Things are slowly returning to normal around here.  Well, as normal as it ever was.  Sydney is finally starting to sleep again.  That alone is enough to make Mommy sing praises.  It is amazing what a little sleep will do for this old body.  Getting up 5

(did ya hear me -5!)

times a night is a bit rough.  Makes me a little bit loopier than normal.  She is eating better, although still won't bite off anything.  I think she is afraid that it will hurt, more so than it is actually hurting.  She is a survivor for sure. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tonight marks the last regular season Varsity basketball game for Ashlyn.  All that is left is districts, which is played over the course of 7 days at a school 2 1/2 hours away. 

Nice.

And get this, the name of the town is Dora.  Trying explaining to a over-stressed 3 year old that we are going to Dora, but not her Dora from TV.  I can tell you right now that when we walk into Dora's gym and all she sees is another basketball game, she's not gonna be too happy.

And lest you think we are looking at a break in ball games, Sarah's first Jr High volleyball games is March 8!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We are currently waiting on our I-800 provisional approval for Abbey...  

....then NCV cables us to Guanzhou...

....then Article 5 is issued...

....then TA is issued...

....then we can travel.

Estimated travel dates according to agency's average time frame: May 1- June 1.

Estimated travel dates according to R*Q's average time frame:  April 28.

With March right around the corner, (where did February go?), it is getting closer at an alarming speed.  Our finances are not where we had hoped.  We are construction and it is winter, ya know.  We have applied for several grants that I am really hoping come through.  We are also planning a yard sale to help our finances and to clear out some junk.  For the life of me, I cannot figure out where all this STUFF comes from.  It seems like I am constantly trying to purge closets.  I especially need to work in Sarah's room to get it ready for Abbey to share.  Her closet is packed with clothes that are not worn at all.  She could furnish an entire sale with her closet alone!  But when I look at the calendar, the next available date is April 3rd, which is Easter weekend.  Then the 10th is open too.  That is a little closer to travel than I would have liked.  I will contunue to trust that God will bring us to where we need to be to travel.  But I will also confess that I am getting a little nervous.  I know I will feel better when we file our '09 taxes, as we expect a refund.  I think the stresses of the last few weeks are getting me jumpy, and I need to relax in Jesus.....

It is the Lord who goes before you. He will be with you; he will not fail you or forsake you. Do not fear or be dismayed. (Deuteronomy 31:8)

Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint. (Isaiah 40:28-31)

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. (Isaiah 41:10)

Do not be afraid. Stand firm and you will see the deliverance the Lord will bring you today. The Lord will fight for you; you need only to be still. (Exodus 14:13a,14)

DO NOT BE AFRAID, FOR I AM WITH YOU;  I WILL BRING YOU CHILDREN FROM THE EAST AND GATHER YOU FROM THE WEST.

(Isaiah 43: 5)    

Hard

So Sydney had her surgery to correct the decay on her teeth. 

How did it go? 

NOT. WELL.

We were supposed to just fill the cavities she had and be done.  Simple, right?  It turned into me wanting to smack the over-eager-doctor-wanting-to-create-perfection-in-the-mouth-of-a-3-year-old.  The first trip the nurse made out to talk to us was to tell us that they had no choice, they had had to extract one of her upper teeth.

 

Say what?!?!?!?

It went downhill from there.

Syd was supposed to be in surgery for 1 1/2 to 2 hours, and at 3 1/2 hours into it, they actually came out and asked us, "Since we cannot get the 2 front upper teeth perfectly white because of all the bleeding, wouldn't you rather us extract them?"

Insert mommy getting hysterical here.

And to top it all off, the doctor pranced out afterwards to give us a lengthy and snotty speech about how children need to have their teeth brushed.

Ahem.

I gently reminded her of Sydney's very malnutritioned condition at 2 years old when we adopted her from China. 

Her response?  "China?"

She had no recollection whatsoever of Sydney's history, which she herself had told us had contributed to the dental condition.

Needless to say, it was a nightmare from beginning to end.  She did briefly warn us that Syd may have some "ulcer-like problems in the corner of her mouth from keeping her mouth open so long".  In reality, the instrument they used to hold her mouth open during surgery was too big and since the surgery lasted 2 hours longer than planned, both sides of Sydney's mouth split about 1/4 inch.

Oh I could go on and on.......

Here we are 8 days post-op and this is the first day Sydney has been at all like herself.

She has not slept through the night yet.  She is up 3-5 times a night screaming for mommy.

She has asked a thousand times who gave her the boo-boos on her mouth.

She did not go off of pain relievers for the first 6 days.

I had to coat her lips and sides of her mouth with petroleum jelly every 15 minutes or so or she would scream that it hurt. 

She could not eat anything with any substance to it at all for the first 5 days, and even now cannot bite anything off (even something as soft as a boiled hotdog).

She could barely open her mouth wide enough to put a spoonful of soup in.

She sat and looked in the mirror and cried over how she looked.

It has been a nightmare.  Worse than that, it has been a nightmare that we agreed to put her though.  I know that hindsight is 20/20, but right now I am kicking myself that I even agreed to the surgery in the first place.  Our regular dentist thought it was borderline whether or not he would even fix it or just leave it alone since they are all baby teeth.  Oh how I wish I would have just left it alone.

I know that she had some decay, but this is so much worse.

It feels like we put a cast on a papercut!

Happy Happy

Happy Valentines Day, Sweetheart!

Happy New Year, Ye Hong!

New Earrings

I want to thank all of you for purchasing my earrings.  I wasn't sure if it would be worth my time, but you all have been so generous!  I love the bond that is shared between adoptive parents!

I have been working on some new earring designs.  I will post them here and then over on the sidebar.

Item #18

These are uniquely pretty.  They are made with stacked variously shaped stones in browns & tans.

Strung on gold wire, they are 1 5/8 inch long and $12.00.

*****************************************

Item #19

A shorter version of #18.

At 1 1/4 inches, they are also on gold wires and $10.00

****************************************

Item #20

On silver wires hangs a bead of black and a shear crackle finish bead.

These hang 1 3/8 inches, and are $12.00.

******************************************

 

Item #21

I really like these.  I have one pair strung on copper wire (pictured) and another on gold wire.

The focal bead is a creamy goldish tan with black swirls.

At 1 7/8 inches long, they're really pretty, the picture doesn't do it justice.

They are $12.00

****************************************

Item #22

These are made with light pink acrylic beads on silver wires. My daughter really likes these beads!

They hang 1 3/8 inches and are $10.00.

*****************************************

Item #23

I really like these too!  They are made with a very light pink square bead with clear accents.

The square bead has a white swirl in it.  They are strung on silver.  Really unique and very pretty.

They are 1 5/8 inches long and $12.00.

******************************************

Item #24

These are the same shape bead as #22 but in a brighter pink.

Really cute with a silver wire loop at the bottom of the bead.  These are 1 5/8 inches and $10.00.

Item #25

I added a clear accent bead to these. They feature the same bright pink bead as #24.

So cute on silver wire.

They hang 1 3/4 inches and are also $10.00.

******************************************

Item #26

I LOVE THESE!  I just had to keep a pair for myself.

They are strung on gold wires and feature 4 different beads in brown, bronze, and tan.

These go with so many of my outfits.

They hang 2 inches long and are $12.00.

********************************************

Item #27

I like these too.

They feature acrylic bronze hearts hanging from bronze wires.

They are 1 1/2 inches and are $10.00.

******************************************

I also was able to get more of the tiger striped beads to make some more pairs of #10:

*****************************************

For details on how to order, see sidebar.

Help us get Abbey home!

Dental Entertainment

We have all been going to our dental appointments lately and I just had to share with you the view from our dentist's chairs!  He has every chair facing big sliding glass doors with an unrailed deck on the outside.  Dr. T*ttle has made these little squirrel feeders, and he sets one outside each door and fills them with corn, which squirrels love!  Every single appointment I have had, I see several squirrels.  They jump from the deck to the trees whch are right up next to the deck. 

And the woods are just beautiful!  We experienced a terrible storm in our area last year that has really messed up our woods.  About every 30 feet is a downed tree.  I don't think in our lifetime our woods will ever be pretty again.  But our dental office is about 55 miles away and they were unaffected by the storm.

Here is the view from the chair.  Sweet!

It almost makes me look forward to going to the dentist.

NOT!

Healthy and Old

Thank you all for your well wishes.  I am feeling much better now and am just patiently waiting to see who falls for it next.  Hopefully my coating the house with Lys*l will keep any of the other ones from getting it, but only time will tell. 

On Sunday the 7th, I had my 38th birthday.  We ususally don't make a huge deal out of birthdays in our family.  We just celebrate with each other without a big party or anything like that.  Ocasionally one of the girls will ask for a party, and we usually oblige.  But most of the time, we all want it to be just us.  Call us odd, but it works. 

The girls and Wayne did pick me out a cake and decorate it with squirty icing!

And can you believe it, Wayne took one picture.  I don't think I have taken one picture of an event ever.  I take like 100 so I can weed out the bad ones and keep the better. 

Especially if it is pictures of me!!!!

Anyhoo, here you go:

We had attended 2 separate volleyball tourneys that day, Wayne with Ashlyn, and Sydney & I with Sarah.

Talk about a long day.  Syd was not felling well and did not want to be in a gym watching volleyball for 9 hours.  Wish someone would have told me to go touch up my makeup, but I digress.

As the girls were decorating my cake, Sydney reallllly wanted to help.  Somehow she managed to sneak up behind them and add her own special touch to the cake with her peanut M*M's.  I wouldn't let them fix it and had to get a shot of it!

I see a future on the F**d Network!!!!

So So Sick

I spent yesterday cleaning house and organizing my new recipe box.  It was a slow and peaceful day until........

I had been emailing back and forth with my case worker, filling out our I800 financial info and whatnot.  She said everything looks good and was about to submit it.  I was so thrilled.  It has only been two days since our LOA and we were already movin' on!

Then she emailed me back, which was odd.  We had missed one signature line.  She had to have an original signature on the document, so emailing or faxing just wouldn't work.  OK we can handle this.  I was ready to just head out to our "local" UP$ store, 60 miles away.  We decided we had better call first, just to check when final drop off was.

Get ready for it....

We would miss it by 25 minutes.

Oh yeah, I was not happy.

It cannot go out until today, which means it can't get to the ageny 'til Friday.

1 missed signature.

25 minutes.

Cost us 2 days.

After all this, all I wanted was to get to bed.

About 1:00 am I awoke not feeling well at all.  I have apparently caught the stomach virus that is going around school.  Funny thing is none of the girls have had it yet.  I am the first!

Well ain't that just special!

Needless to say, it was a loooooong night with my head in the toilet.

And yes I am a bit grumpy.

LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We just got the call! 

We got LOA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

After 63 days!