Catch up!

Here I am, sitting with Mia getting blood, catching up on here again!
We had a wonderful Christmas! It came and went so fast!

 

 

This was on Reece's birthday! :)

 

 I try reallllly hard to eat lunch with one of my kids once a week! This was Brooks' turn!

 

Reece and Brooks celebrated the 100th day of school by dressing like 100 year olds! I think they NAILED IT!

 

Helping Mom with the chickens!

 

 This was last weekend when we came to get labs for blood day!

 

That brings us to today, blood day AND the Chinese New Year!

Happy Birthday Mia!!

Yesterday Mia turned FOUR! I mean, we don't even have a baby anymore. :( We spent the day celebrating our girl! She wanted a Frozen party at our local trampoline park so that's just what she got! Then she wanted cheese dip for dinner so Mexican it was! Even though when we got to the restaurant she changed her mind and wanted to eat somewhere else. UGH! Too bad, so sad! haha! She was just SUPER tired from the party! :) It was a fun day!

Saturday night I was SUPER sad. I couldn't get Mia's birth mom off my mind. Josh reminded me it was already her birthday in China so that was why. I was thinking of how four years ago she may have already been in labor. She loved Mia first...she knows what time she was born, how much she weighed, how she liked to be held, nursed her I'm sure. She loved her for nine whole months before she made the ultimate sacrifice to give her up so that she could get the medical care she needed/needs.  That hurts my momma heart so much. And at the same time I KNOW she was meant to be ours. It's weird if you haven't been in the situation.

Anyway, time for some party pics!

 The candles caught the cake on fire! Whoops.

As you can tell, she was PUMPED to be turning four!! Happy birthday sweet girl!!

Mia's Blood Clot

Last week on Mia's "blood day" when they were accessing her port she complained that it was still hurting after they were finished putting the needle in the port. Her port is completely under the skin and so she still has to be stuck but she doesn't normally complain too much. I'm sure it hurts like heck but she tries her best to be tough about it. It shouldn't really cause pain after it's accessed but she's also three and a tiiiiiiiny bit dramatic so it's kind of hard to judge. Soon after we were walking to the restroom and I noticed her holding her shoulder and arm funny. I could see pain in her eyes so I knew something wasn't right. We also could not get a blood pressure in that arm. I talked with her nurse and she called the doctor who ordered an ultrasound.

We went ahead and continued with the blood transfusion first and once we were done we went for the ultrasound. I wasn't particularly worried until the ultrasound person(WHAT is the correct name...my mind is blank!)asked if we were leaving or staying.....of course I asked her what she could tell me...which was of course, nothing. But she said she wanted the radiologist to look at everything before we left. And she did and then they told us we were good to go. Well, ok. I should have gone back downstairs and asked her hematologist if everything was good but y'all I was so tired I didn't even think of that. It had been a LONG day of  little someone being hard to deal with. If ya know what I mean. haha! We had been there since 7:30am and it was about 4:00pm at this point.

So, we headed home.

 The next morning I had a doctor's appointment in Birmingham. Josh and I were leaving my office heading that way when my phone rang and it was Mia's doctor from Children's. When I answered she asked if they told me anything about the ultrasound and that Mia has a blood clot in her neck near the line for the port. WHAT? And then she said, "We need you to come today and get her prescriptions and for us to show you how to give shots."

I'm sorry, WHAT. NO.

We grabbed Mia from daycare and headed to my appointment and then straight to Children's Hospital to Mia's doctor. They filled us in on all the things and taught us how to give her the shot. She has to have them twice per day. Like I said, she's REAL tough but it sucks giving those to her! We also have to take her once a week to have her levels checked to be sure she's getting the correct dose. Which we are already having to go every three weeks so not that much more.

We need you all to be praying. We need this medication to work. We need the clot GONE. If it doesn't work the port has to come out. She NEEDS the port.

Meanwhile, we're giving her all the starbursts when she gets a shot!

Blood day catch up!

It's blood day again so here I am catching up! It's currently 1pm, we've been here since 7:30am. We're about half way finished. It's been a ROUGH day. Mia is super moody and that makes things difficult. As all get out. She and I spent the night in Birmingham last night because she needed to get labs and we had to be back this morning for blood. Everything was great until she decided she wasn't going to eat her pizza for lunch and she only wanted chips. She pitched the mother of all fits. Twice.

Thankfully, I have some sweet adoption momma friends who are here with their kids and they are such an encouragement to me. It's so nice to have other mom's who know how it is!

Anyway, say a prayer for us.

All the Things

Today is blood day so I'm going to attempt a "catch up" around here!

Miss Priss is doing well for the most part! I feel like(I know this is weird) we have turned a corner lately. Yep, almost 16 months into this adoption thing and it's good now. YES, it was good the whole first year. But OH MY it was HARD. I feel the need to share this because I feel like not enough people do. And after talking with lots of my adoption friends we pretty much all feel this way.

Here's the thing. When you bring a cute little Chinese baby into your world everybody loves said baby so much that they want to give her anything and everything. Never tell her no. They all feel sorry for her/him. Which is understandable. But, here's the thing, while I DO feel sorry for Mia I'm also her Mama. I don't want her growing up feeling sorry for herself and sitting around waiting for others to do things for her because she's different. Yes, it sucks that she has to get blood every three weeks and be poked and prodded on. But, she's tough because of it and I want her to always be that way! I feel like I spent the first year wading through water of all the things for her and us. Let's face it, she(and Reece) just look at Josh and he's a puddle. BUT, I'm that way with Brooks(and Griffin and Peyton) so I understand. It's just different with an adopted child because there's SO MUCH. But at the same time, it's the same because she's ours the same as the others.

SEE WHAT I MEAN?! ALL the things. So complicated.

I feel like I spent last year more stressed than ever. I felt like it was all on me. I drank too much wine(where's that monkey emoji with his hands on his eyes? lol). And I gained TEN pounds. (Monkey again!! lol) But, lately I feel like things are finally clicking along! She gets us and we get her. Completely.

She tells me she loves me with all her heark(heart) and that's how I know that it was all worth it.

Life Lately

I know I say this on here ALL.THE.TIME. but life is BUSY! We've all been sick with strep and or the stomach bug over the last month or so. I think we are all finally on the mend. Hubby was sick for almost two weeks and I can't handle life without him! It was tough! And I was lonely!

Before I even begin, yes I realize the big boys aren't in this post. #teenageboyprobs I'm going to do a better job of making them take more pictures! I did have this parenting win the other day...

Yep, and I meant it! Those fries were yummo! 

This guy right here...is the sweetest! He tells me I'm beautiful 100 times and day and that he loves me so much. He also massages my shoulders. He's the sweetest little man!

Reece recently celebrated the 100th day of this school year. The kids were supposed to dress like old people...this was as "old lady" as she got! haha!

I recently went on a field trip with Brooks! We went to Krispy Kreme and Pet Smart! It wasn't a trip that a parent was required to go on..and it wasn't a big deal. But, you know what? It WAS a big deal to him! We had the best time!

Little Miss Mia got her ears pierced last weekend! She had asked earlier in the week and I talked with her about it. Then, on Saturday she flat out asked if she could do it! Once she got Daddy's approval we had them pierced! She didn't even flinch when they did it. I knew she wouldn't. She gets poked with needles all the time so she's used to it. Sad, but true. She LOVES her ear rings! And I LOVE my girly girls!

We took this on blood day this week! Those three weeks in between transfusions sure fly by. We try to make the best of it. And, of course, we love to see our thal pals when we go!

We had a Valentine's lunch date! With five kids it's hard to find a date night! Lunch dates are our new thing! He also brought coffee and doughnuts to the office for us girls that morning! Husband of the year!

Reece had Grandparent's Day at school on Valentine's Day! She really enjoyed herself!!

Today marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year! Mia took red envelopes to her friends today with chocolate coins inside! We do our best to keep her in touch with her Chinese heritage! We'll be having a big Chinese feast at home tonight! :)

Mia's First Gotcha Day!

On December 5th we celebrated our first Mia Day!! Some families call it Gotcha Day, but at our house it's Mia Day! :)

Yes, I'm just now posting about it because I forgot to post it. I have five kids, cut me some slack! haha!

Mia had to get blood that day so most of our day was spent at Children's Hospital. But, that meant that I got to hog her all day...no school for her or working for me! After we were done we met Josh and the other kids at a local Chinese restaurant to eat Mia's favorite....rice noodles!

Our first year with Mia was a busy, busy year. It was full of ups and downs, easy times and hard times.  It was full of doctor's appointments and blood transfusions. It was full of learning about her and learning about ourselves. Through it all we have been SO SO blessed! I still can't believe our baby was born all the way across the world. I still can't believe the Lord called us to this.

Adoption will change you like you wouldn't believe.

If you feel that nudge, please reach out to me! I would LOVE to talk with you! We can talk on the phone, text, email, have lunch(y'all know I love chips and salsa!!!)...how ever you feel like talking! :)

Mia's Birthday Party!

We hosted Mia's birthday party the night before her birthday! Mia loves to sing, dance, swim and EAT so we had a Trolls themed swimming party! We ate pizza, swam, ate cake, opened presents and I cried like a baby when we sang, "Happy Birthday"! We had an extra candle on the cake to remember her birth mom and when I lit it I knew it was over for me, I couldn't help but cry! LOTS of family and friends came so it made my heart happy to see how many people love our girl!

We made it a point to celebrate Mia all weekend. However, on her actual birthday it proved to be one of the hardest days we have had with her. It was a rough day. BUT, we still went to eat Mexican because that's her favorite and she had a cheese dip all to herself. Amen. The next day we did even more celebrating and went to Disney on Ice! So fun! I think overall the birthday girl had an awesome weekend!

These pictures are in random order because Mia is currently in my lap getting blood so not much room to maneuver here! haha!