Thoughts By Carson

The Morning Milk Drinkers Club

Vania Deraval she is 2 years old she is very small she is Haitian her family knows some Creole do you know some Creole? From Carson.

Carson worked very hard on typing up these sentences this morning. At final reviewAdam explained to him that Vania's family spoke all creole (thinking he was talking about her Haitian family) & Carson was quick to correct him in saying that "dad WE are her family & we speak LITTLE creole". I think that is probably one of the most asked questions we get & my response is always we know a little Creole, enough that is to get by .He asked me to post this on my blog so he could be famous :)

Bambi

Babies & Birthdays

A GREAT big sister !

Zoe turns 10 ! Double digits baby !!!

Out for birthday dinner with her friend Emily.

BFF
Vania & cousin Kylah

This past week we got to visit my new little neice Leia. She is now 21/2 months old & truly a miracle. She was born with Gastroschisis. which is when part of the intestines form outside the body. She spent about a month and a half at Children's hospital but is now home & doing great ! She is so teeny tiny & cute. Vania absolutely loved her. She immediately wanted my sister Cory to put her on her lap , made sure she had her pacifier & hugged & kissed her over & over. We also got to take cousin kylah , Leia's older sister, to the park with us to play.Vania loves to play with Kylah. They carck me up & act like like they have been best friends FOREVER !
Zoe turned 10 last Saturday. It still is hard for me to believe she is that old. She took her friend Emily to see Alice & Wonderland & then out to dinner. It was a lot of fun watching the girls have a great "girl's night out ". Zoe is a wonderful Big sister to Vania as well as a big helper. Having an extra willing set of hands around here is always a plus:)
Vania has her first cold going on, which hasn't helped with the sleeping issues. It is so cute how she worries about her nose running. She is very good about asking for a tissue & has to use a new one EVERY time she wipes her nose :) She has her Hematology appointment on Thursday & then we have a break from doctor appointments for awhile ( knock on wood ! ) The social worker comes out next Tuesday for our post - placement visit. So please shoot an extra prayer up Tuesday morning for " Shalom in the home ". No we are not Jewish, I just like that phrase .

Vania with baby Leia

Spring Has Sprung !

Whoo Hoo !!! We have had some excellent uplifting weather this past week :) It is so refreshing to get outside.so what has been going on besides the great weather ?

We have started to completely redo the bedrooms. Everything is moved out & we have started painting & carpet is on the way. Thanks to Grandma Brenda who has been leading the effort in getting the work done. Spending time through out the week & weekend helping us paint. Thanks to my mom for letting us hang at her place to keep the kids out of harms way while painting !Hopefully this will get us just that much closer to getting the house ready to sell. Yes... we need more room ! The way the market is for now we figure we have a little time before we will be able to put our house on the market. In the meantime we will do things to improve our house in order to sell.

Vania has really been enjoying the outside. We love to take walks in the stroller & she usually falls asleep :) Double YEAH!!!!

Last Friday she had her eye appointment & all is well. Monday she started her immunizations. Yikes! She was mad about that for the rest of the day.

The whole way home she cried off & on and held her little legs :( The rest of the day her legs "wouldn't work" & she showed everyone her boo boos. But today she is fine & running & jumping around as usual .
Last Sunday we had our family shower hosted by my sister in law Julie. THANKS JULIE ! It was a ton of fun. Vania had a great time. She put on ALL of her clothes at the same time and strutted around. She kept them on & I patiently took them off & on as she needed a diaper change. UNTIL... she cried CA! CA ! MOMMY ! Then it was a race to the toilet. From then on we were only aloud to wear 1 outfit at a time.

We joined a local mom's club & have had fun meeting some other mom's & kids & going on outings. Today we toured Trader Joe's. It was alot of fun.Until...... Vania had been playing with mom's keys. So I put her in the Car seat, threw my keys to the front seat, closed the door & went to put the cart back. To my surprise when I returned my doors were locked. AWWWWWH ! Thankfully my friends from mom's group were still with us & able to call for security. Hats off to Trader Joe's too. The manager came out too make sure we were okay & waited with us until the doors were unlocked. They weren't able to get the door unlocked but were able to fish my keys off the front seat & through the crack in the door. My fear was that Vania would panic. But no, she was just smiling & waving from her seat eating the bag of dried strawberries we had just bought. WHEW!

Anyway ,I will go for now. Gotta run :)

Bambi

Life In The Fast Lane

Carson moved up a rank to Tiger at the Blue & Gold Banquet. Yeah Carson !Thank you Boy Scouts for your generous donation to Hope for little Angels of Haiti!

I love my princess nightgown & new earrings !

Thank you Tammy for my beautiful blanket!

My new favorite thing ! Trying to jump rope :)

What a week ! I'll try not to drag this post out but I'm limited on posting time so when I get A chance I throw it all out there. I'll try to hit the big parts of the week first !

We met Thursday with an adoption attorney to start Vania's domestic adoption process. The meeting went well & it feels good to lay everything out to someone who's experienced & say here's what we have help us figure this out. This is so new for everyone in the adoption arena that I think the challenge will be up to the attorneys & the courts & the rest of the powers that be to figure out how to process these children with so little info. & documentation. We are working from a small white envelope given to us when Vania was released to us in Miami our home study & any other info we could find in our filing cabinet. Our attorney said that the proof of relinquishment by Vania's mom is something she feels the judge will request. All we have is a monthly update with a check mark by " relinquishment by parent to orphanage ". Even though we know this to be true, we have no formal document. So our attorney is looking into seeing what we can get from our placing agency. All though the process is still vague for us I'm glad to have a professional to help & share the burden in figuring out all the STUFF out to get this adoption completed !I'm definitely a person who likes a checklist . And when there isn't a checklist or guidelines I am LOST !

The next thing is that we had Vania's ENT appointment Friday. That was pretty easy except for the wait . No procedures or blood draws = no crying :) Long story short her tonsils are HUGE & she will be getting them out ! She is a little anemic so they will have to wait until her iron levels stabilize. Unfortunately we have not been able to sneak her iron supplement into anything. That stuff is just gross !! So I'm going to start trying to crush a multivitamin and sneak it into chocolate pudding :) Once her iron levels are fine she will have her adenoids & tonsils out at Children's Hospital. Just a one night stay & estimated 2wks for recovery.

I also wanted to give a BIG thank you to Boy Scout Pack #277 for their donations to Hope For Little Angels of Haiti Orphanage. We were able to send Hope $200.00 this past week from collections taken up by the pack after the earthquake. Very awesome guys !!!!!

Some fun things to mention.... I finally got my Talliah Wiijahd Black Earth ( I'm sure I butchered the spelling :) products in the mail for Vania's hair ! I absolutely LOVE to play with her hair ! It is sooooo fun. Haven't a clue yet if they work better than any other hair product but it's fun experimenting :)

Adam & I took Vania to Wendy's after our attorney appointment. A very nice lady came up & asked if we had adopted her from Haiti. We replied yes & she said that she was also Haitian. Her mom had grown up in Haiti. She was born here in the U S . What was so cool was that she thanked us for adopting Vania. Little does she know that we are truly the ones blessed to have an awesome little girl joining our family but it was nice have her give us her "blessing / Acceptance " of some sorts.

I have to tell you this.. right after I got done writing this post a person 32in tall with big brown eyes came over & turned the computer off ! AHHHH :) Luckily it saved itself ! Did I mention she's FAST !!! Until next blogging time..... ( probably when she's fast asleep ) !
Bambi

Grandpa Steve's Butt- Cream
AKA : Aquaphor & Maalox blended to perfection !

Last Monday Vania has a diaper rash going on so Grandpa Steve , who is also a pharmacist called our local CVS & asked them to make up some special cream for Vania. We went in to pick it up & as soon as we got into the store I received an important call from the pediatrician. So just dropping by to pick up the diaper cream turned into trying to keep Vania occupied in CVS & out of harms way while trying to soak in & listen to the doctor give me lab results for some of the additional blood work they had ordered. There really is never a good time for phone calls :) CVS was very patient. As soon as I was done talking to the doctor, I grabbed the diaper cream, put back the 1o pairs of gloves I let her put in & out of the cart to keep her occupied & headed for the door ! Once we were all buckled in I read the front of the container & had a good laugh !!!!
I wanted to thank CVS . I know a lot of employees have been praying for Vania & for Hope Of Little Angels from Haiti. Grandpa Steve says they call & ask for updates sometimes 2x a week ! They had also sent down a lot of supplies for the Orphanage with Tiffany & I when we went to Haiti last October !!
There is some new info from the doctor. According to Vania's bone x-ray they think she is anywhere from 24 months to 30 months. So the original birthdate we were given of 7/21/07 would be the more accurate one. He will send all the info to the pediatrician so it is on record if we decide later on to try to legally change the birth date.
As far as adjustment, our biggest challenge has been naptime & bedtime. We have decided not to give her a nap. It takes just as long to lay her down as the time she spends sleeping :) We have also decided to let her stay up & lay down with the kids who have all been bumped to a 9:00pm bedtime. She seems to do better when all the kids lay down. Although we still lay with her for about 10 min. before she falls asleep. But the last couple days this has worked well & she has not gotten up at 4am :)
We have an ENT appointment March 5th . We are still concerned about her snoring & coughing through the night & have gotten her snoring action on video . Mama wants answers !
We have received a little info on where to proceed with the adoption from here, but I'm still a little confused so I won't post details until it's clearer. It looks though like we have 2 options. 1) through Haiti or 2) through the State. More on that as it unfolds.
Here are more fun pictures of our sweetie .......

I love to play with my cousin Kylah !

I love Grandpa's Bacon & eggs & Grandma's dress up clothes !

I love Grandma's yellow hat ! It makes me look like the Gorton's Fisherman :)

I love eating cantaloupe with Grandpa ! And know if i smile I get to look at myself on the Camera :)

I LOVE MY POPPIE !!!!!!!!!!

Boogie Down

I don't know what makes me laugh more. Vania trying to imitate Beyonce's moves or her back up singers ! :)

Fan Mail

I hope Vania is ok because of earthquake in Haiti. If shes going to be ok I hope she likes America. I heard this of you guys because my mom's friend is your sister Erin. These other cards that are coming are for Vania from me & my class.

Sincerely,

Wade Cowan

There are so many people to thank for praying & supporting our family to get Vania home. On the top of my list is Wade Cowan. His mother Christie is a friend of Vania's aunt Erin & she had shared pic. of Vania & our family's experience with her family. So as the quake unfolded Wade decided to get his class to make cards for her & sent them to us from Iowa. It was very uplifting & touching to know that someone whom we had never met was rooting for Vania to come home ! Thanks Wade !!! We will keep all these cards & someday I will tell her how excited everyone was for her to come home :)