Behold, I make all things new

And joy does come in the morning.

New day.  Fresh start.

Thank you for your prayers.  Even if today had been the same as yesterday, God's faithfulness and provision would have carried us through.  Mercifully, it was a different script today.  Thank you, God, for the grace to greet Tuesday.

Emma Kate has this little song she's started singing.  She started it today.  It is a little circular song that ends up wrapping each member of our family into a circle of declared love.  The words go like this (with people varying who they "wo ai ni", which means "I love you"):
Baba, wo ai ni, Emma
Emma, wo ai ni, Luke
Luke, wo ai ni, Mama
Mama, wo ai ni, Jeb
Jeb, wo ai ni, Anna
Anna, wo ai ni, Cooper

And around and around.  Bless my heart.  Bless her heart.  Bless it all.  If you could see her light up as we react while she sings it.  Oh, the goodness.  I feel the need to invent new words to declare the wonders we experience each day on this journey.  I wish the keys of this keyboard could translate the words of our hearts.

EK clearly felt much more at ease today, even with Jim still gone and her siblings all at school.  Even with another doctor's appointment!  I don't know what changed for her between Monday and Tuesday, and whatever it was I'm so grateful for the work God did in her little heart and mind.

Dr. Sidman is a prince of a man.  He is our ENT and what a gentle, kind, thoughtful, compassionate person  we are privileged to have attending to our Emma Kate.  She was scared and not happy about the very cursory examination of her ears and her palate.  And she was also brave and valiant and allowed (with the help of a bit of restraint from me, which gave me slight heart palpitations) Dr. Sidman to examine her.

The long and short of it is that we have surgery scheduled to repair her palate and put in ear tubes on January 7th.  It was unanimously agreed upon that waiting these two months for EK to feel more settled with us and build important trust and bonding before such a major (and painful) surgery is important.  So wait two months we will.  January 7th so much will change for our Emma Kate.

Perhaps one of the biggest immediate changes for her will be her hearing.  The audiologist indicated from her exam and tests that Emma Kate has moderate hearing loss in one ear and moderate to severe in the other.  This is due to fluid accumulation on (in?) her ear drums.  The tubes will remove the fluid, and hopefully hearing will improve after this.  Worst case scenario involves hearing aids.  And that is just fine by us!  She's so adorable, what is one more accessory?  Maybe they make pappagallo designs that can match her socks and purse. :)  Jim and I are truly thrilled that so quickly so many issues are being rectified for our dear daughter.

Her palate repair is the first of three surgeries she will experience to fully complete the care and healing of her cleft lip and palate.  This surgery will close her soft palate, and greatly enhance her ability to articulate and produce a full range of sounds.  It is imperative for her speech!

The second surgery will take place in a year, and involves grafting bone from her hip into her gum line, thus enabling her hard palate repair to be complete.  At that time they will also be able to close up the very small hole to her palate that will remain behind her gum line after this surgery.

The final surgery will take place in a few years, and is a bit of a lip revision.  I can't honestly recall all that the doctor said about this, as my head was swimming and I knew I could read about it and take it all in at a later time.  It isn't happening now, and I am rather focused on all that now entails.

SO.  That's a lot to take in!  January 7th, four days after turning six years old, Emma Kate has palate surgery.  What a blessing.

One other AMAZING thing that knocked my socks off.  Here I am sitting in the ENT's office on the 4th floor of Children's Minneapolis, with the woman who schedules surgeries.  The door to her office is open.  I watch an adorable little girl walk by, and she is Chinese.  Next comes her Dad, who glances in the door and his face indicates he is surprised to recognize me...and I'm having an "I know this person...where do I know him from".  Next comes the Mom, and almost in unison we are laughing remembering together that a mere two weeks ago in China we were in another doctor's office at a medical exam on Shamian island!  Hello, people!  HOW WEIRD AND COOL IS THAT?!  This family we "met" in Guangzhou and completed our daughter's medical exams and then had our consulate appointments on the very same date at the very same time.  They live in Albert Lea!  What are the chances?  How incredible is that?  I just love how adoption makes kindred hearts of people, and through the miracle of adding a child in this way you end up connecting with complete strangers and see God just smiling as He plays in ways like he did today.  What a fun "hug" from Him for our day.  I smiled THE ENITRE way down the elevator.

I'm still smiling now.

What a day!  And I mean that in the good way.

With love from us,
Sara