Gone

This is what our yard looks like 24 hours after we went out and played in the snow yesterday. It's gone! You can barely see what's left of our fort and snowman. Nice day, I wore short sleeves and had the windows cracked open.

Did I dream it???

Say it like it is!

I hardly ever read anymore. And when I do it's in snatches. In consequence, it takes a long time for me to finish a book now a days. Anyway. Today was so nice, I had the windows open and listening to all that snow melting so fast it sounded like rain coming off the roof. So I sat in the beanbag by the window and read a book today while the girls played nearby. Angie saw me reading and asked if I was reading a book, I said yes, she said "you aren't saying anyfing! Ohhh, are you weading wif your bwains?" Yup, that's it.

At bedtime we've been reading the old story Caps for Sale. It's from the 1940's, in it a peddler tried to sell his caps for 50 cents a cap. He calls, "caps for sale, 50 cents a cap" Said all that to say Amy was 'reading' it to herself today, (outloud NOT using her brains) and she was saying: "sixty dollars! sixty dollars who wants a cap for sixty dollars?" It's just possible that a hat from the 1940's would now cost around $60 so she was just adjusting for the times. :-)

March weather madness

It rained for 2 days and then it turned to snow this morning and it snowed very heavily all day. We have around 9 inches of snow but it's melting fast because well spring was already here, the ground is warm and saturated with all the rain. It's a slushy mess, but we let the girls go out this afternoon and play in the snow. Brent built his first snowman ever. My flowers are very cold and my rose bushes are bowed down by all the snow, I hope they don't snap. it's supposed to freeze tonight. It's 7:30 at night and it's STILL snowing. Crazy.

Would you, could you, in a box? -Apologies to Dr. Suess

Playing with my new camera

Now who says the IRS doesn't have a heart?

Good grief, they think of everything!

tax credit for kidnapped child

Orphan alert

D: Abraham , Boy , 9 years old

Abraham is a cute 9-year-old boy who has had a rough start in life. He is active and outgoing. He enjoys many things like bike riding, soccer, basketball, swimming and gardening. He is a bit forgetful at times and needs help refocusing. He also has some anger issues to deal with. Abraham would love to have a patient and flexible new family to call his own. Adoption Advocates International has excellent materials available to help prepare families for adopting older children and children with special needs. Please contact Adoption Advocates International at info@adoptionadvocates.org

ID: Henok Sibling , Girls 8 and 10 years, Boy 14 years

This is a special sibling group. They have overcome a lot, and are always smiling. Henok has a prosthetic leg but you couldn't tell it by looking at him. He doesn't let it slow him down. He always has a smile that lights up the room, and is really sweet. He has a great sense of humor and an easy laugh. He enjoys being the center of attention. Haregowin is a lovely girl. She is full of life and a great student. She recently received an award for being a top student in her class. Haregowin loves to be involved and will try anything. She is great at sports. She loves soccer and jumping rope. Her English is coming along, and she understands quite a bit. She likes to write letters, play cards, and do crafts. Frehiwot has a very sweet disposition. She smiles often and loves to play. She has many friends and is well liked. These children would make a great addition to a flexible and caring family. Adoption Advocates International has excellent materials available to help prepare families for adopting older children and siblings. Please contact Adoption Advocates International at info@adoptionadvocates.or

Kite flying

We took the girls to a ball field across the street and flew some kites today. What fun!

Somebody's got nothing better to do

Seriously! We get a stack of letters like this from our insurance company once or twice a week. This stack came in the mail yesterday. No we don't go the the Dr 20 times a week. They just send us that many letters a week letting us know any little thing that is going on. I much prefer a once a month statement. What a waste of paper.

The most refreshing time of the year; The first day of Spring

For the ground that has drunk the rain that has often fallen on it,
and that produces vegetation useful to those it is cultivated for,
receives a blessing from God

-Hebrews 6:7

credit where it's due, these pictures were taken by Brent's dad at our first country home in Huntsville, Tx

Lucy has a chip on her shoulder

Modern Pirate Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

It's a new giveaway on one of my favorite sites, check it out. A cute "pirate dress" for a girl. Her pictures are always amazing too.


Modern Pirate Frock GIVEAWAY!!!!

Reasone #46 that girls are better than boys

We get to shop in the girl's section AND the boys' section for clothes.

It's a Star Wars Clone Wars shirt.

bargains

Just had to show off my new shoes I bought last night at Rue 21 for FIFTY CENTS! Oh, I'm a good 5 inches taller when I put them on too. :-) I thought of you Felicia!

haircut

Lucy sporting her new unauthorized haircut. Ahem!

Bubbles

Beautiful day today. The girls had fun blowing bubbles.

love this picture. Amy and her aunt faith playing dress up this afternoon.

You too can come home from the hospital looking like this

Karianne went ahead and had a little work done while she stayed in the hospital with Amy last night

Home!

We are home from the hospital! Amy is so happy to be home, so am I! Last night Karianne and I stayed the night with Amy. The girls had a lot of fun together. I don't think I got a wink of sleep. Next door to us was a very large noisy crowd having a lot of fun- all day and well into the night. Didn't expect to have a problem with noisy neighbors in the hospital.

When it was time to bed discharged Amy got her IV out. The nurse told her she'd be taking it out, Amy didn't want her too, she didn't want any more pain! The nurse said she had to take it out anyway, it may hurt a little but then it would feel better. Amy had tears well up in her eyes and put her hand in front of her face and turned her head. She said bravely, "I not going too look, I not going to look so I won't cry." it just about made me and the nurse cry! She got it out and it didn't seem to hurt her at all. Yeah! then she had to get the dressing changed on her back. She REALLY didn't want anyone to mess with her back, she told me, "momma I will cry and cry a lot!" We said oh please don't cry baby, or we'll cry too!" She was very brave and winced a little but didn't cry. SHe liked telling everyone that she has a BIG bandaid on her back. It's like a badge of honor that she withstood a BIG owie bravely and got a big bandaid to prove it instead of those ordinary little bandaids. She IS a very brave little girl.

Sisters

I brought the girls up to the hospital today to visit Amy for the first time. They had missed each other and it was so good to see them all together again.


I was home with the girls all day, had a nice day with them. In the evening some sweet friends brought us pizza and a giant coloring book with the Disney Fairies. So we had a color-fest all evening. Great fun.



Amy is walking a bit now, hoping this evening she can get on her medications for pain by mouth so she can go home this weekend.

Thursday

"I will trust in Him.
And again, Here I am with the children God gave me"
-Hebrews 2:13

Some more pictures from Yesterday.

Amy and me before surgery.


Our camp in the waiting room


Amy in her PICU room


Amy had a rough night trying to get on top of the pain, still having a lot of pain issues today. She has a spinal headache. I don't even know how a 3 year old deals with that. I had one from spinal fluid leaking after Lucy was born and it was so extremely painful. Pray for her. She's supposed to get up and start walking tonight. We'll see.

Brent and I are exhausted. I didnt realize how stressed and tired I was until I got home last night (Brent stayed the night in the hospital with Amy). When I got home I found out Lucy had gotten a haircut and I was devastated and just wanted to sit down and sob because someone decided to cut Lucys hair! Continue to pray for all of us, thank you!


PS it snowed this morning, a lot! Crazy.

She's out

Amy came out of surgery about an hour and a half ago. She was in surgery for over 7 hours! I am still waiting to have a good talk with the Dr about the success of the surgery but from what I understand, he removed a bone spur that was splitting her spinal cord in two separated cords untethered her spinal cord that was attached to bone at the base of her spine. He also made a sack to try and make the cords one again, I didn't know he was planning on doing that.
The first notice we had that Amy was out of surgery was an orderly (sp) asking us to follow him. We had watched doctors all day long come out and talk to the families and tell them how it went, we didn't get that. The orderly asked us to follow him and he'd take us to Amy. We started breaking down our camp that we had been living in all day and he told us calmly that Amy was a "little" restless and wanting momma and daddy. I left Brent to get all our stuff and I took off to find Amy. As soon as I got through the Recovery room doors I heard Amy just wailing and It's all I could do not to break into a run to get to her. I thought she was just being confused from coming out of anthesethia. She calmed down a little when she saw me, but then started wailing again telling us her back hurt. Poor baby, I just melted. They gave her some morphine and got her to sleep. SHe's been in a heavy sleep since then. We need to keep her flat throughout the evening to keep the spinal fluid where it should be. Keep praying that she has a restful night- and us too!

And we wait

We are in hour 4 of Amy's surgery. The last update we got was 2 hours ago and we were told the Dr was still making his way through all of the scar tissue on Amy's back from her previous surgery. He hadn't even gotten to the spine yet. We were here at 5:30 this morning. Amy was so excited, you'd think it was Christmas the way she was acting. She didn't know exactly what was going on, she just knew the Dr was going to work on her back and she was going to get to stay in the hospital for a few days with Momma and Daddy. That makes her feel special and that's all she needed to act special. She didn't stop grinning from ear to ear and making everyone act until they gave her some "dopey medicine" then she was still grinning but she couldn't keep her head up anymore. They didn't stick her with any needles until they put her to sleep, thank goodness for that.



Brent and I are sitting in the waiting room. We were the first to arrive this morning, we've seen this waiting room fill up and empty again. The candy stripers left for the day because almost all of the surgeries are over. We have to answer the phone at the desk now until the doctors call. I've seen a lot of strange protocol at this hospital so why shouldn't waiting parents answer the desk phone?

Please keep praying.

Amy

Amy is 3, she was born in Wuwei, Gansu China. She became a forever member of our family last summer.
Amy is scheduled to have surgery on her spine Wednesday. She has
Spina Bifida, a condition where a child is born with problems with the
spinal cord because it was not completely formed in the womb. The
Spinal Cord and the vertebrae are not fused closed as they should be
so nerves poke through spaced between the bones instead of down
through the lower body. Spina Bifida can cause no problems or severe
problems like no movement from the waist down, depending on the size
of the openings. Amy has a slight limp which we now know is from her
Spina Bifia and not her foot that is smaller than the other. Her
spinal cord is tethered to a bone spur at the base of her spine
instead of free floating as ours are. Without surgery, she could loose
her ability to walk very soon. She has gone through a growth spurt
lately and we are starting to notice problems due to the spinal cord
starting to stretch. We have had several doctors look at her MRIs and
they have no idea how she is able to walk as it is. We are anxious
for her to have surgery and nervous at the same time. She had surgery
on her back when she was one ( we followed her surgery then and decided then that she was OURS!) and there is a lot of scar tissue the doctors will have to work around this time.
She is having surgery at 7 in the morning tomorrow.
We covet your prayers for Amy.

our Amy

Happy Birthday Angie

Angie turned 4 yesterday. We took her to Build a Bear where she picked out a pink Monkey whom she named Ariel. We then went out to her favorite- The Incredible Pizza Company. She couldn't decide if she wanted a Barbie or a Little Mermaid cake so she got both a Barbie Mermaid cake. She had a great day. At the end of the day she sighed a big sigh and said, "I can't wait to turn 5!"

raw talent

I was trying to get the girls out the door this morning. Dress, do their hair and get their shoes on. The last thing I usually do is get my shoes on and head out the door. Everything was ready to go, I grabbed my shoes, put the right shoe on and then the left- WHAT! Who in the world did that to my shoe?? One of my Little Einsteins are experimenting with knots. I had to find another pair of shoes. I couldn't even find the ends of the shoelaces. I still haven't found time to sit down and untie my shoe. Departures from the Peak house went from "on time" to "delayed" just that fast.

Orphan alert

I heard about these precious children from The Shepherd's Crook. If interested please contact TSC

Karin

BOYD

We want to let you know about a little boy in China whose time is running out. The agency is calling him Boyd. He is eight years old and is said to be deaf, though the full extent of his hearing impairment is uncertain. (It is probable that his hearing impairment is profound, if not complete, because he is still non-verbal; however, as we recommend with all adopted children, it would be advisable to have him thoroughly tested once home.) There was a family pursuing Boyd's adoption, but they have decided that they are unable to continue with it. The agency is hoping to find another family very soon so that Boyd's paperwork doesn't have to be returned. If you might be interested in pursuing Boyd's adoption or would like more information, especially if you are paper-ready, please click here (or write to boyd-info@theshepherdscrook.org).

CALEB

This adorable and brilliant little seven year old speaks only of being adopted by a family in the United States. He is an active, extroverted child who prides himself on the fact that he understands English and that he is a faster learner than his best friend Steven, who is also learning English. When asked which holiday was his favorite, he quickly responded, "Christmas!"

This detailed, active, and loving little boy is missing his left hand but functions perfectly in his present environment. A number of families have expressed interest in Caleb but none has followed through, and we are concerned that his time is running out. If you might be interested or would like more information, click here (or write to caleb-info@theshepherdscrook.org).

SIBLINGS

We have learned of a sibling group of four, all girls, in Colombia. We are praying fervently that a family will come forward to pursue their adoption so that they will not have to be split up. The eldest girl will be twelve in March; the second one just turned eight in January; the third one will be eight in November; and the youngest one will be five in October. They are healthy girls. If you might be interested or would like more information, click here (or write to sibling-girls@theshepherdscrook.org).

Please join us in praying for all of these children and their urgent needs, and we beseech you to search your hearts and pray about whether or not God might be calling you to be a family for any of these children.