toddlers continued

lol, so the honeymoon, happy week is gone. ;o)

We have decided that we are no longer happy with the world, and that we don't need to listen to anything mommy or daddy say.

What fun! ;o)  NOT.

I think perhaps I spoke to soon in saying he was a happy boy again.  

I know this is all part of the 'plan', the adoption roller coaster, this little dude has been through a ton and he has things he still feels like he has to control.  The unfortunate thing is that some of them are things he just can't, and we have to assert some boundaries.  It's tough for a little guy to get that.  

So say a little prayer for both Little E and mommy that we can navigate these difficult times and the good that comes with them.

How 'bout them Redskins!!!

That's all I got to say!!!

Victory

In the post "no tubes" we weren't sure if E would take his meds by mouth.

Well, yesterday was a med day so we prepared his medications, brought him into the kitchen got out our back up tube 'just in case' and got to see what he would do.

At first he wanted to fight it.  But eventually he got most of the first one down.

Then was the next one, one that he didn't like in ET.  He really fought that one, so we acted like we were done trying, and prepared to "insert" the tube.  He decided that we meant business and down went his yucky stuff!!!

YAY!!!  We were able to call the home health nurse and tell her she wouldn't need to come by, that we had been victorious, but would call her again on Wednesday if need be. ;o)

He is one smart little cookie.  

So far there isn't anything he LIKES well enough to get him to take meds, but we have found something he DISLIKES enough to get him to take them.  

We still have a road ahead of us.  He has to go back on his daily medication, and while they figure out what it is they are going to put him on, we have a surgical appointment scheduled for October.  They are still not sure if we can trust that this tactic will work daily. 

Pray that we are able to come up with a solution that doesn't require surgery. But if it comes to that, that we find peace with it.

Internet

So I have a jump a tiny but off adoption topic, although not so far I guess.  

But I have to say that I LOVE the internet.  I don't think I am really obsessed or anything, but it has changed my life in SO many ways.  The biggest way I think is in the friends I have made and those friendships changing my life.

I have a friend that I met on a forum for adoption through the first agency we used for bringing N home.  At first it was just forum talk, but we began to email and we found out that we had almost parallel lives, I know it sounds VERY weird, and first I wasn't sure what to make of it.  But what we have found through probably a thousand emails and several phone calls is that God placed us in each other's lives so that we would have someone to talk to about adoption, or children, those hard times, and our faith in Him.  Many a time we have lifted each other in prayer, cried for each other and laughed with each other.  We have a kinship in our faith in the Lord and in the place that our children were born.  We have never met in person, but we know that someday we will, and it will be like old friends reuniting.  

Without the internet we would never have met.

While we were researching our second adoption I was an avid reader of a very special person's blog.  And through reading this blog, and subsequently emailing, and speaking to her on the phone, we found our 4th child.  We have again spent countless hours emailing each other, and bless her heart she has answered every one.  While we were in ET she even answered the phone at an ungodly hour here in the US (I miscounted the time..sorry!!!) to answer this panicked mom's cry for help.  And has spent countless other hours since we have been home keeping up and just being an amazing sounding board.  I can't even begin to tell you what her support, faith and help have done for me.  

I read so many blogs, many of you read mine.  I feel like I have this family out there whom I have never met but have changed my life in ways many of you may never know.  The prayers the comments, the emails, the calls....they are felt, and VERY much appreciated.  

In a time when the internet can be such an ugly and scary, I have found some good.  Better than good! ;o)

Toddlers

oh what joy ;o)

I was speaking to my friend today and she asked me if I ever wondered why I decided to adopt this age again.  And I told her if I was honest, yes of course I have... toddlers are hard.  Toddlers that have been through what mine have, are a special case.

But there are times like tonight when I look at my boys and think... "Man!  We hit the jackpot 4 times!"  Who needs the lottery?

We have always thought that our older 2 were amazing blessings, and though far from perfect are part of the reason we decided to adopt.  We felt like we had already been so blessed that we wanted to do it again.  When we got N home, it was incredibly hard, but we came to have those days when we just sit back and think "ok God, thank you for this blessing!  How did we GET SO LUCKY?!"  N is such a great kid.

We are starting to have those days with E.  Days where the faces he makes, the motions he does, the little squeal he makes when he runs through the house, the look on his face when he's telling you to be quiet because he's going to sneak up on daddy... those are the moments that make me want to reach up and just plant a HUGE kiss on my heavenly fathers cheek and say "Thank you dad"  

We are still having health issues, still some unknowns, still tantrums, and the glare, and the shoulder... but these are fewer.  We are starting to see the real little E and he's just so precious. He adores his brothers and sister, he loves his daddy, snuggles on his momma, and even loves the dogs.  

N needs some prayers though, his adjustment is hard, he's having some pretty bad acting out issues.  He wants so badly to be a good brother, but he just doesn't get the whole not being the center of attention.   Poor little man.  

Look mom no tubes

We were able to take out the ng tube today.  We may have to learn to reinsert it ourselves, however when we attempted to give him a tiny bit of benadryl to see how he would do, we showed him the tube and he took the meds immediately.

SO.... say a little prayer that this keeps up!  Because next step is surgery.  ;o(

Here are some cute pics from today of both boys.  Can you tell my N is a ham?  SO cute!

Oh Dear

So yesterday was such a great day.

I stopped by mom's house after dropping N off at preschool and we took E to a little park close to her.

He is getting stronger and more adventurous every day.  He LOVES to slide. He will climb up and slide down all day long.  Which is kind of a feat for him because his legs are still kind of weak.  

We walked along a path to another park and this time there were 3 slides.  And a sort of wobbly bridge in the middle.  The kind of wobbly they do on purpose.  Well at first E wasn't so keen on going over the bridge, it's a bit scary when you aren't too steady on your feet.  But he conquered it after a few times and ended up walking over it all by himself.  So cool!

He then found a new fun game, have mommy sit at the bottom of the slide while he slides into her....lol  Luckily he's a tiny kid. ;o)

He would climb up and tell me "SHOES" (translated: I am going to slide down and bonk you with my shoes and we are going to laugh hysterically)

This is a game I think he could have played for hours.  After he slid into me he would cuddle and laugh and say a slew of Amharic words. I sure wish I knew what he was saying.

We had such a great day.  Then it became bedtime.

Daddy was going to put him to bed, and he began to kind of freak out wanting me to do it.  This is the first time this has happened.  Weird. Poor daddy.  He ended up taking care of it, but Little E wasn't so happy.  Then didn't sleep so well the rest of the night.  I am taking this as a good sign, if not a hard one, that he's settling in and beginning to get that I am the momma.  I just hope daddy doesn't lose out on the process.  

Oh, and E has also begun this thing where when you are saying good bye...if he's not mad at you and throwing the shoulder...lol...he will lean in to kiss you and say "I Love you" clear as day. We were leaving S to go get N from preschool and he went to her without provocation, leaned in for a kiss, waved and said "I love you"!  SOOOOO awesome!

God is SO good!!!