Mema's Birthday, Annika's Arm

Last night we celebrated Barbara's (Susan's mom) birthday with the gang. We had one of Mema's favorites -hamburger- with chips, dip and black cherry IBC. YUM. Patti made the beautiful double-decker iced chocolate chip cookie. It was also very yummy! Happy Birthday, Mema!

Looks like there is room for more!

Annika's visit to the orthopedist went well on Monday. We left Jeremy & Marissa with friends so that William could come with us. The doctor assured us that since Annika is only 4, she has lots of growing to do, and her arm will straighten in time. He says that her arm may not even have a noticeable curve when the cast comes off or maybe one that only he, the doctor, and I, the mom, will notice. The risks of surgery are greater than the risk of leaving it to mend, so he did his job of convincing us (for the most part) that she will be OK.

Annika's arm will be healed after another week, but she is wearing her nasty, stinky cast for 3 more weeks just to have the protection longer. We will be happy to see "Sarah," her right hand again. "Maggie," her left hand, is getting to be a very good colorer!

Friends of ours who began the Ethiopian adoption process at the same time we did got their referral from their agency last week! We are so happy for them, but wish we could go get our son with them! There should be a batch of AWAA referrals soon...

Awana Bible Quiz Champs!

Saturday, we had our Awana district Bible quiz, and the Colonial Baptist Church team made up of Jeremy and Destin took first place for book 3!! Yeah! A really funny thing about that is that neither of these kids go to Colonial but are both members of the same church!

Destin got all of her multiple choice correct and received an "Honor award." Jeremy also correctly answered all of his multiple choice questions. During the speed quizzing (picture a game show with 12 kids with buzzers), he answered 3 of the total of 12 speed quizzing questions to "quiz out." These two feats earned Jeremy the "Quizzing Champion" award.

Coach William also received a medal for his efforts. He did endure a lot of practice and made nifty flashcards for his team. Great job!

These kids put in a lot of practice and can spout off a lot of scripture and things like why we know the Bible is true, etc... It is quite impressive! I just hope that they can remember to apply these things! Way to go, Jeremy & Destin!! Woo hooo!

Annika goes to the orthopedist tomorrow.

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Mixed Bag

This is an exciting week for our AWAA family. There are 5 families who are meeting their children in Ethiopia! We're enjoying the blog updates and videos as we live vicariously through them. Two of the families are in our blog list down on the right side of the screen, the Carpenters and the Davids.

Another family received a referral last week for a baby girl and are over the moon, of course!

Last night, we met two other couples from our Ethiopian program for dinner at our local Ethiopian restaurant. We had such a great time! I hope to do that again soon!

(Photo courtesy of John & Dottie. Thanks!)

Annika visited the orthopedist yesterday, and we got the bad news that her bones have moved. We're going back next week to see if they have moved more. Because she is only 4, we can leave them as they are and *eventually*, they *should* straighten out as she grows. If the bones move more, we'll have to consider surgery to put pins in so that her arm will not lose its usability. UGH!

Not the News We Wanted...

The families who received their referrals in mid-October found out today that MOWA (Ministry of Women's and Children's Affairs) has asked the court not to grant any court dates because they are overloaded. MOWA is responsible for reviewing the dossiers and approving the placement of the children before the case goes to court to make the adoption final. Our agency's country representative is scheduled to go to court on Thursday to ask for a court date. Hopefully, the judge will have mercy on the children and families who are waiting and grant them one soon.

All of us whose dossiers have been submitted received an email today offering us a referral for a "special needs" child, a little 7 month-old baby girl who is HIV-positive. I pray that one of the families who is desperately waiting for their baby girl will have the courage to claim her as their daughter!

UPDATE 1/16/08 10:00 AM: It hit me this morning that if the folks at AWAA are working to place this baby girl, they may be working on more! That is encouraging. We are probably not going to get a referral this round, but it will get us closer!

Silks are still available. I have one set made right now and am planning on dying again soon.

CLICK HERE TO SEE SILKS!

New Year Updates

Annika got her fiberglass wrap over her splint today. It is an exclusive design by Taj. The Tootsie Pop is courtesy of the "candy girl," a white-haired lady, who took Annika's "picture" (for which she smiled!) in x-ray. Since it is a re-break, she will wear the cast for 6 weeks rather than 4 weeks -just because. The orthopedist assured me that there is nothing wrong with Annika. It is just "bad luck."

There hasn't been much to report on the adoption front-well nothing that has to do specifically with our adoption. Two groups of families from our agency received referrals in October. The first group has all been approved by the court. The children now belong to them, and they will be traveling later this week! YEAH!

The second group from October has not yet heard about their court dates, and there have been no other referrals other than the family who has accepted a waiting older sibling set of three. This family is also waiting for a court date. Some referrals are to come "soon."

We have been pretty discouraged by the delays, but we keep reminding ourselves that we haven't yet waited the 4-7 months that we were told to expect. As I write this, it has *only* been 3 months, 1 week, and 2 days.

I keep checking my email to see if there is any news on court dates, but nothing... yet, so I will post this.

~Susan

OH NO! Not again!

You know how people say that after you break a bone, it is stronger because of the callous around the bone? Well, that is simply not true. (Somebody told me that just last week!)

*SIGH*

This morning we got home from the ER with Annika and her new plaster splint on the same arm that she broke in late September.

The kids were being herded upstairs for bedtime when Annika tripped over the corner of one of our footstools and caught herself with her arms. We knew from the scream and the shape of her arm what had happened immediately.

I called a friend to get some prayer going, and halfway to the hospital, Annika stopped screaming in pain. When we got to the hospital, I don't believe that the triage nurse and the ER doctor believed that it was broken because she was not screaming -even when they messed with it! She didn't get any morphine and didn't really seem to need it. That was amazing! Thank-you, God!

So the ER visit was from 9:10 PM to 3:40 AM. It was very busy, and we were only checked on once the whole time we were there. Watching "Lilo & Stitch 2" twice in a row enhanced our experience. Annika was not happy that she didn't get a bear as she has on her previous visits to the ER.

BLEH!

(Since she didn't break it at a party this time, we do not have photos. Sorry! Ha ha!)

Here's the official ER vist timeline:

9/28/07 Annika breaks arm on trampoline
10/27/07 Jeremy birthday -breaks arm on scooter
10/28/07 Jeremy's arm is moving around in splint
1/7/08 Annika re-breaks arm on footstool

Annika sees the orthopedist next Monday for an x-ray and fiberglass overwrap.

Pray for us!