Birthday Pictures

Birthday Morning:
We went to Panera for breakfast. You've gotta love a cinnamon roll that's almost as big around as your head! (This was after it was at least 3/4 gone.)









The very girly birthday party on Saturday:
Decorating cupcakes - I was amazed how neat these ten 5&6-year-old girls were with their frosting and sprinkles. They also made bead necklaces and were amazingly neat and precise with those too! (Disclaimer: I haven't swept/mopped the floor yet).














Our family party on Sunday:
Check out my newly acquired skills with a frosting bag & tip! I was rather proud that I could write out the words legibly and make designs that sort of look like flowers. (Jodie you can laugh now - I don't ever anticipate having the patience to learn to make such beautiful cakes as you do! ;)






Check out those driving skills. This was on the Mario Kart game. It was hard to find games that we didn't have to have much precision with, because she's not good at pointing the remote yet. This game's great, although you can't play more than a few games without your eyes bugging out - then we have to go back to bowling or golf. :)

Tony Update - Praise God!

I received this from our friends today - a forwarded email from Tony:

Hi All,

The surgery went very well on Monday to repair the Retina. (The doctor) explained that several things can happen in the process and he didn't know what way he would go when he got into the eye. Thus he chose to give me a general anesthetic which put me out. After he got into the eye he found the BEST of all options. He found that there was a big blood clot which he cleaned out and after that found that the Retina was in perfect shape and attached. So he lazored the Retina on anyway because after several surgeries on an eye the Retina likes to detach so with this process he said it would not detach. Thus he cleaned everything up and the surgery took less than two hours, and recovery another two. I stayed overnight because of the general anesthetic and got home about 11 o'c this morning. Before leaving the Doctors looked at the Eye and said that there will be no reason at this time for the eye not to see. It will need to heal for three to four weeks and than will put what corrective lenses needed. While they were telling me this I asked if that was an Eye chart behind them and they responded positively.. I was ask if I could read it and I read the E and the next two lines. That measure's me at 20/125. I was working on the fourth line and my eye got tired so stopped. The Doctors were saying that this doesn't usually happen this soon after surgery and thus raised the level of success potential.

I'm still very light sensitive and have some restrictions of lifting and partying so I'm keeping a low profile for now.

Jane and I want to thanks you all for the many prayers that you had directed our way. The Team of Doctors all remarked that they knew that people were praying especially yesterday when the simplest process of all the options came into play There is a God and He was with us all these past two weeks. We still need your prayers to keep out the infection and complete the healing process. Thanks you and God Bless you all.

Tony

Update on Tony **more info added 1/26

Please continue to keep Tony in your prayers (more info here). I don't know any details, but he is going into surgery again tomorrow. Last I'd heard was that his light sensitivity returned after his surgery, but no sight. They determined he'd had a blood clot covering his macula, and they were hopeful that his vision could return once that was dissolved over the next few weeks. I don't know if another complication has developed, but whatever the surgery, God can take care of it. Please keep him in your prayers.
Thank you!

"Again, I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything you ask for, it will be done for you by my Father in heaven. For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them." Matthew 18:19-20.

**Update 1/26: I found out the reason for Tony's surgery today. The blood clot that developed caused his retina to detach, and the surgery today is to re-attach it. However, this surgery is made more difficult by the implant, and worse-case scenario would be they'd have to remove the implant. Please pray that today's surgery goes/went well today, and they don't have to remove the implant.

Kaylen on the Phone

You should see Kaylen talking to her Grandma & Grandpa S on the phone right now. She's absolutely hilarious when she's on the phone - she can't sit still. She prances around, waving her hands, swinging her hips about all important-like - just like when she talks normally as if you were in the room with her. Too funny! I should have video-taped it. She'd love to see that when she grows up. Ha!

Happy 6th Birthday Kaylen!

Kaylen is turning 6 today. It's hard to believe how fast the time has gone. She has come a long way in the last almost-3 years we've known her. She's fun and funny, smart and witty, contemplative and inquisitive, fiesty and spunky, playful and silly, ambitious and passionate, tender and caring. We love you Kaylen! We love the person you are, and look forward to seeing the beautiful woman you become.
We're going to wake Kaylen up with a present in bed. (Tricky parents to get in a gift before she even gets dressed - hmmmm...) Then we'll be heading out early to go have breakfast at Panera before work/school - YUMMY!!! After work/school, I think we're going to go out to our favorite Mexican restaurant, and then get Kaylen over to church for her usual Wednesday night activities. We gave her the option of skipping, but she didn't want to. She has a lot of fun there, doesn't want to lose any points, and I imagine she'd enjoy telling everyone it's her birthday and maybe they'll sing to her. :)

This weekend our house is going to be party central. I've never been brave enough to have a little girls party, and the timing after Christmas is hard to get organized. However, this year I decided I'd better do it or I'd lose my chance. It'd be tough next year if E & J are home! We looked into having it somewhere that does parties, but they're just outrageously expensive - even if you don't choose the options with pizza/cake! So we're doing one at home - we invited 10 of her friends from school and daycare. We'll be eating pizza, having them decorate their own cupcakes (yes, we're suckers for sticky, yummy messes!), and making bead jewelry. Then we'll fill the rest of the time with presents and just playing or watching a movie. Just 2-3 hours can't be too bad, right?!?

I think Sunday we're going to have a small family lunch or dinner at our house, and then hopefully collapse for a bit before moving on from the birthday festivities. I'll let you know how it goes if I survive the weekend. :) I'll try to post pictures afterwards too.

Baring My Heart

Today, I went through the entire morning and part of the afternoon until I realized it – and even then, only after one of my sisters sent me a text message that plainly said “love you”. It seemed so random until she told me she’d also just remembered what today was. I felt like I’d just removed the day from the list of those significant ones, and felt horrible about it. It’s not that at all, but I suppose I have just been so preoccupied with my own things going on.

Wow – today is January 19th. That probably seems so insignificant in most people’s lives. Although this year, maybe more significant than some others since it is also Martin Luther King Jr. Day. However, in my family this is not an insignificant day. Four years ago, we lost my mom. It was on a Wednesday in 2005, and I remember that day like it was yesterday.

It is true that time heals, but the mark that was made on my life remains. That mark will never go away, and I don’t want it to. Someone who didn’t know my mom told me at the time of her death that my mom must have been the best because I am such a lovely young woman and she's sure that my mom must have had a great deal of influence. My sisters and I remind me of my mom often, and hope that is true. My mom was the best. This specific day might go un-noticed, but my mom will never be insignificant or inconsequential in my life. She is a large part of who I am today, and who I will always be. I love you and miss you, Mom!

Update on Tony

I've heard from our friends that Tony's surgery went well, but now he has a blood clot that is currently preventing his vision from returning. Please continue to pray for him.

Update on Prayer Requests

I heard from our friend Justin earlier today, and his step-dad, Tony, had the first part of his surgery go well. He indicated to the doctors that he could "see some things". Please continue praying for him as he should know more tomorrow about the results of his surgery, and also that no infections develop that jeopardize his successful outcome.

Thank you all for your prayers for me. I am doing well post-surgery. I had quite a bit of pain the first few hours. I couldn't handle any light, my eyes hurt such that I couldn't open them, and water just poured out of them. After a few hours, the pain subsided a little. I had to still pry my eyes open to start my drops, but at least it was dark outside then. Somehow Jock could see me well enough to help me with my drops. Somewhere later last night I could open my eyes willingly, and was testing myself. I looked out the window and could see our neighbor snow-blowing. I could see the alarm clock from across the room (even Jock's with the small numbers--mine has jumbo ones), etc. :) Then, I think I actually got 4-5 hours of sleep last night.

This morning I had my follow-up appointment. They just checked my vision - which was good but still very cloudy at 8:00 am - and they checked to see that the flaps were tightly sitting on my eyes, and they were. I go back in three weeks,where I assume they'll do the full check-up on my eyesight, after most of the healing and done. So, throughout the day today, I've taken a couple naps (still have some eye strain off and on, depending on what I've been doing - worst when reading), tested and been amazed at what I can see (road signs, clocks from across the room, the TV, etc.), and done lots of eye drops. I have 4 kinds: two that I do 4x/day, one that I do 3x/day, and artificial tears that I can do as often as I want.

I'm most likely going back to work tomorrow. Hopefully the eye strain doesn't bother me too much, although it's gotten better throughout the day, along with the lessening of the cloudiness of my vision. The eye strain has been the worst when looking at a computer screen or reading, so I may need to take breaks. I know I have a couple meetings, so that should help. Our new building also has a quiet room and a health room, so I could probably go in there and rest for breaks if needed.

Well, I'm excited to get out of the house tonight (despite the sub-zero temps) - off to Bible study soon.

Prayer Request

As I am recovering from what we expect to be a successful LASIK procedure, I'll be praying for a good friend's step-dad. His name is Tony, and he'll be having eye surgery on Thursday. Here's some info one of Tony's daughters sent out (edited slightly):

Tony lost his sight in 1961 when he was a senior in High School in a farming accident. Despite this, he was able to graduate from college, marry, have a family, hold a job as a social worker for 37 years and perform his hobbies and activities independently. This Thursday January 15, after almost 48 years of blindness, he will have surgery to hopefully give him sight. What this could mean to him and our family is indescribable. We are so hopeful. My dad would see (his children and grandchildren) for the first time!!! I am writing you to ask you to please keep my dad and his doctor in your thoughts and prayers! His outpatient surgery will last about 3 hours. We should know on Friday if the surgery was successful. Then, it will be a matter of keeping away infection.

Please keep Tony in your prayers.

LASIK tomororow!

I'm so excited about my surgery tomorrow - well, at least for a positive result of the surgery - to have good eyesight, without contacts or glasses. Honestly, I'm little nervous, because it's not without its risk, but I'm confident in my doctor's abilities and skill. I'm also a little nervous for the pain afterwards, but I'm hoping to be able to sleep the afternoon/evening away afterwards. Jock took the afternoon off to pamper me and take care of Kaylen. Then I'll have a follow-up appointment the next day.

I've started a set of drops today, and will start two more after surgery, which will last a week. I think the hardest thing is going to be no lotion on my face for two days after surgery. That'll be hard with my dry skin in the bitter cold winter weather we're having this week (high temp Thursday is to be 2 degrees F!). The no-make-up I can handle, as I rarely wear it anyway. I also won't be able to swim, use a hot-tub, or a tanning bed for a month. Bummer! :) I guess I picked a good time to have the surgery for those things though, and that time will be up in case we have time to use the pool at the hotel in Haiti in March.

If you think of me tomorrow, please pray for a successful surgery, and good pain control (which I'm sure Jock would appreciate as well).

De-Lurking Days

Today I went out to my Google Analytics reports. One of the things it tells me is where people are from that visit my blog. Many of you are here in Iowa, which makes sense because that's where we live. Most are in the US. I also have a small (but growing) contingent of visitors from outside the US. I'd love to learn know who you are, what country/state you're from, how you found my blog, and what interests you in my blog. Leave a comment if you would, and let us know. If you also have a blog, post your link. I already know who some of you are, of course, but thought this would be fun.

Here are some of your visit stats for the last 30 days:
Iowa: 144 (some of these may be my own - think may have forgotten to un-count my own hits)
California: 70
Nebraska: 47
Missouri: 37
Minnesota: 24
New York: 23
Michigan: 17
Florida: 15
Colorado: 14
Ohio: 13
Wisconsin: 7
Virginia, North Carolina, Illinois, New Jersey: 5 each
Texas, Oregon, DC, New Hampshire: 2 each
Pennsylvania, Indiana, Tennessee: 1 each
Germany: 47
Canada: 3
Spain: 1
Haiti: 1
And, one smart user/ISP who has their location blocked.

**By the way, if you're a regular visitor but don't see your location listed, it's probably because I think this reads the location of your internet service provider. If you're on a border, this could be the case.

Esperancia

We received word yesterday that a little girl from the same orphanage we're adopting from went to be with Jesus Thursday. She was just a month younger than Elijah, and a beautiful, happy little girl. We met her on our trip last February/March, along with Matt & Robin, who were in the process of adopting her. Please pray for Matt & Robin & their two boys, Espy's biological family in Haiti, and the staff & children at the orphanage, mourning the her loss. My heart aches for them. May the Lord provide them comfort and peace in their mourning. There is a memorial set up here, on the orphanage website.

Haiti - Here We Come Again!

...well, in a couple months.

We got our flights booked over the weekend. We have some plans figured out for Kaylen now (even some options - we have awesome friends and family!!!), and wanted to get them booked before the prices started going up any further. So... We're going back to Haiti in March. This will be a work trip, as our first trip was. I'm not sure what kind of projects we'll be working on, but we are so excited about being able to spend more time with Elijah & Josephine.

In the meantime, we're continuing to pray for our dossiers to move through the remainder of the adoption process in record speed, and for all the children and their waiting families.

Georgia

My step-grandmother passed away on Friday afternoon. At Christmas, and even before that, we knew her time remaining on earth was short. She is now in a much better place. I only knew her for a short time, but it didn't take long to realize just how wonderful a woman she was. She will be missed by many. She is survived by 4 children, 18 grandchildren, and 29 great-grandchildren.

Adoption Process Update

We received our monthly snip-it Wednesday night, which I'm grateful for, because I tend to check for it a million times starting the last day of the month, until something is posted. However, there was nothing really to update at the end of December. We are still in Parquet. It's been 5 months since we entered this step. Trusting our time is coming, and praying it's soon...

There also still has not been any progress with the birth parent interviews. I did, however, want to post to ask for prayers for the birth parent interviews. Our update stated that Elijah's mother is in the North country. She was apparently located once and then disappeared again. Please pray with us that she is OK, and that she is located again and is willing and able to come to PAP for her interview. There was no update on Josephine's father's interview, so I assume they are still working with him to determine when he can take time off his new job for the interview. I pray also for peace for the birth parents - I can't imagine how difficult facing a government official would be to declare once again after 1 1/2 years, that your intent was to relinquish parental rights. That brings tears to my eyes thinking of such.

To all our prayer warriors out there: We're so blessed to have you interceding for us and lifting us up to the Lord. I can't thank you enough.

Happy New Year!!!

Yesterday I reflected upon 2008, and today, I wanted to start off 2009 in prayer. Jodie seemed to say almost exactly what I've been thinking of, although much more eloquently that I could ever write. These are my key prayers I'm starting with, and many, many more will certainly be added as I hear prayer requests - family, friends, strangers, church, country, world.

I pray that 2009 also is a year of spiritual growth for Jock and I, as 2008 was also; that we continue growing in our faith and trust and hope in our Lord.

I pray, as I pray every day, for God to help me and show me how to be a better wife and a better mom.

I pray that in 2009 Kaylen continues to grow in her faith, and in many other areas of her life.

I pray for Elijah & Josephine, for God to guard their hearts and prepare them for all that is ahead for them.

I pray for the Haitian adoption process, that dossiers will continue to move through the process more quickly, so that more children can come home to their forever families, and more children can be served. Specifically, I pray for our children to speed through the remainder of the process and come home by summer.

I commit to praying daily for each child in the orphanage each month (I think that works out to about 4-5 children each day) - for their needs to be met fully, for the nannies caring for them, for their birth families, for their forever families, for their adoption process.