So far God has blessed our steps and shown us continually that His plan for our family includes our Sophia. In fact God seems to be showing us a lot about His direction for our lives at the moment!
There is a plan in the works to bless the children at For His Glory Orphanage in Port Au Prince, Haiti this Christmas. Would you please consider helping us be a part of that blessing?
I will be taking donations of infant formula and small inexpensive toys and God willing getting them to Haiti by Christmas. If you can donate items or cash please let me know ASAP. If you would like more information on how to help please let me know!
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Friday, October 19, 2007
Event
Please join us tomorrow, Saturday October, 20th. Two men who are walking accross thr country to lead a prayer of repentance will be making a stop in Green Bay, WI! You can hear them speak, meet them in person, and most importantly sign the "National Prayer of Repentance". For more info see www.RU4one.com
Sat., October 20th @ 6:00 PM First Assembly of God 1460 Shawano (at the corner of Shawano and Fisk.) 6:00 PM. Hope to see you there!
Sat., October 20th @ 6:00 PM First Assembly of God 1460 Shawano (at the corner of Shawano and Fisk.) 6:00 PM. Hope to see you there!
Thursday, October 18, 2007
Melissa, Part 3
The drive home was only about an hour and a half, but it included a 2 lane mountain pass and our first try at feeding her with the g-tube!
We had shopped and shopped until we found a car seat with 2 sets of insertable pads to make it smaller and and still it seemed like she was too tiny for it. The clasps seemed way too big and she so tiny!
We stopped at a McDonalds to feed her (not a lot of choices, it was pretty much that or Carl's Jr. and the McDonalds had better lighting) The really weird thing was that Sean's Dad and step Mom were there! At the time I am sure they just thought we were totally crazy. They left after getting their food and we returned to the task at hand. It took both of us and a lot of worried effort but we managed to drip in the 2 oz she was supposed to eat. Thus beginning the ritual for every two hours for the next year.
It was an adventure, she had to eat every two hours, had Doctors appointments almost as often and she projectile vomited at nearly every feeding. At night she would sometimes stop breathing and during the day when she threw up she would aspirate the formula into her lungs and need those upside-down baby back thrusts. Sean and I used that infant CPR training almost daily. More than once we were insure she was really going to breathe again and twice we called 911. Anna was only 2 but she remembers me giving chest thrusts and breathing for her baby sister.
It was an isolating experience and there is no question why I had not noticed it had been an awful long time since my last cycle. I was feeling exhausted and nauseous and assuming it was due to the months since I last slept a whole night. But three positive pregnancy tests in a row were all it took to convince Sean we were about to be a family of 5.
Melissa's feedings got worse. I had run out of the donated breastmilk and we were feeding her a $60 per can prescription formula. My kitchen became a full hospital-grade sterilization center. We had given up on the advice of dozens of doctors and began turning away her therapists. We made a video of the whole feeding experience that was shown to a judge who granted us full authority over her care.
It was Anna's 3rd birthday, Melissa was just past her 8th month and weighed all of 11 pounds when a round cherubic girl named Zaia was born in my living room. She was just over 9 1/2 pounds. It was Wednesday at 8:00 AM. Melissa's had court the next morning at 8.00.
We contacted our social worker but were told that our presence in court was mandatory if we were to be named as her permanent placement. So, at 8:00 AM, almost exactly 24 hours after Zaia's birth we packed our bags with all of Melissa's feeding supplies, diapers for both girls, cord care supplies for Zaia and postpartum stuff for Mom and went to court. Sean asked if we could be shown some favor but was told we would have to wait to be called in order. At 4:45 we were called in. The last case of the day. It was all going to be worth it because today we would call her ours forever.
The judge stood and then sat. He read a motion by the mother for a new attorney and a new petition for her and the father to regain custody. He granted them 6 months and twice a week visitation.
Part 4...soon!
Monday, October 15, 2007
Melissa Part 2
OK, enough with the hate mail :-) I know I said "tomorrow" and then skipped a few days!
After scrubbing in to the NICU and putting on gowns and masks, etc. we were led in by one of the night nurses. She was very excited that Melissa was going to be adopted. It seemed like we walked forever, I had no idea a NICU could be so big. She was in the last plastic little isolette at the far back corner. We took a breath and looked in... my first thought was "This cannot be the correct baby!" She looked just like snow white. (the clear plastic box surrounding her added to the effect) She had lots and lots of black hair. Not wisps of baby hair but thick shiny hair, as black as an onyx stone. She had tiny little rosy lips. I had expected the cleft lip, but instead it was only the palate so her face was absolute perfection.
You can imagine our shock! Every picture my brain had inadvertently drawn was completely wrong. We stared at this beautiful fragile looking child with all her monitors and tubes, her preemie sized diaper falling off, and this little shiny heart lying on her chest. We looked at one another, we had no idea what to do now! The nurse laughed and began to detach her from all the electrodes and tubing. She offered us chairs and then she handed us our daughter. She felt so little! I didn't quite know what to do with her. As we stared at her she opened her eyes, they were so big and as black as her hair! So black that you could not find a pupil. She didn't cry. We held her and looked at her for hours, praying over her and welcoming her to our family.
Leaving that night was impossibly hard. I wanted to go back right away in the morning but we had a 2 year old at home and she was not allowed in. A few nights later we visited again, this time taking Anna and an adult friend to play with her in the waiting room. We could not take her home until two days after the g-tube was put in so we would have to wait another week. The surgeon explained what he would be doing and how she would be fed. A nurse heard that Anna was just outside in the special waiting room for families with NICU babies. She wrapped up Melissa, hiding all her tubes and wires under the blanket and secretly whisked her out to meet her big sister! Anna was quite delighted as was our friend Chris who got to see her a full week before everyone else!
(Blogspot currently will not let me put a picture here. I'll try later)
The day we picked her up was surreal! We were shown how to feed her with the g-tube. I had done this in nursing school on adults with full bags and IV-pumps but never on an infant. She was fed by gravity, a very simple system where you poured formula or breastmilk into a larger tube which led to a smaller tube into her belly. We left with a bunch of formula samples, some tubing, and a complete lack of confidence!
As we walked out the door we were met with a mountain of hospital paperwork and a car-seat inspector. We kept looking at one another wondering if anyone else noticed we were just leaving with this baby. We drove away and let out big sighs of relief. It still seemed very odd that we had a new baby. We had a lot more to learn, including having to feed her once before we even got home!
Story continues with part three...soon!
After scrubbing in to the NICU and putting on gowns and masks, etc. we were led in by one of the night nurses. She was very excited that Melissa was going to be adopted. It seemed like we walked forever, I had no idea a NICU could be so big. She was in the last plastic little isolette at the far back corner. We took a breath and looked in... my first thought was "This cannot be the correct baby!" She looked just like snow white. (the clear plastic box surrounding her added to the effect) She had lots and lots of black hair. Not wisps of baby hair but thick shiny hair, as black as an onyx stone. She had tiny little rosy lips. I had expected the cleft lip, but instead it was only the palate so her face was absolute perfection.
You can imagine our shock! Every picture my brain had inadvertently drawn was completely wrong. We stared at this beautiful fragile looking child with all her monitors and tubes, her preemie sized diaper falling off, and this little shiny heart lying on her chest. We looked at one another, we had no idea what to do now! The nurse laughed and began to detach her from all the electrodes and tubing. She offered us chairs and then she handed us our daughter. She felt so little! I didn't quite know what to do with her. As we stared at her she opened her eyes, they were so big and as black as her hair! So black that you could not find a pupil. She didn't cry. We held her and looked at her for hours, praying over her and welcoming her to our family.
Leaving that night was impossibly hard. I wanted to go back right away in the morning but we had a 2 year old at home and she was not allowed in. A few nights later we visited again, this time taking Anna and an adult friend to play with her in the waiting room. We could not take her home until two days after the g-tube was put in so we would have to wait another week. The surgeon explained what he would be doing and how she would be fed. A nurse heard that Anna was just outside in the special waiting room for families with NICU babies. She wrapped up Melissa, hiding all her tubes and wires under the blanket and secretly whisked her out to meet her big sister! Anna was quite delighted as was our friend Chris who got to see her a full week before everyone else!
(Blogspot currently will not let me put a picture here. I'll try later)
The day we picked her up was surreal! We were shown how to feed her with the g-tube. I had done this in nursing school on adults with full bags and IV-pumps but never on an infant. She was fed by gravity, a very simple system where you poured formula or breastmilk into a larger tube which led to a smaller tube into her belly. We left with a bunch of formula samples, some tubing, and a complete lack of confidence!
As we walked out the door we were met with a mountain of hospital paperwork and a car-seat inspector. We kept looking at one another wondering if anyone else noticed we were just leaving with this baby. We drove away and let out big sighs of relief. It still seemed very odd that we had a new baby. We had a lot more to learn, including having to feed her once before we even got home!
Story continues with part three...soon!
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
All about Melissa - Part 1
This is our second adoption. If blogs were in existence when we adopted Melissa I was unaware, and probably to busy to blog anyway! In my family there are 3 great adoption stories (including Sophia) and 3 beautiful home births. this is an adoption blog...so we'll leave the birth stories for another time and place :) Today I want to tell Melissa's story.
Before Sean and I were married we talked about things we had to do in our lives. Adoption was one of those things. We welcomed our first biological daughter not long after our second anniversary and agreed that God's timing was perfect. Despite her very fussy countenance we were so delighted with her that I longed for a sibling right away. Just after her first birthday we rejoiced with news of a second baby but miscarried not long into the pregnancy. A doctor informed us we may never carry another child to term and advised a cocktail of drugs to induce early menopause. On the heels of a home birth and still breastfeeding this advice was not easily welcomed. Sean and I prayed together and he began nightly praying health over my body... his body in spirit.
The decision to adopt was so simple I cannot remember who brought it up or how it happened. I began to research the seemingly endless list of possible ways to adopt. We considered Haiti at that time (2003) but could not imagine waiting so long for our baby to come home. We attended adoption information meetings with PACT and other agencies. We also believed that someday God would call us into full time ministry and I began nursing school with the belief that I would use my skills on the mission field. We contacted our county foster care and adoptions office "just in case" an infant became available there. We attended 6 weeks of foster care training and a social worker visited our home. We were told that on average a family would wait 2 years to adopt an infant through foster care so we continued to look into other options. I was enjoying nursing school far more than expected and busy with life when we got "the call".
A social worker explained that they had an infant who would be "nearly impossible" to place but because I was a nursing student they had to "try". I was told that they had a baby boy who was "bi-racial with facial deformations, a cleft palate, severe heart defects, a feeding tube, and a genetic syndrome that causes severe learning disabilities and possibly mental retardation." I made a little list as he talked. Sean and I had discussed adopting a child who "really needed a home" but had we ever talked about all of that? My heart raced and I heard myself saying yes in a blur. I couldn't reach Sean but before I could speak with him I received the next call, "oops, it is a baby girl but everything else was correct!" How do you make that mistake?
I talked to Sean and he also felt that this was our baby. A few days later I spoke with the hospital and received medical details so I could begin researching. We prayed for her all the time. Our family mostly thought we were crazy and urged us to reconsider. We already loved her, but it would be two weeks until we could meet her.
I got the call at about 4 in the afternoon, the birth parents rights had been terminated and we had been named legal guardians. We were now able to visit her in the NICU as her parents! I had class that night and was forced to spend 4 hours doing charts and blood pressure checks at the local hospital :( but at 10PM I was finally free and ran to my car! Sean was waiting for me and we drove the 90 miles to the hospital where our daughter waited (in far less time than it really should take). A nurse buzzed us in and we scrubbed up and put on the gowns required for the NICU. We were so nervous! So many unknowns and yet we were really meeting our daughter!
Part 2 tomorrow!
They really do come home!
While I have heard names and seen pictures of international adoptive families bringing their kids home...Just this Sunday I saw it in real life! A couple from our church, Rome and Marie finally brought home their beautiful daughter Kianna from the Philippines. They waited two long years but finally brought her home. She looks healthy and adorable and is the picture of hope for all of us who are still waiting!
It was such a great encouragement to me, I know Marie was worried that the baby they had set out to adopt would be all grown up already. She had outgrown all the sets of baby clothes they had purchased and it seemed silly to look at a crib and nursery, yet when I saw her...at 2 she is still a baby. To think that there are children like her who do not have parents...babies, growing up without anyone to call mommy or daddy. The wait IS long, and the finances ARE difficult, but these kids need families! My sacrifice is nothing compared to the life of an orphan.
Congratulations Rome and Marie!
It was such a great encouragement to me, I know Marie was worried that the baby they had set out to adopt would be all grown up already. She had outgrown all the sets of baby clothes they had purchased and it seemed silly to look at a crib and nursery, yet when I saw her...at 2 she is still a baby. To think that there are children like her who do not have parents...babies, growing up without anyone to call mommy or daddy. The wait IS long, and the finances ARE difficult, but these kids need families! My sacrifice is nothing compared to the life of an orphan.
Congratulations Rome and Marie!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
