Emily and the Great Physician

I know you're probably thinking...

Forget Emily!

WHAT ABOUT THE NEW KID?!?

Thank you!  Alex is doing great

And tomorrow...or Saturday I will update about Alex.

Unless I'm still suffering from dishwasher failure

and the kitchen has been condemned.

So Emily's cyclic vomiting specialist decided to retire in spite of our threats!

The ungrateful buzzard!

Part of Alex's middle name is after him!

(The Li in LiBao was kept because of Dr. Li)

The upshot is we're not driving all the way to Milwaukee to see a cyclic vomiting NON-specialist!

We decided to move her back to where her pediatric cardiologist is and our local pediatric GI that knows her situation and suggested Dr. Li in the first place.  He agreed to follow the protocol set up and we were good to go....until insurance!

 Ruby hospital and specialty clinic no longer accepts our insurance.  

Now what?

Because, you know, pediatric cardiologists and gastroenterologists grow on trees!!!

Stupid insurance!

The website was no help.

The first insurance person I spoke with said, "I can't find any!" and hung up.

The second offered me names for an adult cardiologist and a pathologist.

I hung up.

Our next step was to try and see if our local doctor's office would prescribe the meds for her.  She has a protocol and the meds are working...it's doable, right?

Kind of.

She came in with a big smile and said, "You probably don't remember, but I already have seen Emily several times."  No, I'd remember!  She's seen Dr. Porter and Chris Baker and Melinda Stoner.  She continued, "I saw her at Ruby when I was a resident there."  

An unasked, YES answer prayer from God.

A doctor who already knows:

what cyclic vomiting is

Emily's specialists by name and studied under them

that we are crazy in love with our daughter,

but not the crazy-we-should-be-committed type

our Emily

It's been almost three years since Em was at Ruby and this former resident still remembered her!

She also remembered praying with Kenton one dark day in the hospital when the outlook was pretty bleak and we didn't know what to do.

She agreed to help us in any way she safely can.

It can't be everything we hoped for, but we expected that.

We are so thankful that God sent us to a physician that understands and is willing to help!

God has blessed us and Emily SO MUCH!

Words

Baobao's second word was hungry which should come in handy around our house.  He's communicating pretty well considering our Chinese consists of hello, goodbye, and thank you.  He's beginning to imitate which is great. He's also picked up NO, hey you, and yes.  

Here he is agreeing to be adopted.  

A reminder

Facebook is blocked in China so I can't access it.  I have seen your birthday wishes on my email.  Thank you so much.  It was a pretty special day here!

Hey!

We had a long ride here yesterday.  It was fascinating to see spring move into the country as we rode from north to south for 10 hours.  Different housing, different farming, etc.  Kenton loved it, but the rest of us had had enough after about 4 hours.  We probably have 500 blurry pictures as we flew along at speeds up to 306 km/hour.  We didn't realize that we should have brought food along and were quite hungry after riding for 10 hours.  A 3-year-old boy fell in love with Jamison and became our companion for 3 hours or so.  He shared his oreos and we shared play dough and electronic games.  He was a super cutie but I don't think Jamison was too sad to see him go.  Kenton roped a Chinese man into a game of Uno with himself and the boys.

We reached our hotel on Shamian Island (Victory West) around 10:30 and found that it didn't offer much in the way of privacy.  I was exhausted and frustrated and MAD!  All I could do was cry.  This morning we got it worked out and we are staying.  Our room has a balcony and that's kind of fun although the humidity is HIGH and so are the temps.  :)    My online friend is right down the hall with her husband and newly adopted daughter.  For my birthday she introduced me to starbucks which was fun.  :)  It makes me smile that my first visit there was in China.  :D  We also made friends with a couple from Chicago.  

    You know how little kids make instant friends at the park in seconds?  They don't know names but they're friends anyway.  That's a little like adoptive parents here in China.  It's a lot of fun to meet new people who share similar interests and experiences with adoption.  Truly amazing!

Baobao likes to watch tv and play electronic games.  He doesn't like to be out and about.  He can be a bit of a pest when he wants to go back to the room  ALL THE TIME.  It's a bit of a balancing act for us trying to recognize that he's been through a lot of change and needs a lot of understanding while not enthroning an emperor and setting him up for major disappointment when he gets dethroned at home.  Not to mention that the rest of us would go crazy spending 24 hours in a hotel room together.  

The island is beautiful and smells heavenly.  We look forward to being in a place that's a bit more familiar than Taiyuan was.   We'll be sitting for a few days without progress during the Tomb Sweeping holiday.  Tuesday we'll get started again.