Sorry for the Absence

I'm so very sorry that I haven't posted recently. I've just been a busy SAHM lately with several large projects on my plate. The biggest project I have going right now is the Weeks' Family Cookbook. I have about 2/3 of our recipes entered and continue to plug away in an attempt to have the book completed and ready for pre-orders by the end of September or beginning of October. I also located a local Ethiopian adoptive families group and agreed to help with a database project. My goal was to get this project completed before the end of the month so I worked feverishly to get it completed this past week. Today we had a pool party and cook-out for Dave's co-workers and Sunday we're having an "End of Summer" pool party and cook-out.

Next week isn't showing signs of being any less hectic. We have a lot going on with Ryan right now. Of course his recent seizures and hospitalization was a big thing, but in addition we've been dissatisfied (that's probably an understatement) with the agency that is providing services for him. A few months ago we decided it was time to start researching to see if there was another agency in the state who might have a program that would better meet his needs. We think we have found such an agency and on Tuesday they are sending a team down to meet Ryan, see where he's been living and talk to us. This meeting is the first step for both the new agency and for us to determine if Ryan would be a good fit for their program. If we agree and the new agency agrees, we can begin taking the necessary steps to transition Ryan to the new agency. The one big downside to this possible move is distance. Ryan lives about 25 miles from us right now, but if he moves he will be somewhere between 100 and 170 miles from us. Of course our main concern is that he be in a program that makes him happy and allows him to reach his full potential. That's not happening for him now and it needs to happen. If the new program will do that for him, then the move will be worth it.

Although I have more I could write about tonight, I think I'll save it for another post. I'll also get some new pictures of Lili out here soon. I've been really bad about taking pictures the last couple of weeks and I'll do my best to break out the camera this weekend.

I hope everyone has a safe and wonderful Labor Day weekend.

Emergency and Hard to Believe

Let me first apologize to those who have regularly been checking my blog for an update only to find Lili still standing in a grass skirt and lei. Now I'll explain why I've been in a blogging slump.

Last Friday evening we receive a call from Ryan's group home telling us that he had been having seizures that day and they were giving him some medication to help get them under better control. This medication is typically the "wonder drug" but in this case it didn't do the trick and a few hours later we received another call letting us know that he was still having regular seizures. Dave left to go give him another medication in hopes of getting them under control, but poor Ryan was having seizures every 30-45 minutes so 911 was called and he was taken to the emergency room. The ER doctors were having trouble getting his seizures under control and finally gave him a mega dose of an anti-seizure medication which appeared to do the trick. Since Ryan started seeing a new epilepsy specialist, he had to be transferred to another hospital so his new doctor could monitor him. Although the seizures were now under control, his medication levels were not. When they checked one of his med levels in the ER it came back at 176 and normal is 50. This is considered a critical medication level. As of this morning he had gone seizure free for 5 days and his medication levels were finally normal, so he was released from the hospital this afternoon. It was a rough 5 days for all of us, but especially Ryan who handled it like a champ.

On a much lighter note, 5 months ago today, Lili was placed in our arms forever. It honestly feels like she's been here forever and I constantly have to remind myself that 5 months really isn't a long time. It just amazes me she has made the adjustments she has had to make with so few problems. The only really problem we've had is with sleep which continues to be a challenge, but we are seeing slow and steady improvement there. Although her night doesn't start out in my bed, that is where it ends up for the majority of the night. The good news is that we're starting to see some regular sleep patterns of 10-12 hours per night, which is very good. We had many nights that she slept 8 hours or less and that was tough on everyone, especially her. To see her sleeping longer means that she is feeling more relaxed and that attachment and bonding is continuing to move in a positive direction. Someday I hope to report that she sleeps in her bed throughout the night, but I think that is going to take a little more time and in the meantime I'll continue to cater to her need to lay against mommy during the night.

Our lives were changed in a major way 5 months ago and they changed for the better.

Sun, Surf and Pride

Yesterday my wonderful husband celebrated another birthday. He is a year older and hopefully wiser :-) His birthday ended up being a great day for our family and I thought it would be fun to share with my blog friends.

Recently, the team that Dave is part of at Microsoft was recognized for doing outstanding work this past year. As a result, some of the team members are being given an nice reward for their work and yesterday Dave found out that he was one of the team members chosen by management to receive a reward. I'm sure you are all wondering what this reward could possibly be so let me give you a little hint.

Dave won a trip to HAWAII!!!!!! In addition, he is allowed to take a guest (that would be me) and a little hula girl (that would be Lili). By-the-way, it took 3 or 4 tries to get this photo since she wouldn't look at the camera because she was too busy taking her lei off. Although her hair isn't looking the best, at least I managed to get a picture of her looking at the camera wearing a grass skirt and leaving the lei on. LOL!!!!

I'm so excited about this trip. For as long as I can remember I've had two trips that I very much wanted to take in my life. One was to go on a cruise which we did in January, 2007. The other was to take a trip to Hawaii which I'll now be taking this November. The other nice perk is that we'll be in Hawaii on our 23rd wedding anniversary and celebrating with our beautiful little girl. Who could ask for anything more.

Most of all, I'm so very proud of my hubby. He has only been with Microsoft a couple years, but he has worked very, very hard. His dedication to his work and to his family has allowed me to be a stay-at-home mom and allowed us to bring Lili into our family. Now his hard work is allowing us to take a wonderful little vacation. I couldn't ask for a better husband or father and I feel fortunate to have him in my life.

Behind on Posts

Sorry that I haven't posted much this past week and very sorry to have missed Favorite Photo Friday. Lili was sick several days this week and needed a lot of holding. Of course this meant that a lot of things got put on the back burner and blogging was one of them. I'm also working on a little (actually big) project that I hope to have completed by October, and it is taking up much of my blogging time as well.

Lili is now feeling better and has been introduced to art. A few weeks ago we introduced her to crayons, which she loves and this week she was introduced to sidewalk chalk. Here are a few photos of Lili van Gogh creating her masterpieces.

Okay, mommy helped get her started and as you can see, mommy doesn't have a lot of artistic ability.

Look at the concentration.

Creating this beautiful artwork is hard work and apparently Lili needed a break.

Okay, drawing on my arm is fun too. Maybe someday I'll be a tattoo artist.

Guess art time is over. Wait a minute, what's this tiny creature crawling across the driveway? Mommy says it's an ant, but he's really hard to catch.

Okay, so staying on task is not Lili's strongest trait yet, but we're working on it.

Let me fill you in on adoption #2.

We submitted our application to the new agency last week and they received and accepted it on Friday. We have another form that needs to be completed and sent in to the agency and then we'll receive the contract and start on our dossier.

We can't being our homestudy until the end of September and even though we're using the same agency, we have to complete and submit a new application to them as well. We'll do that about this time next month with the hope of beginning the new home study the first week of October.

As many of you already know, adoption is not an inexpensive venture and families who are dedicated to growing their families through adoption find creative ways of raising money to help with those expenses. I wanted to find a way that we too could raise some money to help out with our upcoming adoption expenses, so last month we had a garage sale and sold enough items to pay our application fee. In addition, we cleared our house of things that had been sitting unused for quite some time and still have some items that we need to clear out. Those items will be posted on Craig's List and eBay over the next few weeks in the hopes of selling them quickly.

All of this brings me to the project I've been working on and am very excited about. In an effort to clean out closets and cupboards and to raise money toward our future expenses I came up with an idea that I hope proves to be a successful fund raiser for us. So, for the last couple of weeks I've been entering recipes into the computer as we create the Weeks' Family Cookbook. The cookbook will consist of all the recipes we've enjoyed over our almost 23 years of marriage. In addition, we will include recipes from our children's birth countries, Guatemala and Ethiopia. It will be a very simple cookbook, but one that I hope many will be interested in purchasing and will enjoy for years to come.

Like I said earlier, I hope to have this project completed and ready for purchase sometime in October (in time for the Holidays). I'll post more on my blog as time goes on and will include a link for ordering the cookbook once we get close to printing.

Spreading the Word

I'm posting again about Guatoberfest. Apparently there has been an overwhelming response to the invites this year. According the the blog site http://www.guatoberfest.com/ there are 69 families registered to attend, but a cap on the rooms of 75. Therefore, if you want to attend you need to get your reservations made asap. Also, check the blog site for additional information about registering for Guatoberfest. If you don't get registered by the cutoff date, your hotel reservation will also be cancelled and your room given to someone on the wait list.

There are so many people I've corresponded with thru the forum and via email that I'm anxious to meet and others who I've met and can't wait to see again.

15 Months Old - FPF

Two days ago, our little beauty turned 15 months old. She has now been home just over 4 months and I took her into the doctor today for her check up. I now have verification that she's doing very well.

Here are the stats . . .

Height - 31 3/4 inches long

Weight - 22 lbs 3.2 ozs

Head circumference - 45 cm

This puts her in the 85th percentile in height, 40 percentile in weight and 25 percentile head circumference. When she first came home her weight was in the 10th percentile and head circumference was in the 5th percentile, so she's really grown and blossomed since coming home. The other nice thing to hear was that developmentally she is right on target in everything. So all is well.

Here are a few pictures of our 15 month old healthy girl.

These pictures were taken this afternoon, after her doctor's appointment where she also received a shot and a TB skin test. She's looking pretty happy for someone who got stuck twice today.