A Little History

Okay, well, precious Naomi first came into our lives on July 1, 2010.  We received her pictures and information and our lives have since been forever changed!

After racing to get the rest of our paperwork in the mail, time and time again, we had our travel dates!  Countdown to meet our new daughter!  I swear, I thought that day would never come.  But thankfully, it did!

Dale and I flew to Beijing on Ocotber 20, 2010.  We toured the city and saw the Great Wall.  It was kind of torture knowing we had flown half way around the world and we still had to wait several days to see Naomi.


Next, we flew to ZhengZhou on October 24, the city where we would meet our daughter.  The orphanage caretakers brought Naomi, by three-hour train ride, to us.  Our GOTCHA DAY was October 25--we finally had sweet Naomi in our arms!  At 14 months, she was just 15 pounds, all puffed up in layer after layer of clothing.  When the orphanage director handed her to me in the hallway of our hotel, Naomi put her lip out to cry but then shored herself up and pushed on.  She was so brave--it was heartbreaking.  I can only imagine what my tiny girl was thinking.  We were told to immediately take her to our  room and feed her a bottle as she was dehydrated.  Then they literally sent us off.  I couldn't figure out why she would be so dehydrated until I started undressing the 4 layers of clothing she had on and realized she was sweating so badly!  There was a tiny baby underneath it all!  I bathed her and she cried.  After getting her all dressed, she hardly cried the rest of the trip--just delighted us with smile after smile!

After finishing all our paperwork in ZhengZhou, we flew to GuangZhou in southern China.  We finalized the adoption here, did some shopping, and really just enjoyed Naomi and waited for our paperwork to be issued.  We left China on November 4th and, after a long 24 hours of travel, introduced our new girl to the family in Alabama.

Naomi has been such a blessing to us.  She makes us laugh constantly and we all cannot seem to get enough of her!   Her two big brothers are so awesome with her and love her to pieces.  They run to wake her up in the morning and play with her like crazy.  JT said his favorite thing to do is to "make her laugh."  How sweet is that?!   Slater is so protective and caring with Naomi--he doesn't feel anyone is ever doing it "just right" for her--she is a lucky girl.  I never thought life could be so good!

Naomi has a cleft lip and palate.  Her lip was repaired on February 16th at Children's Hospital in Birmingham.  She is healing so nicely and we are so pleased with the awesome of care she received.   It was hard to say good bye to the darling face I had fallen in love with, but after a few good cries and seeing how easily she was healing, life was better again.

Her next surgery, to repair the palate, will be on May 9th.  We have been warned that it is a really rough one, but her life will be so improved--she can eat better and easier and be able to learn to speak. Believe me, she has a lot to say!  I will be grateful to have this one behind us.

I am amazed everyday at the incredible life journey that brought us together.   Naomi needed us and we absolutely needed her.  Now, to just convince Dale to make this trip one more time!!!