Some newborn Adina pictures!

Just a few pictures to share in these first couple days we've had so far with our itty bitty Adina:

First:  Nathanael holding his most little sister.  He asks to hold her all day.

 

 Next:  Little Evie wants to "pet" Adina who is busy sucking her two fingers

 I love this picture of her sleeping on our bed so peaceful - wearing one of the beautiful little wool covers my grandmother made for her.

 Finally little miss Arielle got her chance to hold the baby and after two days asking if the baby is going to wear clothes (excitedly) I let her open the newborn baby girl box of her and Evie's baby clothes and choose Adina's first outfit:

 Daddy helped Evie hold baby Adina and give her kisses!

 And finally little Zeph also sat with daddy to hold the baby and was thrilled.

Our newest member of the family!

Introducing Little Miss Adina Eilah Center!!  11:45am this morning, 7 pounds, 11oz, 21.5" - awake, alert, healthy sweet little girl!  Thank You, Lord for this precious gift! 

"Beach" fun!

Just thought I'd share a few pictures from last week when we went to a regional park (closer than the beach, less crowded, probably cleaner, so much easier!  We LOVED it... oh and so did the kids!).

 

More walking progress!!!

I wish I had captured a picture of these amazing moments yesterday but I'll just have to describe them for you.

There were a total of 9 children here yesterday, including our 4, 1 niece, 2 nephews, and 2 friend's children.  In the afternoon all the other kids went out the front door to play in the nice big front yard.  Zeph kept saying something over and over but I didn't think it really meant anything.  Then he walked to the front door and said it again and pointed, "Mama, front, please?"  Oh!  He WAS asking to go outside with the other kids!  But he can only walk on even surfaces like the tile in our home - the front grass is very un-even, full of gofer holes.  I tried to interest him in a favorite toy instead but then it came:  "No.  Mama; front, PWEEEEEESE???"  SO pitiful and he even made a puppy dog face and everything.  How could I possibly keep him in?  So I opened the door and with some great efforts he got himself down the little step and the big step - to the grass.  Then he froze.  He saw ALL the kids laughing and playing, pulling and riding in two different wagons.  What FUN!

"Mama, (he points) in!"
I took a chance.  "Okay, but you have to walk to the wagon."
"No" (shook his head and I could see the uncertainty/fear).
"Alright.  You can just play right here then."
"NO!!"   And he began taking steps on the lawn.

He walked out to me, quite a few yards away and I was praising him and he was SO proud of himself and gave me a big ol' hug and said, "Mama!  I did it!"  Then he walked onward to the wagon.  (Boy, did I ever yell for the kids to STOP and WAIT for him - he EARNED his wagon ride!!)  He climbed in and got pulled around and around for quite some time, happily wearing his sister's sunglasses.  He LOVES sunglasses (just wish he'd quit breaking his own).  It was beautiful!!  (And cute and hilarious with the pink sunglasses with his proud of himself look on his face).

Later on the kids were all asking for drinks and Zeph, of course, wanted one too.  So he walked on the GRAVEL (driveway), across the ENTIRE GRASS YARD, was helped MINIMALLY to get up the two little steps (there's a ramp but that's actually harder for him at the moment) and to the house.

There were SO many things the praise God for here today!  Sweet friends who gave up their time to come help my hubby finish building our storage shed.  And a sweet little boy who accomplished SO much today in the area of language, social interaction (wanting to join in), coming out of his shell to tell mama his needs and wants, trusting mama, trying new things and succeeding and reaping the rewards for TRYING so hard, the physical accomplishment - being strong and stable enough to conquer that very rough terrain!

I was just NOT expecting this miracle to happen.  I didn't expect any of that - non the less ALL of it at once!  Praise God!!!

Walking!

 A few weeks ago we got the 'okay' to get Zephaniah back into his prosthetic.  We are waiting on a walker being ordered to help him walk.  In the mean time we strongly felt that he COULD walk and just needed to not really have a choice (he's of the mindset that he can get around faster/easier by crawling so "why bother?" and then there was the fear, which we strongly felt he'd let go of as he gained confidence in his abilities to walk).  So we decided he was no longer allowed to crawl.  Nope.  Not at all.  We told him he was a "big boy" and that he is to walk to get from point A to B at home now.  He wasn't thrilled.  It was a rough few days especially.  Lots of whining and whimpers and frustration.  Lots of holding onto the walls, throwing himself towards his destination to avoid an extra step.  But by the 5th day he was starting to get the hang of things.  In two weeks we now see him NOT HOLDING ONTO anything - just walking down the hall or across a large room.  Then he even began to carry objects ("look ma - no hands held out in case I fall" - now that's confidence!) around. 

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=10151102544004047

Then there was the language.  I was beginning to be concerned because he could say two words but not together; two sounds - but not together.  That - and he was still hardly adding words to his very small vocabulary so slowly it was nearly a stand still for MONTHS at a time.  Well, he's made a breakthrough here too!  We tried "banana" but he could only say "ba" and "nana" totally separate (long space in between).  Then we tried teaching him to add "please" when asking for something.  At bedtime all the kids get their drink of water before bed and this is one of his favorite parts of bedtime so we tried "water, please?".  It took a LOT of practice but he can now say "water, please"!  Now he can add "please" to other requests as well!  Then yesterday we worked on "banana" again and he's starting to get it.  His "babble" is starting to make a little more sense as he begins to use more "real" words and more realistic sentence structure.  It's just amazing to see what this little guy can achieve when he tries!  We are so proud of him!

Praying for the Shelbys

I just read here:
 http://adventuresofasimplelife.blogspot.com/2012/07/shatterred-dreams.html
about a family who's going through a very rough time and needs our prayers.  The dad, pastor Rob, dove into a swimming pool with his kids present and didn't come up (broke his neck).  His oldest (oldest is 12) children pulled him up and breathed air into him and he was revived but is paralyzed.  They hope he can recover but for now they are going through a very hard time with dad still in the hospital and mom expecting baby#10.  

This is the Shelby Family blog:  http://thehouseofshelbys.blogspot.com/

I don't know the Shelbys, never met them but my heart goes out to them and I'm praying for them and felt led to share.

Fundraiser for "Tamara"!!!

So many things going on over here but we finally got this fundraiser ready to go!  It started out as a fundraiser for our son's adoption but we were racing for time to get our little boy home so there just wasn't enough time to get it done before we went to get him.  So now we've still got this song and we want to help another little orphan to get home who is still in the same orphanage that little Zeph was in.  In fact, we met her (and have blogged about her previously).  We just love her!  We want her HOME!  She is "Tamara" on Reece's Rainbow (www.reecesrainbow.org).

link to the Reece's Rainbow sponsorship page for Tamara:  http://reecesrainbow.org/37399/sponsorguille
 
So here is the fund-raiser.  It's simple.  It's a song that I wrote and recorded for the orphaned, the fatherless, the lonely and broken-hearted.  Inspired by Zephaniah 3:17 "The LORD your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing."  Thank you to our friend Bjorn Fleuren who produced and mixed the music on this track!  I'm trying this out to just see how it goes so... from 6/20/12 through the entire month of July 50% of all proceeds will be donated towards Tamara's adoption!

All you do is click on the itunes link (button) and purchase the song!  You can listen to a preview there too before you purchase to see if you like it.

   

Finally - if you like the song or if you just simply want to help with this little girl's adoption - please share!  This is the type of "little" thing that will take high numbers to really get some moola into Tamara's adoption fund so spread the word about the fund-raiser!

Zephaniah's 3rd cast

Zephaniah had another post-op appointment today, this time to see the surgeon who had removed the bone spur from his leg.  The leg looks good but we told them how much trouble it was since the cast would NOT stay on his leg.  So they re-casted his leg again today, this time attaching a loop for a special belt, made especially for this purpose (we KNEW there had to be such an invention!).  Here's hoping it will stay on... it needs to until he sees this doctor again... June 1st.  Don't be fooled by the picture - Zephaniah was NOT happy to be re-casted (again) - but his big brother did a good job trying to distract him a little bit in the casting room.  

20 week ultra-sound

April 30th, 2012 - 20 week ultra-sound appointment.  This was the first time my husband was not able to accompany me - he, instead, watched the children.  But I made sure to get some nice pictures of our little one and Scott was happy to see them.  We are keeping the gender a surprise.  Isn't his/her little smile just precious already?  Girl or boy, will be such a JOY!

Cast on, cast off!

On March 26th I took Zephaniah to have surgery.  Some children come home and have to have it so much sooner for more urgent medical reasons.  I was glad we were able to wait 'til Zeph had been home for 6 months and at least adjusted a little and trusted us a little more.  But the time had come.  He had a bone spur (sharp piece of bone) growing on his left leg, threatening to poke through his skin at any time.  On Easter little Zeph made it quite clear that, until after surgery, he would NOT be even wearing his prosthetic.  It was just too painful.  In fact, just a week before the surgery his body was trying to cushion it, forming a bubble-like covering over it and it turned purple.  It was literally perfect timing to have this done.  While he was under a second surgeon operated also on his hand to separate two of his shortened fingers on his left hand.  They could not separate the middle two because of some common possible complications - they typically start with the two outward fingers and then do a separate surgery for the remaining two.  The surgeon also repaired with a "Z-plasty" the back of Zeph's right ankle and took some skin from the top of his right foot (where there was extra skin) to graph into the sides of his newly freed fingers.

I had to have him there by 5:30am, he was the first surgery scheduled for their day.  But I sat with him and sat with him, tired, scared, unsure.  Finally I changed and dressed him in his gown and they took him to the O.R.  around 9am.  Nearly 3 hours later I met with the surgeons - all had gone according to plan.  Then they took me to see him.  I could hear him crying and fussing and as I approached I could see him fighting the nurse, flailing and confused and screaming, "Mama, mama!"  I took him from the nurse -whoah - heavy!  They had casted his left arm and leg, full casts.  He looked up at me, closed his eyes and relaxed completely in my arms.  I was so glad to see that he was able to be comforted by me - that by now I have, indeed, earned his trust.  A 1/2 hour later they sent us home.

The next night Scott went to pick him up to give him a kiss goodbye (he was leaving for work) and "thunk" his leg cast just fell right off!  Ah!  My husband bandaged his leg.  My mom came over.  I called the advise nurse who should have told me to go to the casting clinic at the SAME building as the surgery was at.  Instead she told me to go to urgent care or ER.  I took him in and waited and waited and waited.... only to have the say they didn't DO re-casting!  We were out 'til super early in the morning - all for nothing!  Then I had to get up really early the next day and take him to see a pediatrician who then ordered the re-casting.  Then I took him to get re-casted.  He did much better than I thought he would.  Still, it was not exactly "fun" for him!  The next day.... you'll just NEVER guess... yep.  Cast fell off again!!!  Ah!  My ingenious husband has rigged up the cast so it won't fall off again but it would be nice if it had been done in a way that it wouldn't' fall off in the first place!

On May 3rd I took Zeph and the other three kiddos to his post-op with his main surgeon.  He took the top of the arm cast off to see how the skin graphs were doing, how he was healing.  Ouch, ouch, ouch!  Oh it looks just terrible!  I even just had to make sure and ask if it really was typical for the "little" fingers to be that swollen, blue and even black - 7 days after surgery.  I was assured it was all typical and looked "good".  Yikes.  I also noticed how even the smallest air brush against his delicate fingers sent him screaming and shaking in pain.  I had been slowly lowering his pain med dose.  Not after that appointment!  He does seem to be doing a bit better now.  He is now very strong on his left side, LOL.  He can now actually LIFT his left arm, casted!  It's huge!  I'm impressed.

His recent days are spent mostly on the couch (occasionally out for a ride or on the floor on some pillows for a change).  We got him some neat little puzzles and of course his favorite blocks and nesting bowls keep him busy.  He isn't all that interested in movies but he does enjoy music so we put on children's musical videos a few times a day.  I'm sure he will be thrilled when he is "free" of the casts and once again more able to painlessly move about like the active little 2 year old that he is!

Please keep him in prayer as he continues to heal - especially for his fingers to heal and the graphs to take well.