Surgery day is here!

We arrived at the hospital bright and early at 600am. The boys both still have coughs, so we were praying that the boys could both still have surgery.

Sammy just went back and is in surgery now. He will have his full lip repair done today, so he will look much different the next time we see him! I just kissed him for the last time on those lips.

Our doc is still concerned about doing David's surgery today, since he is having his whole hard palate closed up. The anesthesiologist explained that a cough in the upper area is a concern because when the kids are intubated, the tube passes thru the vocal chords the chords can close off the tube if they are swollen and react to the tube by tensing up or pulsing. That is such a Igotupat430am kinda medical explanation, eh?

So they will probably listen to David's chest again and reevaluate when Sammy is done to decide if David can have his surgery today.

Please pray that it is safe to do D's surgery today.

And please pray that Sammy does great in surgery and that the surgeon's hands are guided by God.

(((hugs))),
Chris

Only 42 Hours to Get Healthy...

Yup, we have a sick one. D had a fever on and off on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. Today no fever. He has also been coughing.

Anesthesiologists tend to not like fevers. And they tend to not like any chest congestion. They are so picky like that.

If David has either, it would mean a big negatory-good-buddy on D's having surgery on Friday.

I don't hear any congestion from just listening to David when I put my ear to his back. He has a shallow, dry cough. That is my professional medical opinion, just so ya know.

I wonder if both munchkins will have their surgeries on Friday.

Samuel will still have his surgery whether David has his or not. We have our Plan B ready to go.

Praying for one of those quick miraculous recoveries that kids tend to do.

And I bought a new bottle of Tums today.

Have I mentioned that I am a bit of a dork? I have no idea why the picture is backward. Nor do I know how to fix it. I crack myself up.

I guess I will take my "SMUT" when I need them...

(((hugs))),

chris

P.S. I will be updating our blog on Friday as we go along with the surgeries.

Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
                                                       ~ Psalm 106:1

The Two-Fer

A few weeks ago, we went to the Empowered to Connect conference. It is a conference that is for adoptive parents ~ in a nutshell to learn how to love and parent and understand our adopted children better. The main speaker is Dr. Purvis who is a developmental psychologist. She has dedicated her life to helping traumatized children including those adopted from orphanages. She is kind of known as the adoption-attachment-guru, and I especially love her ideas about attachment and bonding.

Well, we only made it to the second day of the conference, but it was still amazing. I remember in the morning, the first session, I just felt like, "Oh, crikey, I am not doing any of these things! I have totally ruined my children! Oh my! I am a terrible mother!"

Then, the day went on, and I started to remember that these ideas that were being passed along were tools that we could use with our kids. It is OK if we don't follow her ideas exactly and all the time. We can add it into our parenting "toolbox" and use what we want and keep the rest for later if we need it.

Whew! I haven't ruined their lives! Not yet, anyway....   hehe

So we left during the last session ~ the question and answer session. When I was waiting in the lobby for my hubby, the question I heard over the TV monitors was, "Should we adopt more than one child at the same time?"

Dr. Purvis answered very very briefly, but her answer was no. Bad idea. Nuh-uh. Don't do it. Do not adopt more than one child at a time. She said it is a bad idea because you cannot adequately meet the intense, pervasive needs of two or more children who are new to your family at the same time.

(I paraphrased as best I could remember anyway)

I agree, that has been one of the most difficult things about bringing two home at once. When one is crying and needs you, the other one inevitably and sometimes all of a sudden starts crying and needs you. It is hard in those moments. You feel torn, and as the parent you know you are not meeting one of their needs as well as you should. And given their history, they need those needs to be met immediately to help them learn to trust.

We have done our best.

It is all we can do.

But the one thing we KNOW, the one thing that Dr. Purvis didn't address, was that if you are doing what God wants you to do, if you are doing what God TELLS you to do, then you ARE doing the right thing for your newly adopted multiple children. I have been noticing lately that as different as their little personalities are, our munchkins go together.

Found them in the backyard yesterday with the hose on watering the plants

And the trees

They wrapped the hose around this tree 3 times and were both pulling on it
when I suggested they walk around the tree the other way...

Gotta keep their heavy equipment clean too

And they most definitely go with their big brother too.

Their first attempt at a "sleepover" on Josh's floor

God has made it crystal clear all along the way that we were supposed to adopt these two boys. We obeyed Him, and now we do the best we can with His children. We are so blessed to have them in our family. They belong together, and they belong with us.

(((hugs))),
chris


You will keep in perfect peace
     all who trust in you,
     all whose thoughts are fixed on you!
                                     Isaiah 26:3

T minus 3 and 14

OK, we are officially in the countdown to surgeries!

In three days, Samuel will have his dental surgery. Which, despite my acute fear of anesthesia, seems like nothin' in comparison to the big-daddy-type-surgeries to follow.

In 14 days both Samuel and David will have their big-daddy-type palate surgeries.

I have been thinking back to our last palate surgeries... ugh... the poor fellas were miserable! And I can't blame them. From what I have heard, the hard palate surgery is the most painful to recover from. Which makes sense, since they are having their bony top of the mouth fixed. This means their existing bone is sliced thin kind of like sliced lunchmeat, then layered across the top of their mouth and secured so the bones can heal together. (That is such a medically accurate description, I'm sure... not...)

Sammy had that last time.

David gets it this time.

So thinking back, the munchkins were in aLOT of pain for about two weeks after surgery. We kept them on their mega-pain killers for almost that long - around the clock for Samuel.

Aaaaahhhhh, sweet sweet memories~~~

~~Memories of not sleeping for three weeks until the arm restraints were off...

~~Memories of LOTS of coffee... truly a gift from God...

~~Memories of taking the boys potty every time they needed to go...

~~Memories of the boys being in so much flippin' pain and feeling so insufficient to help them...

~~Memories of feeding the boys every. morsel. of. food. that. went. into. their. mouths. for. three. holy. moly. stinkin'. just. shoot. me. now. weeks... (except the sweet, sweet soups and smoothies and drinks that could go in open cups that they could feed themselves ~ cue the angels singing~~~~)

~~Memories of said open cups containing high-fat and/or thick liquids spilling all over the place ~  at least once every meal or snack time...

~~Memories of the munchkins (understandably) regressing and turning into little needy-bombs... and never being able to comfort both of them at once when they both needed it...

~~More memories of the munchkins waking up several times a night either in pain (poor guys) or just plain ol' uncomfortable because seriously, arm restraints suck...

~~Memories of being THE HELICOPTER-PARENT-ON-STEROIDS so they didn't bump their faces and tear open their stitches and need another surgery...

~~Memories of taking lots of Tums to calm my new ulcers...

~~Memories of in-and-out, in-and-out, in-and-out of the car with arm restraints on...

~~Memories of loving those boys like their lives depended on it. But of course, their lives do depend on it...

If I had to pick the hardest thing to live with as a parent of a munchkin recovering from a cleft surgery, I would have to say the worry that they might bump their face or stick something in their mouth and rip the stitches (aka their face or mouth) wide open. Everything else was draining and tiring, but getting past the "danger zone" and into the "healing zone" was the worst for us.

Prayers would be most appreciated. Don't worry, I will remind you again right before their surgeries ;-D

(((hugs))),

chris

The Lord will guide you continually,
     giving you water when you are dry
     and restoring your strength.
  You will be like a well-watered garden,
     like an ever-flowing spring.          Isaiah 58:11

Do You Like It???

Do you like our new family portrait on our blog??? Huh??? Look up top there.

Don't you love it???

Want one of your own?

You know you do!

My most talented sister-in-law Audrey is a professional photographer. She generously let me use this picture for the blog, so I am shamelessly advertising her amazing photography skills.

Seriously, she rocks.

And she knows Jesus. And she is super-fun.

I have other stories about her that I can tell you later ;-D

Need family portraits? Call Audrey...

Have a new baby? Capture those moments because they grow so fast...

Is your baby a high school senior? Audrey is a-MAY-zing...

Don't believe me? Check out her work on her website: Audrey Imfeld Photography

I made it easy for you. Just click on the link.

Seriously, go there now and take a looksie ~~~  I'll wait for you here. I'm not going anywhere.

(((hugs))),
chris

What have we been up to?

I realized that I haven't posted pictures in a while, so here ya go!

Our backyard this spring smells amazing! I think we'll get some pears and apples this year!

David's first Easter basket!

Samuel's first Easter basket!

Number 1's 7th Easter basket :o) (he was three days old for his first Easter)

Couldn't you just pinch those cheeks!

Cracking and peeling the eggs was too much fun!

Josh reading a book to David before school one morning

Samuel is fascinated by his biggest brother

Our new behavior modification idea

David at school on "Career Day" ~ he wants to be a policeman just like his Baba

The random "where did this come from?" picture of the day ~ love seeing my babies in SWAT gear... ugh

The brothers playing in the batting net in our backyard

Hey hey HEY now! Just KIDDING about the behavior modification thang!!! Don't call social services on us or anything!

(((hugs))),
chris

Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. And do everything with love.

~ 1 Corinthians 16:13-14, NLT

Anesthesia

An = without. Aesthesia = sensation.

Anesthesia = without sensation.

I. Do. Not. Like. Anesthesia.

It frrrrrreaks me out.

It has to be about as near dead as you can get without actually being dead.

With a mere mortal pumping you full of poison and holding your life in their hands. Ooh heart rate is dropping, just add a dash of this poison medicine to bring it up a smidge. Oops blood pressure is a leetle low, just add a splash of this poison medicine to even it out a bit. Okey-dokey the ventilator is giving this near dead person just the right amount of oxygen to keep him alive. All done, Surgeon? OK here's an itsy bit of this stuff to *poof* wake this person right up!

Does this not freak anyone else out???

We are fallible humans by design. Yes, even anesthesiologists are humans. Shhh, don't tell them though. And humans can and do make mistakes.

I understand that anesthesia allows doctors to do things they never could do in the olden days. The olden days when leeches provided "bloodletting" treatment as a sort of cure-all for illnesses, including asthma, convulsions, cancer, indigestion, scurvy, and tuberculosis for example. The olden days when people had surgery while awake because there was NO anesthesia. Gruesome.

Did you know leeches can drink 7 or 8 times their weight in blood?

The second most popular cure-all of the olden days was several glasses of wine. Now THAT kind of medicine I still practice today ;o)

I know anesthetics are a blessing. Lives are saved because of long, delicate operations that never ever ever would have been performed prior to anesthesia. Not with any sort of positive outcome anyway.

Our munchkins are having dental work done under general anesthesia. This happens at the outpatient surgery center in a regular ol' operating room. (D is done, S is scheduled in a few weeks.) We are grateful because the munchkins will be spending lots of time with our dentist and orthodontist and we only want them to remember positive experiences. Not remembering having their mouths cranked wide open while the dentist drilled and filled 5 cavities is a-OK by me.

And lip and palate surgery is sort of an anesthetics-required sort of thing, eh?

That being said, the near-death experience of anesthesia still freaks me out.

Melodramatic-shmelodramatic. Whatevah.

Anyhoo, when I know anyone who is going in for any type of surgery I always pray for the doctors. I start praying the day before so the doctors are well rested. I pray when I wake up for the doctors to be healthy and clear-thinking and that God will use their hands as His instruments. I pray more for the doctors before and more for the patient after...

So being the surgery-phobe that I am... this being the Mama to two munchkins who need multiple surgeries gig is helping me practice old fashioned cure-all wine therapy stretching me a bit.

I find that I am leaning more and more into the One who loves us beyond what our little brains can imagine. I first heard "Let Go, Let God" in Al-Ateen... long ago and long before I was a Christian. All we have to do is let go of our worries, let go of our need for control, let go of our fears, and let God do His work in our lives. Easy to say. Lots of work to do.

I find that because I have to consciously let go of my worries and fears including those about anesthesia, that I talk to God more. I think about God more because I am paying attention to turning it over to Him. Letting it go and letting God handle it. Remembering that His love is so big and complete. For me, it keeps me leaning into Him.

Give God the glory, for all that is good is a gift given with love from Him.

Even anesthesia.

(((hugs))),
chris

Psalm 23
A Psalm of David.
The LORD is my shepherd; I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul;
He leads me in the paths of righteousness For His name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil; For You are with me;
Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over.
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the LORD Forever.

Just a Little Funny Fer Ya

I am madly in love with my police officer husband....

(((hugs))),

chris

To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life—this is indeed a gift from God.   Ecclesiastes 5:19b