MAYLIN2007

Last week I got the greatest email. It was from a woman who lives in the East who let me know, she and her family had just returned home from China with our Jia Kang. They adopted her through the special needs program and her new name is Addie. We have been praying that she would get adopted and we are so glad that she has been. In communicating with Jia Kang/Addie's mom, we can tell they are a wonderful family. We are so glad she has a loving family. This week has been filled with lots of emotions over this. Thanks to everyone who prayed for Jia Kang too.

We all know how Maylin loves "ip oss". In fact, around here we have taken great lengths to hide it from her. Kenzie even hid her lip gloss in her trundle bed. We aren't sure how Maylin found it. We just know she did and decided to use a fork as the applicator. After awhile, however she decided to just eat the lip gloss off the fork. Don't worry, we didn't let her eat too much.    

This week seems to have lasted a lifetime. It seems more happened in one week than should happen in a person's life. First things first and then we will end on a happy note. Austin has been very ill this week. It was funny, on May 5th the doctor said we could put off surgery until August because Austin was feeling so well. Guess it is true when they say, "When you say something out loud you jinx it." By last Saturday, Austin's health went downhill. We were playing kickball as a family and Austin couldn't run at all. He said he was too tired and his heart was pounding in his head and neck. By Sunday, he was feeling more tired and he had his first migraine. Monday was a pretty good day, but by Tuesday we had migraine number 2 that didn't end until Friday. He also had bloody noses in the night. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, he blacked out several times. Thursday at an after school party, he called me because he was too tired to do anything. I picked him up and...

The first chickens we got are now full grown. I know you were all wondering about that. Ha Ha. These are the youngest chickens. The kids love them at this age. The one Kenzie has on her shoulder loves her to pieces. When the rest of the family goes near it in its coop, it runs, but when Kenzie comes to the coop, the little bird recognizes her and goes right for her. Weird. At first Maylin didn't know what to think about the chick on her "showda", but then she warmed up to it. I didn't like the idea of germs so everyone got an extra good scrub down with antibacterial soap. Also I watch American Idol for the first last night. Yep people. The first time. I never have time to watch it. By the time the kids are gone, it will probably be off the air. I am sad about who won. I was going for David A.He did great last night...at least in my opinion.      

 

Who needs a doll when you have shoes? Maylin's love for shoes has been taken up a notch.    

To my Mother: Happy Mother's Day. Thanks for all you have given me. You are the reason I have 4 wonderful children myself. Thanks for that gift. To all my other family and friends who are mothers, Happy Mother's Day to you too! To Alex our clown and free spirit, I am glad you beat to your own drum. You make us happy. I wish this time next year, you will be happier and filled with more joy. (If that is at all possible. I think you have the market cornered.) To Austin and Maylin, my oldest and youngest, the bread to our sandwich; we love you. Maylin, we are glad our Heavenly Father made it possible for you to find us. You make us complete. Austin, my brave one. My old spirit. I love you. This Tuesday we found out that Austin's surgery from July is undone. His heart is worse than before. He looks ahead to another surgery this summer. Only a handful of this type of surgery has been performed. My wish for you is next year you will be alive and healthy with a spirit that is str...

Last year Maylin had a few seizures that were related to breath holding spells. This year she has just had seizures...no breath holding involved. She had one in her sleep that landed her in the hospital for a couple of days. They checked her iron levels because low iron can cause seizures. The normal range bottom number was 20. She was at 19. The doctors felt this wasn't low enough to cause seizures. So we had nothing. She had two more seizures since that trip to the hospital. One, she just glazed over and it the floor. The other in her car seat. The falling down one scared us terribly. She had another EEG and an MRI for those. They showed nothing. Finally, I decided to tell them I wanted to try an iron supplement even though they didn't think her iron was low enough. So, we started her on one and guess what...we have been seizure free for 1 1/2 months. Knock on wood. They figure her body is just very sensitive to her iron levels. We are glad that concern is resolved.

  We have a new thing. Everything Maylin sees is a "mama one" or a "baby-a-one". For example, the other day she saw the flag and said, "Mama one." Then she pointed to the smaller state flag flying below it and said, "Baby-a-one." This comparison to size happens on everything. Today at the store I bought bananas. She said they were mama ones. Then she saw a bunch of bananas that were smaller and called them baby-a-ones. Of course, she wanted both the mama and baby ones. Tonight at dinner she got a salad plate out because it was a baby-a-one to go along next to her big plate, the mama one. The above picture is of the "mama one" and the "baby-a-one" boxes. This girl played with them for over an hour. She wrapped them both in blankets, carried them around, had the mama one take care of the baby one, etc. It cracked us all up. It is interesting how she associates size with me and her. The little one being the baby and the bigger on...

It was Jay's birthday a few weeks ago. I am just getting around to posting pictures. He had a great birthday. Got lots of clothes. The kids had fun telling him that he is now closer to 60 than 20. It was a hard thing to hear. Maylin's favorite things was licking the side of the cake. Once we caught her in the act, we pushed the cake away. She then started doing the lean and reach. She realized she could get frosting from her finger just as well. We love our family!        

Yep. It is true. Maylin now likes to wear clothes and stays dressed 95% of the time. She still will only sleep in a diaper, but I will take that. Her new phase is picking out her own clothes and putting them on herself. Sometimes, a lot of sometimes, she will choose other people's clothes. The other day it was 3 pair of Kenzie's underwear and Alex's shirt. Today it was a purple, green and blue butterfly shirt with a blue polka dot jumper that was on backwards. A lot of things go on inside out and backwards. I have tried to change it to the "right way in", but that just leads to a huge tantrum. So I figure...pick your battles. Right now we are in the 3rd week of weening her from the bottle, so that is my battle. And I figure being miss matched is better than naked, right? Here is the outfit from Tuesday. We even went in public. Everything is Kenzie's. The shirt is inside out. We got a lot of looks, but hey, she has her individuality.