All Done!

Today is a very exciting day for our family!  Today we turned in the last of our paper work for our adoption!

The last few items we had to turn in were

• Darrick's TB test results
• Our CPR recertification
• A photo collage of our family

It has been 4 years since we felt God calling us to adopt again and it has really been a journey.  I cannot believe that we are finally at this point.

Once our home study is finalized and  approved we will be ready to be matched with our daughter.

How long will it be?  Only God truly knows.  We just  know that she is out there, waiting for her forever family!

Zelda

It is time for some new cute pictures of Zelda.  She has captured all of our hearts and we are having so much fun with her!

Reading Nook

It is now 3 weeks post surgery and I am feeling pretty good.  During my time of inactivity I made a huge list of projects that I wanted to accomplish.  For 8 months or so, because of my health,  I have been letting things in the house slide.  And when that happens things pile up, get stuffed, get lost and get cluttered.

As I am feeling better I have slowly been checking things off my giant to-do list.  One of those was to put some vinyl on a wall in Naomi's room.  I have a Silhouette, which is a craft cutting machine.  With this machine I am able to pick my color and design my own vinyl.

Here is the area where I wanted to put the vinyl:

We are setting up this area in Naomi's room to be a Reading area.  I found a really cute font online, with hearts, and designed it and had the vinyl cut.  Then this morning I placed it on her wall.  I love how it turned out!  What do you think?

 Here is a close up of the letters:

P.S. I made all those adorable pillows!

Zelda

Yesterday afternoon we went and picked up Zelda.  Micah was so excited he could hardly contain it.  He set up a whole area for her so that it would be ready when he brought her home.  We decided that the best place for her would be by Micah's bed so that he could hear her if she cried during the night.

When we arrived at the house, the owner handed Zelda to Micah and the mom cat did not even seem to mind.  Surprisingly, it was one of the dogs that seemed to be having an anxiety attack.  It was whimpering and following Micah.  The owner said that the dog was like a second mother to the kittens.  The poor dog even followed us all the way to the car.  Micah tried to hold her but Zelda wanted to crawl all over the car so he put her in the cat carrier.

We had to go to soccer practice for Jacob before we could go home and Zelda did great and slept in her carrier the whole time.

When we finally got her home, she was pretty scared and as soon as Micah put her in her area she hid in her cat house.

It took about 2 hours before she was ready to come out.  Micah just sat patiently in her area reading a book.  When she did come out she was very playful and they kids had so much fun watching her!

It is really awesome to watch Micah nurture this sweet little kitten.  He talked so gently to her trying to make her feel safe and comfortable.  By the end of the night his efforts had paid off because when she was tired, she curled up in his lap and went to sleep.

She did really good during the night.  Micah said she woke up around 3am and was crying so Micah got up and played with her.  He was up with her for about 2 hours.  He said she ate and drank some water too.  Around 6am they both feel asleep again and slept more.  Micah did great and we are proud of him.

Cadet Camp Out

The boys had a great time at the Cadet Camp Out.  Here are some pictures that Darrick took!

The Blob!  This is Darrick.  You wait on the Blob and someone close to your weight jumps on it to launch you into the water.

This is where they slept.  They said there were 4 bunk beds inside.

This was the dining hall, restrooms and extra rooms.

Micah

Jacob

Jacob

Two other people besides Jacob were Gluten Free.  Jacob said they had great gluten free food!

Thankful

As I write this, I am sitting alone in my living room eating a Peanut Butter Cookie Lara Bar reflecting.  Hey wait...it's Friday afternoon, you may say, how can she be alone?  Don't panic!

Darrick and the boys left a little while ago for the annual Cadet camp out and Naomi spent the night last night at Miss Debbie's house and has not returned yet.

There is a nice breeze blowing in the window and this is my gorgeous view:

That is what I see when I look out my living room window, and apparently Oliver is enjoying the breeze and view too.  I am thankful for beauty.  Blue skies, green trees, and beautiful flowers.

I cut three flowers this morning to put on my kitchen window sill.

I found that cute flower holder at Michael's last year, it is perfect for fresh summer flowers.

I am thankful for Cadets.  Cadets is like Boy Scouts with a CRC foundation.  My brothers all went Cadets and I am so thankful that we attend a church that has it.  Ever since we started going to Everett CRC the boys have attended Cadets.  They met twice a month during the school year and then they have a big camp out in the summer with all the other Cadets in the area.  I am thankful that Darrick is home this year to go with them.

I am thankful for people who care about me.  I have received so many phone calls, messages, cards, flowers, visits, and meals in the past 2 weeks.

When you are sitting on the couch, healing, it is so comforting to know that you are cared about and loved.

I am thankful for people who invest in my children''s lives.  They love them and pray for them and even care for them when I cannot.  To me investing in a child's life will not return void.  For example, Miss Debbie, who has grown kids of her own, called the other day and offered to take Naomi overnight.  She is a loving and energetic Christian Woman, who Naomi adores.  She bakes and cooks with Naomi, they craft and sew (right now they are working on a skirt for Naomi).  She is investing in Naomi, making little deposits into her bank and filling her up.  What a gift.

Peas

I DO NOT like peas!  They were my ultimate torture as a child.  I spent many a night alone at the table, after dinner was over, staring at a serving of peas I had to eat before I could be excused from the table.  I would cry and beg and plead but I still had to eat my peas.

So don't ask me why when I was picking plants for my garden I decided to plant peas.  But I did and they did amazing!  While my parents were here visiting we did the harvesting, and I learned a few things.

The first thing I learned is that God is an amazing creator and designer.  It amazed me how perfectly each pea was in its shell, growing and protected until it was time for them to be harvested.

The second thing I learned is that I really like these peas that grew in my garden.  They are so fresh and delicious, I couldn't stop eating them!

The third thing I learned is that it is truly a blessing to grow healthy, organic food for my family.  With seven of us shelling the peas it did not take too long.  We all sat in a circle.  We talked, laughed, shelled peas and munched on peas.

Mohawk

Jacob has a best buddy and his name is Culver.  They are in the same grade and met when we started attending Port Gardner.  They met in Spanish class.  It seems like since the moment they met they have been stuck to each other like glue.

It is a blessing to me that Culver comes from a Christian home and I adore his mom and love their family.  When we moved from Marysville to Everett we moved really close to Culver.  It takes about 3 minutes in the car to get from our house to theirs.

Jacob and Culver have a lot of similar interests but different personalities.  They are good compliment to each other.  Jacob is crazy and Culver is more grounded.  As Jake's mom, it gives me great comfort to know that he has a friend is his corner that has his head screwed on right.  And Culver's mom appreciates that Jacob helps Culver be silly.

They spend a lot of time together.  It was really hard when we felt God prompting us to have Jacob change schools.  I met with Culver's mom and she encouraged me to follow God's call and we both committed to fostering the boys friendship and to be intentional at getting them together often.  It is easy when you have mutual place, like school, that you see each other every week. 

Jacob and Culver love soccer.  Two years ago they played on the same soccer team.  Then Jacob took a year off to try football.  This year he is playing soccer again and will be on the same team as Culver, as well as a couple of his other buddies from Port Gardner.

When Culver plays soccer he sports a mohawk.  So guess who wanted a mohawk too...Jacob.  So Darrick made it happen.  Here is the before picture.

And here is the after!

Wow! I was a bit shocked.  The sides have grown in a bit more now and I like it much better or maybe I am just getting use to it.

Here is Jacob and Culver at their soccer practice last Thursday.

One Week Post Op

***WARNING***
There will be a real life picture of my uterus in this post.  If you do not like seeing such things, please come back tomorrow


It has been one week since my surgery and I am doing better then I thought I would be doing but not as good as I want to be doing.

As far as pain goes, it has been very minimal.  Today for the first day, I can almost say that I don't feel anything.  I have only been taking Advil since I got home and I have not even been doing that for the past few days now.  I think it is pretty amazing considering a week ago, I had an organ removed from my body.  Yesterday my incisions started to itch, which is driving me crazy and making it uncomfortable to wear any pants (but don't worry, I am).

I want to be doing more.  It is really hard just laying on the couch, when there is stuff to be done around the house.  I just keep telling my self that I am healing on the inside and my body needs me to do my part, which is rest.

Before my surgery I asked my Doctor if I would be able to see my uterus and he said that he could take a picture of it.  And true to his word, he did.  Yesterday, Karen, a friend from church who is also a nurse brought us dinner.  She explained the picture to me a bit which helped. 

So without further ado...........here is my uterus!  Ta-Da!

Cute, huh?  I have no idea what the piece is off to the left but I will ask my Doctor when I go for my post op appointment.  See how nice and pink it is?  At the bottom of the picture is my cervix and that big fleshy looking bump on the right side of it, is the fibroid that was causing me so much trouble (severe bleeding and extreme anemia).

So there you have it folks-my uterus. Or as my brother Jeff has so affectionately renamed it: ute.  (Pronounced U-TE) He even made up a song about ute and played it for me on his guitar the last time we skyped.  I laughed so hard I cried.

Surgery

Monday, I had my surgery.  I had to check in at 11:45 am but it took a little while for them to call me back.  One of the first orders of business is to change out of your clothes and into one of their gowns and a pair of cool socks.

I am usually cold but this gown had the neatest thing!  They hook a hose up to it and the gown has pockets through out it.  The pockets fill up with warm air and keep you feeling toasty!  I loved it but I felt huge because I was all puffed up.

After my IV's were in and I answered a ton of questions we waited.  The surgeon came in and then the anesthesiologist .  The last thing I remember was kissing Darrick and something being put into my IV.  Apparently, on the way to the operating room I said, "Let's have a Uterus Party!"  How embarrassing.

The next thing I remember is asking to see my husband.  I was not really awake but I knew if I could see Darrick I would be okay.

This is how I looked when Darrick saw me.  Looking good, huh?  I was really bothered by all equipment on me.  I guess I even tried to get Micah to take my catheter out.  The one bonus was that I had a beautiful view from my room and we saw a gorgeous sunset.

Later that night, they wanted me to walk around.  I hobbled down to the nurses station and back!  Yeah me!  The white things on my legs are compression tights they put on me to prevent blood clots.

 

Darrick and Micah left about 10 pm.  I slept on and off all night but it was hard to get comfortable.  I was having some pain medicine so I was not hurting too bad. 

Around 7 am I was able to order breakfast.  There were not very many gluten free choices so I had scrambled eggs, a pineapple, a banana and a yogurt.  By 10 am I was cleared to go home!

Zelda

 Micah has wanted a cat for many years.  We have some family pets, like Oliver, but the kids also have pets at times that are just theirs.  Micah had an adorable dwarf hamster but she died last summer.  He thought about getting a hermit crab but still always went back to a cat.  Someone we know had a cat that recently had kittens and said Micah could have one.  So last week Micah went and picked her out.  Introducing Zelda-yes he named her after the video game character!

She was still drinking milk from her mom last week so he could not take her home.

But today we got an updated photo and report on Zelda!

She is active!  She is also still nursing a bit but she is eating dry food and using the litter box.  The owner thinks she may be able to come and live with us next week!  We are all super excited!

Goodbye Uterus

So tomorrow is the big day.  The day my Uterus and I go our separate ways.  I was explaining to the kids this morning what the uterus does, well not everything, I just said it is where the baby grows for 9 months.  At the end of my explanation Jacob said "Thanks Uterus!" 

I have not had surgery since I was in High School.  I had my tonsils out.  I am feeling a bit nervous.  It is major surgery and they are removing a part of my body that has always been there.

Tonight I have to wash with a special anti bacterial soap and again in the morning.  After midnight tonight I cannot eat or drink anymore.  Tomorrow I cannot put on any lotions, hair products or make-up.  We have to check into the hospital at 11:45 am.  The actual surgery will last about 1 hour.

Jacob and Naomi are spending the night tomorrow night at friends houses.  Micah and Darrick will be at the hospital with me!

Be sure to say a prayer for us!

da Vinci Hysterectomy

This is not my Doctor or my hospital but it will give you a look at how Da Vinci works!

Robotic da Vinci Hysterectomy--Animation

Baptism

Today our precious Naomi was baptized.  When we brought Naomi home from Africa, she was 2 years old and we lived in Hawaii.  We had her dedicated at the church we attended but not baptized.

For the last few years we have lived in WA.  A few months ago a baby in our church was baptized.  In the car after the service, Naomi asked us if she had ever been baptized.  We told her that she was dedicated.  She asked us why people get baptized.  We explained why parents will have their baby baptized or why people will choose to be baptized.  After we explained everything and what it means, Naomi asked us if she could be baptized.

There is nothing like that moment, as a parent, when a child wants to follow Jesus.  It is what you pray for.

It was a very special service today and many friends + my parents helped us celebrate.  Then Naomi sang the first verse of "Jesus Loves Me".

Many people told us after the service how touching her baptism was and that it brought tears to their eyes.

We thank you God for Naomi!

A year of Growth

First Day of Kindergarten

Last Day of Kindergarten

First Day of 4th Grade

Last Day of 4th Grade

First Day of 6th Grade

Last Day of 6th Grade