This is a tough one to write today because we are currently waiting to take Mila to a western dr to be seen at 9:30 which can't get here fast enough! We had suspected a few days ago that maybe a tooth or something in her mouth was bothering her because she cried a couple of times and grabbed her jaw. We debated about whether to take her then but Holt recommended that we watch her to see how things went. And honestly, the next day see seemed ok, hardly cried at all, and never grabbed her jaw. The only other sign something was up is that she basically ate nothing the whole day. Really she only had liquids the entire day. But with kids, especially newly adopted ones, we had no idea why she wasn't eating. It wasn't until yesterday afternoon when we noticed that her cheek was swollen up and then she really did start to cried and hold her jaw. We gave her children's ibuprofen and that helped her out a lot. The swelling went down and she started acting ok. Another trip to the Holt office and they said to watch her during that evening and see how she did. So we had a river cruse scheduled and we decided to go ahead and stick to that plan. Unfortunately, the medication must have worn off on the boat because Mila started feeling poorly again and this time her cheek swelling got worse. We told Holt right away that we wanted to see the dr. Unfortunately, he's not going to be in until 9:30 so we knew we were in for a long, painful night as we held Mila in our arms and tried to give her comfort. Poor little thing! And we HATE not being able to talk to her and tell her what's going on. Luckily, we did have our tour guide explain to her last night that Mama and Baba knew that her mouth hurt and that we were going to make it better in the morning. That seemed to help her some.
Other then this health news, yesterday morning we had our US Consulate appointment to apply for Mila's visa and participate in the oath taking ceremony. We were a little worried about this because we were told security at the consulate was extremely tight and we would only be able to bring in a diaper and some treats for Mila. But it ended up being fine. We went with some of the other Holt families and there were families from other agencies there as well. It was kind of like going to the DMV where you take a number and then talk to someone through a thick piece of glass. Luckily, there was a small children's play area that kept the kids occupied while we waited. The oath taking was pretty cool. We just all stood and raised our hands and repeated words in behalf of Mila that said she would be a good citizen. It was really cute because Mama was holding Mila during it and when she saw us raise our hands, she raised her hand too. She was the only kid that did that. We both commented that we liked going to the consulate. It was nice to see "THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" written in big letter on the side of the building.
Thank you so much for all your prayers. We know that the difficulties were are facing are but a short time and ultimately they are making us stronger as a family. It will just be so nice to get home and be able to tackle these things in familiarity instead of out of a hotel room in a foreign country.
No pics today because they are hard for us to look at because of Mila's swollen jaw.
Great Wall
