1 Month

Last picture before Adam left for the airport.



It's hard to believe that Willow has been with us for one month. She is growing so much, literally. I'm guessing that when we go in for her one month check-up in a few days she will be over ten pounds. She loves to eat! During the night, she usually wants to eat every 3-4 hours, but during the day time she still wants to nurse every 1-2 hours. Last night she had a long screaming fit--we think she was probably gassy. I've had a lot of help this summer, and my mom took the screaming Willow so that I could sleep. The past few days have been very different for me because Adam returned to Shenyang and my dad moved to Austin. These two guys were my biggest helps during Willow's first month and so now I live in my pajamas and am lucky to get a shower during one of Willow's short naps.

Willow is less and less like a newborn baby with each passing day. She is awake a lot more often, screams a lot louder, eats a lot more, and takes shorter more infrequent naps. I guess things will continue in this direction for a while. She is a chubby little baby and I love her little face. Today she was smiling a lot. She continues to grunt nearly incessantly, reaches for toys, and makes lots of faces. She is trying so hard to roll over from her back to her stomach, but she can't quite manage it yet. She turns most of her body but just can't figure out how to maneuver her arms. She tries to suck her thumb, but just gets mad in the process. She has a love/hate relationship with her nuk. She'll suck on her pacifier happily for hours, but hates the first minute when she has to accept it.

Right now she's sleeping on her Uncle Tom's chest. He has been holding her for an hour and a half so that I could eat lunch and take a break. There are so many other things that I should be doing right now, like making her passport appointment, finishing writing thank you cards, or folding/packing Willow's piles of clean laundry....

Yesterday, two pieces of mail came for me. One envelope contained Willow's long awaited Social Security card! What an answer to prayer! This process can take as long as 3-5 months on average. The other letter was the bill for Adam's knee surgery. It was more than $43,000.00! This is for the hospital alone. We also have a bill for the surgeon that's probably around $13,000.00 (if the insurance agent is correct). Now there's this mix up between the insurance company and the hospital. The hospital wants us to pay almost six times what the insurance company says we have to pay. They are disagreeing about how much the surgery was, how much was waived, how much the insurance company paid for, and how much remaining balance we have to cover. It's a mess, and will probably result in us applying for charity, since we qualify as below poverty level income. Ugh. This is when I wish that Adam had not left on Wednesday so that he could help take care of this!

While Adam is in Shenyang, getting his classroom ready, unpacking his suitcases, and surviving the summer heat without AC, I'm getting used to the idea that I no longer have a classroom or students to prepare for. I have been reading a few scripts. I think that I have finally found the script that we will use for the SYIS spring play. I haven't gotten a chance to read it cover to cover, but the reading/skimming that I've managed to complete so far have been very satisfying. Now my mind is racing thinking of costume ideas and how the stage should be set up and what kind of extensions we'll need...

My dad has moved to Austin, TX to continue his architecture career in a place that is not economically dry like Lake County, Illinois. It is very different with him not here, and although he's only been gone for 5 days, we miss him a lot!

Hopefully, Adam will wake up soon on account of jet lag and we will be able to skype. I miss him a lot too! Well, that's all for my update on Willow and life in general.

~julie