Thanksgiving Week

Last week was a busy, crazy, but good one for us!  On Monday Tabitha and I drove out to Cincinnati, and the kids stayed at Heath's parents' while he was working.  She had a quick surgery on Tuesday to remove the stents in her kidneys and the tube and urine bag (hallelujah!).  Everything went well with the surgery, except that the next day we met with her doctor and found out she had a kidney infection.  So now she's on antibiotics every 8 hours until Sunday.  We'll get a renal ultrasound done here, send it to her doctor in Cincinnati, and hopefully everything will be fine.  

So now we're back to her usual routine--cathing every 4 hours and a daily hour-long enema.  Using her new Malone is much nicer than the old way of doing the enemas.  She can do the whole procedure sitting on the toilet instead of on the floor.  Hopefully she'll learn to do it by herself in the near future too.  Once she's off the antibiotics we're hoping for complete success with the enemas so that she can get out of pull-ups.  That is the worst part of all her problems.  Those of you who pray for us, please just pray that her body cooperates and she's able to stay clean and wear normal underwear.

Wednesday Tab and I came back home.  Thursday was Thanksgiving, and we had a fun day with Heath's side of the family!  That evening, my side of the family arrived at our house.  We had a second Thanksgiving on Friday, so needless to say....we've had plenty to eat lately!  It was a great weekend of fun with them, and they headed home Monday morning.  

Much to be thankful for!

Rayanna's New Look

in the car just after getting her new glasses

She really likes them and keeps them on very well!

It appears that she really enjoys being able to see!

The Boys' Birthdays

I realized today that, in the hubbub of Tabitha's surgery, launching the orphan ministry, and plain old life, I neglected to post anything about the boys' birthdays!  Lest anyone think I'm ignoring them . . . here we go!

Ethan turned 9 a couple of weeks ago.  It's hard to believe he's half way to being an adult!  I feel like we're just getting started on this parenting journey, and yet the years that we're actually raising him are halfway over.  As I heard someone say once, "The days go slow, but the years go fast."  That's for sure!  Ethan is really growing into a great little guy.  Well, I guess I shouldn't say "little".  He's less than a head shorter than me now, and I can fit in his shoes.  So, "little" isn't the word.  But whatever his size, I love seeing him grow in personality.  He's becoming a lot of fun to talk to, and he's starting to notice (and care) about my feelings too!  He can tell when I'm having a rough day with the kids and will often try to make things easier on me by behaving extra well and encouraging them to do so too.  He's a great big brother (in between fights of course), and he loves to build and invent and create.  He loves to work hard physically and is almost as strong as I am already.  It's hard to believe he was a tiny baby less than a decade ago, and yet it's also hard to believe that it's already been almost a decade since he was a tiny baby!  Time is a strange thing.

Jesse turned 7 this past Wednesday.  He's growing up so fast too!  I love his sense of humor and the way he makes us laugh.  He loves to learn and really gets into the things we're learning about (when he's in the mood, that is).  In fact, he had a nightmare last week and came into our room in the middle of the night, which is something none of our kids have done more than once or twice.  I thought the nightmare must've been about one of the scary monsters on the Star Wars movies he'd been watching.  But it turns out, it was actually about sea snakes . . . the topic we'd been studying in science that day.  I feel bad that he was scared, but I love that he's really thinking about what we're learning!  Jesse also loves babies and toddlers.  He gets Rayanna laughing all the time, and even other people's babies seem to love him.  He's got a generous heart and loves giving his money to help others.  Seven years ago, this sweet little baby entered our lives, and we have been so blessed because of him.

So, our boys are growing up, and a little too quickly.  We're so thankful for both of them and for another year of celebrating their lives.  We love you guys!

Disclaimer:  Though these descriptions and pictures make it look like they are the best of friends, extremely well behaved, and always happy, we have plenty (and I do mean plenty) of less-than-stellar times.  But every now and then they pause their fighting and bickering, so I can get pictures that will make me look back on these times as the "good ol' days."  =)

Opthamology

Last year Rayanna saw the opthamologist for her clogged tear duct.  That was resolved with a quick surgery, but the doctor wanted to see her back in a year's time because she was far sighted and had astigmatism.  Well, we went back today, and it was determined that  . . .

 . . . she needs glasses!  All children are somewhat far sighted, but her vision is way more far sighted than normal.  So, she's supposed to get glasses right away and wear them all the time.  Oh joy...this should be fun.  Fortunately, stealing other people's glasses or sunglasses is one of her favorite pastimes, so she shouldn't object too much to having to wear them.

Jesse has an appointment next week too because he's been complaining that his eyes hurt when he reads.  (I think it's a ploy to get out of school work, since his eyes never bother him during video games.)  But, nonetheless, we're going to get his vision checked.  I'm also going to make an appointment for Tabitha because her eyes appear to be different sizes (more noticeably lately), and the opthamologist said it would be good to have that checked out.  Hopefully, J & T are fine, and we won't be getting three pairs of glasses!  Ethan's eyes were checked a couple years ago, and he doesn't have any problem, so at least we're safe there.  But you know . . . Heath and I are getting less and less young every day.  Maybe we'll be scheduling our own appointments in the near future . . .

Ai yi yi

Abba's Hands & Heart

Something exciting is happening at our church this Sunday!  We are unveiling a new ministry called "Abba's Hands & Heart."  It's purpose is:  sharing God's love through orphan care, adoption assistance, and foster care support.  

Back when Heath and I were in the adoption process (for Tabitha I think), I read a book called "Launching an Orphans Ministry in Your Church."  I thought it had some great ideas, and I daydreamed about how exciting it would be to have something like that at our church.  But, being in the midst of the adoption process, our efforts were focused on that.  I remember thinking that someday, once we were finished adopting, that would be a neat thing to do.

So, fast forward to last spring.  Rayanna had been home with us for several months, and we had no plans for more adoption.  (In other words, no excuses for why we couldn't start a ministry like this.)  I started talking to Heath about it, and he was excited about the idea and agreed we should take action!  We talked to two of our pastors about it last March.  Then, from May up until last week, we had a series of meetings with other interested people from our church.  

It's been amazing to see God put the group together.  We asked a big list of people we thought might be interested.  Some were adoptive parents; some were not.  And in a couple of the cases, they've shared how God had been stirring in their hearts to do something in this area, but they weren't sure what.  We had no idea what was going on in their hearts--we'd only asked them because they were people who loved God and loved children, and had helped us with our adoptions.  But to hear how God set up the timing, and led us to share with them, and to see how perfectly they fill a need in this planning group....it's all been amazing to see!  We had been expecting to get two or three interested families, but it turned out to be about 10!

After all these meetings and all the months of talking and praying and planning, we are ready to launch!  This Sunday (Orphan Sunday) will be the big day.  Our group will be sharing the ministry with the church body and inviting them to join us in helping orphans!  We'll be sharing some opportunities for right now, as well as some ideas we have for later.  Some of the opportunities we have right now are orphan sponsorships, hosting an orphan for a month, financial support for families who are hosting or in the adoption process, and encouragement to consider adoption or foster care.  We also want to be a strong support network for families who are adopting or doing foster care, helping them through the challenges and the adjustments.  

Please keep this ministry in prayer.  Pray that God uses our church to glorify Himself and do great things in the lives of His most vulnerable children.  And, on a very practical note, pray that our church building has power restored by Sunday!  

We hope to have a website for the ministry pretty soon, and I'll share that link once we have it.  Thanks for your support!

They're Coming Home!

Heath and Tabitha are on their way home!!!  This will be the 12th day they've been gone, and we're so ready to have them back!

Tabitha had a few rough days, but Heath said she's doing well today and able to walk around on her own for short periods of time.  They've got a long drive home, but when he called she was doing alright in the seat.  She'll have a few temporary tubes again, and we'll take her back in about a month to have those removed and make sure everything has healed well.

After that, things should be back to normal for her . . . only better!  There should be no more kidney reflux now, which will protect her kidneys from further damage.  She'll still need to use a catheter (most likely lifelong), and she'll still need to do enemas every day.  But she'll now be able to learn to do the enemas herself, and it should be a much easier process.

Thanks again for praying for her and for thinking of us over the last couple of weeks.  We appreciate it very much!

Update on Tabitha

I guess it's been awhile since I updated everyone on how Tabitha's doing.  Things are going pretty well.  She had a couple bad days after the surgery, where she couldn't keep anything down and was in pain.  But today's been much better.  Heath said they're hoping to come home on Monday.

She'll probably be coming home with a urine bag again for a few weeks, while things heal.  We'll go back again for a check-up and to have the extra parts removed (stints in her kidneys, tube in her belly button).  That should be a much quicker visit though.

Heath's holding up pretty well even though he hasn't gotten any good sleep there.  I remember all too well how horrible the nights were there.  Nurses and noisy machines waking you up every time you finally fall back to sleep...frustration...exhaustion...boredom.  After 5 nights of that, with probably 2 more to go....it's a little exhausting!  But when I talked to him this morning he'd just had a coffee and a diet coke and said he was feeling pretty good.  =)

Thanks again for your prayers and encouragement.  I'll post again once they're home!