Who Knew...

So, I was talking to my mom this morning about Aidan's epilepsy. She informed me that Newsweek did an article trying to bring awareness to the seriousness of the disease. I have been a parent of an epileptic child for over 2 years now. I know that it is a serious condition, but I think reading this article made me realize just how serious it is. Epilepsy is scary for a million reasons, here are a couple: you never know when your child is going to have a seizure, it could be when he is climbing across the monkey bars, or just reached the top of the stairs, you never know how severe the next one will be, Aidan's seizures are never alike..they have evolved over the past 2 years, you never know if your child is going to stop breathing and if he does, will he start breathing again. Will he lose consciousness, will he hit his head, will he have a seizure when I am not there to take care of him, Can I trust someone else to know what to do if he has a seizure. See, these are questions that a parent of an epileptic child, or a child with seizure disorders thinks about. You feel like you have to limit your child, because you are always fearful that they will be in a situation that if a seizure happens at that moment it could kill them I.E. on top of the monkey bars. Hello, Aidan is 4. He loves the monkey bars, he loves sleeping in the top bunk, he is active. Honestly, I try not to think about all of the possible daily dangers. But, this article reminded me that more people die of epilepsy than of breast cancer. That is a scary fact, here I am attempting to do a walk in October for Breast Cancer Research, which I totally support, and hope they find a cure as soon as possible, but who is going to find a cure for epilepsy. Where are the walks and awareness campaigns for that. Epileptics have to live in fear everyday, the fear of the unknown. Will I have a seizure today? What will I be doing when it happens? ETc, Etc.

Sorry for the possibly dramatic post...however, it is quite scary to read the statistics of this disease. Aidan is on Keppra, we actually just increased his dose again last week. Next week he will have an ambulatory EEG, and an MRI. Neither which will be very fun for a 4 year old. We will be at Scottish Rite 3 days next week! UGGHHH!!! SO, just keep him in your prayers as we go through these tests next week!

What a day...

Oh my GOSH!! TOday was the craziest day of my life. It started out bad, and ended pretty badly as well. Let's just say it is 1:15 am and I just got home. It all started this morning when I woke up with a migraine. One of those days that I should have totally stayed in the bed. Anyway, I had to be at my foster boys visitation at 11am, and I had promised I would bring pics for their mother. :( I had no pics, so I had to get up, get everyone dressed and fed, and drive all over to town looking for one of those places that will print the pics from your camera card right then and there. After 4 stops and no success, I remembered that the Rite-Aid by the hospital has one of those nifty machines, so I drove out of my way to get the pictures for her. Why? you might ask, because I am SUPER DOOPER NICE!!! After what happened next, I won't ever do that again. So, after it took me 25 minutes to print the stupid pics, because the machine would reset every 6 seconds, I made it to DFCS. Okay, so the protocol is I pull in the back parking lot, where only staff and foster parents park, I get the boys out (including Aidan) and head to the door. The door stays locked, so I knock waiting on my NEW (never met her) caseworker. WEll, after 5 minutes noone is coming, so I start to head back to my car. As I am trying to unlock my car, to get my phone, to call my social worker (the one that I love, that couldn't be there today b/c she had a meeting) to tell her I can't get in, and to see if she can call someone to let me in. As I begin to unlock the door, the boys mother and boyfriend show up out of the clear blue sky and take the kids from me. They begin to walk different directions, leaving me panicked as to which way to head, after which child? How do you pick which kid to rescue first. So, long story short I rescue the baby first then run to catch up with Michel, by this time, DFCS has figured out there is a problem, after we are running up a main road in ghetto! So, they come help and get us in the building. Still haven't seen or met my new caseworker at this point. 10 minutes later I finally meet my caseworker, and explain that I felt very threatened, I felt like they were trying to kidnap the kids, etc. Ugghhhh! It was horrible. So, after that fiasco, I headed home to allow everyone inlcuding myself to take a nap. We slept for like 4 hours. Then the rest of my day starts. Emory got home from work and we were going to head to eat dinner with my sis and pick up my parents dogs, b/c we are suppose to be dog sitting for them this weekend. I needed to stop by Target first, and then we were headed to my parents for dinner. WEll, after Target we were in a car accident! YEP, not kidding. Some idiot thought it would be intelligent to turn his right blinker on, get in the right turn lane, and then make an illegal Left U-turn in the middle of the flipping road. Emory tried so hard to miss him, but we swerved into the left lane trying to avoid and we still hit him. His fault of course. But, still...Seriously! Has my day not been bad enough already? Well, by law if we are in a car accident we have to take our foster children to the hospital. So I spent all night at the local ER, everyone is fine, it's just policy! Michel ended up getting some steroids while we were there, he has really bad asthma, and a touch of bronchial pneumonia. YUCK!! So, I guess it is good we had to go...they gave him some great meds, hopefully we can knock this junk out! Prayin' for a better day tomorrow! We are spending all day at the soccer field!! Fun, Fun!!!

Super Cute!

Check out these cute pics of Aidan! He was in Emory's cousins wedding this weekend! He was so stinkin' cute!

And...He walks

Fatsie walks! Yea! It took him less time than Aidan, but I felt like it took forever. We are just so ready for him to walk and talk! On the 1st child you hate to rush through any one stage, but on the 4th, it's like seriously, walk already! It helps that he is mobile, he is so much happier, I will try and post a video of him this week! In my spare time of course. I have been crazy busy! All good things, though! I am just so happy that he is walking. He and Michel have started visitation with their mom, please pray for these visits. They are very stressful for all involved. It is really hard for Michel. Please pray that these will get easier, and please pray for her salvation. That is the whole point of this ministry, that these children and their families might come to know Christ. Pray for the perfect opportunity to share Jesus with her, and that she will be receptive whenever that time comes. Selfishly, I need to know that if we lose these boys here and now, that we will still spend eternity with them. SO, please continue to pray for us! Thank you for your prayers!!

Pictures...

Here are the pics from Carlos' 1st b-day! Sorry it took so long!!

Congratulations! Q & U are married!!

So, as you all know MIna is in kindergarten. I am desperatley trying to keep up with all 4 kids, and blogging. Anyway, each year the kindergartners, have a special wedding ceremony for Q & U . It is suppose to help teach the kids that Qu always go together. So, it is a huge production. Mina was a flower girl in the ceremony, and she looked beautiful. She wore a white dress, and a mom of another student made her a little head piece. I can't remember what they are called. (Feel free to tell me when you see the pics, I have a migraine and the name is escaping me at the moment.) After the 2 were married, they had a reception in the classroom. They even had a real wedding cake! They go all out! It was really cute, and the kids really enjoyed it! Check out the pics!!

Spring Break

Well, we just made it home from a 4 day fun-filled trip to the mountains. My Uncle Stan owns a beautiful cabin in the mountains, and Emory and I took the kids up for a little get-away! We had a blast. We took the dogs and headed up last Thursday. We spent Thursday running around the top of a mountain, and then we went panning for gold. Have you ever panned for gold? Okay, have you panned for gold recently? I remember panning for gold being soo much fun! Ummmm, it is not fun! It is hard work. You have to shake a pan full of dirt for 30 minutes, slowly dumping the dirt and rocks, so you might catch 2 specks of gold! Not fun! Now panning for gems, that was more fun! The kids liked that way better. Mina actually got a really nice sized pink gem. We had fun, even though it wasn't as exciting as I had anticipated. Friday was a storm filled day. We were stuck in the cabin all day. Luckily, this is a stinkin' nice cabin with a lot to do! Carol and Randy headed up Friday night and spent the rest of the weekend with us, the kids loved that. They had a million activities planned for the kids, we made egg shaped rice krispie treats, had a devotional about the bugs of the Bible (Thanks to Poppa), an easter egg hunt and thats only naming a few!! We had a blast. So, we spent our Easter morning up in the North Ga. mountains. Check out a few pics from our little vacation!!

Back to Bloggin'

Sooo, I apparently took a 1 month hiatus. Who knew an entire month went by! Loads of things have happened since my last post. Good things! We have been so busy! The kids started soccer a couple of weeks ago, so that takes up an entire Saturday, and they still take Tae Kwan do as well. So, I am constantly running them around to all their different activities. We have loads of fun though! Emory's job is going way better than it was before, he has really settled in and gotten use to everything, my job is going way better than it was last month. I almost quit like 10 times. I have decided to hang in a little longer, I love Blair too much to quit! Isn't that crazy. I am working because I love the kids nanny. I don't want her to miss out on the kid's lives now that she is in it. Sooo, I will stick it out a little longer at work! Most of you know Emory and I started an adoption consulting company, and it is finally getting off the ground. We have a website, it's not the greatest, but it's a start. It is www.faithfuladoptionconsultants.com. Check it out. If you know anyone who wants to adopt, please have them contact us. We are in the process of working with our first couple of families. We are so excited. We can work with people all over the country, so don't let distance stand in the way! :)
Back to the kiddos, Carlos is 1! His birthday was March 6th, and we had a big birthday bash for him. I will post pics tomorrow. He was so cute, he loved the cake. Of course he did, he is our little fatsie! He's a cute fatsie. I can't believe how much that little booger has changed in the past 6 months. He finally got his cast off, and is trying to walk. He's not quite there yet, but it won't be long. The cast held him back a little bit.
Michel is also doing great! He has really come out of his shell lately. Talking non-stop, and saying the sweetest things. I love to hear him talk. He always tells me "Mommy, you are beautiful" and Jesus is Awesome. Sweet things like that. I'll have to record him saying some of these things, because his sweet little accent is what makes it so sweet. I adore these 2 children. I can't imagine our family without them. I don't know what I was thinking when I said I could do foster care, and give these babies up. I don't think I can. I am so attached. WE love them dearly, and I hope that it is God's will for them to become permanent members of our family.
Aidan and Mina are doing great also! Aidan has had a rough month of seizures, but such is life with an epileptic. We are going to see his neurologist next month, hopefully they can adjust his meds, and get them back under control. Mina is doing great in school, she is mastering her sight words, finally. She has a little trouble remembering things, but she is getting the hang of it! Anyway, just a quick update on the fam. I will post some soccer and birthday pics tomorrow!!!