Sick Again!!!

Please pray for sweet Emmy!! We were admitted this morning for another fever! She has not been acting quite like herself the last 2 days, so I wasn't totally shocked when she woke up with 101.5 temp this morning!! I know that doesn't sound very high, but when you are a sickle cell patient, that is a very BAD thing!!! Anytime she runs a fever she is admitted, and they run blood cultures to make sure that she does not have any serious bacterial infections!!! So, in about 48 hours we will know whether or not her cultures grew anything. In the meantime, she is on IV fluids, 2 IV antibiotics and inhaled steroids for her cough and wheezing!!! Please keep sweet Emmy in your prayers, and I will keep you updated!

OVERWHELMED!!!

There aren't very many times that I just feel OVERWHELMED, but I must say the past several days, there is no other word to describe how I feel! We have so much going on...of course, when I say that, people respond with "of course, you do...you have 5 kids!" Yes, I know how many children I have! It's not the number of children that I have that is overwhelming, it is all the ups and downs of our adoption with Emmy, the situation with the boys, which always seems that there is no end in sight, right when I can see the silver lining in their case, something pops up to could that view!!! We have a lot going on with Faithful Adoption Consultants right now, all good things, but busy, busy!!

So, the reason I decided to blog was to ask for specific prayers:

Here they are:

Emmy: The ICPC office has given us a deadline of April 23rd to have everything in, UMMM....impossible...our fingerprints are set to come back until June, we couldn't get an appointment for a physical for our ICPC papers until May! So, pray that the people who look over our paperwork are understanding and compassionate!! Pray that the fingerprints come back SUPER, DUPER FAST! That would be incredible!! Pray that in the end all goes smoothly and we can finalize VERY, VERY SOON!!! I know that every adoption experience is different, but this one has been very hard. I know God is allowing me to experience these things to build my professional knowledge as well as help me relate to clients that might go through very similar circumstances!! Pray that GOD would be glorified through this adoption, through everything, every last OVERWHELMING STEP!!! He is so good, and HE IS SO FAITHFUL....we are so thankful for this precious gift that He gave us. Emmy has quite a story!! I know HE must have BIG plans for this precious little girl!!

M and C: Our boys are healing great after their surgery 2 weeks ago! Thank you for your prayers. This Thursday, we have yet another hearing. This is the MOST important hearing YET!!! PLEASE BE IN PRAYER THURSDAY MORNING, THIS WILL DETERMINE WHETHER OR NOT THE BOYS WILL BECOME ADOPTABLE. Please pray for Emory and I as we prepare ourselves for what God has in store for our family as well as for M and C. We are aware that God's will may not be the same thing we are requesting. We know His will is perfect, and we hope that His will is for the boys to be permanently ours! Pray for us as we find out what God's plans are, pray for our children, especially for M and C! Pray for their BM...should the news go in our favor, it will devestate her. Loving your children and caring for them properly are 2 very different things, I know she loves them, and I know this will break her heart. Pray that should the Lord choose to allow us to keep the kids, that this would be a defining moment in this young mothers life, that she would make necessary changes in her life, pray that the Lord would reveal HIMSELF to her like never before!! Thank you for your constant prayers and emails! I appreciate them so much!!!

Lastly- Pray for our family. Pray for our business, pray for decisions that are coming up that involve both. Please pray that the Lord would just place a hedge of protection around our family, pray that we can stay healthy, and that the Lord would give us strength as we complete Emmy's adoption, and obviously go to court to hear about the boys future!!

Emmy is 3 months old!!

YIKES!!! I cannot believe that our precious baby girl is already 3 months old!!! She is getting so big. She is laughing out loud now...I love it! I love to hear her laugh! She smiles all the time...ALL THE TIME. This sweet baby never cries, she is good all the time...Aidan was the only other newborn that we have had, and he was NOT an easy baby, so I never knew a baby like this was possible!!

She is eating 8 ounces every 5 hours, and gaining weight like crazy. She as 14lbs 3 ounces yesterday! YES, she is a chunk!!! She is already fitting into 6 month clothing!! She sleeps through the night, and has since she was 4 weeks old! She is starting to really try and sit-up, yes she is ADVANCED!!! She loves her bumbo, she enjoys watching the other kiddos, and loves it more when they fall all over her!! They definitely do that, they all adore her! Even Carr, he says "Mommy, Baby Emmy hold you?" Which translates, "May I hold baby Emmy?" HA!! He loves to hold her, kiss her, hug her....he also loves to announce when she is crying, even if I am sitting right next to her, he says "Mommy, baby Emmy cry!" I love it! I love that the kiddos love her so much!!!

She is such a gift, we are blessed beyond measure! So thankful for my sweet family! I feel very blessed that GOD chose Emory and I to parent these 5 precious kiddos!!

Has it been 2 weeks already!!!

Goodness, I cannot believe that is has been almost 2 weeks since I posted. Time flies when you are having fun!!! SO, the boys had their surgery! It went as well as can be expected I guess. Painful, for sure!! They recovered much faster than I would have liked, but did have a couple of small complications!!! Both boys had some swelling in the surgical region, and a little bleeding. We had it all checked out, and were given the okay, and told it will continue to look worse before it gets better! UGH!!!

Emmy has an upper respiratory infection/nasty cold!! She is running low grade fevers, and coughing like crazy!!!

Mina is enjoying her Spring Break, even though we didn't make it to see Aunt Stace in Charleston. She was quite bummed, but I have tried to make their week as fun as possible without having left town. We went to the zoo one day, currently we are at a Bounce House, I am blogging as they run all of their energy out. We have been to the park all 4 days, and are hoping that we can make it this afternoon if the rain will stop!!!

Aidan is good. His seizures have evolved some, he is now having some drop seizures which have been kind of scary!!! We are going to repeat his MRI and his EEG in the next few weeks, the Dr. is worried that his epilepsy has evolved from temporal lobe with secondary generalized, to completely generalized! That would be bad, but he is a trooper and we will get through it. He also is having a lot of dental problems, which may prove to be the death of me. HA!!! When he seizes he grinds his teeth, therefore, he is breaking his teeth. Then he eats sugar, and before you know it, the sugar sits in the cracks of the teeth causing HORRIBLE cavities, then causing the molars (Primarily) to break!! Yes, his teeth are actually breaking apart!! SO, he needs several hours worth of general anesthesia at our childrens hospital to get all of his teeth fixed up, he needs root canals, crowns, sealant on every tooth, etc....however, we can't find a dentist that will do it. They are all terrified of his seizures. I am thinking, HELLO, ISN'T THAT WHY WE WILL BE IN A HOSPITAL??? Instead we will let him be in pain, and allow everything to get worse....LOVE IT!!!!

Michel and Aidan will be starting Kindergarten next year! They are so excited, so next week, I will be registering them both! Mina is ecstatic that the boys will be going to the same school! I am excited that I wont have to drive all over the free world dropping off and picking up!!!

Carr will also be going to a new preschool! I am very excited about that. I am hoping he will learn a lot next year, I know he is only 2, but structure is so good for him, and I have watched Michel and Mina struggle so much due to their parents lack of teaching, that I want to make sure Carr doesn't have those same problems!!!

Okay!! So I know this was a super long post, but I thought I would catch up everyone on our kiddos!! We are very busy at Faithful Adoption Consultants, which is always very exciting!! We are knee deep in our paperwork to become a licensed agency, hoping to offer christian couples a low-cost alternative for adoption. Please pray for us as we prepare to get started, pray that the Lord will bring us a wonderful Christian social worker, pray for the birth moms that we will work with, and for each adoptive couple that we work with!! Thanks for all your support and prayers!! We appreciate it more than you know!!!!