GOODNESS!!

My how time flies. I wish I could say it was all fun as well, but not so. Some amazing things are happening here, some good some bad. I think I have a novel in my head of all the things that I want to write about. Of course I can only write so much in whatever time I have before Jedidiah wakes up from his nap.

Speaking of Jedidiah....he's the one who is not so good :-( We are going to see a pediatric gastrointerologist (sp?) tomorrow. Three or four weeks ago when we started feeding him all his food all of the time, he started taking in less and less on his own, which made me have to give him more tube feedings. Then the week after he started refusing to nurse on both sides and not eating his solid food. so I switched around when he ate his solid food and that took care of that, but he still only eats half of what he used to. Then this past week he started throwing up. I thought it was because he outgrew the dosage of his reflux medicine. Although that is still a possibility he never even used to spit up let alone throw up! He threw up his feeding tube on Thursday which was traumatic for him and I. I tried putting in our last tube on Friday and when I opened the package the tube was defective! Ugh! Of course it was after hours and the health care company that we get our tubes from couldn't help us. So I was really hoping that we could hold out till Monday before having to get a tube, but I could tell he was not putting out enough fluid to make it the weekend. Not to mention his soft spot on his head has sunken (it's not actually sunken, as it is usually bulging, but it sunk from where it normally is). So Jedidiah and I got to spend the morning in the ER yesterday so we could get a new tube in. A three hour wait in the empty waiting room first. Then we were out of there two ours later with some very expensive tubes. Expensive in the fact that buying them is only 14 dollars but the emergency visit will be more than that! Ha! We would have been out of there an hour earlier but there was a lack of communication between the doctors and nurses. Because Jedidiah has neurological issues (his big head and the past history of the scans yada, yada, yada..) the doctors wanted to make sure this was a gastro issue and the throwing up wasn't because of increased pressure in his head. Once they determined that is was only gastro they failed to give the green light to the nurses to give us the feeding tube. Oh well we are home. Possibly only temporarily though. The receptionist for the G.I. doctor told us to be prepared that Jedidiah may have to be admitted to the hospital if they can't do all the testing that they need to in their office. Oh joy. You know I am looking forward to that possibility! But hopefully we can get some answers and fast. Jedidiah was up to 14 pounds 1.5 ounces and today he was at 13 pounds 8.5 ounces. I could just cry. Every time we go forward we have to go back.

The girls had their end of year testing a week ago. It went pretty well overall, but their shortcomings were definitely evident. I already knew where they needed more work, but if I had doubts before, I don't now. Isabella did great in math and language, and resources. But the reading comprehension is lacking. It's not even that she can't comprehend what she is reading, it's just she doesn't take the time to read carefully and look back for answers. Ugh. Moira did well in math and reading, but did poorly in spelling and her timed math. She can do all the math problems in the timed section. However if you tell her she is being timed (about anything, even in a game) she freaks out and "can't " do it! I already knew spelling was going to be a sour point. She can read well, but she can't spell. There seems to be a disconnect with her hearing something and being able to do it or spell it. She has always been this way. She can read a word, but give her that same word to spell and she can't. This will be our last month of school. Then we will have a three week break before the new school year starts. I decided to take the year round approach as that seems more beneficial to the seasons and them retaining their past learning. It is so hot here in the summer it didn't make sense for us to waste our inside time, when we could be learning.

The other big news has been pretty amazing to see develop. It has come time to adopt. Well, starting the process at least. We always knew we would adopt, but it was always, someday. However God told us it is now. I had been praying over the years on and off that I would have the same love for our adopted children as our biological children. I was afraid that I wouldn't and there would always be a difference. Well I happened to visit someones blog the other week. I went there to read what she had to say about nutrition. It just so happens they have two adorable boys they adopted from Ethiopia. The first picture I saw on her blog was of the youngest. He reminded me so much of Jedidiah. He has a big head, small jaw, those beautiful happy eyes....oh my I had to read their story. I searched back through her blog to read about their adoption story and all of a sudden I knew we had children over there that are ours to raise! I can not explain it. My heart was burning to hold our children. I have this love for children I have not met yet. I really wanted to tell Jerry about it. But I thought it would be best to let God convict him in His own time. Well that would have been only a few hour wait!!
Jerry came to the table with a very serious look on his face. I was terrified he was going to tell me he lost his job! He said a few things about how he know God was telling him we would be going into ministry sometime in the future. Hmmm. Ok, I thought. I wasn't really sure what to say as he was obviously very overcome with what ever thoughts or convictions he was having. So I decided to wait till he was ready to tell me. Then after dinner he was on his laptop and he turned it around to show me what had convicted him. It was a picture of a starving African child. Oh, how my heart started burning again. He went on to say that he didn't know why God gave him this love for these children. Well I thought I knew, it was because he was convicting both of us at the same time! So we've been looking into it. My heart is with the Ethiopian children. Jerry has a burden for the children of Liberia. So I thought it best to look up other peoples blogs about adopting from Liberia as I wanted to be on the same page as Jerry. I didn't find too many. But I found on in particular that documents their whole journey. And oh the horror of it over there! I don't think I can go into it. Sixty percent of babies under a year die there. There is no running water or electricity. The atrocities being done to children there are horrid. The poverty is overwhelming. It is so bad. So my heart is turning to Liberia. Although somewhere in my heart there is an Ethiopian child waiting :-) Like I said we are in the very beginning stages. There is a long road ahead of us. It seems almost impossible that it will happen. There's the saying: Where there's a will, there's a way. Well I was thinking that is really is more like: With God's will he makes the way. I am eager to see how He makes the way for us to adopt our children from Africa.

Ok, I think I better end this novel. I'll let you all know how Jedidiah's appointment went.