Jada Photos

Remember Jada?  You can read more about one of our Chenzhou babies here...

I was able to get new photos of this sweet girl.

 She still waits...

 She still needs a mommy....

 She is still not reaching milestones that she should be.

 Because she needs to come home.

If you would like more information on the agency who has her file, please contact me.

Who me, stressed?

Well, the lice is still hanging around.  It is sneaky alright.

The other fun we are having here is strep throat. In the midst of the lice. It started on New Years Eve and is STILL making the rounds.

Kid who started it on NYE, tested positive for her THIRD round of it today.

Someone made a comment that "Strep throat used to be called a sore throat in the day."

Someone obviously has not heard how dangerous strep can be. OR been stuck in bed for days with it.

Sore throat, I WISH.

Because I am on my SECOND round of it, and if it was only about a sore throat I would be thrilled.

It has knocked me out out for the count. Fever, aches, exhaustion. Not a great combination for a mom.

Today, day 3 for me, I tried to get up and start cleaning house. And checking heads.

Which is when I found the lice. Which resulted in more laundry.

And cleaning.

And me back in bed from dizziness and shortness of breath.

I called the doctor when I suspected child 3 had her 3rd round of strep and just burst into tears on the phone. 

I am frustrated. I am sick of being sick. I am sick of pulling nits from hair and researching ways to get rid of it all. Or hearing advice on how to get rid of it all. But as a friend said..."The best thing about today, it won't last forever." And so I remind myself of that. This HAS to end. It could be worse. So for now I just keep swimming.

That Dirty Four Letter Word

Not THAT word.

This is a G Rated blog after all!

LICE.

I bet it makes you start scratching just by reading the word.

Mavery brought that lovely word into our home for the first time.

Thank you public education.

That was a joke.

And since Mavery is so good about sharing, she passed the fun on to 3 of her siblings. 

The day before her dad was scheduled to travel for a week. You know, dad who is BALD and has no worries about being inflicted.

Leaving me in a war zone, or so I felt like it.

Have you had lice? It is BAD. I did laundry around the clock for 6 days straight. I have trash bags of toys piled to the ceiling.

I have sat and picked at hair till my fingers were numb. 

It ranks up there as one of the WORST things I have been through in motherhood. Or grossest at least. 

It is one of those things that just make you feel shameful. Going into the store to buy the shampoo made me cringe. Till I was buying bottle #4 then I was over it. 

Because honestly, it is not my fault.

Despite the craziness, it is not like we don’t clean our house or bathe our children.

Rumor has it they are attracted to clean hair anyways.

Whatever the case, it was not a fun thing AT ALL.

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I wrote the above 3 weeks ago DURING the lice infestation.  After thinking we were free, a child started itching. Again. 

   

And so we bagged everything back up.

We are washing 100 loads of laundry..

We have washed heads and we I picked.

And picked.

And we are  I am STILL picking.

I am literally having nightmares about lice and picking through hair.

We have had desperate thoughts such as “How weird would it be to have a family full of all shaved heads?” Or “If we were to get a pet monkey, would it sit and pick for us? “ I have thought of loading them all up and taking a road trip to Chicago to visit the Nitpickers Salon. Oh yes, there IS such a place!

If you have had lice in your home, you get my pain. If you have not, you should get down on your knees and THANK GOD.

Funny, when they sent those notes home from school in the past “Someone in your child’s class has been treated for lice, please check your child”  I always just threw it away and thought, “ EWWW how disgusting, poor them. “

Well, now the notes are out and they are about US! We are THAT family.

But like I said before, I am over it. Think what you will of us. You can be no more disgusted than I am.

This whole ordeal has made me think of a few things.

#1.  I TOTALLY get why they shave the kids heads in orphanages and I will NEVER EVER question it again.  When you barely have time to hold all the kids, you certainly do not have the time to pick out bugs.

#2. Lice is very much like bad habits, or hidden sin.

Truth? I think so. Like our bad habits that we don’t want to admit, they can be hidden from everyone, but we know they are there.

They are not easily broken. To get rid of them we must work. HARD.

Even when we think we have rid ourselves, that we are safe, it can reappear, We must stay on guard.

Trying to rid ourselves of it alone is not possible. With lice, we have to use the proper shampoos, combs, lighting etc.  With those bad habits and our sin? We need God. 

So as I arm myself for the ongoing battle of this dirty four letter word, I will continue to remind myself that it CAN be broken. (Oh PLEASE God let it be broken SOON!!!!) And I will also continue to pray that the bad habits I know the Lord wants me to work on (FOOD, among many) will also be broken.