Prayers

So far, prayers are working. Just keep 'em up.

thank you.

-Megan

Can't really go into details, but if you all would pray for us right now, that would be great! Rough time in our house right now.
-Megs

Gospel and Grief

unrelated link:

favorite blog, great post. Gospel message. Really, it doesn't get any better than a great Gospel message.


Oh, and today is Pregnancy and Infant Loss Awareness day. At 7pm, in your respective time zones, if you'd like to join me in remembering my 5 little ones who left this world too early, or would like to help others remember, or are remembering your own loss, light a candle, and let it burn for an hour.

Also, at some point today I will post links to a whole host of resources for grief, and for education about RPL (recurrent pregnancy loss) treatments, tests, etc.

Also maybe I'll have enough time to write a post about how these two topics relate. :) (ie: my testimony)
-Megan

road block

Road block.
pbm (potential birth mother) moved to NY this past week.
Now this is 3rd hand information, being passed on through a language barrier. Making it hard to rely on anything that is said apparently. All I know is that the friend who is "mediating" for us, is trustworthy and would never lead us on like this. So we are going to take it a day at a time, and see where God leads us in this particular journey.

She wanted to get away from this town if she was going to place her baby with us, here. My mom (friend of friend) let friend (mediator) know that we would come to NY to pick the baby up. She also wanted to get away from pbd. (potential birth dad). Not sure how that's going to work as far as papers being signed. He has more rights than we do, but not sure about his "fitness" as a father. We may fight it. We'll see.

Maybe this isn't where God is leading us.
When we felt God's calling on our life to adopt, and build our family that way, we decided that because it is ALWAYS pleasing to God to take care of the orphans (James 1:27, which says that religion that is pure and undefiled in the eyes of God is this: Take care of the widows and orphans in their distress, and do not become like the world. Paraphrased, btw.) That we would say yes to any child that came our way. And if the child ended up in our home, we would know that they were meant to be there. We believe in the complete sovereignty of our Lord and Savior. Therefore we are always open to serving Him in whichever way He asks. We know that adoption always pleases Him, but we don't always know -which- children He has in mind for us. So we always say yes, and proceed until we can't any further. We're still not at that point with this baby. But we'll update as we can.

Please pray with us that we continue to be good stewards of the blessings we've been given thus far. Also, that we are open to serving our Creator and Savior, in any way He asks of us. Please also pray for the pbm and her family, that she makes the right decision and finds comfort and peace from the Great Comforter, and Prince of Peace.

In Him,
Megan

Can't sleep!

Just for the record..
I am so stinkin' excited.
I am SO looking forward to having a baby baby in the house.
We're talking names tonight. Think we already have one picked out! (it's a lot easier when you've had 5 or 6 miscarriages and you talked about names from day one with each.. you know what you like and what you don't by this point in time.)

Not sure if we're going to share the name we have picked out. Gotta talk to the Baron about it.

God is so good. Please pray that all goes well, and we can welcome our little bundle of joy to the family in February. The kids are excited about a baby in the house (though we have NOT told them in certain terms.. just started talking about how exciting it would be, our expectations of them and their behavior around a baby, that they'd be getting a little less attention, but that they are going to be able to help out with the baby, etc.) We have not told them that we are "having" a baby for sure.. I think we'll hold out on that until we bring the baby home. Don't want them to feel the loss if the adoption falls through. So if you are a friend, IRL, it's ok to talk about "a baby" in front of the kids, but try not to be too specific.

-Megs

It's a BOY!!!

-Megs

we had a BLAST today!

Man, we had such a great day today.
We woke up, and as per our usual Saturday Family Tradition, we got donuts at Dunkin.
Then we went to Once upon a child and got some more winter clothes (it's chilly here right now!)
Then we went to the Plano International Festival. Got some Thai food, watched Aztec, Indian, German dancers (there were more, but we didn't stay the whole time) and played at the park.


THEN we went to our realtor's annual client appreciation picnic, and had a blast, as usual there. The kids rode a pony, roasted "smarshmallows" and bounced in a bounce house out at "the farm."

THEN.. (yes, it gets better, at least for mommy!) Mommy got a deep tissue massage, a full hour! Wow.. I feel SO relaxed now.. let's hope my neck and shoulders are still feeling better in the morning. Otherwise I'm calling the doc on monday about more muscle relaxers. I'm doing everything I can think of.. relaxing music, hot baths, moist heat compresses, gentle stretching, etc.. and still can't get some of the muscles in my neck and back to un-knot themselves! Oh well.
My kids are amazing. It makes up for it!

-Megan

Another Hurdle!

So another hurdle has been jumped.
We talked to a new adoption lawyer, who is VERY good at what she does. The firm has been named one of the Texas Best in Family Law, and after one conversation, I can see why. She talked about all the extraneous fees that make adoptions so expensive, and also told me about all the ways they can ask for those to be waived because they have such good working relationships with other lawyers (as in the ones who might be appointed ad litem to our little one during the adoption process) and judges and such.

So we are finding that this adoption is not only going to be substantially cheaper than our other lawyer quoted for us, but it is going to be down right affordable. My mother, who was a witness for one of their cases) says that they usually let you pay it off too after paying an initial chunk.
Looks like we won't have to go into any kind of read debt over this adoption (a VERY real possibility, as the rumors you hear about domestic infant adoption being insanely expensive), and probably won't need to ask for any help from anybody else. That is if everything goes as planned, and there are no complications.

Now we know, that with most adoptions, there can be complications. So pray with us that we don't run into any major ones!
-Megan

Monkey's and Fire.

So today, Big A was looking over my shoulder while I was "Facebooking" and was on a friend's site, Nikki. Well, Nikki has her ultrasound picture of the baby (go wish her luck, and send prayers her way, she seems to be experiencing a little HG! :( ) as her profile picture. Big A pointed to the pic, and said "Hey, is that Mrs. Nikki's baby?" and I said "Yup! sure is!"
And relieved, he exclaimed "well, it's good I found it!"

And as if that wasn't funny enough, he then announced that "it looks like a monkey in there!"

I was nearly in tears! My kids are so funny.

The kids are also very excited about the possibility of a baby in the family. They have been talking a lot about it, and so have we, to start preparing them early, since this baby won't be one that grows in my belly and is easily "seen."

So we were talking today about how exciting it would be (we are still using "possible" terms) if a baby were to come join our family. How great the kids would be as big sisters and big brothers -again-. So I brought up the subject to talk about attention. That the attention is going to be divided a little differently for a while, because little bity babies take a lot of attention to grow up to know that they are loved, so we would all have to give the baby lots of attention, especially mom. They are going to have to learn to be a little more independent (shouldn't be a problem, my kids can do ANYTHING if you ask them!). But then I mentioned that they are all old enough to help mommy out with a baby! That they could go help grab a blanket, or diapers, or pacifiers if the baby needed it..

And Little A got really concerned, and said "mommy, I don't want to go get the fire, mommy, I want you to keep me safe!"
I then had to clarify that I said PACIFIER, not FIRE. I then had to go get a pacifier to show her what they were, because she didn't know what they were!

So cute.

My kids are amazing.
-Megan

Calling and News!

Just wanted to throw this out there, for prayers and support!

A new baby may be coming our way to join our family forever! We may very well be due in February, through the gift of adoption.

Most hurdles are jumped, the last thing on our list is finances.
Once we raise/save some of the money, we can apply for grants and such, but the baby is due in a mere 4.5 months! So finances are the big thing to pray for. Thankfully this will not be an expensive adoption, as there will be no agency involved, just our lawyer.

Of very few things we can be certain in our faith. One is once we're saved, we have assurance of our salvation. It is God's will that we be adopted into His eternal family. The other is that He has asked us to take care of the widows and orphans. That it is religion that God himself sees as faultless and pure.

James 1:27
religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this: to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world.

So we know that the calling to adopt is in fact from God, and we can be assured of this, but if THIS baby is to be ours, we are going to need funds. Please help us pray that that need will be met if it is in God's will that THIS baby will be ours.

In Christ,
Megan

Flu updates.

And now I have the flu too.

no fun!

I drove myself to the ER (not affiliated with any hospital, more like an urgent care place, for emergencies too. I presented with a fever that spiked out of nowhere. Severe body aches, a cough, congestion, nausea. The doc runs a rapid flu and strep test. (well, first of all, I could have told him that it wasn't strep. I have no tonsils or adenoids, and know NO ONE with strep right now. Plus, my throat wasn't that sore.. and the little bit that it is, is from the coughing that I've been doing. doesn't even hurt to swallow. AND I've had strep throat so many times I can't even count. I am well aware and remember clearly the pain of strep throat) Well, they both come back negative. BIG surprise, as the rapid flu test is only 50-70% accurate. That means that it has a 30-50% FAIL rate. DUH.

The findings confirm an earlier study by the CDC that found quick flu tests caught just 40 to 69 percent of swine flu cases. That study, released in August, looked at three popular flu tests -- BinaxNow, made by Inverness Medical Innovations, Becton Dickinson's Directigen EZ Flu A+B test and Quidel's QuickVue.

Both of my kids have flu. Big A has had it for a week, and is still not feeling 100%. Little A is still running a fever, for 3 days now. I am presenting with the symptoms and rate of onset typical with the novel strain H1N1, just like my children. Who live in the same house as I do. Who I have cuddled and kissed despite their being sick with the "hamthrax" as my friend calls it. I wipe their noses, feed them medicine, cringe when they cough in my face. I have the flu too. DUH.

Anyway, the doc proceeds to deny me a script for Tamiflu, even though the CDC's recommendations are to prescribe it for those with underlying conditions even upon a negative rapid strep test to prevent those of us with Asthma, from ending up in the ICU. From a CDC briefing on Sept 3rd:

or example, you have trouble breathing or you have an underlying condition, such as diabetes, pregnancy, heart disease, lung disease. For people who do have an underlying condition, it's important to be seen promptly if you get a fever. That could make the difference between being severely ill and recovering well. Treatment in the first 48 hours can make a big difference in hastening your recovery....

And:

his flu season, antiviral drugs are being used mainly to treat people who are very sick, such as people who need to be hospitalized, and to treat sick people who are more likely to get serious flu complications.

So, after all the run around I got at this ER Centers of America, I am FINALLY able to get ahold of the doctor on call who immediately called in the script, giving me no trouble at all once I told her about the asthma, and that my kids have it, and all my symptoms.

So, I've been taken care of, and thankfully my children are getting over it just fine, without the tamiflu. (they are really healthy kids, we're doing symptom relief, and watching them VERY closely to make sure they don't need to be seen by the ER again, but I think this time we'll go to a REAL ER, instead of that awful place i went and wasted my money on.

So, if you get anything out of this post, let it be this:
*don't bother with the ER if you are otherwise healthy. If what you have isn't H1N1, you'll probably come home with it, as the ER's are FILLED with flu patients.
*If you have an underlying condition that affects your immune system, or have chronic respiratory conditions, don't take "NO" for an answer. If they won't prescribe Tamiflu w/o a positive test, remind them that the rapid tests are as low as 40% effective, meaning that there could be a 60% rate of FALSE NEGATIVES, and that the CDC is recommending treating patients who are at higher risk of complications from the flu.
*Don't go to ER Centers of America.

Here's to feeling better tomorrow!
Prayers would be much appreciated, as it is really difficult to take care of kids while sick with the flu. lol!

-Megs

funnies and updates

More funnies!

The other day while driving over a bridge at our local park, E exclaimed "water, SHINY water!" (she IS my child!)

And I lost my train of thought. I had more, but can't remember them!

I woke up this morning at about 4:40am with a HORRIFIC crick in my neck. I sat up, quite painfully, and went into the kitchen to grab a drink of water while I was up, and while I was in there, read a note from Baron saying that he had been up with little A all night, and had just gone to bed. (little A has come down with H1N1. no fun!)
Everything was fine and dandy until I coughed, and sent a shock of pain through my whole top body (Baron-ism). It continued to get worse at a rapid rate, and by 10 min after waking up I was sobbing and shaking I hurt so bad. So I had to wake Baron up to try to help me, and we ended up calling my mother to come take me to the ER. The crick was conveniently located too near my chest, so every time I breathed, it was excruciating, and every time I coughed I wanted to vomit it hurt so bad. Thankfully there was NO wait at Baylor Plano, so by 6:30 I had morphine, vallium and toredol. Needless to say, I feel so much better, but I still have the crick (it's just minor now on meds) so I am still on the muscle relaxers and pain meds. hopefully I'll feel much better tomorrow, but thankfully Baron has all day off tomorrow too.

We've had a very interesting week at our house, with all the sickness and pain, but all told, my kids have been GREAT through it all.

I am a blessed woman.
God is good, all the time.
-Mega

H1N1

Oh No!

We've got the hamthrax again. No fun. Big A was diagnosed with it last friday, and he went back to school yesterday, but little a spiked a fever today after an impromptu nap (which was the exact same way that it started with Big A).

I also have bronchitis. Don't see any signs of bacterial infection, so I am just trying to manage my asthma the best I can and if it gets worse I'll go in.

Please pray that we all get to feeling better soon!

On another note, I got more caught up with laundry, swept the floor, got all the dishes done and prepped dinner all before the kdis got home from school! WOo hoo!
-Megs

So a few more funnies from my kids:

E calls starbucks "The mermaid coffee place"

Big A calls the garbage disposal "the growler"

-Megs