facebook :: gabe edition

So I thought I'd throw up some of my Facebook statuses about Gabe. Because I'm a dork and I forget stuff.

The first several are from China and the rest are from home. I'm not great at blogging all of the funnies he does or even the important things I really want to remember but know will slip my mind.

I am great, however, about grabbing my iPhone and whipping out a status. But remembering to blog it?

Yeah, I stink at that.

So, Blogger.

Meet Facebook :: Gabe edition

August 30

Hello from Beijing!!! We are wiped out! It's 11:47pm here and that puts us at about 28 hours of travel! Both flights were delayed, so our luggage is out there somewhere...just not with us. Exit row rocked. We were able to Facetime with the girls {not Joel yet :( } for a few minutes. About to hit the hay and meet our guide bright and early at 8:30 to see this city! Hit a few bumps in the road today but we are resting in God's sovereign goodness AND the fact that we are right now in the same country as Gabe. To God be the glory! ♥ Love and gratitude from the other side of the world~

September 1

We hit the wall today! Waaahoo was it ever smokin' cool! We are beat {again!} and ready to sleep off our fantastic day in China. Tomorrow morning we will hop on a train to Zhengzhou where we will receive Gabe. Less than two days and we'll h

ave that sweet thing in our arms forever! To God be the glory! ♥ If you wanna see how we fared on the wall...here ya go!

September 1

Wide awake at 4:19am thinking about how tomorrow is now today and tomorrow is really tomorrow. Profound, I know. But it means that Jase and I will meet our son...in less than 36 hours. It's just pretty overwhelming to consider. Resting in God's goodness.

September 2

Who has 4 thumbs, took our first train ride ever {let alone across China!} today, got in a fender bender while in a taxi and will meet their son in a mere 11 hours? This couple! WooHoo. Our adventures continue. ♥ For HIs fame~

September 2

man. i've held it together so well until right now and i'm sitting here in the bathroom at 3:42am while jase sleeps and i can't stop crying. we're going to meet our Gabe in 6 hours. 6 hours till everything changes for our sweet boy. it's almost too much to take in and the emotion and gravity of it all has hit me hard. add to that, the Thai Tornado is about to have his Darth Vader party back home b

ecause he refuses to not turn 6 while we are in China. stinker. how we miss our babies. sorry y'all. i'm so emotional. but my heart is just breaking for Gabe and selfishly missing my Joel right now so much that it physically hurts. ready to hit this day head on and know that whatever happens, our great God will meet us there. ♥ to all~

September 3

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The Lord was and is so faithful!

September 5

Dear Cousin Claire, thanks so much for letting me borrow the Boba! I rocked it out tonight on our walk to Walmart. Well...actually, it rocked me and I slept snug as a bug on my mama! ♥ Gabe

September 7

i'm sitting in the most amazing hotel i've ever stayed in. 700 square feet of space in our room! crazy! Gabe really struggled last night being off his schedule after our flight was delayed and he missed his afternoon nap. his congestion is still bad and he had a hard time. we are heading out in 30 minutes for his visa medical exam...hoping they will give us some new meds or insight on how to help 

him maybe. they may not...it may just be to check him out generally for entrance into the States. if that's the case, we'll talk to our guide about seeing someone for him if needed. was so good to see our babies on Facetime again this morning...Gabe kissed the iPhone three times, once for each sibling. ♥ he's a keeper, this boy. a definite keeper. love to all~

September 14 via mobile

Eating lemon pie {courtesy of my mother in law!} on the sofa with Gabe at 4:30am. Jet lag is in full effect but wow...does this boy ever like pie!?! Welcome to America sweet baby! We've got some kickin' food here!

September 15 via mobile

Who would be up at 2:30am eating chocolate chip cookies and Golden Graham's? Not Gabe and I...no, never! Lol. Home sweet home is so true. Jet lag lasts a while but forever family is, well...forever! ♥

September 15

This is how we rock 2:30am. :)

September 16 via mobile

We made it till 4am this morning. :) The little prince and I have had our snack and are watching a little TV. Poor Jase has food poisoning from the plane ride home...he's sick, sick, sick. :( Hoping he will turn the corner in a few hours. He is miserable. Gabe is much better! New antibiotics and breathing treatments are working their magic! Have a wonderful Lord's Day everybody! We'll be hunkered down here. :)

September 22 near Canton

Joel introduced Gabe to the fine art of light saber fighting this morning. It was a proud moment for the Thai Tornado. Gabe picked it up pretty quickly and they both shared lots of smiles. Ah. Life is good, God is great.

September 28 via mobile

For Friday night movie night at Team R house, we're introducing Gabe to one of my faves...Mulan! He is loving it! Sooo happy our little China prince is home. Still not over it yet. ♥

October 3 via iOS

That would be Jason under the little prince and the Thai Tornado. These boys love their daddy. ♥ Blessed.

October 3 via iOS

...and then they let him out. :)

October 7 via iOS

Syd did this in the kitchen and then walked out. We heard him fussing and well...here's a Gabe in a box.

October 11

Gabe talking on my iPhone :: "*^&^$%$#^((*^&^%"
Siri :: "I'm sorry, Kam, I can't locate a pizza restaurant in Iraq."
Gabe :: "($(#*&$@&^$(#&%_#(#&"
Siri :: "I'm sorry, Kam, I can't call Iraq either."
Gabe :: Tosses the phone in the floor.
We've been wondering for weeks what this kid is saying all the time. Apparently, there's a fantastic pizza joint in Iraq and he's dying for some. ♥

October 21 via mobile

Pretty sure Gabe just said his first prayer. Of course I know that he is a mere 20 months and has limited understanding! But just pick me off the floor, please. Each night before bed, I hold him and tell him over and over that his mama loves him. He puts his head on my shoulders, his legs and feet around my waist and then I bow my head and pray for him. Every time I say "Jesus", I feel him raise u

p and watch me. When I finish and say "amen", I open my eyes to see him sporting this huge grin. Tonight when I finished, I looked at him and the same big smile was there...and then he bowed his head, closed his eyes and said, "Je Je......%#^{£~¥?£~*~*#¥!" What a precious gift he is. Oh, parents. Our children are watching. May we be found faithful as we strive to live a life of faith before our babies. ♥ And may that be the first of countless prayers our little prince will pray. "Out of the mouths of babies and infants you have ordained praise." Psalm 8:2

November 3 via mobile

Two months today! I can't believe it's already been two months since a very quiet and brave little prince was placed in our arms. This morning, with that funny smile that I adore, he sits in my lap feeding me Cheerios one by one. So grateful that he is here for forever. November is National Adoption Month and many churches will host an Orphan Sunday emphasis tomorrow {ours is next week}...if you've ever wanted answers to your questions about adoption, I'm your girl! It would be my great pleasure to sit with you {let's have coffee!} and share with you how the Lord has so beautifully grafted our sons into us. ♥

this is us these days

So four weeks. Gabe has been with us for four weeks today.

Anybody else blown away by that?

I mean, it's a paradox. You wait and wait and pray and pray for them to come home. And then they get here and life is good and you are so grateful. But time marches on pretty darn rootin' tootin' fast once they're here. Why is that? I'll never know. It's just the truth.

We've literally watched with our own eyes how this little boy has begun to transform from an orphan to son. The day we received him, he was so brave. So stoic. We expected tears and screams and arching of the back. And really even flat out rejection since he'd been in foster care for the majority of his sweet life. Instead we were given a very serious, brave little boy. What must have been going through his head. How hard he was working to hold it all together. I can't imagine. 

But today, just four weeks later, we have a smiling, giggling and full on kiss giving son. Sure, he can't grasp forever yet. We are probably the "current caregivers" in a pretty long list of others he has known in his short 18 months. Mama and daddy have little meaning still. And he surely has no clue his identity has changed.

That his everything has drastically changed. 

And with these changes, Gabe continues to amaze us. He's so resilient. So strong. His name is well suited for him. I pray it's prophetic..."strong man of God." What a story he has. What strength the Lord has so beautifully given him already. May that be just the beginning. May his strength be found in Jesus alone for the rest of his days. That is our prayer.

So these days. What have they held?

Well, this has been the week of appointments. We went to meet with Dr. F, the pediatric cardiologist, this past Monday. They did both an EKG and an ECG and determined that the findings China had made were accurate. Gabe's PDA has not closed and will require correction. The first bit of good news is that he is not in immediate distress and we can put off the surgery for a few months while we confer with other specialists about things first. Also, we learned that the blood that is entering into his lungs {blood that shouldn't be} is doing so in fast smaller spurts instead of slow gushes. That's great news too. Dr. F said that it looked like a straightforward PDA closure would be in order and would be done via heart catheterization.

Praise God!

So that is all wonderful to hear.

On Tuesday, I called the pedi because sweet baby was still pulling at his ear and his nose continued to run like crazy. They got us in that day at 1pm and wouldn't you know it, three antibiotics had not touched Gabe's ear infection.

Grrr.

To be perfectly honest, I didn't expect them to. We've walked this road before with Sydney and well, I wasn't in the least surprised. The pedi {whom I really like a lot} proceeded to write antibiotic prescription #4.

Uh, no thank you.

I mean, I took the paper. I'm no dummy.

And then I got in my car and called the chiropractor.

Because chiropractors make ear infections go away.

Yes, they do.

And if you don't believe me, just ask me. I will tell you with no hesitation.

Chiropractors make ear infections go away. 

So there. You asked. I told you. It's the truth.

Dr. Joe worked his magic. Gabe giggled his way through the adjustment and then proceeded to have the best night yet since being home. Almost immediately, his nose nearly stopped running and his irritability was greatly lessened. But just to make sure, I took my friend, Suzie's, advice and put garlic oil drops in his ears for good measure.

Don't believe me? Google it. I dare ya. lol

Yep, he smelled like a pizzeria in Italy for a couple of days but hey, after those drops and two visits to the chiropractor, our Gabe is a new man. {Thanks, Suzie, for letting me drop by at 8:30pm and borrow drops! You're a friend, true blue! }

So that's the scoop. Four doctor/chiropractor appointments this week alone. And the sweetie pie is just that. A complete and utter sweet blessing. We had our first post placement report on Friday and our social worker commented on how easily he goes to the five of us, but not to her...which, of course, is how it should be. He is learning more day by day to trust us and is attaching beautifully. He is so good with his siblings. He is beginning to love us all and actually, score one for mama {!} actually prefers me most since being home!

I'd be a big fat liar if I said I minded that!

Nope, I don't mind a bit. Well, until he wakes up at 3am and sleeps attempts to sleep in bed with us and I'm hugging the side of the bed with one adorable knee and one set of sweet piggies in the small of my back. 

That's the time when I ask Jase at 7:30 to get up with him and give me just one more hour of sleep. 

Ah, y'all. Life is good. I plumb dumb adore this boy. 

Of course that's how it should be. It's a done deal though. I'm completely nuts over him. Jase and I just keep looking at each other and shaking our heads in disbelief and sheer happiness. It's like we need to pinch ourselves to make sure that this adorable and funny boy is ours. We can't imagine that he would not be...it's too hard to go back now and wonder "what if?" because Gabe is so much a part of us. 

We know that God is sovereign. We rest in that and live in that and we will die in that Truth. And we see it evident in how He not only sustained Gabe's life, but also in the terrible beautiful way He brought us to Gabe. 

I blogged about the one month anniversary of Seth's death last year and the fact that I knew we were going to receive our son someday. I didn't know at the time it was Gabe. I had not even seen his picture yet. I was so broken over Seth. Completely broken. But I truly believed my God would not bring us to that point and leave us. I knew down deep that He would complete the work He had begun, the work of bringing our son home.

{December 11, 2011}

What in the world will take this away from me? 

Only Jesus. Over and over I say to myself, and to Him...

You are my Peace.

You are good.

You are enough.

Your plans are not to harm me.

You are faithful.

You can be trusted.

You alone are my portion.

Over and over and over I tell Jesus. Over and over and over, I tell myself. And I know, someday we will step into a room, and be handed a beautiful child. Probably one whose heart needs fixing. And I will say to him, "You were worth it all. You were worth the loss. You were worth the hurt. You are the beauty from our ashes." And I will mean it. I really, really will.

I can say now, with no hesitation, those words are true. 

Gabe was worth it all. Of course he was.

Of course he is!

Worth the loss. 

And the hurt.

Not that he has any part in that loss or that hurt. But our love for him, mine especially, was born out of those things. In my head, I know God's plan is in place despite what I believe about it. But in my heart, I shudder to think we could have missed him.

Missed Gabe.

Lord, that is so painful to contemplate now.

Again, it was all the Lord's work. So there's no doubt what that His will would be done. But humanly speaking, losing Seth...gave us Gabe. And to me now, that is so precious.

And it was completely worth it all.

I absolutely mean it.  Gabe was never second and he never will be. He was the little boy whom Jesus chose to be our son on this earth. The Lord was at work before Seth died to accomplish His will, He was at work in the midst of our pain and it was always His plan to redeem Gabe's story from one of loss to one of grace. Our loss and his...grace for us and for him. We couldn't see it then, though we believed it to be true. But now, we see so clearly. 

Gabe is most beautiful and our ashes pale in comparison to the grace we have experienced in four short weeks with our son. This is us these days. To God be the glory, great things he has done.

the missing China photos :: iPhone edition

So this might be the dumbest and most boring post ever but these are some shots from our phones that didn't make it onto the blog during our trip. I don't want to forget a thing about China, and I know me....I surely will. Putting these in a single post will ensure that they get printed into the kids' books, even if it seems like a dorky to do. :)

8.29.12 This was taken just before we boarded our big beast of a plane leaving home and headed to Seoul, South Korea.

We had enjoyed a quick bite and were walking around the airport killing time and texting with Kennedy in between her classes. I had to get a screen shot of this from the Pook's phone because we just laughed our tails off at their humor that morning. They had a good time giving each other "updates" throughout the morning.

This was taken while in my coveted seat and still at the gate waiting for taxi and take off. We were completely giddy over the fact that the ticket agent had offered us exit row seats for our 15 hour flight. :) And yeah. I just needed a shot commemorating all of that glorious legroom. Uh Mazing.

9.3.12 Gabe's first dinner with us and probably his first taste of Americana...KFC. We had received him that morning and come back to the hotel for the afternoon. Our guide, Michael, took us to KFC for dinner and we were happy to introduce Gabe to some french fries! He ate it up. :)

On 9.5, we walked a few blocks to the local Wal-Mart and I carried Gabe in a Boba that I borrowed from Mattie. It worked great and he did so well. He fell asleep on our walk back to the hotel and Jase snagged this shot in the lobby.

Jase took these on September 6th and posted them like this on Facebook with a caption that read, "Not only has Gabe overcome numerous odds to be here with us, he is also showing remarkable signs of heightened intelligence!" 



Later that same night, Gabe decided to get into my suitcase and put my underwear on his head while we Facetimed with the girls. Funny boy. The girls were loving this.

More lovin' from the other side...

On the way home from the airport on 9.13 at 9pm. We were all exhausted but so happy to be home. Gabe laughed with his siblings for about 10 minutes and then conked out. Who could blame him? It was a miserable day up to that point and so much must have been going on in his little mind. He dealt with it in the best way...sound sleep.

So there you have it. The missing photos that I just couldn't part with. We love you, sweet Gabe and we want to remember every bit of our time with you in China. :)

re-entry :: the saga continues

So goodness y'all.

What was it?

A stomach bug? {likely}

Food poisoning? {probably not}

A parasite? {gosh, let's just agree NO}

Whatever the hockey it was, it was ugly.

U

G

L

Y

And whatever ugly thing it was, it settled into me on Monday a mere 15 minutes before I was going to leave to pick up my kids from their one of two days at school because my Gabe decided to puke and run a fever at 8pm the night before so I couldn't go to work at school with them and Jase was too weak to do much of anything and so yeah.

That was a huge run on sentence.

But this bug deserved one.

Cause it was awful.

And today. TODAY is the first day in four days that I've even climbed the stairs to my beloved Mac. Honest. It was killer.

In other news, I ate today! Waahoo. And so far, so good. If you know what I mean.

Gabe is still struggling with a nasty runny nose. A little bit of coughing and bouts of being a pretty irritable 18 month old cutie patootie. He's on his second antibiotic since being home. This one, I'm assuming is pretty potent because it's a $26 generic. Hmmm. Here's hoping this thing is a soon to be killed by generic antibiotic bacteria....OR, is viral and is on it's ever lovin' way OUT! Because sweet boy is just about tired of it. And so are we. But we have effectively paid some bills for Kleenex this week because we are going through boxes of them!

He is sleeping better though. Two days ago, when Jase had a tiny bit of energy, he brought up our crib. And that promptly wore him slap out! He disinfected it from all of its basement yuckiness and assembled it and put it in our room. Because heller, our mattress is too soft. And Gabe was rolling into us {me...since Jase has been in the guest room for days!} and waking up.

Every two hours. 

Like clockwork.

Blast you jet lag. And soft mattress. And bacteria/virus that has invaded our Gabe's head with drainage.

Enter the crib. Kennedy's crib. Circa 2000. The heaven's parted and there were rainbows and unicorns hovering overhead because the first night in that crib....

Gabe only woke once. And took a bottle. And went straight back to sleep!

And all God's people said....Amen.

Then the second night, he slept from 7:30pm until 5am.

So we still have some work to do. But re-entry is looking better.

I'm eating. Gabe is sleeping. Home school work is caught up. And yes, most all is right in our world.

How could it not be?

Just have a looksy at this sleeping face.

And a gander at these sleeping piggies...

Re-entry or not, life is good. God is great.

re-entry :: the first few days

So I'm not gonna lie, re-entry is plumb dumb hard!

We left the airport Thursday night and I looked at Jase and asked, "Can you drive?" We were so tired and hadn't driven in over two weeks! lol. We did fine and stopped for our favorite pizza to take home for dinner.

It was wonderful to be home. Just to walk in the door and see the sweet signs the kids had made along with Jason's parents. We were so grateful. It was the perfect touch to a long and hard day!

And I have to say, if I haven't already {I truly can't remember} that we are sooo very grateful to our families for their help with the kids. I mean it. I know it was hard to carry out school work {especially with Joel} and to feed them and take care of the day to day with three children for 15 days. I told Jase half way through our flight home that I couldn't wait to get home to my bed and my tub! And I knew that both would be clean. We both smiled at each other and said that we knew the ENTIRE house would be clean because Jase's mom had been there for the last several days! What a complete blessing. I just can't say it enough...to my siblings and my parents and Jason's and to my bestie for being a school taxi service...we couldn't have brought Gabe home without you. We love you and appreciate all you did for us and for our babies at home.

The night we flew home, the kids were still giddy over their new baby brother and so it was hard to settle down even though it was 10pm and the three of us weary travelers were zonked. But we bathed and loved on each other and fell into bed around midnight.

Gabe woke up at 3:30am and we tried to talk him into just a few more hours of sleep. He was having none of it, and surely due to the fact that he slept a good bit on the flight. We decided at 4:00 to just get up. By then Jase and I were pretty wide awake too. I started our laundry {the kids's stuff was all clean and put away - thanks, Nancy!} and we set about unpacking.

Gabe still sounded bad in his chest and I was so grateful to Tara for making a pediatrician appointment for us for 8am that morning while we were still in China. That's what friends do...and she's come through for me many times over.

I took him to the doctor and began to tell her the story of how sick he had been and how congested. How he would vomit because he had so much congestion come up when he coughed. Sorry, TMI. But it's part of the story. How he has a few heart defects and that we know his heart is enlarged and needs surgical correction. She listened to him with her stethoscope and couldn't even hear his heart for the congestion. A breathing treatment was ordered immediately followed by a chest x-ray stat because she feared he had pneumonia.

Sweet, sweet baby. He felt so badly. After the x-ray, we dropped off his prescriptions and headed home. We got the call a few hours later that the x-ray was negative for pneumonia. Praise the Lord.

Re-entry was kicking my tail by about 1pm. I was dizzy with vertigo still {something that happens to me pretty much every time I fly a long distance}. I almost had a panic attack when I brushed my teeth after lunch because I put my toothbrush under the tap! Hysterical. You try sooo hard to NOT do that in third world countries and so for two weeks, we'd been using bottled water to brush our teeth. Really funny that I freaked out when I did it at home. Gabe and I went to sleep in my bed and didn't wake up till 6:30pm! Eeek. That was too long but we couldn't help it.

I also woke up holding Gabe in the middle of our bedroom. I was dreaming that all of our luggage and souvenirs and stuff from China was in the floor at my feet. He was on my hip and before me were two lines...and I was to choose which one to get in to. "To Keep" or "To Send Back to China". Those were my choices. A man appeared and told me to choose the line where I would put my things and my son. I said I wanted to keep it all! So weird.

I guess part of me is still in awe that this precious boy is ours. I mean it. I just look at him and think that it's too good to be true. I can't imagine not having Gabe in our family. The Lord is so good. So kind to allow Jase and I this privilege.

By Friday night, Jase had resigned himself to the guest room! Gabe is a pretty wild sleeper! So he and I snuggled down in our bed and woke around 2:30. We enjoyed some chocolate chip cookies and snacks and TV. Sweet boy. I could just kiss him a million times over. He's so good to let me too! See? This is how we roll in the middle of the night! Cookies and toys in bed! :) iPhone edition no doubt...my Canon is STILL in my suitcase.

On Saturday morning, we were up by 6. Jase came and got him since he couldn't sleep either and I went back to bed for a bit. But by 10, something hit Jase hard and fast. We're thinking it was food poisoning. It came soooo fast. High temp and all the rest that you don't want to know about.

We figure it was the shrimp he ate on the plane that I didn't eat. I remember him saying, "shrimp..." and some imaginary red light was flashing before my eyes saying a "Abort! Abort!" so I didn't eat any. I had had shrimp the previous two nights for dinner {it was delish!} and I just wasn't tempted to partake of the airline's shrimp. But Jase did and he said it tasted funny.

Hmmmm.

We stayed in the bedroom a lot just in case what Jase had was contagious. The kids were so fun with Gabe. He adores them all. And the feeling is quite mutual!

So it's now Sunday afternoon and Jase is still feverish and sick. The rest of us are fine. It could be a bug. But I'm thinking we would have felt the effects of it too by now. It's been going on 30 hours and we are fine. The way it came so quickly, it must be food poisoning. At least that's what we think. And what I've read says that it can take 48 hours for food poisoning to get ya. We both took Cipro everyday while in China. But stopped the night before we left.

I'm going back to school with the kids tomorrow...hoping for good sleep tonight! And praying that my sweet hubby kicks this thing soon.

Re-entry. Any way you slice it, it's a killer. But so worth it!