No O!

Yes that's right friends, O=oxygen... and she's off! During the day at least!

isn't she beautiful!?!?!?!?!? (:

I have been dying to write this post since our appointment on Tuesday. We saw Evie's pulmonologist, and he was thrilled to hear Evie has been doing well without oxygen that morning. After looking at her chest x-ray from last month it was decided that we can take her off of O2 during the day! She still has to wear it during naps, night, and in the car, but we'll take it! I have tried to take so many pictures of her with her tube off, but when I tell her to say cheese she starts waving her arms so fast I can't get a good pic... or she turns her head (which she learned from her older sis... great)! Then we got called in for a sleep study on Wednesday night, which I'm pretty sure didn't go well... but I'll wait to fill you in until I get the official results. It shouldn't effect the oxygen decision.


So we have been busy busy, exploring this new wireless world. This is Evie riding in the train at the zoo with Lyla and two of her buddies. Don't worry, I held her from behind when we started moving (:

AND we officially decided this week to put our house up for sale. WHY NOT right!? We are anticipating Evie will start walking sometime in the next year, and since summer is the best time to sell we are going to give it a go. We are looking for a ranch home so that all rooms are accessible to Eve without going up or down stairs, and without us worrying about her falling.
My sister came over on Saturday to help me go through our stuff, and after a few hours and a delicious brownie this is how Evie looked:

This is a pretty good visual of how I FEEL right now... but definitely not as cute (:

Lastly, Aria had a rough weekend. My heart aches for her family. If you want to check in on her you can check www.aria.org.nz . Send up an extra prayer for her.

Love you friends! God is SO GOOD.

"Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18

Happy Birthday Lyla!!!

May 19, 2011

Dearest Ly,

There is a lot that can be said about daughters. Sugar and spice... well these past four years haven't been everything nice, but you have been my JOY.

In this past year you have grown into a little social butterfly with a knack for friendship. I was even told that one of your best buddies has an imaginary friend named Lyla that he takes everywhere with him (: You can keep up with the boys even though you prefer to wear dresses. You like a good game of "tackle" but you like to wear my lipstick. You are a good friend because you are kind, you care, and you accept the differences of others. You know that loving God and loving your friends is what makes you truly beautiful.

If I could create the perfect big sister for Eve, it would be you. Your strong personality and silly sense of humor lift her spirits. I had to smile when you congratulated her on an impressive burp with a "nice one Eve!" and laughter! You will challenge her to grow and succeed. You are her perfect speech therapist, she will learn so much from you. The word she says the most often and most clearly is "Lyla." She loves you so much!

When we were first looking into adoption or foster care, I told you there were kids who didn't have parents, or who couldn't live with their parents anymore, and before I got to my big explanation you said "They can live with us! They can be in our family!" Your love for others is beautifully genuine, and your acceptance reminds me to put others first and to love others every day.

I love you more than the sun and the moon. Through countless doctor's visits, surgeries, hospitalizations, and therapy sessious you have been my partner in crime, my travel buddy, and my sunshine. The hospital could be so depressing without you there to point out every statue that happens to be naked. Without you, who would push all of the elevator buttons, locate every bottle of hand sanitizer, or find the pink milk in the cafeteria? You know how to humble me, like asking me why I have lines on my forehead. You know I didn't have any of those 4 years ago right!? (:

HAPPY 4th BIRTHDAY LYLA! Thanks for loving me. I can't wait to see how you continue to grow in the next 5, 10, 25, 50 years. There's no doubt in my mind you can do anything you set your mind to.

Love, Mom

Can you hear me now???

HI FRIENDS!

Wow, Where have I BEEN!? Let's see... gymnastics, the dentist, swim lessons, preschool, playdate, my gparents, swim lessons again, preschool again, dog training school, foster parent training, gymnastics again, soccer, baby shower, church, a few more soccer games, and I'm SPENT! (:

Evie had a hearing test last week, and the results were about as uncertain as any behavioral test is with an 18 month old. Yes, she can hear. Conversational level sounds at least... which is great. They started with a test where they put a little ear plug into her ear and four tones go in, and should come back out. Only one of her four consistently came back. What does that mean? No clue! Then we did an ear drum test where a little peak shaped line is supposed to bounce back and her line was flat. That usually means fluid behind the ear, but Eve didn't have any fluid, and had been on antibiotics 7 days prior. What does that mean? Possible structural problems, but nothing certain. Then we sat in a little room, and the operator guy behind the window spoke through different speakers. He would say "Evie, ba ba ba ba ba" and instead of looking at the speaker she would look at him in the window (: She turned for all of the conversational level sounds, but none of the high/low pitches, or soft sounds.

SO we see an ENT in 3 weeks so he can look at the structure of her ear. There are little bones in you middle ear, and since we are pumping her full of bone-making enzyme we need to check out if this is affecting her hearing. Sometime during Evie's first year I compartmentalized my thinking into "life threatening" and "not life threatening" files and as this falls into the "not" I really am not worried about it. She can hear me, I can hear her, we are happy for now.

We had a BIG visitor this past weekend! (yes, in the middle of that list of business we had going on - never a dull moment!) Her name is Sara, and she is writing the magazine story for Evie. If you've been following us for a while you will have seen Brian Lehmann's photos, and Sara will be writing the story to accompany the photos! The plan is for it to be published in a magazine this September with over 3 million copies circulated!!! Evie will be the cover girl (: Anyway, Sara was wonderful and the weekend was great. We watched videos of the weekend of Evie's birth, flipped through scrapbooks, photos, and answered lots of questions. She met our fam, one of Evie's favorite doctors, and got to experience preschool soccer. I'll be honest, I felt like I got hit by a bus on Tuesday morning! To mentally browse through the past 18 months in one weekend took a lot of emotion and thought. Evie has been so healthy the past few months it was hard to even look at her and see the little girl who was so sick for a while there.

I was flipping through my Bible on Sunday night, and found a passage I specifically marked 8-8-09... about a month before Evie was born. It reads:
That is why we never give up. Though our bodies are dying, our spirits are being renewed every day. For our present troubles are quite small and won't last very long. Yet they produce for us an immeasureably great glory that will last forever! So we don't look at the troubles we can see right now; rather, we look forward to what we have not yet seen. For the troubles we see will soon be over, but the joys to come will last forever. - 2 Corinthians 4:16-18

What a beautiful promise. "the joys to come will last forever." Amen Friends! Love you (:

Mother's Day (:

Hi Friends!

I had a few people ask me yesterday what our big news was from Wednesday, so I figured I need to get this post written... and what better day than Mother's Day!

Evie update first: She's doing great! Had a little fever a few days ago, but I'm pretty sure she's just teething... and growing like a weed!

Okay, our big family news. On Wednesday John and I attended a luncheon to learn about Foster Care. It was put on by an organization called Christian Heritage, who place kids in Christian foster homes. We have prayed about adoption, fostering, and the prospect of additional kids for a while now, and thought we might go gather some info. Lunch was good, we both enjoyed it, and met some neat people who work for Christian Heritage.

Thursday afternoon I called to see if we could start training this summer, and training had started the week before. Bummer. So I chatted with the guy, thinking we would start training in the fall (we weren't really in a hurry) and by the end of the conversation he invited us to come that night, and just start a week behind everyone else. SO we officially started Foster Parent Training on Thursday night! It was the 2nd of 10 weeks of training, that will be followed by a home study, so I'm thinking we may not be licensed for 3-5 months, we are still new to learning how it all works. And Evie successfully stayed with a non-familial babysitter for the first time - and loved it! Huge relief for us.

We are hoping to ease our way into fostering, so our initial plan is to do "respite fostering" this fall. By doing respite we would take kids who are in foster homes already for a weekend or a week to give the families a break. This gives us time to get our feet wet, experience what foster parenting is like, and see how it affects our kids. Then we will pray about the right timing in doing long term foster care, and possibly adopting.

So we're excited that God has opened this door for us, and we're feeling really blessed that we have already saved money with the intent of adoption... because we're going to need a bigger car! My Honda Element has two seats in the back claimed by Lyla and Eve, so I'm seeing a minivan in our future. Luckily we have a few months before we will be licensed to figure out how more people are going to fit in our house and our car, but it will all be fulfilled with God's blessing in his time.

Lastly, we added a new member to our family yesterday (why not do everything at once right!?). We have been scoping out Harry Monster Elsaesser for a few weeks and made it official yesterday. He is Lyla's 4th birthday present from my wonderful grandparents, but we picked him up a few days early since we wouldn't have been able to get him any other time (: In her words "Is he a boy?" ("yes") "I never had a brother before!" She is thrilled, and he's only had one accident so far. We start "official" puppy training tomorrow (:

Love you friends! Keep us in your prayers as we embark on our new adventure(s) (:

Spring!!!

Love you friends! Had an exciting day, will tell you about it soon (: