Recent pics!

Bath time!


Andrew's Honors band concert (He's in the back middle). We are so proud of him!



Love, the birthday girl turns 5!


Gameboy time!

Fun weekend!!!

Well, us moms had a wonderful time at the slumber party!! There were eight of us adoptive moms, and "in process" of adoption moms. What a nice time to gather with women that have the same heart for adoption, have been through "the fire", or are now going through the "fire" of the process. We laughed A LOT!!!! Yes we did have food, chocolate, and "other" stuff!! Didn't get much sleep though. My older body is not used to staying up til 3 a.m.!! UGH! It will take me a few days to recover since Josiah doesn't sleep through the night yet.

Changing the subject...our offer on the house we wanted to buy, was turned down. Yes we are disappointed, but we know there is a hobby farm out there for us.

My boys adopted two guinea pigs this weekend. They are so sweet and cuddly. One will be having babies soon, so that will be a good experience. I guess I can incorporate that into homeschooling somehow.

I will post pics this week. I promise.

Starting to get our schedule back...

This will be a quick update...

After a few rough days after Josiah's surgery, he is doing fantastic now! He looks so adorable with his nice flat tummy. He is still working his way back up to drinking his full bottle amounts. His throat was really sore from the tube.
We are starting to settle back into our schedule, but still lacking in sleep! At my age, it's a little harder to not have the sleep I need! But, Josiah just smiles and it's sooo worth it!

Praying now for our offer to be accepted for a house and acreage we have had our eye on for awhile.

My week will be ending with a girl's slumber party here!!! I'm so excited to be having a few of my fellow "adoptive/online/friends" over for a pj party!

Surgery update

Josiah Blessings surgery went pretty well. Both dr.'s said it was more extensive than they originally thought. His hole in his muscle was 4X the size of an average hernia. They took a lot of skin off his belly, and he now has a three inch scar across it...OUCH! His little pee pee had to have a little work and will be swollen and pink for awhile...DOUBLE OUCH!! They also had to do a quick trach from his breathing problems at the beginning of surgery. So he also has a very sore throat!
Our poor baby is miserable.

We were in the hospital longer than anticipated because we couldn' t get his pain under control, and his O2 levels weren't very good.

Yesterday was long and hard. Josiah has been in so much pain, he cried a lot and we also had to hold him constantly, keeping on top of his pain med before he was really in pain.
We have had a long night and are zombies today. He has improved a bit, but now we are trying to keep him hydrated, even though he doesn't want to drink anything because it hurts.
We could use prayers please!

A few updates...

We have had the fever and coughs filtering through our household. I think we are finally through with that!
This week, Love turned 5! I can't believe how time has flown by! I look at Blessing, who is almost 8 months, and remember that Love was his size at 19 months when we brought her home! She is so darn smart, and sometimes has these conversations that sound like you are talking to a fourteen year old, along with the attitude too!

Josiah was seen at Gillette hospital last week for his hand. He doesn't have any finger bones, but they are hopeful that his wrist bones will start growing in the next 6 months. He has such good movement in his little palm, that they seem to think this will only get better. He uses his little hand a lot now, using it for punching, scooping, pushing, balancing, etc. He is really not limited.
He will be having surgery tomorrow for his umbilical hernia, and circ. Unfortunately, he has so much skin that has been stretched from his hernia being so big, they are having to remove a lot of that skin. He will not be able to have a belly button at this time because of this. Believe it or not, his hernia expands to the size of a small baseball when he is crying.

Next week we go in for consult on his two lazy eyes, and next month it's in to the nose dr. for consult on his "snorting." The snorts are too cute!!

I promise some more pics within the next day or two! Just really busy!

It's not about me!

Looking back to this time last year, we were just starting the paperwork to adopt from Liberia. We started wanting to adopt a 16 y.o. boy we had heard so much about, from another orphanage. Due to some things that were going on at the orphanage that were quite scary in our eyes, we decided to pull out of that program.
Now, I can't imagine our family not having our little Josiah Blessing. He is truly pure joy!! It doesn't matter that I'm not getting sufficient sleep, because he just looks me in the eyes and smiles soooo big! He just melts my heart!
I truly feel that God has given me such a gift. All that I went through with our girls after adopting them from Haiti, was so very hard. Not only for me, but my husband and kids too. God used so many opportunities during that time though, to show me that this wasn't about me. This has been my "spap out of it," phrase since then. I use this a lot! "It's not about me!"
There may be so many diffent reasons that this transition of bringing Josiah into our family, is so much easier and enjoyable...But I am so grateful to God for giving me my girls for our first adoption. I grew so much as a parent because of them, and continue to "tweek" my parenting skills because of them. Well, my teenager I can say the same for too!

I am so blessed to have my family. I wish I could record all the beautiful moments that my family has given me. Seeing all my other children love so tenderly, this new little one that we have been praying for, is absolutely priceless! He is already so spoiled!

For all the adoptive parents that may be going through some very tough times right now, as they are all adjusting to their new life. I have been there. It was only 3.5 years ago that we added our daughters from Haiti. I have cried and wondered "what have we done?" I have questioned my sanity and ability as a mom. I have mourned the dreams I had. But, God saw me through every single moment. The more I cried out to Him, the more he revealed to me. I love my girls dearly. They are a part of me, and I would fight to my death for them, just as I would any other part of my family. The process was slow and hard, but the reward has been amazing!

My heart aches for the orphans of this world. No baby or child should ever have to be without a loving parent, especially a mommy. All children need to be loved.
God has given our family three wonderful children through adoption. You can change a life, one child at a time.