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,

Virtual Twin Fun

Having virtual twins has ended up being too/two(!) much fun!

Moments like these captured below are my version of precious stones!  They are my treasures!

And, this time I was able to catch them on video!

Is there anything better than a child's laughter?

So thankful for it and the Daddy who brings it out!

In Him,

A New Smile

Joshua had a very big day today!  Although, I am confident he did not enjoy it.  Soon he will, though.

In the late spring/early summer of 2012 we had received some photos of Joshua eating chocolate.  As I devoured every pixel of those photos, I came to a sad conclusion.  He had noticeable dental decay.  Not an unusual thing for adoptees, but still not fun stuff.

So, we knew that he would need some dental work when he came home.

How much dental work brought tears to my eyes and nausea to my stomach the first night we brushed his teeth.  It was far worse than we had thought.  I could tell right off the bat the at least 4 of the molars had significant decay and the top front teeth did as well.  It broke my heart.

Once we got home we found out the extent of the damage and the very high cost of repair.  I spent weeks going from Pediatric Dentist to Pediatric Dentist trying to find someone who would work with us both on the cost of the surgery and one who would not require the thousands of dollars they were quoting us up front.  Thanks to our *wonderfully slow* dental insurance, this took some time.

The Lord graciously led us to the dental college connected to a hospital located an hours south of us...and today Joshua had all of his teeth taken care of under general anesthesia.

 God was so gracious to us and to Joshua.  Going in we knew he needed 14 teeth worked on (yes, 14...he only has few more than that in his whole mouth!).  The worst case scenario, which is what they really thought would become reality, was that they would have to extract 10 of those 14.  6 of them were front teeth.  The top four, if extracted, would require a fixed denture.  The extracted molars would need spacers.  The dentist brought me a sample of the denture he would eventually get to approve it prior to surgery.

Licking at a popsicle for the first time in months!  He can finally have some sweets again!

We were praying steadfastly that the Lord would spare as many teeth in Joshua's mouth as possible...especially all of the front teeth.

And do you know what our Awesome God did???

That's right...he spared all of the front teeth!  And not only that, but only 2 molars had to be extracted.  So of the 10 they thought they would have to extract...8 are still in his mouth tonight!  

And those front teeth are white and beautiful!

Joshua was such a trooper today.  He's done so well recovering.  He's been drinking and eating soft food, napping, and snuggling with his mama.  When the doctor called the second time tonight to check on him, she was amazed that he hadn't hit the 'cranky' phase yet.  Nope.  He was calm and content watching movies on my lap.

Zonked out!

Can you believe the only things he complained about were his new casts from Monday and that Lily was sitting too close to him?  

Praising God for a precious answer to prayer!

In Him,

Our Weekend with Aaron

 After Aaron's graduation we were able to spend the weekend catching up with him.

Unlike many graduates who had to fly out the next morning, Aaron will be staying put for months of training.  As a result, we had the whole weekend with him.

And we had a surprise for him!  Gotta love surprises (the good kind, anyway!)!

My parents were able to fly in to join us all!  

Not only would they be there to celebrate with Aaron, but they were able to meet Joshua in person for the first time instead of just on Skype!

His sisters and Joshua were so anxious to see him again, with Anna Grace confessing to my dad that she was so nervous to see Aaron and hoped she would know what to say to him!  The reunion was sweet and everyone was quite impressed with Aaron's uniform and hat.

We spent the weekend listening to Aaron's Boot Camp stories...

Eating....

Bowling ....

Shopping for electronics for Aaron  and taking him to see The Hobbit.


The time went by much too quickly, but was so memorable!

Very hard to leave him Sunday evening...heartbreaking really.  At least now I can text or talk to him daily!  And not one of them will have to be a reminder to make his bed!  The Navy does that for me now!

In Him,

Our Sailor

After 2 months of Navy Boot Camp, Aaron graduated yesterday!  

It was a very significant moment for all of us.  And, yes, I was teary...again.  

God was gracious to us and allowed us to have seats in the front row right in front of his division.  

Aaron's division entering the Graduation Hall

Entering in through the snow

Because he was one of the  3 tallest in his division, he was all the way in the back...but I could still see him, and he me.

The photos above & below were taken before he assumed his position in the back row.  

Love the military posture!

As an 'Army brat' I have been a guest at countless military ceremonies. This is by far the most memorable and significant for me.

We found Aaron quickly and hugged his neck and observed that he not only is skinnier, but seems taller!  The military posture...must stand nice and tall!

  Picture below was taken on my phone, hence blurry!

Kevin's parents at the ceremony with us

We are so thankful for this milestone in Aaron's life and even more thankful to be here to share in it with him.  He is obviously pleased with his choice to join the Navy and the decorum and attention to detail that he displays are a blessing to see.

Thankful for and proud of our son, our sailor!

In Him,