Tristan

After posting about Carly, I just realized that Tristan is almost exactly the same age as she is. And he is in the same situation. He needs a family badly!! Please donate to this little boys adoption fund! Make it EASY for his future family to commit to him! As easy as it is to fall in love with these little faces, it is DIFFICULT sometimes to make that decision to commit to an adoption that takes so much out of your bank account!
Donate here:
http://reecesrainbow.org/tristan20
And bonus! It's tax deductible!!

This little guy has a new updated picture!! This is so wonderful because I really believe a good picture can make a huge difference for a child!! Praise God!! And this little guy is just adorable!!

Meet Tristan. He will be 5 yrs old in just 8 days. He is in imminent danger of being transferred from his baby house to an institution. This is what the institution will be like for him.

Boy, Born December 8, 2005
"Oh my little Tristan, praise GOD for some updated photos!! Tristan is a very active little boy, but is facing the institution VERY soon. He will be sent to a very rural, remote place and be forgotten" :(
Won't someone be his "forever family"?? "

Am I just imagining it or does he look just like my little Anna?

Look at those big beautiful brown eyes! They have the same hair and everything. Oh he is so precious! Somebody please go and get him!! And quickly! The region he is in is a pretty easy place to adopt from. IMHO Compared to other regions! This may not be true once he is transferred! Please someone save Tristan from life in an institution.

Still amazed...

So a while back I was wondering if we should keep this blog as just an adoption blog for our two new little girls, or.... make it a family blog. Well, we had a few comment-ers that voted unanimously so we are gonna make it a "one big happy family" blog. That will not necessarily be the name of it, but you know what I mean... If you didn't comment, and you disagree, well sorry, you had your chance. :))

Now if I can get my wonderful Lu to help me sometime when she is not totally busy busy busy, maybe we'll be able to change the title and stuff like that. But for now, those details will have to stay the same since I am not so talented when it comes to stuff like that... And she is busy with much more important stuff like the Reece's Rainbow Christmas Angel tree and the other amazing things that she does! ;))

Meanwhile...the girls are doing great! Both are making such big changes in different ways.

Victoria is blossoming right before our eyes. Everyday we are seeing something new she can do. She is gaining weight and strength and becoming more of her own little person. She even took a toy from Anna the other day. Too funny because usually she is the one getting stuff taken from her constantly and getting crawled over by the other two. :)) So we were proud of her! hee hee

Our sweet little Anna has had a few issues that we've been working on. She has had some digestive problems where she would scream (like she is in pain) when it is mealtime, and has had diarhhea and other things like that. Through advice from some fellow RR families that have "been there, done that", I got some great information which turned out to be quite accurate. I had the doctors add a test for H. Pylori to her stool sample tests and it turns out that she does have it!

Poor sweet girl has been pretty miserable for several weeks now, so we are pretty happy to have figured this out! She will start 2 different antibiotics today along with a reflux medicine which she is already on. She had lost weight since we first came home, so we are really hoping this will take care of everything! She is so precious and happy most of the time! She has added so much personality to our family! :))

Christmas is just gonna be so much fun this year!!! Still amazed at the blessings we have been given!!

Happy Thanksgiving!!

So very thankful this Thanksgiving!!



We have been blessed.....

... with six wonderful sons and three precious daughters!!

We have very supportive and loving families!!

We have wonderful friends and a great church family!

Thank you God, for these wonderful blessings in our life!!!

And especially my amazing husband!! Without him, I don't know where I would be!! :)))

Changes to the blog and other thoughts...

I have been a slacker lately when it comes to the blog. Not because I don't want to blog or I'm just too lazy (well sometimes I am!), but...honestly I just have very limited time on the computer now and my internet is just not the fastest in the world. I have plans to try to change that very soon!!

I have been giving thought to changing this blog from an adoption blog to a family blog. (Although it would be an adoptive family blog). I've also wondered if we should just have 2 seperate blogs. My lazy but common sense mind just says to change this one into a family blog, mainly because our focus is on our entire family and that seems to be where the posts have been heading anyway. We did not really know what a blog was before we embarked on this adoption, and it got us started in the blogging world (which I love), and now it seems like this blog should be about the whole family.

But..... this whole blogging thing started because of the girls, and it seems like we should continue to record their progress as they grow and learn and develop and not add other family members and events into the mix. Hmmm....

Should we just focus on the girls and their continued journey in this "new world", or should we include everyone and continue to blog as a family of biological and adopted, typical and special needs, under and over achieving, disobedient and wild, but sweet and loving and compassionate children?? Leave a comment and let me know what ya'll think!

Last Year

So here goes the anticipated "to be continued" post. I am not such a brilliant writer as some of the writers of the other blogs I follow, but I try. :) Anyway, I made ya'll wait awhile, didn't I!

Well, it's seriously busy around here! Somedays it seems like all I do is get from one set of feedings and diaper changes and snuggles to the next set. Absolutely nothing else is accomplished. Over and over and over again! Oh well, such is life with 3 one year olds and 1 three year old at home full time! :0 hee hee

Anyway, a year ago this week...

We already knew we wanted to adopt again. But this time, it would be a child with Down syndrome. In the just 7 short months since Madalyn's birth, we knew what a blessing we had been given, and we knew we wanted to "do it" again!!

I talked to Robin Steele and we decided to get on her "waiting list". I decided to "Google" Down syndrome and adoption. And then....

..I found Reece's Rainbow. I was totally amazed and touched and moved by the information we found there. And the children...... Such beautiful little wonders they all are!!

But our family was focused on Madalyn. We had to decide on an open heart surgery. We had to make the decision to go ahead with it "right now", like the doctors were recommending. It was so very heartwrenching. I know many of the readers of this blog know exactly what I am talking about. It hurts my heart and mind to just think back upon it now! So hard!!

Here's a few pics to remember...

Getting ready. So hard to let my little girl go...

Finding out our little Ladybug made it through okay! Finally a smile.

Seeing her for the first time, right after surgery. This just does not look like my baby!

On the left are all the machines that were pumping different meds into her.

The ventilator on the right.

Papa loves his Madalyn.

Minus a few tubes and wires...making progress.

So hard to see her like this.

Getting ready to extubate a 2nd time. First one was not successful!!

Finally off that thing!!!

Moved to the stepdown unit.

Oh my toys!!! How I've missed you! :))

It was during this time that I fell in love with some little ones on RR. And now, only one year later, many of these little ones are home with their families already or are close! So cool!!!

Milana, Jessie, Anna, Mina and of course Alina!!

Just to name a few.

A new heart.

Finally leaving. Get us outta here Justin!

Long story short, we got Madalyn home, settled in again, and within a few months we committed to adopting Anna and Victoria.

It is so unbelievable that here we are, a full year later, and we have 2 more little girls in our family! Two more beautiful daughters and we could not be more blessed!! So much can happen in a year, it is truly amazing!! We are so thankful to God that we have these 2 new blessings! It would've never happened without Him!!

For the most part, our adoption was a quick and easy process. I would have not said that a few months ago, there were many delays it seemed and waiting waiting waiting.... But looking back now, it really went fairly smoothly and easily. Comparatively.... :))

I would encourage anyone who has ever even considered doing this, to please just do it! No, seriously and prayerfully consider it, but jump in and see what God is calling you to do! Don't be afraid!

But even if you are not in a position to adopt, please do something! We are ALL called to help the orphans! Be a child's prayer warrior, support a family who is adopting financially, or contribute to a child who is still waiting for their family to find them! Every little bit counts!! Please just do something!

It is so worth it!

VISIT reecesrainbow.org

BECAUSE EVERY FAMILY DESERVES

THE BLESSING OF A CHILD

WITH DOWN SYNDROME

Medical Update

This is not the "to be continued" post. It is still in progress..

Here's a medical update. Some of you may have been wondering. We took both girls in a couple weeks ago to the pediatrician for a complete physical. (We have the most awesome pediatrician's in the world, by the way!) One of them is Madalyn's cardiologist (and now Anna and Victoria's) and our pediatrician, and also was my pediatrician when I was just a child... :)) HA!! The other is a wonderfully smart lady who is extra caring and really is just great and knows her stuff!!! I am thrilled that we have such wonderful doctors in our very tiny neck of the woods!!

We took Anna in for bloodwork and an echo first. She did really great during the echo, staying as still as a 20 month old can, to get very important pictures of her heart!! She did not enjoy the bloodwork at all, which is very understandable. I felt so bad for her, as she kept looking at me with those big beautiful eyes during the whole procedure like I should be saving her from such misery!! That was hard!

Victoria went 4 days later and I was thankful I was somewhat recently prepared and that we are in a small community and hospital. We have been through many echo's and bloodwork nightmares with Madalyn, but sometimes when those things are in your distant memory, you sort of forget all the torture your little one has had to go through. (I think I actually try to forget!!) So, after informing the radiologist and nurses that Victoria would have a much more difficult time, we decided to sedate her as we knew she would be completely miserable with someone even just touching her. They were prepared for us when we came in and we had a really wonderful nurse! It was the right decision in the end and she slept through the echo, was squirmy and a little fussy during the bloodwork and she did cry when they stuck her (which was twice) but she handled it so amazingly well! Then she had to go for a chest x-ray. This is actually the most uncomfortable looking contraption. She had to sit in only a diaper on this teeny tiny bicycle seat, hold her arms up, surrounded by this clear plastic contraption that held her arms straight up and held her completely still where she couldn't move at all. She did awesome!! Mostly because she was still loopy from the meds, but that is okay.
Go to this blog of a fellow RR mom, one who we got to meet while in UA, who got a really cute shot of her little Autumn, in the exact same x-ray contraption. Scroll down a bit, it's the 6th picture. Oh my it is almost the cutest picture ever!!


The really great news is that both girls' heart function looks great! Anna will most likely not need any kind of surgery or care besides follow-up's. Victoria had surgery and it was confirmed that she did have a pretty significant VSD that was repaired. We were very concerned that there would be permanent damage from her pulmonary hypertension, but that all looked good as well! Both girls' bloodwork is looking good, and there are not any major issues we will need to deal with in the near future. God is soooo good!!! What a wonderful blessing this is and we are so happy for the girls that they can continue settling in without any major medical problems to deal with!! Thank you so very much if you prayed for our little girls and especially Victoria! This is such a truly amazing answer to prayer!

An answer to prayer...

Alina has a family!!!!!



This is such wonderful and amazing news!! We have prayed for this little girl for a long time, and that her family would find her, and now they have!! We are so excited and thrilled and praising God!! We cannot wait to find out more about them and follow their adoption journey!! I personally can't wait to see some more pictures of this little girl! She is waaay more adorable than this picture shows!!! Yay!!!!

A year ago next week.....

...we were heading up to The Children's Hospital in Denver for Madalyn to have a sleep study done and get another echo to see in more detail what her heart was doing, how her pulmonary hypertension was and to measure the progress she had made since the last time we had been there in August 2009. We were really hoping for a miracle and that the holes in her heart would have closed on their own and at most she would only have to have a procedure in the cath lab to repair her ASD. She was only 7 months old, and still pretty tiny. As you can see, she was still on O2 full time.

The morning we left...

We were not expecting that we would end up coming home a little more than 2 full weeks later than we had planned. We were very surprised when they told us that her heart was enlarged and the pulmonary pressures were not better, and she needed surgery right away! Oh my...

We had also gone up to see our son, Jordan, in his sophomore year of college at Colorado School of Mines, who was wrestling in a tournament at the University of Northern Colorado in Greeley.

We actually did not get to do the sleep study because Madalyn got a bad cold a few days before we left and it would have messed up the results. But then, at the echo with one of the world-renowned cardiologists they have at this awesome hosptital :)), we heard the news that she needed surgery right away.

This news was shocking at best. When they tell you they have to break open your child's sternum and stop their heart to fix it, it is just hard....(understatement). So still trying to take this in, off we went to the wrestling tournament, which turned out to be a great distraction from the news that Madalyn would need open heart surgery. I truly LOVE wrestling!!! It is an awesome sport, the best!!!!

Had to add pics since I was talking about wrestling. :)) Jordan is in the blue!

Jordan with Samuel and Daniel at his house in Golden.

My sis holding Madalyn at the tournament!

Madalyn- she was so small then!!

At the hotel with the boys... Still trying to make the "big" decision, and allow the doctors to open up our baby... :((

The boys downstairs at The Children's Hospital in Denver. This really is a great place!

Getting pre-op bloodwork. No scar yet....

We still didn't know quite what we were in for....

to be continued.......and yes this is kind of adoption related... :))