Red Thread To China 2007

One year ago today Jerry and I received the most precious gift ever, our son Levi. I can remember it like it was yesterday. I had a very hard time sleeping the night before wondering what the day would be like. We were very nervous and I couldn't eat that morning, then we got word that we would have to wait until the afternoon to go to the Social Welfare office. So we had to wait longer to get our first glimse of our son other than in the few pictures we had. We got to the office first and our guide started to process saying that they would be here any minute. And then there they were walking in the door. The Orphanage director, and 2 of the nannies. They sat down next to me and the next moments became a blur of paperwork and trying to get him to calm down. They were speakiing to him in Chinese, telling him that we were his mama and baba, that much I could understand. Our guide was helping them with paperwork as the nanny handed me this crying little boy. At first I was very nervous, but then it just clicked and I felt all the fear just leave me. This was our son, the child we had waited almost 2 years for. And we were his parents. We had to bribe him with food... he loves goldfish crackers!!! He calmed down, but when the nannies left he started to cry again. He cried so softly. I just wanted to hold him and take away all the grief he was feeling. He was the most beautiful little boy ever and continues to amaze us everyday! He has come a long way from the scared little boy that I first held in my arms because he could not walk to this strong , independent boy that is constantly running around everywhere. We love you little guy!!!! Happy forever family day!
Love mom and dad

We met friends at the park yesterday and had a blast!!! Check out these photos.

Well the check up went great and Levi doesn't need anything at this time. The surgeon said everything looks good and well healed. They were amazed at his progress and how well he is walking, running, and even jumping! We got some new prosthetic socks and suspension sleeves and were on our way. Of course I had to stop and get Levi nachos at Taco Bell, which is his favorite. We had a good mommy and son lunch and then headed home. Since it has been raining alot we haven't been out of the house much int he last week. Makes for a cranky little boy. I know we need the rain, but not all at the same time right? I haven't even been motivated to clean much lately bacause I have a cold coming on. I hate being sick!!

Look at daddy's little helper!!! He wanted to help his daddy carry this board over to the shed that he was building. He is such a helper when it comes to this kind of stuff. He just loves to take stuff apart and then try to put them back together. He loves playing with his tool set and bench. Enjoy the picture!

My goodness, Levi just threw the biggest fit!!! I think I am in for it. Wow does he have the worst temper!!! We walked up to Mimi's house to let Levi play with his cousin Laylyn. They play so good together and I thought that maybe just maybe Levi would sleep better tonight if he was just plain wore out. Well it was getting dark so we needed to get back to the house. I was telling Levi that we needed to go and to tell Laylyn bye and he started screaming and jumping up and down that he wanted to play. I couldn't even talk to him he was so crazy upset. SO I had to just grab his hand and start walking. He kept on about half way to the house before my daughter Charla could calm him down. Man some days he just wears me out!!!! But it does just the opposite to me, when I get so worked up I can't sleep. I am so glad this day is over!!!!

Well Jerry has been gone only 2 days now and we already miss him so much. Levi had a really bad night. First I couldn't sleep last night, so when I finally did fall asleep he woke up crying and Marcus brought him downstairs... big mistake! I have learned that when he does this to never move him around or talk to him too much because it just makes it worse. So we went back upstairs and I laid down with him, but that didn't work to well, but eventually he started to fall asleep. so I went back to my room. Well by 3 am he was up again crying for his daddy. It took me about an hour to get him calmed down enough to go back to sleep. So needless to say I didn't get much sleep either. I hope tonight is much better. He usually is a very good sleeper. I think this deployment is going to be very rough on my little boy.

This has been one of those days for me. It started out with me waking up at 5:30am, already late.... and then going up stairs to find that Levi has barfed all over his bed and himself. So I take his clothes off and put him in the bath while I strip his bed and put the sheets in the washer. Call in to work and sound like I am just playing hooky because I only have until next week at me job anyway. Then get a call into the doctor, he can be seen at 9:50am. So I start to go get ready and put in the Sponge Movie for Levi. He really hasn't eaten much since yesterday afternoon so I give him a banana and some juice. Later in the day when I was cleaning up I was going to put the movie up and noticed that the case was awful heavy for it to be empty. Well guess what?...... I opened it up and a banana peel flew out onto the floor. My older son had this look on his face like what int he world, and we both just started laughing. SOme of the things that boy does.....go figure.

I am not sure what is going on with my job. This is the story...sorry it is so long.

When we adopted Levi we knew that I would have to use all my vacation and personal time for this year when Levi had his surgery and for his physical therapy and my employer was on board with that up until I gave my notice last month. Since finding out that Jerry would be deployed in Oct. and that he would need to go to 2 3 week trainings and a 2 week class starting July 6th, I have had to ask my employer to reduce my hours to part time so that I would be able to take Levi to daycare each morning since my hours ( 5am-1pm )do not permit me to do so. Well needless to say that they would not do that, so I had to give notice. Everything was fine until last week when HR informed me that I would be forced to pay back half of my vacation because I was quitting mid-year. That made me so mad. Under the circumstances my supervisor asked via e-mail that an exception be made due to why I had to take the vacation and Jerry being deployed, but I again got a big NO!! So I just casually suggested that I might have to go to the Dept of Labor because of that and another issue of being the only person on site not paid as punched. Well all of a sudden I am deemed a disgruntled employee and told they might have to let me go because I handle large sums of money at work. So now I am just waiting for the axe to fall and get fired. After 13 years at this job I will be getting FIRED!! Can you believe that? I have done everything asked of me by my supervisor, worked all kinds of crazy shifts, and even done the bosses job to cover his butt, and this is how I am treated. It justs makes me so angry!!! I guess my employer (a fortune 500 company) is not very patriotic after all.

Just look at him, he is a natural born cowboy!!! LOL We had so much fun on the pony ride, he didn't want to get off.

Look at me I can stand at my chalkboard and color!!! I am lovin' this foot. It's digital camo just like my daddy's Army uniform. It even has the United Stated Army Emblem on the front. I support our troops and that includes MY DADDY!!!!

He is all over the place now!!!! I might just loose some weight WOOHOO!!!!!!!
Enjoy

Good news, Levi gets his prosthetic foot on Friday!! We have waited 3 months since his surgery for this day to come. And now it's here....WOO HOO!!! We are so excited for our little man to finally be able to do all the things he wants so desperately to do. Now if we can just get him potty trained before we bring his sissy home. He just seems so uniterested in it. You can talk to him until you are blue in the face and 5 minutes later he pees his pants. He just doesn't tell us he has to go until after the fact. Not sure what I am doing wrong. I haven't had to do this in such a long time, I can't remember how I handled it before. I am hoping that once he can walk he will learn to use the potty better.

We received the referral of our daughter today. We will name her Mylie Jaide Desta Maxwell. We may delete Jaide, but are just not sure at this point. Desta is her Ethiopian name and it means happy or joy. We are already so in love with her. I keep looking at her referral picture and thinking is she really ours? Happy happy day for us at the Maxwell household.

They let us go home yesterday afternoon and Levi was just a little upset that he didn't get to take it home with him. They needed to do some adjustments and when we went to leave they took it off of him and he snatched it back and said "my leg". We had to explain to him that he would get it back in a week or so after they fixed it. He seemed ok with that. The only problem we saw with it is that the second leg has a tendency to fall off, I don't know if it's because his leg has shrunk or just the design, but the other prosthetist took a look at it and said he would talk to Mr. Dwight when he got back. He is supposed to call us on Monday with the date to come pick the finished product up, sometime at the end of next week. We are so excited because he really wants to walk and getting so very independent.

I guess little man woke up in a not so good mood this morning. He was a little uncooperative with the physical therapist and the prosthetist at the first session. I was hoping that after he ate lunch and had a nap he would be better but no such luck. He didn't want to stand still for them to measure the length of his leg to see if it was a bit longer than it needed to be. They let him wear the leg tonight, but we were to take it off and check every hour and a half or so to check for red marks or places where it was rubbing.
We decided to take him to the mall and try it out. He walked the whole time we were there and did so well. He now wants to do everything himself. He always says I do it, I do it. We have one more session tomorrow at 11am and then we are free to go. They will be calling us Monday with a date to come back for the finished product. The prosthetist said probably the end of next week.

We also thought that since we were in a bigger city we would try some Ethiopian food for dinner. The beef I ordered was wonderful, and there was a type of salsa that tasted like pico de gallo which was very good. But I really didn't care for the injera bread. I think the thing that got me was the spongy texture, that is something that I just can't handle. Levi loved it, and Jerry liked the beef that he got also. It was good, but I don't think that it will be something that we eat often. I will however be getting the injera for the girls if they would like it.

I can't wait to get home so I can get a good nights sleep. This hospital bed is not very comfortable.

Today started out good. We got a phone call at 8am saying that they forgot to tell us that the doctor would be on rounds and we needed to be down in physical therapy at 9am. So we rushed and got ready and were down there on time. He looked at his prosthetic and thought there needed to be some changes made so we had to take him to get re-casted and then at 11am it was back to physical therapy for more walking. He did well but seemed a bit more agitated today when we asked him to walk without the little shopping cart. He wanted to play more today. Yesterday they thought that he may not need to stay the whole 4 days, but I am not sure how this will affect us leaving us early. So as it stands we have 2 days to go. Levi's schedule is all out of wack and it is hard to get him to sleep. Not so fun for us!!

Hey look at our Levi!!! He's walking. They said he did so well today at his 2 sessions. We will be here for another 3 days and he will have 2 sessions on each day. We are going to try to go to the zoo and the aquarium while we are here, I hope Levi likes it. He seems to be doing very well with the whole prothesis thing, he always helps the prosthetist put it on and such. We did think he would walk out of here at the end of the week, but now found out that it will be another 2 weeks until he gets the finished foot. So he will be scooting for a little while longer. We are going to try to find a small walker for a toddlersomewhere to make it easier for him at home. I will post more tomorrow.

Wow only 1 more day to go before we go to the hospital for Levi's prosthesis. I can't wait to see him walking round the hospital on his new camo foot!! We are using the ACU material ( the same as Jerry's uniform )for his leg. We go in at 8am. He has physical therapy at 11am and 3pm for those 4 days and we should be out by Friday evening. And then we won't be able to keep up with him. Well I better get ready for nighty night because I do have to work tomorrow. I will try to post as we progress throughout the week.

These were taken Friday evening before the kids left for the Junior Prom. Marcus' date was Jessica and they looked so cute together!!!

Well they are not the best pictures but I will be recieving copies of all the pictures that the photographer has taken so I can post more later.....enjoy

We had our appointment today for a fitting for Levi's prosthesis. It was so great!!!! We got to see him take his first steps... can you believe it? We are so very proud of him. He was off to a rocky start, not knowing what to do with a foot sticking out in front on that leg but as soon as they gave him a little walker he walked up and down the hall a couple of times. I tried so hard not to cry, but I couldn't help it. I think I even saw a couple tears in his daddy's eyes. I think when they took it off he was a little disappointed that he didn't get to keep it. This is by far one of the happiest days of my life. I can't wait until we go back on the 26th of this month for his physical therapy and he can take it home with us. This is a miracle and I can't thank Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for giving our son the opportunity to just be a normal kid. We will keep everyone posted as he progresses. I will post a picture tomorrow of him standing all by himself, something he has never been able to do before today.

OH NO!!!!! This can't be good news. All abandonment cases from Addis Ababa are not being heard pending an investigation. This is scaring the you know what out of me! I feel like here we go again....just like right after we were LID for China the big slow down occured and adoptions were going at a snails pace and still are. Now this hurdle for all of the waiting families to go through. How many months will this add on to our wait? Will I still be able to bring our daughters home next year? I was hoping to since I will be a stay at home mommy when Jerry deploys. That way I would have time to bond with the girls before having to return to work when Jerry returns home late next year. I don't handle the unknowns to well and tend to worry a little too much about everything. This just tacks one more thing on my list to worry about.

Well we got a call today from Levi's prosthetist to set up his week in the hospital. So I called back and he wanted to set it up for the 26th,thru 29th of this month!! We are so excited that he will take his first steps on those days. We will stay at the hospital for those days and he will have 2 therapy sessions a day and then he will be released on Friday afternoon. I need to charge up the video camera so it will be ready to go. He still has his appointment this friday for the final fitting. We need to find him a good pair of tennis shoes for friday, so I guess I will be shopping tomorrow after work. I hope that all goes well and he will not have any issues with the prosthesis. The tip of his foot is very sensitive so I hope it doesn't hurt when he starts to walk on it. Wish us luck.

Well Levi had his first dentist appointment on Monday. I was kind of dreading it because I didn't know how he was going to react, but it went very smoothly. He has NO cavities!!!!! Can you believe it, after all the stories of bad teeth of some of the other kids I was worried. The only thing is his front teeth are pushed out because he likes to suck his finger. So we are trying to slowly stop him from doing this. Now we just have to get his eyes checked and his new foot and he will be good to go. His next appointment for a fitting is the 15th of May, so we are very excited to see him stand up and maybe take a few steps on a prosthetic foot. Keep your fingers crossed that he gets his in the next few weeks.

Levi has been doing so good with telling us he has to go potty.... until the last few days. He now has regressed back to going potty in his diapers or pull ups. I hope that when he receives his new foot that it will be easier to help him with this issue. He still needs to master the idea that he has to use to potty and not just in the diaper. I don't remember it being quite this hard with the older 2 boys. We have been trying not to push him so hard since he has been through so much in the past couple of months, but we also want him to catch up to his peers in this aspect. So I guess when he gets his prosthetic we will try a little harder to get him potty trained. It might be a little easier when I have to quit my job in July, I will have more time to devote to him.

Well Levi had his first fitting yesterday. It went so well. He was very curious about what the prosthetist was doing with the mold he made of his leg. The prosthetic looks like it will be a sleeve that comes in right under the knee. The prosthetist was also approached by the hospital public relations office to do a story on a child under the age of 5 following the whole process of fitting the prosthetic to the finished product and he said he would like to use Levi, we of course said yes. So we were also interviewed and they took a ton of pictures of Levi and the doctor during the fitting. They will take pictures every time we come in until he has his final fitting and learns to walk. We think it is exciting and can't wait to see it in the news letter for the hospital. We go back for the 2nd fitting on May 15th. At this time they will actually have a foot attatched to a foam rubber socket that he will be able to stand on so that the doctor can tell if any adjustments need to be made or not. We also get to pick out his graphics for the foot, they somehow use fabric to put the design on the leg. Can't wait to see how it looks finished and see my boy walk for the first time on 2 feet.
It was also our 7th anniversary, so what a good day it was. Here are a couple of pictures for everyone to enjoy that we took in the Texas Bluebonnets earlier this month.

Today was our appointment at Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for the cast removal. We arrived there and really didn't have to wait very long at all to see the doctor. We had to get x-rays done so they could look at the bones to see how they were starting to fuse. He did real well only fussing a little when trying to get his left leg the right way for the x-ray. They needed 4 shots and we only had to redo one. The doctor said his bones were starting to fuse together, but still needed more time to heal. His scars look good and he has alot of dry skin that will come off as we give him baths. Wow we can actually give him a bath tonight, not just a sponge bath. I always felt like he wasn't totally clean that way so I am glad that we can put him in the tub tonight. His leg was also casted for the prosthesis today. His next appoiintment is on our anniversary the 27th of April. At that time they will see how it fits and then in another couple of weeks will have the final fitting and stay for a week for physical and occupational therapy, and also teaching him how to walk and teaching us how to take care of the prosthesis and such. Right now he won't even touch his leg to the floor or anything. He crawls around like he is hiking his leg like a dog. It is kinda funny. I know that later when he gets more comfortable and doesn't think everything is gonna hurt it he might get a little better. I will try to post pictures later tonight of his leg.

Hey all Levi turned 3 today. His mimi brought him a little puppy cake for his mini birthday since we aren't having his party until next Saturday. ( I have to work tomorrow, bummer )He really liked the cake. We sang Happy birthday to him and he blew out the candle! I don't quite think he gets the whole birthday thing yet, but he likes presents. Here are some pics of his little pup-cake and my little man, enjoy.

Sandi

Hi everyone. The blog for our new adoption is Ethiopiaorbust09.blogspot.com. Our Dossier is on its way to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia!! Join us on this exciting journey to bring our daughters home.

Well Levi has managed to keep his cast on for almost a week now with the belt that they made him. So maybe this may not be as bad as I thought. We just have to make it until the 10th of April for the first fitting and then another 2 weeks until they have the prothesis done and can fit him and teach him how to walk on it.

I can't believe that it has been 5 months since we first met this scared little boy in a dark building in China. Sometimes when I look into his eyes I still get glimpses of that scared little boy, but he is just amazing and is adapting so well for only being with us for such a short time. We are all learning together.

This friday will be his 3rd birthday, his first birthday here in the US. I want it to be so special for him because I am sure he never experienced this in China. We originally wanted to have it at Chuck E Cheese but sincce he is in a leg cast it wouldn't be much fun. We will figure out something.

I think the anesthesia finally has worn off, he is awake and even dancing a little in his bed to the cartoon music. He has asked twice now where his foot is. The first time I really was at a loss for words, I just said they fixed it. He seemed to accept that answer so I let it go at that. He has been awake for about 3 hours now and is in no pain. He still has his epidural in and will have it in until tomorrow morning. He has tried to pull out his IV a couple of times also, he really doesn't like it much. He slept quite a bit last night, although I didn't much. I kept waking up to check on him and make sure he wasn't falling off the bed. He was able to eat some crackers this morning and have more water. So they said he could have some cherrios and toast. We'll see how that goes. We are still on for getting out tomorrow afternoon.

On another note I have to run my older son Marcus to the eye doctor this afternoon because he has a piece of metal in it. I hate to leave Levi for even a second, but I don't have much of a choice. It seems like when it rains it pours.

Well the surgery went well, a little over the planned timeframe but just as we were going to go ask the nurse about him they paged us to come to recovery to see him. He wasn't too happy about all the tubes and wires attatched to him and he did cry for about 15 minutes before finally going abck to sleep. The kids came to see thier little brother along with a soldier that is in Jerry's unit and our social worker who is also a good friend of mine came by. Another friend of ours called and will try to come by to see him too. I am so glad to have all the support right now, I am not sure what I would do without it. It is one of the scariest things in the world to see your child in pain and not be able to comfort them. He did not do really well with the anesthesia and was a little cranky when he finally woke up. He is asleep again right now so I might just try to get a little nap in before he wakes up again. Jerry just left to go to the motel for the evening so it's just me and Levi. They are telling us he may be released on Thursday afternoon. I will try to post more later.

Sandi

Well here we are in Dallas, the appointments today really wore us out. We had to go from place to place meeting everyone invilved in Levi's surgery. We found out that Levi will be put to sleep even before they put in his IV or epidural for pain, which makes me feel so much better. I was worried that they would put the IV in before. Everyone here at the hospital is so wonderful and very considerate of Levi's and our feelings. They answered all our questions as though they hadn't been asked it a thousand times before. I couldn't ask for a better place or people to take care of our son, I have all the confidence in thier ability to enable him to walk.
They let us choose to stay the night tonight or come in the morning at am. So here we are at the hotel.
I probably won't be able to sleep again tonight much, I am just so nervous. This is only the second surgery we have had to go through with one of the kids,and the last was just a tonsilectomy, nothing near this. Jerry told me I am not allowed to cry in front of Levi tomorrow, but I am not sure I can do that. I will try though because I don't want to scare him. The older ones are supposed to come out tomorrow evening to see thier little brother.
I will try to post more tomorrow after the surgery.

Time is getting short, surgery is 2 days away. We still don't know when he will go in, they will tell us when we check in Monday exactly when they will operate. The surgery will take about 1 1/2 to 2 hours and I know I will be a total wreck until we can see him afterwards. We are trying to keep busy this weekend doing projects around the house because we do not want to take him out anywhere for fear of him getting sick. That would be awful. We already have reservations at a hotel and I have already had my vacation cancelled once, not sure they would be too happy to cancel it a second time. And we have a temp worker all set to work for me for the 2 weeks that I am off. So I am hoping and praying that everything goes as planned and we get the best possible outcome. I will try to post while we are at the hospital so that everyone knows how things went.
Please pray for our son.

Well all we only have 5 days left until surgery and we are getting very anxious here in the Maxwell household. I myself am getting just a little worried about how Levi will react to the surgery and the hospital stay. I have not been away from him at night since bringing him home, so it will be hard for me to leave him so that Jerry can stay with him a night or two. They only allow one parent to stay the night in the room so the other will have to either drive back and forth or we may rent a room for the week. I wish we both could stay, but it is just not possible. We are scheduled to check him in to the hospital at 10am on Monday the 2nd and that is when they will let us know when the surgery will start. I hope the older kids will come out to see him after the surgery. Marcus can't come with us in the morning because he has missed too many days already this semester.
Although I know the surgery is for the best, it still is a little hard to get used to the idea that his little foot will not be there anymore, I have gotten so used to it, I don't even think about it unless someone says something about it. It is just not an issue for us, but this will give Levi the ability to walk "normally" and be able to run, jump, play sports, and everything else that little boys do. He has actually started walking on his little foot since coming home from China, something I don't think he was allowed to do while in the orphanage. And he is just so proud when he shows us how he can walk to us, he just smiles the biggest smile I have ever seen. I can't wait to see his face when he walks for the first time on his new foot. I just know he will be grinning from ear to ear the whole time. Because they had to postpone his surgery date until next week we will have to miss a couple of family events, a wedding this weekend and a baby shower next weekend. We really wish we could go but we really need to try to limit taking him out much because I can't risk him getting sick again. That's why they cancelled it last time because he got sick, I don't want to take that chance again so we are trying to keep him away from crowds for right now.
I hope that God will guide the surgeons hands so that the operation will go as planned and with the best possible outcome.

Sorry it has been awhile since I posted last. Levi and this new adoption has been keeping me busy. We received word that he is back on the books for March 3rd. Check in to the hospital is Monday the 2nd. Please pray that he stays well enough to have the surgery. I have been giving him dan active immunity booster, vitamin c and an immune booster vitamin trying to keep him from getting sick. One week down and 2 to go. He makes progress everyday, talking a little more, saying new words, he even is trying to walk on his short leg. He wants so badly to walk that it breaks my heart when he gets so frustrated when he can't go as fast as he would like. His newest thing to say is "I busy", he pronounces it like beezy. He started that after his daddy told him that he was busy helping mommy so he couldn't pick him up. It is so cute to hear him say some things.

The hospital cancelled the surgery. I am very frustrated right now. He is already getting so much better since he has been on the antibiotics and will be totally over it by the weekend. But I guess that they know what is best for Levi. I just can't beleive we were so close and then to get knocked back a month or two is very upsetting. We had everything planned out and everyones vacations taken and everything, now all that has to change. We were hoping that Levi would be walking by his 3rd birthday, but now it looks like he will be in a cast on his birthday, that's if we can keep him well enough to have the surgery.

Well Jerry called the hospital again today and the nurse said that all the anesthesiologists were in surgery and she hadn't spoken to them yet. Levi is getting better and will be over this by the 10th, but she still feels that they will postpone the surgery until March. I am so disapointed because this just gives me a longer period of time to worry about the surgery, I had talked myself into feeling that it was gonna be ok, but the longer I have to wait the worse it's gonna get. He has been so well since coming home until now. The weather here has been not so good. It has been sleeting on and off all day. I might just have to stay home from work tomorrow if it keeps it up. Lets everyone keep our fingers crossed that they go ahead and do the surgery on the 10th.

We are also coming along with our dossier for our Ethiopian princess. We have gathered several documents already and are waiting for our social worker to get the homestudy back to us. We still hope to have the dossier in by late March or early April. I am much more calm this time around maybe because I know what goes on and what has to happen. I will try to post some on her blog as we finish up her room.

The hospital may postpone Levi's surgery. He had what we thought was just a slight cold. He only ran a fever for one day and has had this cough for a few days. He otherwise feels good, running around playing and such. But since surgery is only 2 weeks away we decided to take him to the doctor. She thought his chest had a little rattle in it so they sent him for an x-ray. Well it turns out that he has a touch of pneumonia, can you believe that!!! So I had to call the hospital right away to let them know and the nurse said that they would probably postpone his surgery for 4 to 6 weeks. He is on antibiotics now and he was already sounding better before we took him tot he doctor. So now I am waiting for a call back from the nurse after she talks to the anesthesiologist. The doctor seems to think that he will be much better by Wednesday so I am not sure why they can't proceed with the surgery. All we can do is wait and hope that if he is better by the 10th, they will go ahead as scheduled. I understand the reason for waiting, but I can't help but be upset because he will have to wait that much longer to have the ability to walk. And how are we going to keep him healthy enough until surgery while he is in daycare, that's almost impossible these days. I hope that everyone keeps Levi in thier thoughts and prayers that everything goes ok and he gets to keep his surgery date.

Well yesterday I finally sent in the formal application to our agency. We decided to go with Hope Adoption Agency out of Missouri. We had a couple that we were considering that were willing to work with us so soon after briinging Levi home. After alot of discussion Hope won out. We are pleased with the decision. One step closer to our daughter!!! We already have many of the documents needed for our dossier and will only really have to wait on the USCIS clearance to be approved which is taking about 6 to 8 weeks. I hope we land on the shorter end of the wait. Not as much has to be gathered for Ethiopia as when we were doing the China adoption. I can't wait to get everything together to be sent to Ethiopia. I am getting very excited about our little girl. We still don't know if we are going to keep her name Mylie or not, the other name we have is Jaiden Emmory, but I don't think that Jerry really likes Emmory much. I would have to make more of the letters for her name on the wall if we do decide to change it. I just have always attatched Mylie to our Chinese daughter and now that she will not be chinese I think she needs a name that we picked out just for her. Oh what a full house we will have when she comes home.

Only 2 weeks until Levi's surgery. I am getting very nervous and anxious about it. I can't stand to see my babies in pain, that goes for the older ones too. But I know that after he heals and the surgery is a thing of the past he will be able to do so much more. I can't wait to see him take his first steps, hopefully before his first birthday. We love him so much and only want what is best for him.

We past few weeks I have been researching agencies to start our second adoption for our daughter. We are NOT going back to China as we originally planned. We are going to bring her home from Ethiopia if everything goes well. We are starting to get all of our paperwork together and have our first homestudy visit on Monday. It was cancelled from a couple weeks ago. We are very excited and please to have found an agency that is willing to work with us so soon after bringing home Levi. We plan to have all the paperwork done and in Ethiopia by at least April if we receive our USCIS approval in a timely manner. After the paperwork is in country we will probably have a little bit of a wait, but maybe God willing we will have her home by early next year. Another bit of news is that she might possibly be under 1 yr old, which is great for us. I will probably have to travel without Jerry since he will be in Iraq at that time and not sure he will be allowed to leave. So I will be taking one of my older children with me. Probably Charla because Marcus will be in school. But if Marcus wants to go then we will try to work that out too. What an experience to tell your friends!!! And we may be changing her name too, we originally picked out Mylie Jaide, but that was for our Chinese daughter. But I think maybe she needs a different one picked out just for her. Well I better get my day going.

PS. I have started a new blog just for her adoption, the address is www.ethiopiaorbust09.blogspot.com

This is the MOST awesome hospital I have ever been in! Everything is geared to children and the staff is so great. First Levi has what is called fibular hemimelia. Just means his fibula is not fully developed. They said it was a very common condition. The doctor explained exactly what they were going to do for him and then the nurse explained what would happen at each visit. He will be having what is called a Symes amputation. We will go to the hospital the day before surgery to be admitted. The surgery will take approx. 1-2 hours. What they are going to do is remove the foot and fuse the fibula and tibia together to form a post to attach the prothesis. After that he will be in a cast for about a month. Then if the swelling is down they will take that off and fit him for his prosthesis. And about 2 weeks after that they will have us come back for the final fittings and teach him how to walk with his new foot. And that is basically it. He will need to be fitted every year for a new foot as he grows. I am scared but I know my little boy is in good hands and will be fine. And this is what is best for our son to acomplish all his dreams. Doesn't make it any easier though. Please pray for our little boy as we go through this very tough time of adjustment.

Stay tuned for more updates as we get the date the surgery will be preformed.

Well today marks the 3 month anniversary that we have had Levi and his first full day of daycare. I hate to leave him to go to work, but he has done so well. Jerry said this morning he dropped him off and Levi just kinda looked at him when he walked out. I of course called later on and asked them how he was doing. They said he was doing absolutely awesome, playing, watching TV, and learning some colors. When I went in to pick him up he came around the corner and smiled the biggest smile ever and said there's momma. It really makes me feel so much better to know that he isn't just sitting there crying all day for momma or daddy.

We have our first appointment with Texas Scottish Rite Hospital tomorrow, everyone wish us luck. I am so nervous, but know that I shouldn't be. Everyone I have talked to has given them rave reviews. It will be a relief to know that his treatment plan will be in place, and will know what will happen.

Marcus turned 17 today. I remember the day he was born just like it was yesterday. After 3 days of labor I finally gave up any chance of having him naturally and told the doctor lets just get this over with. So in to the operating room we went and at 12 minutes after midnight on a Wednesday morning Marcus Wade Miller came into the world. He was so cute and had a head full of black hair. I can remember asking in my drugged condition who's baby is that? The nurse well he's yours of course!!! I said wow my other 2 didn't have any hair when they were born. He was such an easy baby, hardly ever any trouble, and boy was he spoiled!! He got whatever he wanted even from his brother and sister. He has grown into such a wonderful young man and makes me proud to call him my son.

Yesterday was Levi's re-adoption day. We had to get up at 5am to be ready to leave by 6am so that we could get to Dallas by 8am. We ended up getting there a little early, we were lucky there was not too much traffic. We met our attorney at the Juvenile Justice Center and not too long after that we were before the judge with our right hands raised taking the oath that we were indeed Levi's parents. I was the one who had to answer all the questions that the attorney asked, and boy was I nervous! I always get tongue tied when I get nervous so I messed up our zipcode......yes you read that right our ZIPCODE!!! How dumb do you think I felt? What an idiot. Levi did so well the whole time and we were out in no time! Now we have a document that recognizes the foreign adoption and after we send in the paperwork we will receive a Texas birth certificate..... woohoo!!! I will post a picture tommorrow of our family in fornt of the judge.