verdict is in

alright ladies and gentlemen...the verdict is in.

z-diddy and colalicious' parents relinquished their rights last week and confirmed it yesterday.
this means they gave up their rights. --probably because CPS discussed with them that if they had their rights terminated by the court instead of relinquishing, it would give them trouble if they ever had more children.

so that's that. now we wait 90 days for extended family to come forward and after that, adoption time.

we are set for elijah's adoption on october 22. big big day!

so all is well here. we are excited for all the kiddos to be ours. we are kinda attached. ;) we love them a lot.

thanks for the prayers!

colalicious top 10

colalicious is the baby of the family. he. is. awesome.
so we shall take a little time to delve deeper into what makes colalicious so amazing, fantastic, and cute.

1. colalicious is learning to walk. he's 15 months and can cruise with the best of them. not too interested in letting go, though
2. colalicious can make an elephant-like noise with his mouth and LOVES to imitate you when you make the noise too
3. colalicious eats everything in sight and can often be pacified by simply putting more food next to him. pretty easy going, i must say
4. colalicious loves to dance and kick his legs. he looks a bit like a frog attempting to jump. interesting
5. colalicious has 4 teeth and my, what big teeth they are. it's amazing what he can accomplish with just 4. makes me wonder what i need all my teeth for
6. colalicious is sick constantly. always on at least 3 meds. when he's sick he's on 6. we've gone 4 months between hospitalizations, so we are making great headway!
7. colalicious can clap and wave bye bye. these are huge steps in baby land
8. colalicious likes to play with his nebulizer and will actually put it up to his mouth to pretend to get a treatment. pretty hilarious since he screams bloody murder while actually GETTING the treatment
9. colalicious always wakes up at least once between the hours of midnight and 4am. he apparently really likes to scream his head off during this time. soothes the soul, i guess
10. colalicious, if he were not sickly, would be the most easy-going baby on the face of the planet. i look forward to seeing what he's like when he (hopefully) grows out of the sickness part

so there you go. all four kids are present and accounted for.
mediation for colalicous and z-diddy is tomorrow. this is parents' opportunity to relinquish their rights instead of having the rights taken away by the state.
we'll see. i'll let you know.

yet another one

so i haven't been around much this past week because our littlest has been in the hospital...yet again.

it is only ok because he is worth it.

but after this 4 day hospital stay, and my husband working overnight all weekend, we are slowly adjusting to even more sleep deprivation and more medications that we have to administer.

see, we have so many meds for him already that we had to buy a rather large tool box to store them all in so they are lockable. (foster care regulations)

but now, we have even more...where are we going to put all these?

the whole thing was just not a pleasant experience. emergency room at 8pm on wednesday, didn't get admitted to a room until 2am, moved rooms 3 times, rude doctor, discrepancies between what our pulmonologist says and what the hospital doctor says, breathing treatments every 2 hours. whew.

i. am. tired.

we got released and arrived home last night around 11:30pm. there's laundry to fold, kitchens to clean (apparently i have several), floors to be mopped, and kids to hug and hold.

i have made a master list, because that's how i roll. and i will slowly but surely check off each box throughout the next two weeks. --this is positive thinking.

God really truly provided for us during our stay. great and wonderful friends brought food, took the kids to the pool, and prayed. i am very grateful.

although we are home, the baby is not totally well. please continue to pray that he would recover fully and that we wouldn't see that hospital again for at least another 5 months!

the saga continues

no adoption in july

it's ok

don't cry about it

that won't do me any good ;)

our poor family tree.

alright here's the skinny on the "adoption that never was" --maybe that's a bit overdramatic... it's just postponed.

the baby, who has nothing to do with the adoption of elijah, hit his head. he fell. babies do this. -on occasion. fell and hit his head on the floor. shocked yet? nope? exactly.

but because he had a big ol' fat bruise on his forehead, i had to let CPS know, who in turn, had to let licensing know.

and then there's this thing called an investigation
it's exactly what it sounds like. and turns out, you can't adopt a kid while there's an open investigation on your home.

SO...we have to postpone it.
and that's ok. because if this was easy, everybody would be doing it. and we like to be the popular kids who try new things ;)

the end

no diagnosis

well i have good news and good news.

went to the geneticist today for the little baby and his parents did not come to the appointment, which made for a stress-free, lovely, almost holy experience. ;)

the other good news?
he does NOT have fetal alcohol syndrome. woohooooooooo!

one by one, we are checking off the boxes. no fetal alcohol, no damage from shaken baby. yeehaw!

how many can you name?

sorry that there haven't been many posts recently. besides being busy with our small tribe, i am a bit sickly and the hubs has been using the computer to finish grad school projects so he can graduate in MAY!! woohoooooooo!

i promise that soon there will be a light-hearted post that is full of blooms and blossoms and happy birds singing. but today, an update.

so more doctors for the baby. i know what you're thinking, "but marge, don't you have four children. why is every post about the youngest?" well, he's a bit of a high-maintenance dude. there are so many specialists that we are supposed to go see over the next few months. i need to schedule all of the appointments. here's the docs we're seeing. prayers are appreciated. 

1. geneticist 

2. ENT

3. GI doctor 

4. endocrinologist 

5. opthamologist 

6. pulmonologist 

7. blood work up 

--if we had a test later, how many would you be able to name? the hubs could only list two.

i promise i am not a hypochondriac. CPS and our pediatrician have referred us to all these doctors. a bit overwhelming, if you ask me. when i worked in ECI (early childhood intervention), we dealt with lots of parents who were in the process of getting a diagnosis for their child. there was a mourning process for them once they got that diagnosis. a mourning for the hopes and dreams they had for their child, and the realization that the life the child would have might be different. it didn't mean they had to change the dreams for their child, but they would have to realize that there might be obstacles that they would have to face together.

so over the next few months, we will be meeting all of these fabulous doctors, and hopefully we'll get more information that can help us address any of the baby's needs.

please pray for us as we get all of this information, wait in waiting rooms, find childcare for the other children, and deal with each diagnosis as it comes.