Please, oh please, let it be true......

but not getting my hopes up (too much). There is a rumor going around now that referrals have been mailed, that much I believe. The questionable part is that some agencies are reporting that not only do the referrals cover the rest of November but also a few days of December. December!!! That's us!!!! I know there is no way that they got all the way to us but to just be in our month would be awesome. Let me state again THIS IS JUST A RUMOR. As you may remember the last day referred was Nov 21st and for the last several months the CCAA has been referring 7 days each month.

I guess we will find out early next week!!

What a difference a day makes!!!!

The heart surgeon drew on Cliff's support pillow exactly where the bypassess were done!

Paul, Sandra, Cliff, and Tony

Caution: Random post ahead:

I am just now updating because we had a very long afternoon and evening yesterday. One of the very first things you learn in nursing school is to not give families and patients concrete timelines because you are just setting yourself up when things do not go EXACTLY as planned. And of course even I was thinking with my emotional side and not my logical side. When Cliff was moved to the ICU yesterday at 1pm we were told that he should be off the ventilator by 3pm and up in a chair by 6pm. Well, this did NOT happen. They did attempt to wake him around 3pm but he would not breathe on his own....so they would stimulate him to try to get him more awake, when he would get pretty awake he would get agitated and start fighting the vent so they would have to sedate him, causing him to not initiate breathing on his own. We repeated this process for over 3 hours. It was definitely an emotional process. The nursing staff finally decided to not sedate him when he got agitated and try to
"wait it out" they also did not want us to touch or talk to him because they wanted to be able to accurately assess if he was breathing enough on his own to turn down the vent.

As a nurse I am usually immune to medical situations that cause others freak out. But it was very difficult to see Cliff so helpless and agitated because he "thought" he could not breathe and not be able to give him any type of comfort.

Paul and I were both beyond exhausted so when they kicked us all out of ICU at 6:30 we headed home. They told us they would probably only do one or two more attempts to wean him off tonight and if they continued to be unsuccessful would wait until the morning. Sandra and Tony (Paul's brother)went back for the 8:30-10pm visiting and then were both headed home to get some much needed rest. Maybe all Cliff needed was a couple of uninterrupted hours sleep because we they resumed their attempts they were able to get him off the ventilator the first try!!!! It did not take him long to get back to his crazy self. During the night they did get him up in a chair and we when arrived this morning he was griping because the brought him cream of wheat for breakfast.

We are now in a regular hospital room on the cardiac floor. They have removed all his medical paraphernalia with the exception of telemetry (heart monitor) and IV access. They are feeding him a regular diet and he is doing awesome!!!! He looks like a totally different person than yesterday.

Thank you so much for all the phone calls, prayers, well wishes, and thoughts. We are not supposed to use our cell phones on this unit but we do have free wi fi access so that is how I am able communicate.

Cliff should be up walking this afternoon an we are right on track to go home Monday.

I can say one thing for hospital life. I have plenty of time to catch up on blogs both posting and commenting.

Hope everyone is have a great week!!

Success!!

We have just transferred Cliff to the cardiac ICU. The surgery was a success!! They wound up doing 4 bypasses and the surgeon said everything went as well as possible. We were able to see him for just a short period of time and he looked as expected. Hopefully they will be able to extubate him in the hour or so but in the meantime he has more tubes than you can even count. The next few days will be very hard on him physically and Sandra emotionally but we will hang tough. Thanks for all the good thoughts and prayers!!

A prayer request.......

Hey, all my blogger pals.......our family is requesting your prayers this morning. Paul's dad, Cliff, is having surgery today. He had a routine stress test earlier this month and just received the results. The doctor thought there "might" be something suspicious so just as a precaution sent him for a cardiac cath (to check for blockages in the heart) yesterday. The news we received was shocking to say the least. Cliff has 5 major blockages in his heart. He was immediately transferred to a bigger medical facility and is having bypass surgery this morning. We anticipate them performing at least 3 bypasses but possibly more. As you can guess surgery of this magnitude is very scary.

We are currently sitting around the hospital room all kind of just staring at each other waiting for him to be taken to surgery. He will be in intensive care for at least one night and the doctor has told us not to expect to go home before Monday.

Please keep our family in your prayers. I will update today as soon as surgery is complete.

Women of Faith

I had the awesome experience this past weekend of attending the Women of Faith conference with a very special group of ladies. Last year was the first time I had attended this conference and mom and I made a girls trip out of it. This time not only did mom and I attned but we were also joined by Kelley, Christie, Erin, and Erin's mom Barbara. We had a great time and spent the night at a very swanky hotel. We were definitely stylin. We had to opportunity to hear some great and hilarious speakers and rock out to some great praise music. We all received a very special blessing from this event and I think we all agreed to make it a yearly ritual. There is no way that I can adequately describe everything, so I will just tease you with a few pictures of us in all our goofy glory.

Happy Birthday DAD!!!!

55 years ago today the earth stood still!!!! Yep, that's right Daddy Wayne was born and things have never been the same since.
Such a picture of innocence way back when......

This picture would not scan real well but you can tell even back then he had attitude!!! Who knew he would grow up to carry a real gun!

This is mom and dad taken shortly before they got married!!


and here they are today!!!!!
Yep, I am proud to say that's my dad!!

So Happy Birthday Daddy. I love you and can't wait for Avery to meet her Papaw.

20 months!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Yep, that's right 20 months ago today our dossier was registered in China. Wow!! That's a long time!!! Hopefully we are on the downhill slide now.

Thanks so much to Christie for reminding me of this as I didn't even remember until I received an email from her.

BTW: Thanks for all the well wishes, I continue to improve and am well on the road to good health!!

Happy Monday!!!

My weekend.....

The cough I mentioned in my last post became progressively worse so I finally broke down and went to the doctor on Friday. (You know nurses are the WORST patients) Anyway, she listened to my lungs and had a fit about why I had waited so long to come in. I wound up receiving a breathing treatment in the office, a shot of steroids, a shot of antibiotics, and 4 prescriptions to get filled including a delivery of a home nebulizer machine to continue my breathing treatments. So much for just a cough, huh??


So this is how I spent my Friday, Saturday, and part of Sunday. Attractive, don't you think?? I struggled putting this picture on the blog because I look sooo bad, but I always said I wanted to keep my blog "real". Well people, it doesn't get more real than this!!!! I was instructed to do 6 (yes 6!!!) breathing treatments a day.

I am happy to report that I am well on my way to recovery and my cough and wheeze doesn't sound near as bad today as it did 2 days ago.



I just had to include this picture of my dad and Rowdy. I trekked up to mom and dad's house Saturday evening for about 20 minutes (in my gown, of course) and just to show you what a spoiled dog Rowdy is here is why enjoys going to my dad's any chance he can get: Yes dad was feeding him ice cream from a spoon!!!!!!!

So that was my weekend, how was yours????

A vicious circle.......

So I have entered into a vicious circle this week. For the last 3 days I have a had a horrible cough. It is not productive in any way, my lungs are clear, no fever, no congestion.....just a cough. So begins the circle......

Horrible cough that makes my throat sore.....
Drinking a ton of ice cold water to soothe my throat.....
Full bladder + another cough.......
Results in certain "leakage" if you will!!!

Oh the joys of being a woman!!!!!

Just wanted to give you a laugh on this Thursday evening!!!

The rest of the story...........

So if you haven't already, you have to scroll to the last post about the brown envelope and read the comment my dad wrote. It will definitely give you a good laugh!!

Hope everyone is have a great Monday!!

Someone in China knows we exist!!!!

We received the exclusive "brown envelope" last week. I assume it is a reflection of us renewing our I171-H. The first go round we never received this little jewel because there was a mix-up with our paperwork. We were assured by our agency if we did not receive it, it was no big deal because you could get all the forms it contained while you were in China. So we didn't worry about it. I have to admit that I was a little jealous when I would see other bloggers post that they had received theirs because it does seem like a little milestone. Now Paul and I have joined the "Brown Envelope Club"!!! Yeah for us!!! If nothing else it at least let's us know that the American Consulate in China knows about and knows that we are expecting and approved to adopt. At this point I will take any little joy we can get.

BTW: I have to point out to everyone that after referrals were received this month there are only 3 other LID's with our Agency before we to ours. Yes, that's right just 3, so hopefully only a few short months before we see our sweet baby's face!!!

Take me out to the ballgame....

Paul and I had a very exciting night Wednesday. At the last minute we were gifted tickets to the local minor league baseball team's game. The hospital I work for is a corporate sponsor and has a suite at the field. My unit was given the suite for the night. We did not really know what to expect. We had never been to any type of sporting event in a suite before but let me tell you, we could get used to that lifestyle pretty quickly. We had a reserved parking space right outside the entrance and then were "escorted" to our suite. We had a room with mini-kitchen, tv, phone, and most importantly air-conditioning and then we also had a balcony with the standard stadium style seats right on the first baseline. We also had free food (hot dogs, pizza, and chicken fingers), snacks, drinks, and even a "suite hostess" who came around periodically to check on us and make sure we did not need anything.

Because our unit received the tickets so last minute only a few of us were able to make it but those who came really had a good time!!! Even though the home team lost it was definitely a night to remember and a high life that we could get used to!!

Hope everyone is having a good week!!!

Look Ma...........No Cast!!!!!

We took Mom to the orthopedic doctor today and she received a wonderful report. Even though there is a fracture, because it is in the non weight-bearing bone she did not have to have a cast. The doctor told her to slowly start putting weight on the leg and just "take it easy" for the next couple of weeks. He also removed that huge splint she was wearing. She goes back in two weeks for x-rays and we should be able to see some new bone growth. I am sure she feels so much better without that splint on but she is definitely feeling more discomfort by have free movement of the leg.

Meanwhile, Kelby and Kolin spent the afternoon entertaining themselves with some of mom's walking devices. Kelby really enjoyed using her crutches as stilts while Kolin was ready for a wheelchair race. Don't ya just love kids!!

Thanks for everyone that commented and/or sent prayers and good thoughts mom's way. She is well on her way to recovery!!!

Have a good week!!

Another day, another drama!!

No, your eyes are not deceiving you. That is mom sprawled out on the couch with a broken leg!! Yesterday she was walking down some steps, missed the last one, and proceeded to go splat!! She managed to drive herself home but by the time she got there she knew that something was "not right". We took her to the ER where it was found that she broken one of the bones in her lower leg. They splinted her, doped her, and sent her home. She has to follow up with the orthopedic surgeon early next week for the next course of treatment.

For those of you that do not know my mom personally. She is a go-getter, never sitting still for long. Whether it is baking cakes, sewing, tending to her plants, cleaning house, cooking every night, or any of the other multitude of things she does time spent just sitting on the sofa relaxing is sparse. Needless to say she is not very thrilled with the prospect of being laid up for the next several weeks.

Prime example: I went over there this morning to check on her and see how she slept last night. I had no more cleared the door before she informed me that she needed to shower, needed laundry started, and needed to get moving because she was already bored. Bored??? It hasn't even been 24 hours yet!!! So being the wonderful daughter I am I helped her shower, started her laundry, and picked up a few things. Dad had stepped out to run some errands and get some lunch. I told mom I was going to Wal-Mart this afternoon and if she would make me a list I would pick up anything she needed. Well, not one to be kept down she informed me that she would accompany me because she needed to get her hair trimmed and her toes painted!! So off we went: drove to Wal-mart (yes, on freakin' Saturday afternoon), loaded her up in one of those electric carts, went to the hair place and got a trim, went to the nail place and go her toes done and then proceeded to get the grocery items that both of us needed. I delivered her back home and I tell you she could have kept going for many hours more.

It will be very interesting to see how the next few weeks go!!

As you may or may not know, when I was 21 I was involved in a very serious car accident, broke both my legs, and was unable to walk for a year. During that time Paul, my mom, and my dad were my legs and my caretakers. So I guess we could all say this is my payback!!!

LOVE YOU MOM!!!!!

Yep, the stork has landed!!!

So that's the new date. November 21st. Now there are only 29 days between the last day referred and our LID. 29 days!!!!!!!!! Could we possible be in the home stretch? Could we possible see our sweet baby's face before Christmas? I surely hope so. 29 days, people just 29 days!!!!

A wonderful gift!!

This week I did a favor for a friend. It was really no big deal on my part. I would have done it anytime. Imagine my surprise when I received this!!! It is a wonderful bath and spa set with everything you can imagine!!!

So, my dear friend, thank you!!!! Thank you for being you, thank you for being so generous, and know that the offer to repeat the favor is open anytime. You are a true treasure in my life!