What our week looked like...

We've been doing a LOT of this lately.

"C, do you like it when Mommy lets you watch movies and play video games all day long?"

"Yeeeeeeaaaaaaah!"

Tickets to Kansas are booked.  Hopefully my ankle is better before we leave.  If not, all I've gotta do is get us on the plane and arrive in a place where there are people to take care of me.  :)

Mother's Day 2012

I crutched my way down to the playground in the morning so C could play and when we got back home our neighbors were out so I sat on the patio while the kids all played in the sandbox.  We spent almost three hours outside, completely absolving me of the guilty feelings I was sure to have at letting C watch movies/play video games for the rest of the afternoon so I could stay off my foot. ;) 

The night before I whined on facebook about needing my trash taken down to the dumpster and being out of laundry detergent.  While we were playing outside, my friend Amy showed up to take my trash out!  She asked if I got her text about laundry detergent and I told her my phone was in a bowl of rice (add dropping my phone into the toilet, that C forgot to flush, to my list of unfortunate events)  Anyway, sweet friend took my trash out and showed up an hour later with laundry detergent.

Grace picked us up and took us back to her house for a delicious Mother's Day dinner.



And then her husband stayed with the kids so she and I could go out!  We got ice cream and enjoyed a nice, long, uninterrupted conversation.  Perfect Mother's Day gift. :)

When we got home I got C in bed and then dug out the cards marked Mother's Day that my thoughtful hubby left behind. 

I am beyond blessed to be the mother of my sweet boys, to have a wonderful husband, and some truly awesome friends.

A series of unfortunate events...

I've been keeping a running tally of all the unfortunate events that have happened since hubby left a few weeks ago.  I had a doozy today so I thought I'd add it to the list and go ahead and write this post.

A few days after hubby left, I found a tick on the back of C's head.  Bleck!  It was his second tick in four days.  Thankfully, two days prior when I discovered the first tick I was able to call my husband, who rushed home from work and valiantly removed the tick from inside the fold of C's ear!  He also accompanied us to the doctor the next day while they checked out the site of the bite and shared with us the early signs of lyme disease to look out for.  So, left on my own, I pulled that second tick right off.  Ack!  It was, I'm almost positive, a deer tick.  So, I have been pretty neurotic about checking the back of his head for a bulls eye rash since then.  Speaking of which, a few days later while at McD's with friends, I noticed that C's ear (the one where the first tick was found) was bright red.  My friend concurred that it was indeed red and burning hot.  We decided on benedryl for the night with a trip to the doctor in the morning if it didn't look better.  It did get better so my guess is it was just irritated from, you know, that bloodsucking arachnid that was attached to his ear for I don't know how long.  I compare the appearance of his ears multiple times a day.  I keep deep woods off by the door now and we haven't had any tick sightings since.

No ticks is not synonymous with no trips to the doctor.  We went in for a cough C has had for over a month.  She thinks it could be allergies or just the fact that some people have more sensitive airways and take longer to get over a cold, or asthma.  She prescribed a nasal spray to clear up and gunk in his nasal passages and an inhaler to reduce the inflammation of his airways.  We are supposed to use them both for two weeks and head back in if he is still having problems.

So, off we headed to the pharmacy where I spent $33.34 on medications.  Well, not really.  The next morning I take the time to actually look at my receipt and discover that I spent $333.34!  Ohhhh crap.  Thank the Lord another trip down to Rite Aide got that little mix up corrected and got my checking account out of the red. 

A few days later we're driving along the highway and ding!  Aw, man was that a rock?  Whew, thankfully we covered this in the "what to do if..." game the hubs and I played before he left.  If a rock puts a nick in my windshield I just call our insurance company and they'll send someone out to fix it.  Perfect, I know what to do!  Someone does come to fix the teeny, tiny nick in my windshield.  His special little vacuum machine works wonderfully and pretty much fixes the nick right before it cracks out in three directions.  "I have some bad news.  The windshield just cracked right as I was finishing up.  So, you pretty much need a new windshield."  Good thing I got that $330 back from Rite Aide because I'm going to need it.

I get a debt collection notice in the mail.  It's for a trip in an ambulance in Tennessee last May for a Chandler Bowman.  Yeah, not us.  Hubby has been on the phone several times with the actual ambulance service and we thought it was all straightened out.  (It is now, supposedly)

I'm writing this post from my couch.  Which is not uncommon.  The fact that there are crutches propped nearby and ice on my ankle, however, is.  This morning we met up with my new friend (ironically this is the same friend who was with me when I lost my kid in the museum and shall henceforth be known as my 'bad luck friend.')  So, my bad luck friend and I met up to go for a jog alongside our kiddos while they rode their bikes.  It was fun!  Her little boy is riding sans training wheels so C is anxious to get started on taking his own off.  Unfortunately, our riding lessons will have to wait awhile. :(  We were almost back to their house when we encountered one of my bad luck friend's neighbors.  I was looking backwards after chatting and decided to take off again before actually turning my head back around!  Stepped right off the curb and my ankle just buckled underneath me.  Ouchy.  No, seriously, ouch!  I was crumpled up in the road for a good five minutes before I could even get myself back up onto the curb.  My bad luck friend ran home with her son while C and I partied it up on the side of the road while we waited for her to come rescue us in the car.  Rescue us she did.  My bad luck friend is shaping up to be one of the best ones I have around these parts.  She practically carried me inside and got me settled on her couch.  Then for the next 5 hours or so she fed us, pumped me up with pain meds, wrapped and iced my ankle, and all the while wrangled her own child and mine! 

Grace picked me up and took me to urgent care.  C stayed with my bad luck friend, who took him to soccer practice.  Grace and I picked C up from soccer, then she grabbed us dinner on the way home, got us settled at home and came back later to bring me an ankle brace and advil.  She also claims she was already headed to the store tomorrow so she took my grocery list (that I didn't quite make it to this afternoon).  My bad luck friend still has my car, but plans to bring it back when she picks us up for our soccer game tomorrow evening. 

Oh yeah, I need to cancel C's doctor's appointment scheduled for tomorrow morning.  Our two week regimen ended on Monday and the cough is back.

I was missing my husband today, that's for sure.  And what was on my doorstep when I got home at the end of this crazy day.  A package that he somehow arranged to have sent to me.  A "thank you for all my hard work."  So, while my ankle injury certainly come at an unfortunate time...the timing of that package was perfect.

Thankful tonight for a kind and caring husband and for kind and caring friends!!!

March for Babies 2012

This year was the first year that hubby hasn't been able to walk in the March for Babies with us.  (It was finally the first year that he was home on Wesley's birthday though!)  Many thanks to my sister for making the trip with B and joining us.  And while I am thanking my siblings, I have to brag on my brother for a minute.  Friday night my sis and I were talking about our fundraising and joking about how our brother hadn't donated to either of us.  We thought it would be fun to harass him a little about it, so I sent him a text message that told him how short we were of our $3,000 goal and did he want to just chip in for that last little bit? (and I was being funny when I said little bit...it was actually a pretty significant amount and I was totally joking and not at all suggesting he actually do it)  I went to bed that night and woke up the next morning to a text message on my phone sent just after I'd gone to bed.  "Haha.  Check your page."  He did it!!!  I was so touched by his generosity.  I felt like he really came through for me and it just meant so much.  What a great big brother!  Really, I was moved by the giving spirits of so many of my friends and family this year.  We raised $3,000 in Wesley's memory for the March of Dimes...an amount greater than what we raised in our first walk in 2009 just a couple of months after Wesley's passing.  Coming on the heels of Wesley's 3rd birthday, a day which few remembered/acknowledged, the donations of so many really reminded me of how very blessed and loved my little family is.

I have been waiting for an opportunity to take this awesome stroller that hubby's aunt gave us on a test run!  The walk was the perfect chance to try it out.  It performed wonderfully. :)

A little pre-walk fun.

Team Walking for Wesley at the March for Babies 2012!  A tiny team, but a powerful fundraising force to be reckoned with. ;)

There was a parade going through the city at the same time.  It made for a long walk as we had to share the intersections occasionally, but it provided some fun entertainment while we waited to cross.

C kept pointing behind us and talking about a naked man.  I finally saw what he meant when this guy passed us.  We had a nice conversation about the varying degrees of undress and agreed that this could, in the future, be referred to as "shirtless." ;)

We did it!

Mine

I am completely smitten with this child.  In my eyes, he just grows more and more handsome every day.  As if his good looks weren't enough to win me over, there's his silly sense of humor, his thirst for knowledge, his courageous spirit, and his tender heart.  I am so, so thankful that he is mine.

He is my firstborn.  His arrival made me a mama.  And while I have carried and loved a second son, and while I am waiting for and loving a third....C has really been my only child.  For coming up on 6 years now, he and I have been spending our days together.  There is no one else around to share the attention with, so we lavish it on each other.  Is he spoiled?  Yes.  (I really don't know how an only child can not be spoiled...it's just the nature of being the only one)  Am I spoiled?  Absolutely.

I am not naive as to how my little man's world is going to change with the addition of his new brother.  In just a couple of months, his world is going to be rocked.  My world is going to be rocked.  And, as previously discussed, we know lil' peanut's world will be rocked as well.  There's gonna be a whole 'lotta rockin' going on.  It will be challenging and it will take time while we all adjust to our new normal.



And as desperate as I am to have lil' peanut home, I have been feeling a different kind of desperation lately.  I am hyper aware right now of how magical this time is.  And I am desperate to cherish and treasure and hold onto these last precious months with my firstborn.  Just he and I.  Because I know that soon, it will never be like it is now again.

And I really, really love how it is now.  I have often heard that the transition from one to two children is the hardest to make.  I haven't even gone there yet, but I'm a believer.  Once you are already parenting multiple children, you know how easy it is to love them all.  But, when you only have one.  When you've only had one for so long...you wonder, will it be the same?  My love for them?  Again, I'm not there yet, but I think the answer is no.  It won't be the same.  I don't think it's meant to be.  Maybe it's similar to how I answer C's random questions about which toy/person/activity I like better.  I always say "I like them both for different reasons."  And then I go on to talk about what makes each one unique.  Is, "I love you both for different reasons" a good answer to those questions I'm sure are to come about who my favorite is? ;)  I do know this, there is one reason why I love my boys that they all have in common. 

I love them because they are mine. 

Love my little man

I sure do love this little boy!  He cracks me up sometimes.  I love his silliness and the little "what?" face he makes when I laugh at him like he doesn't know he's funny.  

The other day while I was in the shower he set up an egg hunt for me downstairs.  So random and fun!  He had gotten into his little cookie packs and he put one tiny cookie inside each egg.  Then he made me find them with my eyes closed!  Ha!  And then after we had lunch he ate all the cookies.  With the exception of the last one which he did save for me. ;) 

I am so thankful for this little blessing in my life!!!

Submitted for EP!

Today I am rejoicing over the news that our lil' peanut's paperwork was finally submitted to the ministry!  And I am earnestly praying for all the mamas who are still in the place where I was just this morning.  The place of uncertainty, the place of an aching heart...the place of waiting, and waiting, and waiting.  I know.  And I'm thinking of you.

I had heard rumors of a 3rd batch being submitted on the 2nd, but if I've learned anything in this process it's not to trust the rumors.  But, based on our acceptance date, I knew we would be in the 3rd batch so I've been checking my email like a crazy person these last few days.  This morning I was emailing back and forth with a friend from our agency who was submitted in batch 2 and just got EP approval.  She asked if I had heard anything.  I told her no and then asked if our country specialist called or emailed her when they were submitted.  Literally the second I hit send my cell phone rang!

I didn't recognize the number so figured it might be a telemarketer.  But, then I thought "That's weird, telemarketers usually call my home phone.  How did they get my cell phone number?"  I answered.  And a woman's voice said "Hi Rachel?"  "Yes" I answered.  "It's J from CHSFS"  And that's when my waterworks started.  "Hi J."  Trust me, I wrote that much clearer than I said it.  Oh no, what if she is calling about something totally random like an expired piece of paperwork.  I'm going to feel like an idiot for crying if this isn't about our EP submission.  And then I'm going to cry harder when I find out this isn't about our EP submission.  "I have good news for you."  Ok, I'm going to cry harder regardless.  "Your little guy's paperwork was submitted to the ministry."

And a huge wave of relief just washed over me.  I got off the phone with her and immediately started calling my mom.  I can't call my husband (sound familiar?  Same thing happened on referral day!) and I am dying to share this news.  She is not answering.  Cell phone, house phone, my Dad's cell phone.  Where are they?  What are they doing?  Ahhhh!  My brother's cell phone.  Not answering!  People, where are you?!?  Finally I get my mom on her cell phone.  And I am hysterical.  The first words out of my mouth are not about the reason I'm crying.  Nope, instead I decide to yell at her for not answering her phone!  Ha!  Not really yell, but sob/blubber/cry that "I've been trying to call you.  Why didn't you answer your phone?  Why weren't you answering your phone?!?"  Let's see, my husband is deployed, I have a young child at home, I have a history of  strange medical issues that sometimes land me in the emergency room...it was so kind of me to totally freak her out, right? ;)  I finally got out that our paperwork had been submitted.  She said, "Oh!  These are happy tears!  I thought something was wrong."  Where did she get that idea? ;)

The 10th of this month will mark 16 months since I first saw my baby's face.  Oh, it has been a long 16 months.  We do have some more waiting in store for us, but I am finally seeing the light at the end of this tunnel.  I will get another phone call when we receive EP approval (3-8 weeks from now) and then the long awaited TRAVEL CALL (1-3 weeks after EP approval)  So, essentially, in 1-2 months I will be in the same country as my son.  The same room!  Oh my heart.

My mom pointed out that today is the National Day of Prayer.  I didn't know that, but it is certainly fitting.  I know there have been a lot of people praying my sweet boy home.  We're almost there.