Pictures from the last month

Here are some various pictures from June. Enjoy!

1 month later

I haven't written in a while- well it has pretty much been survival mode here at the Gray house. I wanted to give you all an update while I could. Olivia is doing so well. She had giardia (sp?) which is a parasite in the intestines. Most of the girls who came from her orphanage had this but it does cause intense discomfort in the stomach and bowels. I mentioned how little she was eating when we came home and this was probably the cause. Once we got her on medication for a couple of days she found her appetite. She was eating 13-15 ounces a day and now she is close to 30 with a couple of meals with solid food as well. It is so comforting to see her actually eating well. I hope to see her put on some weight soon. She has had a cold so I think that may have slowed her down but it is better now.

She is getting stronger everyday. She is bouncing like crazy, sitting up (most of the time) without assistance, pushing up with her arms and getting one leg under her moving toward crawling. It is hard to believe that she is the same little girl who couldn't hold her head up 6 weeks ago. She is smiling and interacting with people but defiantly likes to be in her Mom's arms while she meets new people. We have been slowly introducing her to people in our world and it is going very well. She loves her sister playing with her and singing silly songs. She is a little leery of her brother as he often has trouble with the gentle part of loving on her.

We have all been adjusting to life with 3 kids. It is a switch and yesterday as two kids were yelling and I was changing the other's poopy diaper I was thinking back to before kids and how peaceful life was. However, our life is so rich with laughter and love that it makes all of the hard moments possible. Pictures to follow.

Love, The Grays

News on the homefront

Well we have been back for over a week now so here I am with a new post. Olivia has been doing okay. She is not eating or sleeping well which has made it rough for me as Patrick continues to work nights. The past 2 nights she has come to bed with me so that at least I can rest when I am bouncing her. The hardest part is when the 2 others get up in the morning. Coffee has been my friend since Joshua was born and we have gotten closer since miss Olivia has arrived. We took her to the doctor on Friday and as part of routine check up with an internationally adopted child they did blood work and took a stool sample. Actually these things were ordered and I had to go to the hospital to get it done. The blood sample was quite something. First I forgot to go on Friday when my two older kids were not with me so we had to go on Saturday- without Patrick because it was the middle of the day and that is when he sleeps. So I want you all to have this picture in your head- Olivia is in the front carrier, Joshua is in the stroller and Cambria is walking beside. Can't you just imagine what was going through the hospital workers' minds when I come up and tell them that the littlest one needs to have a blood sample taken. Anyway, because she is so small the most they can take from her is 5ml which is exactly the amount that they need to complete all the tests the doctor has ordered. If anything needs to be redone we will have to go back. They spent 15 mins trying to find a vein in her arm or leg to draw from but to no avail. Finally they took it from her hand with me pinning her down and two people holding her arms. After we were done they gave me the cup for the stool sample and said it had to come back with in 24 hours of "deposit". So Sunday we collected and this morning we took the sample back. This afternoon they called and said that she has girardia (sp?). This is an intestinal bug which is very uncomfortable. This is probably the reason that she doesn't eat and sleep well. We have medicine and hope to be done with this nastiness in 10 days or less. We had thought that she had acid reflux, however, now we are wondering if that is correct or if everything has been this parasite in her. Time will only tell but I am looking forward to some sleep.

On another front- Cambria and Joshua are adjusting very well to their sister. Joshua forgets that he is twice her size and I have looked up to see him sitting on her as well as laying on her to give her a hug. He is very sweet- he even says "hug" as he is doing it. I have been working with him on this. Cambria would really like her to be old enough to play with now- but enjoys loving on her.

Olivia's favorite thing is the Johnny Jump Up. She bounces with gusto. She is getting better at sitting up on her own but is in no way ready to do it without help. Maybe when she feels better.

I will attach pictures for you to enjoy- these are some more from China.

Love, all of the Grays

Pictures finally!

These are pictures of miss Olivia while we were in China.

This is the day we got her.

Friday, May 28

Today we had our "red couch pictures". This is a tradition with all babies adopted from China. In the lobby of the hotel that we are staying at there are many red couches. Everyone in our travel group met and we took family pictures, pictures of just the babies and then pictures of everyone together. There were several Chinese people who stopped to look at us as we were doing this. It was quite comical. After the red couch pictures we talked about going home and how that was going t work. Some of the people in our group left tonight and went to Hong Kong. If I knew that was an option we might have done that to break up the very long trip that we are about to embark on. We left to pack our things- harder than we thought- we bought more than we knew but after some creative packing we have gotten it all in the suitcases that we came with. We still have the last minute things but we will work it out. We picked up our final paperwork for Olivia to enter the country this afternoon. It was a joy but I wasn't as relieved as I thought I would be. I think I need to get through customs with Olivia before it will happen. We went to dinner at the Thai place- again..... We will be glad for more choices when we get home- no Chinese or Thai for quite a while at the Gray house. I can't remember if I have told you about the Pearl River that surrounds this island. It is gross and when I say gross I really mean it. think of the chocolate river in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. It is that color and has garbage floating in it everywhere! We have see several people swimming in it- I think we would turn green if we tried that!!!! Our guide told us that it has actually gotten much better in the 8 years he has lived here. He said it used to smell all the time- now it only does in the summer. I guess that is improvement. That is the beautiful scene outside our window. The best part of today is that WE GET TO COME HOME TOMORROW!! We get up and leave the hotel by 8am. We fly to Hong Kong- wait 4 hours, fly to LA- wait 4 hours, fly to Boise!!! We hope to see some of you there! It will be so nice to see friends and family again!!! This is our last post- thank you for following our journey. There will be more to come when we get home and settled.
Love to all,
Patrick, Donna, and Olivia

Thursday, May 27

Today was a fun day. We took Olivia down to the pool for swimming. I think it must have been too cold for her because she liked it for a few minutes but not much more than that. As Olivia and I were resting Patrick went to the electronics wholesale market that is just a 10 minute walk from here. He said that it is incredible- all the electronic things you could want are sold there- and made there. It was the boy equivalent to the pearl market for the girls. I am glad I didn't go with him- I probably would have been bored to tears! When he got back we had to wake Olivia up so that we could go to the US Consulate here in Guangzhou. We basically said yes, this is us and yes, everything we have told you is true to the best of our knowledge. This is when the US completes our paperwork and as far as our end is concerned we are done!!!!!! The US government acknowledges that we have adopted her! HOORRAAYYYYYY! Everything went very well. This took awhile because there were 40 families adopting and taking the oath. We are not allowed to even have cameras in the building so we don't have photographic evidence of this event. We then got back on the bus and went back to the hotel. Our whole group went to a celebration dinner at the Chinese restaurant that we went to a couple of nights ago. It was yummy. Then several of the families had a prayer time as some of our group is leaving tomorrow and this was our last social time together. We went to the tea shop and made our purchases after several times visiting. We are finding that although it seems like we have been here forever we are running out of unscheduled time. We just have a couple of things to pick up tomorrow. Something I don't remember if I have mentioned are the beds here. They are soooo hard- like the firmest mattress then a little bit harder. Not very comfortable at all! My back is so looking forward to the nice beds at home.

Tomorrow is our last full day here. We are counting the hours.
Our flight gets into Boise on Sat night at 9:05pm on Alaska airlines from LA. If anyone would like to come and see Olivia in person they are welcome.
Love to all,
Patrick, Donna, and Olivia

Wednesday, May 26

Today was a quiet day. It was nice to sleep in after the big day yesterday. OK- by sleep in I mean 7:30. I went to workout in their nice gym and then we headed down to breakfast. We had to be in our rooms from 10:30-12:30 today because our guide took all of our paperwork to the US consulate for the baby's visa and immigration papers. If there were any questions we needed to be available to take them. We got a call at 12:15 saying that everything looked great. We went out for a little bit and met the family that we flew over to Hong Kong with. They are with our same adoption agency but their baby was in a different part of the country so we have not seen them since. It was nice to chat with them and to meet their baby. We came back and put Olivia down to nap and we watched a movie. After that we went to the pool. One thing that we are learning is that many of the babies are afraid of the water. Today Patrick got in but we just sat on the edge with Olivia and put her toes in. Tomorrow we will try actually getting her all the way wet. We came back and then met the same family for dinner at the Thai place. It was good as always. Our friends are leaving tomorrow morning and I am having a hard time not being jealous.
Only 3 more nights before we start our journey home! We can't wait.
Love,
Patrick, Donna, and Olivia