Saturday, July 31, 2010

Square One

I'm frustrated and disappointed about the whole adoption process. We are essentially back to square one :(

Our worker got an e-mail back from the 2yo boy/1yo girl sib set in another state and she says that there are now a couple of relatives that have popped up. They may only want one of the two children. We aren't going to pursue these little ones any longer, it sounds like the case is still in limbo.

SOOO now with the twin boys/little girl sib set most likely staying with their current foster parents we are starting all over again. We haven't gotten any new profiles from our worker and we haven't found any kiddos on any other states website that have caught our eye. So we wait and wait and wait...have I said I'm not a patient person?

I may just be feeling extra frustrated today as I'm sitting here with a sick little girl (Lexy still has a fever and sore throat), tomorrow will be better :)

Friday, July 30, 2010

Fever, X-Ray and EKG Oh MY!

This little beauty...
gave me a hug this morning and I was shocked when it felt like I was hugging a fire! She had not complained of not feeling well even one time!! I took her temp. and it was 101.4. She told me that her throat has hurt for two days and her forehead hurts (a headache). I gave her ibuprofen and called the doctor. She hadn't felt well for two days and hadn't even mentioned it to me...I was so sad and felt like a bad mommy! I told her that my job is to take care of her and I really want her to tell me from now on when she is feeling icky :(

Off to the doctor we went this afternoon. I assumed that she had strep throat with the sore throat, headache and fever but the rapid strep test came back negative. The doctor said that a viral sickness has been going around that starts with fever and headache and then turns to a rash in a couple of days. He said her throat really wasn't that red. No medicine, it has to resolve on its own, motrin for fever/pain.

So we start talking about the fact that I just scheduled Lexy for allergy testing (her appt. is in Sept) and I ask if the way she gets so red in the face and fatigued when running/playing is something that has to do with allergies/asthma and should I talk to the allergy dr. about that. The dr. says that usually that would be more cardio/pulmonary related and starts listening to her heart. After a little bit he says that there is a murmer that he hasn't heard before and when he layed his fingers over her heart the beating was actually moving his fingers. He decided that he wanted to take a closer look to make sure there isn't a problem so he ordered a chest x-ray and EKG. We had to do it today b/c he said that the problem he is looking for is only detectable when there is extra fluid in the body, the person has been fatigued by running, etc. or when running fever so he wanted it done while she was running fever. So we headed to the hospital, Lexy did very well with all her tests and she loved looking at her x-ray. I asked her if I could take a picture of her with all her EKG wires hooked up for the blog and she said "no way mommy" which made the nurse laugh :-)

I'm not worrying yet, this pediatrician is notorious for being too careful and ordering tests that end up showing nothing (like Brooke's heart tests last year). But I want to be on the safe side and I will have every test done that he thinks needs done, I would never forgive myself if I didn't do everything and something was wrong in the end! I figure we'll hear something about the results of the tests next week after the dr. looks them over.

I'm really wondering about that strep test though. Lexy, Mike and I all have sore throats tonight. Hopefully none of us get worse over the weekend, I really don't want to make an ER trip.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Lexy's Club

After asking me to help her set up her tent this afternoon, Lexy came in and asked Daddy "do you want to be a part of my club?". Being the good Daddy that he is he said "sure" and they had their club meeting :-)

When they were done with their meeting they played a couple of board games...


Mike's not loving his new summer hours at work but the girls and I love having more time with him in the afternoon/evenings! Brooke, Lexy and I are truly blessed to have such a great daddy and husband!

Friday, July 23, 2010

Camping

I've learned the hard way in the last 24 hours that I LOVE my air conditioning :-)

Last night we had an impromptu family campout in our living room after losing power in part of our house (the part with the window air unit). At first we were told it was on our side but I'm sure glad that the emergency 24 hour electrician that we called never called back (so we didn't have to pay him) b/c later in the evening we found out that the problem was indeed on the city side. When we called back to the city to say they needed to fix it we were told that "the crews were out all night last night with routine maintenance and they are too tired to come out tonight so since your problem is not a fire hazard you will need to wait until the morning" UGH!!! So we got to experience our first (and hopefully last) family campout...in a hot hot living room.

The crew finally showed up at 8:30 this morning and had to put in a whole new service, I'm just glad to have air again!!!! And really glad that it wasn't something that we had to come up with money for!

Hmmm

Well it's been an interesting couple of days.

The little girl (1yo) we inquired about...well I'm not sure why she is even on a waiting child website. Her worker replied that she would love to receive our homestudy but that the foster parents as well as a relative are interested in adoption so they would be considered first. So why would we submit our homestudy??? We are not in this to "steal" a child from someone that already loves her :(

The twin boys/little girl sib set...there will be a BIS staffing at the end of Aug./beginning of Sept. BUT the reason for the wait is that the foster parents have now decided that they might be interested in adoption so we are now waiting for their homestudy to be done. Our worker says there are some "concerns with the family" but again we are not in this to steal kids away from loving families...so this one we will just let play out and see what is decided.

2 yo boy/1 yo sister sibling set...our worker has agreed to contact their worker to find out more information and send our homestudy. Our worker expressed that she would rather us adopt from our state but that she understands us looking elsewhere.

I'm feeling a little discouraged but still hanging in there. Only God knows the plan for our family and we will see his plan in his time. We are still excited!

Thursday, July 22, 2010

Cousin playtime

Ashley and Toby came over for a little playtime while CJ & Jess went to an appointment the other day.

Lexy and Ashley have really started to play well together even though Ashley is a few years older than Lexy. They enjoyed playing restaurant, tumbling class and with Lexy's whole collection of littlest pet shop stuff!!!


Toby just doesn't know what to think about his Aunt Mimi!



I love that my kids are growing up close with at least some of their cousins!!

Tuesday, July 20, 2010

Adoption Update

STILL have not heard anything about a best interest staffing date for the twin boys/little girl sib set. We did hear a couple of weeks ago that they are still waiting on the court documents and our worker thinks they may be waiting on another homestudy :( Did I mention I'm not a very patient person????

We have found another sibling set that we are asking our worker to put our homestudy in on. They are from another state, a little 2 year old boy and his 1 year old sister. The little girl has some delays that we are asking for more information on.

Tonight I found another little girl in another state to inquire about, I sent her worker an e-mail. She's 1 and doesn't come with any siblings but Oh so cute :-)

Adopting from a different state was something I wasn't sure we would explore b/c of the extra paperwork, waiting and traveling involved but we just aren't getting any profiles to even consider from here and we realised that just maybe our child(ren) aren't here so we decided to widen our search. Only God knows where our little ones are so we are being open to whatever may come our way :-)

I'm just so ready to move forward with all of this and find OUR child(ren)!!! I was so relieved when we stopped fostering b/c it meant that we could finally be away from all the sitting and waiting (for workers, courts, decisions, etc.)...now we're right back in the thick of it :( But I DO believe that we will find our child(ren) soon and it will all be worth it :-)

Friday, July 16, 2010

Chicago 2010





Highlights of our trip...
  • Excited for an early morning departure from home, we actually got gone with only two bags and three carry ons!!!! Of course Brooke felt like she didn't bring ANYTHING!!
  • Delayed at the airport
  • Lexy's first airplane ride!
  • A SCARY and EXPENSIVE taxi ride to our hotel, Brooke & Lexy's first
  • No lunch and an EXPENSIVE first dinner in Chicago
  • A walk to the nearest grocery store for snacks, etc. so we don't starve!
  • A VERY COLD HOTEL POOL...FREEZING!
  • Beautiful scenery
  • Waiting in the heat for an hour to get into Shedd Aquarium
  • Watching Lexy's face at the seal, dolphin & Beluga whale show :-)
  • Lexy dressing up and playing like a penguin
  • Hot & Tired..."do we have to walk anymore?", "how much further?"
  • Watching fireworks from our hotel window after having a drunk woman flick spiders on us on the pool balcony :(
  • Learning all about city buses - another first for Brooke & Lexy
  • A mall & a children's museum all in one place, who could ask for more!!!
  • Lexy loves to play pretend at the children's museum...so does Brooke :)
  • Brooke tries to feed Lexy to a dinosaur :) Lexy tried to soak Brooke in the water room :)
  • a purse for Brooke's souvenir, stuffed animal for Lexy ...surprise, surprise
  • Trying a Chicago deep dish pizza - we are not fans :(
  • Getting said pizza free when another hotel guest takes ours by mistake!
  • Beautiful views from the pier of the water and the city
  • Riding the biggest ferris wheel we've ever seen, what a view!
  • A trip to the zoo...loving the animals, not the heat!
  • An unexpected scenic ride on the city bus...note to self, buses don't stop at the same places both ways!
  • Brooke and I saw LOTS of stores that we would have liked to shop at, maybe someday!
  • POOL STILL FREEZING! Lexy learns how to play marco polo
  • Lots of family fun, giggles and memories!!!
  • Another crazy and expensive taxi trip to the airport
  • Another flight delay, wild kids/crazy mom in the seats in front of us
  • Good to be home!!

Brooke said that she absolutely loved Chicago and wants to go to school there for college. I knew if we showed her a big city she would be hooked! Do we dare show her New York or LA?? Lexy liked Chicago but it was a lot of go go go for her, she's a much more laid back kinda gal. Mike managed well with all the people and craziness but I'm pretty sure he won't be suggesting going back anytime soon :-) For me, I've always loved the big city life and thought as a kid that I would end up living in one but I sure wouldn't want to raise kids in a city that big and really it was just TOO much hustle and bustle...guess old age changes our views!! :-) All in all it was a great vacation that exposed us all to things we hadn't experienced before and gave us a chance to connect as a family!