My friend, Beth, wrote this song and she and her daughter sing it in this video. She is a huge advocate for adoption, and I appreciate her heart so much!!!

Sam is the first picture in this video, and Lydia is toward the end. And so many of my friends’ children are scattered throughout.

Phoebe is four months old! I cannot believe it, really. It seems like the last 1/3 of a year has been a blur of crying, screaming, vomiting, etc. All of those done by her, of course.

It seems like all I do is wake up children, get them dressed, get them to school, nurse a baby, go pick up kids, get supper, give baths, put on pajamas, and crawl back into bed. It’s long day after long day. But it’s rewarding to see how everyone is growing in so many ways.

We figured that since Phoebe was trying to eat all kinds of things, like noses:

and chins:

that may be she would like to try something new, like rice cereal.

I’m not completely sure she was ready, but she didn’t hate it, so we’ll give it another try in a couple of days.

Phoebe is also talking SO much….gab gab gab! She seems a little happier now that she knows she can get something else except screaming to come out of her mouth!

The other morning we woke up and found a frog hopping around our mudroom. We put it into a spare aquarium we have, and kept it for a couple of days. At first Sam was *terrified* of the frog, but when the time came to let it go this afternoon, he was sad.

Tonight, Doug came in the house and grabbed the camera and dashed back out again. There was a rather large owl hanging out in a tree near the chicken pens. It was too dark to get a clear picture, but we did get a pretty cool one. If you look closely, you can see its eyes glowing.

And that’s really all that’s happening right now. We’ve been busy getting ready for Spring and before we know it, Summer will be here. 2008 is almost half over!

Yesterday was the best day we’ve had all year — weather-wise. It was so unbelievably beautiful!! We just could not sit inside all day, so off we went to Ha Ha Tonka State Park. The girls and I had gone last year on a class trip, and had wanted to take Doug ever since! You couldn’t ask for more out of a State Park….castle ruins, a beautiful bubbly spring, wonderful hiking trails, dark caves, huge bluffs. So, off we went and had a wonderful time! Up until now it’s been a bit of a guessing game with Sam as to when we need to allow him to take off a sweatshirt and when he needs to wear it. But yesterday, at about 75 degrees and slightly breezy, we finally hit that mark where we all agreed that he could take it off.

Without further ado, here are pics of our day:

All the hikes we took were SO easy — mostly on paved trails, which made it nice for a stroller.

The dogwood trees are blooming and the new leaves are coming out on the smaller trees.

It was quite crowded….everyone had the same idea!

The gorge that we hiked through is the result of a collapsed cave as evidenced by the large boulders all around.

Here are the ruins of Snyder Castle:

This is not at all like Germany or England. Climbing on the castle is strictly prohibited! This was pushing the limit right here, but we saw other people doing it, so figured we were ok.

And another, closer up

Leaning in for a peak:

Jumping off the castle ruins:

Copycat:

I mentioned a few posts ago that Sam had been approved for a wish with Make A Wish. Well, this evening his wish granters, Michelle and Holli, came over and spent time with him and brought him presents and played with all the kids, and left knowing his 2 wishes (a primary one and a backup one). His first wish is to go to Disney and meet Pooh. His second wish is for a pop-up camper so we can continue to camp together as a family.

Here’s a picture of Sam with his wish-granters, Holli & Melissa:

When they got here, Melissa played a little game with everyone where they got to share the things they liked about Sam. Gwen and Lydia were super original…they like the way he plays. Hmmm. Probably because he puts brand new ideas in their heads, like, “Let’s all stand on the couch!” or “Let’s all pretend the floor is a pool and we can bellyflop into (onto?) it.” There have been lots of minor injuries around here lately.

But anyway, after everyone shared what they liked about Sam, we got prizes! Lydia got a cute little play doll set thingy. Gwen got a baby doll that wets (!!!!! oh joy!!!! She wants to know if it also gets diaper rash). And Phoebe got a 101 Dalmations Beanie Baby, because she contributed so very much.

So, after everyone opened presents, Melissa sat down with the kids on the floor and put a bunch of pictures in front of Sam. Things like PowerWheels and amazing playhouse beds and swingsets and Disney characters. He wasn’t really interested in any of them….except that he could tell you who all the Disney character were. Mickey, Pooh, Tigger, Piglet, etc. Piglet is his favorite, mainly because it’s the most fun to sign, or he thinks so anyway.

So, then Holli asked us questions about Sam…his favorite color, things to do, places to eat, etc. And this is where his second wish came in. We talked about how he LOVES to be outdoors and how much fun he has when we all go fishing together or just hike and how we love to camp but he won’t be able to camp with everyone unless it’s an exceptionally hot night (and who likes to camp on exceptionally hot nights?). So, we talked about alternative forms of camping, and then we talked to Sam about a pop-up camper. To be honest, this would be such an amazing wish to have come true. To be able to go and spend the time that we love to spend camping and not have to worry about Sam’s hands and feet and lips turning blue and him catching cold and it turning into something horrible….how cool would that be??? So, we are trusting God to give Sam what He wants him to have. We are CERTAINLY not arguing with a trip to Disney, however.

So, our next step is wait and see what Make A Wish decides to do with his 2 wishes and which one they want to grant. We can’t wait!!!!

I want to leave you with a series of 3 photos I took the other day. They were taken within a period of about 10 seconds and they make me grin everytime (and, yeah, honestly, choke back tears sometimes). Sam is such a light to this family….and he ADORES his sisters!

(Oh, and erm….ignore the parts of old carpet stuck to our floor. We are slowly but surely stripping the old floor, but it takes a lot of time with 4 kids running around here!)

Doesn’t that just warm your heart???

A very good friend and fellow adoptive mama got the worst phone call of her life just 2 days ago.

My friend Kathy, mama to 4 Chinese girls as well as an older boy and girl, was on the way to the hospital in Springfield, MO to be by the side of her good friend whose daughter had just passed away in a car accident and whose other daughter was in critical condition. While on the way to the hospital, she received a phone call that her son was being airlifted to the same hospital.

Andrew Lowe had just recently gotten his driver’s license and was involved in a horrific accident. His car rolled 5 times, he was thrown from the vehicle and the car rolled on top of him. He has multiple broken bones, including a leg/ankle that they are not sure they can save at all, and a swollen and bleeding brain.

Kathy and her family have asked for prayer. Please take some time to pray for God’s grace and healing….and that His will be done!

The family that Kathy was on her way to visit in the hospital also live in our town. The grandparents are our next door neighbors and rent some of our land from us.

These 2 unrelated tragedies have just sent shockwaves through our community.

The weather here has been rather spotty…..we got a touch of the floods that plagued Missouri for a week or so. Our driveway was washed out, but thanks to wonderful neighbors, it was fixed very quickly.

Yesterday reached the upper 60’s, so we were able to take Sam out for some playtime. First thing was to meet the mules and horse. He wasn’t scared at all, and put his hand out to touch Jesse (the Percheron - big gray/white horse) but Jesse wanted to take a look at this new little creature. They stood gazing at each other for a while before the mules started getting antsy for the apples stuffed in our pockets. When they started dancing around, Sam wanted to leave quickly!

I hope that you all had a chance to celebrate the resurrection of our Saviour! He is RISEN!

It seems like February 29 should be worthy of a blog, just due to it only rolling around every 4 years. So, here we go… Random thoughts from a scattered brain.

My father fell on the ice in New Hampshire and broke his lower leg and ankle. He had surgery yesterday morning, so the girls and I made him a video. At the end, Lydia saw the option for rolling credits and insisted on putting them in. Starring Doug as Doug, Mary as Mary and so on. She was so tickled to see her name scrolling down the screen!

Fun news for us…. Sam has been approved for a wish with Make a Wish! Most likely we will be going to Orlando this coming winter, but we have to be careful about the weather. Sam doesn’t do well in cold or even cool weather. We need to go during a time when the evenings don’t get too cool.

Some interesting and thought-provoking articles:

This one, written by “child-free” author, Ronald Bailey, uses research done by Daniel Gilbert (author of Stumbling on Happiness) to prove that people are having smaller families because they really don’t like children.

…according to happiness researchers, people don’t really enjoy rearing children. “Economists have modeled the impact of many variables on people’s overall happiness and have consistently found that children have only a small impact. A small negative impact,” reports Harvard psychologist and happiness researcher Daniel Gilbert. In addition, the more children a person has the less happy they are. According to Gilbert, researchers have found that people derive more satisfaction from eating, exercising, shopping, napping, or watching television than taking care of their kids. “Indeed, looking after the kids appears to be only slightly more pleasant than doing housework,” asserts Gilbert…

And this article, by ABC News, suggests that the need to have a “large” family is an addiction, a response to depression.

In much happier news, Love Without Boundaries is opening a new Cleft Healing Home in Anhui, China. It seems like this work has been going on FOREVER, but it is finally opening!!! And this next week, 7 beautiful cleft babies will be moving into a loving caring home where they will receive personal attention necessary for them to thrive. If you would like to follow along on the opening of the home and these precious babies, you can go to www.lwbclefthome.blogspot.com.

Does it look like Phoebe is saying “YAY!”???

Because, after a very very long day at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital… a day filled with EKG’s:

And echocardiograms:

And lots and lots of little checks:

And TONS of waiting around, in which we did silly stuff, like decorating Phoebe:

And decorating Gwen:

And trying to make Phoebe happy:

Anyway….after ALL THAT, we have learned….

Drumroll please!

Sam does NOT need another open heart surgery!!!! In fact, he does not need another surgery!!!! His last surgery, the Fontan, WAS COMPLETED IN CHINA!!!! And why did we not know this? Because we weren’t told by his caregivers! Does this sound a little odd? To us too! But this is absolutely an answer to prayer! We have ourselves a very very healthy little boy, who, while he still does have heart disease, has such an amazing prognosis! You would never guess he was sick, except for the multiple scars on his chest, side and back.

We celebrated with a meal at Denny’s and a LONG trip home with the kids.

Have I mentioned that Phoebe is a cryer. A screamer, actually. She screams and screams and screams. Then she stops, and you take a breath of fresh air, thinking it’s all over. But it turns out the “stop” is actually a slight pause while she gears up for round 2 (or 2,000). The nights around here are lovely. I should wait to write this until after my sister visits in early March, lest she change her mind and leave me festering in a pool of self-pity during Spring Break week.

Doug and I joke sometimes about using the “virtue names” as middle names for our kids. Gwen’s middle name is Hope, Lydia’s is Honour, Phoebe’s is Joy, and Sam’s is Justice. Phoebe’s is Joy. Did I already say that? Joy. While waiting at the airport for Doug and Sam to arrive, I commented on the lack of joy that Phoebe seems to have, and then thought….”Oh my word….what if Sam turns out to have, like, NO justice whatsoever? And Lydia, no honour? And Gwen, no hope????”

The thoughts of a depressed mom? Doug must have thought so, because he sent me out of the house for some freedom the other day. What did I get to do? Go hiking!!! I put on some big tall boots and a warm sweatshirt and went out to see the full streams and ponds on our property. It’s been raining on and off for days, so things were very soggy and wet. The dogs enjoyed a few minutes to get out and run for all they were worth!

I didn’t even take time to make sure I looked pretty! I grabbed a bright orange sweatshirt and a totally non-matching hat, and RAN out of the house!

Here’s a picture of our house and barns from one of the ponds on our property. It looks kind of bleak right now….no leaves on the trees, gray sky. But it is absolutely beautiful in the spring!

And now, Phoebe Fussy….erm, Phoebe Joy and Sam and I have to head to the school to pick up the girls! More updates soon!

Happy New Year! Last night we spent the evening with a few other families with children from China. We celebrated Chinese New Year with a game of basketball and a dragon dance, as well as Papa John’s pizza, cashew chicken and steamed buns.

Gwen under the dragon head

Sam, trying to decide whether or not to join the dragon dance

Lydia playing basketball

And a short video….Sam finally chose to join in the dragon dance

And lastly, a picture of Sam dressed to go out and help Papa with the chores. All boy!

As you all know, Doug came home on Sunday evening with Sam. We had a wonderful time meeting him in Springfield and were SO glad to see the families that came to welcome him home! Several people have asked me where Phoebe was in the video and, well, she’s the baby you hear screaming in the background through most of it. She started fussing about 2 minutes before the plane landed and Stefi very kindly held her for me so we could welcome Doug.

Here’s our first “Family of Six” picture:

We went to Cracker Barrel to eat after the plane landed and Samuel started to open up a bit more. By the end of the meal, he was happily sitting in my lap and calling me “Mama”. After Cracker Barrel, we loaded back in the car and drove home. It didn’t take long before Sam was fast asleep!

That evening we didn’t get to bed until after midnight. But everyone slept until almost 8:30 the next morning! Sam woke up a bit sober with no smiles, and we thought it was just that he had had a bit of an overload. But, he was really sick! Monday was filled…FILLED…with vomiting. Vomiting after the slightest thing went in his mouth, after a small car trip, after everything. We tried to go on base to enroll Sam in DEERS but the wait was almost 4 hours, so after a vomit scare there, we picked up everything and went home. After school was out for the girls, Doug took Gwen to Walmart to get Pedialyte and I sat with Sam and Phoebe while Lydia got her speech evaluation at school.

When we finally got home, Sam was dragging and looked absolutely miserable. Finally, he went to bed and slept for almost 12 hours.

Tuesday was a much better day! Doug left early in the morning to go back on base and enroll Sam in DEERS and TriCare, and Sam wasn’t vomiting. Mid-morning, we got a phone call from the head pediatrician on base asking if we could come see him in the afternoon to do Sam’s screening.

When we got there, and the examination got underway, we found out that Sam’s heart actually sounds quite good. There is a tiny little squeak in the heartbeat, a little regurgitation of the tricuspid “valve”….he actually has no tricuspid valve (yet), but the blood is flowing quite well through his heart. His pulse oxygen level is at 97%, which is WONDERFUL! The pediatrician called Dr Fiore, at Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital in St Louis (a HUGE answer to prayer as this is the doctor we would have chosen to do Sam’s next surgery) and Dr Fiore was very pleased with everything. Sometime next month, Sam will have an ultrasound of the heart and an EKG done and we’ll know a lot more about what the immediate future holds for us.

Sam had a great time playing with the pediatric nurse at Ft Wood:

When we got home from the doctor’s appointment, Sam was ready to eat, for the first time in almost 48 hours. We made him some noodles, which he wolfed down and then he and the girls settled in to play for a while.

We are so excited that Sam’s heart appears to be in fairly good shape….much better than it COULD be, and that his previous surgery (the Glenn procedure) was successful! His next surgery (the Fontan) is quite involved and will require quite a recovery period. About 3 weeks in the hospital and then quite some time following at home. I can’t wait until we know more!

Here’s a picture taken on Monday, before the vomiting started:

Here are some pictures from the trip home:

Waking up at 5:00 to start the trip home

On the plane