Lovely Lily

A sweet friend of ours comes over a couple of mornings a week to help with Lily and Joshua.  She's my sister in Christ and super-skilled with little ones.  They just love 'Neka'!

She just so happens to be apprenticing as a photographer, as well. 

I love this picture of Lily she sent me last night!

Lily is simply breathtaking in so many ways!  She has such a tender heart and is so full of personality.  Little Bit may be small in stature, but she is HUGE in personality!  She knows what she wants and, in her extensive vocabulary, is adept at expressing it!

I am so blessed to be her Mama!

In Him,

While We Were in Philly

We haven't had snow here in...well, in Kevin's opinion, ages.  I personally don't mind that much at all.

Snow for me equals lots of work. 

Call me a party-pooper, wet blanket, whatever.  Snow means I have to dig out the snow pants, boots, gloves, hats, sleds for at least 3, usually 4, children.  Dig out because we get snow so very rarely, that most of these items are buried away in labeled bins (Ha!  That is until the kids decide to pretend it's snowing...that's how rarely we get it...and play dress up with them or decide to wear them even though it's 45 degrees outside and sunny.)  

I am sure that if I lived in upper NY, we'd have a wonderful system to accommodate the use of snow items.  But we don't....so I don't.

Hence snow adds to my work.  (Totally selfish, I know.  I've confessed.)

NOT this time, though!  When our area was in the bull's eye for Winter Storm Saturn, Kevin & I were in rainy Philadelphia with Joshua.

My wonderful mother-in-law did, however, get the task.   I left Tuesday evening with a few suggestions as to where the snow clothes could be, and she made it happen.

Here are some of the pictures Emma took while I was gone...

Ally & Lily building a snowman with some neighborhood friends

The girls all had a blast and finally got to play in the snow.  And, now, all I have to do is pack the snow clothes away...for our next good snow.  I'm guessing sometime in 2014!

In Him,

Surfacing

February was crazy busy for me.  It seemed like I was gone for at least half of every day.

Now it is March and just like I see Daffodils surfacing, I feel like I might as well, too.

I realized I never updated much after Joshua's dental surgery.  It went well and so far every crown and spacer is staying in place.  Praise God!  We have a ridiculously long brushing routine now (probably wouldn't be too bad if he were an only child...).  It is helping his gums heal and stay healthy, though.  After every meal we brush extra well and swab children's mouthwash onto his teeth and gums in order to hopefully keep the germs from invading (apparently they 'stick' much more readily to crowns than natural teeth).

Here are the before and after shots:

And this was with his mouth closed!  Oh, the molars!  I just didn't have the heart to take pictures of the awful molars!

2 extractions & 12 crowns later...he has healthy teeth!  And a game show host's smile!

Quite the improvement I would say!

On a side note, I totally loved the 2 dentists who did his surgery and follow-up.  They have been so kind to both of us and have a great bedside manner with Joshua.  The VCU pediatric dental school was the way to go for us!

Joshua had his second surgery in a month this week.  

Wednesday, at Shriner's in Philadelphia, he had tendon lengthening surgery on both legs.  We went up the night before and he went into surgery shortly after noon.  The surgery itself was very fast...done as we finished our lunch in the cafeteria! There we talked with another mom & her son who has Arthrogryposis, as well (and he, too, was adopted from China!). It was a blessing of a conversation!  She has many bios and adopted children (many with special needs, too).  We left our conversation with her both encouraged and inspired.

Joshua was anything but encouraged when we got to him!  Poor guy was all out wailing.  I could hear him as soon as they opened the door.  And my little sweetie didn't stop until we were in Maryland, I think!

Let's just say it was a rough night and no pictures were taken!  As predicted, he has been more uncomfortable than with a normal casting.  Today, however, he is much more like himself and has even tried walking on his casts again!  Little stinker regretted that within a couple of minutes!  He quickly returned to The Land of the Uncomfortable.

Keep praying...I'll update more the next time I 'surface' in blogland.


In Him,