~~MAYBE OUR HOUSE DOESN'T EAT SOCKS AFTER ALL~~

I have spent most of the morning...attempting to find mates to socks in our house! I was sure that our house ate socks for breakfast, lunch and dinner! EM has many pairs of socks, but the last 2 Sundays he has not had any dark socks to wear and his white socks seemed to have disappeared as well. SJ has been wearing "pairs of socks" one is pink the other purple! Sad truth is none of the kids seem to have any socks that match! Well, after cleaning out EM, SJ and MR's beds...in them and under them...EM now has 15 pairs of white socks...3 pairs of dark socks. All of MR's socks have mates and well SJ has some that match, but still has the Purple and pink set!! At least they look nice together! I think the new rule needs to be each night when you take your socks off they go into a laundry bag...so they make it to the washer at the same time!! We will see how that goes.
I just sent EM and SJ outside to play. It is a balmy 32 degrees here, so they should enjoy a good amount of time out there! Thankfully they play well together. As long as I can keep EM away from the sticks!
We are doing well. JM is now eating his cereal and veggies from a spoon. It is messy...and he isn't sure what to do with his tongue...but he does let it near his face and that is a huge improvment! He likes his whole milk and seems to be partial to squash! Hopefully he will start to explore other foods soon!
EM had a rough day at speech yesterday. His therapist asked if they expected things to get "worse, before the improve" I thought...not that I know of. Well thankfully when we got home he reported he had a couple of sores in his mouth. Mainly under his tongue. That seems to be the reason he wasn't using his tongue when he was talking! Hopefully that will improve soon.
I work tonight. Hopefully I will get a nap before I go in. JM is an early riser and I don't do well going from 6AM till 8 AM tomorrow! Wish me luck. All for now!

~The boys~

I know I said I wasn't going to buy EM any clothes for school next fall and I didn't, but friends from church brought a couple of shirts and a sweat shirt that he can use next year. The scary thing is the friend's boy is in the 5th grade and he just out grew these clothes! EM will start Kindergarten in the fall! Yes they are a bit big...but really not huge! He is going to be a tall boy! Can you tell he is PROUD!


This is a silly shot of JM...MR put this hat on him the other night! Too silly~

~MY FAVORITE SHOT~

After we got done with the photos, we tried to get one more of JM...I love this shot...his feet are just so cute! Who could not love that face! He is a special little guy!

~ A WEEK OF TAKING PHOTOS~

MR looking all grown up!

EM doing his best! He is getting more handsome all the time!

SJ always cute in pink!

We had our family photo taken this week as well. JM wasn't too sure about the place again. Maybe by the time he turns 2 he will be happier at the photo studio...or maybe we will need to have someone come and take them at our house! It will be nice to have a photo to show of all 6 of us. It took awhile to find a time to try it. All the surgeries kept us busy! Glad to have it done!

~JM's FIRST OFFICIAL PHOTO~

JM had his photo taken this morning. Never occurred to me that he would think we were at the Dr's office...but I'm sure that is what he thought was going on. Poor little thing. I got him there and he didn't want me to even put him down. We got this one that isn't too bad...by the time we came home he was much better.!! Maybe next time!

~UNEXPECTED FUN~

I have had a good couple of days and I guess it just reminds me that many times some of the "best" times are those unplanned special times!
We had been to church yesterday morning and I was just getting ready to head to the YMCA with the 3 oldest when the phone rang. A good friend from church laughed and said "this will come out of the blue...but are you up for a girls night out!" She had plans that had fallen through so a couple of women from church were going to go out...and enjoy an evening free of kids! Could I join them! Now I must say it has been a long time since I went out with the "girls" but I did and it was fun. We just talked and talked...for over 3 hours! It was nice to just be me and not the 4 kids mom right then! I know it is important to have those kind of nights...but since we adopted JM it just has not happened...so thank you girls it was fun!
Fast forward to today. SF is off this week, so I had planned to meet with my 92 year old "friend" and see if he needed anything. We have been trying to get a will in order as well as "funeral" arrangements. Not light-heartd topics of conversation but necessary none-the-less. So after I spent a couple of hours with him I brought him home with us. We had thought we would go get Chinese...but as it turned out when I got home the 4 munchkins were not in the mood to "go-out" so I made the dinner I had planned to make and we all stayed in! It was fun. SF, Alick and the kids played cribbage and other cardgames and we just enjoyed each others company. We are so blessed with our friends...friends of all ages! I'm so glad I got to spend sometime with some of my friends in the past couple days! OK all for now!

~SJ getting ready for school~~ It will be here soon~

SJ will start Kindergarten in the fall. She was along when I took MR to get some new pants and shirts a few weeks ago...so she got her jumper! Her size wont change between now and then, so I went ahead and bought it!(Thanks Grandma and Grandpa P for the birthday $$. She was so excited that she wants to wear it all the time! She did wear it to church a couple of weeks ago. Not sure I am ready to have my youngest girl in school...but I guess she is ready! Since EM will certainly grow between now and September, I will wait to buy him any school clothes!

JM~WALKING~VALENTINE'S DAY 2008

~Seems we are always BUSY~

Thought I would take a minute this evening to try and catch everyone up! It has been a busy time since we got home with JM...and doesn't seem to slow down much. JM is 18 months old today! Hard to believe. It has been less than a year ago that we first saw his face...and I can not imagine life without him. We had a check up at the cleft palate clinic today. They were overall pleased with how he is doing. I was not too surprised to find out that he has a small fistula. With all he went through after his palate repair I think I would have been more surprised to find out he didn't have one! At this point we will watch it for the next 6 months and see what happens. Their is a chance that it could close on its own...with his luck I wont count on that. The other thing is that he will most likely need a pharyngeal flap done at some point. The surgeon thinks that if the fistula doesn't close that it could be repaired at that time. For now we will let JM be a little 18 month old and enjoy being loved by his family! That sounds like a great Idea to me!
We had a busy weekend. Friday night I helped at the SHOW HOPE booth for the SCC concert. It was an awesome experience. It had been advertised to bring "change" for orphans. They had selected a family to receive a grant at the end of the evening. If they collected at least $2000. then that would be matched and the family would get a grant of $4000. Any money collected above that would go toward grants for other families. Well to the amazement of many they collected $11,600. That is the most they have collected so far at any concert! It was really amazing to witness. I recommend getting involved with the concerts if SCC is coming to an area near you!
Saturday we met our friends and celebrated Chinese New Year! The kids had a great time. SF's school had the grand opening celebration. SF ended up going to that. We decided 4 kids listening to speeches probably was not a good plan!
Sunday was really cold again, so we went to church but then stayed inside. This has been a really cold winter so far. I think I am getting ready for spring! Thankfully SF has next week off. We are all looking forward to that!
Guess this is it for now. Hugs to all!

CELEBRATING CHINESE NEW YEAR~THE YEAR OF THE RAT~

~3 MONTHS~ HOW CAN THAT BE~

It amazes me to look at the calendar and realize that JM has been our son for 3 months now! The time has gone quickly and we have been so busy that it has flown by. It is so special to have him home with us!
It was NOV. 5th when we held him for the first time. He is such a special little guy! He melts the hearts of all those that get to know him! I am sure he is going to be an amazing little boy!
In those 3 months he has had 3 surgeries...I guess 4 if you count the taking him back to surgery on the 28th of January to stop the bleeding. It has been a long week. Things are slowly improving. He had a fever on Monday, but none since. I am nervous about even typing that...I don't want a repeat! He is gaining strength each day. He is walking more. But I can tell that he lost a lot of energy with the blood loss from his last surgery!
We will see the surgeon again on the day the JM turns 18 months old!That will be Feb. 12th. I am so thankful that his lip and palate have been repaired and he can now learn to talk with the advantage of having them fixed so quickly! I look forward to some calmer days! Warm weather! and fun with all the kids.
Thanks for all the prayers...We know we are surrounded by love!
My parents made it back to Ohio this afternoon. I'm sure they will sleep well in their own beds tonight! We have been so fortunate to have so much help since we came home from China this time! We are blessed with amazing family! Hugs to all!

~I THINK THIS WALKING WILL BE FUN~~

~4th ANNIVERSARY OF SJS GOTCHA DAY~

4 years ago SJ became part of our family! It seems longer ago in some ways and that she has always been with us in others! We have been so blessed!!

~~GETTING THINGS BACK TO NORMAL~~

    Just a quick note today to let you all know that things are starting to get back to normal around here. It will take quite a while for JM's Hemoglobin to return to normal...but he is looking better each day. He seemed happy to get back in his own bed yesterday afternoon when we got home. He is taking his food from the nuby cup really well now! I guess that is one advantage of having a child that has only wanted to eat liquids to this point. We don't have to fight with him, because he wants to eat things he can not have! He can eat what he wants...and all he wants is his nuby cup with cereal, formula and Stage 2 veggies! So after he heals up from this we will address the fact that he needs to eat other things...for now we will be happy that he is content!

    He slept well last night. I woke him up about every 3 hours to keep his pain meds on schedule. The only time he gets mad is when he needs medicine. Not too fond of that!! I can not blame him!

    I posted a couple of photos I took this am. None of them are very good...but it does show he is active! I tried to take a movie...but took it sideways by accident. Maybe another day!

    All for now!