Kora is Here!!!

On 10/13/2009 Kora came out at 9:34 pm 7lb 1 oz and 19 3/4 inches! Karen and Kora are both doing great right now. In the early hours of her life Kora has proven to be very easy. We fully expect this to change. Lance has been a very great child so we figured God won't make it quite as easy with Kora ;)
So, Karen was induced yesterday morning for precautionary measures. No big concerns, just wanted to be on the safe side. Believe it or not but October 13th was her actual due date! Yes she was induced but still what are the chances? It was a classic October day here with the fall foliage and light off and on drizzle. Great day to be born! Karen choose the way of epidural but that did not save her from earning any badges of courage. Under some unfortunate circumstances Karen endured three hours of painful contractions. We know there are many of you out there that have delivered multiple children without any relief. And we definitely have respect for that. But I was really proud of Karen for going through what she did. After she got the epidural fixed she was much more aware and able to enjoy the rest. As far as laboring Karen did awesome! When it came time to bring Kora into the light, Karen was very proactive and aware of her body. Kora has a lot of hair as you can see in the pictures. Speaking of pictures...without further ado....

Simply Crazy

We all know life gets busy. What we have on our plate here would rival what an accountant goes through in mid-April.  It technically started about 7 months ago when Karen became pregnant. It kicked into fast gear during our recent trip to Texas.  While there to enjoy "vacation" with family we ended up visiting a private language based school, Capitol School of Austin (possibly for Lance) and getting a contract signed on our house (pending).  Lance ended up actually going to the school for two days after Karen and I visited on Tuesday. Within an hour of leaving the school on Tuesday we got the call for the showing on our house. By Friday at 4:30 we had agreed on a price.  We took the fact that God had this play out this way very seriously. 

 Before I go on, we did enjoy our trip very much, as usual. Lance got to swim a lot and he turned 5 years old!! We had a combo swimming birthday party with his cousin Cadge in Cameron and another party in Georgetown with Opa and Oma's family. Lance has progressed and developed so much that he deserves his own post. Maybe soon.

  So back in Texas we soon needed to decide if we would some how make the move to Texas and get Lance in the awesome school that we cannot afford.  After much prayer, consulting, and discussion we found a plan that eased the tension.....for a minute. 

   We are staying in Arkansas at least until 2010. The plan is to enroll Lance into a similar, smaller, and less expensive academy. We will move out of our house early August and into a house that some awesome friends of ours have for sale.  Hopefully for at least 60 days.  Then move into a rental. My brother Blake is coming to stay with us for a while starting next week too!  Karen getting more pregnant with Kora due in October.  Then it will be maternity leave for Karen. During this time we will try to find out more about funding and jobs in Texas in the event that an opportunity presents itself. We are not saying this is going to happen for sure.  It is just something we want to look into more thoroughly.  So lets recap: Blake arrives, move, sell house, Lance into new school, new work schedule for Karen, move again, Karen delivers Kora,  maternity leave, and research along the way!  Well, I think its pretty crazy. 

  Thats a basic update for those interested. Sorry again for not writing sooner. As you can see, been a little busy. We'll try to write again soon and post more pictures! Please pray for us! For sanity, comfort, patience, and relaxation!

A snipit in time

  Well a VERY quick summary of our lives right now is...awesome!  God has been blessing Lance with new words and excitement about life.  He has also been much more obedient.  I have been praying daily for a spirit of obedience for him.  Truly.  

  Work has been staying busy for JM and for me.  I have handed over the Special Needs Ministry to a very qualified individual who will be able to work at the church full time to run that ministry and another area of children's ministry.  I am very excited about what he will bring to the ministry and how I can help out. 

  The biggest news we have to share (a few weeks late) is that we are having a girl for sure!  She is beautiful and I continue to grow larger!  At the moment I am trying to download pictures of her ultrasound.  Now she should be about 11 inches long.  :o) 

It is more obvious in real life pictures, but these are her feet

Here is one picture of her profile

And another...

We think her nose looks like her aunt Judy's

Isn't it amazing?!  

What a week

So, we have had a busy week here.  I took two days off for 'booty camp' for Lance and JM took three days off.  It has been an interesting experience and it has been nice to have so much family time.  Lance isn't quite as far along as we were hoping, but the typical regimen was not working for him so we had to make some changes.  Unfortunately, I think the training he received the first three years of his life in the orphanage helped him learn to amuse himself in any situation.  The plan was for him to get sick of being in the kitchen and want to get out so therefore he learns to go to the potty whenever he has the urge.  Instead we had a mild maniac with self stimulating behaviors.  Anyway he is now only having one to two very small accidents all day!  We are proud of him.  We just hope it carries over into regular everyday life.

We are trying not to get our hopes up, but we also had a couple come look at our house for the third or fourth time.  Whoo-hoo.  Maybe we will be able to move a little closer to JM's job to cut down his commute.  I have to say I will miss this house, though.  

Probably the best part of our week was Thursday when John Michael and I were able to see our now 14 week old baby by ultrasound...yes, you read that right, I am pregnant.  :o)  It was so much fun.  I have to be honest, we were both fairly nervous about it, considering our past pregnancy.  But this little baby looked as healthy as can be and was moving all over the place.  (the 1/3 of a Dr. Pepper probably helped that out.  hee hee!)  We will have a level II ultrasound in 4 or so weeks just to make sure that everything is in fact going well.  So, if you haven't noticed already, I have attached two pictures from the ultrasound.  Enjoy! Disclaimer:  I say 'she' but we are not sure the baby is a girl yet.  

Here she had just taken a gulp.  You can see her head on the left with profile, teeth buds, spine down the bottom and the dark spot is her stomach.  Don't worry she has legs, you just can't see them in these pictures.  :o)

She is a little more curled up here with a clearer profile.  Her right arm is up by her head and left arm is up and slightly across her chest.  You can see her eye sockets and teeth buds.

Ready or not...

...here we come!  For those of you who know Samuel and his mommy Amber, you know about Booty Camp.  It is some hardcore potty training that has led him and his 2 year old sister to be potty trained in one week!  So, starting this Saturday, we are going to do it.  Amber has been nice enough to share all of her knowledge and training with us.  So, goodbye pull-ups!  I know this isn't going to be a walk in the park, but I think it is going to take something a little more intensive for Lance to fully be potty trained.  He honestly, just does not care at this point.  For those of you who are not familiar with Booty Camp, don't worry.  It is never harsh or mean.  You never yell or show any anger during the training.  It is just very intensive and you stay confined to the kitchen until you start getting with the program (obviously not when he is sleeping).  It is one hard week for a grand reward!  Whenever Lance goes on the potty he will earn time out of the kitchen for fun things like Easter Egg hunts, jumping on the trampoline, swinging, etc.  It should be pretty motivating!  So, please say a little prayer that this will be as painless as possible and that God will grant me patience as he learns.  I can not say how excited I am that this could be our LAST box of pull-ups EVER for Lance!!!!  Okay, I guess I have perseverated enough on that.  ha!

He is truly growing up though.  Lance is interacting so much more and pointing out all sorts of things as we drive in the car.  Half of the time I have no idea what he is talking about, but I love that he is trying to tell me about whatever it is.  We are now struggling to figure out what our plans are for Lance this coming school year.  He will be old enough to start kindergarten, but he is very delayed in academics.  There is a school I really want him to attend, but for us to be able to afford it they need some grants to come it.  We are all hoping they will show up any moment, but it isn't guaranteed.  So then the question is, what are my options?  We are thinking, but primarily we have to depend on God to lead us.  It could be a very exciting year ahead, but right now it is daunting.

Okay I will finish on a positive note.  I am going to attach a precious photo of our son.  Unfortunately, his collar makes his neck look like a turtle, but I still think he is handsome.  (Family members- you will be getting some copies, just trying to figure out the best way of doing it right now)  :o)

Update with pictures

Alright, so I am having some technical difficulties.  The pictures are all out of order and my writing somehow became a link. Please enjoy and forgive me for being so scrambled on this post.  I tried to post pictures that were different from Carmen's blog.  It is really hard to narrow them down.  We have over a thousand!  If anyone is interested, I can post more or send them to you personally.  Or if you are local we can look at them over coffee.  :o)

This is a precious little girl that was in the infirmary of the orphanage.  We didn't get to spend much time with her because she became upset with the strangers around.

We adore this little guy.  He has also been at the orphanage all the trips we have taken.  Here we were demonstrating some massage techniques.

I couldn't resist the stereotypical Russian hat this time.  I have passed them up several times, but it was freezing and I got a great deal on it...$12  :o)

Sorry but I had to share part of the scary bathrooms on the 15 hour train.  You can't really tell, but the floors were pretty bad, there was no soap or water and the toilet opened to the tracks to flush.  Ha!  The next picture is Kym getting prepared to go in.  She had the pants tucked in, the toilet paper and a germ-X wipe ready to go.  It was a very comical moment, yet it was really helpful to be that prepared.

This was our team with a few of the doctors in the hospital and a couple of the orphaned babies.  They were so precious.

This is a little boy we have seen every trip, but this time they were very pround to show us how they had worked with him.  He is now able to walk in a walker with some control.  hee hee!

This was us packing our ten bags.  They were full of donations and our personal items all fit into our backpacks.  At the end of the trip we had completely emptied all ten bags!  What a fun thing to be able to do.

We have been home for two weeks tomorrow and I am just getting around to blogging...yikes!  I definitely don't win the blogger award.  I have to say that this trip to Ukraine was the best one so far (as far as a therapy trip).  The team was great together and all the people we worked with in Ukraine were so receptive to us and our suggestions.  We are hoping to slowly fill a crate to ship to Ukraine in the future so that we can take larger therapy supplies and be able to offer them to the hospital, orphanages, and families.  We also trained the director of therapies at the orphanage we visited how to cast for braces (AFOs) so hopefully we can continue to help them get braces for each child that needs them as well as update them as they outgrow the previous braces!  All of the people we met were especially interested in the information Carmen, our speech-pathologist, had to offer.  It was completely new to them and they wanted more.  Working with the hospital, we will be able to help orphans as infants to prevent some of the delays as well as families with children with special needs.  They really don't have any support over there.  So the future is looking really bright for upcoming trips.  (I am sorry if I am repeating myself from former posts.)  

  

A day at the hospital...

Wow, today was tiring, but so encouring! We went to the hospital ready to help, not sure of what we would encounter. The doctors first took us to the babies. We saw several with feeding tubes who seemed to be doing well. We were able to share proper positioning techniques, swaddling, and massage. Then we gave them the NICU items we brought. They were very fascinated with those. Afterwards, they took us to a room in the neuro ward and had about 5 or 6 mothers in there with their children for us to examine and give our recommendations. It was really fun and more and more doctors starting gathering in the room to observe. Although we were so busy that we hardly had time to notice them. At this point we had been working from 10-2 or 2:30. They asked us to rest and have hot tea, chocolates and cookies. (That was lunch) Then 30 minutes later we were back at it. We visited the orphan rooms. There were about 7 babies in one room who were waiting on their official papers so that they could be transfered to the orphanage. One with CP and one with Down's syndrome. They were adorable. We were about to share the same techeniques with them as the previous baby room. We also mentioned the need for mobiles, mirrors, music, talking to them, rocking, and rattles. We are hoping to get a baby swing for them tonight. The next room over was three older babies- 1 year and a ~3 year old boy who had been taken away from his parents after being burned with cigarettes. He and his sister were about to be transferred to the orphanage as well.

Each room received toys and positioning aids, some recieved books and therapy balls. They were so intrigued by what we were doing although it was so simple...which they said made them so much more interested! No rocket science needed here. Only time, attention, and love. I believe it was almost everyone's favorite day. The doctors want us to come and do a make shift clinic there next time with PT, OT, Speech stations for parents to bring their children and get home exercise programs. There is no such thing in Ukraine at the present time. Wow. This connections might mean huge changes here!!! Then our goal will be to help them set up a school for children with special needs. At this point they are not welcome in the schools if they can not go up several flights of stairs. When the children get old enough that people can tell that they have special needs they get ridiculed on the streets. The families pretty much just stay at home. This is why so many are given up for adoption here. Although the people we have met all have seen the pictures of our children and our story. They see how every child can be raised as a 'typical' child.
One poopy piece of news. A visitor of our lectures in the orphanage tried to turn us in for lecturing there. Praise the Lord, we had made sure to have legal documents made and legalized prior to our arrival. The person's complaint was that we were approved to work with children, not orphans. This it the mentality we are fighting against. But God is doing amazing things and softening a lot of people's hearts here. They can not wait to learn how to help more.

Tonight we will be going to celebrate Carmen's birthday...a little belated. :o) Please remember to check out the pictures on her blog at www.theharphappenings.blogspot.com. It takes too long for both of us to do it. Although I hope to put some on when we are back at home. Tomorrow will be our final day in this town prior to heading to Kiev. We will finish delivering all our donations, teach one doctor how to cast for braces, play with the children, and say our goodbyes. I hope to have time to write tomorrow, but no promises. We get on a train tomorrow night that will be 15 hours long. Whew-hew!