More catching up and Maggie's new wheels!.

We have had a few changes the past month. Mike got a new-old job. He started this past week a "new" job with Energy Northwest(nuclear power plant). It is an "old" job as he worked for them before for many years. When Jonathan was gearing up for bone marrow transplant Mike accepted a job with Washington Group working on the Vit Plant (building a waste treatment facility). God answered many prayers for our family when Mike got the WA Group job. That job allowed Mike much more time with the kids when I was far away in Seattle with Jonathan. His brand new fellow employees at the Vit plant also donated enough personal vacation days to Mike that he was able to work part time and still get a full time paycheck for three months! That company was AWESOME to our family and we will always be grateful for his time there. I kinda knew my guy wouldn't be happy forever doing that kind of work though. He missed the challenges at Energy Northwest. We are happy Mike is back there and not at all ruffled that it is a $800 dollar a month pay cut for awhile.....Because of the temporary pay cut we have tightened up the budget. The only hard part was taking Solomon out of West Side Preschool. I really had been thinking Solly may have to stop preschool when the baby boys come home anyway. I knew loading up two babies to take Solomon back and forth to preschool would be a major pain. As far as the budget goes, it's not too bad. I know well how to live "poor". The only thing that really gets me now is not being able to practice "retail therapy". That is what I call shopping for the waiting baby boys. It is so hard to WAIT for them. Preparing and getting everything ready for their homecoming feels like I am doing SOMETHING to help them. Really the best thing I can do is pray more and keep learning to turn my worries for the babies over to the Lord. I want them home SOOO bad, so does Mike. Their court date is Wednesday the 21st...so we will know more in a few days about just when they might be home. My friend Sage whose daughter's court date was last week passed! Yahoo! Please pray Assefa and Gezehegn both pass court on Wednesday. As far as the "retail therapy" I am surviving. I know that God has never failed to meet our needs. That is miraculous! First off He always provides the money we need for the adoptions AND provides for all the children's practical needs. Right now I am saving for a good quality double stroller, and two more car seats. Gezehegn has enough clothes as he is about the same size Jonathan was. I am happy to be able to use Jonathan's cute clothes for Gezehegn. If it turns out that it makes us too sad to see Jonnie's stuff on another child, I will just get Gezehegn different clothes then. I really think we'll be okay with it. Assefa is size 6-9 mos now and I have VERY little for him. I am waiting till I know for sure when he will be home to buy anything for him. So...if anyone has hand-me-down boy's clothes size 6-12 months you know who to call.....we never turn down hand-me-downs!

Biggest Praise: Speaking of God always providing for our family's needs.....Thank you Lord for Maggie's new wheelchair!!! You may remember me whining and lamenting Maggie so BADLY needing new wheelchair. Well, two years and one month after we started the process for a new wheelchair....it was finally delivered! The wheelchair guy came and spent an hour or so adjusting it all to fit her. I cried to see her sitting in something that supports her body correctly and looks comfortable. The price tag was just under $7000. Praise You God also for medical insurance! You might also notice her braids....I did them myself! Usually the braiding is done by an older Ethio teen. My fingers don't work as well as theirs do with all that. I heard from another mom (Sage) about "yarn" extensions. I checked it out on You Tube and watched a few videos explaining how to uses yarn for hair extensions. It was easy! I used on Maggie some yarn we had laying around the house. It was black yarn with little flecks of colors throughout. She has had the yarn extensions in three weeks now and they still look perfect.

Here is Maggie in her new wheels....




Here is Daddy showing Maggie her new yarn hairdo in bathroom mirror. Maggie's hair doesn't grow on the back of head and never has. Her head is always against the ground, headrest, etc...so she is rather bald in back. Having pretty hair to style on front of head means a lot!











Julee

New Shoes & Prayer Needs

Well I’m not keeping up with this new blog thing. I plan to work on that habit and post more often. The children are all adjusting well to starting public school. Even my three 1st graders seem to be surviving. I think starting 1st grade is so hard for most kids. It’s a long day for little bodies. They do come home exhausted. I thought we’d escape for awhile the “back-to-school” clothes shopping expense. But all the grade school kiddos have something called “P.E.” that requires tennis shoes …..I was shocked to discover the tennis shoes that hadn’t been on kid’s feet since we switched to sandal weather last spring, are all too small this fall! Seven spanking new pairs of shoes later and I sadly realized summer was over. Summer means sandals. Sandals mean I don’t have to find eight pairs of socks every morning for little feet. Here is proud Berhanu and Josiah off to 1st grade with their brand new sparkling white tennis. Those shoes glow they are so pristine and new…for one day anyway.

Maggie is our other 1st grader. She loves going to school and has been very sad to be kept home the last two days. She is having problems again with her feeding. Maggie is G-tube fed and usually on a pump overnight with food/formula and bolus (gravity fed a tubes of food/formula) fed during the day. At times she has so much reflux and retching that she can barely keep anything down. She is on meds for reflux. This is a common problem with people like Maggie who don’t eat by mouth. Our bodies are not made to function by being fed through a tube in our stomach. We’ve had to keep her home from school to try to get some calories in her. She’s starving and weighs a little less than she did a year ago. I have spent hours on the phone with specialists and made the earliest appointment available to see her doctors at Children’s Hospital in Seattle……in December. (She is on waiting list in case of an earlier opening) We have had some success feeding her “real” food blenderized in our Vitamix and feeding her tiny amounts every 20 minutes. That is what I’ve been doing the last 48 hours. She looks better, eyes are brighter and she seems more comfortable. By “real food” I mean regular healthy food made into a liquid rather than the specially made canned formulas created to sustain life of those people not able to eat by mouth. Here is Maggie in her temporary wheelchair and her new shoes which are her braces called AFOs. Maggie’s AFOS cost $1343.52 which is quite a bit more than it costs to buy shoes for the entire rest of he family. At least our portion the co-pay was only $309.60 after insurance paid their part. Update on wheelchair saga…It is now 18 mos since we started trying to get her new chair. She grew out of her old one last spring and had nothing. But God answered our prayers and provided this one for the time being. This chair was left out in a field for four years to rust and the padding rot off. Someone brought it to the Dept.of Disabilities in case it could be donated to needy person. Unbelievably Mike was able to fix it to work for Maggie…for now. She really needs her new wheelchair! I call every week on Monday to cry to the wheelchair place responsible for getting the paperwork maze completed to okay her new chair. This is the company that will build it once our two insurances have agreed on things. This week I called to harangue the “wheelchair guy” only to find out he doesn’t work there anymore. For some reason I wasn’t surprised. Ugh. What to do?! Please pray. I feel I might become a terrorist over this. Mostly please pray that we can stabilize Maggie’s feeding issues very soon and she can start gaining weight.

Solomon started preschool today. His morning was total and complete boundless joy. The child never stops moving. He doesn’t ever walk, he runs or skips or hops. Sometimes I feel impatient trying to hold the hand of a bouncing Tigger boy Solomon across the parking lot. Then I think how silly of me Lord. We never thought this child would walk; let alone run, jump and bounce! What a miracle he is. They all are. Thank You God for bringing Solomon to our family and for healing Solomon’s spine. We prayed for his life to be saved, and really barely asked for divine healing of his spine. May we never forget what You can do and Your extravagant love and delight in giving good gifts.

New Years, Birthday Happenings, and Travel Plans postings to come soon. Thank you very much for praying for Maggie!

Julee