Amazing!!!

Simply Amazing!!! God has been so good to our family, especially our little Chestnut!!!

Today was the big cardiology appointment with Megan. We met with her wonderful doctor, Dr. Donald Malcolm at DeVos Children’s Hospital downtown. We were able to ask many questions as to his thoughts on what Megan’s heart was like when she was born, why China waited so long to do surgery on her, what is her heart like now, any future surgeries and more questions I can’t remember. Soooooo you want to know what he said???? Ok then, Megan has what is called Pulmonary Stenosis with a PDA (pulmonary valve defect & PDA is a valve that closes 72 hours after birth but Megan’s did not). She had her surgery in China at a normal age for this type of heart issue. The older the child is the better chance at survival because they are stronger. Megan had an EKG, heart ultrasound and couple of other test that I can’t remember at her apt (all without sedation!!! They usually do these test while the child is asleep at her age but in our case we used fruit snacks and fish crackers to try and keep her still.). While the doctors in China did a more aggressive approach to her surgery, Dr. Malcolm said they did a fantastic job and he does not see any future issues. YEAH HOoOooo!! We did ask about her protruding breast bone and if that would be fixed down the line… That would be a big fat NOPE! This would be something she will have for the rest of her life. Hopefully, it will become less noticeable as she grows. Dr. Malcolm did say that most kids who have heart surgery develop a sunken in chest bone but not our little girl. All in all, we go back in 6 to 9 months for the same sets of test to make sure there aren’t any new issues. After that Megan’s cardiologist visits will be few and far between!!!! Holy smokes, amazing!!!!!!! One thing Dr. Malcolm did say to us is that he was shocked when he read her file that China even did surgery with Megan’s condition on a girl. He said they are more likely to not do anything for girls. They’ll wait for them to be adopted and given medical care with their new family or these girls will just live out whatever life they have until their hearts fail. I don’t even have words to describe what I want to say about that…

As I was driving home I was thinking about how lucky we are, all while Megan was screaming to get out of the car (I’m such a multi-tasker!). Although we waited for 5 yrs for Megan we have been blessed with one truly amazing little girl. Not many of you know but back in December 2012 we switched from the healthy child line to the special needs line in hopes of not only getting a little girl faster but the fact that we could financially & medically help a child that needed special medical attention. Having Alex go thru all he did with 28 surgeries, umpteen doctor visits, hospital stays, and visiting out of state specialists helped us decide that we were the right people to help another child. Even being approved to enter the special needs line in December we were told that we could still wait over a year or more for a referral with the special needs we were open to. One year was far better that waiting the “unknown”. Well, we didn’t wait a year, we waited one month for a referral. Another amazing blessing!!!! Also, when Jeffrey went to visit Megan’s orphanage he was given a jade necklace that Megan’s birth parents put on her when they left her at the gate of the hospital in Jinan. We also were given a CD of what we thought was a video of her orphanage but it was a CD filled with about 50+ pictures of Megan at all ages – even shortly after the orphanage received her. Even though we know nothing about her parents she will always have that jade necklace and she will have many baby pictures of her. Most forever families get their new child with nothing. How lucky is she???

Just amazing!!! I can’t say it enough!!!!



Megan's jade necklace her birth parents left with her. The yellow tag is what the hospital notes to identify the necklace with Megan.



Our sweet baby girl!



Let the testing begin!

Update time!!!

Update time! My goodness we are seriously failing at these updates since we’ve been back. We will try and get better. What’s new you ask??? Ummmmm, not much really. Ha!!! Megan is doing very well. She is so frickin funny and has enough sass for about 1,000 other 2yr olds (this may be a low ball figure). We are still trying to stick to the same schedule that we set up since being home. The more consistent Megan is right now the better she is. She eats like a champ but still struggles with wanting to eat all the time. When we tell her that it isn’t eating time, she throws a fit. The fits are getting better but we’d like them to be gone. Since it hasn’t even been a month that she’s been in the US, we’ll cut her a break or two. ; ) She has a great time playing with all her toys, playing outside, helping with the laundry, teasing the dog, playing in the pool, playing and tooting in the tub, reading books, helping Papa to make his lunch each day and she has just started to watch an Elmo DVD… Oh my, she’s stuck on Elmo. They boys keep trying to get her to watch something else but she keeps picking the same Elmo movie. It’s just the start of this, right?

Megan has met a lot of people so far. She does very well in small groups of people & will interact well but she tends to really clam up in larger groups. She loves when the neighbor girls (Gracie and Sophie) stop by every now and again to play; however, those girls put up a lot of “doing whatever Megan wants to do attitude”. Ha! She especially loves to sit and put on their shoes. Go figure, the girl loves shoes!!! We know there are still many people who haven’t met her and we can’t wait for you to see her. This just may take a bit longer that we were initially thinking.

We are extremely anxious for Megan’s cardiologist appointment next Tuesday. We can’t wait to ask so many questions about her heart when she was born, what it is like now, future tests, possible surgeries, how they are going to fix her protruding breast bone and stuff like that. We won’t know a lot at that appointment but after the tests come back we will all know what the Dr. has in store for her in the upcoming years.

How are the rest of the Hawley’s doing since Megan’s arrival home? Amazingly great! It is truly wonderful how well we have all jelled into a family. God is good!!! He knew the perfect chestnut for our family when he chose Megan for us. I wish I could describe in words how well she has fit into our family and house. It is like she has been here for so long, yet it’s only been a month. Jacob and Alex are two amazing kids and we are so blessed. They absolutely love their sister and she adores them. She has them like putty in her hands… ; )

We’ve had many people ask us if we miss China. Well… noooooooooo! There are so many things that were so great to see like the Great Wall (my knee is still showing me how great that wall is), the Summer Palace, the Forbidden City, Olympic City and being a part of the cities and culture BUT, we do not miss the hustle and bustle, the constant staring from the Chinese when we walk down the street with Megan (I am not kidding you when I say constant! People would stop in their tracks, stare and give dirty looks when they saw us), the craziness of what the Chinese call traffic, being able to brush our teeth using faucet water, and doing our laundry far cheaper than $180 (US $) for 1 very small load. We do very much miss the families we traveled with. We all have kept in contact via email and all are doing well.

We visited Megan’s new daycare today. Happy and sad for her Momma. We both think that it is critical for Megan to be in a institution learning environment. We have chosen Apple Tree Christian Leaning Center. They are close to home and is exactly what we know Megan needs. Being an orphan she is behind in her motor skills, her English and normal things a 2yr old in the US knows. We know that she will learn all these things in time but it will help in a constant learning environment. I will continue to be a part timer when I go back to work in September.

Thank you for your love and support!!















New blanket and shades!!




"Helping" momma make caramel corn.




Laundry time!!





Megan walking Lily via her stroller! Ha!









Bahahahahaaha! Something's wrong with this picture!




After the 100th version of Night, Night Megan song... And back scratching...

2 days fr our 1 month anniversary

Almost 1 month Anniversary!!! Can you believe it? We can’t!! Holy smokes!!!

Today was my 1st really trying day at home with Megan - today nothing really made her happy… Trying to understand a 2 yr old that doesn’t speak a lot of English and is throwing many fits makes for one whopper of a day. Just so you know crying is very universal – still aggravating no matter what country you come from. Ha! Other than today, Megan is really doing well! Megan has stayed very busy making some very tasty things in her kitchen. She’s “reading” books, playing with her babies’ however, she doesn’t seem to have great motherly instincts. She tends to carry her babies by the leg and she whips those poor little things around like nobody’s business. She loves playing with her Fisher Price princess little people, listening to music (Jeffrey keeps trying to play her Thrift Shop but she isn’t interested. LOL) riding her bike outside and relaxing in her stroller while being pushed around the hood. Megan still isn’t winning that golden star in the sleep department. We are patiently waiting but we’d like to know when exactly a good night’s sleep is going to happen. She is a great eater and loves her food. A bit too much as she is still throwing fits when she wants to eat but it isn’t time. The fits are getting better but still are present.

Megan’s English is coming along slowly. Not as fast as we were thinking but she does understand what we are saying. Hopefully we are just over anxious to have her talk and tell us what she wants.

I really wish I had my camera on me 24/7, so that I can post the 1,000 plus faces of Megan Emily-Mei. She is one funny cookie and has the ‘tude to show for it. I’ll post a few for your entertainment at the end of the blog post.

Jacob and Alex have been so great with Megan! They are always helping by playing with her, watching her while I shower each day, get her in and out of the car, take her for walks and even help her take her shoes on and off. She loves her brothers – even though she can’t say their names correctly. It’s pretty funny what she does calls them. Today Jeffrey was yelling down the stairs to Jacob (who had his ear buds in so he couldn’t hear him at first) and Megan starting echoing Jeffrey’s “JACOB!!” with her own version: “COB!”.

Looks like the weather here the next week is going to be sunny and warm, warm, warm which means that we’ll be able to get in A LOT of pool time! Megan doesn’t need to work on her tan, though. She’s been in the pool a couple of time and they were cloudy days and she already has bathing suit tan lines. Momma is way jealous!!!

Hope you all are doing well!

1 1/2 weeks home!!!

Hello again!!!

I swear this was much easier to write updates in China than it is now that we are at home. Ha! All is well here in Grandville! We are trying to settle into a schedule and remember what day it is each day. : ) We’ve been home for almost 2 weeks and we still can’t believe that we have this precious little chestnut in our home FOREVER!!! Sometimes it feels like she has been here all along, while others seem like we were in China yesterday. A definite mix of emotions.

Our little girl is simply amazing. She is so dang funny yet she has her “terrible 2” side that can show its face at times. Megan is learning that certain behavior is not acceptable but all in all she is adjusting to her new home and life extremely well!! She is sleeping so much better the last few days which is such a welcome sign to Jeffrey and I. She has slept for 12 & 13 hours each night and we’re hoping this lasts for a very long time. She eats amazing!!! So much better than Jacob and Alex ever did. Megan will eat pretty much everything we put in front of her. We are still struggling with her wanting to eat whenever she wants. This is a typical orphan issue but we hope that she will understand she will never go hungry and that her parents will always be there to provide for her. Until then we have to suffer thru the temper tantrums. Poor poopsie.

The boys are loving their sister and thinks she’s pretty funny; however, when she’s in a mood and is crying we get the question of “why is she crying now?”. Makes us laugh because even we don’t know why she is crying. The boys have been so amazing with Megan that they will play with her at any given time, especially when she holds out her hand for them to come play, taking her for a walk, playing with her in the yard on her new bike or just sitting with her. I have the most awesome kids ever!!!!!

Jeffrey asked me today when we were outside swinging if I was happy. Happy? I am not sure if happy is the correct adjective and I am not sure if I can even put words together to describe it. From the seconds I laid eyes on Megan, she was perfect. I had looked at her photos a million times before we left and could have picked that little girl out of a million Chinese kids in a heartbeat. She is the perfect gift that completed our family. She just fits. Jeffrey agreed and said we got the cutest one of them all, too. I have to agree. Megan seriously has a million faces for the things she does. So funny – even when she is throwing a fit we tend to laugh.

We have spent the last week and a half doing whatever comes next. No schedules or serious plans to make it easier for Megan to adjust. We briefly went to one of Jacob’s tournament baseball game, to the Grandville 4th of July Parade, to Costco, to the Meijer, a walk in the jogger thru the hood, a stroll in the jogger while her Mama pushes her old school roller skating, playing in the yard (even though she isn’t a fan of the grass) and we even had our 1st restaurant dinner. She has had many visitors which she absolutely loves new people to play with.

We have also been able to keep in contact with our travel group to China. They are all doing well! We wish them all the best and hope to see them again in person very soon but until then we have email, Facebook, phones and texting – thank goodness!!!

Hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday weekend!!!

Xoxoxoxo

A delayed home update

Update you say??? Sorry for the delay. LOVING being a family of 5!!! Megan is doing very well! She has been extremely comfortable with her new home. She loves being with the boys and the boys really enjoy her. They pretty much do anything she wants. Ha! Let’s see how long that lasts. : ) I love it!!! Lily is so excited to have her home, too. Every morning Lily is so excited to have her get up that she showers Megan’s with a bit too much attention. She pretty much jumps on Megan but we are trying to teach her to say “off Lily” but this is going to take time. Right now she just screams – not a panic scream but more of this darn dog keeps annoying me scream. We’ve all pretty much beaten the jet lag and we did so fairly quickly. Megan has been on a MI time schedule pretty much since we got home with the exception of sleeping through the night. She gets up once or twice. I’ve tried cutting naps and her sleeping-ins to help with making it through the night but so far nooooo good. Hopefully over the next couple of days she’ll get better. Jeffrey and I thought the jet lag going to China was far worse than coming back – thank goodness.

Megan went to the pediatrician on Thursday for her 1st check up. He is happy that she is healthy even though she only weighs in at 21 lbs and is 30 inches tall. I can’t remember the exact percentiles but she’s about in the 10th percentile for both. She is behind by US standards on her vaccinations but she should be caught up here shortly. Megan will see the cardiologist at the end of July. It will be very interesting to hear what he has to say especially with the large bump she has on her chest from her heart surgery in China. It looks like the breast bone didn’t heal correctly. One thing the pediatrician did tell us that her heart condition was a life threatening one. Why China waited until she was a 1 ½ yrs to do her surgery we will never know but thank God she is ok.

Jeffrey returned to work today but not with approval from his wife and daughter… However, the checkbook call for cash won… Hopefully, this holiday week will go by quickly. It’s been hard over the last 5 nights because Jacob has had baseball each night since we’ve been home so we haven’t really had a lot of family time since we got back from China. I am so looking forward to dinner together and getting a much deserved and much missed Uccello’s BBQ pizza. I have been craving a pizza since about day 6 in China.

We are all doing well and are overwhelmed at how much love and support you have given us. Our prayers have been answered and dreams have been made with the arrival of our little girl. I can’t begin to tell you how complete things seem with Megan in our lives. She is so amazing. We are so blessed to have 2 amazing boys and 1 cute little girl made in China.

Hope to see you all soon!

 1st pb&j

 meltdown because we told her Lily wants to play with her own toys