Never A Dull Moment

Sawyer has been home sick all week with a virus. I hate virus'. not that I wish anything worse on them, but at least if it is strep, etc, we get medicine we know they will be better quickly. Anyways, on Wednesday he and I were in the garage looking for something to amuse him. I had my back to him and all of a sudden he lets out this bloodcurling scream. Which if you know Sawyer, you know he tends to play on the dramatic side. But he did have good reason to scream. The deck from our riding mower was leaning on the side of the garage and somehow Sawyer knocked it over, or according to him a wild animal ran in and knocked it over. Fell right on his foot. We, being the compassionate parents we are, stuck ice on it, and figured it was no big deal. By evening he had hopped his way out to the swingset and played, so surely he is fine, right? This morning, it was swollen. We decided maybe we better get an xray. I made a 10am appointment and our day was over at 5pm. Long story short, he did have a fracture running down the middle of his foot. So he is in a cast as you can see for 2 weeks and they will recheck it. They stuck the shoe on it so he can use his heel, but is not allowed to use his foot. They told us to get crutches, which we are having a hard time locating for his size. He is pretty excited so far. Can't run around? Then that means more time for video games right? hmmmm..
Tomorrow we have our first homestudy visit post adoption. nothing like a broken foot to top off the week!

Hummingbirds, Dumb Dogs & Single motherhood

Last week Mark was out of town all week, again. It is not that I mind him traveling overall. It is just that it might have been nice to be home longer than 2 weeks before he left! But we survived and he is now home. In fact, maybe traveling might not be that bad, I swear if he keeps it up, I am getting a maid! ;)
The week started out fun. The day he left we had a hummingbird get into our garage. That would not leave. I had the doors open, tried putting a red bowl of sugar water outside, but no go. They are just not smart are they? Of course that got the kids all excited for the evening, which resulted in not going to bed. The 2nd picture is my babysitter Megan and Shannon taping the fishing net to a pole, as the garage ceiling is high and the bird was not coming down low enough to reach it. Of course they were not offering to catch the bird, I was not going out there, so thankfully my dad came to our rescue. After knocking out one light, he was able to get it out. My mom called telling me how i needed to go out to find the bird, make sure it had sugar water so it did not die. I left the red bowl outside, good enough.
That night was also the night that Sage decided she no longer needed to go to bed early, as she had been doing every single night since we first got her. After finally getting her down, she woke me up during the night because she had soaked the bed. Believe me, I was sending very good wishes to Mark by that point!
Whenever Mark is gone, the kids are just more wild than usual, and last week was no exception. No one needs sleep, ever. No one can get along. No one cares that Mommy is stressed out!
And then there is the dog. I might as well say we have 5 children, she is as much work as anyone else in the house. She loves diapers and is always able to find them, so I am constantly cleaning up a mess of that. Recently we purchased the electric fence, FINALLY! If you have been here, you know she is always running away. Dumb dog. So we got this fence right after China, and it has been great. Till of course the week Mark is gone. Hershey is out back, and some big dogs come in the yard. She starts to chase them around front, and I am thinking, yep, she can go in front to the middle of the yard, then will get shocked. Well I look out the window and watch her RUN right through that stinkin fence. And she did not even flinch. She takes off down the road with out looking back. I have visions of a dead dog on the side of the road and my kids seeing her after school etc.. So we get in the car as my friend Susan pulls up w/ dinner(bless her heart!) and she rides w/ me to dog search. We drive down the road, no luck. We finally see the big dogs back towards my house, and they are eating something behind a big trash pile. We were both convinced it was Hershey, so Susan gets out to check for me! Thankfully(I think?) they had just found McDonalds in the trash can so we head for my house and there is the dumb dog on my back porch. I guess the batteries on the collar were dead, and that has been fixed now for sure!
I don't like being a single mom that is for sure. I was so tired by the end of the week! And Mark wondered why I was crabby upon his return.
Sage is showing off a cute outfit Megan and Shannon got her along w/ her new glasses. Those girls brought her a whole new wardrobe of very cute clothes! Thanks girls! By the way, don't you love her scowl! And look at those toes, aren't they to sweet!

Sage is 10 months old

Today Sage turns 10 months old. And in China it is the exact time a month ago we first held her in our arms. How is it that time stood still for the 18 months we waited to get her, but the last month has flown by. In some ways it seems just yesterday we were in China, other times I feel as if she has always been here. She is such a part of me, a part of this family, she has made us complete.
I was sad today though, she is 10 months old! In 2 more months we will celebrate her first birthday. I don't want her to be a year old, I want back all those months I missed out on. She is already growing and changing so much, I don't want that. I want her to stay small and dependant on me! I did not get enough time of that stage with her. Yet I am reminded that though she was not in my arms for those 9 months, she was in my heart and so in some ways, I did get a part of her. I am thankful that the month we signed our agreement to adopt, was the month she was most likely conceived. We began praying at that time specifically for our baby, and I remember I would go through and list each part of her body and pray over it. Please Lord, let her ears be formed well, let her legs and arms form and each tiny finger. At that time of course we had no idea that she actually was being formed and that we had the chance to pray over her through those 9 months of pregnancy along with our daily prayers for her birthmother, and then we were able to pray for her through birth, through her being abandoned etc.. So while I did not get to see her those first 9 months of her life, she was very much a part of me.
Some Sage Stuff for 10 months old...

• She is now sitting up pretty well on her own. She will flop over eventually, but she can go quite awhile now.

• She got up on all 4's today! Makenna is encouraging that one! She is fast though simply by rolling and scooting all around.
  

• If you say bye bye she moves her arm up and down and says bababababa.

• Says mamamamama, not sure she knows what she is saying, but it is a new sound!

• I would like to say that she is still a great sleeper, but for some reason that has changed in the last week. Once asleep for the night she is fine, but getting there is hard all of a sudden. Actually It is odd, she goes to sleep fine, but then wakes up with in 20 minutes for about 2 hours. We knew it was to good to be true. No kid of ours sleeps perfect like she was.
  

• Not a neat fact, but she SOAKS through her diaper every single night. I have tried pampers and huggies. We are now onto double diapering with a larger size over the first diaper. I hate changing crib sheets every morning.
  

• She still loves her bottle. In fact, I have quit giving her baby food to see if maybe that was causing some tummy trouble. So just the bottle. Which is fine with her. She takes a bottle every 2-3 hours. (that was with baby food also) This is my first experience with bottles and it is expensive! And alot more work than nursing.
  

• She seems to be bonding pretty well. I am not sure what defines that "Yes, Sage is 100% bonded to me!" She looks for me when I am not the one holding her, and sometimes she cries for me,. She will let people hold her, she is so curious and enjoys checking everyone out. She does make eye contact with me while drinking her bottles( i have heard that is one of the signs). If you know the child you know she locks gazes with you and just drinks you in. As if she is memorizing you
  

• She is still very laid back. Nothing scares her, nothing upsets her. She just takes in life and ponders it all. She is a serious baby and to get a laugh takes work!
  

• She loves peek a boo, LOVES when you sing to her, loves her ball and stacking cups.
  

• If you want her to like you, wear a necklace! She literally falls out of my arms reaching for you if you have a necklace on! When i wear one, she hangs on to it like it is her handle!
  

I could go on and on! She is such a beautiful and sweet baby and I just sit in awe that she is here. Our lives are so full and we are so thankful for each of the gifts of our children that we have been given.

First (or 3rd) Doctor Visit

Yesterday was our first "official" dr visit. Sage did great! She is 16.3 pounds and 26 1/2 inches long. She is on the chart, just on the lower half. Tiny, but proportioned, and she is already growing since we have had her. She said she is right on target... for a 6 month old. Which is about what we guessed, 3 months behind. We know that she will quickly catch up. Although this child has such a laid back personality, I am not sure she is in any hurry to crawl! Rolling suits her just fine, or better yet, mommy carrying her! The dr commented on how good she was and so very inquisitive. It is so funny to just stand back and watch her. As she is checking reflex, looking in her eyes and ears, Sage just looks at the Doctor w/ that look(the above picture look), like, you are weird and I am not sure why you are doing that! She did not cry till she had her shots and then she really cried. It broke my heart, I have not seen her cry that way. I thought maybe by baby #4, shots would be easier to handle. Nope, I cried right along with her. They gave us her shot records from China, but our dr recomended getting all of them over again because we just don't know. She has to go get all her bloodwork done soon at Childrens Hosptital, along with collecting things from the diaper, YUCK! Just to make sure all is well and nothing followed us home from China! She did not sleep well last night, I assume from the shots. She was restless and just cried in her sleep some. Mark is also out of town of course, but thankfully will be home tonight. There is no way he is getting out of bloodwork or scooping poop! ;) by the way, she is not sitting on a potty in the above pictures as it looks but her new bumbo seat. It is lots of fun!

Welcome Home Sage!

Instead of a baby shower before we left for China, my family hosted a Welcome Home Sage party this weekend. I am going to post a whole page on our website, because I have so much to say about it, however I wanted to add a picture for you here. It was beyond a party, it was a full blown banquet! We had well over 100 people there and it was just amazing. If you have not met my family, you should know that Mark refers to us as the "Big Fat Greek Family". (I am not sure, should we be offended by the big fat? hehehehe!, and we are baptist by the way!!) Nothing is done on a small scale, and we find any excuse to celebrate! I will let you know when I get that page done on the website.
Quick Sage update... Sage started on the antibiotics on Tuesday. By Friday she was not better, so I took her back in and they started her on breathing treatments. Then Friday night we discovered she has thrush, so she is now on medicine for that. Tuesday she goes in for her full check up. Not looking forward to that one for sure. Oh but the ear drops were working by Friday so she was able to see into her ears and they look good!
She is still sleeping great. 7pm till 7, 8 AM. She is getting to where she wants to be held more than she will allow me to put her down, so that is proving to be a challenge with getting anything done. Who needs a clean house anyways. Although, clean underwear are a little more necessary!

Our Littlest Ladies

Cute matching ladybug outfits compliments of Aunt Judy and Uncle Ray. Thanks for the welcome home gifts!

Back to Reality!

Wow! So much for my book long posts that I was able to keep up with in China! Gone are the days of someone washing our clothes for us, cooking every meal for us and cleaning our room for us! We have been home for 5 days now. When we walked in the house looked perfect, it now looks as if a bomb has gone off. Laundrey is piled to the ceiling, suitcases are still not unpacked, you have to wade through piles to walk. However, we are home! Sounds so good to say that. It is good to tuck our kids into bed, to look over and see Sage sleeping in her crib, right where everyone should be. It is good to make a bottle with out boiling water. To lay down on my nice soft bed. To know what I am eating. To just be home.
Sage went to the doctor today. She has her first full physical next Tuesday, but the chest rattle is still going on and it appears she does have a touch of bronchitis. So we are starting on zithromax today and hopefully that will take care of it. She also put Sage on ear drops to soften up some major ear wax build up she appears to have, which she said can be common among asian babys. She did not enjoy the drops, but better than them digging in her little ears!
We took Makenna and Sawyer in for school today, our first day of school this year! They both enjoyed taking in their new sister, and we were happy to see their classrooms and friends. Funny how I was so upset that school would be going on, I had wished we could be home during the summer to let them have time w/ Sage. But this weekend I was SO thankful that God knew once again what would be best, and I was quite ready for school today! The older 2 have a contest on who should do this or that for Sage, and I was ready for a little quiet! Malaine is actually adjusting the best out of the 3, if you can believe it. She is the one who lost her spot as baby, yet really is just being so great with Sage. I should not be surprised, she is really an easy little girl. Sage's personality reminds me alot of Malaine. So our house was actually back to calm and quiet today with just the younger 2 girls. Does not mean I got anything done of course. Both wanted attention and I enjoyed playing with them much more than making myself unpack or work on laundrey!
Sage had her first visit to First Baptist Church Columbia this weekend. Felt so good to be back with our church family, knowing we have had so many of them praying for her and for us this past year.
I am still trying to finish up the travel journal on our website. I want to finish it while it is all still fresh in my mind. I am also planning on working on a packing page, I have lots to say about packing tips for those who are going to be traveling. Just as soon as I can stay awake long enough to type!
Oh and yes, Sage is sleeping great! It took a few nights, but she is back to her full night of sleep. She goes to bed around 7, and for the most part sleeps about 12 hours. She might wake up for 1 quick bottle in there, but last night she slept from 7 to 6 and we got her up for school at that point. Plus a few naps. We have switched her over from the chinese formula to enfamil. She takes anything, and does not mind bottle temperature at all, not picky for sure. She is eating more baby foods, and again, will pretty well eat whatever you give her. She is still not sitting all alone, but can balance herself for a short time. It won't take long. Not that I am in any hurry. I am enjoying this "baby phase" for as long as I can. We missed so much, I am going to enjoy each and every milestone that I get to teach her. It has taken me all day to type up this post, so I am headed for bed. Someone, please tell me, jet lag does not last forever right?