More Babies Coming Home

My good friends Amy and Michael have landed in China-yeah! They are about to pick up their first baby girl LynnMarie in a few days. Here she is celebrating her first birthday. Fortunately this is her last one without her mommy and daddy :)

Amy and I began the paperchase together in 2007 when I first entered the adoption world. It has been a wonderful experience to watch them from beginning to end find their little girl. I am so happy for them!


And here is little Miss Julia who was just united with her mommy and daddy. Her mommy is my old friend Gwen from high school. So happy to see these little ones coming home soon.

Not To Worry

Please don't worry about me being home by myself this week. I am in good hands ;)











PS: Just one of the many reasons my kids think we have the best neighbors in the world!

Single Mom

Looks like I get to be the "single mom" this week since CJ left last night headed to Wisconsin. His stepmom is very sick and in the hospital. CJ will be gone probably until Sunday :( We will miss him, but it has been a while since he has seen his family up there. Hopefully his stepmom will get better soon and CJ can enjoy some time spent with his dad and brother while he is there. CJ is driving so please keep him in your prayers for a safe trip there and back home safely.

So looks like I will have to hold the fort down by myself this week. I am sure I will find plenty of things to keep us busy. Everyone is well for now, so that is a definate good thing ;) We are loving the weather and were out and about walking the neighborhood last night. Faith's favorite thing to do outside is to swing...HIGH! She completely cracks up with each and every push.










PS: Here are some more out-takes and pics from our digit friend outing we had on Saturday. We have the cutest kids on the planet!

Race Day

Look where all my boys spent the LONG day yesterday:










The girls and I just hung out not doing too much of anything. Faith is finally sounding better with her wheezing, oh I mean breathing ;) She is still getting frequent breathing treatments throughout the day, but she does sound much better now.

We had a great meeting on Friday with the Adoption Option group. Lots of little ones running around and fun had by all I do believe. Here are some pics for your enjoyment!

A God Thing

A mere 18 months ago this is what we were looking at:

















And by the grace of God this is our new view!

Baby Bundle

No Comments?

OK what is up with you people?? Is no one reading my blog anymore? I haven't had one single comment all week, is something wrong? Have I offended you in some way?

Well if I have, then please tell me in person tonight at our Adoption Option meeting that will be at my house! I just picked up the yummy Honey Baked Ham for the occasion. Hope to see you soon :)

Hump Day

Seems like this week is just dragging out. Everyone at the house is back to "normal" today and off to school and such. Faith is sounding more and more crackly though so hopefully with some extra breathing treatments today she can cough that yucky stuff up and get it out of her lungs. I saw a sign on a church today that is SO fitting for my family:

"Faith makes things possible, not easy!" I just crack up every time I see it in the mornings. Our little Faith has certainly been a blessing and a handful.

Adoption in general seems to also fit this statement. A lot of people would like to paint a rosy perfect picture around adoptions. But truth be told, adoptions are HARD work and not always easy. Sometimes God asks us to do things that aren't always easy, and that is just a fact. But like I shared with a girlfriend of mine the other day who was a bit stressed...If He brings you to it, He will bring you through it!

One Up, Two Down

Faith is feeling much better today, but now I have Travis and Shelby at home with daddy today with a yucky stomach bug :( Shelby tossed her cookies in the middle of the night, and then Travis woke up this morning doing the same thing-YUCK. Faith is at my mom's today hoping to NOT catch this yucky stuff. Caleb went off to school like normal. Crazy how much sickness has been in my house this winter. Let's hope tomorrow looks brighter and healthier :)

Pics from yesterday...Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Sweetie

Happy birthday to my favorite man in the whole world! What a blessing CJ is to me :) We had a mini surprise party for him today here at the house in the snow. It was a fun day spent with family and friends.

Confusion

Looks like we are really going to mess with Faith's head now. So glad I have a back up mom just in case of emergencies ;)

TaaDaahhh

OK I guess I let you guys wait long enough for the big reveal. What do you think?? Short I know, really really short!

Needed A Change

Guess who got a hair cut today??!

Feeling Better

We are home and Faith is feeling much better. Here was her reaction yesterday to leaving the hospital:

We even had giggles today and she finally started eating real food again today-yeah!

Waiting for Discharge

Faith had a good night without any oxygen and she is off IV fluids. So we are just waiting for the doctor to come in and release us to go home. YEAH!!

Our visit here has certainly helped Faith and I in the attachment process. PLUS, our visit here has certainly helped Shelby and CJ in the attachment process too. God is good all the time, all the time, God is good! Next post should be from home sweet home :)

Last Night Here

YEAH! We are very confident that the doctor will release us to go home in the morning. Faith has done wonderfully today drinking her bottles and eating a little bit of food throughout the day(Hey Cheetos count!). As you can see through the pics, she was absolutely miserable when we arrived, but has perked up little by little each day. Today we even got a few giggles and smiles. Just a few, but we will take whatever we can get right now.

CJ and the kids came up and did dinner with Faith and I
tonight. I sure do miss seeing my WHOLE family together. I am not fond of our recent separations :( Looking forward to getting home tomorrow so I can love on all my babies and my knight in shining armour at HOME!!

Here is Faith at the hospital doing her 2 favorite things here:
1) Hanging out with Ms. Amy
2) Chillin in the red wagon
BTW, These happen to be the only 2 things we will miss about being in the hospital ;)

Hopefully Only One More Night

Well the doctor came by and felt it best that we stay at least one more night in our new little home here at the hospital. I am not really disappointed that we don't get to come home because I just really want her to be WELL before coming home. I don't want to take any risks of her relapsing once we get home. She needs to be eating and drinking on her own so that she doesn't get dehydrated. Her breathing is alot better so now we just focus on her taking in fluids. Hopefully we will get to come home tomorrow!

Better Night

A quick update for everyone:

Faith only had to have oxygen for about an hour last night. She looks a lot better and she has started drinking a little more regularly. We haven't seen the doctor yet, so I will give an update after we see him. Hopefully Faith will start eating and drinking more throughout the day so we can win a ticket home. I will keep you posted. Thanks for all the comments, well wishes, and prayers :)

O Where O Where

has her little smile gone, Oh where Oh where could it be??

Really hoping to see some of these tomorrow...

We sure are missing her sweet baby grins!

Three is A Charm-right?

It looks like we will be here tonight for our 3rd night at the hospital :( Faith required oxygen most of the night last night. She did actually drink a full 4 ounces of bottle this morning though so hopefully that means she is starting to feel a little better. Her O2 level drops below 90 everytime she goes to sleep. She will have to maintain 93-94 all the time before we can go home. She will also have to be eating and drinking on her own without the IV. Needless to say we aren't there yet, so that means we have to stay another night :( Hey at least we get our favorite nurse tonight again. Not sure what Amy told everyone here, but we sure do get the royal treatment from all the nurses who just love my China doll :)