14 years ago......

This 21 pound, nine month old bundle of joy was handed to us at the Civil Affairs Bureau office in the Guangdong province of China.   We had waited 405 days for her referral and with a bit of a bump in the process we were on the plane to go meet her just a week after our referral came for her.  All the other families in our group were getting their babies from another province so we were the only ones who would be meeting our baby that day.

She was very stoic during our first few hours together.  She was watching us like she was very interested in this alien looking family who had met her.   She did not cry and there was a little bit of a smile a time or two but mostly just curiosity as to who these people were she was being given to.  As long as we mixed her formula hot and had 10 ounces of it that she could suck down in a few seconds she was very happy.

Her older siblings were fascinated by her and big brother had her cackling a time or two.   She was a rolly polly little Budha baby whom the orphanage said was given the very best formula...which we also was loaded with sugar...no wonder she was a Budha belly baby :)

Even though she was a Non special needs infant, don't let that beautiful face mislead you.   She tested positive for syphilis and had to have two very large injections of penicillin to treat the disease and remove it from her system.  She also had to have a spinal tap to make sure that she did not have any problems with her spinal fluid being taken over by the syphilis and we had long bone xrays to make sure she was okay....and okay she is.   She does suffer some hearing loss from the syphilis and wears hearing aides bilaterally and she does have some vision loss caused by the same disease.  She has been diagnosed with ADHD and takes medication to help her concentrate and the rest of to stay sane when she forgets to take the medication.

But we can not imagine our lives without this firecracker in it!   She keeps us all on our toes and her OCD tendencies keep us in line.   She has the tenacity of a horse and she will go far in this life.

We love you ZoraLin MeiHe to the moon and back!  They were so right that you were our child!!

2nd runner up in spelling bee

Kendalan decided in Kindergarten that she wanted to be a spelling bee champion.   She has practiced every year.   A few years back in 4th grade she was the third runner up.   This year she was the 2nd runner up and will be able to participate in the State spelling bee in February.   Dad and I both attended the spelling bee.  There were 15 participants from 4th, 5th 6th, 7th and 8th grades.   We were on the edge of our chairs as the participants walked up to the podium.    It was nerve racking for me, I can only imagine the stress Kendalan was under.   Many words would have put me out a long time before the word "opinionated" knocked her out.   Personally, she and I think she spelled the word right but the judges did not hear her correctly.   Oh well, she will go to the spelling bee and in the mean time we will be practicing lots of spelling words.

Today was supposed to be an icy day out.   However, it was rain instead of ice.   I felt like I had been cooped up in the house for several days and decided that I would run to JoAnn Fabrics and get the things that I needed to start preparing to make a T-shirt quilt.  Zora decided to go with me and as usual, Mom was convinced to buy some fleece so Zora could make her boyfriend a blanket.   I think that it turned out very nicely.   Tessa, Kendalan and Zora tied the fleece after Mom cut the pieces straight and cut the "fringes" for them to tie.   The back is red.   Nice colors picked out by Zora with a little influence from the boyfriend :)

Our dog, Pugston, has been having some health problems.   He has a deformed toe with nail on his right front paw.   The nail grows and curls back into his toe if we don't get them trimmed frequently. We were very busy this summer and his toenails grew almost overnight it seemed.   The next thing I knew he was limping and favoring his front right foot.   He will NOT let us trim his toenails.  He turns into a 50 pound mass of muscle and there is no way that Dad and I can hold him down to trim his nails.  So we have to take him to our vet each time.  We thought that we had the nail thing under control after taking him every 3 weeks to have them trimmed, but I have noticed that he is limping pretty bad each morning when he gets up.   It is almost like he is getting arthritis in his legs.  He also had his teeth cleaned a couple of summers ago and a couple of tumors removed.  It looks like his teeth are giving him problems again and he has a couple of bumps that are suspiciously looking like new tumors.   He will be 9 years old on January 29th.   I did some research this past week and his breed of dog has a life expectancy of 9 to 15 years.   We do not have the funds right now to have his teeth cleaned...if that was an option and it was very expensive to have tumors removed.  We are praying that we will not have to let him go to the rainbow bridge soon.

Dad continues on his IV inotropes.  He had an appointment in Omaha this past week and they said it looks like he is doing great.  So we are keeping the IV running and the phone lines open!

Heart status

Dad was in the hospital over the New Year and his birthday.   He is now on IV inotropes that he is getting 24 hours a day per a tiny IV pump attached to his right arm where he has a PICC line.   He has been listed as a 1B status on the heart transplant list.   This is second in line as a 1A status is in the hospital on life-saving support systems.  

The girls and I drove to Omaha to see him right after his birthday.   They taught him how to do Snapchat.   Mom is still a Snapchat novice...don't care!   Then we went back on Tuesday and brought him home.   Mom gets to care for his IV pump here at home after having passed doing it in the hospital and again here at home with the home health nurse watching my every move.   Very nervous having someone watch over my shoulder even after all these years of being an RN.

They say that it could take up to one year before he could get a new heart.   He met a woman in the hospital who had been listed 5 weeks before and she was going home with her new to her, week one new heart.   She looked and said she felt great!  

While there are things that one must resolve in their heads and hearts about organ donation and transplant we have thought of what another family has to go through to give life.   It is not easy for either family.   We are not praying for anyone to die, we are praying that God will be in the right place and His hands will guide the doctors.