Fun At The Park

Little Sassy Girl

I wanted to do a quick post and share some pictures of Shayle last week at the park. We had a playdate with Max and Vivi Jo. The weather was so nice and they had lot's of fun.

It has been very crazy around our house the past few weeks. This week is TAKS tests for 3 of my kids. We have been preparing for these so much and I am so glad it will end this week. Their is just too much pressure on kids to take standarized tests in order to be promoted to the next grade level, even when they have straigth A's on their report cards. Some kids just aren't good test takers when their is so much information running through their minds. It's during this time of year that I begin to feel like I should homeschool so that they aren't required to take them, but then reality sets in and I know it would be too hard to homeschool 5 different grades!

I am getting a little time away for a conference. I will be gone Wed. evening through Saturday. A friend of mine and I are attending it together. The main topic is "How to start an orphan ministry in your church/hometown." I am very excited as this is something God layed on my heart before we traveled to China. Please pray for us that we will be able to get an orphan ministry up and running and that God would be in the center of it to make it successful. We both feel like so many people who have thought about adopting haven't because they do not have enough information available to them. The conference will also discuss topics regarding the financial aspect of adopting both here in the U.S. and abroad. One of the sessions will be led by the CEO of AWAA, our adoption agency, who I am looking forward to meeting.

Please keep my wonderful hubby, who will be running around taking the kids everywhere, in your prayers and for the kids as mom is gone. I've talked to Shayle about me going on a trip and she says "no". I told her she can call me on the phone. Pray that she will do well for her daddy and not be mad at me for leaving.

Shayle Starts School

Shayle began preschool this week on Tuesday. She will finish out this school year going 2 days/week. We felt that it was important for her to get used to the idea, since she will be going to kindergarten 5 days/week in the fall. She had fun going since she also attends church there. This is the school I taught at prior to going to China and her brother Jacob went there for 3 years. She already knew several of the kids and all of the teachers go to church with us. This was a big help in getting her excited about going.

Fun Photos

Jacob likes to read Shayle bedtime stories.

This kitty is Shayle's new favorite friend. She carries "Tiger" with her everywhere. She received this stuffed kitty when she was in the hospital with her palate surgery from a dear friend of mine.

Our First Easter Together

Egg Hunt at Sissy's School

Already into the jellybeans!

Not to happy about taking a picture before church

Shayle enjoyed coloring Easter eggs with Payton and Jacob

At the hospital egg hunt

I have had a busy week with Myranda's party and the same day Jacob and Payton's Easter parties at school. It was a little hectic getting everything organized and then getting ready for Easter Sunday. Shayle did enjoy all the egg hunts at her brother and sister's school, and then one at our local hospital. In fact, she has so much candy, I have put it up in a cabinet out of sight. She thinks she should have some every 30 minutes or so. Today has been much easier since everyone has returned to school and they are not all looking in their eggs.

We finally were all able to attend church together for the first time in over a month, due to surgery, pneumonia and strep throat. It was nice to be able to worship the
Resurrection of our Lord and Savior together. As Easter weekend was approaching, in the midst of my chaos, I continued to talk to Shayle about Jesus dying on the cross for her and that he rose again, and is alive and waiting for us in heaven. I also began to tell her that Jesus was the one who brought her to us across the ocean to make us a family. My prayer for her is that one day she will know Jesus personally and will realize that Jesus gave her an earthly mom and dad who would later introduce her to her heavenly father, God. I truly pray she will know just how much God has been involved in her life and watching over her since before she was born.

Happy 12th Birthday Myranda!!!

I wanted to wish my oldest daughter a Happy Birthday!!! Today, Myranda turned 12. We celebrated by going out to eat and then to Shenaniganz to ride go carts and play laser tag with some of her friends. She had a great time trying to teach her friends how to eat with chopsticks. Afterwards, we had a sleepover and stayed up painting nails. There won't be too many more years that I will be asked to do french manicures at her party. So of course I took advantage of the opportunity to hang out with Myranda and her friends, listening to them laugh and giggle. Sweet memories I will hold onto forever.

She is growing up quickly, it seems like yesterday she was carrying around a teddy bear and crawling up into my lap to be rocked. When she was 19 months old, she became a proud big sister to Payton. She took care of her like she was her most prized possession. She enjoyed being mom's little helper. She was also very excited when her brother, Jacob was born. By this time she was almost 6 and she wanted to feed him, bathe him and rock him all the time. Now, she is the proud big sister of Shayle and she has been such a big help. She enjoys playing with her, teaching her new things, giving her a bubble bath and helping her get ready for bed. She is now in the 6th grade and becoming a beautiful young lady that makes her mama proud. I am very blessed to have her as my daughter.

Five Months Today

I haven't had a chance to post in a few days. Shayle has been recovering from surgery and my daughter, Myranda has been sick with pneumonia for the past week. She is getting better and hoping to go back to school on Monday. Today, my oldest son, Arron came home from school and went to bed. When I had finished dinner, he came downstairs with fever and a sore throat. This is how Myranda started out at the end of last week. Please pray for restored health in our family and that Shayle will stay well along with the rest of us who have not come down with anything.

Gotcha Day 11/03/08

04/03/09

Shayle enjoyed planting flowers with mom

Time has passed so quickly since traveling to China. What seemed like an eternity waiting for a referral and then waiting for approvals and then waiting for gotcha day to finally arrive, seems like a distant memory now. I decided to have Shayle wear the same outfit she wore the day we first met. She hasn't worn it since she took it off that first night in China. She really has filled out a lot since then. I could tell a big difference in how it fit when we put it on today.

As I sit typing this, Shayle has been sitting next to me eating yogurt. When she finished, she said "down" and then began saying it in her dialect from China. I asked her if it meant down and she said "yes." I asked her if she knew anymore Chinese words to teach mommy. She shook her head no. She is not only learning more and more English, but now she is beginning to translate her Chinese dialect into English. This will help her as she continues learning English. Who knows, maybe she will teach the rest of us some of her dialect from China along the way. I would love for her to be able to remember her language and to be able to tell us all about Shantou City, where she lived for the first 5.5 years of her life.

She has come a long way the past five months. It has been two weeks today since her palate was repaired, and she is doing great. I am so proud of how brave she has been through all of the medical appointments and surgeries since being home with us. Now, hopefully she will be through with surgeries and she won't think it is a normal thing around here. She did lose 3 lbs. over the weekend after her surgery. She has gained half of that back, praying the other half will be put on soon. Shayle has been more of a blessing than I ever could have imagined. I am so blessed that God chose me as her forever mama.

Magic Time Machine

We had a great time celebrating Arron and Shayle's birthdays at Magic Time Machine. Woody was our waiter and the kids had fun eating in the library. We went the night before Shayle had surgery.

Getting Back To Herself

Shayle is doing well at home. She has been able to eat soft foods and she is talking. Some kids do not talk for a little while afterwards because they have to get used to the way their mouth feels. We will have to wait 6 weeks before starting speech therapy. The surgeon wants us to wait until all the swelling goes down. She has lost 3 lbs over the past 4 days, which she should put back on once the soreness goes away.

I took some pictures of the kids in the blue bonnets, however Shayle wasn't feeling that great. These were outside my in-laws house. I used to take these pictures every spring of Arron and Myranda until we moved away from Texas.

We Are Home!!!!

Shayle was able to go home from the hospital today!! We have had a better day today than yesterday and last night. She slept decently last night, waking 3 or 4 times crying out, but no more vomiting. Her IV was in her foot and began getting uncomfortable around midnight. She kept acting like that was bothering her more than her mouth. Finally at 6 this morning she began crying out for "daddy", of course he was at the hotel. I think she thought since he is a doctor, he would take the IV out for her. The nurse decided to turn it off and see if this would help her and also make her begin to want to drink. I ended up climbing up in the bed with her and fell asleep until 8. Those were the best 2 hours of sleep either of us had all night, I should have gotten in bed with her from the beginning.

She finally drank a little gatorade this morning for me and then again for the doctor when he came in to see her. He told her she could go home if she would take a drink for him. She was definitely all into that. She took a couple drinks for him and then once the nurse came in, she took another drink for her. I think she wanted to make sure she was really going to get to go home. She kept saying she wanted to go home to her sissy's and bubba's. She missed them and once we picked them up and got home, she began to finally want food.

Tonight she had some Dora soup and yogurt. I am glad she finally ate something. She can only have soft foods for a few days and no big spoons or forks. I am pulling out the soft baby spoons. This will keep her from hitting the top of her mouth and damaging it.

The surgeon said she was one of his tougher cases. The majority of cleft palate kids have a hole in the roof of their mouth towards their teeth. In Shayle's case, she was missing the entire soft palate at the back of her mouth, along with her nasal cavity floor. Our surgeon did an excellent job with this repair. He had to cut tissue from the sides of her mouth and stretch and pull it together and then stitch it down the middle to close it up. Where he took tissue, all of that will fill in as she heals. Since her palate was so deep and shaped like a horse shoe, their is a possibility for a fistula to develop where she is stitched together. If this should happen, and it is larger than a pinhole, a second surgery will have to take place in about 6 months. We are praying this does not happen and that she is through having surgery in her little mouth.

I appreciate the ongoing prayers for her and us. They were definitely felt all day yesterday, we had complete peace that only could come from God. I will post some pictures tomorrow. We are exhausted and needing some sleep.

Surgery Update

Shayle before surgery and after her goofy juice

Balloons Payton brought

Ready to go back to sleep with all of her animals brought by family and friends.

Shayle did very well during her surgery, she handled the anesthesia and woke up sooner than last time with the same drug. Praise The Lord!! She is maintaining her oxygen much better than last time, staying in the 90s. Her surgery was about 2 hours long and of course she was in pain most of today. She has also had quite a bit of vomiting with all of the blood that went into her tummy during and after surgery. She has swallowed a little water, so I think we will get to go home tomorrow. I know she is ready to go home.

This morning went much better than last time when we had to be separated. She did say "mama", but only one time. Once I told her that I would be waiting for her and I wasn't going anywhere, she seemed o.k. As soon as she was in recovery, we were right in. She hadn't woke up, which was an answered prayer. I was able to be there right when she woke up. In fact, I ended up in the bed with her to help calm her down. Mama turned out being the best medicine for her. Thank you for your prayers today. Please continue to pray for healing and for her to be able to eat soon.

Pray For Me

Shayle is enjoying playing doctor with her older sister and her baby being the patients. This Friday, Shayle will have her palate repaired. Please lift her up in prayer to have a successful surgery and a quick recovery period. Hopefully this surgery will be her last. Tomorrow we have pre-op appointments and will be taking the kids to Magic Time Machine for dinner to celebrate Arron and Shayle's birthdays this week. Thank you for praying for this sweet daughter of ours. I will post again after she has surgery.