Sickness

It is that time again.

Many parents of children with Down syndrome will agree that sickness is something that keeps us on our toes. When Ellie gets sick, she gets better fairly quickly. When Nichole gets sick on the other hand, she gets really sick, and she is sick for longer.

We have been fighting this something for a while. Well, today was the day that Nichole woke up completely stuffed up. The "buggy machine" is being used and a lot of "gunk" is coming out. We are headed to the doctor and then the chiropractor.

Andy and I are planning on going away for our anniversary trip. I am not one to ask for antibiotics. But maybe this time, I will not fight them.

Your heart will break...

My friend Meredith wrote this beautiful poem that reminds me of so many orphans that are left to die without a mommy, a daddy. Without ever hearing the words, "I love you." Without ever being rocked to sleep, without ever being held.
No one knew they came and lived in our midst. Their absence today goes unnoticed. What is the meaning and value of life? Is it more than the walls of an institution and a cage called crib?
These precious and beautiful children, disposed by the world, yet, created fearfully and wonderfully by God! God's work of art, buried under the ground, and no one even knows. Who will cry for them, who will mourn their loss?

While we were...let's not forget...

While we were eating...
... they were hungry

While we were playing...
... they were restrained

While we were tucking our kids into bed...
... they were alone

While we turned up the heat...
... they laid in the icy cold

While we wrapped our children in blanket sleepers...
... they laid in their own excrements

While we sang songs and listened to music...
... they listened to the screams and cries of those around them

While we rocked our babies...
... they silently rocked themselves

While we hugged our kids...
... they scratched at their own faces and pulled their own hair for stimulation

While we cried over scraped knees...
... they moaned in their loneliness

While we brushed our daughters' beautiful hair...
... they had their heads shaven to stave off the lice

While we fought off the flu with love and nourishment...
... they got the flu and went Home.

No longer suffering... but so many more still are.

In memory of those that have never felt the love of a family, but have passed away alone. Today we learned of the passing of these two girls in Eastern Europe.

Margarita



Katarina


Visit Reece's Rainbow and learn more about these precious children!

Help Bring Jacob Home

My friend Brigitte is in the process of adopting a little boy from Eastern Europe. If you have looked around my blog you probably have noticed on the left column that there are three pictures of children with Down syndrome that are waiting to come home.

I want you to consider to help us bring Jacob home.

You will notice that I have a button for Tastefully Simple. If you click on the button, you will be able to order Tastefully Simple products on-line. They will be delivered directly to your home, and, best of all...25% of your purchase will go directly into Jacob's adoption fund!

This is a practical way for you to help us out. You will get the product that you love, plus you will know that you are helping a little orphan boy in Easter Europe so that he can have a mommy, a daddy, and a brother and sisters that will love him forever.

If you check out my friend's blog, you will see how much their arms ache to hold that precious child. Here is a baby that to many seems broken, he has been abandoned with nobody to care for him, yet, there is a family that wants to make a difference in his life and make him one of their own!

My heart aches with theirs because I now Jacob NEEDS a family. I also know that Jacob is the work of art of the Creator.

It is at times like this that I am reminded of the verse in James 1 where it says "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 to be polluted by the world."

Jacob is an orphan, but I know I can do something to help him. I know I can do a small part to help bring him home, right where he belongs, with his family.

Please join me in this effort and....... LET'S BRING JACOB HOME!

All Done

Last Monday we went to have Nichole's psychological evaluation. I was a little nervous about it, but it was not hard at all! The psychologist told me towards the end that Nichole was almost like a ten month old baby. Well, I would agree with that, I really would. How he got to that conclusion, well, that is a different story :)

There is a reason why there are so few psychologists willing to do these tests with babies or small children, now I know why. Instead of being frustrated or sad, I walked out laughing...a little. The MR label that was given to Nichole on Monday does not have the effect that I thought it would have. Probably because of her age, and the way the "test" was done. And this has more to do with the person performing the test.

We have this out of the way. Part of me does feel like rolling my eyes at...me. I wish I could go back and tell myself, "This is not a big deal!" But then again, in the journey of parenting, there are hard days, and there are times when things do get to us, and there are times when we struggle. It is part of being human.

Good thing God understands a mother's heart.