Sunday, April 11, 2010

Friends and Birthday Season Continues

Trent is very happy to have gotten his Favre jersey! He celebrated 7 in March. He is our most content child and is gifted in the ability to be in his own world on his own schedule among other things...

























Bethany playing with her friend
Madison who is also from China!!!
They setup their own private game corner that I interrupted briefly for
this pic.




























You may be wondering why you're looking at shoes. This is an indication of one of Bethany's giftings. She loves to organize things! Constantly she asks, can I help you mommy/daddy? Pretty cute!




















The wild bunch at Trent's birthday party! We went to the new movie, How to Train Your Dragon. All had fun!
























As part of Trent's movie theater birthday party the kids were able to see the behind the scenes areas of the movie theater. They had this old promo of the Simpsons so we took a pic!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Fully Recovered and Waiting!


Bethany's surgery went very well. She seems to be fully recovered. Thank you all for your prayers. It was actually pretty amazing that after the first evening she has been back to new normal. She made one comment earlier this week that she wanted the "skin" to be gone from her mouth. If you think about it, having a roof in her mouth is not normal for her. Even though we've explained the what the doctor did we don't think she fully grasps it all. She's very hungry all the time and since she doesn't seem to have any idea of what full is we've had to help her with that. Everyone else is doing well. Toby is increasingly a comedian. We really get into trouble with that one since he often makes us laugh when he's getting into trouble! For those that don't have kids, it's not good to laugh when you're trying to discipline your children...


Bethany's favorite food while on her liquid diet. It's a milk based puree of a hot dog and green beans! mmmmmm!!!! I call it soilent green. I've included a photo of this quality green paste for your reference!


You might be wondering about the picture of Becky wearing her superhero costume. She put it together for her MOPS speaking engagements. She is definitely SUPER!


I'm still on the hunt for work. I've had some good activity last week that hopefully moves forward soon. Until then we wait on the Lord. Keep prayin' please!





and finally, we didn't mention Matthew's baskeball season that ended on Valentine's day. His team finished third and had a great season. Matthew made his first basket during a game at the tournament. We are excited about how much he's improved.

That's our update for now. Keep in touch and send us a note on what's up with you!

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Ni Hao, Surgery!

hello all!


A quick update. Tomorrow Dan has an interview back at Best Buy in the morning and Bethany has surgery to remove her tongue flap mid-day. We appreciate your prayers for both events.

Today we had a pre-op physical for Bethany that found her in great health and that she has actually gained a pound since her last Dr visit shortly before the last surgery. So much for our concerns about her losing weight with her mouth wired shut! She apparently thrives on a liquid diet. I guess that goes without saying since her favorite meal is what I've coined "soilent green". A nice pasty green blend of 1 hot dog and about 3/4 c. of green beans. Mmmmmm!

I'm looking forward to discussing opportunities back at Best Buy. Hopefully something pops soon as I'd hoped to be back to work by now. I continue to rest in Jeremiah 29:11 that God is in control and has a plan that will be revealed to me in His time, not mine.







Toby focusing...











Celebrating "gotcha day" at Culvers...









Thursday, February 18, 2010

Bethany slept the entire night last night!

Doing well here. She's adapting fairly well to the wired jaw situation. Admittedly there is a significant amount of "whinese" being vocalized about many other things this morning however. Here are some more of Bethany's 4 yr pics. (mouth fully operational-no wires)


Have a great day!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

And we're home!

Hi all,

Well, after getting up every hour with Bethany in the hospital last night (thanks to her small bladder and the continuous IV fluids), the doctor came in this morning at 6:30 a.m. and gave her some motivation: eat well today and you can go home! That's all she needed to hear, folks. She ate all day long - soupy malt-o-meal, cream of chicken soup, ice cream, pudding and apple juice! She also took oral pain meds instead of the morphine through IV...so, once the doctor finally got back around to see us (about 6 pm tonight), he gave us the all clear to head home. YAY! That made everyone happy!

It is amazing what Bethany can do despite her circumstances! She can talk still, and we can understand her almost as well as before the surgery! She was yelling "I'm the map" with the TV show Dora today. It was funny. She is drinking well and is managing quite well with slurping her runny food choices. She is proving once again how determined as resilient she is!

Dan came to the hospital this morning at just after 9 so I could head home for a shower and a quick lunch with Toby before taking him to preschool; however, Toby told me on the way home from the hospital that he didn't feel good, and as I looked at him, I noticed his "glassy eyes" look - so I knew he wasn't going to school. So I postponed my trip back to the hospital and instead took him to the doctor and then picked up his prescription before heading home to find someone to take care of him. The hospital wasn't too happy about siblings being around in the first place, and SICK siblings were even worse. Thankfully, our wonderful friends Tim and Roxy were able to come stay with him (and Matthew and Trent once they were home from school) until we made it home about 8 pm tonight. Never a dull moment here everyone. ;)

The surgeon actually said Bethany can return to preschool whenever we felt she was ready - so we're going to see how she is through the weekend and then decide what's best with her teacher early next week. I don't want to put her in a situation where she is frustrated by her limitations with speech and diet, but she LOVES going to preschool too. One day at a time.

That's it for tonight. Thanks for checking in and your continued prayers. Right now I would ask that you continue to pray for pain and for her to stay calm and not do anything to impede the healing process. She tends to get a little wild with her brothers, and she loves sticking things in her mouth and nose, which has caused quite a bloody mess in recent months. I had a serious talk with her tonight about leaving her mouth and nose alone, so hopefully she's gotten the message.

Blessings to you!
Becky

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Bethany's surgery Update

Bethany's surgery went well. The doctor was able to complete the procedure successfully. She slept most of the day and is now a bit grouchy as she has been awake more. Turns out when you have things torn up in your mouth and wake up with your mouth wired shut you get irratible. Go Figure! Please keep her in your prayers as the coming days will likely be challenging for her. Give Becky and I patience and lots of extra love for her as we work through this with her together!

Here is a pic at the zoo yesterday with Trent.
Bethany a few weeks ago... Cute eh?




Monday, February 15, 2010

Happy Chinese New Year! (yesterday)









Happy Chinese New Year!






<--Bethany chose to go to Culvers in January to celebrate "Gotcha Day"!! Its already been a year!
It has been quite awhile since we've updated and we are going to make a better effort of doing so. We are preparing for surgery for Bethany tomorrow. Please pray for her and our family this week. She is having the first of 2 surgeries within a 3 week period. The first will be to sew her tongue to the roof of her mouth and then wire her mouth shut for 3 weeks. She will not be able to talk and we are concerned about her nutritional and hydration needs. Certainly the doctor and his team will have some advice for us but this is all new for us!! We have tried our best to explain to her what is going to happen, but it is so much for a 4 year old to understand. Please pray for the emotional and physical comfort for her in the next few days and weeks and that Mom and Dad will know how to reassure and encourage her during this difficult time. We will be updating her progress here.
<--Bethany's 4th Birthday, Dec 11!
In the mean time, here are some more recent photos of the family...




<--Matthew's 10 birthday party! Notice the sweet Lego cakes...










The kids like playing the "sandwich" game. Check this high stack out!-->