a carrier a couple of times to take her with us when we had to go out and has also ridden her bike with her baby on her back in the carrier.

Neither girl seemed overwhelmed with any part of Christmas but looked like they enjoyed themselves. They met David’s mom and her husband Chuck for the first time that day. David had told the girls that when Grandma got here they needed to run to her with their arms wide open and yell, “Grandma!” They actually did it and gave big hugs both to Grandma and Pa Chuck! We had to add a card table to the end of our table and put two tablecloths on to cover both! It was really my favorite part of Christmas to look at our table with our five blessings from God with two of their grandparents and to wave way down the table to my husband of 22 ½ years! In David’s prayer at Christmas dinner he thanked God for enlarging our family and our table!

I want to share just a couple more cute things. This past Thursday when Maria finally started feeling better I got out our wedding album and shared it with the girls. They loved it as they love looking at pictures all the time. They got a huge kick out of the picture of me stuffing wedding cake into David’s mouth. The minute he got home that evening they ran and got the album and wanted to look through it again with him. They laughed again hysterically when they got to that picture. They are continually asking me to take pictures of them and always want to see it on the viewer. We sure are glad we bought that digital camera for our anniversary! We look forward to putting together many, many more photo albums of our new family and giving the girls a heritage of love and tradition.

When we haven’t been in a doctor’s office, which has been most of the time, we have loved playing Pick-up Sticks, Old Maid, putting a jigsaw puzzle together, and watching movies. So far Cinderella has been Suzanna’s favorite and today I think Mary Poppins became Maria’s favorite. She loved the singing and dancing and asked to watch it a second time as soon as it was over.

Maria has begun parroting each of us most of the day. She wants to learn everything! It is fun listening to her repeat everything we say. I bought the girls’ Usborne’s book, First Thousand Words and they both love it. It is a great tool to introduce them to the things in our lives as well as to teach them the words and how to say them.

Both girls continually laugh at Riley, Luke, and especially David. I know this is no big shock to any of you. At the emergency room while I was trying to comfort Suzanna I asked her to tell our pastor’s wife, Johnnie, which of her brothers was the silliest. She immediately named Luke. Riley began calling both girls, sweetheart, right away. After a few days, Maria asked him not to call her that anymore! Riley, Luke, and Aubrey have been so patient in teaching the girls how to do the daily chores, how to ride their bikes, and how to play different games.

We are looking forward to taking them to church for the first time on January 6th. Our wonderful church family is giving our family as well as another family who adopted a little girl from China a shower on Sunday, January 13th. The girls and I will start back with Little Women of Virtue in January, also. Of course we will also start back to school, too. I look forward to it, but am feeling a little overwhelmed at the same time. I appreciate all prayers!

My heart is so full! I have thanked God everyday for the last three weeks for making me a mother of five; I thanked David tonight for the same thing. It has not all been roses or easy, but I wouldn’t trade a second of it. It has not been easy for the kids either, especially for Aubrey, but again I thank God for choosing our family to grow more and more like Him through all this. Please be in prayer for the health of Maria and Suzanna. Pray that God will continue to pour out His wisdom, grace, and patience on us as we teach Maria and Suzanna how to be part of a family, as we teach them in righteousness and character, as we teach them the three R’s, and most important as we teach them about the unconditional love of their Heavenly Father and the ultimate sacrifice He made to adopt them as His children, too.

Following are a few pictures from the last three weeks. I still haven't had time to learn how to do this properly but at least this time you have the story first and then the pictures. As soon as we have time to download pictures from Christmas we will post them here as well. Enjoy!