The Lacher Family

The alternate title of this post is “Yoga Pooping” – but we will get to that in a bit. This morning we had our US Consulate Appointment. Julia woke up pretty happy and had a FANTASTIC morning. She didn’t even mind the half hour bus ride to the Consulate! And, even though she still prefers Dan to hold her, she has started leaning out to me to give me hugs. She was happy and giggly all morning. At the Consulate, we along with 5 other families swore that the contents of our paperwork were true, and then had our papers checked over. Julia wore her red, white, and blue dress for the occasion – she is almost a US citizen! Tomorrow we will pick up her visa and as soon as she steps on US soil in Detroit, she is officially a citizen of the USA!

Speaking of travel, we awoke this morning to an email that our flights have been changed due to the uncertainties in Tokyo right now. We will now not be getting home until Friday, but we have a direct flight from Hong Kong to Detroit.

I got the remainder of my shopping done today. I was able to get silk jackets for myself and my mom, and a couple more silk outfits for the girls. While I was shopping Julia was supposed to be napping, but I got back to the hotel room and found a very frazzled Dan. Apparently after I left she screamed for 1/2 hr, then slept in his arms for about 40 minutes, and then was awake. We had pushed her too hard this morning since she was so happy, so now she was just overtired and not able to sleep. I felt extremely bad at that point walking in with shopping bags in one hand and Starbucks in the other. We tried for a bit to get her down but it was awful. I don’t know if I have mentioned yet that we believe that her rash is primarily stress-related. Proof in point was that this morning her face looked great, and after our scream-fest over naptime the red rash had returned all around her eyes and across the bridge of her nose. Poor thing. So, we decided to scrap the nap. We threw open the curtains and got out some toys. Almost instantly, Julia was in a wonderful mood. We played on the floor for quite a while. She was crawling back and forth between toys and verbalizing a lot. Dan got some packing done and then we heard her characteristic grunting for when she is “doing her business”. We look over and she is completely folded in half (see picture). She has been showing us all week how flexible she is, but apparently this is a new baby yoga move designed to promote good digestive health. A couple minutes later, with a fresh diaper, we were back to playing.

Sorry for the randomness but as thoughts come to me I get them down. We think her low grade fever at the clinic the other day was due to teething. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that she has her 4 front top teeth and two molars, and 3 front bottom teeth and two molars. Well today, she popped through the 4th bottom tooth. That brings another thought to mind. When she is very relaxed and happy, she drools A LOT. It is a sure indicator that she is feeling that she can trust us. When she is stressed, the first thing that happens is that her body temperature goes up instantly. Then she starts sweating, and finally she starts crying.

We had a relaxing afternoon with all the playing. We didn’t want to disrupt the goodness, so we asked Beth & Howard to join us in our room for dinner. They asked if they could bring friends – sure! I am so glad we sprung for the suite here. In addition to being able to blog every night while Julia is in the next room, tonight we played host to 4 other adoptive families and had pizza. It was so fun connecting with other folks and we are so hoping we can stay in touch with people we have met along the way. It will be sad to say goodbye to this place. Every morning at breakfast there are at least half a dozen other adoptive families. It is just such a friendly place here.

Let’s see, other random things. Oh, since I am in an “alternate titles” mood, the alternate title for last night’s post is “Why Are There Dolls in the Alcohol Ocean?” There is a liquor store between here and the deli (the one with the yummy cake). As we were walking back with our cake last night, we were commenting on the hilarious name of the liquor store – Alcohol Ocean. And then I noticed that there was a large collection of dolls for sale inside. So I asked the above question of Beth and we both had a good laugh over it. In other Julia news, she actually voluntarily fed herself for the first time today! We have been feeding her to promote bonding, but also because she does not feed herself. She either holds on to the food or drops it on the floor. Today on the ride to the consulate she fed two Gerber puffs to herself. Hooray for small victories. We also have a little work to do once home…the little stinker will only drink full-strength apple juice. She knows when it is watered down, even when it is 5 parts juice to 1 part water. The time here really is about survival and bonding. We’ll wait until we are home to work through the fact that Emily, at nearly 6 years of age, still has a splash of water in her juice at home…

And now, if you’ll excuse me, I am headed next door to the deli. Since we are leaving tomorrow I feel like I need cake.