L, El, and J in their winter coats

Yesterday, the boys found an area that they hadn't discovered yet. It is a big wooden storage box that I keep all of our winter stuff in when we are not using it. Inside the box, they found hats, gloves, scarves, and best of all, two coats that were theirs. My mother had purchased two coats at the end of the winter last year. Thanks Mom!! They were $45 coats on clearance for $4.50! She risked the purchase of two 3T coats in hopes that the boys we were getting would fit into them this winter. That was back when our referrals were 2 year old twin boys. I almost gave the coats away after we lost the referrals. Little did I know that the boys we would bring home, 5 year old twins, would fit into them perfectly this winter. Isn't God amazing? All of the things we bought for the first referalls fit the sons God gave us. Nothing was wasted or unused. Of course, He always knew His plan for us and fully led us along the way.

Now, back to the coats. In Oklahoma, it is still running in the 80s daily, close to 90, and as you can see from the pic above, we are still in our shorts. The evenings are getting beautifully cool, but as of yet, we have no need for coats. However, they have worn their big coats (with shorts) around the house. They are so excited to call them their own.

L's hospital "treat"

Well, it's over. Thank goodness! L was scheduled for his endoscopy at 8:30 a.m. this morning. We arrived a few minutes early and waited and waited and waited. At around 9:40 a.m. they called him back to be weighed. It was then that the nurse informed us that they had made a scheduling mistake and had booked us for Sept. 14, 2007! Therefore, they were having to hustle around and get labels and paperwork for his charts. They squirted some numbing lotion on the top of both of his hands and covered them with plastic. Then they sent us back to the waiting room.

At about 10 a.m. they called us back to the procedure room. He was really doing okay at this point. They gave him a preventative antibiotic for his heart since we haven't seen the cardiologist yet and chloralhydrate to help relax him. Then we changed him into his gown. The nurse brought him a Piglet sticker. He took one look at it and said, "Etta", and then snorted. The nurse got a big kick out of that.

He laid on the table and got downright goofy. His legs kept moving and he kept rolling side to side. He talked non-stop. To me, he was getting more wired-up instead of relaxing. Then came the heplock and the needles. At this point, it was like Jekyll and Hyde. He turned stone cold and stiff-faced. They had to try on both hands before successfully installing it. They gave him the Demerol and Verced. Soon after, he started choking and gagging. The nurses rushed to suction him. He did this several times. The doctor came in about this time. I asked if it was normal. No one answered quickly enough for me. Finally the doctor said, "Yeah, it's okay." I'm not sure that answered my question.

I was then told it was time for me to leave. He was pretty groggy, but not asleep yet. I reluctantly left and sat nervously trying to read my Sunday School lesson in the waiting room. I don't remember much of it. I heard some crying. It was faint and I couldn't tell if it was him or not. There was so much crying in that office! About 20 minutes later, they told me I could come into recovery with him. He was crying and sobbing hard. He had been awake for the entire thing!! The nurse said they tried to give him more medicine to knock him out, but she said she's seen this before in traumatized kids who have been in a lot of medical situations. They actually know that they are being drugged to sleep and have a weird ability to fight it off because of fear of the unknown. She said he was mad and fought all the way through.

I held him the best I could considering there were a million tubes hooked to him. I rocked his pillow back and forth and whispered quietly to him. At first he wouldn't even look at me. I had been told that he would be asleep when I left and that I would be there when he woke up. I had told him everything was okay, not to be scared, Mama would stay with him. I am struggling with whether he thinks I lied to him. I told him I would stay, then I left him, they did hurtful things to him, and then I came back. He finally rolled his head back to me and started to calm down. He cried off and on for the next 10 minutes or so.

The doctor came in and said he had interesting findings. He said that he couldn't even get the scope down his esophogus. He tried several times, but it wouldn't go through. He said he even tried to lightly push it through and it wouldn't go. He finally had to use the infant scope and it was able to slide down. He said he had a stricture and that his esophogus was only about 9mm wide at that point. He said it was in a very odd place and that is why the barium swallow didn't show anything.

So, what now? He is being scheduled for another barium procedure that is a little different. It will be observed by the x-ray department, the GI department, and a speech therapist. He will swallow the liquid to light up his insides and then he will have to eat foods with different textures and sizes. They will observe how it goes down and his swallowing, etc. Then they will consult with a surgeon and schedule a date for surgery. Yes, more surgery, more medical trauma. I cry every time I think about him having to go through more procedures and eventually surgery again.

He wouldn't sleep in recovery at all, but was extremely limp as I carried him across the hospital, across the street and to the parking garage. He didn't sleep for a while even in the car. Finally he gave up. He slept for about an hour and a half when we got home. I got him to eat a little food and drink a milkshake I had bought for him. Now he is running around, doing fine. Although, he did just tell me, "Spat(sleep)".

Debbie, you would love the little pillow they gave him as his "treat" at the hospital(pic above). It was handmade- yellow gingham on one side and Pooh Bear print on the other. They said they looked for a pig so he could snort again, but just found Piglet on the pillow. He loves his new 'padushka'.

Thanks for all of your prayers for us today. It was really rough and definitely difficult. It looks like we've got quite a road ahead of us too. We know that God has him in His hands and that is why he is home with us to get the care he needs. I'll let you know more when we know more.

Kids "playing" in the "new" van with the RED interior.


"Count your many blessings. Name them one by one. Count your many blessings. See what God has done. " This was a little chorus based on a Bible verse that we used to sing at church. It has been coming back to me over and over the last few weeks.

Many of you will probably look at the picture of the van above and think, "Blessing? No way." However, I am convinced that it IS a blessing. Last fall when we began this whole crazy process, one of our concerns was a vehicle. We had a nice 7 passenger minivan. The only problem was that we were going to be a family of 8. We talked about our options and prayed about it a lot. I wanted a little 9 passenger van, 12 at the most. D thought a 15 passenger van would be perfect- lots of storage, room to separate kids, room to carry extra friends/passengers, etc.

The further we got into debt over the adoption, the more we realized how hard getting a new vehicle was going to be. It remained on the top of our prayer list. Since our return home with our 2 new sons, we have been managing, albeit a little illegally at times. When it is just me and the kids, we are fine. However, when the whole family is together, the gwins have to double buckle.

Seeing that we needed to hurry the vehicle process along, we asked for prayer in our Sunday School Class for locating a vehicle in our price range and with the space we needed. That very night, one of our class members approached me and said that the church had just voted to try to get rid of one of their old 15 passenger vans. It had low mileage(56,000) for its age(1989) and was well taken care of. It had been used by the "Golden Disciples"(aka the Senior Citizen group) to go on trips and outings.

When I first saw it, I thought, "Oh my goodness. It's so big and so old and so ugly." I really didn't want it. Then I began realizing that this van just might be an answer to a prayer that was started almost a year before and prayed many times since then. We checked into it more and talked to the trustees about it. They sent it to a mechanic and had it checked out.

On Sunday, they handed us the keys and told us it was ours. Yes, it was given to us! They told us we could make a donation if we wanted to. We made a small one, the best we could right now.

It may not be pretty. It may not be new. It may not be a great status symbol. However, it IS a blessing and an answer to prayer. It is a symbol of answered prayer and yet another reaffirmation of God's blessing and call on this adoption. It does show that God is our Provider.

It is currently at a body shop to get the wording removed and possibly the paint stripped off so it can be repainted. The kids absolutely love it. El and L keep asking to go play in the "big van". It is huge! I am a little nervous to drive "the bus", but I know Who sent it to us and that He will protect us in it. We will keep it until we get the adoption paid off, then we'll see about another one(unless we've grown too attached to it). ;-)

***Another provision: After meeting El and L, a sweet couple at church decided to try and raise some money for the boys' medical and dental expenses. Sunday, they handed us a check that was far more than we could ever imagine. We also know that we will soon be receiving another check to pay off some adoption expenses. It was raised for us/the boys by the children of our church at our KidsFest (like Vacation Bible School). Isn't that amazing?

God asked us to follow. He asked us to trust and now He is providing. It is all so overwhelming to me. It brings me to tears. It is so good to be a part of the family of God.

L on the tractor

El dressed up in Papa's clothes