One Year Ago Today

...we saw Zeke's sweet face for the first time. It was snowing like crazy. I was in my office. Our caseworker called to ask if we got the email she had sent. I said no. She said to hold on...then, I saw an email with a Vietnamese name at the top and a date (turns out it was his birthday). I asked if this was our baby and she said yes. I called Brad. He came over to my office and we opened the photos together. I remember being nervous and then when we saw the photos, just being in awe of his beauty and perfection. It's been a long journey from there to here...We are abundantly blessed.

Zeke Gets a Valentine

Snow

We had about 4 inches of snow fall over night. The roads were snow packed this morning but we had no problem getting to work and getting Zeke to school. He continues to improve, though he didn't sleep well last night. There was no coughing but he kept waking up and crying. I'm not sure what his damage was. He also didn't throw up yesterday! Thank the Lord for that improvement!

Sleet and other winter blah

It's a yucky day here with sleet covering everything. Brad and I made it in to work and Zeke made it to daycare. I've driven on much worse roads...in fact, it was worse yesterday when I was going home because there was black ice and people weren't slowing down. At least with white roads, people are much, much more cautious. I filed a short story with NPR on the weather...it will air during one of their hourly newscasts today. The university where I work is closed, meaning most people have the day off...I will probably leave earlier than usual since it's supposed to be a "snow day." Zeke did very well last night. He only cried one time and after being rocked, he went back to sleep. He hardly coughed at all! He did cough some when he got up this morning but overall, he is much improved. He is still barfing some--just last night, his dinner made a reappearance. I think he's feeling so much better that he's overdoing it on activity, getting worked up and coughing. We're going to have to keep him more calm so he doesn't cough as much.

Stay warm!

Happy Tet!

Tet is the Vietnamese celebration of the Lunar New Year. We are entering the Year of the Ox.

Zeke continues to improve. He's going to daycare today because he hasn't had a fever all weekend. He ate a really good dinner last night and kept it down. He really needs to gain weight since he lost almost 2 pounds during this ordeal.

You may recall that I posted information in December about a woman in the adoption community who passed away. Her husband sent an email with some updates. Please pray for this family. He's having to make some tough decisions but is trying to do what is in the best interest of the children they adopted. My heart still breaks for them all...

Pneumonia, Lunar New Year and other musings

Zeke was diagnosed with pneumonia this week. While I wish he weren't sick at all, I am RELIEVED to know what's been causing him to cough almost non-stop at night. Once we had the diagnosis, the doc loaded him up with meds and sent us home with a nebulizer. We have to hold a mask over his nose and mouth for 10 minutes while he breaths in the medicine. You can imagine how well he likes doing that. He already seems to be better and he coughed less intensely and less frequently last night. Praise the Lord!

We took Zeke to his first Lunar New Year celebration yesterday. He seemed to have a good time. There were lots of nice decorations and many adopted children. He was one of the youngest.

We've managed to see some movies in the last few months, including the Curious Case of Benjamin Button. When we walked out of the theatre, I said it was like Forrest Gump except it wasn't as good. Now, there's a funny video comparing the two films. It's quite amusing. Of all the Oscar noms announced this past week, we were most excited about Robert Downey, Jr. getted a nod for his performance in Tropic Thunder. When we saw the film last year, we said he deserved it but realized he probably would be overlooked. So, we were pleased he was nominated. However, he's not going to win...the award will go to the late Heath Ledger in Dark Knight. And Heath's work as the Joker deserves the Oscar. We saw Slumdog Millionaire which is the shoo-in for best picture. It was good but neither of us thought it was best picture worthy. Oh well.

Happy MLK Day, Inauguration Day and Birthday

I'm very sick. And today is my birthday. Yuck. Thanks to everyone who sent birthday wishes. I'm at work for a brief time today, then I'm headed to the doctor and then home to hibernate. Poor Zeke is getting better but is still coughing his head off. And poor Brad is having to take care of us.

I wanted to share this thought about MLK Day: This day honors a man who showed us that a single voice of love and truth rings louder than a thousand voices shouting hate.

And a thought on Inauguration Day: No matter what you think of Barack Obama's politics, his inauguration means so much for so many. It means a lot for my son, who doesn't look like the majority of people in this country.

Sicky Icky

Before Zeke had even finished his antibiotics, he had another cough and another ear infection (this new round started Tuesday). Last night, he didn't sleep well because he had a fever. This was very scary because it's the first time since we adopted him that he had a fever. He's not eating very well and he's quite fussy. He's on a new antibiotic and we have a referral to see a specialist in a couple of weeks to talk about putting tubes in his ears. I'm all for it if it will help reduce the number of ear infections he gets. Poor little guy. It's been rough on me and Brad too because if he doesn't sleep at night, neither do we. I had to leave the house at 5:30 this morning to go to Jeff City. I was pretty much chugging caffeine all the way up there. I'll be ready to collapse tonight. Prayers are appreciated!!!

Napster

So, Zeke went to "school" today for less than 4 hours. He'll do about 4 hours tomorrow. This is the prelude to next week's longer stay at daycare. I had a dentist appointment this morning (torture!) and so Brad dropped Zeke off. Brad called me to say Zeke was doing well when he left and started playing right away. Since things got off to a good start, I wasn't worried. Sure it was a new place but Zeke had been to the mothers' day out program at our church before. He was there 4+ hours and always did well. When I went to pick him up, literally every child in the daycare was on a cot asleep except Zeke. He apparently had a Zeke-style meltdown when naptime rolled around. They tried to lull him to sleep by rocking him, walking him around...nope. He was having none of it. So, they ended up letting him play quietly while the other children slept. He was not in a good mood when I came in the room but he was smiling by the time I got his coat on and we were leaving. He even waved bye-bye to his teacher, Miss Jan. She told me how much she enjoyed him and how she thought he was such a precious child. This is only the second time I've met Miss Jan but I really like her. She's a grandmother-ly lady with a soft voice and a kind smile. The moral of the story is that Zeke hates nap time, whether it's at home or daycare. He did get to a point at the mothers' day out program where he would go down for a nap with only mild protest. I feel sure that once he gets used to his new school, he'll sleep better.

Zeke went to his pediatrician today. It was a follow-up to the urgent care visit we had Saturday morning. During that fun time, Zeke had his chest x-rayed and was given a torturous breathing treatment. The docs at urgent care were concerned he might have pneumonia but he didn't. They sent us home with scrips for antiobiotics and inhalers: he had bronchitis and an ear infection. They gave us this crazy device called a spacer to use with the inhaler. Like the breathing treatment, it had a mask that had to be held over Zeke's nose and mouth but only for about 10 seconds or so. We made it a game so he was pretty good about letting us give him the inhaler. Today, the ped said that his bronchitis is gone (no more inhaler!) and his ears looked good. She also noted that he's had an ear infection every month since he's been home. One more and she's referring us to an ear, nose and throat doc to talk about putting tubes in his ears. I have no experience with them but Brad had them when he was little. If it means less pain and fewer infections, I'm all for it. Will keep you posted. For now, he's on the mend and seems to be doing so much better. Thank you Lord!

Back to Work Soon!

I start back to work a week from today. It will be really hard to be apart from Zeke during the day. Fortunately, I have arranged my work schedule so that I'm in the office 7AM-3PM. Brad will take Zeke to daycare between 8 and 9 and I will pick him up when I get off at 3.

Not that I have much "free time" since Zeke arrived but when I have a chance, I'm reading. After finishing the Twilight series this fall and over the Christmas holiday, I'm on to American Wife by Curtis Sittenfeld (Curtis is a woman). It's great so far--I'm about a third of the way through it. It's very loosely based on the life of First Lady Laura Bush. I heard an interview on Fresh Air with the author and that's what sold me. If you're looking for a good book, I'd recommend it. I'd like to re-read Duma Key this February. That's the cool Stephen King book that came out last year and is set in the Florida Keys.

NEW VERSION! "Photogeraffic Pamentos" of Christmas 2008

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