Sissy's Home!!

Michelle was doing well enough that we got to bring her home earlier today! We had originally anticipated bringing her home yesterday morning, but her oxygen levels dropped during the night Saturday, so she had to stay until she could sleep without supplemental oxygen.

Michelle definitely has asthma, and it is pretty severe. We have to give her breathing treatments every four hours (including at night), and she has a follow up visit with her pediatrician on Wednesday afternoon. Depending on how she is doing at that time, we may be able to decrease the number of treatments she gets each day. I am sure that sometime soon we will be meeting with her allergist again. We were pleased to learn that he specializes in asthma, and that is a huge blessing. Michelle's pediatrician was glad to hear that he is her allergist.

Thank you for all your prayers, but please don't stop praying. We have a long road ahead of us as we adjust to a new way of life. We don't know exactly what we'll be doing long term, but we are thankful for a God who not only is there with us each step of the way but also provides for all of our needs. We have already had to spend a couple hundred dollars on her breathing machine, and I have no idea what kind of bills we're going to get from this weekend. Needless to say, we are very thankful for health insurance!

I'll be sure to update you again after her appointment on Wednesday. Again, we appreciate your prayers for Michelle, our family, and her doctors.

God is good. All the time. All the time, God is good!

Please Pray for Michelle

Last night around 1:30/2:00, I took Michelle to the ER because she was really struggling to breathe. She received several breathing treatments and was on oxygen before we were transferred by ambulance to a better hospital. She was tired, cranky, and hungry (and I was getting there too!), but the breathing treatments were helping. Late this morning, right after Mark and Steven arrived, she was moved to her own room. It is a huge room with a nice size tv, dvd/vcr player for her favorite videos, bathroom/shower (way bigger than the one on our cruise!), and a very cute plush teddy bear just for her.

The plan was for Steven and me to take off since I haven't slept since Thursday night. However, we waited around until she was settled in, had at least one more breathing treatment, and were confident that Mark was sufficiently up to speed.

She is scheduled to have treatments every three hours (so she should have just had one), and they started her on steroids. When I checked in with Mark, she was playing but starting to slow down, which was good since she only slept until 1:30 or so last night and then took a 1 1/2 hour nap in the ER before they transferred her to her room.

The current plan is for Steven and me to catch up on some sleep and then head back to the hospital. Either Mark will return home with Steven or he'll go to a friend's house. We're just waiting to see how things go.

I was told this morning that Michelle would be there overnight. We're praying that she isn't there longer. At this point, they don't know what is causing the breathing problems. They have ruled out pneumonia through chest x-rays (so fun to do at 2:30 in the morning!). We really believe that it's asthma, but the doctors are hesitant on that right now. From what I understand, they don't like to diagnose it before the age of 3. However, with her medical history, it makes sense. Her allergist all but said that she'd develop asthma and that it was just a question of when, not if. At this point, there is no indication that this is an allergic reaction.

Thank you for praying for Michelle, for us, for the medical staff, for Steven, and for our families. My dad has been sending out updates through Facebook and Twitter, and I'll do my best to update when I can. However, I'm hoping to be asleep for quite a few hours :)

Adoption Blessings on Etsy

I started making hairbows for Michelle earlier this year, and because of all the compliments I'd get on them (you have to admit they are stinking cute!), I decided to start selling them online. I've been very busy building inventory, and I now have over 50 different ones for sale. You can check out the complete list of them under Adoption Blessings on Facebook or see the majority of them at my etsy shop, AdoptionBlessings. Custom orders are always welcome too, of course!

All the hairbows/flowers are on fully lined alligator clips, and all ribbon ends are heat sealed to prevent fraying. I also stitch together the korkers (instead of just bundling them), so your child, if she's anything like Michelle, won't be able to rip them apart. The only advantage of Michelle's distructiveness is that I've refined and reinforced all my items. If she can't destroy, I doubt anyone can!

Korkers--$3.50

Large Flowers (5")--$5.50

Small Flowers (2"-3")--$3.50

Butterflies--$4.00

These make great gifts, so even if you don't have a little girl, you probably know one who'd love one! The large flowers also look great in Mommy's hair too! Again, check out AdoptionBlessings on etsy for about 35 more options!

New Words

Michelle's vocabulary is growing at an amazing rate right now. We couldn't believe how many new words she was saying when we picked her up from my parents after the cruise. Most of them are helpful, but the one she picked up today wasn't the greatest--"mine!" Lovely.

Other new (and relatively new) words:

Blanket
Pineapple (and she says it very clearly!)
Welcome
Bless you! (which she says over and over and over again when anyone sneezes)
Up!
Diaper
Eat (at least I think she says this)
Trash
Michelle
Sissy
Truck
Ball
Fruit Snack
Duck
Quack

I know there are others that I just can't think of right now. I'm too exhausted to think, and it doesn't help that I just realized that our garage sale is this weekend (and I already have the required permit). Anyone want to join me? It's a sub-wide sale, and we usually do pretty well. This is my first year having to do it completely on my own, and that makes me very nervous because of the kids. I'd love to have some company whether you want to sell with me or not!

Conversation at Naptime

You just never know what's going to come out of Steven's mouth, and most of the time, he's pretty hilarious. Of course, he doesn't always try to be, but just like I was probably at his age, he needs to cover all the bases.

Just a few minutes ago as I was trying to get him to walk from the bathroom to my bed for his nap, we had an interesting conversation. He's been wearing Mark's falling apart slippers today (which means that he is walking like a penguin), and I had just told him that he could not wear them during his nap.

Steven: Can I take my toys (bubble blowers) with me?

Mommy: No, no toys at naptime.

Steven: Can I take my popper?

Mommy: No. You can't take anything with you at naptime.

Steven: Can I take my arms?

Mommy: Yes, you can take your arms.

Steven: Can I take your shoe?

Mommy: No. Get into bed and stop asking! If you don't go to sleep, you're going to have to take your nap in your bed.

Steven's now in my bed, quiet as can be :)

We've Been Busy!

We Saw Aunt Beth and Uncle Zach Get Married,

Mommy and Daddy Went on a Cruise,

And Steven and Sissy Went to Harrisburg!

**More pictures to come, of course!**

Sissy

What We've Been Doing. . .

It's been a while, and a lot has happened since I last posted. My parents and both sisters came out, Mark's mom came out, we celebrated Mother's Day, we dedicated Michelle, we discovered more food allergies, we've had playdates, we've played outside, we've played inside. In short, we've been busy! Oh, and did I mention that I am now pretty much in charge of our church nursery?! Yeah, it's been a busy May.

I hate the heat, and I don't like being outside, but I put both of those aside and took the kids out back to play twice this week. When I pulled their pool from the "attic" of the garage, I found a few other things in it. The kids had a blast playing with their toys and even had a bit more fun that I intended when they dumped an entire bag of cheese puffs onto their picnic table and went to town. And Steven did what must be logical to any two year old--he dumped all the cheese puffs he and the girl weren't able to down into the then empty pool and watched Sadie gobble them up :)

Riding the Airplane

Getting Caught Mowing the Dirt

Dumping and Eating Sidewalk Chalk

Dressing Himself and Wearing His Trunks Backwards

Grilling the "Crayons"

Relaxing in the Pool

Playing the Guitar while Riding an Airplane Sitting in a Pool

Charming Mommy into Forgetting all the Trouble She's Been Getting Into

Visit with Auntie E and Kids

On Friday night we went to see Auntie E and the kids for an early Birthmother's Day celebration. She had recently discovered a nice park, so we all went there and had a great time. We brought KFC for everyone (although Auntie E's kids were too excited to eat much!), and she bought all the kids popsicles from the ice cream truck. My kids had never had one before, and both of them started chewing on the stick. I'm hoping that it's just because of the way I handed them to them and not that they are both that odd :)

We met at Auntie E's new house, and her youngest was the only one there. He knew where his siblings were playing, so we started walking down the block. The older kids saw me coming and all came running full speed yelling my name and tackled me with hugs. They had been waiting all day for us to get there, and it was so cool to see their excitement. They then ran to the car and gave the kids hugs. Steven did better with it than he has at times in the past. He didn't say anything, but he tolerated it and didn't start crying.

As we were leaving at the end of the night, the little 3 year old came running over to the car telling me he "needed to give his brother a hug good bye." It was so sweet! I am making plans to go see Auntie E by myself, so I can give her a Bible and have a real conversation with her. You just can't do that with six kids running around!

Riding on the Duck with One of her Big Sisters

Playing on the Giant Snail with Daddy

As Cute as Can Be!

Mr. Jake

Steven's favorite person is Mr. Jake. He goes to our church and is in our small group. The reason why Mr. Jake is his hero is because he plays the guitar (and he's just one cool dude!). Steven always talks about Mr. Jake and asks to see him. When he is leading the "big kids" worship service, Steven and I will often go in there for the music before heading to his class.

However, the last few weeks Steven has absolutely freaked out when he saw Mr. Jake at church. I'm talking about heart racing, screaming and shaking, pulling my pants off freaking out. It's quite embarassing!

I'm not sure what happened, but our best guess is that he had a nightmare about him. He went through a period of nightmares around the same time this started. At home, he still talks about Mr. Jake, but at church, it's a different story :(

He hasn't seen Mr. Jake for a few weeks, and when he went looking for him yesterday at church, we found out he was sick. Today (while he was sitting on the potty!) we decided to pray for Mr. Jake.

Steven's prayer went like this:

Thank you for my day. Thank you for Mr. Jake. Thank you for his daddy. Thank you for him sitting. Thank you for his chair. Thank you for him standing.

I then intervened and helped him ask Jesus to help Mr. Jake feel better.

He continued praying, and it was quite interesting. Sometimes it quite hard to keep from laughing, and since we generally pray with our eyes open, its doubly important that I do my best to keep it inside.

I am so thankful for a boy who is passionate about praying and who is thankful for all kinds of little things!