Happy New Year!

The Promise

The Promise
Tracy Chapman

If you wait for me then
I'll come for you
Although I've traveled far
I always hold a place for you in my heart

If you think of me
If you miss me once in awhile
Then I'll return to you
I'll return and fill that space in your heart

Remembering Your touch
Your kiss
Your warm embrace
I'll find my way back to you
If you'll be waiting

If you dream of me
Like I dream of you
In a place that's warm and dark
In a place where I can feel the beating of your heart

Remembering Your touch
Your kiss
Your warm embrace
I'll find my way back to you

If you'll be waiting

I've longed for you
and I have desired
To see your face your smile
To be with you wherever you are

Remembering Your touch
Your kiss
Your warm embrace
I'll find my way back to you

Please say you'll be waiting

Together again
It would feel so good to be In your arms
Where all my journeys end
If you can make a promise
If it's one that you can keep
I vow to come for you If you wait for me
And say you'll hold A place for me in your heart.

We miss you Isaac and we love you.
Your family... who will wait for you, at your home in the USA.

Christmas Eve tomorrow

We are on the eve of the eve of Christmas today. We had a nice evening over at at friends house where we ate, drank, and we were merry. It's always quite an ordeal to get everyone ready and loaded to go to someones house, but every time we have a get together with these friends I just feel so good. It's so nice to actually have OUR ENTIRE family invited somewhere! And not only were we invited, but several other families, and there children were also invited! All the families there had something in common, African American, African, or Haitian heritage or a mix of one or more is in all of our families. It's amazing the way that God brings people together. They never make us feel as if there home is too crowded because we are there and when we leave they are already planning the next time that we get together. I must admit we haven't been the best hosts in the world, we rarely have company outside of family, but I think that my New Years resolution is going to do so! Because it feels so right! This really and truly is the spirit of the season, togetherness!
Isaac's Christmas pictures came via email this week. Mr. Isaac is looking more and more like a toddler each month and his face really looks like it's filling out! He always looks so happy, like he has such a good spirit. I miss you Isaac! My best friend (since I was 12) mailed me a special gift that arrived today. A key chain that has a small screen. I can upload up to 60 pictures on it! I have always been jealous of friends key chains with their children on them, for me, not so practical, so this was the perfect gift! I was able to upload an entire montage of "ISAAC" and take him with me to the party to pass around. Between Isaac's adorable pictures and Angeline's cuteness, there was quite a lot of awwwing going on.
Angeline is doing well post surgery. We broke down last night after two virtually sleepless nights and gave her pain meds. She doesn't seem in horrible pain at night really. But she is so restless and can't seem to get comfortable at all. She takes a good nap during the day, but then was up all night long! (LITERALLY!) So last night with the pain medicine she did much better and was so chipper all day. She is clapping all the time now, which means that she wants to do patty cake. And when you ask her a question she shakes her head NO NO NO NO NO! (No matter what you ask... ) So it's really funny to ask her things like... "Want to go see your Daddy?" and then she shakes her head NO NO NO NO NO! (And we all laugh... err...well the kids and I all laugh! It's all about giving Daddy a hard time ya know!)
As for Christmas eve and Christmas this year, it's going to be a bit different than Christmases of the past. In past years, we lived closer to family, so we always had our family tradition, of going to Grandpa Pat's during Christmas Eve (my dad) and then we would spend Christmas just with our family, then to Nana's house for Christmas afternoon... last year now that we live out of state and only near my sister, her family and my Aunt Betsy... we planned a large Mexican feast for Christmas Day and we had about half the family members down with the stomach flu, including me...
So this year we scrapped the big meal idea... and on Christmas we are going to concentrate on just being together and making our own new traditions. I am not exactly sure what they are going to be... my sister and Aunt are doing their own things this year as well... so it's going to be interesting. Some of my friends dream about this kind of Christmas, where they have no plans, and don't have to be anywhere at any certain time, no rushing around, not a bit of chaos... but for me, it feels slightly Non-Christmastime-ish. ?
So the next post will be all about our new Holiday traditions. :)
I hope that you are having wonderful Merry days.
Merry Christmas
Sarah

Angeline's 6th surgery... OUCH!

Lauren and Angeline have a very special bond and Lauren, Bean is missing you so much big sister!!! Here is the long awaited surgery update. There is another new post below with good news, so please take a moment to read it. :)

This was probably the least worrisome, yet most painful surgery to date. I can say that in retrospect. When we arrived the put numbing cream on Angeline's ankles and let it sit for nearly an hour. I opted to stay in the room with her. As much as I knew that I didn't want to see what they were going to do to my sweet baby, I knew that standing outside the door and worrying would have been much harder. And Angeline needs me to be strong for her. (Another parent of a child with SB reminded me of that, thank you, you know who you are... :)

So they said that sometimes the babies cry a little... even those who may not have much feeling and to be prepared. The surgery didn't require her to be asleep, or even given pain meds ahead of time, just the numbing cream. I asked about a local and they said that they do give a local right after they cut the Achille's tendon. They aren't able to do it before they cut because it actually causes the sight to swell and then it would be harder to find the tendon and the cutting would be more invasive. They explained to me what they would be doing and they had me explain it back. In the room was Me, Angeline, the head Doc, a student doc, and the head nurse... like a tag team the doc cut the back of her ankle, then some kind of tool was used to "hook" in the cut and pull the tendon forward, then they just cut it... quickly the "local" is passed over and the big shot goes right into the wound... HOLY CRAP.

Angeline HOWLED and CRIED and WAS SO UPSET more than ever. More than when they pulled the staples out of her head... it was horrific. So after the first ankle, and she was so upset, she continued to cry through the 2nd ankle, then the casts...

So they did the 1st ankle, wrapped it, 2nd ankle, wrapped it, then they went back to the 1st and manipulated it, and cast her whole leg... repeat with 2nd. I thought for sure in 2006 they would have a better way of doing this. So here comes the saddest part of all.

Right before the doc "cut" he said he is 110% sure that she will need the "major" surgery on her ankles... we are putting her through the castings and cuttings so that she will have enough movement of her feet to provide enough SKIN to close the sight once they do the big ankle surgery on her club feet. I am sad for my baby that she has to go through more and more and more.

The good news is that Angeline definitely has feeling in her ankles. There is NO DOUBT that she can feel something and I would gage by her screaming that it is MORE than something!

Many Blessings and thanks for praying for Bean.

Sarah

You are NOT moving to Haiti Sarah!!!

Disclaimer: That is not our car and I will be posting Bean's surgery update soon!!!



The strangest chain of events YET TO DATE.

So yesterday I checked on the USCIS website and I saw that they are getting to close to the processing date for Angeline's application to extend her Visa. I was having a moment of type A panic and planning and I thought that I would let my Mom know that we might need a loan from her. I was looking at the bank statements and I realized that we would need quite a bit of money to get us (myself, Angeline and most of the kids) to Haiti. And so I thought that I would give her the head's up. She promptly informed me that I WAS NOT MOVING TO HAITI. (This was and has been the back up plan if USCIS denied Angeline's Visa application, we would have 10 days to move to Haiti to wait for her adoption to be finished.) SO... my Mom informs me that she has been reading some news about Haiti lately and that it's just NOT safe there at all. And that we would alert the media if we were denied the extension etc. Ok Mom... it always feels good to have my Mom "get my back". If you think I am the kind of woman that takes no crap from anyone... you should meet my mother. Her motto is and always has been: "Hard as Nails"... lol.
So last night Robert and I decide that we are making a walmart run to buy a couple more last minute thought gifts for the kids and we needed to stock up on stocking stuffers etc. So we took our time, did our shopping... when we came out, we loaded up the truck... and saw that there was a note on the windshield. "Would you like to sell your truck? Call me: JOE... 555-1212"

Odd. Oh well... threw the hand written note in the car and drove across the street to Taco Time to grab a burrito before our next stop at Target...

They hand us the food and we drive out of the drive through... and POW BANG SMASH!!!! The window on the drivers side of the truck EXPLODES and glass flies everywhere. HOLY CRUD BUCKETS! (Or other not so nice words.) We pull over to the corner of a parking lot so Robert can get out and dust off the glass that is shattered in a zillion pcs. all over him. I call my sister (former attorney, she has all the answers lol), she tells us to call the police. Finally the police show up and turns out someone SHOT at us, with a GUN and it exploded the window! We aren't the only ones. The cops believe that maybe there is someone driving around with a pellet gun shooting out car windows while people drive around. Well that's great.

Now I just want to go home. Forget Target. No one EVER shot at me in Haiti. NOT EVEN with a SLING SHOT. Here I am in "middle of no where" WA state and people are driving around shooting just a few days before Jesus has his birthday? What the H-E double hockey sticks?

So then today the guy comes to fix the glass and I check my email... prayers are answered... they have APPROVED Angeline's Visa extension... AMEN. Thank you. THANK YOU ALL FOR PRAYING! We aren't sure how long we will have, we asked for 18 months but we "heard" that they typically give 3-6 months. So we made need to automatically re-apply... but since the docs asked for 12-18 months MINIMUM. We are praying that our government pulls through for our angel baby.

Be happy.
Sarah

Merry Christmas Ya'll!

This was my very last picture this year. Merry Christmas Ya'll! If I get motivated at some point I will post more pictures, I was blessed with great customers again this year and I worked maybe just a bit too much! I always say that I am going to limit the number that I am doing, but it was a busy 10-12 hours a day there near the end! I thought this was the perfect non-traditional picture to go out on. :)

I have lots of updates and some are easier to talk about than others. I still feel fairly fragile and even just "thinking" about the days ahead leaves me teary eyed. (Which is SO NOT ME.) So bear with me here.

Lauren and Tyler have arrived safely in PHX. We had a nice early Christmas celebration with them last night and my Aunt Betsy came over and gave the children wonderful gifts of computer games and new journals for everyone! (Love it!) We also celebrated Tyler's birthday, which is on Monday and we ate too much pizza, ice cream and cake. I miss Ty and Lauren already. Lulu and Dom are spending the night at my sisters... so with only 7 kids at home, it almost seems strange! LOL

You may have seen the news about Seattle... there was a big bad wind storm and there are lots of people without power. We had planned to go down today (since we had to take Lauren and Tyler to the airport) and we were going to stay until Angeline was done with her surgery on Monday or whenever they keep her till. We were going to take some of the kids with us and make it a fun weekend. But since there are so many people without power, and many businesses without power... everyone is at the hotels and there likely wasn't much to "do" there this weekend. So maybe another time. We have just spend the weekend at home doing Christmas crafts and watching movies. So Monday early we will drive down for Angeline's surgery.

I spoke with many people this week about the surgery. I was worried that it was a bit premature to do this now. But I am confident that this is the best thing to do at this time and I am trusting the docs to do what they know best. The biggest key that I learned was just to make sure that she get's pain meds before we leave the hospital and that it would be a good idea to keep the meds coming on schedule instead of "waiting" to see if she needs them. (Nothing heavy more than likely, but even tylenol can make a difference!) Since Angeline will have sterile casts over her legs, that does actually make the risk of infection less. And since she will not be able to move her legs in her casts, the healing should go well. Prayers are appreciated of course.

As far as things go with DH and work... we have news! He will be working this week (once we are home from the hospital) in town... then he is off until after the New Year! (Yippppeee!) Then he goes out of town again. :( Really the timing with this long break for him couldn't have been more perfect. I was able to work enough to make up for the loss of income (praise!) and I can't imagine NOT having him home right now! (praise!)

We haven't heard any news on Angeline's visa extension (pray!), and we have heard that her adoption is still "in process" and no other news than that. (pray!)

As far as our boy Isaac goes... my husband said... "just tell them to let him come home now". (He always has a plan for everything my guy. Like there is a magician waiting to just wave the wand, "send the boy home!") I did hear from our "O" this week and basically they are not taking new files for right now until they see the way that things go. All of the O's are fighting to make sure that the new rules don't stay in place, but they can't really say what will happen. Please pray and just know that the next few weeks are critical. This goes way beyond affecting my family adopting Isaac, it affects potentially the adoption program for an entire country and countless numbers of orphans that will wait and wait even longer for families!

This is the criteria that we are working with: (according to our "O")

1. Both parents must be 35 years of age or older
2. Married couples must be married for at least 10 years
3. You can have up to 3 biological children, the number of adopted children doesn't matter if you can prove you are financially stable.

This is a bit different from what I have "heard" from other places. But for us, this is what we are dealing with as we have to believe in our people that are working for us over in Haiti.

We would need to wait 2-3 years before our file could go into IBESR if the rules are implemented and stay that way. We aren't sure if there is going to be allowed some presidential exemptions made, and from what we have heard it is doubtful that already having adopted from Haiti would give you any kind of exemption. But as I said before, it's hard to know what will happen, so we just need to sit tight and pray over the next couple weeks.

Isaac is a "true" orphan. Both of his parents have passed away. I don't know if I could make him wait that long if I knew that there was another family "qualified" that could take him sooner. I can't go much more into this as it makes no sense to stress and worry about the what if's and I feel like doing anything but keeping "high hopes" at this point is not a good idea.

I am not thinking that there will be any issue with completing Angeline's adoption. (PRAY!)

That is all for now. I am off to go enjoy my bebe and have some dinner with dh.

Blessings,
Sarah

Words of Wisdom

Thank you everyone for the emails and phone calls with kind words of wisdom and the prayers. I will update "life" in a moment but first I wanted to share some words to learn/live by that were shared with me:
Life on earth would not be worth much if every source of irritation were removed. Yet most of us rebel against the things that irritate us, and count as heavy loss what ought to be rich gain. We are told that the oyster is wiser; that when an irritating object, like a bit of sand, gets under the mantle of his shell, he simply covers it with the most precious part of his being and makes of it a pearl. The irritation that it was causing is stopped by encrusting it with the pearly formation. A true pearl is therefore simply a victory over irritation. Every irritation that gets into our lives today is an opportunity for pearl culture. The more irritations the devil flings at us, the more pearls we may have. We need only to welcome them and cover them completely with love, that most precious part of us, and the irritation will be smothered out as the pearl comes into being. What a store of pearls we may have, if we will! Dr. Richard H. Seume

And from my dear friend Laura, who I steal strength from as often as possible, this is from her caring bridge website:

Monday, March 27, 2006 6:17 AM CST

The number seven (7) means complete, perfect. Today I will be having my seventh surgery for my Chiari malformation and as always, hope and pray it will be my last one. I know without a doubt it is all in God’s hands.

God is Wise

The word wisdom in the Bible is the translation of a Hebrew word that means “skill.” Applied to God it means that He has the skill necessary to direct us in any and every situation. God is the Great Physician. He is Jehovah Rapha, the Healer. He is the skillful Creator who knit you together in your mother’s womb, who formed your inward parts. (Psalm 139:13) He knows everything about you and has the skill necessary to conceptualize the best possible plan not only for the entire world, but also for your life.
Solomon tells us, “By wisdom the Lord laid the earth’s foundations, by understanding he set the heavens in place.”(Proverbs 3:19) This being so, we can trust God, knowing that everything that happens to us was thought out by an infinitely wise Person, and all that happens will ultimately be for our good and His glory. Jehovah Rapha.

(“Calm My Anxious Heart"-Dillow)

Striving For a Mary Heart in a Martha World,
Laura ><>


As you can see I am blessed with wonderful people all around me, at every turn! Thank you friends, you have no idea how much your words and prayers mean to me. I just keep reading and learning from all of you.
Thanks from the bottom of my heart!
Sarah

Hysterically Miserable

First I want to say that I am sorry for blogging again when I am feeling so dumpy. So bumpy, so crinkley and yucko... sorry. But I guess this is my place where I can spill, so it's spillsville here!

Good news is that Jesi is home from the hospital and healing with her family and starting to perk up and be herself again. Praise God! Amen! Wonderful news. (I wanted to be sure to mention this!)

Other news is that life is out of my grasp, or at least so many things in it are.
The creme de la creme of the misery is for my sweet Angeline, who will be getting surgery number 6 next Monday. Yes, that's Monday the 18th, the day of my anniversary, the day of our son Tyler's birthday (more about that later), and a week before my beautiful Angel's first Christmas. Damn it I hate it. It makes me cry like Niagra freaking falls. They have to cut her Achilles Tendons... she is starting to get rocker bottom feet. And all the while my husband finds this news out today without me. (I stayed home to get work done.) So I missed out on reeming the docs or being mean to someone. That would of at least made me feel a big better for her and my baby's booboo ankles. I don't want her to hurt anymore. I don't even like the casts on her legs, they make her miserable these days... sleeping badly. And I know her misery not because she seems all together hysterical, not at all... but because I see her JOY the moment that we take them off. She laughs and grabs her feet and makes "grrrr... I am going to eat you my feet because I love you so much" noises... and even if she's exhausted she just wants to stay awake to touch her legs... she loves them. :) And now she has to have the casts and cuts and booboos... all together. My last bit of spirit of the season has ended.

So Saturday Lauren and Tyler leave to spend the break with their Biological Mom. This is hard, even if they are 14 and 17, it's never easy to have them gone... Tyler will actually have his 17th birthday in AZ with his Mom. They are excited to go and we just pray that things go smoothly. Because in the past they haven't gone well while they were there and tearful phone calls from a far are so damn hard. Jeremy, our oldest, who is 20, has been living at his Mom's the past couple weeks. He has been working on helping her get her house in order, so at the very least I know that he has some control over the situation down there, and he will make sure that they are ok. (Blessed there.)

Last thing is my husbands work. No ones knows anything. He is still home and believe me, I am thankful for this time that he is here, and this time that we all get to have together. But fact of the matter is that we need his income to pay bills... so when he is not working, that means I have to work TWICE as hard. This means that I get on the computer the moment I get up and am on and off until I am seeing double, which is the wee hours of the night.
I promised that Friday would be the last day I would work for the year. And I am sticking to it no matter how hard someone begs to get the work done last minute. It's just too much! I just pray that we know something about his work soon. The not knowing and not being able to have a plan are the hardest thing. What if they call Friday and say he has to leave on Saturday... I guess Angeline, the kids and I go it alone for her surgery? This just isn't working for me I LIKE A PLAN!

Communication... what is happening to people communicating with me?
That brings me to Isaac. No one knows anything. The only reason that I know that they know nothing, is because they SAY NOTHING TO ME. Not because I get an email stating "we know nothing". (Which would help actually!) But the no reply, no comment, no communication thing, is annoying. I am reading all about changes that are happening with adoptions starting December 22nd, and how this may delay things even further for Isaac's homecoming. I did get a reply at one point stating that they were hoping that these changes wouldn't come to fruition, or that if they did, they wouldn't last long. But a bit of reassurance wouldn't be so hard WOULD IT?

Maybe I am only one of MANY adoptive parents waiting for answers and I realize that there are many things going on a COTP that are keeping everyone very busy. But that doesn't mean that I can't long to grasp something concrete about either one of my children's adoptions can it? God is telling me to be PROACTIVE here rather THAN REACTIVE and there are WALLS in my WAY of doing so. Advise me please!

So those are my gripes for the day... and my heart is very heavy. I pray that I will feel better as the week goes on and that everything will suddenly make sense to me. There has been no news on Angeline's Visa Extension (Which I PRAY TO GOD doesn't get DENIED WHILE SHE HAS CUT OPEN ANKLES AND CASTS ON HER LEGS! Because then we are back to Haiti which wouldn't be good mid way through any kind of medical treatment.)... as of last week they were saying another month before we know whether it's approved or denied. I had thought about taking my friend MASTERCARD and the family to the Hot Springs to avoid "life" for a moment, but since we can't go to Canada with Angeline we won't be going... well we could go to Canada with Angeline, we just couldn't get Angeline back into the US. Scratch that idea. :)

Love to all. Sorry I am debbie downer.
Sarah

Update on Beans Boots :)

I have had several emails in the past weeks about Angeline's casting. I wanted to take a moment to thank everyone for your well wishes and to explain what exactly is going on with those go-go boots! As you can see in the picture above, Angeline has club feet. From what I have learned from the docs, these aren't traditional club feet. Traditional club feet have three features... turned up, turned out, and turned in... her's aren't as "up" as typical club feet are. And she has a bit of "rocker bottom" but not traditional "rocker bottom" feet either... She's unique of course!

With the casts they are moving her feet around outward, then they will move them in the proper up/down position. We are blessed to have one of the best orthopedic doctors in the WORLD working on her so we know that she is in good hands. We aren't positive how many more weeks we will do the castings. It all depends on her progress each week... right now we know that we are going at least FOUR more weeks in a row... each week we add appointments as needed.

Last week because of the snow we weren't able to get to Seattle for her appointment and had to re-schedule twice. But this past Sunday night we removed her soft casts (they just unwrap and peel off), gave her a good bath and she went back to Seattle Monday morning to get re-casted. We are supposed to take them off the morning of the appointment, but since we were already running a week longer than normal with them on we took them off on Sunday night to give her one good nights sleep. She was giddy like she just won the lottery... it was the funniest thing I have ever seen. Angeline kept touching her legs and laughing hysterically... like "There they are!" And she instantly put her toes in her mouth and they were quite stinky! She did have a small pressure sore on her ankle so the docs were very careful to put extra padding this week!

On Monday it appeared that her ankles were "looser" but they hadn't moved much yet! Before they are casted Dr. M. takes one foot and typically a visiting doc who is in training does the other ankle and they manipulate her ankles for several minutes. Then they hold her feet in place and the casting starts. The first week she just played with toys and acted like nothing was going on. Near the end she got angry because she didn't want to lay there anymore! But this past week she was crying, and while it was terrible to see her upset and in pain... SHE WAS IN PAIN... this is a GOOD sign... SHE MAY HAVE FEELING IN HER FEET AFTER ALL! Dr. M. thinks that Angeline is going to be a GOOD WALKER. She has STRONG legs and big muscles in her thighs and with some feeling in her feet, that is great news!

We won't really know for certain what she can feel and what she can't feel until she is old enough to tell us. Typically Dr. M does casting on most children with club feet, but sees most children with spina bifida needing surgery as well. Because of the lack of feeling in the lower legs that most SB kids experience it is harder to manipulate feet with casts... but always worth a good try to avoid surgery... or lessen the amount of surgery... surgeries... sometimes more than one is needed.

I also wanted to make an announcement. We are trying to "wean" Angeline off the $$$$ formula and on to regular formula and she is doing great. We are hopeful that in the next couple months she may be off her reflux meds possibly too! She is eating more baby foods and had her FIRST EVER solid poo this past week. Which makes keeping her bottom healed much easier!!! AMEN!!! :)
Blessings to all...
Sarah

Pray for Jesula!!

This is a reminder as to how fast things can change with special babies! Please keep Jesi and her family in your prayers! The email from her Mom is below:

As much as I hate it, My mommy "gut" was right. Jesi's valve needs adjustment on her shunt. Not necessarily a malfunction but the pressure is all wrong. About 5 days ago, she just started acting really fussy. She still isn't a great sleeper so I couldn't base it on that. I really thought on our visit tuesday he would have told me there was a problem. But he didn't. Of course the CT looked better than the orginal. That is what we would have expected. So I thought I was just being an over protective worry wart mom. But Wed she continued to be fussy and her eyes looked more stressed and her head just felt different. I rub her head every single day and it just wasn't the same.
So this morning when we got up, I knew right away we were headed to the ER. I called Dr. K's office on my way and he wasn't in clinic today so to the ER I went. They did a scan and compared it to tuesday's scan and sure enough the ventricles are increasing. I knew I wasn't loosing my mind. My baby's face was different and her eyes looked stressed and painful. So they have re-admitted her into the hospital and they will operate tomorrow at 11am. They are going in and adjusting the valve pressure. It should be a pretty easy surgery and she should only have to spend the weekend in the hospital. She also has the temperature back. So that is one sign we will always watch. When she has increased pressure she runs a low grade temp. Weird huh? Good news is that she is up to 11.8 pounds. YEAH!! 21 inches long.
Please pray for our poor baby girl. I hate it that she has to go through this again only a few short weeks after the first time. Thank God she is here where she can get the care she needs.
I'll update tomorrow as soon as I can get back to the computer.
Blessings,
Margie

Thanks prayer warriors! I will update the blog as I get updates from Margie!
Sarah

Amazingly cute picture...

I only have a couple minutes to blog tonight but I wanted to be sure to post this most adorable picture that came via email with Isaac's November pictures. Can you see our boy?? I just need to go there and be there. I need to figure out when I am going to feel mentally stable enough (lol) to leave Angeline for a week and go. I think I need to just bite the bullet and know that she will be in good hands here and go and meet my son! (That sounds crazy to say... "meet my son"... because just looking at his eyes, I know him so well already.)

Things here have been going good. My husband is home which has helped some, but distracted me some too. :) My Christmas cards are made and just need to be mailed and I have a flurry of last minute orders for pictures that I am working through. I think my last ebay listings are up for the year and I stop taking direct orders the 10th so that I can get everyone done by the 15th and then I can catch up on life... on things like... filing, wrapping, mailing gifts, and two baby books that have been sitting here need all the pictures put in them. We have ornaments to make and cookies to bake and just general good cheer to spread.

Angeline is being super hammy these days. She "whines" when she wants something, maybe she learned this from her big sister Lulu. :) Today I got to meet another Mom who is adopting from COTP that lives 13 miles from us. It was wonderful and felt like a ton of bricks was lifted off my chest to have a real live person to talk to that get's my feelings. I feel that our children will have a lifetime of friendships as well as us and our families, and for that I am excited about.

I miss you Isaac. Lots. :(

Today we went and saw the stage show of Charlie and the Chocolate factory... it was fun and the kids enjoyed it. Especially "Mike TV" who was modern and sang a song about game boys, computers and TV and did lots of "booty shaking dancing" that was overly animated for his broadway style... it was too funny. It was St. Nick day today, and last night St. Nick came and didn't fill their shoes this year, but brought treat bags and a new family movie: Pirates of the Caribbean 2.

Off to snuggle miss bean and get some more work done.
Be Blessed,
Sarah

Jesula Update :)

Yes! This is the SAME baby that I have been talking about for the past few months. These pictures that her Mom emailed me were just too amazing NOT to share. Jesi is doing wonderfully as you can see. Thanks for all your prayers!
Sarah (and Margie: Jesi's Momma)

Isaac November Update

Here is Isaac's November update. I have been hoarding his birthday pictures so that I can share them over a period of time. This picture is my favorite of Isaac's 1st birthday pictures. He is looking at the photo album that we mailed him and we are all right there with him... :)

Isaac has had a really good month. He seems to have filled out a lot this month, because he looks chubbier to me! He's also definitely stronger, and is getting much more mobile. He's always exploring, and has learned to crawl on his hands and knees! He finds his way over to the next baby room to visit them when he can sneak away. :) His other big accomplishment is that he has been pulling himself to a stand a lot, and is trying to walk around while holding onto things! He's catching up, slowly but surely! And as always, he's so adorable and sweet. He usually takes a short morning nap, and then another nap after lunch. He loves playing with toys, like rolling cars back and forth, and he likes to play with little cups that he can put things in, and then take them back out. He bounces up and down when he's really happy, and still loves to wave bye bye. He always seems to be laughing, and is about as sweet as they come. Isaac weighed 14 pounds, 13 ounces this month.

Isaac only gained 1 ounce this month... I am praying about this and thinking it is because he is starting to move around more. We will see how his weight gain goes for December before I start to get too worried.
Happy Sunday,
Sarah