Knocked OUT by the stomach bug...

Haven't posted in a while because we were down for the count...we battled the stomach bug, and the stomach bug won. Emily was the first to fall, then Luke, then Mommy, then Maggie...Mike and Abby just had tummy pains, and just when we thought we were in the clear - down went Drew. Drew is our "immune system of steel" child. So, he got sick once and was done - must be nice. Anyway, we are now back to the grind...ballet, track, piano, school, etc. Boy, are we looking forward to summer!! Here is a picture of the girls, not feeling so well, but LOVING the sing-a-longs on the portable DVD player (THANK you Grammy and Grandpa!:-)

Winter Wonderland...

For all of our awesome Florida friends, here are some pics of Abby's first Alabama snow. For the life of me, I couldn't get her to give me a smile. She seemed to enjoy it a little bit, but you know, I think she would be JUST fine if we moved back to Florida and traded our snow boots for flip flops! The picture without any kiddos in it is of the view from our backyard...

The stupid screw-drivers are back...what have I done?

Thank you!

Okay, either I am losing it (which is quite possible) or someone removed those crazy screw drivers for me, so thank you! :-) I took the toddlers to the pediatrician this morning for a follow-up appointment. Maggie and Abby both don't have giardia - praise the Lord for that! The doctor wants to keep Maggie on a preventative antibiotic for a month because he said her tympanic membrane is not functioning as it should, and he said this would prevent another ear infection and possibly tubes. I am not sure I agree with him - I think she is just stuffy because she came down with a cold yesterday. But, alas, I have not gone to medical school, just "momma" school. So, I will probably go with what he said. After the doctor, we headed to the Social Security Office to apply for Abby's social security number. I took EVERYTHING with me...except for her Chinese passport. Wouldn't you know it? The woman wanted her Chinese passport. Ugh. After explaining that I would be back with the passport AND all FIVE of my children (the big kids were at home with Mimi), somehow she miraculously got everything "fixed" and taken care of. :-)

Attention all you "professional" bloggers out there...

Do you know how to get rid of those crazy screw driver looking things on the side of my blog? Am I the only one who can see them? Hmm....I am sounding like a crazy person, but I was trying "clean" up our blog a bit. I am learning as I go...apparently, I am not learning very fast.

Whoo - hoo!

Well, we just got Abby's Certificate of Citizenship! I took the cutest picture of all the kids with Abby's Certificate to post, and then I noticed that on the Certificate it says in bright red - no photocopies or pictures may be made of this Certificate, punishable by U.S. law. Hm, guess I won't post that picture. :-) We had some friends over the other night that we met in Beijing - they also were there adopting through Holt. It was so great to see them and to see how things are going for them and their little girl, Rinnah. They are from lower Alabama - so, while we were in China, Tim was such a stress reliever with his great sense of humor during difficult times (for example, our bus accident on our way to our consulate appointment...he made us laugh so hard we were able to not think about the consequences of missing our appointment). :-) We are praying that little Rinnah's left eye will just be healed completely. After Tim and Jennifer took Rinnah into the opthamologist, they discovered that she is completely blind in her right eye and her left eye has significant damage. Please keep this sweet family in your prayers.

Our morning...

So this has been our morning...Maggie woke up Abby earlier than Abby likes to be woken up. Result?...cranky Abby. We had a hard time getting into a "school groove", but finally managed to get things together when I hear someone call from the bathroom, "MOM, I was doing my math while I was pooping, and I dropped my pencil in the toilet!!" Seriously? "Can you flush pencils?" I thought to myself...probably not a good idea. We solved the pencil problem (I will spare the details). Then while making Abby a bottle, I hear Maggie and Luke screaming and crying from upstairs. I grab Abby, run up the stairs, only to find that Maggie had been playing too wild with Luke. She had been trying to "play" bite him, and he managed to FALL on top of her - her front tooth gashing his eyelid. After calling the dentist, I was relieved to discover that we will probably not have to make an emergency visit to the dentist or the e.r. this morning (even though Maggie's tooth was bleeding, and Luke has looked better...) Finally, Emily managed to burn her hand on a tray that had been pulled out of the toaster oven. Hm, is it bedtime yet? Ugh, we have just finished lunch. I have thanked the Lord repeatedly for His protection this morning.

Praise the Lord - No Cataracts!!

Whoo-hoo! We won't have to have surgery on these sweet little eyes! Abby's pediatrician had mentioned cloudiness in her right eye (concerned about the onset of cataracts) so we went to see a pediatric opthamologist today. We got great news! He didn't see anything seriously wrong. He did say that she is near-sighted (and said that over 50% of Asians are...who knew?). So, she will probably need glasses when she is three, but we shouldn't need to come back in until then - yea!!