Thankful Thursday

This being "Thankful Thursday," I have so many things to be thankful for today and all days. A couple of weeks ago Matt and I were so worried he was going to get laid off again. As many of you know, our economy is not in the best shape right now and with Matt being an Electrician, he works only when there is work to be done. Right now in the town we live in there is not a whole lot of work to be done. Anyway, instead of getting laid off he was moved to another job where he was told he would be getting some overtime! Well, the overtime was only for a day, and then we were once again not sure if he was going to have a job or not. He called me on a Friday to let me know that some of the guys were being moved to other jobs and others were being laid off, but that he still had not heard what was happening with him. When he came home from work that afternoon I was expecting him to go right to the computer to file for unemployment. Instead he said that he was told he would be working until Wednesday of the next week, and that they would let him know then what was going to happen.

I kept telling myself that if he did get laid off maybe it was just a sign that we are not supposed to move forward with this adoption. As much as I knew in my heart this is what I wanted, my mind was telling me that maybe He had other plans. I am a firm believer that everything happens for a reason and that just because I/we want something, doesn't mean it is in His plans. So, I as I knelt in Church on Saturday evening, I prayed and prayed that He would once again give me a sign that we were in fact traveling down the right path. And that this is the path that He has laid out in front of us.

~THE SIGN~

Monday came and Matt made it through the entire day of work without anyone telling me not to come in the next day. Tuesday came and every time the phone rang I was apprehensive to look at the called ID afraid it was Matt telling me he was laid off. So, when the phone rang that afternoon, I checked the caller ID and guess who it was? Yep, Matt. But not to tell me that he was getting laid off, to tell me he was going to be working about an hour and a half from here (in another state), and that this job was in major overtime. Our prayers were answered and then some. Not only did he not get laid off, he is working at least 50 hours a week right now. This weekend he will be working 12 hours on Saturday (time and a half) and 12 hours on Sunday (double time). This job and the overtime is supposed to last through May. Praise God! After doing the math, and if this overtime lasts as long as he has been told, we will have enough money for the USCIS, the dossier authentication fees, and the CCAA fees.

Jesus replied, "What is impossible with men is possible with God." Luke 18:27


We have faith in the Lord that He will carry us through this journey just as He did with Mylee. The journey of adoption is full of leaps of faith, moments of worry, lots of waiting, but the gift of having that child placed in your arms is nothing more than a miracle from Him. He has walked beside us to bring all four of our children home and there is no doubt in my mind that HE is walking beside us to bring our fifth home.

We talked with Drew on Tuesday night through SKYPE. All I can say is that I cannot wait to get him home. I let Gabe stay up to talk to him as well. Gabe told Drew that he was going to share a room with him. Drew asked if we had cars and was so excited when Gabe told him we had lots of cars. He has such a personality and it is pretty obvious that he is going to fit in so well with our family.

Drew also got the care package we sent him soon after we talked to him on their Wednesday morning. Below are some pictures of him going through what we sent as well as sharing with his friends.

~ENJOY~



















Make sure you turn off the music on the side before pressing play on the video.

Wordless Wednesday

April Update

One of the perks of Drew being at New Day is that once a month we will get an update on how he is doing along with a picture. The update is written by his foster mom...

First I have to tell you the wonderful news that Jeremy has now been matched with his adoptive parents! They have named him Drew so any future updates you receive or pictures on our website will have his new name as Drew. Drew is very healthy during this month. He has a good appetite too. One day he was so happy because his elder foster brother bought him two clothes. He put on the new clothes as soon as he got up and asked his brother: “Who is more handsome, you or me?” Then his foster dad asked Drew, “Please tell us who is more handsome.” Drew answered: “Brother is handsome, but I’m more handsome than him!” We all laughed at such a cute thing he said! Drew always tries his best to help with some house-hold things, such as feeding the rabbit, cleaning the rooms and so forth. He often says: “I like helping mom. I want to be a good boy!”

How cute is that? First of all, I don't know what his foster brother looks like, but Drew is one handsome little boy. And those cheeks! I know I've said it before, and I will probably say it again, but I cannot wait to get my hands on his cheeks, they look so squeezable and kissable. I also love that he likes to help keep the house clean. Maybe he can teach his brother's and sister's a thing or two about cleaning. LOL

Have a great weekend and enjoy the beautiful weather we are going to have.

Catching Up

It's been awhile since I posted. Things here are so busy right now. I am trying to get through the rest of this semester with a little bit of sanity left. I only have a few more weeks of classes left, but with finals coming up, I am stressing just a bit. The good thing is that once this semester is over, I will be done with math! I am math illiterate unless it has to do with figuring out the percentage off a sale item. That I can do without any trouble. Go figure.

While studying for finals I am also trying to get all the paperwork together and organized for our home study and dossier. Our home study is done, they are just waiting on our clearances from when we lived in Virginia. Hopefully that will show us soon so our paperwork can be sent to USCIS for review and so we can get fingerprinted.

Saturday Matt and I attended our required second time around adoption class. This is something new that the new Hague treaty requires. I have to admit, it wasn't too painful. In fact, there were alot of interesting couples in our class.
Gabe and Emma went to the lake with G'ma and G'pa and Blake stayed home with Mylee while we were gone. Saturday was a beautiful day so we were pretty happy that we were done with the class by noon.
On the way home Matt started talking about the fact that once we get Drew home we will have pretty much outgrown our mini van. We currently have a Chrysler Town and Country, and although I love it, we are already outgrowing it. Being that Blake is so tall (he is 12 and is 5'7), there is very little leg room for him. So, when we got home we picked up Blake and Mylee and went to some car dealers to see what our options were. We looked at some bigger SUV's as well as full size vans. As much as I hate to admit it, the full size van would probably be the logical choice for our family. With 5 kids, 3 that are already very tall for their ages, there just was not much leg room in the SUV's. So, I am not sure what we are going to do. We were just looking on Saturday and may look again this weekend. We are in no hurry (yet), and I refuse to have our payments go up. If it means we are packed in our current can like a can of sardines for awhile, then all I have to say is I hope everyone is showered and wearing deoderant.

Sunday was a yucky day weather wise. It was cold and raining. I headed off to Indianapolis with Gabe and Mylee for Mylee's cast change on Monday. We spent the night at my sister's Sunday night and the kids really enjoyed playing together. It was so hard for Gabe and Mylee to get to sleep, so 6:00 a.m. came pretty early for all of us. We had to be at the hospital at 7:30 a.m. and Mylee was taken back around 9.
I opted NOT to give her the Versed this time. If you remember from previous posts, Versed is a drug they gave her to relax her so she wouldn't be scared. She has been there enough times that she is pretty comfortable with everyone and the nurses are wonderful. I am so glad I did not give it to her this time. By the time we went back to the recovery room she was already eating and drinking. By not having the Versed, she was able to come out of the anesthesia faster and easier.
All in all, things went well and we were on our way home by noon. She is now sporting a super fun pink cast and we go back in a couple of weeks for x-rays. If the x-rays look good, then the cast will come off and hopefully she will not need anymore. Dr. Loder did say that it is okay for her to walk on it and that he wants her to continue therapy so we don't fall behind.



Just before they took her back





In the recovery room



DREW NEWS

Since getting PA and being able to share our amazing news with everyone, I have also been able to form some friendships with other parents adopting from New Day. There are some pretty amazing kids getting some pretty amazing parents soon. I also received a couple of e-mails from complete strangers regarding Drew. The first was one from a lady who had spent last summer in China on a Mission trip. She spent some time at an orphanage in Inner Mongolia (this is where Drew was before he was moved to New Day). She also new of some people who spent time at New Day and who had tons of pictures to share with me of Drew and some of the other kids at New Day who are getting families soon. I haven't posted the pictures yet, but you can count on seeing them soon.

The other lady who contacted me by leaving a comment on one of my blog posts. She said that she was trying to get in touch with me because she and her family were Drew's sponsors. I e-mailed New Day right away and let them know so they could put us in contact with one another. Angie and her family have been sponsoring Drew since last November and receive monthly updates along with pictures. She has sent him three care packages (Christmas, Birthday, and Easter), and has tons of pictures from them. She graciously shared the pictures and updates with me. Below are a few of the pictures she sent.

Opening Birthday gifts from Angie and family.




Opening Easter gifts from Angie and family



I finally got around to sending a care package to Drew from us. As you can see from the picture, I sent quite a bit of stuff. I have been able to find out that he LOVES cars, books, candy, and phones. So, that is what we sent along with a couple of short outfits, photo album with pictures of our family, house, and his room, sunglasses, puzzle, and a CD player I found on sale at T*arget for super cheap. I did not want to leave the other kids at New Day out so Emma and I stopped at the Dollar Tr*e one night after her dance class and picked out several items for the other kids. We sent water balloons, water guns, jump ropes, and some fun hats and sunglasses. I mailed everything last night (all 16 lbs of it) and was a bit shocked when I heard how much it was going to cost to ship to China. It's quite possible that the shipping was more than the contents of the box. But, the pictures of him opening it will be priceless.



Oh, and by the way, if you look at the top right hand corner you will see a new button. Amy and her family are trying to raise money to bring their adorable son Sammy home. Amy is giving away some beautiful Vera Bradley bags and purses. So, if you get a chance and have a few bucks to spare, I know they would appreciate any and all the help they can get. Sammy is also from Nanjing (like Mylee) and Amy is one of the mom's who attends out mom's night once a month. I can't wait for Sammy to get home so he can start coming to the play groups.

Pictures

One of the nice things about having Drew at New Day is that once or twice a week there are new pictures of him on their Web site. It has become a morning ritual of sorts for me to check their site first thing in the morning. It is so exciting to see not only his picture, but those of all the kids. To know that he is being cared for, loved, and exposed to so many wonderful activities is going to make the wait a little easier (I hope).

These pictures were taken some time this week. The first one is from when they were making pizzas. From some of the other pictures we have received of Drew we know he likes to eat so I am sure he was thrilled with making pizza. The other pictures were taken when the kids went on nature walk.

Enjoy...

A Simple Math Problem (of sorts)

Blake




Plus






Equals




So you are all probably wondering how this happened. Well, Easter Sunday after a delicious dinner prepared by my mom the kids went outside to enjoy the gorgeous weather. Blake was riding his Ripstick (skate board), and Emma and Gabe were riding their bikes. My niece Riley was out there somewhere as well. Anyway, Mylee wanted to do the skateboard too so Blake was holding her while he was on it. Apparently Riley walked in front of Blake and he tried to stop so he wouldn't hit her. He fell on his back still holding Mylee. He immediatly brought her in as she was screaming. After a few minutes she seemed fine however she would not put any weight on it. I should probably mention that she had just started walking again and was scheduled for her first therapy appointment Monday. Matt and I looked her over, there wasn't any swelling that we could see, so we just assumed that maybe she had pulled a muscles or bruised the top of her foot.
By Monday she was still not wanting to walk on it, but was crawling and scooting everywhere. I cancelled her therapy appointment thinking she was too sore to try anything and re-scheduled it. Tuesday she went to school like any other day. I did send a note to her teacher letting her know that Mylee was not willing to walk and to let me know how she did at school that day. After school Mylee's teacher sent a note home letting me know that usually Mylee is ready to go, go, go, but not today. So, I decided we should probably get it x-rayed.

Before taking her to the doctor here I called her orthopedic doctor at Riley to see what they suggested. He wanted me to take her down there for x-rays since that is where all her records are in case it was in fact broken. I was able to convince him to let me get the x-rays done here since I did not want to drive two hours for an x-ray that I was certain was going to show nothing. Boy was I WRONG!. Tuesday evening I took Mylee to the ER where it was determined that she does have a fracture. When I talked to Dr. Loder's nurse she told me that if she had broken it not to let the doctors here do anything since they are not familiar with her.

You should have seen the ER doctor's face when I told him he could not put a cast on her. He looked very confused. I explained to him what was going on and that her orthopedic doctor wanted to be the one to decide how to treat it considering everything that we have already been through with her legs and feet. So, we left the ER with an ace bandage, and x-rays in hand.

This morning Mylee and I took off to Riley thanks to my neighbor Lydia for watching my daycare kids. The whole trip to Indy Mylee kept saying "I go see Dr. Loder, no more casts." As soon as we walked into the clinic, the nurses could not believe we were back especially after I told them all how this happened. Dr. Loder walked in and Mylee said "Hi Dr. Loder! No more casts!" The nurses were cracking up. Unfortunately as you can see from the pictures, poor Mylee is back in a cast. And that isn't even the worst of it. We have to go back on Monday so he can put her to sleep and re-set it.

Mylee has a VERY high pain tolerance and that is why we were certain she had not broken it. Dr. Loder gave her some medicine to help with the pain while he set it. I have to tell you, I have never felt so much heartbreak for one of my kids as I did today. She cried, and screamed so much that she was sweating by the time they were done. I did not want her to have to be sedated nor did the doctor, but the pain medicine they gave her was obviously not working. So, after all of that, the doctor was not satisfied with the way the food was set, so we are going back on Monday. He will sedate her this time so he can get her foot positioned to heal the right way.

She seems to being doing much better now. She is not complaining at all of it hurting, so hopefully we can get through the rest of the week and weekend with no more accidents. The good thing is that it is only a partial leg casts so she will be able to continue therapy on her right leg and left knee. Please keep her in your prayers.

Introducing...

Sorry for the delay in getting pictures posted, with the Easter weekend things here were a little crazy. I will be posting pictures from the festivities later this week. But for now, it is all about Drew. As you can see by his birthday he is only 24 days younger than Mylee. I always thought is would be so much fun having twins, I'll keep you posted on how it all works out.

As you all know by now Drew is living in Beijing and is part of the New Day Foster Home there. Shortly after sending in our LOI for him, I contacted NDFH by e-mail and introduced myself and explained to them that we had just sent in our LOI for "Jeremy" (that is what is name was at the foster home)> Anyway, the staff there are incredibly nice and so helpful. Within 24 hours after e-mailing them I had responses about how they were so excited that Jeremy was getting a family. I was also told that as soon as we got our PA to let them know so they could set up weekly phone calls (more on that in a bit), let us know where to send care packages, and the name that we would be giving him so they could begin calling him by that name. This story of ours just keeps getting better and better. Never in a million years did I think that we would be able to have contact like this with our son who is half way around the world.

Anyway, more about Drew. He was actually born in Hohhot Inner Mongolia. He lived in the orphanage there until he was 7 months old which is when New Day took him to live at their foster home. After several life saving surgeries, he was placed with a foster family this past December. Drew is described as a character, full of laughter, and very excited about getting a family. He was telling everyone yesterday that he was getting a family and showing them our picture. As you can see from the pictures, he has the most lovable, kissable, squeezable cheeks I have ever seen. I simply cannot wait to get him in my arms.

As for the phone calls, we will be able to call Drew every week on Sundays at 9:30 a.m. which is 9:30 p.m. China time. Last night was our first call to him and not only did we get to call him, but New Day got SKYPE so we were their very first SKYPE call. We could see each other, and they could hear us, but their microphone was not working, so we could not here them. So, they had us keep SKYPE up and call using the phone which worked well too. In our first care package to them we will be sending a microphone for back up in case the new one they get stops working. He was pretty shy at first, but once he figured out what was going on, he became quite talkative. He sang his ABC's to us, and when asked where his eyes, nose, ears, etc. were he was able to point them out. He was able to tell us that is favorite color is yellow. He also kept calling us Mama and Baba and blowing us kisses. There were times when he would get so excited he would start kissing the phone as well. About half way through the conversation he yelled something in Chinese which was translated for us. He was saying "buy me toys!" So, we showed him a pack of cars that we were sending and he seemed very excited about that. We talked to him for about 20 minutes before he had to return to class.

Once the call was over, Lauren (one of the interns) got on the phone to talk to me. She said that Drew is very smart and loves to raise his hand during class to answer questions or give them new ideas. Since he just turned three, he doesn't know very much English, but now that he is three he will be taking English class twice a week.

Enjoy the pictures, I am off to work on a list of things to send him and his foster parents. I think the post office is going to get to know me pretty well over the next few months.

I almost forgot, the director from New Day sent me a video of Drew when he found out he was getting a family. The girl he is with is Lauren, she is the one I talked with on the phone last night.

Thanks again to everyone for leaving comments, or e-mailing us about this incredible journey we are once again embarking on. It is with your love an support that we are going to make it through this. And we are very excited to have all of you follow along to see His plan played out




















My Montage 4/13/09

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com