China Hearts Bound by Love and Circumstance

Remember the three China heart kids mid-summer?

Seems like a lifetime ago that they were waiting....

Much has happened.

Three families united and completely in love.

Three adoptions.

Three heart catheterizations.

 One surgery completed. Joshua M. is home and doing well after a wild ride from China to hospital to home with some scary moments in between. A true miracle that his family got there just in time. We saw Joshua M. in China and he was in bad shape. God's timing is perfect.

One surgery tomorrow for sweet little Elisyn who is ready for her own miracle that will fix another broken heart. Please pray for her family as they love on Elisyn through the surgery and recovery. Give them the peace that passes all understanding.

And our Joshua is feeling better and has become quite the active little man after starting on some medication to help his heart not have to work so hard. Joshua will not be having open heart surgery as his pulmonary hypertension is too high and was unresponsive during the heart cath.

Right now, Joshua is concentrating on being a typical 8 year old boy by learning to ride a scooter.

 And playing with his brothers.

 Micah gets brownie points for trying to keep up with the bigger guys.

 Throwing pop rocks was lots of fun.

 Joshua is not one to be left behind. 

Up and down, up and down he went.

 He is happy being one of the crowd.

What a blessing for us to watch him discovering new things and having so much fun. He is happy kid and easy to be around.

Then there is the other part.

Joshua is terminally ill. 

There, I said it.

Maybe saying he has a life-threatening illness is better. 

Not really.

Joshua is medically fragile and has a bunch of other things going on in addition to his heart condition. We are still in the process of discovering what those things are and what we need to do about them in order for Joshua to have the best quality of life possible.

Yes, quality of life. That is where we are. 

And right now, it's very, very GOOD.

Live for today, and hope for tomorrow. 

Holding Out

We are holding out. 

I am not sure we have ever gone this long.

We haven't turned the heat on yet.

Usually the goal is October 1. 

Way past that.

Chalk it up to global warming, 

a nice New England fall, 

or frugality.

 

Today at 7:00am, it is a balmy 34 degrees outside. 

Still way above 60 on the inside. 

The miracle of insulation. 

I am grateful.

Yet I think about those without.

 

 Graduated to long sleeved shirts and my black vest. 

Don't mind the extra 20 pounds. 

I was "pregnant" you know.

 

But I am not ready to put socks and shoes on. 

I am definitely toughing it out.

 

Cora got up this morning and said it was cold. 

On the other hand, it's tough to get Joshua to wear 

a sweatshirt, never mind socks and shoes. 

He is comfortable at this temperature and 

prefers things on the cool side.  

When I was studying China, I learned that they do not have central heat south of the Yangtze River. They bundle up and adapt. 

I realized how non-adaptive we, as Americans, have become. 

It continues to amaze me how our China experience 

has flavored every aspect of my life.

Have to go and check the weather 

to see if we will make it another week. 

Communication Trial and Error

 The boys are hooked on praise and worship.

  In Mandarin.

Some things are universal.

Joshua LOVES this video and sings along.

Thank you to the family who shared it with us.

 We had a little miscommunication.

 I asked Joshua to put some eggs in the pan.

 So he did. Literally.

 

I got him all set up with the eggs and a pan. 

He so badly wanted to help make dinner.

What I forgot to tell him is that I wanted whole eggs in the pan.

"Okay, Mom. I got the eggs in the pan."

Actually it more like, "Uuuuuhhh, look!"

 Then some serious investigating happened.

  Very serious indeed.

 

I am BLESSED by all my sweet helpers.

Tuesday = Mandatory Fun

Tuesday, Mama declared "MANDATORY FUN." Every once in a while, we get out of dodge and have some fun. After our "Intro to Karate" class, we headed to the science center. As I paid for my rainbow family, the lady asked, "Are these all your kids?" Yep, every one. And no, it's not a daycare which I get a lot.

We enjoyed being outdoors, looking at all the animals native to our state. What a great time of year to go, in the cool autumn weather. All the animals were up and moving around. First stop was the fisher cat.

On to the fox, bobcat, and mountain lions. Most of the animals walked over to the glass and looked right at us. Maybe it was getting close to feeding time.

 Next was the deer enclosure. 

The three deer came over to see if we had any treats.

 Dropping dead leaves seemed to pique their interest,

resulting in some close up viewing.

Inside the education building was a deer skeleton puzzle. 

Found a jawbone, instant gun.

Yup, he's three and all boy!

 I love when my big kids will still play! 

Everyone had fun on the zippity do dah slide.

 We could have spent an hour in the spider web building. Good thing we had the whole place to ourselves. There was some rowdy running with a wild game of hide and seek going on. I played with Micah all the while calling to Joshua to slow down. I need to get over it. He had a ton of fun, even if his lips took on a bluish tinge.

  Kloey enticed the bear over to say hello.

We had fun seeing who had the biggest wing span in our family. 

Miss-arms-and-legs won hands down.

 Micah tried on the red hawk for size.

 Kloey and Joshua measured up.

 Erik was imagining the flying part, I'm sure.

After the science center, we boogied over to Jerrod's LAST soccer game. Jerrod is a senior and has played soccer for four years. This year, I tried to go to every game I could, home or away. Barring the hospital stay or pouring rain, we made most of them.

 For the first time this season, our team was in the lead!

 Jerrod was the go-to-man utility player. Half time huddle.

Meanwhile, there was some cuddling (containment) 

going on in the stands.

 By the way, we WERE the cheering section 

for our team along with 2 other mothers.

 I'll do anything for that smile.

 The girls asked me to take a picture.

 Then they decided to pose, 

Pour it on girls.

And Joshua, what's with the gun?

 They played on the rope.

I told them not to. 

They played on the rope.

I told them not to.

Do you see a pattern here?

 The seniors received flowers from the other team.

 Kingswood soccer 2011. Jerrod's senior year.

The game ended after 2 sudden death overtimes. 

Talk about exciting. 

My stint as soccer mom has ended at least for a good long while.