Birthday wishes

Our first child is now 12 years old!  He may not be the oldest due to Christina and Joshua having been so much older when we adopted them, but he will always be the first, the one that made me a mommy.  Happy birthday, Caleb!

People often talk about the effects of adoption on biological children.  As the only biological child out of all our kids Caleb's life has certainly been affected by all our adoptions.  We always focus on the positives - the companionship his siblings bring him, the skills he learns in caring for them, the compassion he gains in learning about people with special needs, the greater worldview he has by learning about not only the culture of the countries they come from but also about the issues that contribute to the orphan crisis worldwide, etc.  

There are negatives too though.  First, and most significantly, kids with difficult backgrounds are difficult to parent.  That makes them hard on siblings too, something Caleb has dealt with since he was a baby.  As hard as it is to have a sibling with a difficult background (especially multiple ones!), that's not the only way adoptions can negatively affect biological children.  

The average adoption costs around $30,000.  Most of our adoptions we paid for entirely on our own.  Needless to say our adoptions have seriously affected our finances!  The "luxuries" that are standard in many families (e.g. birthday parties and presents, tooth fairy money, extracurricular activities, special outings, etc.) just haven't been possible in ours with so much of our money going towards adoption expenses, especially with the added cost of the medical expenses that result from their special needs.  Caleb has no memories of ever taking a family vacation.  There have been many local attractions he has wanted to go to which we never could afford.  When we drove all the way to New York City to adopt Elianna we didn't get to do any sightseeing, not even the basics like Times Square or the Statue of Liberty.  We even moved to a smaller, older home because of our adoptions!

Were it not for our adoptions Caleb's life would be really different, but he has never complained.  In fact, he has always welcomed his new siblings with great love and joy.  We'd love to be able to do something special for Caleb to celebrate his 12th birthday, but once again we simply can't afford it.  However, as always, he doesn't complain.  Instead he talks excitedly about the upcoming arrival of his new little brother.

This sweet boy deserves more than we can give him, but all he wants is for his new little brother to come home.  Would you be willing to help make that happen?  Would you give just $12 in honor of Caleb's 12th birthday to help Jacob come home?  Caleb has been through so much lately with his health issues, with us knowing something is wrong with him but not knowing what it is.  It would mean so much to him to have people donate in his honor to help get Jacob home!  

To make a tax-deductible donation please click here.  

Caleb with his younger siblings (his older ones weren't with us) on a hike in the Smoky Mountains.

Caleb always stays with Jonah when we are hiking.  Jonah is super slow and sometimes just refuses to walk, but Caleb is always patient and gentle with him.  

Yes, there is a hiking trail in the Smoky Mountains that runs along the "road to nowhere" complete with a real tunnel.  The kids loved it!  For those who don't know, entrance into the Great Smoky Mountain National Park is completely FREE for everyone!  We are eligible for free entrance to all national parks through both a military pass and a disability pass, but in the Smoky Mountains no pass is needed.  This is because when Tennessee turned over land to the federal government for the creation of the national park they imposed a restriction that no entrance fees ever be charged.  My husband was shocked the first time we drove into the Smokies that there was no entrance fee.  I was shocked to learn that there actually was an entrance fee to other national parks.  Obviously I'm the one who grew up here in eastern Tennessee.  :)

Another day of hiking in the Smoky Mountains.

Caleb is such a wonderful big brother to Jonah.  He told us that when he gets married one day his wife will have to accept Jonah because he plans to take care of him once we are no longer able to care for him ourselves.  He is adamant that he will not marry a woman who has a problem with him caring for Jonah!

This was a snowy hike in the Smoky Mountains.  Caleb had to work hard at keeping Jonah safe because he kept wanting to run in the snow, and Caleb was making sure he didn't slip or fall off the trail (it wasn't a dangerous trail, but there were a couple of places he could have fallen into water if he had slipped and started rolling).

Normally the 3 little ones don't get to play in the creek, but one day towards the end of last summer when the water was low Caleb really wanted to let them play.  He was so excited to let them experience the fun of playing in a creek and was happy to watch over them to ensure their safety.

Malachi and Micaelyn wanted to play, but Caleb wouldn't move out of arm's reach of the little ones!

Elianna was the first one to get in the water.  She was really excited!

Caleb keeping a close hand on Jonah

Even in the snow Caleb watches over his younger siblings.  

Taking Elianna for a ride on the sled

My sweet, sweet little boy.  No matter how big he gets he will always be my baby!  Happy birthday, dear son!

Needing answers...

Last December Caleb was hospitalized with tachycardia and a very mild case of pneumonia (the pneumonia was extremely mild, barely even visible on the x-ray, so he was hospitalized more because of the tachycardia).

We had hoped the tachycardia would resolve.  Unfortunately, he's still having problems with it.  Here are some recent examples of the problems he is having.  The following images are screenshots from where I used a heart rate app on my phone to check his heart rate (I used these while he was hospitalized to compare them to the hospital's heart rate monitor, and they compared very closely.)

This is an example of a resting heart rate for Caleb.  He had been sitting/laying for a long while doing nothing except watching things on his laptop.

This heart rate test was taken immediately after the one above.  The only difference is that I had him stand up.  Just standing up (not even taking a step) caused an increase of over 40 beats per minute from a resting heart rate that was already too high.

This is another resting heart rate.  I was actually really excited to see his heart rate at a normal level - this rarely happens anymore.

This measurement was taken immediately after the one above.  Once again, I had him stand up to see how that affected his heart rate.  His heart rate literally doubled just by standing up, not even taking a step.

This was a measurement I took after Caleb got out of bed yesterday morning.
  Because he is homeschooled he was able to sleep as late as he wanted and gradually wake up (note the time stamp of 9:46am).  There was no hurry to get out of bed.  He stayed in bed until he felt ready to get up, and I just happened to be there in his room and managed to get his heart rate as soon as he got up.  This is way above normal!

Caleb did receive a full evaluation from a pediatric cardiologist, including an echocardiogram of his heart performed by the cardiologist himself.  There does not appear to be anything structurally wrong with his heart.  It could either be a problem with the SA node of the heart (this is the heart's natural "pacemaker") which wouldn't show on the echo, or more likely it's a problem elsewhere in his body.

He is getting all kinds of blood work done to check the most obvious things like thyroid and adrenal gland issues.  He has been put on salt tablets to see if that will help any.  There has been talk of other medications to slow his heart rate, but first we want to figure out why his heart rate is so high.

Postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is one possibility that is being considered (particularly considering the fact his heart rate increases so much upon standing), but the doctor wants to rule out other problems before focusing on POTS for several reasons, including the fact that even his resting heart rate is usually higher than it should be.

So we are just in a waiting mode, wondering what on earth is wrong with our son to cause his heart rate to be so elevated.  He has been very inactive lately, basically just sits or lays on the floor with his laptop all day long, and I don't even feel comfortable pushing him to do anything more because of his heart rate.  He is not terribly symptomatic, though he does say he feels dizzy and his head hurts when he gets up (he pointed to the center of his forehead to indicate to me where it hurt).  He also looks shaky to me whenever he gets up, but he denies feeling that way.  However, while he is generally inactive, and he has no desire be active (e.g. he doesn't want to walk anywhere with us, even to the nearby coffee shop to get one of the smoothies he loves), when we had friends visiting he was able to play along with their kids, even running along the greenway with them.  However, because of the number of little kids between our 2 families the bigger kids never ran too fast or too far, and Caleb did tell me when he got home he could really feel his heart pounding hard.

Overall, I just really don't think Caleb looks healthy.  As his mom, I sense something not right about him.  He is paler with dark circles under his eyes, despite getting plenty of sleep.  He is not involved in any extracurricular activities at the moment (in the past he was really active, having played baseball, soccer, and doing gymnastics) and is homeschooled so he doesn't have any stress in his life to cause problems.  He eats a very healthy diet full of fresh fruits and vegetables and little to no preservatives, dyes, or other chemicals.  He drinks water all day long and never drinks soda.

The summer is approaching, and I know the heat will be unbearable to him.  I hope we get some answers soon.

Travel Approval!

Earlier this week we received great news - we have travel approval to bring home Jacob!!!

We also received word from China that last week a boy from Jacob's orphanage left to be adopted, and Jacob said, "I'm the next one.  My Daddy will be here soon to take me home!"

We are so excited and can't wait to have Jacob finally home!!!

If you would like to be a part of something special and help reunite Jacob and Hannah as brother and sister forever you can make a tax deductible donation here.  The first $5,500 raised will be given to Jacob's orphanage as a donation to help the children left behind, most of whom have special needs themselves.

We received this new picture of Jacob last night.  Hannah saw it and said, "Oh wow, Fei Fei!"  My Fei Fei!!!"

What would you do???

What would you do if you adopted a child and found out that child had a sibling that was left behind?


What if no one else would adopt this sibling because of his special needs?


What if your child asked you constantly when this sibling would come home?


Would you leave him waiting forever for a family?


...or would you run to him?

Hannah's adoption came as a bit of a surprise to us.  We had planned to adopt from China again, but then we found out about a baby in New York City in need of a family because of her special needs, a baby that fit ever so perfectly in our family, our little Elianna.

We were elated to have such a special blessing and felt no hurry to adopt again anytime soon.  However, because we had filled out a form to view waiting children with a Chinese adoption agency it wasn't long after we adopted Elianna that we received an email about a baby girl they felt would fit perfectly in our family!

We hesitated...

...and then we prayed.

We prayed that God would give us an answer about HIS will for our lives and for this child waiting in China...

...and then He answered.  Clear as day I was given this answer.

Christians like to talk about what they have done "for the least of these."  The thing is, God's word doesn't just talk about what we have done for the least of these, it also talks about what we did NOT do for them.

Sure, we had already adopted 4 waiting children, and we had plans to adopt more in the future.  We were doing our part to help the least of these.  We were certainly doing more than most people!

But this child needed a family NOW, not in the future, and she had been presented to us.  There were only 2 choices.  We could choose to adopt her, or we could say no.

We prayed for God to give us a clear answer, and He answered with this verse:  "Whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me." (Matthew 25:45)

If we said no to that precious child, a child that had been presented to us completely unexpectedly, we weren't just saying no to her, we were saying no to HIM.

And so began the process to bring home our little Hannah.

What we didn't know when we said yes to Hannah is that she was not alone in the world.  She had been moved from her orphanage as a tiny baby to a new foster care group home for medically fragile babies that was far away from her original orphanage.  There she bonded with another little boy who was from the same province as Hannah.  Before they could even sit on their own they were constantly together.

Whether they were indoors...

or outdoors...

at meal times...

and at play times...

...they were always together.

It was a small facility where the kids were cared for in an environment that resembled more of a family than an orphanage, but there were other children there.  Nonetheless, it was clear these two had a special bond for each other, a bond that was greater than between the other kids.

 It was clear who Hannah's favorite was...

Obviously the feeling was mutual...

They were even known to have the same facial expressions...

They were always near each other.  In pictures of Hannah, there he was in the background...

In pictures of him, there Hannah was in the background...

Though they were young, Hannah understood that he couldn't walk or make much use of his arms, and so she became his little helper.  Whether it was bringing him toys to hold or caring for him when he was sick, she was always there for him.  

Thus it's no surprise that when we brought Hannah home she never stopped talking about "Fei Fei."  When we gave her a picture of him and her together she started carrying it everywhere with her, even sleeping with it (and kissing it before she went to sleep!).  She asked us daily, multiple times each day, when Fei Fei was coming home.

To Hannah, Fei Fei was her brother.  No, they are not biological siblings, but neither are any of the 8 children here in our home.  Those of us in the world of adoption know it is not our genes that make us family, it is our love for one another.  Hannah and Fei Fei loved one another as brother and sister from the time they were babies.  In their life without parents they became family to each other.  When we adopted her we took her away from the strongest attachment she had in the world.  No wonder she longed for us to bring him home.  

In the same week we adopted Hannah Fei Fei was moved to a new facility in an entirely different part of China.  I can only imagine how traumatic it must have been to have Hannah pulled away from him and then be moved to a new place.  Over the 2 years since we have brought Hannah home he has seen many more friends go away to be adopted while he continues to wait.  He is now 5 years old.  He understands he can't use his arms and legs like the other kids, and few people are willing to adopt children who can't use their arms and their legs.

Still, like any other child, Fei Fei longs for a family of his own, and he remembers his "sister" Hannah.  Because of their bond, it was only natural for him to see her family as his own. When first shown a picture of our family he said, "She is AnNa (AnNa was Hannah's name in China).  This is my mommy.  This is my daddy."  There has never been any question in Fei Fei's mind, or in Hannah's mind, that we are his family.

Adopting Hannah was an unplanned journey.  Adopting Jacob (Fei Fei) is another very unexpected part of that unplanned journey.

But how could we leave him behind?

If you would like to be a part of the wonderful journey of reuniting Hannah and Jonah as siblings forever you can make a donation by clicking here.

"I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you."  -John 14:18

"Whoever welcomes one of these little children in my name welcomes me; and whoever welcomes me does not welcome me but the one who sent me." - Mark 9:37

Heartbreaking decision

One of the hardest things in the adoption world is having to let go of a child you have come to love as your own.  Sadly, several months ago we had to release the file of the little girl we had dreamed of for many months.  Due to some new medical complications with one of our children that will require us to do a substantial amount of traveling for treatment we felt we would be unable to provide the stability and structure an older girl with Down syndrome would surely need to help her adjust to her new home and attach to our family.  After a lot of thoughtful consideration and prayer we finally made the heartbreaking decision to release her file.  We pray her forever family finds her soon.  We know they will be incredibly blessed to have her as their daughter!

We ARE still proceeding with the adoption of Hannah's foster brother/best friend from the orphanage, Jacob.  We have an abundance of information about him because of his relationship with Hannah.  Despite his great physical limitations he is mentally very bright.  He is also a lot younger, being only 5 years old.  We don't have any concerns about his ability to handle the lack of structure and routine we will face in his first few months home.  Plus, we know he is being very well prepared for the transition to our home.  Not only that, because he is already attached to Hannah his transition to our home will be easier overall.  He already knows her to be his sister, so it was natural for him to accept us as his family.  He knows us as his Mommy and Daddy and can't wait to come home!

Jacob with some of the things we sent him for Christmas.  We were told he was very happy and excited to get a package from us and that he loved all his presents!  We sent him LOTS of cars, a dinosaur set, some other little toys, the stuffed penguin he is holding, the hat and matching mittens he is wearing, Christmas candy, and most importantly a photo album with over 40 pictures of our family.

Hospital Adventures (part 2)

How did Caleb end up hospitalized again in December?

Although he had been completely fine the day before, Caleb woke up on St. Nicholas Day not feeling well.  I normally don't take the kids into the doctor until they have been sick for awhile to give their immune system a chance to fight it off before resorting to drugs.  However, this time I felt he needed to get seen without delay so despite the fact it was a Sunday (meaning his normal doctor wasn't in), I had my husband take him in to the quick care clinic to get checked out.

He had minimal symptoms - just didn't feel well, had a low grade fever (99.3) and had a slightly sore throat - but his heart rate was in the 130s.  Unfortunately, he got seen by a PA who TOTALLY missed the ball!  She diagnosed him with dehydration.  She said Americans just don't drink enough water, drink too much soda, and we live at such a high altitude here it's easy to get dehydrated.  She didn't bother to actually get a real history on Caleb.  If she had, she would have learned our family does NOT drink soda AT ALL, and that Caleb drinks MANY glasses of water throughout the day.  As far as altitude, 940 feet above see level isn't generally considered high altitude!  Caleb's daddy said he wished I had been there to deal with the PA myself.  I would have told her she needed to figure out what was really wrong with my child instead of making an assumption based on habits of the general American public.

As the day went on Caleb continued to decline significantly.  He became completely lethargic, wouldn't eat at all, his fever climbed to over 103, and his heart rate climbed into the 160s.  I gave him ibuprofen which helped reduce his fever and heart rate a bit, though they were still above normal (heart rate dropped to 140s), and I watched him like a hawk all through the night until I could get him in to see his normal doctor the next morning.

Thankfully his normal doctor, though full of patients, not only saw him but also ordered lab work, an EKG, and a chest x-ray.  He determined he was definitely NOT dehydrated!  The chest x-ray showed the possible beginning of pneumonia (exact wording from radiology report was "suspected early or ill-defined infiltrate apical segment left lower lobe").  He wasn't even coughing, and his lungs sounded clear.  There was no clear explanation for his high heart rate, so off to the ER we went.

There was never a clear explanation for Caleb's high heart rate.  He was diagnosed with pneumonia, but it was a mild case that really shouldn't have caused his heart rate to increase that much.  In fact, it was caught so early it was barely visible on the x-ray (multiple doctors said they didn't really see it themselves).  He did have to stay in the hospital for awhile, but eventually they let him go with the promise of close follow-up with his primary care doctor (the hospital also followed up with phone calls to us as well).  However, with a diagnosis of pneumonia, though mild, and a high heart rate we couldn't go anywhere to enjoy any Christmas festivities, not to mention the fact illness started spreading through the rest of the family as well.

There's always next year...

(Oh, and we'll be following up on Caleb's heart rate issues with a visit to a pediatric cardiologist soon.)

Hanging out in the ER.  

Just waiting to be admitted to a real room in the hospital.

Heart rate of 158 during the middle of the night while sleeping.  It would spike even higher in the daytime.

Hospital Adventures

Last year just a few days before Christmas Caleb ended up in the hospital getting emergency surgery for appendicitis.  Aside from the pain and misery it caused him, it also left us unable to do anything fun for Christmas.  We said all year long how this Christmas would be so much better.

Look how we spent this December...