thank you, mott

How do you say THANK YOU to the hospital where your daughter received great care for 101 days after being born 12 weeks early? You run 3.1 miles in the midday heat, that’s how. On Sunday, Graig, several friends and I participated in the Big House, Big Heart 5K run. This is the second 5K that Graig and I have been a part of this summer, and it was a lot of fun. This race was quite a bit different than the one one we ran on July 4th. This time there were thousands of runners instead of hundreds, and it was much warmer that I prefer when I run, but it was worth it. I was able to shave seven minutes off my finishing time compared to how I did in July! I’m quite happy about that. I even had to. . . ahem . . take a bathroom break during the race (I seriously couldn’t wait!), so I might actually have run the 5k about seven and a half minutes faster this time. One thing that Graig and I thought was so cool is that out of thousands (more than seven thousand I think) of runners, my number was 101–the exact number of days that K was in the hospital. Thanks for letting us run with you, guys. I would post pictures of everyone we ran with, but I need to track down pictures taken from another camera. I didn’t get to take as many pics as I would have liked since we had M and K with us.

Thank you, Mott doctors and nurses, for giving our little one the best start possible.

Kailyn one year ago

Kailyn on her first birthday

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a new addition and a not-so-sad goodbye

A few days ago we welcomed a new baby toothbrush into our toothbrush family. M has been begging us to start brushing K’s little knub of a tooth for quite some time. Grandma mailed her a very cute toothbrush, so we bought the right kind of toothpaste and started brushing the tooth. I just love how K’s little toothbrush looks in our toothbrush holder. There’s something inspiring about it. Something emotional. To me it represents how far we have come in the last year. Last year at this time Kailyn was fighting for her life, had what seemed like hundreds of tubes and lines coming in and out of her tiny body, and was hooked up to SO many machines. And here we are, just one year later, and her little toothbrush is hanging out with the rest of them. Powerful stuff!

As for the not-so-sad goodbye, hang in there, it’s kind of a long story. On Wednesday of this week, we met some friends at a restaurant to celebrate the adoption of a precious little girl. Of course we are personally passionate about adoption, and our good friends have had SUCH a long and difficult journey to bring their precious one home. Anyway, there we were, talking with friends, laughing, and I see Graig make a funny face. He looked at his arm (the one holding K) and then smelled K’s buns. I assumed this meant we needed to change a messy diaper. About the same time, we both noticed that this was no ordinary messy diaper. This was THE BIG ONE. To say that poop was everywhere is an understatement. It was up her back and soaking through her clothes. This is the kind of blowout that you hope will never happen away from home. Of course we left the diaper bag in the car. Graig ran out to get it while I tried to figure out a way to hold K without getting any more poop on my shirt. I also quickly realized that I was going to be on my own in cleaning up this one since Graig couldn’t come in the women’s bathroom to help. I took a deep breath, tried very hard to see the humor in the situation, and went for it. As I was getting everything situated, I noticed that I didn’t have any changing pads in the diaper bag. Uh-oh. I consider myself to be a bit of a “green” girl, so I try not to use or buy disposable items on a regular basis. (I’ve had to make peace with using disposable diapers, but that’s for another post on another day.) Well, a while ago, someone had given me some disposable changing pads they weren’t going to use. Instead of throwing them away, I decided to use them up before putting a regular changing pad in the diaper bag. Well, I had no changing pad of any kind, but I did have some disposable bibs that someone else had given me. I strategically placed three disposable bibs on the changing station, sat Kailyn down, and began to assess the damage. It was way worse than I thought. I considered bathing K in the bathroom sink, but there were many drawbacks to that idea. I had just (barely) enough wipes with me to clean it all up, and I gingerly placed K’s poop-covered clothes in the too-small ziplock bag that had previously held the bibs/changing pads. After congratulating myself on a job well done in somewhat difficult circumstances, K and I went back to the celebration. I don’t know how I did it, but I forgot to wash out K’s poopy outfit when we got home that evening. (Who am I kidding? I was going to have Graig help with that step since I got to handle the mess at the restaurant.) Needless to say, the outfit was quite ripe the next morning. By that point it seemed like it was more trouble than it was worth to clean the outfit that was too small for her to wear again anyway. Sure, I could have washed it a few times, used Zout, etc., and then passed it along to someone else whose child may or may not have worn it, but I didn’t. I very happily put it right in the dumpster. End of story.

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here we go again

K had an appointment with an allergist this afternoon. We were hoping to have her tested as soon as we could so we can know what to expect about feeding her in Kenya and to know what foods are safe to give her now. Well, the news isn’t that great. The doctor did a skin test to find out what foods she is allergic to. We’re disappointed, but not too surprised, to learn that she’s allergic to milk and eggs just like Melia was a couple of years ago. I’m not as stressed about changing our lifestyle this time around because I know what I have to do to feed her safely. It’s not easy, and I’m quite nervous about how it will work in Kenya, but it will work out. The allergist also said he would like us to change K’s formula AGAIN. This will be the FIFTH formula we have tried with her. The good news is that it quite a bit cheaper than what’s she’s drinking now, but the bad news is that she needs to be on formula until she’s two! In a couple of days I’ll be mixing formulas again, but I’m an expert at it now.

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inventive spelling

A lot of signs and notes have been popping up around our house lately. As a former first grade teacher, I’m really enjoying watching M learn how to express herself in writing. It usually takes a bit of deciphering, but it’s not too difficult to figure out what she’s saying. A few weeks ago, without my knowledge, a checklist appeared on M’s wall. It has little squares where she can put a check mark when she’s completed each task. It says “Mauce my bed” “Pt Uway pejas” “Play wif Kailyn”. She also made a sign for the baby gate we put up a few days ago. It says, “No! Goyn! Past! The! Baby! Gat! K!” She even illustrated it with a crawling baby. One of my favorites is a “book” she wrote at school. It is two pages long and is bound together with staples carefully and proudly placed by herself. The title page says, “Melia’s Dlnt Frgit to Wosh Your Hans Book”. The next page shows a triangular sign which says (big surprise) “Dlt Frgit to wosh your hans”. The End. (By the way, if there are any book publishers who happen upon this blog and are looking for the next children’s book best seller, with a bit of creative editing, Melia’s book may be what you are looking for. Email me privately and we’ll talk details.) My favorite note is definitely the one she gave me yesterday. It says, “I love you. Love, Melia.” Priceless.

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thank you, craig’s list

What a weekend. We bought a carpet remnant for the basement, but we can’t install it until the leak is repaired and we’re still waiting to hear from the repairman. We also sold Graig’s car and bought two baby gates all on Craig’s List on Saturday. The gates are up and working well, just in time. Kailyn is all over the place now. She’s even pulling herself up on a few things. I was working on the computer this afternoon while Melia is in school, and I looked over to check on K and saw this.

She’s so proud of herself! I cheered for her and helped her sit back down. Earlier this afternoon I found her playing with this.

It’s a toy from Kenya. I thought I had put it away so she couldn’t get to it. I’m sure it’s not safe for a baby to chew on that kind of paint, not to mention what unspeakable things the drum is likely to be made from. Yuck! Also notice the tiny plastic beads by her feet. She found some of Melia’s dress up necklaces and had a blast. Also not the safest baby toy, but I promise I was watching her closely. She would have been heartbroken if I had taken them away as soon as she discovered them.

Kailyn had her one year appointment last week. She is still so tiny–only 14 pounds, 13 ounces. The girl just won’t eat right now. She has a cold, and I hope that’s why she is refusing most of the baby food. She also hates lumpy baby food. I’ve been trying to thicken up her food to get her closer to eating table food, and she wants nothing to do with it most of the time. The doctor told me to feed her baby food more often and to give her margarine on all her vegetables to try to help her gain weight. I dread every time I have to feed her because it’s such a struggle. I’m not sure what to do about it except keep trying. The doctor also referred her to an allergist so we can talk about getting her tested for dairy allergies soon.

On the adoption front, the girls and I walked to the police station this morning to work towards getting local police clearance. We have to renew that to get our homestudy updated. The lady who helped me this time said she remembered me from the last time we did this. I guess there aren’t too many times here in our small town that the local police is asked for this kind of thing. Now we just need new health reports for all of us and we’ll have everything we need for that tiny step of our journey.

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on the move

And she’s off! Kailyn discovered how to crawl this morning. She’s still tentative about it, and she won’t crawl across the room yet, but this weekend we will be putting up the baby gates. Melia is also making some big strides forward. She is reading quite well these days, and she is working on writing a couple of stories of her own. Both of our girls are getting so big.

If you read the previous post you know that we had some water in our basement from last weekend. We checked into seeing if our homeowner’s insurance will cover the costs of the carpet and wall damage, and it doesn’t cover any of it. We’ll figure it out, though.

We’ve heard back from the person who helped us with our homestudy, and we know what we need to do to get that renewed. It feels good to be making some progress toward bringing our Kenyan daughter home.

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trials, already? Edited

Well, we’re one day into our adoption restart. We knew this whole process would require big leaps of faith and complete reliance on God. It’s a good place for us to be because this is difficult for both Graig and I as we prefer life to be nice, neat, orderly, and manageable on our own. We know we will experience many challenging circumstances along this journey, but we know God will see us through each one. I think He has used Kailyn’s surprise pregnancy and early arrival to strenghthen our faith, so now we get to put it into practice. I just didn’t think it would be so soon.

Can you tell what this is?

This is our basement carpet in the dumpster. It seems like the heavy rains this past weekend did more than drench us at Melia’s soccer game. A few hundred drops of rain decided they wanted to come inside our basement to live. Graig discovered the squishy carpet this morning, so we moved everything around and realized that the damage was worse than we realized. We only had to throw out a few things that we stored on the floor, but the carpet is ruined. The funny thing about this is I had started talking to God about new carpet last week. Our living room on the main floor really could use new carpet. This is room where we spend a lot of our time, and Kailyn is going to be crawling around on it all fall and winter. I would really love to replace it, but there is no money in our budget for that luxury right now. So, I started praying about it. I guess I should have been more specific about which room of carpet I’d like replaced. (smile) Well, I think trials are all about your perspective and attitude. I have no idea how we will pay for new carpet for the basement, but we’ll get some, somehow. It always works out. Today I’m feeling full of faith. I feel like shouting, “Bring it on! God has seen us through so many unknowns in the past, this one is nothin’ for Him.” I know there are much bigger challenges ahead, and we’re confident that He will be with us through all of them. Anybody know where we can find some decent free or very cheap carpet?

*edited* How funny. I meant to title this post “trials, already?”, but it looks like my editing eye missed the mistake in the title. Also, we are going to call our homeowner’s insurance agency today. That may be the help we need! Thanks for the idea. I don’t know why I didn’t think of that.

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moving forward

It seems like awhile since I’ve posted anything. We’ve had a busy, full week, topped off by a fun weekend. Graig’s mom and sister came to visit us and we celebrated Grandma’s birthday with a delicious birthday dinner. Melia played in her second soccer game on Saturday, in a downpour leftover from Ike. She loved every minute of playing in the rain, and we were all quite drenched when the coach finally ended the game a bit early. Graig called our adoption agency today to see what we need to do to get our adoption process up and going again. Ironically he got an email from the agency this morning saying that they just wanted to confirm that our adoption case was closed for good. He quickly called them and let them know the exact opposite! We now have a starting point and more information coming our way in the next couple of days. This week we will call our homestudy agency to see what we need to do to update our homestudy, and we will start the process for getting both girls a passport. Soon we will be knee deep in craziness and walking by faith.

How are we feeling about starting the adoption process again? Both Graig and I have mixed feelings. We are mostly excited, but we also feel overwhelmed, afraid, and apprehensive. We’ve been here before, and it’s a crazy ride full of unknowns, things we can’t control, and God-sized issues. In the end it will be SO worth it, but getting there from here is nerve wracking. I’ve been thinking a lot about the upcoming changes, and I’ve decided that I’m going to try to be open and honest here on the blog. This is a complete adventure in faith. We need HUGE miracles–MANY of them–and we will be asking everyone we know to PRAY. We know God has called us to this challenge, and we’d love to have you in our corner praying for and with us.

Another way things are moving forward in our lives is that Kailyn has finally figured out how to move herself forward. I wouldn’t actually call it crawling yet, but she is moving her hands and knees forward just a bit. That means I need to get a lot of things out of her grabbing range. Today we found her exploring Graig’s laptop. Guess we’ll have to find a new place to recharge the battery.

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the return of the little people

Little People are great. Melia had several Little People toys that she played with for about 2 1/2 years, and I lovingly packed them away when she outgrew them. We even have a Little People Nativity Set that makes it’s annual pilgrimage to our end table for one glorious month a year. Melia and I have spent many afternoons reenacting the birth of our Lord with chubby little plastic figures in a plastic stable. I’m already looking forward to their arrival in a couple of short months. Well, Kailyn has now discovered the Little People and their brightly colored accessories. It’s so cute to watch her try to copy Melia and put the little people in their seat on the bus or try to spin them around on the ferris wheel. The girls will actually sit and “play” together for a while thanks to those happy little guys.

Kailyn has started to do some new things again. She loves to clap, and she’s learning to get herself from a sitting position to on her hands and knees and then back to sitting. She also signed “All done” today at lunch when she was done with her sweet potatoes. Then she clapped for herself because I finally figured out that she was signing that she was finished. (Her version of “all done” is a bit different than the intended sign, but it’s really close!) She also signed “all done” at dinner, so I know it wasn’t just my imagination earlier today. She’s still not crawling, but I really think it could be any day. I’ve thought that for awhile, though. The Physical Therapist is coming by tomorrow, so maybe she can help us teach Kailyn the next steps. It won’t be long now.

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a big week

Melia officially loves school. Three of the girls in her Kindergarten class this year were also in her preschool class last year. She has written three love notes to her teacher, and she thinks “specials” are the greatest thing in the world (almost). On Friday she asked me to stop at the end of the hallway and let her walk by herself to the classroom. I’m sure that by Tuesday she will ask me to just drop her off at the front door of the school. I don’t know if I’m ready for that. Even though she is ready to be more independent, it makes my heart sing to see her at the end of the day waving to me like her life depended on it while she waits for her teacher to walk the class over to the parents. She does miss us a teeny bit.

Melia had her first soccer game on Saturday. She put her whole heart into it for most of the game. I do not think she will be the team’s leading scorer, but the girl can run and she had a blast!

Also on Saturday we were able to meet up with some friends we met while Kailyn was in the NICU. They had triplets also born very early. We spent many hours sitting across from each other in the hospital, talking in the hall, and praying for each other’s children. It was so great to see all of our little miracles together and doing so well!

This week is another big week. Now that school is underway and I’m not quite so busy with Sunday School projects, we plan to call the adoption agency to see where we stand and what we need to do first to get our adoption process back underway. It’s a bit overwhelming, but oh so exciting! Hold your breath! We’re diving in, and we need all the prayers you can send our way.

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