Ella's Birthday photos

To continue the post below, here are photos of Ella who just celebrated 3 years! She is a joy to us, I just can't tell you how much fun this little girl is! Ella loves to dance and especially loves to imitate ballet when she sees it on the TV, lifting her feet and raising her arms high in the air. She has always been calmed by classical music, played loud. This helps a lot in the car! Ella also loves having Timmy close to her.

Ella was born November 23rd, 2005.
This is the first photo of Ella that we were given.
It was taken when she was still a preemie in the hospital.

Here's Ella getting a good look at Papa.
She was 7 weeks old when we met her.

Of course I was as thrilled as I could be to be given such a precious baby daughter!

This is our eldest daughter Milly, who met Ella on our trip to pick her up in their state.

Here is Ella at 1 year.

Here is Ella at 2 years.

And this is Ella at her 3 year birthday party!

It's especially sweet how she loves holding and carrying dollies around.

Finally, a little video of Ella and her birthday cake. We let her eat it with her fingers, not realizing what would happen next! ;o)

Happy Birthday to our little sweetie Ella Rose.

Love,
Mama and Papa

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Lora and Ella share birthdate: Nov. 23

Lora Jean and Ella Rose were born on the same day, 18 years apart. When we were still waiting to hear who we would eventually adopt, I had a feeling that we would know something by Lora's birthday time. Well, that day came and passed... without any news. :o(

But a couple weeks later I had a call from a social worker that we had been chosen to adopt a tiny baby girl that had been born one month early... on Lora's birthday!!!

It's a tradition in our family that if a baby is born on one of the kids' birthdays, that sibling gets to help name the baby. I asked Lora what she would name her and she promptly replied, "Ella".

That was three years ago! It's hard to believe!

Lora had her birthday party on Saturday night and had a couple of friends and a lot of family over. We had Ella's party with family over on Sunday night. I'll try to show the birthday girls individually to do justice to each... it may be hard to limit the photos but I'll try!

I'm going to do photos of Lora first, and post Ella's in the morning.

Lora drawing before she learned to walk!

Papa holding Lora high. Having Lora in our family has always been like having Christmas every morning!

Mikelle ("Kelly"), Katie Curtis, Milly and Lora Jean. For the first couple of years Lora and Kelly's eyes were green and then they turned brown.

Our little Valentine. Always full of personality!

From top left: Mikelle, Lora. Bottom left: Laura Mitchell, Robin.
Lora, Mikelle and Robin are each about 16 months apart.

Lora with Joel on his first Christmas.

Celebrating Ella's adoption day. Lora is wonderful with kids!

Recent photo of Joel and Lora.

Lora opening present from Wilson (he wrapped it many times!).

Some of the group at Lora's birthday party.

Lora blowing out candles.

Happy birthday Lora, you are a wonder and a hope!!!

Love,
Mama and Papa

Timmy's better

Timmy's feeling better since my last post, I'm so glad. Just wanted you to know!

Long week

It has been a busy week! We left for the University Hospital at 6 am on Tuesday; Ella and Timmy went in for their surgeries right on time, First Ella then Tim.

The doctor came out to talk with us twice, sitting in a chair and telling us about Ella's ears. He said that it was not easy and it took longer than usual for him to put her ear tubes in because of her anatomy; her ear canals are extremely tiny and long. He said that she had a lot of thick fluid with the viscosity of egg whites in her middle ears which they suctioned out. The doctor said he had to adapt the T-tubes by cutting bits off of them to make them fit. He said the other tubes placed in July were gone. We agreed that since this seems to be an ongoing problem for Ella that we will need to continue to monitor her hearing... as we have been. She is scheduled for another ABR, this time at the University Hospital on December 5th.

As I understand it, Timmy had one tube left but it was removed and a new tube was placed in his other ear where there was none.
The hope is that he will end up with a hole in each ear that will allow for natural drainage when necessary, until he is older. That's how Joel's ears are now, last I heard. Come to think of it, the doctor didn't seem to have any concerns over Joel's ears at the appointment on Monday, we mostly discussed having Joel's large tonsils and adenoids out and how to do that with Coumadin involved...still working on connecting him with Joel's cardiologist who is on vacation this week.

Just as we were checking out of the hospital Mike was attempting to tube feed Timmy and it wouldn't go down. Finally it did. But then when Mike took the extension tube out of the button, the contents of Tim's stomach began spilling freely everywhere-- obviously the stop-flow mechanism inside the g-button was broken. The nurse gathered something to sop it up and then we plugged the extension tube back into the g-button to stop the flow and the nurse wrapped it onto his belly with some bright green stretchy material. We figured out that the little soft plastic outer stopper on the g-button closure flap had broken off and had been pushed down through the g-button, thus the difficulty getting the PediaSure to go down the tube and then the broken interior stop-flow.

Here we were at a hospital already but needing to go to another hospital because of his other doctor's office being there... so instead of going directly home we had to drive three hours to have the broken g-button removed (as it's not the water-bubble type--Timmy's stomach acid eats through those too quickly) with a special tool and replaced with a temporary Mic-key until a new Bard could be ordered and received in office.

Well, Timmy didn't like it, no surprise! Who would? And yes, the small stopper was inside the "basket" at the end of the g-button.

The problem was, the Mickey was a 14 French and the Bard removed had been an 18 French (diameter of tube going through the skin and into the stomach). 18 French is the smallest Bard makes, but like the doctor said (who came in to chat with us) it's like a freight train in such a small boy. But, the other non-bubble type of g-button had only lasted in Tim for 24 hours and he pulled it out and he was going through the Mickeys too fast.

They also cauterized Tim's stoma while they were at it, with a silver nitrate q-stick. His stoma bled and leaked like crazy the next couple of days and the stomach acid was burning his skin. We were giving him OTC pain reliever but as you can imagine, school just didn't work out this week.

Wednesday was Ella's IEP with EI providers and her new school's team. That was actually a fairly fun meeting this time and I'm very encouraged that Ella will receive speech and hearing therapies in preschool beginning December 1st. They will use both sign and try picture exchange with her as communication is her greatest need. I have noticed her mimicking people's hand gestures more and more and she uses several signs at home, including: "more", "all done", "baby" and her own signs for "bottle" and "pick up the baby" (meaning herself). Yes, we're still working on getting rid of the bottle.:o(

Ella's Early Intervention PT saw her professionally for the last time on Wednesday afternoon. Her developmental therapist saw her for the last time today. Her speech therapist came for the last time a while ago. It's hard to believe we've come to the end of a very long-term working relationship with these women after nearly 8 years of having them in our home each week. Sue and Krista have been with us the whole time, with each of our youngest three! And Cheri has been with us at least half of that time. Each of these ladies are really great at what they do. I consider them some of my best friends and hope to stay in touch.

So many other things going on... Working to keep our foster license up-to-date... photos for the Angel Tree ornaments... attending book club... drawing floor plans for a house... washing, drying, folding mountains of laundry... hoping to adopt one last time... giving meds, feeding kids and washing dishes... changing and bathing children... wondering about Christmas... scheduling lots of appointments... keeping in touch with loved ones, praying for everyone and trying to plan more birthday parties for this weekend.

Did I miss anything? Oh yeah. Thursday Lora and I drove Timmy back to the doctor's office and the nurses removed the temporary Mickey button and then used the special tool to put the new Bard button in. They also cauterized his stoma again and it hurt when they put the new button in. Poor little guy!! It's still pretty sore today so I didn't try sending him back to school. His skin should heal some this weekend if he'll leave it alone. He's a sweet little guy and so loveable. It's hard to see my baby have troubles like this!

FHE 11-17-08

Once again, we spent most of our day at the University hospital. Mike and I and Gabe took Joel and Timmy with us. Ella and Timmy are now scheduled for ear tubes tomorrow morning! We'll need to be there early. Joel needs his tonsils and adenoids out but we have to talk with his cardiologist about that first because Joel is on blood thinners for his artificial heart valve.

As we finally got into the elevator to the parking garage (after 5 1/2 hours in the hospital at various stages of pre-op)there were two other ladies with us, talking about a cell-phone conversation. Joel walked up to them and smiling sweetly said, "Excuse me. Excuse me!" The ladies smiled back and said, "Yes?" and Joel said, "That is dumb!"

Of course we were surprised and embarrassed and everybody laughed (shouldn't have!)-- I didn't even know he knew that word! What movie is that in? He'd just seen the last half of "Madagascar" in a waiting room, is it in there? We told him, "Joel, Excuse me is nice (we taught him that) but dumb is not nice." We just don't know what he's going to say next. He's putting sentences together pretty well these days!

I guess Family Home Evening was really last night when we had the birthday party. :o)

Gabriel's Birthday!

Gabriel's birthday is November 16th. Here are some photos of Gabe over the years. When he was little we called him "Gibby". He has green eyes and deep dimples when he grins. We nearly lost him to spinal meningitis when he was 8 months old. He was given a round of a new experimental treatment at Emanuel Hospital in Portland, Oregon and survived the illness well. Others we knew including my cousin, had died from meningitis previously.

Here is Gabriel with his little brother Joel, who was about 5 months old at the time of this photo.





When Gabe was 18 he was in a bicycle accident that broke three of his vertebrae in the thoracic area of his spine. The neurosurgeon said it was a miracle he wasn't paralyzed! Two of the vertebrae were broken diagonally all the way through and the third was crushed. Gabe had two titanium L-shaped rods in his back for a year and spent that summer in a hot brace, but he walked for graduation just a few weeks after the accident!

We believe he was granted these miracles for a reason.

I remember finding Gabriel on his knees during his recovery period, praying and thanking Heavenly Father for this blessing. Gabe told me afterward that he had lots of ideas of ways to help people because of his experience.

I hope that one day he will be in a position to do that.

Gabriel is an artist and an inventor. He is very sweet and gentle to his younger siblings. Here is a photo of Gabe and Ella napping on the sofa after church today.

We had birthday cake at Janina's house tonight for both Gabriel and Janina. She made marble cake with whipped cream and Heath bars on top.



HAPPY BIRTHDAY GABRIEL!!!

Love,
Mama and Papa

Today is Janina's Birthday!

Two of these photos of Janina were taken today, on her birthday.




This photo is Milly holding her 10 lb. 1 oz newborn baby sister Janina.


Because they are only 16 months apart in age, they are often pictured together and are still close.

Janina has dark hair and green eyes, Milly is blonde with blue eyes. These are a few I have in my computer files.

I was pregnant with Katie in the photo where I'm reading to the girls. How the years fly by!

Always an artist and a singer, Janina is now also a wonderful wife and mommy. We're very proud of the way she cares for the three children she has been blessed with since their births through foster care, adoption and birth. Janina is a courageous, patient and loving mother to a 3-year-old with special needs and two 2-year-olds!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY JANINA!

You're looking FABULOUS honey!

Love,
Mama and Papa