Thanksgiving

This year, R's parents, grandmother, brother and his family of 5 all joined us for Thanksgiving. Kids in one room...adults in the other! After the feast, Grandpa reads Brer Rabbit, a family favorite, and the boys all listen in...except for G who just can't stay awake one minute longer. Precious!

J Teaches M How to Play Dress-up

Big brother shows M how to play pretend...She adores the jewelry, asking for "mo" and "mo." Baba's in trouble! :-)

Anyone want to go for tea?

Transfusion Day

We thought you all might like to see what a typical day is like for M on Transfusion Day. Currently, we take M to our Children's Hospital every three weeks. The entire process from home back to home is taking roughly nine hours. Whew!

When we first arrive, M must have an iv inserted and blood drawn. The team checks to see if any antibodies are present that would prevent M from accepting her new blood. This is a very painful and tearful process for her as she has a lot of scar tissue in her veins from her hospitalization treatments in China. It has taken up to 2 1/2 hours to get an iv placement. Thankfully, these last few times have been much better. The first pix is M AFTER she's all done...didn't take a pix of her screaming....seemed mean some how. She loves to say "All done!" when finished. We wait for about 1 1/2 for the blood to be checked and then matched.

During that time this week, we took advantage of the hospital playroom. Normally, we avoid germs at all cost! However, the infusion ward is shared by the pediatric oncology patients so all of the toys on this floor of the hospital are carefully cleaned and the air is HEPA filtered. We're told it's the cleanest floor of the hospital. YEAH! M liked having a tea party, but was sad that she only had use of one hand. (Imagine entertaining someone for 9 hours who can only use one hand...that means she can't hold almost anything since her hands are so little! Poor thing! Even lunch is mostly hand fed.)

This week, M got a visit from Valentine the clown who painted her face. She had NO IDEA what to make of the clown, but LOVED the sparkles she put on her face. She showed EVERYONE. :-)

Once hooked up to the blood, it's much harder to get around. There is a little platform built for the iv carts, though, that she can sit on and we can wheel her around the halls. She likes to get out and about, but is also pretty sweet in the room.

We're so thankful for our hospital! The staff is great...so loving toward M and they do their best to help it be as comfortable as possible for parents. We KNOW she wouldn't get care like this in China so we are thankful for insurance to provide it here! And a great job to give the insurance...and the Lord to give the job!
















Did I mention that M gets a sticker for just about everything? She gets quite the collection going.

M meets Grandpa!

R's parents and grandmother come for Thanksgiving and M meets her Grandpa for the first time. She loves him....especially his horsie rides!

Our Favorite Little Indian

J at his Native American Program at school last week. "Courageous Coyote" was great on the drums!

The funniest thing was when half of the third graders were reciting a prayer to Mother Earth.

"Thank you grass comforting our feet."
"That you sun for keeping us warm."

ETC.

J looks at us and cups his hand around his mouth and whispers "That's wrong!" We're proud that he could realize on his own that we only pray to the real God...but we need to work on discretion! :-)

Cupcakes!

On a freezing cold afternoon, we needed some fun. I (J) decided to make cupcakes with M and G. M LOVED them. After decorating liberally with sprinkles, she proceeded to take them off and eat them one at a time. Then, very carefully, she ate the frosting clean. Finally, she ate the cake. All told, the consumption of one cupcake took nearly 1/2 hour. She was in heaven! As she said, "Mo, upa-ache!" ("more cupcakes")