Darth Vader lives at our house...

Well, at least it sounds like he does.  Both kids woke with a cold this morning.  Sarah sounds like Darth Vader trying to breath through her stopped up nose.  She is also hourse, but does not act like her throat hurts.  She ate very good this morning.  In fact she is eating wonderfully these days, if she feeds herself!  If you try to feed her she spits it out.  Mrs. Irene is going to be so surprised when we go back to speech.  Sarah has mastered finger food feeding!!!!!!!!!!!!  YIPPEE!!  She is so independent with it to.  She can pick up the smallest things and get them in her mouth.  Oh great, I just realized that means I have to vacuum more and babyproof again.  Great, more work.  Elijah woke with a cough and a sore throat.  Hope the kiddos feel better soon.  Ms. Kathryn our home educator is also sick today.  She has a stomach bug so we did not get to see her.  Hope she feels better soon.  Here are some more adoption profile pages for you to preview:

Wordless Wednesday

Adoption Profile pages.

Glimpse into the possible future

Ok, I told you I wanted to share with you about a young lady we meet at the hospital.  Doug first spotted her while we were waiting for Sarah to go to surgery.  She came into the room we were in and began cleaning the area across from us.  Doug got my attention and said "She has down syndrome.  Look at her.  She must work here, everyone is calling her by name."  I got a glimpse of her and then they arrived to get Sarah so I lost her.  As we were in post-op waiting on Sarah's room, I spotted her and commented to Doug, "there is that girl we saw earlier.  She does have down syndrome.  Wow, she works here."  The nurse over heard us talking about us and told us that she does have down syndrome.  She is a hard worker and takes her job very seriously.  She asked if the lady could talk to us, she stated that she loves to talk to families of children with down syndrome.  "J" came right over and introduced herself and began talking.  She was very articulate.  I understood about 90% of what she said.  She had wonderful manners.  She was 24 years old, the oldest of 5.  She graduated high school and has a boyfriend.  She use to date another boy with down syndrome that just got married to a young lady with down syndrome this summer.  They are all friends and she plans on getting married too.  She works until 2:30 and then her mother picks her up.  Her brother is graduating school this year and they are going to have a big party.  After talking to us for about 15-20 minutes she then adds "I have down syndrome like your baby."  She lives a normal life and is "normal", so normal that she tells us she has down syndrome as an after thought.  This is what I want for Sarah.  To live her life as anyone else and the down syndrome to be an after thought.  I want her to have a rich fulfilling life.  I want her to experience life to the fullest.  To reach her potential and to be happy.  "J" stated as she was leaving to Sarah, "Sarah you are my new best baby friend."  I was crying by this point.  I so wanted to hug her and thank her for being herself.  I did not, I did not want her to think I was belittling her.  What a blessing this young lady is.  She is using her down syndrome to bless those of us who have small children with down syndrome.  What a testimony.  I thank God for him bring her into our lives and showing me that Sarah was created for a special calling in life and he was going to bless her and others  are and will be bless by knowing Sarah.  Praise God for his faithfulness. I have begun working on our profile book for our adoption of a little blessing.  This is Sarah's page so far.  What do you think?

Glasses=Eyes

Sarah has been watching Nana put her glasses on all week.  She does not want Nana to wear her glasses and makes her take them off to hold her.  Yes she is bossy.  I have to get a picture of her folding her hands across her chest in defiance that she has started doing.  It is so cute, but makes me so mad!On Saturday she found the play glasses that came in Elijah's doctor kit(don't know why they put glasses in a doctor's kit, not all doctors wear glasses, guess they think it makes you look smarter or something), and she immediately put them on.  She actually knew what to do with them without prompting or help.  I was so proud of her. Ok, they were upside down, but she knew where to put them.  She calls them eyes.  We helped her turn them over and she got them on pretty good, just a little crooked. She had fun playing with the "eyes" and having daddy and Elijah take her picture(hence the finger in each picture, it is hard for a 4 year old to get the fingers out of the way!  He is too busy saying I do it myself to listen.).

Strawberry Pickin

Today we went strawberry picking.  Both kids had so much fun.    I think Sarah is finally on the up hill swing of her surgery.  Wed-Fri were rough.  The doctor said it was probably the scabs coming off.  She refused to eat or drink and giving her meds was almost useless since more ended up on me than in her.  Today she has not need any pain med and is so much more like herself.  She is eating and drinking well.  In fact she has two new accomplishment today!!!  She fed herself breakfast which consisted of pirate booty(puffed rice) and a cup of milk.  We have been working on this for months.  She could feed herself larger items that she could bite off, but not small actual finger foods that were just one bite.  Here she is eating, yes she is in the floor, she decided to pitch a fit at the table so I just sat her in the floor.  She poured the food in the floor prior to eating it.  Oh well, that's life!  The second thing she did was to pull to stand from a lying position in her bed.  She has pulled to stand several times with a little help, but today she did it all by herself and in the bed even.  I was cheering her on.  I wanted to grab the video camera, but I was afraid I would miss it.  I grabbed the camera and got a picture afterwards:

Outdoor Play

We fixed up the outdoor area for the kids to play in.  Elijah is loving it.  He loves to play in the sand box and "accidentally" fell into the pool today!  Hmm, wonder how that happened. He really is loving the great outdoor fun.  Sarah is upset that she can not go swimming or play in the sand.  Both are big no-nos after tube placement.  Once she feels better she can enjoy the fun with plugs in her ears.  She is really having a rough day.  The pain meds do not seem to be holding her pain tonight.  If it gets worse, I guess we will head to the ER.  Hopefully I can keep her comfortable to morning and give the doctor a call then.  She has not eaten much today, she did drink a bit earlier.  It is so hard to hear her cry in pain.  It just breaks my heart because I can not make it better.  She gets so mad at me because I am the one giving her the pain med that taste so horrible that she will not let me soothe her, which also hurts.  I know she does not mean it meanly, she just doesn't understand and right now I am the bad guy giving her the yucky meds. Please be praying that she feels better soon and we do not end up back at the hospital.

My Boys

This is for the contest: Nestle's Kid in you at http://www.5minutesformom.com/

Hospital Happenings

After a good night sleep, I have the energy to tell you about our stay.  It is so funny, I use to not be able to sleep because of Sarah's gasping at night, she no longer does this and now it is too quiet to sleep.  Oh well, I guess I will get use to the quietness!  We arrived a little before our set time of arrival.  Signed in and then realized baby doll was MIA.  Of course while Doug was looking for baby they called us to check in.  So I did the check in and when he returned with baby they checked in.  Sarah, Doug and I all got matching hospital bracelets.  We spent the next 20 min trying to keep Sarah from ripping hers off.  I really wanted to rip mine off too.  Those things stick to your skin and hurt.  We then are called back for pre-op.  They check our bracelets, weigh Sarah(man, glad they didn't weigh us!), took her vital signs, etc.  We changed Sarah into the hospital pj's.  They were soooo cute.  We then spent 2 1/2 hours trying to entertain a hungry baby in a confined space with other screaming kids around us.  Sarah finally went to sleep and of course they picked that moment to come and get her.  She went right to them and was just fine.  I was crying.  After surgery she was hysterical when we got to her.  It took an hour and four doses of pain meds to calm her down.  No fun.  In recovery we meet a beautiful young lady that is our vision of Sarah in 22 years.  She was 24 years old, articulate, well mannered, job holding, boyfriend committed lady who happens to have Down syndrome.  I want to share our conversation with her with you in a later blog.  It truly blessed me.  We then went to our room, which happened to be in ICU because no other rooms were available.  Talk about living in a bubble.  This was not good.  They really should not put non-ICU patients in ICU.  Oh well.  We then spent Thursday, Friday and Saturday morning trying to get Sarah to drink.  She would eat, but did not want to drink.  Weird I know, but that's our Sarah.  I finally begged, pleaded and convinced them to let us come home Saturday morning.  I could not take the bubble anymore.  Sarah has been fine at home.  She is eating and drinking well.  Here are a few pictures of her in the hospital...yes she is in a drugged state of happiness.  The last picture is her spitting her pain meds at us.  Oh the joys.  Hope that stuff does not stain it is on all of my clothes.   

We are home!!

We made it home today.  Sarah is doing good.  She is still not wanting to eat and drink well, but is improving.  They let us come home after I let them know I was a nurse and I promised to bring her back if she did not eat by night time.  She was just being stubborn.  She ate and drank some yesterday and totally refused this morning.  She ate and drank right after we got home.  She is playing good and does not act like she is hurting.  I will update more later, I am just too tired tonight.  I also have pictures of our hospital stay I will post later. 

Sarah's Surgery

Sarah had her T&A and ear tube surgery tomorrow.  Please keep her in your prayers for a safe surgery and speedy recovery.  I will post after her surgery when I am able.  We will definitely stay over night and they told us it could be 2-7 days.  We are prayerful that it will be on the short end of that.  Sarah has been out of sorts today.  I think her teeth are really hurting her.  Elijah is also fussy.  I think he senses something is going on, but does not understand.  Pray for his peace.  He is really enjoying Nana being here.  Pray for our peace as well.  It is hard to see your children hurt.  We want the best for them and we know the surgery is for her best, but I also do not want her to be in pain.  I will update when I can.  Thanks.

Whistle while you work

Why is it when Snow White would work and whistle she would have a ton of help cleaning, and when I whistle I wake the children and then have more to clean?  Now mind you, I do not want certain creatures coming to help, but I certainly could use some help.  Mom is coming today so she can stay with Elijah while Sarah has surgery, so I have been house cleaning.  I have cleaned out the cabinets(most of them), cleaned the stove, all of the deep stuff that I only do, well, when mom comes!  Do you do that?  Do extra cleaning when your mom or mother in law comes to visit?  My mom and mother in law both live out of state, so when they come it is for a long visit.  I can't hide the dirty laundry in the bath tub(great hiding place!).  I love to have mom visit, but I hate the cleaning.  Although her eye site is not as good as it use to be.......maybe I can skip some of the cleaning and she would not notice.  Well, got to get back to the cleaning!

Chuck E. Cheese

Today we met Tracy, Lorie, and Brody  at Chuck E. Cheese's for lunch.  The kids had a blast.  Elijah and Brody were running around trying to figure out what to play next.   Sarah was busy trying out all of the rides.  We had a great visit with Lorie and Tracy and got caught up on things since our last visit at Christmas.  Sarah's surgery is Thursday so they brought her a cookie cake to celebrate a speedy recovery.  YUM CHOCOLATE!!!!  Everyone really enjoyed the cookie.  We were all stained from the icing, but it was yummy so it was worth it.  Hmm, how am I going to count that on my weight watchers diet?  Oh well, it was worth the points I have been craving some good sweet chocolate!  Brody was excited that he was going to get to see his picture on the computer, so Brody here is another picture of you!   I am also going to put a video clip of you and Sarah riding the carousel so you can see a video of you on the computer!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Elijah's Camera

 

Elijah got a camera for his last birthday.  He loves to take pictures.  He does not always stop to take the pictures, we get some fast action photos!  Glad it is a digital camera so I don't waste money on developing.  His camera does not take the best quality pictures, but it is good for him.  Here is a few of the 100 pictures I downloaded tonight (it really  was 100.  I had not downloaded since Christmas!).  Some of these of course Doug or I took, but most are Elijah's work.

 

Summer Garden

We finally got our summer garden patch planted yesterday.  Every time we have tried something has happened. Elijah was so excited.  He is really into planting this year.  He has always loved to play in the dirt--what child doesn't.  Sarah was not impressed.  She was in her walker to keep her from eating the dirt and she did not think that was fair!  We planted tomatoes, strawberries(in a container), peppers, watermelon, cucumbers, lettuce, and carrots.  We also got pumpkins, but will wait a little bit to plant them so they ripen closer to fall.  Last year our pumpkins were ready in Aug.  Today it is lightly raining, so perfect timing!  The first thing Elijah did this morning was to jump up out of bed and run to the back porch to see if the plants were growing.  He said they were.  He was so cute.

Wordless Wednesday

Where is Elijah?

Weight Watchers

Well, I decided it was time to tackle this extra weight I am carrying around.  I do want to live longer and see my children grow up.  After Doug and I got married we started fertility treatments.  I guess I started eating for 2 at that point.  Blamed it on the hormones and reached my highest weight ever in the year it took us to conceive Elijah.  Every month there was a negative on the old pregnancy test I would resort to a two week binge of chocolate.  Needless to say I gained and gained.  Now pregnant, I lost 10 pounds the first 6 months.  Best diet I had ever been on.  I only gained 11 pounds, so technically I had a 1 pound pregnancy weight gain.  Not bad in my opinion.  Well, I nursed Elijah, so I had to have extra calories to support him and me, and he really loved the sweets.  So by the time I stopped nursing I was back up to pregnancy weight.  About that time we decided to start trying for another baby since it took us a year the last time, so back to eating for two again.  The doctor said I had to lose weight for the fertility treatments to work so I lost about 20 pounds.  We soon realized that I was not getting pregnant, most months I was not even ovulating.  We decided to look into adoption.  Now for those of you who have never been though an adoption let me share a few things with you.  You have to lay out your entire life to complete strangers and they question you on your life before getting approved.  They look at your finances, you have to have references, work references, fingerprints, criminal records, counseling on fertility, answer a 12 page questionnaire on why you would be good parents, and all kind of questions that I am not sure how it relates to adopting, but anyway that is another story.  It is stressful.  I handle stress with chocolate.  So back up the weight went.  During all of this my biological father had a stroke and I was trying to take care of him.  STRESS, STRESS, and more STRESS.  Back up to pregnancy weight, my highest ever.  After my father died I went and got diet pills, lost 25 pounds, and then we brought Sarah home.  Yoohoo, back to the chocolate.  Have you ever had to work with a case manager and convince them your child need therapies?  STRESS.  I fought and fought and ate chocolate. So now our lives seem to be calmer.  We have a routine.  Everyone seems to be adjusted, so I went to weight watchers.  Get there and they tell you about the programs, yes two.  You have to choose which one to do.  Man, I hate to decide, what if I decide wrong?  Ok, they did say if you did not like what you decide you can change, but I still think I might need chocolate to decide.  Then today I have to figure out how to count stuff, chocolate where are you?  Why did I eat all of the M&M's on Sunday prior to going to weight watchers?  Ok, I think I have decided on the point program they have, I think I have my points calculated right, and I think I have enough points to eat CHOCOLATE tonight!!  Weight watchers chocolate dessert, but CHOCOLATE!!!  Did I tell you that Sarah is have T&A and tube placement next week?  Did I tell you we are thinking of adopting again?  Did I tell you that Elijah is about to finish Mother's Day Out for the summer and I will now have to find childcare for him or lug him to Sarah's therapies?  Oh no, what have I done.  I knew weight loss meant stress gain.  GIVE ME CHOCOLATE!!!!

Summer Fun!

Elijah has been wanting us to clean out the pool for him so he could swim.  Well, we finally did it.  The water was freezing, but both kids enjoyed playing in it.   Elijah stayed in the pool for hours, in and out, and back in, etc.   I only let Sarah stay in for about 20 min.  Her little lips were quivering.  She pitched a royal fit when I took her out.  Kicking, screaming, signing more, screaming more.  She was soooooooo mad.  I made it up to her by cleaning up her swing and letting her swing until she nearly fell asleep.  I am so glad summer is here.  The kids love being outdoors.  Doug is working on them a play area.  We will have the pool, a sand box, and some play things outside.  It is going to be so fun.