Happy Birthday to Our Miss Maya!

Today our Maya turns 4! 

We are so lucky to get to celebrate another birthday with you.  Here is a blast from the past on all your birthdays. 

Maya turns 1 - we celebrated with family

 Maya turns 2 - we had a big friends party at our local YMCA

 Maya turns 3 - we celebrated with a gymnastics party with a few friends

Maya turns 4 - stay tuned for details on how we celebrated!

 

Happy Birthday Maya!  We love you.

Tune In to Hear Maya on the Radio and on the News!

Maya's daycare class was selected as the Class of the Week by WDAY.  Today Rob Kupec came into Maya's class to interview each kid.  Per Maya, he asked what her favorite color was, favorite food, favorite game, and favorite character.  I asked Maya's teacher if Maya answered his questions and apparently she did.  Rob also shared a story called "The Snowflake" and explained what a meteorologist does.

If you are curious and want to hear the interview, please tune into the radio station 970AM this Friday (Maya's birthday) around 11:20 am and you can also watch a segment on TV which will air this Saturday at 6pm on WDAY (or channel 6).  Of course you can watch the segment online or stream 970AM online. 

To add to this excitement, WDAY is also presenting the class with a pizza party!  Maya tells me it will be this Friday.  She is going to have an awesome birthday!  How fun!

Wordless Wednesday - Is this picture good enough to submit in a local contest?

Hair and Elephant?

What a Sunday we had in our house! The theme of the day - church and hair!

Our day started out bright and early as Dave and I got our much needed Turbo Fire workout in. We then all went to church and listened to Maya sing in church yesterday which I absolutely love. Once we finished up at church, ate our favorite Sunday lunch (pancakes and scrambled eggs), and took a quick nap, we were ready to switch gears and start our second theme of the day, hair.

Maya's amazing daycare teacher, Laura, made a house call yesterday afternoon. Laura straightened Maya's hair, trimmed it, braided it, and beaded it.  I am in awe of Laura's ability especially how easily she added the beads and rubberband.  I thought I was watching a magic show at first :)

Later on Sunday after Makenna was sleeping peacefully, Maya decided it was my turn to get my hair done.  How could I resist?  Maya put many ponytails in my hair.  At one point, Maya leaned over and whispered in my ear "Mommy, you look like an elephant".  I burst out laughing.  I then had her repeat herself and tell Dave.  She leaned towards him and told him exactly what she told me.  We all laughed.  Miss Maya sure has a charming personality.  What a character!  So I guess we had one fun hair day with elephants!

Hmm...what to blog about?

By now everyone knows about Makenna and all the things she has endured over the last few months.  But what about Maya?  What has Maya been up to?

Maya has been very busy getting reading to turn 4.  Yep, our little girl is soon to be an even bigger girl as she turns 4 this Friday.  Maya has been home for 3+ years which is simple crazy.  Where has the past 3 years gone? 

Maya has been keeping very busy.  She is involved with Sunday school, gymnastics, and another church program called Wowee on Wednesday late afternoons.  I would say Maya's favorite activity is gymnastics which she has been doing once a week since last September.  Maya is getting pretty good at it too considering her age.  Her coaches have informed me she is ready to advance to the next level and I couldn't be more proud.

Maya has also enjoyed just being home.  Dave and I talked just the other night about how much Maya is a home body.  As much as Maya loves to be social and to be with friends, Maya also loves to be at home with her family.  Activities she enjoys while home are reading books (specifically her Miss Spider and Friends books), playing with her Barbies, and watching TV which we do allow in moderation.  Maya is finally playing by herself as well as with Makenna.  This allows Dave and I to do something else for a short period and/or to have a conversation.  Amazing!

I have said and blogged this before how much we adore our children and love them to pieces.  No matter how crazy life gets somedays, we always have our smiling children who love us unconditionally. 

And who can beat finding Maya and her doll Barbara in our bed each night?  I mean really, how cute is this?

Mom's Tip #4 - Less is Better!

Ridiculous and embarrassing. How does one accumulate so many clothes? I know. It is because one particular mom who should remain nameless bought them all.
Seriously who has this many clothes?

To my defense, this way too large of a pile is two different sizes. And...the 3T size is summer and winter clothing as Maya didn't grow quite as fast during that time of her life. I finally had the chance to sort through all the clothes in her too small container in her closet. It has been on my to-do list for a long time now and I finally tackled it. Plus with Makenna growing like a weed, I thought I'd better get Maya's old clothes sorted so I know exactly what I have and have them sorted by size and season.

These past 3 years taught me a lot.  One lesson I learned is less is better.  Maya always seems to have her favorite outfits and she will wear them over and over again.  I can buy a cute sweater or a cute dress but if Maya doesn't like it, she won't wear it.  My approach these days is to wait until the season hits, figure out what Maya is going to want to wear (skirts, pants, skinny jeans, etc.) and then only purchase a little at a time.  If I find she likes something a lot like her skinny jeans this season, then I may purchase a few more pieces.  I have also learned Maya tends to have a growth spurt in the middle of winter.  It happened two years in a row so I then try to hit up the clearance racks to get the next size up so Maya has clothes that fit all through winter.  Good lessons to learn!

So now I ask, how many clothes are in your kid's closet?  Any tips to keep the buying to a minimum without sacrificing style and the desire to shop?

Prayers Requested - Updated

***UPDATE***

We are home!  Just arrived and Makenna is taking a much needed nap.  Per the doctor, Makenna did great and everything went smoothly.  Makenna has a few stitches and a splint on her leg which she will have for awhile.  Unfotunately we still have to figure out when our follow-up appointment with our "bone" doctor.  Kind of frustrating to always having to track things down, etc.  They also tried giving her a med to help with pain but they didn't check to see how it played with the other meds she is currently on.  Ugh.  It gets really frustrating at times but thankfully we are on top of things.  Thanks again for all the prayers and support.  I really think it helped Makenna today.  It feels good to have a great support system.

For those of you reading my blog, thank you.  As you can see I haven't been so good at keeping it up.  You see, I have been having some very tough days lately.  I have found it very challenging to get through each day with my daily stuff that I have nothing else to give and that means no blogging.

Tomorrow Makenna goes in for a second surgery.  The "bone" doctor needs to clean out her incision on her leg.  It really should be an easy surgery and Makenna should come home.  But...based on everything that has happened over the past two months, I am still worried and concerned.  Hence I am asking you to say a prayer for Makenna (and for us).  Please pray everything will go smoothly and she'll be able to come home.  Makenna's surgery is bright and early so if you would please say a prayer when you wake up in the morning.  We'd really appreciate it.

For those of you who reach out to me via text, facebook, and email, thank you!  Again, I haven't had the strength to respond but I have read them.  I can't express how grateful I am for all the kind words.  Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Honestly who is this girl?

And what happened to my baby?

Let's Talk Ethiopia!

At church today, the group from our church who recently traveled to Ethiopia including Dave spoke during what is called learning & sharing.  It is a time between the two worship services where a certain topic or event takes place.  It is also a time for everyone to gather together to enjoy some coffee, donuts, and conversation.

Each week is a certain topic and today's topic was a recap of the Ethiopia mission trip.  Dave posted a few blogs about his trip and he has shared several stories along with many pictures with me since he has been home.  Today I got to hear stories from some of the others who traveled with Dave.  Many individuals gave a personal story about how they were able to connect with one of the boys who lived at Kolfe.  It is truly remarkable to hear some of the youth to reference their sponsored son their brother.  Truly amazing and tear jerking.  The group also wore their traditional Ethiopian outfit.  They all did a great job and sparked many questions as well as an interest to learn more.

Dave and I along with a few others started our sponsorship program at our church 2 years ago and were semi successful.  We were successful because we were able to establish a relationship with Children's Hopechest.  We were successful as we gained many sponsors and we were successful because we caused enough stirring to get a group of individuals to leave their comfort zone by traveling to Ethiopia for a week. 

But now we can be truly successful thanks to the energy the new group members bring to the table, the love and desire to make this relationship succeed and be long lasting, and the stronger connection my church, Olivet, has with these amazing young men.  

After the presentation this morning a woman who is very active in our church and who we have gotten to know thanked me for bringing Ethiopia to the church.  She thanked me.  Now I know I did not personally bring Ethiopia to our church as we have others within our church who are either Ethiopian themselves or adopted from Ethiopia but I wanted to cry as she spoke to me.  I needed to hear those words so badly because of how I have been feeling for the past 5 weeks.  Dave traveling with people I didn't know and to have an experience without me to my girls' birth country put me in a place that I never want to visit again.  It tore me to pieces so to be thanked meant more than I could ever express in any blog post.

Today was a good day but I'm glad it is over.  I'm glad the group got to share their story with the church as they needed to.  But now the rest of the group who did not travel can now get back involved with Kolfe.  It is going to be an exciting few months while we gather a plan, roll out the sponsorships again, and get the rest of the church excited about Ethiopia and Kolfe!

Game

Two weekends ago we hit up a college men's basketball game with the two kids.  Surprisingly, they both did wonderful even considering how late it was!  We did have one tiny little fit over the gummy worms which I thought would be a good idea (Dave quickly informed me it wasn't a good idea and shall not be repeated again especially because of sticky fingers).  Minus the gummy shapes of any kind, I think we will use our tickets later in the month and attend one more game.  It seems we have two more basketball fans living in the house!

I tried taking a few pictures of the kids while at the game but instead I got silly Maya and a picture of a gummy worm sticking out of Maya's mouth.  I did however get this one picture of Makenna - isn't she precious?

 Rest of the photos didn't turn out so hot but you gotta love the gummy worm sticking out of Maya's mouth and the sassy pose which is unfortunately becoming Maya's signature pose (insert eye roll).  

Another Makenna Update...the latest on Makenna

I have been asked for several people about what is going on with Makenna.  I have blogged about it in a few recent blog posts but here is a quick summary.

The week of Christmas we had to admit Makenna to the hospital where she spent the week getting all sorts of tests done and having surgery on her right leg.  The orthopedic surgeon took a piece of Makenna's bone from her leg so they could culture it in hopes to find whatever it is that is causing her pain and to limp.  Well after many weeks later, we have a good idea of what it is and are now starting to treat it.

Last Thursday we took Makenna in to see the orthopedic surgeon for a follow-up.  Everything was looking good and the bone was healing nicely.  Friday when we picked Makenna up from daycare, her leg was bleeding and she had some white "stuff" coming out of the incision.  We decided it was best to take her to the walk-in to have it checked out as it clearly looked infected.  Dave took her and called me to inform me the pediatric doctor wanted to admit her to the hospital again.  Not only was Makenna's incision infected but she also had a high fever.

Of course the tears start to fall as I had officially reached my breaking point.  I could not believe we had to admit our baby girl again.  We already had a babysitter coming as we were going to attend Dave's work holiday party.  Our babysitter came and we headed up to the hospital.  At that point Makenna was checked in, blood work taken, IV inserted, x-rays, and constant monitoring.  Thankfully her fever broke early on Friday night and all her test came back normal.  Saturday we were given the green light to head on home.  

This week Makenna started on her antibiotics to kick that infection to the curb.  Makenna is expected to make a full recovery.

Again, thank you to everyone who has prayed for us, visited us in the hospital, and helped us out with Maya.  We really do appreciate all the love and support.  Makenna's journey is not over yet but we feel we are one step closer to a recovery.


While in the hospital this last time, Makenna had very good spirits.  I of course had to take a few photos.  

Maya absolutely loves the iPad and enjoys playing Miss Spider games which kept her amused & out of trouble.  Makenna clearly wants in on the action.

Just hanging out...

She slept fairly well considering - how sweet is she?

FINALLY!

Ever since Dave returned from Ethiopia this past month, I have been anxiously awaiting to see a picture of Dave with Melkamu, our sponsored son from Kolfe.  You have no idea how many times I have asked Dave to see this picture but Dave simply told me he didn't take any pictures as there were individuals in his group who stepped up and took most all the photos from the trip.

Today Dave received an email with this picture.  How amazing is this photo?  I love it so much that it is now my desktop picture on my work computer.  Thank you Julie for taking this amazing photo!  This picture is yet another reason why I wish I could have gone on the trip with Dave.  I would have loved to have seen Melkamu again and to visit with all the young men at Kolfe.

Melkamu is in the red and his best friend Dawit (amazing young man) is in the green.