needs.

I resolve to be thankful all month.  Some days it is difficult to be thankful that Sweet P is a zillion miles away when she could be home with us.  The last few days are the first I have been truly grateful for the fact that Sweet P is living in an orphanage.  


You see, we got the draft of the long-awaited child history document on Friday.  Hopefully that means the official copy and the other papers we need with it will be here shortly.  It was full to the brim of new information about our baby girl.  Some quite surprising:  her parents' full names and addresses were included, which may be helpful if Sweet P ever desires to find them.  Yet much quite disturbing:  we read some of the intimate details of how and why Sweet P came to live in the orphanage and why she suffers from hydrocephalus.  


I have yet to talk here about Sweet P's medical need.  Mostly because everyone has some sort of issue going on, and hers is what it is.  Any of my children could develop any number of issues tomorrow and we'd just deal with it as necessary and live life to the fullest.  But, I have found myself talking about it with some of you and getting blank stares since I forget who I've gone into detail with about it.  I would love for more friends to pray with us specifically.  

Hydrocephalus is also known as water on the brain.  Here's a little info from wikipedia about it (with some editing done by me):

Pediatric hydrocephalus affects one in every 500 live births, making it one of the most common developmental disabilities, more common than Down syndrome or deafness. It is the leading cause of brain surgery for children in the United States. 

Sweet P has had a shunt in her brain since a few months old which regulates the fluid on her brain, since her brain cannot do it naturally.  This type of need is relatively easy to deal with; it requires periodic doctor visits to ensure the shunt is working correctly.  All doctor reports about her say she is meeting the developmental milestones as expected.  However, these benchmarks are a bit skewed considering she has lived almost all of her 26 months of life in an orphanage.  (The general rule is, for every three months in less-than-optimal care, she will be about one month behind... until she lives with us a while and will catch up quickly to children her age.)

I'm praying today that her caregivers hold her a few more minutes and give her even one more hug and read one more book with her.  My heart aches to do all these thing for her but know that time is coming very soon. 

Give thanks to Him and praise His name!  Psalm 100:4

Today I will be thankful.  

Today I will thank my Lord for Sweet P's precious life.  

Today I will praise Him to be a mommy of three.

Blessings, angela

our new pets.

Meet our new pink kitty...

...and our lovable little gorilla.

Buddy grabbed a gourd and was using it as a fire hose.

We made a quick round to a whopping four houses before calling it quits.

Oh, and it was just in time to get the kids in bed so we could dig through all the candy.  

Please don't tell.  

Blessings, angela

pops.

The night we got back from Tennessee, Pops arrived for a quick visit!  

All visiting guests must be introduced to Rita's Water Ice.  

reading Bible stories before bed

We love having grandparents to visit and can't wait to have you back!  

tennessee. prettiest place i ever did see.

My parents blessed us with a week of their timeshare, so we packed up and drove to the mountains of Sevierville, Tennessee.  Sorry to disappoint anyone, but we did not go to Dollywood or even lay eyes on Ms. Parton.  Thank goodness.  It might have been a little much.


We did, however, spend the first four days with our good friends from K's college days and finally met their precious boys.  Here's picture overload from our week away.

Peanut and her favorite purple car

This guy knows his cars.  At his request, the dads took the kiddos to the Muscle Car Museum.

Ripley's Aquarium

The timeshare had an amazing indoor waterpark that kept us busy for hours!

the bigger kids' play area

...and the ginormous bucket that dumped water every few minutes!

Exploring Cade's Cove

Tennessee, I miss you.  

Blessings, angela

okies on the coast.

Contrary to Buddy's expression, the kids were ecstatic that my parents flew in for a visit last month!  I think he knew it would get him some snuggle time with Papa, so he threw out the fat lip.  

Peanut now thinks that anytime someone comes for a visit, there will be surprises... meaning gifts.  We had a long talk about how we don't ask for them, but we can accept them happily if they are offered.  My parents made mention of surprises in their suitcase, and they were so excited waiting.  

Funny.

The next morning we took off for Virginia Beach and enjoyed a gorgeous morning in the sand. The water was freezing!

My parents treated us to Disney on Ice's Toy Story 3.  It was super fun and Peanut's been ice skating around the kitchen in her socks ever since.

I had to throw in a few pictures of the show because you have to check out Ken's hair!  (click on the picture to see it larger)  Hilarious.  I've been praying my sons' career aspirations don't include wearing mid-thigh shorts and plastic hair.  Okay, not praying, but desperately hoping.

Our IMAX just renovated and re-opened the day before we saw Hubble 3D.  It's amazing to see the Lord's handiwork light years away on a huge screen.  You can't help but be in awe at how intricately He created our cosmos!

Peanut always seems to request Pretty Pretty Princess when males are here to play.  Good choice.

We were thankful to have so much time together and can't wait until Christmas!  

please pray with us!

We got word on Friday that the social worker in country Ms. A received documents on Sweet P and is working to complete our child history.  Once we receive those papers, we will be able to file the I-800 form and should be travelling to get Sweet P about two months later!


Please say a prayer that Ms. A would have plenty of time to complete our papers this week.  We are hoping to get Sweet P by the end of 2010, and that dream is definitely a possibility!


Oh, and the other bonus to getting the papers in hand, is I can finally post pictures of our little darling right here for you to see.  Ahh!  I can't wait to get that little girl home!


With much joy, angela

birth mom.

I've been thinking about Sweet P's birth mom off and on recently.  I wonder if she will even know when Sweet P is adopted.  I wonder how she felt as Sweet P's birthday passed for the second time last month.  I wonder if I will ever get to meet her and say thank you... or if Sweet P will desire to find her someday.


My friend Jen just sent me a link to a Mark Schultz song "Everything to Me."  I know Sweet P's story is really different from Mark's adoption story, but I feel many of the same emotions toward Sweet P's birth mommy that he sings about in the song.  


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OPYaRJOWznk&ob=av2e  (I can't put a link to play the music video here so you'll have to click and watch elsewhere)


Blessings, angela