Housekeeping

Based on the title of this post, I bet you thought I had suddenly become an expert on keeping house. Sorry to disappoint, but this is actually BLOG housekeeping. Not nearly as exciting as a clean house, but it must be done.

I have tried my best to figure out how to keep the email replies from this blog from going to all of you...but I can't do it! All I know to tell you is that if you want to stop receiving them, I think you can scroll down to the bottom of one of those emails and click on a link that will let you unsubscribe. That way you can come read the blog whenever you want to without being bombarded with stuff you don't want. Will someone let me know if this works? Thanks so much, and Happy Rainy Monday! :)

Ahem. But I'll never forget!

I'm not going to write a long story about why I...ahem...haven't posted in approximately two years. I'm moving on :)

Today is the one year anniversary of the day that the (now) 17-year old Mary Kathryn got her driver's license. So today she can legally, officially drive around with up to three non-relatives in her car. She did so tonight...on the wet, slick roads, in the dark. It made me feel sick to my stomach, and it made me pray like crazy. Then, because she's really sweet and thoughtful and probably knew I was a wreck, she texted me as soon as they got back from picking up their Chinese take-out. Whew. Why do I wonder where all these gray hairs are coming from?? In time, she won't remember that she drove to Cathy Ho's Chinese Restaurant with two of her friends on this night, but I will never forget. :)

Early this morning, there was a storm, complete with loud thunder and light-up-the-almost-morning-sky lightning. I found Claire, just barely 13, and sweet even in her sleep, in bed with Noah, wondering if he was afraid of the storm, so she climbed into bed with him just in case. This made him angry for some reason! He stomped out of his room, and when he didn't come back right away, Claire asked if we should check on him. He was sitting at my Grandmama's old telephone table in the hallway outside his room, arms folded across his chest, face scrunched up, tense, so upset that his sister had gotten in his bed. One day he will recognize all the ways he is loved! When I told this story tonight to the two of them, Claire didn't even remember it had happened, so sleepy she had been! But I'll never forget. :)

And Noah. My baby is 4 1/2 this month, and I don't know how that's possible! Before a dear friend's wedding last weekend, he promised me that he would never grow up and get married and leave me. I am fully aware of what he's not, that he WILL grow up and get married and leave me. And he won't remember making that promise to his mommy, whose heart almost couldn't take it. But I will never forget that on the day of Lauren's wedding, he didn't want to ever leave me. :)

When each of my children was really little and would say and do cute or funny or sweet things, people always asked me, "Are you writing this down somewhere?". I was never very good at doing that! Here's hoping that now that I'm on my third (and most probably last - there, I said it!) child, I'll never forget to "write" all of these memories down on this blog, because I truly don't want to forget a minute of all this growing up that's going on around here!

Long time, no post!

Hello! Wow, 10 months really fly by when nothing very exciting is going on : ) We've had no surgeries, hospital appointments, or new children added to our family in quite a while, and it's been hard to find time to write about, well, nothing! Of course, it's not really nothing, it's just normal life. And normal life is incredible busy!

I'm thinking about changing this blog: the name, the layout, everything. We're beyond thrilled that God allowed us to adopt Noah, but at this stage in the game, still focusing on his adoption (as in the blog title "Adopted in Love") is kind of like still focusing on how long Mary Kathryn's fingers were when she was born, or the fact that Claire had NO eyelashes at birth, but within a few weeks, she had eyelashes that we were all envious of (and still are, by the way!). The point is that he's our little boy...no different than the girls are our (big?) girls, and having a blog that focuses on his adoption is no longer where we are. Adoption is simply the method by which God placed Noah in our family, in the same way that pregnancy is how we got the girls : )

I'd like to do a blog that chronicles our family as our children grow up (this may have something to do with my failure as a baby-book-/scrapbook person...I can get really sad if I think of all I haven't done!) so we can look back and never forget! So, don't hold your breath (seriously, PLEASE don't - you might not survive), but you can possibly look for some changes - and hopefully more frequent posts! - to this blog soon.

A Day in Athens

Last Monday, Noah had his post-op appointment in Athens (it was closer than going all the way to Augusta!), so we decided to make a day of it. We saw the doctor who assisted with his appendectomy and Noah was once again released from their care...hopefully for the last time! He is doing great, as busy as ever, and other than a little case of the sniffles, very healthy. We couldn't be more thankful to God for preserving his life - for the second time in 18 months! - and bringing him through this ordeal stronger than ever. We believe that God must have some amazing things planned for our little guy and can't wait to see how his life unfolds! Noah is now saying several words in addition to using several signs spontaneously..."juice" and "shoes" (two of his favorite words) sound suspiciously alike, as do "football" and "foul ball" (two of his other favorite words). Other much-used words are "Mama", "Dada/Daddy", "Sissy" (sounds like "Diddy", very cute), "Claire" (sounds like "Deh?", always like a question), "yum yum", "no no", "bye-bye", "uh oh" (this one is used often everyday...when you're as busy as he is, there are plenty of opportunities for "uh ohs"!), "moo", "moon", "Bible", "bowl", "meow", "woof", "puppy", "peas" and "please" (both pronounced exactly the same way), and he signs "more", "please", "all done/all gone", and "thank you" (sometimes - we're working on this one). He's a great little dancer and loves music...and the Wii! Two of his favorite pasttimes! Looking at his sweet face, you'd never believe he would ever be anything but gentle and kind, but don't be fooled! After he hits someone or throws something at someone or in some other way hurts someone (when I say "someone", I mean "usually Claire", whom he ADORES!! It makes NO sense!), he immediately lays his head on that person's shoulder and "apologizes"...it's very endearing and causes you to quickly forget whatever he did to prompt such sweet repentance : )

We wanted to make some stops around Athens that we don't usually have time for on game days, so after Noah's appointment, we stopped by the Theta house and I gave the girls a tour. Not much has changed in 19 years!! The dining room still looked and smelled the same (yummy - it was nearly lunchtime!), and when we walked up to the 3rd floor (where we found all four of my composite pictures), it was like flashback city for me!! The sound of the shower running, girls heading out to class in kind of bummy clothes, the window at the end of the hallway where I would watch for Matthew to drive up for a visit, all of the memories came flooding back, and it was really fun and special. Matthew and Noah hung out in the chapter room and Noah entertained various girls walking through...I bet they thought their boyfriends were the cutest boys to wait in the chapter room til they saw Noah (and Matthew!!). : )

Lunch at The Grill...we all loved our burgers and fries and Noah made it through (almost) the whole meal without having a little fit. Matthew and I discovered and LOVED the feta cheese dip for the fries...heavenly! We almost ordered a milkshake and then decided our $4 + would be better spent at Hodgson's Pharmacy. So after visiting the Old Athens Cemetary (that sounds so morbid, but it was listed in our Georgia History curriculum as a field trip and I used to walk through it as a child with my family before/after games, so it was another nostalgic stop for me!), we bought everyone a cheap (and very delicious!) ice cream cone at Hodgson's. For those of you who remember the 25 cent cones from the '80's, you'll be disappointed to know that they're now $1...but we didn't mind and Noah LOVED all of the pictures of Hairy Dog and the cheerleaders and ran around pointing and saying "FOOTBALL!!!" The picture on this blogpost is kind of far away, but you can click on it and be able to see it a little better.

Soon we'll post some pictures of the Daddy-Daughter Dance from this past Thursday night, but for now we wanted to let you know that Noah is all well and that we GREATLY appreciate your prayers. We firmly believe that his progress and health are due to God's graciousness and love in answering all of your prayers. We are also aware that He could have chosen to demonstrate his love in vastly different ways (ways that I shudder, in my humanness, to think of. However, as hard as it is to say, we would love and serve Him, although brokenly and much more desperately, had things turned out not how we wanted). We are forever thankful that His mercy toward Noah (and us) has allowed Noah to live abundantly and well.

Have a wonderul week - we love you all and pray for you to blessed by the love of Jesus!

Shortest hospital stay in his life!

We're out!!! Noah had a great night, was able to eat regular food this morning, and seems to be in absolutely NO pain! We are home (at my parents' house) where Noah is playing with his sisters and cousins and getting ready to take a nap. At 28 hours, this is the shortest hospital stay he's ever had! We'll be heading to our house tomorrow and appreciate your continued prayers for Noah's complete recovery. God's goodness to us is overwhelming!
Love to all,
Ashley

Surgery Success!!

Noah has made it successfully through his surgery! The doctors finished performing his appendectemy about 10:00 am this morning. Noah is now in his room (the same room he was in for 10 days in December) sitting in mommy's lap watching the "strange" Wiggles. Thanks again for all of your prayers for Noah, we our so thankful the we have so many friends and family trusting God with us for him. Dr. Howell told us that Noah will be in the hospital for a couple of days and then we get to go home on Sunday! Please continue to pray that Noah will recover quickly from his surgery and that he will not want to get to active until we leave. Thanks again and to God be the glory!



P.S. - As you can probably tell from my inferior writing skills, this is Matthew signing off!

Surgery tomorrow!

Dr. Howell called last night and wants to do Noah's surgery tomorrow (Friday, Jan. 23rd) at 8:00 am. We have to be at the hospital at 7:00, and the surgery should take about 1 1/2 hours, so hopefully we'll be back in Noah's room ~ appendix free! ~ by around 10am if everything goes according to schedule! Thanks to everyone who is praying and who has offerred to help with the girls and pets, etc. We treasure each of you and are so blessed by the love you've shown us! I'll post just as soon as I can after surgery to keep you all up-to-speed on how he's doing. Now, off to pack...