Overload

We are beyond overloaded with all that's going on right now. Some good, some not, some fun and crazy.  I've had many people say they've missed our daily updates, so I'll do my best to do a better job to keep everyone updated on how we're doing!  Let me back track and fill you in on our absolutely insane Monday.

1.  We spent several hours up the night before with a very fussy little baby.  Not sure why, but the sleep deprivation is getting to us. We left for China on Nov 6 and didn't really get great sleep the entire time we were there, just from jet lag, time difference, excitement, new baby, etc.  We had yet to get a full night's sleep since we got home. So that's almost a month of inconsistent sleep. She still sleeps so heavily during the day and I have to wake her from every nap to prevent her from sleeping the day away!

2. We woke Monday morning to the news that we were in the Cincinnati Enquirer!  I blogged about it in my post yesterday- here's the link again.
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20131202/NEWS/312020017/Through-my-lens-Parents-bring-daughter-home
It's been such a fun experience, the doctor's and nurses at Maggie's appointment recognized us. I even had a woman at the library today look at me and say "There's the famous family from the newspaper." Ha!  Sam and Allie both took copies of the paper to school to show their teachers.  Really fun and I'm really hopeful it helps spread the joy of adoption.

3.  Ben is home from school sick with another throat infection. He has had at least 4 (maybe more, I've lost track) since June.  Typically he gets a fever and really bad sore throat. His tonsils swell till they are "kissing" (his doctor's term), but it's never strep. He has missed 4 days of school so far this school year thanks to his throat.

4. I saw that my friend Kendra, who I met through a Facebook adoption group, has been united with her daughter in China.  I had the opportunity to hold and love on her daughter Anna while we were visiting the orphanage in China and she is precious. She also has a cleft palate and is absolutely adorable. She and Maggie were together both at Little Flowers AND the orphanage in China, so they've basically been sisters. Now their family lives only 2 hours from here!!  What are the odds of that?? We can't wait to get our daughters together on this side of the ocean.  It was so emotional seeing them meet their daughter for the first time.

5. Monday was 3 weeks to the day since we met Maggie.  For some reason that was emotional for me.  Seems like I've known her forever, yet 3 weeks is such a short time!  She is just so delightful, she LOVES to play with us and be silly. She is just thriving under all the attention.

6. Maggie had her BIG appointment at Children's Hospital with the plastic surgeon, genetics, ENT and audiologist that afternoon. It took almost 5 hours. It was draining and exhausting, but very informative.  More on that later.

7. Maggie and I returned home (finally) after dark from that appointment to find things not as I expected at home. My mom was gone from watching the kids, my dad in her place and very upset. My nephew, who turns 13 this month, fell while skateboarding and was transported to the hospital by ambulance. He broke his leg very badly in 2 places. He was in terrible amounts of pain, even after morphine.  They then transported him to the main campus where he was admitted and had surgery today to put pins in his bones to hold them together.  He just got out of surgery a bit ago and they said it went well but he has a long road ahead of him. He is a baseball star here in our town and we're all praying he gets back on his feet quickly and STOPS SKATEBOARDING.  DO YOU HEAR ME ETHAN!?!!?

8.  Ben was still running a fever w/his throat. I called the peds at 7pm Monday night and they said they would see him at 8pm. (How awesome is that??) So I left poor Jeremy with the 3 little ones to put to bed by himself and took Ben. The doctor we saw recommended he have his tonsils out.  UGH!!! Really?? So on the same day we met Maggie's surgeon to plan her surgery and my nephew has an injury that requires surgery, we also find out that surgery may be in Ben's future as well.  What are the odds that 2 of my 4 kids need surgery by the same ENT and 3 of the 6 grandkids need surgery around the same time?  Our family needs a break!  So we're going to an ENT next week to see if those tonsils need to come out. Wonder of our ENT will give us a 2 for 1 deal??

9.  Maggie was absolutely refusing a bottle Monday and mostly not wanting it over the past few days. It was really worrying me since she is so tiny and that is her main source of nutrition.

Needless to say Monday was a stressful and emotional day; thank goodness for getting to see another family united and for the newspaper article to bring a little light to the day!

Today (Tuesday) has been slightly less hectic so far, but still pretty crazy. I've lost track of how many phone calls I've made in regards to Maggie's health care and Ben's. I have appointments and instructions everywhere.  The kids were terrible this morning because I was on the phone so much (being on the phone is just an invitation for them to do every terrible thing they can think of).  IT'S INSANE right now.

But we are okay. The BEST NEWS is that Maggie FINALLY slept thru the night last night!  She slept from 9pm to 10am this morning when I woke her. Hallelujah! I'm trying to be realistic that this may not repeat itself again right away, but so hopeful.  I'll be able to handle the daytime craziness so much better with some sleep!  Plus she had 2 big poops this morning and has had 2 bottles so far today. I think she was constipated and some prunes got her moving and hopefully back on track.

Never a dull moment here!  But this is what we signed up for.  I have a t-shirt on that says "Don't Quit" and that's been our motto for the whole adoption process, and will continue to be as we persevere through this next phase of life!

I'll do another post soon on the details we learned from Maggie's appointment yesterday!  Stay tuned!