Day 52 Fish Oil Study

Selah had a good day.  Jon was with her all day and she was alert.  She responded to the eye threat test with some of the therapists.  No storming thank God!  We are really ready to get her home and see what we can do for her.  We are getting everything set up for her.  Please pray that everything will come together so we can get her home and all of us together again under one roof.  I can hardly even imagine.....  I want to get a big out door swing that I can sit in and hold Selah and swing her.  I think she will love it!  I've got alot of ideas.  I recently applied for a FREE HBOT therapy place in St Pete.  I can't imagine driving her every day to St Pete but if it will help her, it will be so worth it!  Maybe some of my friends will go with me,  I hate driving on that interstate area.

My neck/shoulders have gotten worse.  I've never had anything like this before, it's really painful and makes it hard for me to do anything.  Hot showers seems to help but advil doesn't even touch it.  I don't like taking anything stronger so I'm keeping a heating pad on my shoulders/neck as much as possible.  I am not really sure where the pain is coming from, it's just in that whole area.  I'm stiff too, this growing old stuff is hard:)

I'm jealous of Rochester tonight with their snowstorm...I had really wanted the kids to see a real snow storm but it waited till we left.  I do like the nice heat here in Florida although tonight it is going to get into the 30's for a little while tonight but up to the 50's tomorrow.

Well we are going to go spend some of our gift cards tonight:)  The boys are excited!  Tomorrow is my day with Selah.  Looking forward to spending time with her! 

Please keep praying for Selah.....

Day 51 Fish Oil Study~Merry Christmas

 

 

The whole family

 

 

Another day without a storm thank God!!!  She seemed more alert.  We took the kids to see her and took a few things to her.  Most of her Christmas presents are at home waiting for her.  She did the funniest thing.... she had been looking towards her door, all the time.  It's not good for her to get in a fixed position so we were worried.  I put her DVD player on the other side of her bed and moved her head over.  She kept moving it back.  I went out in the hall, to check on the kids and Jon went into the bathroom, I walked back in and she had turned her head and eyes right to the DVD player and was watching it!!!  LOL  She has a stubborn streak in her.  The doctors here would say she doesn't have the cognitive ability to resist like that but obviously she does!!!  She was not going to watch it just because we wanted her to do it!  We haven't seen that streak for a while and it was good to see Selah in there!  Things like that, give me the most hope!  Her arms were very relaxed.  Her legs/ankles not at all.  I got a little range of motion in her knees but it was hard.  I've really hurt my left shoulder, as well as the right side of my neck.  I hardly could work her legs.   I've never had a pain like the shoulder/back pain.  I'm hoping I haven't really done something to it. 

 

Christmas morning

 

Shad made out like a bandit:)

 

Sarah and the bilibo...she loves it and was rocking in it as soon as it was open.  It is a European toy

 

it can also be a "turtle shell" when she goes into "turtle mode"   She does that when she needs to regroup for a minute or two:)  Our therapist are going to love the new toys to work with the kids on.

 

 

We all had a great time opening our presents this morning, thanks Bell Shore Baptist & our friend from Jax:) 


Our good friend Jim & Pat Rhodes came up and spent some time with us and we all went over to our new friends Bill & Syndey Behrnes' house

 

Their dog really wanted to take care of Sarah but Sarah scared her a bit

 

Bill & Sarah

 

the whole gang! 

 

We ate, watched some concerts in their media room...that was amazing:)  I love Simon & Garfunkel, it was reminiscent to watch their 1981 Concert In the Park.  It made the 80's seem so easy and less troubled, much more innocent.   I'd seen that concert before but it had been years, so tonight I'm singing "the Sound of Silence"  and "Wake up little Suzie"  I want a media room:)  Fun times!  Just so you know, Sarah started out in a Christmas dress, by the end of the night she looked like a girl from a Simon & Garfunkel concert with her "orange 70's outfit" that had ended up in the diaper bag:)

 

So today was a good day, not the Christmas I had imagined but also not the Christmas I had dreaded either....

 

This year with all the tragedies I know of personally, as well as the national ones, makes me grateful that all five of my children are alive.  We easily could have easily lost Sam & Selah that hot August day.  When I walk with Sam or rub his back (which he loves) I just breath out a prayer of thanksgiving that he is alive and well.  Things could be so much worse than they are!  When I lean over and kiss Selah's head, I am so thankful that she is alive and recovering!!!  I didn't take my kids for granted before the accident.  I guess having such a hard time having children, made me thankful for them and for our adoptive ones. I knew how hard that was too.  So I probably have always had a different perspective on my kids but now it's a hundred fold!  I am so thankful that I have them all!!!

 

I hope everyone had a blessed day and a Merry Christmas!

Day 50 fish oil study Christmas Eve 2012

Selah had a great day!  No storming, arms relaxed, attentive in therapy...thank God!  She seems to be recovering.  We still don't know for sure what it was.  She was taken off the new meds but honestly she had regressed long before she went on that medicine.  She got a new bottle of fish oil at the same time.  I still think it was the fish oil, that it had been compromised.  So the hospital will probably say it was the new med, I say it was the fish oil but either way, she is better.  We are praying that she recovers to the point she was before she was transferred down here.  She still had quite a way to go until she gets to that point but at least there has been no further regression!


We went to the candlelight service, it was lovely! I love the liturgical services in the Methodist church.  There is just something comforting about it to me.  Jon was raised Methodist so he is used to it.  I was raised Pentecostal, old time Pentecostal, so I had never been in a "high church" service until after we got married.  It was interesting to me and unusual since I had never been to a church like that.  Over the years, I have come to really appreciate the liturgical services and the meaningful steps in them.  I also like the "no surprises" part of church LOL, I admit it, I love having the whole service in the bulletin, you can guess how long you got left in the service LOL.  You might not appreciate that unless you've been in services that have lasted for days....Just kidding, just hours....

We picked up our supper at Publix again and came home and ate then everyone opened a present.  We started with Sarah since this is her first Christmas!

it is a seat on wheels. Jon called it a "handicapped skate board" and she LOVES it!  she totally understood what to do with it:)  She was so happy it was hard to get a picture of her still:)  she certainly loved her first present!

 

Happy Shad

 

he loves nerf guns:)  he looks like a happy NRA president:)

 

 

Sam remembered what to do

 

Steve has some new jeans

 

Jon got a gift card

 

I had opened my big present at home, it's a machine that has 3 crock pots in it!  I can't wait to use it!!  But it is rather big.  We also left Selah's things at home but I know she got a bean bag chair that will work perfectly for her to sit in!

 

We feel blessed.  Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas!

 

Sarah's Christmas Eve somersault!!!!

 

Look at this little gymnastic!  she might even be into yoga:)   this little girl could hardly lift her head when we met her in April!  Once she gets into therapy, who knows what she will do????     BTW her shirt says "Love makes me smile"  it sure does because she is always smiling!  We love her so much!!!!  I didn't get to write a Happy Birthday post for her, her bday was on the 21st.  But I have to say I have loved her with all my heart since the day I saw her picture...even in a mental institution, she had a smile on her face.  Sarah was so meant to be my daughter that God worked every little thing, just so,  I saw her picture and couldn't forget her....talk about a series of fortunate events. 

 

I can not imagine my life, our life without her!  She is a JOY to have in our family.  When Sarah was born, her parents would not touch her because she was missing an eye and they immediately signed her over to the state.  That makes me so angry!  She went through hell for years.  I wish I would have seen her picture sooner, I whisper that in her ears and she just smiles and giggles at me.  I tell her the stork accidentally took her to the wrong country & that she was mine from the moment she was born.   She may not understand the words but she knows she has a family that adores her now.....  I can tell how secure she is with us.  Sarah never had one issue with us in adapting to our family.  She & Selah both fit perfectly.  Not every adoption is that smooth but I think they were just ready for us!  We certainly were ready for them!

 

 

this is the first picture we saw of her.....

it kept me up all night, she looked just like Sam but she was alone in an adult mental institution....

 

So Sarah it might be a few days late but I love and adore you from head to little toes!  Happy Birthday, you'll never be alone again:)

 

Fox News Report Sunday morning at Grace Church

http://www.myfoxtampabay.com/video?clipId=8098924&autoStart=true

here's the link for Fox news report from our church on sunday morning.  I love seeing all our folks:) 

Christmas Eve thoughts

This Christmas will be one we will never forget.  Not only is it the first Christmas we've spent away from home, it is the first Christmas with our two girls.  Oh the plans I had for this Christmas....I wanted to make it so meaningful for our family....  I'm not a decorator, for the past 5 years we haven't had a Christmas tree because we were afraid Sam would pull it down on his head!  But this year I was going to get out all our ornaments and put them on the tree. I was going to put it up in our church where it would be safe from the three little ones and the three little ones would be safe from it!   We have some special ornaments, I buy them but never put them up LOL.  I'm one of those people, even when we put up the tree was so glad for it to come down and our house "get back to normal"  I don't like clutter or extra things out.  don't I sound like Scrooge?  But I do love Christmas, a simple Christmas. 

We don't try to out do ourselves each year but we do look forward to finding a few meaningful things ( things the kids really want and would use for more than 5 minutes)  for each child.  It's fun to that do that for them.  We work on trying to keep our kids from getting too materialistic..  This year a group from Bell Shoals Baptist that volunteer at the prison where my husband is chaplain blessed our family.  Back in November I got an email asking what the kids wanted for Christmas....we were just floored !!!  It was really hard for me to even think about what they wanted.  We took Shad through Toys R Us and wrote down some things he liked (he was by far the easiest!  By that I mean he can do a wish list hahahaha!)  Steve honestly was at a loss and the little ones are really hard to find things that they will actually play with/use.  But we managed to come up with a list. They came by Saturday night and dropped off the presents to us, wrapped Thank God!!!!.  I am so thankful for them.  Not only are our fiances tight but my mind is almost gone and the thought of doing real Christmas shopping makes me feel like having a panic attack.  We did find "something" at the Christian bookstore for Steve and Shad.  And I did do a Build A Bear for Sam (with voice activation) but that was the extent of it for us, that did me in!  If I had a million dollars to spend right now, I couldn't do it.  So I am so thankful for the sweet folks at Bell Shoals Baptist who blessed our family and who bless the inmates throughout the year with their presence and love.  Jon is thankful for the great group of volunteers who work tirelessly at ZCI to bring God's love to "his" inmates:)  There is no doubt in my mind that Jon has the best job for him in the world!  He loves being a chaplain and loves the men he serves!!!  And he is helped by all the 100 plus volunteers that come in and give additional service to the inmates. 

We were also blessed by a sweet young family here in this area with a gift card for the kids.  They have just suffered a loss in their family this past year and have tender hearts.  Thank you all too. 

So this is a different kind of Christmas for us....we have seen God's provision throughout this past year on a scale that we have never seen before.  Of course we have never needed it like we have this past year!  We've seen God's gift of His faithfulness on a scale we have never seen before....remembering our simple Christmas last year...waiting on our new children, hearts filled with anticipation....  Last year we had a Christmas Dinner and had our family and some of our closest friends over and we just had a good time together hanging out all day and laughing....  in my heart I was worried about our little ones in Ukraine and they were never far from my mind but we almost had all our paperwork done to bring them home by that point.  We got our USCIS (clearance form the US government- our last document) between Christmas and New Years (thanks to Mario Rubio's office!)

So tonight we are going to Mandarin United Methodist Church to their candle light Christmas Eve service.  Another church that has just blessed our family and wrapped their arms around us!  Then we'll come back to our "home away from home" and let the kids unwrap a present ( our tradition).  It may be different but when our kids are older, they will be reminded of God' love, faithfulness and provision to us during this time.  That is a real "life" lesson! 

I hope all of you have a wonderful Christmas this year and that you realize what Christmas is all about....  the Prince of Peace came into this world that night....He is still the Prince of Peace no matter what is going on in this world or in our own lives.....

ABCnews report from our church today

http://www.abcactionnews.com//dpp/news/region_pasco/zephyrhills/near-fatal-stroller-accident-left-one-child-fighting-for-life?fb_action_ids=10200144210117192&fb_action_types=og.recommends&fb_source=other_multiline&action_object_map=%7B%2210200144210117192%22%3A512368308803193%7D&action_type_map=%7B%2210200144210117192%22%3A%22og.recommends%22%7D&action_ref_map=[]

HEre's the link for the news today.  They came and taped our service.  Very Sweet. 
Our church is called Grace Church not Grace Connection but that's ok:)