I'm still here....

The will of God will never take you where the Grace of God will not protect you.

We are all moved, and the essentials are unpacked. I have curtains in all three of the bedrooms as of last night, so I'm considering us more or less "settled in". The dynamic duo seems to LOVE being in a smaller house, so many of my fears there were unfounded. We've had some exciting adventures - gas leak, electrical short (only when you used the microwave AND lights at the same time, though)

I'm not immensely talkative about myself at the moment. I am looking towards some pretty major surgery, which at this point I'm not inclined to have up here. I'm searching outwards - Marshfield, Detroit Metro area, Milwaukee or Minnesota. It's hard for me to focus on it, however - or anything. I don't want to think about work - I just want to stay home with my family, set up my new home and let the world pass me by for awhile.

Parenting advice

If your child has a stomache ache, it is probably a bad idea for them to consume blue raspberry flavored pop. Because later, when they start throwing up in vivid blue all the way from the very front of the church to the back, as you desperately try to get them to the restroom to no avail, it definitely is an unholy experience.

Trust me on this one.

Paint emergency

I discovered while moving boxes yesterday that the girls rooms at the new house, recently painted by the prior owners, were painted with a very low quality FLAT paint. Ok, that will last about 15 minutes!

Off to the paint store today. Now I need to get at least one of the two rooms painted prior to move it. If I get it done today, it would be much easier without the furniture and beds in the room. Is one coat paint REALLY one coat? And to find exactly, WHICH boxes I packed my painting supplies into! Painting isn't considered lifting, right?

Feeling better

Last night was bad, I had a lot of pain and couldn't get comfortable. I didn't go into work today - probably my first sick day in I don't know how long. I felt terrible when I woke up this morning. A lot of discomfort. But it's amazing how good I feel this evening.

There was a SLIM chance that my biopsy results would be available after 4pm today. I called my dr's office at 3:55pm, and got the recording that the office is closed after 3:30pm on Friday. Oh well, I tried. But my outlook is more positive, and no matter what, we'll get through this. I'll try again for the results first thing monday morning.

Finishing up packing the boxes that need to be moved tomorrow. We got the keys to the new place early this evening. When we took the girls over to drop off some stuff, Daddy had hung a jungle print shower curtain in the main bathroom along with some really fun Lion and Monkey towels. The girls thought that was sooo cool and everyone is really picking up excitement about the move. Some folks who work for me are coming over in the morning to move boxes, and big sister M is spending the night tonight and will serve as babysitter extrodinaire. When M spends the night, we stay up late and watch Law and Order reruns. I love it.

We will not be moving the majority of our furniture until the 17th, when we close on our current home. And the new house has no appliances, which are being delivered on the 17th as well. So we have a few days to move all the smaller stuff.

Wish us luck!

Biopsies are done

But not as expected. The areas that they needed to biopsy were very near the breastbone, and deep against the chest wall. I'm relatively small framed and well let's just say I'm not well endowed - at all. As we got underway with the MRI procedure, they were very concerned that due to the location, they could puncture my lung. That did wonders for my anxiety level. They scratched the procedure and took me to another room in another part of the hospital where they attempted the biopsy with ultrasound guidance. But they were only able to access 2 of the three areas. I will probably be able to get my pathology results on Monday, but I don't know what they intend to do about the third area. The radiologist mentioned the possibility of needing a surgical biopsy.

I'm sore beyond belief - the radiologist really had to use a LOT of pressure to get back to the chest wall for the biopsies, and I had two, instead of the usual one biopsy. I really didn't expect to feel this sore and beat up.

I feel great relief to have it behind me. I was told IF the results are not cancer, then I will need to have a follow up MRI shortly, then another one a few months after that to make sure that it is indeed benign. Which makes me wonder how comfortable they are with getting a benign pathology report. Or perhaps it was just that the area was so hard to get to, that their is a higher than normal possibility that they actually missed the area? They did leave several microclips behind to accurately mark the areas that they did biopsy.

A door opens

A wonderful opportunity has just presented itself for us to enable more frequent contact with A's birth family in Ethiopia. Something I have been working/praying to happen for a LONG time. It came about, oddly enough, by Wood helping an organization with Ethiopian ties, ties to the area our daughter comes from.

Since I traveled to Ethiopia during the time of the riots in Nov 2005, there was no opportunity to travel. Heck, they didn't even let us out of the compound for any reason for security reasons. When I read about people's trips these days, it doesn't even remotely resemble my experience. Would I travel again, during those times? Heck yes. I was so fearful that due to the political unrest that the country would shut down, with my daughter left behind.

This was made crystal clear to me during the following experience. The traveling families that week had to register with the US embassy as to our identities, location, and emergency contact info. In case things really hit the fan over there, they would help us leave the country. My daughter too, right? No, they informed me, she wasn't a US citizen. My husband, at home with the kids, was immediately freaked out by this revelation. Because he know that I would never leave Ethiopia without my daughter, no matter what.

So there was no opportunity to meet A's birth family. Which some of you know, I had no idea existed at the time, as our referral information was incorrect. But I wonder if her family thinks we CHOSE not to meet them. Surely they don't know WHEN I traveled to Ethiopia. Do they think, seeing all the families travel south to meet birth families before and since that we didn't want to meet them? We have exchanged letters once, through our agencies Post Adoptive services, after I did an independent search for information, that was later corroborated by our agency. But I still wonder what they think about not meeting us.

As excited as I am to have this opportunity to have more contact with A's birthfamily, it puts my own situation into perspective. No matter how bad things get, I've never had to lose a child, live day to day without knowing how they are doing. I have many, many blessings in my life, for which I am very grateful.

Meditation of the day

I believe that though this world is full of trouble, there is hope because You have overcome the world. (John 16:33)