Elijah update and other news

We came home from a fun trip to Winthrop (an old western town in central WA) and our email box was full of great things. We got an update from July, the orphanage is behind, but still it was a long time coming!

Elijah has had a busy few months. He graduated from the Giraffe Room where all our smaller babies are and moved up to the Boat Room. Although his old nannies miss him they were all excited for him to move up as he was constantly trying to escape and play with the bigger kids! Elijah has been getting on really well in his new room; he loves to play with all the other kids and is certainly able to stand up for himself too. His crib is in between Samuel’s and Chrity’s and he loves to get up and chat with them. Elijah’s other big news is that he has started to walk and has mastered it. He’s amazing, he moves so quickly and can always be found near nannies, volunteers or any new people that come to visit. Elijah is very attached to one of his nannies in particular, Fifi. Although she only works in his room one day a week on other days that she is here she’ll take Elijah out of his room to spend some extra time with him and give him extra cuddles. Elijah loves to walk around the hallway playing with his friends and looking for toys. He is so proud of himself too and likes everyone to notice him so he’ll quickly cling on to my legs whenever I walk past. He loves to walk with his arms stretched up in the air and often tried to run and gives kisses with his mouth wide open! If he is in his crib he’ll hold on to the rails and sway from side to side, singing and dancing along to whatever is on the stereo. Elijah got a bad yeast infection on his bum recently and the poor little guy was not too happy about it. His nannies have been so careful to make sure that he gets to walk around free from diapers and we’ve started him on an antibiotic too and have been applying cream to it. Thankfully it’s started to clear up and he is feeling much better and back to his happy self, always smiling and laughing. His weight this month was 20 pounds, 9 ounces.

Reading it brought tears to my eyes. I realized how much I wish he was here and how much of his "firsts" I have missed. I am glad he is doing well and I hope to see him very soon.

Our trip was great. We went with some good friends from church. Dawn's dad has a cabin in a nice little resort community and let us all use it for 3 nights. There was a ton or wildlife (besides our kids), and Jeremiah even got to feed a deer out of his hand while petting it with his other! We went to Grand Coulee Dam and toured it and went swimming and looked at the local shops. It was a nice, relaxing time. Oh yeah, we also saw the Smoke Jumpers base. (these are the guys that parachute out of a plane to put out forest fires) We were given a tour of the plane and facility and I thought it was really interesting. Jeremiah thinks he should start smoke jumping. NO, not a chance!!!!

We are going to have a calm next few days, we will be celebrating our 12th anniversary on Sunday, and then school starts in a few weeks! I am going to get the kids into a routine so they will be used to getting up at a reasonable hour and get started on the books!

I have not posted any pictures because of my dial up internet. If you would like to see some pictures of Helande and Ella, and there is even one of Kylie, look at Sarah's blog, the link is to the left. www.ourhaitianjourney.blogspot.com

Sick Mom!

Now I am sick. Please pray that I will get better very soon. I am supposed to be going down to Seattle with Sarah and the babies for check ups. Helande's head is getting puffy in the back and they want to check on her, and Ella needs to have a post op visit. I don't want to go to Children's with a nasty cold or cough! I have been popping lots of vitamins and stuff.

Jeremiah was away at training for work and is finally back and has the weekend off. I am not sure if I will be up to doing anything fun, but it will be nice for him to be at home.

We got our I600A approval! Hopefully our paperwork in Haiti can start moving.

Sick kids

My oldest child was sick last week and this week our youngest daughter is. She had a fever, headache and annoying cough. She is the saddest sick kid there is, so we skipped church this morning. My husband was leading worship and I felt bad to miss it, but there was no way she could go to Sunday school and would be bored to tears if she sat with Helande and I.

We have had some hot weather these last few days. Yesterday we dropped our son off with my parents for the weekend and the rest of us went on a walk along the bay. Sometimes I take for granted all the beauty that surrounds us here. Then we went to Costco. This older lady approached us, asking about Helande, who was sitting up in the seat of the cart. She thought she was a doll at a distance and couldn't believe she was sitting like that in the cart. She was next to our daughter and we were making sure she was stable, but she did great. It is hard to believe that in May she couldn't hold up her head!
She is making a remarkable recovery. Ella is doing great too. She is talking a lot now! Not real words but baby babble.

Fun day

We went to the park today with some friends. One of them brought her two twin girls adopted from Ghana for us to meet. They just got home last night! They are so adorable and I loved to hear about how the homecoming has been, and how the adjustment is going. Can't wait to experience it myself with Elijah!

We have had Helande here for 3 days now and we are going on 3 nights. I hope she will sleep better tonight. She usually gets up around 2 or 4 am and then around 6 am. I was thinking that by almost 6 months she would be sleeping through the night. She seems like she is starving when I feed her though. I am not complaining, she is a joy to have here. She was talking to Jeremiah this afternoon (sounded like Native American jargon) and telling him all about her trip to the park and the ice cream cone she shared with Kika! (my nickname founded by Angeline)