O Holy Night Takes on a New Meaning

Ok, so I have to ask. Why did no one tell us until we got BACK that it takes babies 2 weeks for their internal "sleep clock" to be adjusted to a new Timezone? Last night was our fourth night with almost no sleep. She is 14 hours ahead of us. At 1:00-1:30am she wakes up like clock work and gives us no rest. Nothing works. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh - - - - - - help us!!! O Holy Night sure took on a new meaning this Christmas.

One of the other couples who adopted from China told us they had the same problem but that last night their little girl finally slept from 10pm to 8am so we do have some hope.

Christmas was good. Everyone is enjoying meeting and spending time with Noelle. Today Jamie took Noelle to her initial physical examination. She is now 18.1 lbs at the 27th percentile and 28.5" at the 70th percentile. So, it looks like she could be tall for a Chinese girl (some of our family knows that is something we prayed about since Maddie and Daddy are so tall). Dr. Mary our pediatrician was very happy with her and said that for coming from an orphanage especially she looked really good. She said she had good muscle tone and that she was surpised that Noelle was not further behind developmentally. She said Noelle was dealing with a lot of change including environment, people, and language so it could take a bit more time to catch up developmentally, possibly around 2 months.

Maddie is really enjoying her little sister and keeps waking her up during nap time to play with her. She is really fascinated by her and loves her so much. Maddie really gets close to Noelle's face and just laughs and laughs at her. I like the age separation because Maddie is really self-sufficient and can even help us a bit!

Maddie isn't jealous which is something we have prayed about for a year. When we got back we took both girls to lunch (Tex-Mex finally- hurrayy!!) and talked about being a sister with Maddie. We said, "Maddie whenever someone gets a new baby sister or a baby brother they are really happy and a little bit sad as well. Everyone wants to know that Mommy and Daddy love them as much as their new brother or sister." We told Maddie that we love her just as much and that if we hold, kiss, play with, or read to Noelle it is because she needs that because she has never had someone to do that before. I said, "Maddie wouldn't it be sad if Noelle never had a mommy and daddy to hold her?" She agreed and it seemed to bring things home for her.
I said, "Maddie if you have some of those feelings I want you to know that all of us have felt that and those feelings go away and you just get to enjoy your new sister ok?" She said ok.

I said Maddie there are three things you can do if you feel sad:
- First, you need to pray to Jesus and ask him what you should do and ask him to help you. Daddy prays about everything - even stuff like this and Jesus always helps me.
- Second, you can let Mommy and Daddy know that you are feeling like this. We love you and it helps to talk about it.
- And, if Noelle is getting hugged, kissed, or played with you can just join in the fun- push on in!

Thank you Lord for Maddie and Noelle and thank you for coming to save all of us. We do remember your birthday this season. We love you.

I'm going back to work tomorrow, unsure of what I will find. Time to pray and trust in God which is what the Lord has taught me over these past several years.

Love you guys and Merry Christmas!