A Very Merry Christmas

We had an amazing and blessed Christmas this year.  We were very lucky to be surrounded by friends and family that love us, and that we love.  Here's some photos from our special day!

Baking Gluten-Free Sugar Cookies

Spending time with our cousin, Micah

Aunt Angi and Cousin Lauren

Madi and her papa

Spending time with Cousin Nathan

Love this photo of the boys!!

Enjoying time with Grams and Granddad

Us being our typical selves

New fingerless gloves... perfect for zooming!

And some for Conner too, of course :)

Merry Christmas Ramya!  We love you and are preparing our home for you!!

Enjoying Christmas with Grammy and Papa

Our new Christmas gift.... yeah for Craigslist!  It is wheelchair-accessible

Another new gift... a sand and water table that has adjustable heights!



The Local Spina Bifida Association Christmas Party

We attended the local Spina Bifida Association Christmas party again this year and had a great time!  Madi ran in to a few of her friends, including Owen, who is one of her favorites!!  Santa was there again and the kids had fun sitting on his lap.

Madi and Owen

One thing the Rifton Mobile Stander is great for.... DANCING!



Madi and her buddy Tanner 

Thanks to the local chapter for such a fun day!

Our Trial Run With Two Needing Medical Care

Kyla, the teen staying with us for a bit, has been having some health problems.  She gets attacks of very intense abdominal pains that leave her in tears and unable to lay down or fully stand.  They have landed her in the hospital twice, and so far, nothing big has been found to be the source of her pain.  She's on a very bland diet and medication to coat her stomach, but so far, nothing is helping. 

While I was in the hospital trying to help Kyla get to the bottom of her pain, my mom and David did an amazing job taking care of the kiddos.  David learned how to cath Madi (though we'll save him doing it for times like this) and even got the kids down for a nap.  My mom came in the morning when David had to get up for work, and did a great job keeping them asleep.  She, of course, did an awesome job playing with them too, but that goes without saying!!

For those of you I owe phone calls and "thank you's" too, I promise, they are coming!  Between this, the flu, and Christmas, there hasn't been much time to catch up, but I'm getting there!  (Sue and Petey.... two of these people are you... you guys are such a blessing to me!!)

Please keep Kyla in your prayers and pray they can get to the bottom of this! 

The 12 Days of Christmas for Parents of a Child with a Disability

This is stolen from another mighty mom that lives locally, though I'm not sure where it originated.  It's worth the share, though!

♥ The Twelve Days of Christmas ♥

On the first day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a child with a disability.

On the second day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a heart full of love for my child with a disability.

 

On the third day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: an ache in my heart and a heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the fourth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a tear in my eyes, an ache in my heart and a heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the fifth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the sixth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the seventh day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the eighth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: supportive friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the ninth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: remarkable doctors & therapists, supportive friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the tenth day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: an appreciation of small accomplishments, remarkable doctors & therapists, supportive friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, the good Lord gave to me: a sense of pride, an appreciation of small accomplishments, remarkable doctors & therapists, supportive friends, a sense of humor, a ray of hope, an unsuspected strength for the tear in my eyes and the ache in my heart and my heart full of love for my child with a disability.

On the twelfth day of Christmas, the good Lord said to me: Reach out and share your sense of pride, your appreciation of small accomplishments, your remarkable doctors & therapists, your supportive friends, your sense of humor, your ray of hope, your unsuspected strength for the tear in your eyes and the ache in your heart and your heart full of love for your child with a disability.

A Quick Update on Our Day of Surprises

The first surprise we got today was when we took Madi to get her HKFOs adjusted by Ron at Hanger.  He said she had just grown too much and there were too many adjustments, so she is getting new ones.  He casted her right there on the spot!  He's going to change things around a lot to give her less trunk support, but more hip support.  I'm excited to see what he comes up with.  I love that Madi loves Ron.  She gets so excited when she sees him and it makes the visit so much nicer.  He is really an amazing guy.  He was given an award at our local Spina Bifida Association party (more to come on that in another post :)) for a lifetime achievement award because of the many, many lives he has touched.  We love him!  Anyhow, Madi should have her new HKFOs in about 2-3 weeks!  We are going to keep the bottom half of her old pair to use as knee immobilizers at night, since she is supposed to wear those to keep her stretched out but they are a bit of a problem because they always pinch her funny and stuff.  Here she is getting casted...

She did great!  Of course, we had to keep Conner busy, so Ron gave him some scraps of the material they put under the casts so that the casts don't stick.  Luckily Conner is a very bright and creative boy and he got straight to work casting his Bionicle!  Conner gets drug around to a lot of appointments, and I'm thankful that he does so great.  He's such a great little boy!

Our second surprise of the day is that our dossier paperwork here is done and is officially on the way to India.  Well, I shouldn't say our paperwork is done, because it's not ever going to be done (the e-mail containing the information about our dossier came with many more papers to fill out :)), but it is finally on the way to India and that is HUGE!!  Please pray that our paperwork is processed quickly and that we are approved.

Yeah for a great day!

Celebrate with me!!

I have more to post about later, but I just came home to this...

I just wanted to let you know that I sent your completed dossier to Vathsalya today! Congratulations.

Our paperwork is officially on the way to INDIA!!!!  WOOO HOOOO!!

Sigh.

It's always something!

A few days ago I got a document in the mail from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services department.  The form basically said that they received my I-800A (an application for determination of suitability to adopt a child from a convention country).  The weird thing, though, is that it went to my parent's address.  Huh.  I figured it was an error on their part and assumed they just accidentally sent it to my previous, instead of current, address. 

I called Jessica, our adoption coordinator through WACAP and told her about the error.  She gave me an e-mail address to e-mail the correction to.  Today, after a very long day, I heard back from her.  They said that I had written that address on my application as my address.  Ooops.  I have lived at my parent's house most of my life (my dad built it when I was 3 and I lived there until I got married), and we did live there after we sold our old house before we moved into this one, so I'm not really surprised that I messed up, but obviously that was a dumb mistake.  They say it's "very unusual" for an application to come in with a completely wrong address and told Jessica that basically they are worried we are being dishonest about where we live.  WHAT?!?!!??  Why in the world would we do that?  So now they have to wait to hear back from Oasis, who did our homestudy, to confirm that we do in fact live where we say we do (we do ;)) before they will update our address and continue with the application.

I really hope this mistake doesn't further delay our already delayed paperwork.  It just always seems to be something with us, and this isn't the first time something "very unusual" has popped up.  I guess we are just really special like that!!

Please keep praying for our Ramya, and that we get her home quickly.  Thanks!