Smash Party

Overheating, blitzing lights, and finally no micro-waves performing their dirty deeds.

We had a death in the family.

I asked Erik to make preparations for its going-to-the-dump burial.

He said, "Mom, can I throw it over the side of the steps?"

I shuddered and immediately said shouted, "NO!" in a are-you-crazy-sarcastic-kind-of-way.

What kind of example would that set for the younger kids? 

Throwing stuff around disrespectfully. What else would they try?

The possibility of shattering glass, inevitably finding their way into little feet?

And then the revelation.  

WHY NOT? WHY ever-for-the-love-of-pete NOT?

Hoping to be the "cool home school mom," I planned an impromptu "Smash Party," a.k.a. the fun science experiment where learning occurs without trying.

I called a meeting in the driveway. 

Late March and we are desperate for spring.

Investigating the specimen, checking for glass parts and loose pieces.

To my astonishment only metal and plastic. Cheap old thing.

After announcing the plan/objective of the experiment, 

I sent the team scrambling for tools of torture.

The objective: Get inside the microwave to see what we could find. 

Poor thing. It is about to be totally violated.

When you are the youngest, your pick of the tools is diminished.

At some point, Micah decided he needed a life jacket in order to effectively perform his duty. Perhaps, the plastic sand shovel sparked the idea.

 No worries. He got his turn with the bat.

His determination will serve him well. 

Clamoring for a turn among seven older siblings is no small feat.

"Yes, sweet pea, this is the crazy family who chose you."

"No dear, not an average day in America."

 Then we get serious.

 And the big boy puts the hammer down.

 'Cause fifteen-year-olds just wanna have fun.

 Making some dent progress. 

Teacher then asks the class, "What else can we try?"

 Several students came up with the idea of tossing...

 ...and impact.

 Yeah, baby!

 First part off! So proud ! Now what?

 The three musketeers come up with their very own plan!

 Seems like a good one.

 Can we say Yes-For-Success? Innards exposed.

Joshua, with protective headgear. claimed the control panel. 

Note the mittened hand and winter jacket, contrasting the bare feet.

 More throwing.

 Do you see a theme here? Big boy is wanting a piece.

He got it.

I'm thinking that this blog post is getting a little boring but for pete's sake, it IS a lab report. You are supposed to write down everything you tried. Thank me later for leaving out the other 100+ pictures. 

 What else can we do? 

Working together is always good.

Let me introduce you to the team. The boys provided the lift using a lever or is this considered a pulley,  little did they know it was a simple machine...

 Meet our lovely counter balance.

 The hoist is complete.

 The suspense is real.

 

 Crash! 

Isn't science fun?

 Way too fun. This method had multiple attempts.

 Cool! Most of them had no idea what a circuit board looked like.

Objective has been met.

Microwave exposed.

 Wait a minute, the biggest boy/Marine Poolee just showed up.

 After very little sibling peer pressure, he had a go.

And got his part.

'Cause he IS the best and coolest big brother ever!

 As the longest blog post ever draws to an end, I assure you

 that when Daddy came home and asked what we learned today...

There was plenty to tell.

THE END

Joshua Has An Event - Part II

Friday, Joshua wasn't feeling well. 

I learned something very important. 

You cannot teach an ESL kid much needed vocabulary in the midst of an event.  

"Joshua, are you light-headed?" 

Confused look.

"You know, like woozy," OR better yet, act it out: Mom sways and falls on the floor.

Is your heart beating too fast? Too slow? Irregular? 

(Clap beats to show what irregular means.)   

Dazed expression.

Yah, definitely need to work on the vocab.   
I realized that while needing to make a hasty exit, my big kids were dispersed around town at classes and to top it off, I had an extra little sweetheart in my care. So my first call was to these very special neighbors. (In these parts, a neighbor lives within a mile or two.) 

Dave was on my doorstep within five minutes. Love him!

Before I even had Joshua buckled in his car seat, all the kids were outside swinging with Dave and waving good-bye. I do regret not taking the time to explain to them what was going on. 

Once I was on the road, I HAD to text Cheryl, my friend who has led a very parallel foster care/adoption/transracial family life. We have joked over the years about our dirty messy crazy busy houses and if we had to call someone in an emergency, we hoped it might be each other because then it wouldn't matter, that level of dishevelment and organized chaos that we call home. I knew she would feel my pain.

Because I left my house messy busy AND dirty crazy. Oh well. 

Priorities you know.

And she added her prayers because that is who she is.

About halfway over, God said, "Tell Kristel." 

Yes, she is my closet prayer warrior.

Even though she lives on the Continental Divide now, she has my back.

Kind of like a dot in the middle of my heart-mommy square. 

I highly recommend that everyone have a Kristel.

Then I remembered to call my husband.

Yah, I'm a dud. 

If I was super worried, he would have been home in a flash and we would have gone together but this was new territory with Joshua and I didn't want him to miss work for a false alarm.

We rolled into the office around noon and they were all business.

Weight check, symptoms relayed, blood pressure was fine, O2 around 86-87 which is Joshua's normal. All the same from when we were there a week ago for our regular check-up.

My favorite nurse, Kris, hooked Joshua up to an EKG and within minutes said, "Oh! I can see what he's feeling. You did the right thing."

I wasn't sure whether to feel relieved or notch up the worry-o-meter. 

Basically, his heart was giving a little extra ta-dump on every third beat. 

This is called: Trigeminy Ventricular Ectopy. 

Not completely abnormal in the regular population but when you have a special heart like Joshua's, definitely concerning.

The Nurse Practitioner came in to triage us, heard his funky ta-dump, and said we would go home with a 24 hour Holter monitor so they could see what was going on over a longer period of time. She told me what to look for if things got worse and also sent us for some bloodwork. 

Before our regular doctor appeared, he wanted to know via the nurse if we had made our appointment in Boston yet.

Have I told you about that yet? Joshua is scheduled to have a full evaluation with the heart transplant team at Boston Children's Hospital in the beginning of May. 

I feel a Part III coming on. 

The doctor appeared and did a quick echo to make sure the muscle and the valve were the same as he had seen last week. He said it all looked fine. He was also glad this happened before our Boston trip so that it would be on the radar. He was going to send an e-mail letting Boston know right away..

Well. What is going on? Is it the beginning of Joshua's total heart failure?

Too soon to tell.   

At this point, Joshua was back to talking and smiling. The nurse, the nurse practitioner, and the doctor all assured Joshua he wasn't dying and sent us and a monitor on our merry way.  

We asked the girls in the office where to find the closest recommended Chinese food because giving blood requires a substantial reward! 

Especially when you are Joshua, and you've had quite a day already. 

At this point we are about 6 hours into this "event" and the funky beats were tapering off. Now that Joshua knew what was happening, he started calling out numbers every three to four minutes.

2.......14.......7.......2.......17.......and so on, very matter-of-fact.

That's how many times his heart was misfiring successively.

The kid cracks me up. He is so smart.  

Blood taken - no problem. He filled those vials like a champ. 

Let-me-tell-you, the Chinese at the restaurant ate this guy right up.

Especially the twenty-something girl.

She asked me, "How much did your son cost?"

Some things get lost in translation. 

Her mother who spoke no English ordered her to get Joshua chopsticks and then oohed and aahed at his proficiency.

Me, I was the proud mother.    

After we had our fill of delicious Chinese food, Joshua made an announcement.

"Mom, it's all done."

"What? Are you full?"

"No, my heart. It's all done."

Apparently noodles and dumplings are a cure-all. Next time, we will head straight for the soy sauce.

Joshua has been fine ever since. 

I think if we ask him one more time, "Hey man, how-ya feeling?",  he might defect/ or throw up on purpose/ or ask for more candy. 

Which he will most definitely get... 

Postscript: Blood work came back normal. Grrr....we wait for the monitor results due in this week. 

Part 1 - When Joshua Had An Event

Friday morning, Joshua put his hand on his heart and said, "Mom, I don't feel good." 

Oh MY heart! 

Last Friday took the stuffing out of me.

Through it all I was rocking the three C's - calm, cool, and collected.

By Saturday, I was toast.

Joshua? He's totally fine.

As far as we know.

(This was his "I want to grow my hair pony-tail long and get an earring" phase.  

I could write a whole post about that. And you would be surprised.)

In twenty months on this continent, Joshua has never complained.

 Ever.

He is an awesome kid with a smile that lights up a room, or a family, or a church, or a town.

I repeat, Joshua never complains. Oh, except when I won't let him play the IPAD. 

Being the non-alarmist parent that I am, I sat on the "my hearts hurts" thing for about an hour keeping a close eye on him. He pushed through a math lesson and when I looked over, he had his head down on the table and was zoning out. 

He seemed to be breathing okay. But talking was diminishing. Kind of like when you are in labor and you have to concentrate on what is going on inside. Talking would be too much trouble.

I then asked him if he wanted to play the IPAD, the ultimate distraction. 

He nodded, "No."

I called.

Cardiology.

Immediately.

"Come in," they said after deciding whether it would be ER or their office. 

Ten minutes later, we were out the door and the kid had the nerve to fall asleep in the car. Totally readjusted the rearview mirror for that seventy-five minute white-knuckle-drive.  

At this point, although I certainly didn't WANT anything to be wrong, I also didn't want to show up and have them say that he was totally fine. I hate wasting other people's time. Being our first event with Joshua, I wasn't 100% sure he wasn't being grumpy. 

He is a normal 9 year old boy, after all.

While he was sleeping and I was alone with my thoughts, I figured  maybe I would send a few texts to some other heart moms who would understand the alarms going off in my head. Every stoplight, I furiously texted and forwarded. I kept the circle small 'cause at this point, I really thought it would be NOTHING. 

Rest assured praying people, if it was SOMETHING, social media would have been bombarded!

I will get to the rest of the story but as I was driving home, I reflected on the amazingness of whom I texted. 

Three China hearts moms.

Three other families who adopted seriously ill children not knowing if they would live long enough to get home.

From the same orphanage in Hangzhou.

Talk about the tie that binds! Can I be honest? I'm not sure if we all lived in the same town that we would be the best of friends. We all have very different lives and are at varying stages in life.  

But....we all went to China.

And we all adopted children with extremely complex congenital heart disease. 

And not one of us has a single-solitary-regret. 

Of this I'm sure.     

Here are the Heart-Hero-moms with their Hangzhou Honeys!

Andrea, with her son Bryce, is a dear friend who was the last person to visit Joshua in person before we left for China. She told me about his pigeon chest (thank goodness I was prepared for that because it is shocking) and confirmed his dear personality. She helped me through those first six months of learning how to live with a terminal diagnosis. We've never met because she lives in the northwest corner, yet somehow that doesn't matter a bit.

Mary brought Ivy Joy home last year and has endured five open heart surgeries alongside her daughter, spending many months thousands of miles away from her home in Arizona. Her inner strength is contagious and her calm spirit kept my sanity intact when we landed in Boston with Joy in a bit of an emergency situation.

Sonia adopted her very own Joshua and brought him home to Florida. The boys skyped from their hospital beds soon after and share many memories from their time together in Hangzhou. Sonia cares deeply for the least of these and is only a text away for some serious Calling-On-His-Name when needed.

These three women all responded within FIVE minutes. 

Assuring me of their prayers, support, and love.

Seriously? We four Hangzhou mommies hail from all four corners of the United States: Northwest, Arizona, Florida, and the Northeast.

What a square!

There are many other beautiful and supportive China heart moms that I have met along the way, but darn, I don't have their numbers...

This adoption thing is so much more than I ever imagined.

So much more. 

Part II - in which I thank others and tell.......the rest of the story where Cardiology was VERY glad I called.