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 :)

My Village is the Best

Faith is asleep so I am about to turn in as well. She required some oxygen this afternoon, so we will have to wait and see how she does all night. Hopefully she won't need anymore and we may be able to go home tomorrow.

Just wanted to send out a special thank you to everyone surrounding us with love and friendship. In just the past 2 days, so many of you have stepped up to help out with the kids, laundry, errands, bringing me food, keeping me company, visiting us in the hospital, and the lists go on and on and on. I have a very special village of people out there whom I am thankful for each and everyday. Thank you for being there for us. My family is so very blessed!

Will post an update in the morning. Keep praying, Good night :)

Another Night Here

Well we get to spend another night here at Scottish Rite :( Since Faith still isn't eating or drinking very much and the fact that she hasn't been oxygen free for 24 hours, lands her here another evening. CJ and the kids came up for about an hour and that was the happiest and alert she has been in a while. I guess since she isn't used to all this peace and quiet you get the hospital, she was thrilled to see her LOUD siblings for a while today.

CJ attended a required asthma education class while me and the kid hung out in the playroom. I will have to say that my husband has been great taking care of things while we are here. Last night was Shelby's FIRST night ever away from me and you know what??? She didn't even miss me! She slept with Caleb and did great all night according to CJ. I will admit that I was very worried about how Shelby was going to act not getting to stay here with me. Turns out her daddy has everything under control :) They left here today headed for McDonald's and she didn't care a bit about leaving Mommy behind-progress for sure!

The doctor has officially decided that Faith has bad pneumonia and I suppose some form of asthma. We did further tests on her lungs today and it appears to just have fluid/infection in there and not a "foreign body" that was a possibility. Sheila kept saying she swallowed a Lego, but no she didn't ;) So hopefully once she gets some more antibiotics flowing through her, she will improve. Time will tell, keep praying please.

PS-Sorry no new pics, not sure why buy my SD slot in the computer isn't working :( This is how she feels right now though.

In the Hospital :(

Unfortunately Faith won a ticket into Scottish Rite yesterday. We have been here since 7AM yesterday and still not sure when we will go home. I brought her in when I could not get her breathing regulated after 3 breathing treatments throughout Thursday night. We had already spent Thursday evening at the Immediate Care Center for 3 hours and they sent me home with a warning that if her breathing got worse to go to ER. Needless to say it did and we were off to ER. They admitted her since she had to be on oxygen to breath and since she was dehydrated. Please keep her in your prayers today so that she will start breathing better and we can figure out what is wrong with her lungs. I don't have much time on the computer, but wanted to let you guys know so that you can say a special prayer today for us, thanks.

How Much Does an Adoption Cost?

I wanted to do a "Straight Up" post about how much an adoption really costs. Not how much one thinks it costs, or how much an agency might quote you it will cost, but how much it REALLY costs.


It always seems to be the pink elephant in the room when someone asks you about adoption. No one really knows how to ask about the expenses. If the truth was laid out there more openly then maybe money wouldn't be a roadblock for someone really interested. So hopefully this post might answer some questions for anyone who may be really be considering adoption.


The complete gross total of money that we used to bring home Faith on this last adoption was $28,262.16. This covered everything we used to take myself, CJ, Caleb, Travis, Shelby, and my sister on the trip to China. The only thing not included in this number is Sheila's personal expenses while she was in China like food and shopping. Everything else that we spent is in this number. Here is the general breakdown:


$6670 Adoption Agency Expense
$3000 All paperwork & misc fees in US
$6200 Airline Tickets
$5373 In-China Escort & Hotel Fees
$3000 Orphanage Fee
$1500 In-China paperwork fees
$2500 Spending Money in China

Now here is the part people don't realize, you get some of this money back! That's right you get a HUGE tax refund back to the tune of $11,650 (for 2008, goes up to $12,150 in 09). You also get a check back from the state of GA for $2000 if you adopt a child with special needs. So here is the bottom line...


$28262 Spent
-$11650 Federal Tax Refund
-$2000 State Reimbursement
---------------------------------$
$14,612 Total Amount Out of Pocket

I promise you that this will be the best investment in your future you will EVER make! So there you have it all laid out in black and white. What are you waiting for?!? Get busy and email me at cjstraight@bellsouth.net to find out how to sign up to make the best investment in your life :)

"Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, and where thieves break in and steal."- Matthew 6:19

Finally No Fever

Faith finally broke her ongoing fever last night! She has literally run a fever for 4 days straight. Still no fever this morning-yeah. Shelby's nose is still very leaky so now she has rubbed it raw and made sores under her nose. If it isn't one...is another ;)

Pics of my sweet little Valentines!

Sick AGAIN

Yes, my little Faith is sick again :( She has been diagnosed with just a "virus", but she sure is miserable. She keeps running a fever and doesn't want to eat or drink very much. I sure hope she gets better soon as I hate to see her so yucky feeling.


Shelby has a runny nose and says her nose "keeps leaking"! Caleb and Travis seem to both have some kind of yuck going on as well. Hopefully my crew will get better soon. I really think it is this crazy weather we have around here. I know that they say it isn't the weather that makes you sick, but I think it spawns viruses personally. I have sprayed Lysol on everything in the house every night trying to kill the yuck!

CJ took the day off yesterday and stayed home with all the kids since they were out for President's Day. Faith came to work with me since she had to go to the doctor. Dad had a good day with the kids even though we had to have our -as CJ says "Our Poop Tank"- worked on while he was there with the kids. I just love a man who can work on septic systems and watch children at the same time :)


Shelby did great with her daddy and NO crying for mommy the whole day (which is a first for CJ). CJ and Shelby's relationship has drastically improved since the arrival of Faith! I thank God for that little pleasant surprise. Who knew that adopting another child would HELP Shelby in the attachment process ;)

Circus Time

You won't find us here today. Sorry we will be under the Big Top all day with the kids! This will be the girls' first visit to the real circus-YEAH!! I will let you know tomorrow how it goes. Have a great day...like we are going too :)

Big Change in the Rules

This post if for all of my adoption friends who may be out there still waiting to adopt a child from China. The CCAA just made a big change in their rules regarding the switching of agencies. You can now switch agencies even if your dossier is already logged in! This means that if you are interested in adopting from the Waiting Child Lists you are now able to get in any agency's line to do that. No reason to sit around and wait for your agency to get to you if they have a LONG line ahead of you waiting on a special needs child. Just switch to an agency who doesn't have a long line of families ahead of you :) Feel free to contact me for more specifics details if you need them. I am excited to finally see this change from China! It should really help get kids home faster and without the waiting game some agencies seem to play.

Dear Families:I just want to inform you that CCAA recently passed the policy to allow families switching agencies using their original dossiers logged in at CCAA. Families who decide to switch agencies need to ask for a letter from their original agency stating that the agency agrees to release the dossier to the new agency. Families who do not qualify under the new rule effective of May 1st 2007 and whose dossiers were logged in before May 1st of 2007 will be able to switch agencies and proceed with the adoption of special needs children.

Happy Valentine's Day

Shelby had the BEST time in the world making Valentine cookies with Nana. She was SO excited about it and SO proud of her cookies. My mom is such the wizard and decided that instead of Shelby having to wait to "bake" cookies, she just whipped out the box of Nilla wafers and some frosting and some sprinkles. Shelby was in heaven :)

Grandma helped the boys make the coveted Valentine's shoe boxes to collect their Valentines from school. The boys were thrilled with their completed and FULL boxes they brought home from school. I think every child (except mine) added candy to their little Valentine. Man, I wish we had those kinds of Valentines when we were in school ;)

So as you can see a whole lot of love found in the Straight house these days. Hope you all have someone to love on this special day. I know I sure do!

Faith Meets Oreos

A Day in the Life

Well really just an hour in the life of me...

• Wake up to surprise visit from Aunt Flo


• Realize that Caleb is really too sick to go to school today


• Babysitter calls in sick


• Figure out that Nana is going to have to have Faith and Caleb now all day unexpectedly


• Made pancakes instead of pastry thing for Shelby=meltdown


• Travis realizing he has to go to school by himself without Caleb=meltdown


• Poopy diaper number 1


• See that Shelby has forgotten to put on underwear, undress to put said underwear on


• Realize forgot to make Shelby's lunch last night=now running 10 minutes behind


• Drug Caleb


• Shelby spills drink all over herself and RED=meltdown


• Now have to redress Shelby once again with new clothes, Red just suffers through


• Finally everyone ready to go out the door only 15 minutes late


• Wait, poopy diaper #2


• Finally off to school #1, check in Travis tardy...excuse written on tardy sheet="Don't ask"


• Drop Faith and Caleb off at Nanas= Shelby meltdown


• Take Shelby to school #2 fortunately no tears at dropoff


• Finally made my way to work only 30 minutes late!!

Whew, what a wild and crazy ride this mommy thing is some days :) Calgon take me away!

HotLanta

How sweet has this February weather been lately?!?! Here are some pics of us getting out and enjoying this beautiful weather we have been having here in Atlanta these days! BTW, we have the BEST backyard ever :) The kids have really been able to enjoy it early this year.

PS: We are hosting AdoptionOption next month on the first Friday in March, so if you want to come on over and enjoy my backyard too...this is your personal invitation!