Today was a Ziva day.  She was at Mimi’s house yesterday, which, often means copious amounts (and I mean COPIOUS amounts) of blueberries and other fruits.  So, after struggling through morning sickness while changing her first nasty diaper this morning I had to spirit her off the changing table and let her run around in her diaper while I had another session with my face in the toilet.  It’s exhausting throwing up, so I figured the kids would be OK running around in just thier diapers/undies for a little while so I could “re group” and hopefully get some more food down my throat in the hopes that something would stay.  I set myself up on the couch to relax (we’ve had a busy week, so I’m sore all over too) and shortly there after Vienna comes RUNNING down the hall screaming “MAMA…ZIVA’S GOT POOPIE IN HER BUTT CRACK!!!!” What!?!?!  I get up expecting to see a flow of “blueberry revenge” up Ziva’s back, which is often what happens after she consumes her body weight in the “they’re so good for you” fruit.  Noooooo such luck!  As I reach my bedroom (where the changing table is) I see Ziva… 10 wipes strewn about her, rear end COVERED in black blueberry crusties… COVERED! and not a diaper in sight!  I get her cleaned up, get a diaper on, get some pants and a shirt on (in the hopes she can’t get those off as easily as her diaper) and start the hunt for the diaper.  I hunt, and hunt, and hunt… worried that my nose is going to find it before my eyes do and that it’s going to start another round of toilet facing!  After an HOUR I gave up… but when the girls and I started some Mac & Cheese lunch for the girls I found that she’d left her diaper, complete with ginormous “gift” neatly deposited in the trashcan   ahhh… Thank the Good Lord that she’s got some of her father’s “tidy” tenancies!

This isn’t the first time Ziva’s tried to take care of her diaper herself. Lately I’ve been finding her about once a week.  She climbs up on the changing table and takes her diaper off and starts wiping… this is just the first time she’s done it with a “messy” diaper.  Thankfully with Vienna’s example she’s potty training quite well right now… so hopefully before baby #3 arrives I can have her in panties during the day… oh, wouldn’t that be something!!!

But, the day moves on.  I get my tummy calmed down and decide to Facebook the above event of the day.  But since the computer makes me a bit sea sick at times I decided to walk away and take a potty break myself.  I guess leaving these kids alone in a room for too long is not so very safe!!!

My girls and I like to cook together, and today they both helped me make Mac & Cheese.  Usually Ziva is relegated to just watching because I don’t always trust her to not burn herself (she’s VERY good at grabbing at hot stuff) but today I thought I’d let her give stirring (with a VERY long wooden spoon) a try. She did a great job.  Well, while I was back in the bathroom she apparently got a hankering for some of her favorite food… eggs… She got in the fridge, opened the egg carton and started making herself an omelet… SANS BOWL, SANS PAN.  I’m happy to report that the eggs have been cleaned up, the stove is nice and sparkly and there’s only about 15 minutes until nap time!!!

I shall survive this day

It all started sooo well. We were packed and ready to go. Everyone was calmly excited (well, for the most part). We got to PDX in plenty of time, quickly checked into the airline and headed off to our gate to wait our 11 p.m. flight to Chicago.
The girls were excited, and wide awake. We ran up and down the halls and rode the people movers trying to get out all the energy we could. The girls had bunches of snacks and were in their jammies anticipating sleeping on the plane.. excitement was in the air! All were happy.

There was a full flight for the trip from PDX to Chicago. I was shocked to find not an empty seat on such a late night flight. We were the only family with kids save one other toddler on board, at least that I saw or heard. Vienna was sooooo excited she did NOT want to sleep. But quickly after take off Ziva nodded off to sleep. After much coaxing, Vienna finally drifted off to sleep, only to wake about 40 minutes later.

She didn’t just wake up. She woke up SCREAMING. Not JUST screaming… but screaming MOMMY MY BUTT HURTS over and over again. (oh yes, such a proud moment). So off to the tiny little confined space they call a lavatory! Vienna cried the whole walk down the long long isle… she wouldn’t walk, so I attempted to carry her without falling into anyone (are isles getting MUCH skinnier to any of you!?!?!) We got to the bathroom and I pulled down the changing table so I could have a platform to stand Vienna on to see what this “pain” she was having was all about. Yes people, I was tired… TIRED I’m saying… was I thinking? NO, I WAS TRIED!

So, off came the jammies and diaper and as I reached for the baby wipes it happened! Suddenly, a full bladder decided that it was time to let go… and let go with a force!!! Not just a gentle little trickle onto the table… but a full on geyser that drenched the whole of the tiny compartment. My shirt, pants, shoes, diaper bag and brand new, perfectly clean socks that were in the front pouch of the diaper bag all be came victims to its flow! All the while mind you my daughter is screaming and crying uncontrollably. There wasn’t much I could to about the incident… it happened so fast, but the sink was the only solution so as quickly as could be expected I just sat Vienna into the sink. Waterfall exhausted I was able to clean the changing table quickly and get Vienna stood up and the new thing of baby wipes open (no small feat while you’re trying to balance a toddler on a little table in a tiny room while the airplane is rocking all about!).

I know what you’re thinking “I will never use an airline bathroom again!!!” But me being the responsible person that I am, and despite the protests of my daughter, I started to swab down what felt like every surface of that tiny little closet! I did ok, until I got to the floor. Now, I’m not a small woman, and there was NO WAY for me to swab up the huge puddles that had appeared on the floor. Not without opening up the door. Now, in this particular airplane arrangement, the bathroom is situated just in front of the stewardess’ jump seat… so, in order to swab the floor, I must squat to the floor and stick my least flattering portion of myself out the door and basically into the face of the stewardess, all the while calling out apologies over my shoulder to her and all the other passengers patiently waiting to use the loo. Remember, Vienna’s still crying uncontrollably (and now complaining of being cold because she has been stripped down to nothing but a diaper!)

I was able to clean everything up (save myself really) and took Vienna back to our seats, got into the over head bin and dug out her jeans and t-shirt and got her dressed before I stared loosing it. In my own defense, I was tired, and tired for me means emotional… so, I left both the girls with Sam and headed back to the back spot in the airplane to have a little cry (so as not to completely flip Vienna out, she can’t stand it when I cry). So, the steward and another passenger were soooo nice about it all, they chatted with me and made me feel much better about the mess we had made in the bathroom! ?

I headed back to my seat and found Vienna still awake. She didn’t sleep the rest of the flight. Finally after long sleepless hours we approached Chicago. However, it was going to be anything but a typical landing! Chicago was having a wonderful thunder shower so we got to stay up in the air an extra long time, lucky us!!

The captain came on over the loud speaker and announced that he was sorry for the delay but he had found a window within the storm with which to land through, so we were going to make an attempt at landing. It was really bumpy and we were getting jostled about enough that Vienna was getting nervous, never mind the strobe light effect the airplane landing lights against the clouds… oh, and then the silly little little thing of having lighting ALL AROUND US!!! Vienna was white as a sheet… an I was getting dizzy!

Vienna was squeezing my hand and asking questions and then staring with terrified eyes at the seat in front of her… Sam was holding Ziva who thankfully remained asleep. We finally touch down and you can feel most of the tension in the plane dissipate. Except for Seat 5c… I’m getting dizzier, and more and more nauseous. Yep, it happened. Four times in fact!! I tried to be as discrete as possible (holding the emergency information folder up on front of the side of my face so those around me couldn’t see) Sam kept Vienna distracted so at least that didn’t cause her to panic more!

We finally deboarded and began to walk through the terminal to find our pending departure gate and wait out the 12 hour lay over that we had. Thankfully we asked before we left the domestic wing… there wasn’t much over in the international wind by way of food and entertainment. So back down to terminal 2 to find the kids play area. We didn’t find it right away, but we found a nice quiet little area (amazing considering how many flights were cancelled/delayed due to the storm) I laid the blanket out on the floor and forced Vienna to lay down and attempt a nap, I laid beside her in hopes of catching a few winks myself, but it didn’t happen. Then I hear it… “ak, ak, ak, slleerrrp” I look up to see Ziva coughing in Sam’s arms, and on Sam’s shirt I saw the evidence of what I knew must have happened. Ziva got sick all over him. Thankfully it had been many hours since she had eaten, so the clean up was not so bad.

Praise the Lord our wait in Chicago was not as difficult as we had anticipated it to be. For several hours Vienna slept peacefully on the floor and Sam dozed off and on with Ziva fast asleep in his arms. I even laid down on the seats for a bit and caught a few z’s before the area we were in filled up with stranded travelers.

After getting some breakfast, and then a little lunch as well, we headed off and eventually found the play area for the kids and let them run around there for a while to have fun. So thankful they had that area for them!

I was anxious to get over to the international terminal and get checked in with LOT (polish airlines) but the guys were in no hurry. Fortunately Vienna was ready to go so we went earlier than the guys had wanted. The line for LOT was REDICULOUS! I have emptied a jar of molasses faster than this line moved!!

We got to the counter and the gal behind the counter says to me “you know that we don’t have seats for you?” WHAATT!?!?! My over tired brain at first did not realize that she jut meant that we didn’t have seats assigned to us and that they didn’t think they had any thing other than single seats throughout the plane to sit in (so we couldn’t sit beside each other at all… this included Vienna who was supposed to somehow sit in a seat all by herself!) Thankfully she skiddered off into another room and came back with seat assignments for the four of us all together (with Matthew directly behind us). Not only did we get to sit together, but we also got to sit at the bulkhead so that we could have more leg room and Vienna could actually lay on the floor and sleep!!!! And thus ended the nightmare that began this travel!!!

We made it to Warsaw just fine and to the gate to our final flight quite uneventfully! Our last flight was easy and blissfully short!!

When we arrived in Kiev we got through Passport Control with just a short wait and no painfully slow clerk with oodles of questions ? nice! Off to collect our baggage, nice and quick and right through customs without any stops! As we approach the exit door to the area where family would be waiting I saw it! ? Right in the front as close to the door as she could be without actually crossing through the door and into the customs area Marie stood… on her tippy toes, waving frantically! Yep, I lost it… exhausted as I was I started crying…. We’d finally arrived!! It was soooo sweet to finally get to hug all the family! The van ride back to Rhizhishv, though bumpy, was great. Ukraine feels a bit like home, even though I’ve never lived here myself. It was nice to recognize the route we were taking back to the village. We arrived at their house around 5pm, Es was here waiting for us and quickly dinner was ready and on the table. Vienna was too tired to eat and was asleep as soon as her head hit the pillow. Ziva pretended to eat, but went down soon there after just as easily!

Sam’s parents arrived around 7pm and we were in bed asleep by 9:30 and slept blissfully well with only two wake ups by the girls (and they quickly went back to sleep, so with jet lag and all I expected the first nigh to be much more difficult!!!)
The girls and I woke at 3 a.m. but thankfully we have a nice little device our friends lent us that had a strawberry shortcake video loaded on it, so the girls watched that until it was late enough to go downstairs and play with their cousins who were waiting for them!! Ahhhh… sooo wonderful!

More adventures to follow!!

It’s no secret that since returning to the States finances have not been something we’ve had in abundance.  Don’t get me wrong, we’ve never gone hungry, or suffered from not seeing the doctor, been late on all our bills or called by a collection agency or anything like that… but, there have been months when every dime we’ve had pretty much just went to standard living… food, electric, water, gas and the like.  This  means that often gifts and things like clothes get put off or missed completely for a while.  It gets a little old when you have friends having babies or getting married or are having surgery and need a meal, and there you are, unable to purchase them even the smallest of gifts, or fix them a batch of soup or make up a simple casserole.

Sometimes I wonder if the Lord ever missed a bridal or baby shower, or brought a casserole to a friend.  But then I remember, He’s on the “man” side of human nature in His earthy role… so, these weren’t his concerns in the day.  That was left for the Marry’s and the Martha’s J

Last Christmas was another one of those times for us.  Thankfully I had shopped earlier in the year for the girls gifts and had them nicely tucked away for Christmas.  But Sam and I had decided that it was not going to be a year that we could find gifts for each other.  I was fine with that, Christmas for me isn’t about the gifts and it doesn’t change my understanding that Sam loves me if I don’t get a gift from him on Christmas. But I had a baby shower coming up.  It was a special friend, it was her first baby… I wanted to go, and I wanted a gift.  My heart was broken that I couldn’t get her anything.  Finally I spoke with Sam and he said that since we weren’t gifting each other, if I didn’t get stockings either I could pick up a gift for the baby shower.  I was so excited to have my $30 limit!   I got on line and looked at her registry.  Tried  to find something I’d like to purchase her.   I found a gift in my price range and headed out the door to the shower intending on stopping at the store on the way!

I got to the store and searched high and low.  I pulled the paper registry to find the isle location for the item I had chosen… it wasn’t there.  After getting the assistance of three workers, I gave up the hunt.  Having no idea what to pick up for my friend I searched the isles… then I found it!!!! The item that I had wanted for my friend was right there, tucked behind a bunch of other items!!!  I was sooooo excited.  Knowing I was on a tight budget, and not wanting to humiliate myself by getting up there and finding out the item was more than I expected I did what I always do… I found the little scanning machine so it would tell me exactly how much the store was going to charge me.  Beep… item not found.   Beep… Item not found… grrr… Running out of time I decided to risk it.  I headed up to the check out, item in hand, just praying it wasn’t over the $30 limit I swore to Sam I’d stick under!

Finally it was my turn in line.  I readied myself to grab a gift card in the event that the item was over the price I had expected it to be.  Beep… manager assistance needed.  Great… As the manager approached I realized it was one of the ladies that was helping me in the isle.  I told her excitedly that I actually found one (contrary to the computer that said there was none!)  “Wow, this really is your lucky day” she says as she reaches over and types in her managers code.  The young man that was attempting to check me out says, “That’ll be six dollars and seventy three cents please.”  WHAT!?!?!  “Yep says the manager, you found one that was on final clearance.” Hallelujah!  Not wanting to arrive there and find out she decided she didn’t need said item that I purchased I grabbed a gift card for $20 (so she could take it back and get something at the price that I had intended to gift her if she had changed her  mind.)   I left so thrilled, but ultra paranoid that the gift was one that was already purchased or no longer wanted (not that my friend would have cared at all… why do we stress like that!?!?!)  When she opened her gift, she was ultra excited!  It was the one thing she was hoping she would get still!  I was thrilled… not only had I chosen something my friend liked and would use every day, but I now had a gift card to purchase a Christmas gift for Sam with!!

I knew I wasn’t supposed to get Sam a gift, but I also knew that he had a need.  A need for a pair of jeans that didn’t allow for others to know the color of his under garments!! When I returned to the store a week later, I found not only jeans for the gift card price, but also a nice new top that would allow him to wear some of his summer wear in the winter time as well!! PRACTICAL!!!!  The Lord sure was looking out for me that Christmas.  As His timing would have it, a check came in just in time, and I found a pretty little package for me wrapped up under the tree.

It’s silly really.  We would have lived without gifts for Christmas, and there was nothing so urgent about being able to purchase my friend a gift. But these were things that were dear to my heart… and the Lord worked it all out.  We are truly blessed!  Thanks !

Sam remains the best husband in the whole world, and the love of my life! 



He’s done a fabulous job of working hard at siteCoffee and building PixelCliff, I’m so proud of him!  He’s been getting more involved with the men’s ministry at our church by joining David’s Men and the Men’s Ministry Team.  It’s been great for him to feel like he’s starting back in ministry again, but it’s a far cry from being in ministry full tim for him or being in leadership… but one step at a time!  Vienna’s doctor asked for EKG’s from all of our family and when Sam had his done they confirmed that he indeed still has the hole in his heart that he was born with.  We’re still in process for followign through with testing with a specialist with him, but it’s not something that we are terribly concerned with at this time. But apparently he hasn’t fully filled it with Jesus yet (LOL ha ha ha… bad joke, but I just had to!)

Our girls are growing up so fast and are getting so smart and are the greatest joy in our lives!  We’ve had some special times livign with my parents and sharing our girls with them, what a blessing to see them get close to them.





Vienna started her year with follow ups for her surgery to correct her bladder reflux issue.  I’m happy to report she’s had not ONE Urinary Tract Infection since the surgery!  On the 5th we’ll return to Dornbeckers for her next follow up exam which I believe if all is well will be her last! Wahoo!  Her cardiologist did explain about her prolonged QT interval and we will have another appointment in March to check in on that situation, but over all it seems that watching what medications she takes is all we hav to worry about there… She’s such a precousious three and a  half year o 
ld!  She’s already started to recognize words and sound out letters. She’s not completely interested in learning to read, so getting her to do it is a challenge, but she can sit down and sound out words and recognizes words like Pool and Cake! LOL  Every day she amazes me with what she knows and with her love for people. A favorite memory this year was at her first time seeing the Nutcracker.  She was sooo concerned for the Mouse King who  “got hurt and his friends dragged him off to the hospital” that throughout the rest of the performance she kept asking me “Is the Mouse King feeling better yet??”.  Then, durring the arabian dance, the dancers came out with girls in belly shirts and the man shirtless.. my little gem stood right up, pointed accusingly at the stage, stomped her foot and shouted “INAPPROPRIATE!”  THAT’S MY GIRL!!!! I was so proud (thankfully it was a performance for homeschool childern so it wasn’t so mortifying having her 
shout out in the middle of everything!) She’s currently learning to ride her scooter and sings all the day long. So fun.  She also got to ride on a float in the 4th of July parade. oohh that was sooo exciting and great fun for her…. it was sooo hot that day! Ziva and I enjoyed watching for her
 



 
 


Ziva, wow, she’s learned to run from one end of the house to the other, she’s quick. Turn your back for a moment and she’s climbed onto the counter and started cooking for you, or has gathered up all the coasters in the house and is distributing them into every room.  She’s cutting the last of her teeth (I’ll be sooo glad when that’s over) and my little mountain goat is starting to try to climb out of her crib (she’s already mastered the Pack and Play! There’s no containing her) She has a giggle to melt any heart and the best smile ever.  She had so many firsts including her first Ambulance ride and stay at Dornbecker Children’s Hospital.  Another first was that she and I were flown to Colorado to see my good friend Jen. We had a blast and Ziva flew VERY well and stole EVERY attendant’s heart!!

 




Thankfully it was nothing more than a virus that was attacking her bone marrow (the dr’s did do some testing to rule out Leukimia, which was scary).  She’s finally starting to actually talk (she doesn’t need to most of the time, with 4 adults in the house to cater to her, and her sister who…well, doesn’t leave much quiet space).  It’s so fun.  She said her first “sentance” the other day at the dinner table when I was trying to get her to take a bite “NO WAY!” ahh… just like her sister taught her! ***rolling my eyes*** But she never misses a chance to raise her hands for “Hallelujah!” after our prayer’s “Amen!”

I did start to be a part of our churches Radiant girls ministry which has been fun… we had a big dessert night for the girls in December which I had a blast helping decorate for.  The biggest change for me this year was that I started a new hobby. Cake making!  It’s been great fun and I’m thinking that Esther needs to move home from Ukraine and open a bakery with me She’s been enjoying making and decorating cakes too.  Hummm… I meant to upload a picture of one of my cakes, but it doesn’t seem I did (and I can’t add any more this month cause I added too many already) but they are all on my Facebook account if anyone wants to check them out

   .

Here’s actually the fist attempt. She wanted to sing you “Angels Watching”… because she sings it all the time… but when it came time to sing… well… she had a new song on her mind… lets see if you recognize it

Incase you didn’t recognize it… that was “Step In Time” from Marry Poppins!

And then she decided to sing one more… but she got a little distracted for a bit there! She is my daughter after all!

The camera shut off just a half a second too fast!! What she’s saying in the end there is that she wants to go to McDonnalds! She’s a little obsessed with “chicken patio’s and fries” LOL (that’s Chicken nuggets and french fries) oh yeah, with milk! We used to cut up breaded chicken patties for her, so she calls nuggets chicken patio’s LOL it’s so funny. She recognizes McD’s and Burger King wherever we go! She even asked her daddy to make more money so she could have more McD’s! I swear we haven’t gone there THAT often!! (but we usually stop there when we go to the dr’s office for the girls, and we have been doing that a bit more often of late… hopefully that will stop soon!)

So there you go! Enjoy Grandma Bible! (Auntie Es and Pris and Sarah too, cause I know you’ll love watching as well!

Much love to you all…. we sure do miss you!

One Thursday night, Sam and I actually got to go out on a date with some friends of ours.  Ziva’d had a bit of a fever, but nothing over 100, so it could easily be explained by that nasty process called teething.  My mother called about half way through dinner… her fever had gone up to 103.  Mimi gave her some baby Tylenol and they were able to get her down to sleep.  By the time we got home that night she’d returned to just around 100.  Friday, she was fine, under 100 and chipper so I didn’t take her into the doctor figuring she was on the mend.  Saturday her fever was up again… Sunday night it dropped to 94.7! She was cold, clammy and it was scary.  She was asleep when it dropped so it was difficult to decide if she was acting abnormally or not.  We called a family friend who is a doctor, woke the poor guy and his wife, also a dr in her residency, up.  He calmed us down a bit and because she’d been awake enough to seem to be acting normally.  Still nervous though Sam slept holding her all night long (poor guy).
So we took her in to the dr on Monday just to see what was up.  Her temp was back to just under 100, but no UTI, no ear infection, her lungs sounded clear… everything seemed normal.  We asked the dr what to do if she dropped that low again (unlike our family friend, this dr just seemed to think I was taking her temp wrong, or hadn’t bundled her or something like that) he told us to take her to the ER…. Monday night, sure enough… 94.7, cold and clammy. So at 10:30 at night we packed her up and headed to Silverton Hospital Emergency Room.  And so began the nightmare!!!!

Once in the ER they immediately put Ziva under a heat lamp.  Sam was holding her under, sitting on the bed, under the lamp.  Then they came in to take her blood! UUHHGG… it was horrible! She was a bit dehydrated, and so when three nurses were holding her down and trying to get the needle into her vein but couldn’t because it was rolling and couldn’t get it in… I wanted to die! The look of terror in Ziva’s eyes was horrible!! and I was standing at her head trying to calm her and she’s looking at me like “what are you letting them do to me!” I was ready to go home right then.  They added a warmed IV to try to help get her temp up… it still didn’t go up much.

At about 2pm after blood work, IV, heat lamp while being held, and chest x-ray the ER dr came back in and said she looked fine, but he was consulting with OHSU/Dornbecker Children’s hospital, an hour north, and it was likely they would want her admitted. He was very ho hum about the whole thing, he said he wouldn’t admit her but just send her home and just keep her warm but we’d see.  Dornbecker’s did say she should be admitted since she wasn’t warming up and her blood count was low… and since babies can turn so fast, we’d have to go by ambulance!  At least they didn’t feel like we had to have the PANDA (Special pediatric ambulance) transport her.  At this point with the ER dr’s attitude we felt fine, like this was just an extra precaution and all…  Sam drove home to pick up a few things and I went with Ziva in the ambulance.   It only took us 45 minutes   it was nice.  The drivers Steve and Chris were both really nice guys and were even smiles at that time in the morning.  That helped too.

About 4 a.m. we reached Dornbecker’s and got Ziva into her room.  Sam arrived about a half hour later (the doors were all locked for the night and one of the nurses ran down to let him in! so nice there).  They continued to give her warming blankets (I held her on my chest the rest of the night) and check her vitals, but she was still low (they kept thinking their equipment was malfunctioning because she kept dropping to 94.3 and never got over 95.8, if memory serves, that night)

The next morning the “troop” came through.  Since it is a teaching hospital there is a group of dr’s that do the rounds in the morning complete with residents and interns and dr’s and fellows and… like 6 people.  They were all very nice and all so concerned it seemed which surprised me.  But they still couldn’t figure out what would cause her temp to go so low. So, figuring it was most likely a virus they put us on a sort of quarantine.  Any medical staff that came in had to put aprons on (mostly to prevent other patients getting the virus if that wound up what was going on).  They did a bunch of tests for virus’ and said that the “blood people” are going to come in to talk to us about further testing they would like to do and that we’d likely spend another night. Here’s where things got interesting.

About 4pm the doctor comes in and introduces herself “hi, I’m so and so from oncology.” ONCOLOGY!?!?!? I thought this was just “blood people!” She starts explaining that Ziva’s marrow doesn’t seem to be doing what it should and her counts are all off  and they would like to do a bone biopsy to investigate further. I immediately freak out about leukemia as this is what my grandmother died of (it was a rare case…. she got some form that usually children get, and she died quickly).  The most dreadful night of our lives ensued!

Our friend Jenny is a Resident there at the hospital, so that night she came by and brought us pizza (Papa Johns, my favorite!) it was just what I needed to lift the spirits! She assured us that the were just being careful and that teaching hospitals “like to do tests.” But still, as a parent, when something like that is on the table, you want it off as soon as possible!!  (It was about this time that I realized that I was loosing the baby too, so it was doubly difficult).

Ziva’s test wasn’t until 12:30 the next day… needless to say it was a LONG morning. My parents an Vienna came back up for a second visit.  About one in the afternoon they took us off quarantine but no one talked to us as to why… As my dad always says “the absence of information leads to the worst case scenario!” That’s how it felt… it was awful waiting… Ziva’s main doctor came in to chat with us just before six that night, she was trying to wrap up and go home, but she stayed and talked with us for a while and was there when the Oncology dr’s came back in about seven that night!! All was well!!!  We were able to go home!!

Almost three weeks later all seems well. Ziva’s blood test came back and her counts are back up to normal.  She’s running around the house like crazy and smiling again (boy did I  miss her smile!!)  She’s still teething though, so we’re still a bit cranky, but she’s sleeping through the night again and her temps have been back in the normal range so PTL all turned out well!!!  PTL we have medical coverage for her and Vienna!  I’m still exhausted most of the time, but I am getting back to normal.

Hopefully this email is understandable… its taken me three days to write it with all the interruptions I’ve been getting   But that’s the jist of it all!

We live in a fallen world, which means, we live with imperfect bodies, and imperfect health. It does not mean however that our Lord does not love us or does not care for us or that He is not in control.  As sad as it is for us, who, in 9 short weeks, grew so very excited to meet our little one, we know that baby is now made perfect and has joined the Lord in heaven.  Life is full of loss, and life is full of tragedy. But through it all we hold fast to the truth that the Lord in heaven is in control. That when we have a relationship with him, we know where we are going.  We take heart in knowing that someday we’ll walk the streets in heaven and we’ll meet the little ones we never got to hold here on earth. (And hold tighter to the ones we do get to hold here!)

Ziva, my precious little baby, has been so kind as to help as best she can. She’s given me SEVERAL diapers worth puking over! AND she kept me from getting the slightest bit of a nap today. The moment my eyes would close and I’d get that nice floating ahhhhhh feeling… scream! She would wake up. Apparently the poor little dear is having a traumatic day! That’s ok, between the screams (I’m thinking gas and by the smell of her diapers, other gastro-intestinal-disturbances-of-another-kind) she’s been a charming flirty little girl! When she smiles, you can’t help but smile too! No matter if your head is in the toilet or not!

Vienna’s had her share of frustrations today too. She apparently is not happy with the amount of attention she is getting, because while I was on the phone with the hospital (she has some follow up tests to be done) she BIT ME! She bit my arm so hard that three hours later there were still teeth marks on my arm! Yes, she did get sent to her room! No, she did not go peaceably. Yes, in the end, I won. I am mom, hear me roar. She is now happily playing with her sister. Well, sorta, she’s giving her sister a concert! She has this “high school musical’ microphone thing. I’ve never seen the movie/show whatever it is, but I can sing two of the songs from it!! This thing is like a mini kareoke machine and plays two of their songs for you to sing along with. And yes, at two and a half Vienna pretty much can sing both those songs.. and yes, I want to pull my hair out!!! tee hee hee… just wish I could change the songs, I’m not so sure I like her memorizing them!

I think on days like this the kids act up because I really think it freaks them out when I puke. Vienna especially. Thankfully she missed most of it today but I think once was enough for her. She’ll get used to it ha ha ha…

So, thank you Lord for the confirmation pukes I’ll rest assured now everything is alright You can go ahead and revert me back to how I was feeling last week tee hee hee… Hey, even with today’s pukes, I feel much better than I did with the girls. So, I’m really not complaining, just sharing the joys of my day

I’m off to form the experimental turkey burgers that I have attempted to make for this evening. Humm… maybe I shouldn’t experiment while pregnant. They sounded sooo good last night… now I’m not so sure! Here’s hoping (don’t worry, I have Abby’s Pizza’s phone number memorized!)