Catching Up Part II

Holy cow time flies!  Much has happened in a year (since my last post!).  

We were lucky to travel to California last September, with the girls, for a visit to Disneyland! Never had I thought we would visit Disney World and Disneyland in the same year!  Brad had business in CA, so us girls went along and hung out by the pool during the day, and visited Disneyland in the evening.  I know, a hard life, right!  

Then, in the fall, we began looking into a dream of ours to have a little place a the beach. Well, we had actually been researching, saving, and crunching numbers for several years, but but began to actually look at places in October.  In the beginning of April 2016, we settled on a little condo in Corolla, NC.  We love it there and it's perfect for our family.  Three bedrooms, 2 baths, a hot tub and access to many pools, amenities and lots of little extras. Unfortunately, we can't live at the beach all the time, so right now, our little place is more of an investment property that we rent out via a property manager during the vacation months. Hopefully one day we can take it out of the rental business and be at the beach more often, but for now, it's a win-win for us.  It's usually available when we can go down, and when we aren't there, it's being rented out for other families to enjoy.  We named it "The Anchor House" because to us, it's our little shelter from the storm of life and gives us hope for the future. [Hebrews 6:19].  The beach is our happy place!   To see a little about our condo, you can visit or blog-in-the works at http://baxter075.blogspot.com/  Or you can visit the property manager site at www.Brindleybeach.com and search for The Anchor House.    If you are interested in a stay, let me know!  Below is a picture of the sunset on the sound directly across from our place.  We love it!  



Note the horses in the back on the dune.  This is why we love Corolla! 

The girls hanging out in the hot tub at The Anchor House!

In May, we celebrated my mom and dad's 50th Wedding Anniversary.  Despite the fact that they wouldn't let us have a party for them, we surprised them with a stretch limo and a trip to Baltimore's Inner Harbor for a yummy brunch.  

Here's some pictures of the boys -- one heading to prom and one heading to a wedding.   They dress up pretty well!! 

In other news, we now have a Junior in College, a Senior in High School, a big First Grader and a kindergartner!  Life's about to get really busy again with sports, school and everything Fall!

Ellie is doing fantastic.  She made it through kindergarten, even though I wasn't ready for her to go!  I cannot say enough about early intervention for her.  I know that many people frown upon putting a "label" on their child, but they seriously helped Ellie get into the grove and catch up with some things she struggled with when we brought her home!  I'll post another time about all of her therapies, but I just can't say enough about getting help early in a child's journey.  With that being said, life isn't perfect and sometimes her early trauma and abandonment issues are very evident.  But, we typically know how to get her back to a place of safety, and then all is well.  

Ellie's 6th Birthday Bash! 

Did I mention that Ellie is swimming like a crazy person?  Seriously, this poor little girl screamed at the sight of water when we brought her home (b/c water wasn't for play in Ethiopia).  She is now jumping in the deep end and swimming the length of an Olympic pool. She has made serious progression with water and I could see her being on a swim team some day!  We will pick lessons back up in the winter months, because who doesn't love getting into a cold pool in the middle of winter!  Ha!

Both boys are ramping up for another Football season - so you know where to find us every Friday night and Saturday, mid-August through November!  We really do love the game and watching the boys blossom into young men and fight for their team.  We also really love getting to know other families and tailgating and just having fun with them all.  This year will be bittersweet for Dylan, as it will be his last high school football season.  That last game and senior walk on the field after the game is tough!  Colt leaves tomorrow for his college football season.  I don't know where the summer went.  It seems like he was just getting home from spring semester!  



Faith is our littlest and will head to kindergarten this year.  Cue the tears .....  She is more than ready and super excited to start her "school career!"  Ha Ha!  She is a smart girl (who loves to talk), so I sorta feel sorry for her teacher when she begins a dissertation on flamingos or the blue footed booby.  She sure does love her animals.  I see some parent-teacher meetings coming my way soon!  

Faith had preschool graduation in May  -- that was a sweet moment!

Brad and I will celebrate our 24th Wedding Anniversary in October!  Keep in mind that we've known each other since we were 12, so really we are celebrating our 30-something year together!  Next year maybe we will do something special, but to me, everyday is special with him.
I hope everyone one (the 2 of you) who read the blog are doing well.  Like I say, no news is usually good news!  Maybe I'll try to post again before a year goes by! 

 

 

Angie

Happy Meetcha Day!

One year ago we were in Ethiopia and met our sweet daughter for the first time.  I cannot believe how fast time has gone by.  It really seems like yesterday that we stepped off that plane in Ethiopia.  I can shut my eyes and still hear the sounds and and smell the smells of Ethiopia.  Oh how we miss it so much.

We are also forever grateful for the wonderful connections we made with other families who where there for the same reason.  So glad our paths have crossed and it's been so fun watching their children grow too.

So what's Miss Elliana been up to?  She is literally talking up a storm -- full sentences, answering questions, reasoning and just doing so well at using her language skills.  She says everything... and I mean everything!!    She's very smart and loves to see if she can outsmart any adult!  She loves pretend play and loves to feed her babies, diaper her babies, cook meals in her kitchen, serve tea to anyone who is interested, and fix your hair.  She's also pretty good at operating an Ipad or any piece of technology.  So inquisitive and always wondering how things works.  Her sense of direction is ridiculous!  By ridiculous, I mean she almost has a sixth sense.  She ALWAYS knows her way around and where we are going by the roads we are taking.  It's crazy... she always amazes us.  She also remembers everything... which can be good and bad ;)  We are praying that maybe she can 'forget' about some of her unpleasant experiences early in life -- and pray that she replaces them with warm memories of being 'home' for the last 9 months!  She is a fabulous sister to Faith.  They are just so cute together and Ellie loves to be the 'Mother Hen' looking after Faith.

It's hard to remember a time without Ellie in our family.  So so glad she's here!

Meetcha Day - December 29, 2011

First Morning Home from ET (March 2012)

Christmas Morning 2012 (9 months later)

So happy to have her home this Christmas!! 

One down... one to go!

We received news last week that Elliana's Giardia is gone!!  Praise the Lord. . . I'm sure the nurse thought I was crazy when I began screaming!  (No -- actually we have many nurses and doctors following both the girls -- and they are as happy as we are).  Faithlynn, however, is still testing positive.  Arrgh!  Faith starts a 2 week re-treatment again (per the recommendations of Dr. Jane Aronson) in combination with recommendations from the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia.  She will be done just before Christmas... then we can retest her (oh joy!).  Thankfully, Faith is not showing any symptoms of Giardia.  Just the positive result.  

I was beginning to think (and am still wondering) if the pharmacy is compounding the medicines incorrectly or if there is a mistake at the lab.  I just can't believe we can't get rid of this nasty parasite, and at about $30 per treatment, per child, times 8 treatments... plus 16 stool samples later... we are spending lots of money on this!!  Not to mention the bathing ritual and diaper changing rituals we have to go through to ensure we do not spread it back and forth.  I'm sure Clorox bleach is loving the Baxter family right now.  Bathing the girls separately with sanitizing and bleaching the tub in between and before, and after... has been a real chore.  We also keep their towels and wash cloths separate and they cannot play with toys in the tub (because then they would all need sanitized and bleached too).  Any comb or cup for combing and rinsing their hair in the tub must be sanitized too.  For the past 8 months, bath time isn't too much fun at our house... it's serious business and takes a long time :)  I'm looking forward to the day when I can throw them both in the tubby together and they can play and splash and have fun. 

Did I tell you we received a phone call from the Heath Department?  Yep, apparently when a child tests positive several times for Giardia, they must investigate.  Once I rambled off all of the medicines and treatments we have used on the girls and the measures we are taking to keep everything uncontaminated, they backed off.  She said I knew more about the parasite than she did!!  LOL... I guess it's just something they have to do to ensure kiddos are being taken care of.

So... wish us luck!  My Christmas wish.... to say good-bye to Giardia forever!  It's one souvenir from Ethiopia we don't mind getting rid of!     

Giardia and the "down" side of adoption

 Yep, I haven't mentioned it lately, but both girls still have Giardia. They've been treated 6 times with different medicines, different combinations and yet it still remains. Can I tell you how tired I am of collecting samples? ;( Ugh... I'm so tired.... Luckily, they do not really have any symptoms of Giardia, just the positive results indicating that it's still within their tiny system. Even the doctors at the Children's Hospital in Philadelphia said this is, by far, one of the most extreme and longest case they've had. They are working with infectious disease doctors right now to come up with a plan for the entire family. (Yes, they want to treat all of us -- oh joy). And, I told everyone else in our family, they are responsible for collecting their OWN samples. Momma ain't doing that -- that's where I draw the line.. :)  

Other than the Giardia, the girls are thriving and growing, gaining weight and getting taller and talking up a storm.  They play so well together -- it's so fun to watch and listen to their interactions.  Ellie is still getting services through our Early Intervention program, so she's currently seeing a speech therapist and a behavior specialist. She is very quick to please, so she's doing wonderfully and her behavior specialist has dropped back to only 2 times a month. Speech is coming along too... especially considering she had no language when she came home 7 months ago and she has made huge strides in just the last 2 weeks.  

The rest of the family has had their share of weird ailments too -- lets see... we've had colds, strep, strange heart palpitations, weird viruses, one concussion, and mystery virus I had for 6 weeks that secluded me to mostly bed rest.  Fun times here, but yet we continue to persevere.  We just roll with it...

As we prepared to talk about our adoption journey for Orphan Sunday, we were asked by a few people if we were going to address the 'down' side of adoption.'   I've heard that terminology before, and always wondered what people were talking about -- you know.. life after the airport.  I'm still wondering what people are talking about.  I guess there are people out there who adopt and then think it was a mistake...something I can't really understand...   Don't get me wrong... there's been a time or two that I've thought, "oh my gosh.. this is really hard..." and sure, our life has been super crazy, but I would never change our decision to add Ellie to our family.  I guess all of our appointments for Ellie (and our other 3 kids!!) and our therapies for speech and behavior (mixed in with sports) probably looks overwhelming to most.... not to mention that I'm a working mom who travels one day a week... but I would not change our decision to adopt EVER.  I can only see positive things in adding a sweet little girl to our family and she continues to teach us things (about ourselves) as well as how to put ourselves aside to serve someone else (her)!  

But, craziness and all, we are exactly where God wants us. No, it hasn't been easy, but it's been our experience that anything worthwhile is NEVER EASY. It's EASY to ignore; it's EASY to do nothing and it's EASY to walk away. But, God can't change and mold us by asking us to do easy things all of the time. We knew going into the adoption process that we'd have a season of busy-ness and would probably be looking at some support services for Ellie --- and we are ok with that. And although the waiting period was horrible, it really helped us practice our patience and trust in God -- all things He knew we'd need to effectively parent Elliana.

So, although to the outside world our family looks a little crazy from time to time, (and yeah, I might have missed your birthday... or your get-together) our family is exactly how God created it to be... Giardia and all!! 

July Wedding

I'm way behind in posting updates and pictures!  Sorry about that.  It's been a busy summer.

Here's a few pictures from my cousin's wedding we attended in July.  It was special because she was my flower girl when we were married almost 20 years ago!  Wish I had a picture I could post of it, but they are all in my album.  I don't even have a decent picture of the bride and groom because I typically had a toddler on one hip or the other... but congrats Elizabeth & Jim!!

Family photo -- almost everyone is looking.....

I'm not sure what the heck we were thinking . . . taking 2 toddlers to a wedding 3 hours away, staying in a hotel, and thinking we were going to have a good time!  They kept us very busy, but they did great.  I was actually surprised how well they did with taking their naps, sleeping in a noisy hotel (above the reception) and just adjusting in general.  We did only get to see a few minutes of the ceremony because when the photographer walked to the back of the church to take some photos, both girls started yelling "cheese!!"... so we quickly made our exit :)   They both were dancing-queens at the reception.  Faith enjoyed going around to all of the tables and greeting everyone.  Ellie has happy to watch first and then join in -- if it looked like it was safe :)  We do not have many pictures, however, because we were busy chasing the girls around, and, unless we had a super-duper fast shutter speed, we never would have caught the speedy-girls on film.   The boys, of course, did awesome.  I think they were down at the reception until it ended!

I'm still amazed as I look back on these photo (which are already 6 weeks old) how much Ellie has continued to grow and mesh into our family.  We still have our challenges like every family, but she continues to blossom more and more each day.  And, even if we feel like we've taken a few steps back, there is still progress there.  God continues to pour grace on our family as we adjust to being a family of 6.

Meemaw & Pap with their busy girls

 

Ellie looking beautiful in her dress

Faith dancing around

More dancing by the crazy girl

Trying to get a decent picture together -- NOT POSSIBLE
(Yes, she's eating puffs out of a coffee cup with a spoon --
whatever we had to do to keep her entertained!)