Finally complete...after 2 weeks!

A couple weeks ago we started putting Keely's hair into little box ponies all over her head. After that was done we started twisting each pony and putting beads on the ends. Well about half of her head has been done for over a week now. We had done that much before but have never got her whole head done in beads and two stand twist. Until tonight! Scott had a softball game tonight that started late so I decided to stay home and give the girls baths and do hair. I never did get to Tatum's hair so it will have to be done tomorrow. But, I did get Keely's all done and it looks SO cute on her. I am part of a yahoo group for African American hair care and some of the ladies on there are so amazing and can do some great hair. That is where I have learned as much as I have and there is always something new to learn. My next goal is to learn how to do cornrows! I have attempted it with Tatum's hair but her hair is so much thinner than Keely's and also fine. Usually when I do Tatum's hair it doesn't last that long. Having Keely's whole head done in the ponies and twist will last in her hair for about 4-5 weeks. It's just the difference in hair texture. Also, something I am sure many of you don't know is that we don't us shampoo on the girls hair except maybe every few months if they seem to have a lot of build up. Yes you heard me right we only use conditioner at bath time. Since their hair is so coarse and dry it needs all the moisture it can get. For Keely's we also will put pure coconut oil in it and that works great if you can stand the strong coconut smell. It also works great on both girls skin. For a daily spray for their scalps we us a mixture of extra virgin olive oil and water mixed together then sprayed on. Hair time is something I really enjoy with the girls and both have learned to really like having their hair done especially with beads. Their favorite thing to do is shake their heads to hear the beads click together. During hair time we watch movies and sing along to the songs on the kids movies we watch so it is a lot of fun and hopefully an experience they will have good memories of someday. Sure there are times when they have just had enough and its to quit working but both girl will sit around an hour. Tate does better sometimes because she loves the Backyardigans so much. As long as we can keep the episodes coming she would let me do her hair all day.

Hi/Low Thursday

This post is part of "Hi/Lo Thursday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check out their blog to read everyone else's "Hi/Lo" posts and get your link on their site.

Our HIGHS:

Everyone in our house seems to be healthy right now. Also, Scott is doing great in his college classes for work and passing his welder certifications!

Our LOWS:

We are really struggling this week with our oldest daughter and her food aversion. She is fighting every meal again and it's getting very frustrating. We just hope she is eating and drinking enough calories to gain weight and grow.

Rain, Rain Go Away!

Yes, it is still yucky here and keeps raining off and on. The sun did manage to peek through for a little while yesterday and was refreshing. Monday at lunch Tatum broke out with a rash all over her body. It really didn't seem to bother her but I called the pediatrician anyway to see what they thought. Well since it wasn't bothering her and we were due to go in on Tuesday for her monthly penicillin shot and blood work they said we could wait until Tuesday to be seen. Tuesday the rash seemed to come and go and still wasn't bothersome. When the doctor saw it he said it was hives but we aren't sure what it is from. He is thinking it is either some kind of viral infection or its from the new high calorie drink she has been drinking. Lets hope its not the drink because she is doing well drinking it. The doctor wanted us to try her on zyrtec for two weeks to see if it helps the rash then go off of it. If it comes back then he wants us to quit the new drink and see what happens. Today it does seem to be better so I am hoping it was just something viral. Over the weekend we did a food log of everything Tatum ate for three days and I sent it in to the dietitian so they could figure how many calories she is taking in. Well I heard back yesterday and they think she is "teetering on the low end of what she needs". Not really what I wanted to hear but I wasn't surprised. This week since Tatum has started drinking so much of the high calorie juice she doesn't seem to be eating well. Ya she is drinking the juice like they want but the idea was for her to continue what she had been eating plus the juice. meal times have not been pleasant this week and she is refusing more and more each day. Meal times have ran into 45 minutes and she still isn't done eating. This is all too familiar to us and is so frustrating and upsetting. We have been on so many different kinds nutritional drinks and every time she goes on them her food intake goes down. Therefore, really not making any progress. They have a goal weight for her to be at at the next weigh in next week and want her to be at 24.6lbs. We feel so helpless when she simply refuses to open her mouth or chew once she gets a bite in her mouth. That is something she does more often lately. I am sure things will improve but as far as her continuing to gain weight at a steady rate and get to where she should doesn't seem like reality. Don't get me wrong things are much better than they were at the end of last year but it is just on going and seems like meal time for her will always be a struggle.

We are glad it is Wednesday already and are getting packed up to go back to my (Tiff's) hometown this weekend. We don't make it back as often as we would like so we always look forward to it when things work out so we can. We are going to be watching my sister in a track meet on Saturday and also will get to visit some family we only get to see about once a year. We have made arrangements for our dogs to stay at a doggy hotel since that is usually the reason we don't go home often. We have two boxers and its not exactly easy traveling with two children and two boxers on the three hour venture back home. It is so much easier for them to go there and get to play with other dogs and us having peace of mind they are being taken care of and not tearing our house to pieces while we are gone. I am very anxious for the weekend to be here am hoping for a great finish to the week.

Depressing weekend

Actually nothing really happened that was depressing just the weather. It was so nice last week to have 70-80 degree temperatures. Then for it to rain all weekend with a high of around 50 degrees was not what we were hoping for. We didn't do a lot, just some garage sales, relaxing, and eating out. Oh, and how could I forget Scott's exciting time watching Huston Alexander practice. I told him next time I want to go and he can stay home and babysit. We also went today and got some new pictures taken of the girls. It has been quite a while since the last time so we decided it was time to get them done again. It is usually a dreaded thing since Tatum doesn't usually like to participate. Luckily she did great today. Not a lot of smiles but we are happy she at least sat and even posed a little bit. Keely did good up until the very end and she had had enough. I will post some of the better pics on here. Hope you enjoy them!

Tatum has been eating fairly good over the last few days and her weight was even up above 25 pounds last night. It does seem that she isn't eating quite as much as she was before we added the high calorie drinks. I expected that though as that is what usually happens when we add high calorie drinks to her meals. She drank the chocolate milk all weekend since that was all we had. Tomorrow we are suppose to get the juice I had to order from a local pharmacy and I expect she will do even better with that since she likes juice better than milky drinks. This week we will go to our pediatrician for Tatum's monthly penicillin injection and also a check up on her blood work from the parvo virus. Thank goodness it came out to be needing done on the same week so we don't have to make two trips. Overall Tatum seems to be doing well even though she is still limping sometimes worse than others but doesn't ever complain about it hurting so I guess that is a good thing.

Keely is doing great and ornery as ever. She sure is glad Tatum is better so she has someone to torment. She is really learning a lot of words right now and is surprising us everyday with new words or phrases. Her favorite one right now is "hold you". Although she wants everyone to hold her it isn't for long and she is bored and wanting down to look for more mischief. Keely has been healthy for the most part other than being diagnosed with asthma a few months ago. It really didn't surprise us since it runs in her birth family and seems to be hereditary. She is one of the happiest kids I have ever seen and brings so much excitement to our house!

WHAT A DAY!!!!!! (updated)

Update

Hey it's Tiff here and I thought I would add a little to Scott's post about what he was able to do yesterday. Scott and I love to watch MMA (mixed martial arts) fighting together and have for quite some time. The UFC is the world’s leading mixed martial arts sports association. It is just one of several companies that host MMA fights, kinda like there is the NFL in football. It is a fairly new sport to some and to tell the truth there are a lot of people who really don't care for it. MMA is basically a mixture of Boxing, Judo, Kickboxing, and Wrestling. It can be a very brutal sport to watch sometimes and some states do not allow fights to take place. A lot of the main event fights for the UFC take place in Las Vegas NV. Since Scott and I were married there and love to visit there we hope to someday be able to watch a live fight there. But, renting the fights on TV will have to do for now.

Original post
Wow, what a day. As I (Scott) sit here writing this post. I am still in awe of what I watched today. I was offered a chance to go watch Houston "The Assassin" Alexander in a sparring match today at a private event in Mick Doyle's Gym in Omaha today. If you don't know who that is I will try to best describe him, Houston Alexander is a UFC fighter originally from Omaha. He currently has a record of 8 wins 4 losses and 1 draw. He is a single father raising 6 kids and probably one of the nicest famous people I've ever met. Ok, he is the only famous person I have ever met but he really was nice. Our friend Alan picked me up at 11:30 to head to Omaha to pick up his nephews Evan and Andrew. Off to the gym we headed not knowing what to expect when we got there. Boy were we surprised. There were about 10 guys and 2 girls that train at the gym, ready and waiting to get into the ring with Houston to help him train for an upcoming fight on May 23 in Las Vegas. He started with 5 rounds at 1 minute per fighter. After the buzzer went off, another fighter climbed in and started sparring with him. After the 5 rounds he got a quick break and started 5 minute rounds with each fighter. After about an hour of sparring he went into another room for ground work ie. wrestling and Judo moves. I didn't get to see much as the other fighters were standing in the doorway watching as well. He worked in there for about an hour and finally hobbled out into the ring area when they finished. He looked like he had been hit by a freight train and a mack truck simultaneously. Alan and I were the last 2 spectators there and Houston called us over to him to talk about what he did that day. He was very nice and real comical about how he got worked over during his training. As he went off to shower and change Alan and I hung around hoping to get a photo with him before he left. I am so glad that we did. He came out of the shower and talked to as again for another 10 minutes or so and took a couple of pics with us before heading on his way. On the way home Alan and I talked about our day and how cool it was to meet Houston. He was as nice as they come and we wish him the best luck in his upcoming fight.

23.6 lbs

Our appointment today went as well as I could have expected. The team thinks Tatum has made a huge improvement since the last time we saw them all but still doesn't seem to be getting enough calories. She is taking in what seems to be a lot of food but she is also drinking a lot of ice water during the day. They want us to take the ice water away and only let her have high calorie drinks. She will take peidasure once in a while but nothing like what they want. We have tried instant breakfast and she doesn't do well with that either. There is a juice out there that is called resource breeze and it contains 250 calories per 8oz. box. They also recommended trying resource kids essentials which also comes in a little carton. Ideally they want her to drink three of these a day before we allow her any water. Sounds simple right? The bad thing is that she loves ice water and will ask for it over juice sometimes in the mornings but since she gets miralax daily we put it in her juice. Therefore she must drink her juice in the mornings and doesn't get down from the table until she does drink it. They gave us some samples today of both the juice and the other milky drink and she loved the peach breeze so far and we will try the berry flavor tonight. We will keep our fingers crossed that she will also like it. As far as Tatum's weight and where it should be she is in the 2 percentile right now and that is down from where she was last time we went in. The pattern on the chart seems to go up and down as it has since she was about 4 months old. After talking to the gastrointestinal doctor he thinks after a couple months and if she continues to go up and down on the charts she should get a more permanent feeding tube. From what I understand it would go directly into her stomach. This type of feeding tube would allow her to not have to have the tube in her nose and run across her face like the one before. We definitely hope that she will continue to eat well and will drink the high calorie drinks so she can stay on an upward path with her weight. I never want her to have to have the tube feedings again but if it is needed we would much rather the port in her stomach than the tube in her nose. Especially if she will need it for some time. If Tatum can stay well and out of the hospital I don't think there should be any problem with her gaining weight. The last two hospitalizations were a major set back for her and her weight. We will continue to call into the clinic every two weeks with her weight so they can track it as well. The psychologist also expects we will have some behavior issues when we don't allow the ice water anymore as the main source of her liquid intake. He has been so much help to us with Tatum's feeding issues and has always been available to give suggestions over the phone when certain issues come up. We are so thankful for that. Without him our mealtimes would still be a total nightmare. Overall I think the appointment went well and now we will just be working very hard to get as many calories in Tatum as possible. It is so hard to think someone can't take in enough calories to even maintain their weight when I have always worried about my weight and can't seem to cut out enough calories to lose any weight!

We hope everyone is enjoying the spring weather! I know we are. Now we are off to Scott's softball game.

What will the scale say tomorrow?

Tonight we are preparing for our trip to Tatum's feeding and growth appointment in Omaha tomorrow. When we have these appointments in Omaha it's usually a long day for me and the girls. Every time we go and come home totally exhausted I always say "I don't think I can do that on my own again." But we have made it so far and I don't doubt that can make it tomorrow. This is really an appointment that I am not looking forward to and just hope that the team of doctors are as optimistic as we are. Throughout the appointment we will see a gastrointestinal doctor, dietitian, occupational therapist, psychologist, and a nurse practitioner. During the appointment we stay in one room and all the different doctors take turns coming in to talk with us and see how Tatum has been doing over the last couple months. Then they all meet up and make suggestions as to how to proceed with Tatum's treatment. At the last appointment they decided that Tatum would start on a strict feeding regimen. To our surprise this is what Tatum needed to get her to eat. After many tests, blood work, and scans it was determined Tatum had no medical problem that was preventing her from eating it was all psychological. She was diagnosed as having a food aversion. I know it sounds weird and most people have never heard of it. But, it is very common and the clinic we go to takes 3-4 months to get an appointment at since they see so many cases of eating disorders in children. It was mind boggling to me. Anyone who has never been around a child with a food aversion simple can't understand that they will not eat. We had family members say "Just feed her!" It is so frustrating and makes you feel so hopeless when your child won't eat. It's not just about her not wanting to eat healthy food, she wouldn't even eat junk food! Her typical meal would consist of a couple teaspoons of what ever we were eating and then she would say she was done. She never got sick feeling from being hungry, never said she was hungry, and meal time was a total nightmare. Since implementing the the feeding plan things have totally turned around. She eats three meals a day now and about three times as much at each meal. She still doesn't really like junk food but has started to like Cheetos but not more than 6 or 7 at a time. When the new feeding plan started working almost immediately, it was so exciting. We had tried other things before and after a few days she went back to her old ways so we were also very cautious. Well after several weeks she continued to improve and hasn't turned back since. Sure there are days she won't eat as much and when she is sick or in the hospital she won't eat either. That is where we are running into problems. She has been hospitalized twice in the last month and a half and hasn't been able to maintain her weight because of it. Since being home she is back to eating great but is not gaining the weight back like we would hope for. We haven't had the feeding tube in for over a month now and our fear is that they will want her to have it put back in. If that is what she needs to continue to grow then that is what we will do. Lets just hope that tomorrow we get a good report and her weight is up at the appointment. At home it fluctuates a lot so it's hard to say what the scale will say tomorrow.

Our Laughter Lives....

This post is part of "Laughter Lives! Tuesday" on the Riggs Family Blog. Check our their blog to read everyone else's "Laughter Lives!" posts.

Some of you may or may not know but I (Scott) am a potty mouth when it comes to driving. I don't intentionally use bad words but more times than not they tend to slip out. I will say that I am trying to refrain from such words as Tatum is now 2 and a half going on 15 and very very smart. She picks up on the smallest things and notices EVERYTHING. Last night we were going to the grocery store and I was typically bothered by a few cars just putting around. As we approached a stop-light the car in front of me started to turn the corner when a sport motorcycle appeared and the car hesitated. I blurted out "Chicken S!@#) and from the back seat I hear (Chicken S!@#?) as if to ask who we were talking about. Tiff and I both tried to turn our head as to not let Tatum see us laughing and invoke a repeat of this word. Tiff quickly reprimanded Tatum telling her how that word was naughty and to not say that again. She also told Tatum to tell me how bad it was. Now fast forward to tonight. I had softball practice to prepare for a game Thursday night and was dog tired and hot afterwards. We decided to come home and eat a quick bite and then go walk around Holmes Lake on their hike and bike trail. Well there was no need for working out tonight as we decided to take our 2 dogs Briggz and Stratton for a walk as well and that was a workout in itself. Well after our walk we drove up to get some Sno-Cones. I ordered a Pina Colada and Tiff a Pink Bubblegum. We sat down for a few moments to enjoy our post walk desert with the girls. I offered a bite to Keely and without hesitation she gobbled it up. When I offered it to Tatum she turned her head and said no. I replied with calling her a chicken for not trying mine but eating all of Tiff's. To which Tatum replied "that's a bad word daddy." You would have thought it was his mother telling him that it was a bad word, she was so serious! I said "no, chicken is not a bad word, just how daddy used it last night" then she asked "Chicken Nugget" a bad word? I just about fell out of the booth laughing. We told her that chicken nuggets are what we eat and not a bad word. It's laughter like this we will never forget and will surly miss someday!

Busy weekend!

As you could probably tell by our post on Saturday we did get to go to Chuck E. Cheese this weekend. Tatum had been bugging us about going for about a month and every time we would think about going she would end up sick. We even considered waiting till next weekend but figured we better go while everyone felt good. The girls got to play some games, ride some rides, and had a great time. Mom and dad even got a workout while we were there chasing Keely across the restaurant several times. The weather was great and when we got done there we decided to go walk around one of the great parks in Lincoln and the girls played at the playground there too. All the activity Saturday was almost too much for Tatum and when we left the park she was limping pretty bad and needed carried. When we got home and everyone got ready for bed we decided we would work on Keely's hair for a while. Scott did a great job and we were able to get her whole head into box ponies. Hair is a whole other post so I won't go into details other than it looks great and we will try to finish it this week. Sunday we headed to Scott's little brothers birthday party about 15 miles away from where we live. His brother will be 6 this week and his other brother is 4. The girls had a great time playing and eating pizza and ice cream cake. It was even nice enough out to play on the swing set. I am sure some of you are wondering about his brothers being so much younger than him. Well, to make a long story short, Scott too is adopted. His birth mother and her husband now have two little boys and we get to see them every once in a while. When we left the party the girls were so tired. We didn't even hardly make it down the street and they were asleep. The rest of the day was just spent relaxing and gearing up for another week. Today Tatum and Keely played outside. Tatum seems to be walking better and better every day. I have yet to see her run but think it will not be long and she will be off and running again.

Scott works for BNSF and starting last week he has been taking some welding classes at the college here in Lincoln. The classes are part of his apprenticeship. His normal working hours are 7-3:30pm and while he is taking the classes for the next couple weeks he will just be working in the morning. The classes are in the afternoon so he is still home at his normal time. Between work and going to class he has been able to come home for lunch. The girls are so excited for him to come home. When Tate gets up in the mornings she asks "Where's daddy?" then "Is he coming home for lunch?" They sure will be disappointed when he isn't able to come home for lunch anymore. Maybe we will have to surprise him and take him lunch once in a while. We wish everyone a good week and will post later in the week. Tatum has her appointment with the feeding and growth team on Thursday so we will update on that too.

Your Gonna Miss This... Moment--CHAOS at Chuck E. Cheese..

I'm not sure how many of you have ever been to Chuck E. Cheese. If you haven't I'll try to describe it as best I can. It is basically organized chaos. Ten thousand toddlers and adolescents running on nothing but grease from the pizza and caffeine from the 10 different kinds of soda. Not to mention that the air conditioner is never on and it smells like dirty gym socks, well only by the jungle gym where kids discard their shoes to go and frolic with the rest of the little terrors. Just when you think the pandemonium there couldn't get any worse.....Who comes out from behind the stage but Chuck E. Cheese himself. Just imagine a mass of little ones running towards him like people trying to escape a tornado.... Oh wait that's kinda like what the floor looks like in the game area, as if a tornado hit it. All in all it really isn't that bad of a place to go and "lets your kids be kids." To see the delight on their faces when they play "skeeball" and the ball won't go quite all the way up the ramp and it comes back to them slowly. Or when they are riding in a "Bob the Builder" loader ride and smiling as if they are paving the way to a magical kingdom. Tatum loved to ride all the little kid rides and smiled from ear to ear until the ride was over then with the cutest face imaginable she said "nother one daddy." Keely was not happy when she was not being held or walked around holding our hands but was laughing hysterically when she was running a hundred miles an hour and would suddenly stop to see if anyone was chasing her. Were gonna miss all the times when the smallest things bring them so much happiness. These are the moments we will only remember in pictures and our minds. We will try to keep these images locked away until the next time we brave the utter disarray that is Chuck E. Cheese.

Today was a great day as Tatum is up and walking again! She does still have a limp and seems to keep her left leg straight when walking but is getting around and trying to keep up with Keely. When the pain medicine wears off you can tell because she holds onto stuff to help her get around where she wants to go. It seems she is finally getting back to her self again. Last night I was a little worried about her weight again. I knew she had lost some because her pants wouldn't stay up very good. Well when I finally got the nerve to put her on the scale she was down to 22.6lbs and she has been around 24-25 since having the feeding tube out. I was sick to my stomach and so worried she would have to have the feeding tube put back in. I just felt like I didn't want to tell anyone and hope that she can gain back some weight very quickly. We have to call in weekly to the feeding and growth team we see with Tatum's weight and since it has been staying between 24-25lbs they haven't been too concerned. Tonight we weighed her again and she was up to 23.6lbs so that was a relief to see. She ate like a horse today and I also have been adding real butter to any food I can to help add calories and it must have helped. We will have an appointment next week with the feeding and growth team to see how they think she is doing. We are hoping she eats very well all week and is back up to an acceptable weight by our appointment. Tatum's food aversion seems to be much better but she still will try anything to get our attention on anything other than feeding her. It seems we get her to gain some weight and then she gets sick with something and then loses what she gains and has become a vicious cycle over the last couple months. Also, we aren't suppose to let her drink a lot so she will eat but on the other hand she has to stay hydrated so she doesn't have a pain crisis. Its all become very frustrating and we hope it will all get better soon. All day today when Tatum would walk to me or I would look at her across the room walking she would say "look mom I am walking!" It was just as exciting for me as it was to her. Needless to say we are all ecstatic that she is back to walking on her own and hope the last of her symptoms will be gone in no time.

Good news!

Early this morning we headed off to the hospital so Tatum could get an MRI from the waist down to try and figure out why she hasn't been able to walk. It was a very early morning for both of us as we usually like to sleep in a little if Keely will allow it. Tatum went down for her MRI around 8am and I even got to stay with her until she was completely out of it from the anesthesia. As soon as she woke up I could hear her in the next room crying for mommy and then they came and got me. What a great sound to hear! She woke a little slower than the first time she was under anesthesia but once she was awake she was ready to go home and get Keely. We got home around noon and all she really wanted to do was lay around and doze off and on. By 1pm I got a call from our pediatrician with the results of the MRI. It has been determined that Tatum just has arthritis in her left hip joint that is caused by the parvovirus she has. You probably wonder why this is such great news since arthritis is so painful. Considering what other conditions it could have been causing all the pain we are pleased for it to just be the arthritis. The other possibilities seemed very serious and the treatments would have been tough. After talking with the doctor about this condition I am very relieved that this is not suppose to be permanent and should go away within 2-3 weeks. The treatment for now will be to just continue giving her ibuprofen every six hours until she is able to walk and can go without the pain medicine. Since she did have the parvovirus she will still need to have blood work done every other week for six weeks to make sure her body continues to go in the right direction and heals completely. This afternoon Tate took a long nap before going to get her sister Keely and its a good thing she did because Keely was ready to play and pester her sister as soon as she saw her. We are all glad to be back together finally and hope that life can get back to normal again. We would like to thank everyone who has been thinking about Tatum this week. Its nice to know so many people care about us and our little girls. We feel so lucky to know each and every one of you.. THANK YOU!

comments?

I wasn't sure if anyone had tried to leave a comment but I have since changed the settings so now anyone should be able to leave comments. We would love to hear any feed back about the blog and if anyone has questions that we haven't gone over we would love to try and answer them.

Third adoption

As I said in my last post we are beginning the adoption process again. We have hired the same worker to do our new home study update that did the first home study and second update. We are planning on being approved by the end of April or beginning of May. Really the hold up right now is that we just went last Friday and got our finger prints done. The results of these can take several weeks to get back. We are also working on getting local police checks, employer reference, and statements from the girls and our primary physicians. We also have to have three references fill out what seems like a book about how they know us, how we parent, and if they think we would be good parents for another child. Since all of the health issues have come up with Tatum we really aren't in a huge hurry but want to be approved if we were to find out about a situation that we are interested in. Since the waits for our first two adoptions were so short we really have to be prepared for anything. A couple months ago I contacted the social worker who we worked with in KC for our second adoption just to let her know we were thinking about adopting again. In a matter of a week she told me about two different situations of baby boys that were already born. But at the time we weren't approved to adopt so there really wasn't anything we could do. People have asked if we want a boy and the answer is YES we would love to have a little brother for the girls. When we applied to adopt the second time we had actually specified that we wanted to adopt an African American boy but it seemed to get over looked and we are thankful it did. We were chose by Keely's birth mother to be her parents and feel her choosing us was just meant to be. We will specify again that we are hoping to adopt an African American boy and see what happens. For our first two adoptions they were agency adoptions which means we worked with an agency who coordinated everything. Agency adoptions can get very expensive so this time we are going to try and do a private adoption. Private adoption is when you work on your own to find a birth mother who is looking to place their child for adoption. Some people advertise in papers or online. We are going to first try and work with a couple attorneys. Attorneys are usually much more affordable than an agency since the attorney is the one you have to pay. Also attorneys sometimes work with hospitals, clinics, and high schools and when some of these places have someone who is considering adoption they will refer them to an attorney. Also when trying to do a private adoption it is a good idea to get the word out to anyone you know to let them know you want to adopt in case someone knows someone. So we are letting everyone who reads this know our intent to adopt again and hope you will keep us in your thoughts. If this process becomes too overwhelming or frustrating we would consider also working with the agency we worked with for Keely's adoption as they had very reasonable fees and were great to work with. I will continue to keep you all up to date on what is going on with the third adoption when something new happens.

On another note, Tate seems a little better today and has walked a couple steps holding onto something. I main problems seems to be her left leg. It's hard to tell if its in her knee or hip joint but it defienatly isn't right yet. Hopefully we will have answers tomorrow after the MRI or early Friday. Keely is doing great I am told and when I told Scott last night that grandma said Keely has been so good he asked "Are you sure she was talking about Keely?" Keely is so full of energy and ornery, she never sits still and is always just looking for the next thing she can get into. I think she is so good when she is away because she has no one to torment. We are very anxious to get her back and know that the grandma's will be needing some R & R after keeping up with her for the last couple days! I just have to tell you, this morning at breakfast Tate said "Lets go get Keely." I was a little shocked but just confirmed that the girls do love each other but don't always have the best way to show it.

Quiet days...

Since Keely has been gone things have been so quiet and I keep thinking "gosh I wonder what Keely is doing, she sure is being quiet." But have to remind myself she is not here. I talked to my mom today and Keely is doing great and having fun with everyone. Tatum is still not walking today. She is crawling around a little bit more and has put some weight on her legs but not taken steps on her own. She is still eating well and we are thankful for that so she can continue on without her feeding tube.

I have been wanting to do some writing about our adoptions and since things are quiet today I thought today would be a good day. When Scott and I decided that we wanted to adopt we had no idea what a challenge it would be and all that would be involved. For our first adoption we worked with an agency in Omaha who networked with many agencies around the U.S. Since we lived so far from Omaha they hired someone in our area to come and do our home study. A home study is required for any adoption no matter what so that was the start of the whole process. We started the process of our first adoption in July of 2006 and after all the paperwork and meetings we had to attend our home study was approved in November of that year. Once you have an approved home study then you are approved to adopt. The last step was for us to create an adoption profile and it includes information about us that will be shown to birth families wanting to place their child for adoption. In it we included information about us, where we live, our openness to different race children, and also a dear birth parent letter. We also included many photos to give birth families a little insight into our lives. Our profile was approved in December and we got the call about Tatum three days later. The first call we got was to see if we wanted our profile shown for this baby and we were given all the details they could about her. The next day we got the call that the agency had chose us to be Tatum's parents. I can't even explain the feeling that we had, it was the most exciting day with tons of emotions. We traveled to Mississippi a week later and got to meet Tatum for the first time. We had to wait the weekend in Mississippi and went to court on Monday to get temporary custody. Then we had to stay for a couple extra days for ICPC to go through. ICPC is required for adoptions that go across state lines. It is a bunch of documents that have to be approved by both our state (Nebraska) and Mississippi and takes varying amounts of time depending on the states involved. We were able to finalized Tatum's adoption a couple months later and didn't have to return to do this. When Tatum was about 1 we decided we wanted to keep our home study up to date and had it updated. Home studies are only good for one year then they have to be updated. We decided for our second adoption we would work on our own and research agencies ourselves. In December we finally decided to work with an agency in KS who also network with many different agencies in MO. In February of 2008 we got a call and said we had been chosen by a birth mother who had a baby girl who was 6 weeks old. This was another great day and we were so excited for Tatum to have a baby sister. We traveled to Kansas City MO at the end of the week and had to go to court again. We had planned on staying the weekend because we figured ICPC wouldn't be approved until the next week. Surprisingly we got a call on that Friday evening saying our ICPC had been approved and we could go home. What a relief and I think a record for ICPC approved.

With two children that are 14 months apart there are times that are challenging but way more that so enjoyable. We love that they are so close though and hope they will be the best of friends someday. They have so much fun together most of the time and its great seeing them learn together. Now that the girls are 2 1/2 and almost 16 months we are beginning the adoption journey again...

Still no answers

Today we took Tatum to the doctor because she still will not walk. Other than the pain she is in when she is trying to stand she doesn't seem to have any. She is now only taking the ibuprofen and hasn't needed the narcotics since yesterday afternoon. We did find out that Tatum has or had Parvovirus B19 which is also called Fifths disease sometimes. When we were in the hospital the doctors were suspicious that she may have this since she just had a pain crisis not even a month ago and didn't expect her to have another one so soon. They did the blood work for this test last week but it has to be sent away to be tested and the results just came back today. They are thinking that she got the Parvovirus B19 first and it caused her to have another sickle cell pain crisis. The Parvovirus B19 can cause a lot of problems for someone with a compromised immune system or blood disorders like Tatum has. We are told that the Parvovirus B19 makes your bone marrow quit working and she will now have to have blood drawn every other week for 6 weeks to make sure her marrow continues to improve. The blood work done today did show improvement from when we left the hospital but one of the markers was very high making the doctor suspicious. They are also consulting with our hematologist in Omaha since he sees this kind of stuff more often. Tatum will have an MRI on Thursday to see if she has a bone infarct or osteomyelitis. They think one of these may be causing her severe pain in her legs. Both of these are common in people with sickle cell disease. Since Tatum is so young and probably won't sit for this test she will be put under anesthesia. Since it will be an early morning at 6am and a long day we decided it would be best for Keely to go stay a few days at her grandmas. We are going to miss her so much and its going to be a very quite couple days. But, we need to figure out why Tatum can't walk so she can get better and her and her sister can play and fight like sister's again!

Normal life

Well as I sit here and type this Tatum is still sleeping and hasn't woke for pain medicine all night. Very exciting. We have found in the short two and a half years we have had Tatum that you never know what is going to happen. We must be prepared for anything when it come to her health. She has been hospitalized 7 times since she was born and all for various reasons. The last two visits seem to be due to the sickle cell pain crisis. Once she was admitted for dehydration as she use to get high unexplained fevers. Once for a positive blood culture, and twice for problems with her stomach being bloated up and a lot of abdominal pain. Just last December she was in the hospital for extensive testing to find out why she didn't gain weight good and was so small. She also had a feeding tube put in at this stay. They finally determined that she didn't have anything medically wrong, just a food aversion. For me it is hard to believe that an infant can have an eating disorder but with the help of a great psychologist things have turned around and she has been eating great until the hospital stay. We also were able to remove the feeding tube about three weeks ago. The feeding tube was a great thing for her as she had a huge growth spurt and has been able to maintain that weight so far. If things start going in the other direction then we will have to put the feeding tube back in. Lets hope that isn't the case. Tatum has been through so much and it is heart breaking to see her have to go through more than most people go through their whole lives. But she is very strong and very brave and handles things great. When we were in the ER one night she got blood drawn and then said "No more pokes?" and I told her she had one more. That is when she asked "Am I getting an IV?" She is very smart and knows what is going to happen to her and we explain it all to her very well. She is also very cooperative when we are in the hospital by lifting her arm for temp checks, putting her leg up when they want to do blood pressure, and taking oral meds like a champ. When we adopted her we knew that she had sickle cell and that she may be sick a lot but it didn't matter we knew we would love her anyway. Things do get crazy and busy sometimes but this is our life and we love it no matter what. We would never change anything about it and will adjust to whatever happens.

What's going on?

Well we have now been home two days and things aren't exactly back to normal yet. After we got home from the hospital Tatum started not wanting to walk and complaining about her legs hurting. Well it has just gotten worse and she won't walk at all without crying and keeping her legs completely straight, just moving her hips. I talked to the nurse at the doctors office today and she thought it was maybe just some sore muscles from being in bed for so many days. Sounded good but I got to thinking that she is on so much pain medication still that it should be taking care of the pain. So if things are still like this Monday we will be going back to the doctor to have some testing done. I guess I really never thought about what it would be like to have a child that is not mobile but it is so sad and definitely challenging. All Tatum has talked about this week is going to Chucky Cheese and the plan was to go this weekend when she was better so it was very dissapointing for all of us to not be able to go tonight. My sister Haley is here for the weekend and we are also doing respite care. We are enjoying being home and trying to get rested and relax since we have done neither of those in the last week.

Have a great Easter everyone!

Finally home!

Tuesday night after we got admitted and into our room we expected to have a great night since the IV pain medications usually do wonders with Tatum's pain. Well things didn't go as planned and during the night she got a fever of 102.6 and the morphine just wasn't cutting the pain enough to get her to sleep good so needless to say I also didn't sleep. On Wednesday morning the doctors added another pain medication to help get Tatum comfortable and it worked great. She also was started on IV antibiotics because of the high fever that wouldn't go down. When we learned on Wednesday that Tate's hemoglobin had dropped around 7 they decided that she needed a blood transfusion. That seemed to help her pain quite a bit and put her in a good mood that evening. We have never been so happy to hear her being silly and actually being more like herself. The blood transfusion seemed to be all she needed to make the turn in the right direction. Her hemoglobin came up closer to normal and there wasn't as much need for pain medication through the night. Today counts were up even more and we decided this morning to try and switch to oral pain medication to see if we could make the transition and maybe get to come home. I knew this morning when she told me that she wanted to go play things were looking up. As the day went on she did fine on the oral medication and we got to come home this evening. What a great feeling to be home. So far we have had to stay right on top of the medication and will probably try to go longer between doses tomorrow if she can tolerate it.

Another late night....

Well as I sit and write this post it is well beyond when I normally would be sleeping. Tonight we had to take Tatum back to the hospital due to her pain crisis showing its ugly head again...As of this afternoon our ped. dr. said that if she had pain again just go to the ER and they will admit you. Well there must have been some confusion, no wait, there was no communication whatsoever. Our dr said "go right in" the on-call dr. for our clinic said "tatum must be seen in ER first." Well 3 hours later we finally got upto our cozy room in pediatrics. New pain meds and a bag of IV fluids will do wonders with a sick girl's spirit.. Hopfully she wont have to stay too long, as long as she can go longer between medicine times then we could probably treat her at home with Tylenol and Ibuprofen but till then she is a guest at the hospital...One funny thing happend today though in the midst of all this chaos... I (Scott) came home for lunch today and the first thing Tatum said was " I go to Chuck E Cheese" Her grandma Jeannie sent her some $$ to spend at Chuck E Cheese and she was adamant about going. I told her to drink her juice during lunch and she then replied "Then I go to Chuck E Cheese!!!) Kids don't ya just love em

In case you were wondering...

Here is a good explanation of sickle cell disease.

What is sickle cell disease?

Sickle cell disease is the name of a group of inherited blood disorders that is characterized by chronic anemia, periodic episodes of pain and other complications.
The disease affects the red blood cells. Sickle cell disease results when red blood cells make mostly hemoglobin S instead of the normal hemoglobin A. Normal red blood cells are smooth, round and soft; their shape and softness enable them to move easily through the blood vessels to carry oxygen to all parts of the body.
In sickle cell disease, the abnormal hemoglobin S causes the red blood cells to become hard, pointed and sticky and shaped like crescents or sickles. When these hard and pointed red cells go through the small blood vessels, they often get stuck and block the vessels. They also stick to and damage the lining of larger blood vessels. The damaged vessels become scarred, narrowed and sometimes completely closed. The blockage of blood flow through blood vessels can lead to pain, stroke and damage to many organs.
Sickle cells also break up too easily and survive for only 10 to 20 days compared to 120 days for normal red blood cells. The rapid destruction of sickle cells leads to anemia — a shortage of red blood cells and hemoglobin. It becomes difficult for the body to make new red blood cells fast enough to keep up with the needed supply.


Infections


Infections are a major complication of sickle cell anemia. In fact, pneumonia is the leading cause of death in children who have sickle cell anemia. Other common infections linked to sickle cell anemia include meningitis, influenza, and hepatitis.

If a child who has sickle cell anemia shows early signs of an infection, such as fever, seek treatment right away.

To prevent infections in babies and young children, treatments include:
Daily doses of penicillin. Treatment may begin as early as 2 months of age and continue until the child is at least 5 years old.

All routine vaccinations (such as a yearly flu shot) plus the meningococcal vaccine. Adults who have sickle cell anemia also should have flu shots every year and get vaccinated for pneumonia.


Eye Damage

Sickle cell anemia can damage the blood vessels in the eyes. Parents should ask their child's doctor about regular checkups with an eye doctor who specializes in diseases of the retina. The retina is a thin layer of tissue inside the back of the eye. Adults who have sickle cell anemia also should have regular checkups with an eye doctor.

Strokes
Stroke prevention and treatment is now possible for children and adults who have sickle cell anemia. Starting at age 2, children who have sickle cell anemia often get routine ultrasound scans of their heads. This is called transcranial Doppler ultrasound. These scans are used to check blood flow in the brain.
The scans allow doctors to find out which children are at high risk for a stroke. These children are then treated with routine blood transfusions. This treatment has been found to greatly reduce the number of strokes in children.

Treating Other Complications

Acute chest syndrome is a severe and life-threatening complication of sickle cell anemia. Treatment usually requires hospitalization and may include oxygen, blood transfusions, antibiotics, pain medicine, and checking the body's fluids.


How is sickle cell disease treated?

The goals of treatment are to prevent infections, relieve pain, and prevent or control complications. Infections are the leading cause of death in sickle cell disease. Pain attacks are the leading cause of emergency room visits and hospitalizations.


Because infections may lead to death, special measures are taken to prevent or reduce the severity of infections. This includes twice-daily penicillin for children for at least the first five years of life, special vaccines, and aggressive evaluation and treatment when patients develop fever or other signs of infection.

Vaccinations against certain dangerous bacteria (pneumococcus, haemophilus influenza type B, and meningococcus) and viruses (hepatitis B and influenza) are especially important for people with sickle cell disease. Blood transfusions are used to treat some acute complications and to prevent the occurrence or recurrence of other complications. Children who have had a stroke or are at high risk for initial stroke are given blood transfusions on a regular and long-term basis to prevent stroke.


Pain is most often treated with acetaminophen, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (also known as NSAIDs) and opioids, which are the strongest pain medications and include substances such as morphine, oxycodone and hydrocodone.

Long night

Just wanting to update everyone on our oldest daughter Tatum. She has sickle cell disease and had her very first pain crisis last month. We felt very fortunate that this was the first we had seen of the sickle cell. But last night Tatum started complaining of her stomach hurting and it progressed into her screaming in pain for about two hours. We decided to take her into the ER to see what was going on. Well after some time waiting Tatum started complaining about her hands and legs hurting and I knew that the stomach pain must be related to the sickle cell. After labs, x-rays, and and ultrasound was done they determined it was in fact a pain crisis and she was treated with morphine and a bolus of IV fluids. After talking to the doctor we decided we would come home and try to manage the pain at home. She did finally sleep this morning a couple hours and woke still in some pain but nothing we can't handle. She is getting Tylenol with codeine and ibuprofen through out the day and until the pain continues. If he gets where we can't control it with those meds we will be admitted to the hospital to be put back on the morphine as it seems to do the best at controlling the pain. There is nothing we can do to make the red blood cells to stop sickling so we just have to keep the fluids up and pain medication going and that is about it to the treatment. It is so hard seeing her in so much pain and not be able to make it all better. Last time we were in the hospital with this all she could say was "kiss it". That was heart breaking to not be able to make it all better. Both girls are resting right now so hopefully I can get a little rest too. I'll keep you updated and hope the day only gets better.

Those moments

Do you ever have those moments when you look at your child and you think, Where in the world did they come up with that? At supper tonight Tatum our oldest decided to speak her mind. Her verbal outburst included that following topics, pizza, Chuckie Cheese, and a slurry of other words that were so jumbled that they were near inaudible. Tiff and I just sat there laughing trying to figure out where that all came from. I guess what I am trying to say is pay attention to the little things that your children say, they may not always make sense but you will have laughs to last you a lifetime..

Post number 1.....

After reading a few blogs and following them everyday we decided to start one of our own so that family, friends, and people from afar could read about our daily trials and tribulations. My wife and I met on July 3rd in 1999 and married in June of 2001. Myself being adopted, we decided to also enter into the world of adoption. Through this journey we have been blessed with 2 of the most beautiful daughters that we could ever ask for. Tatum came to us in December of 2006 when she was 8 weeks old. Keely joined our family at 6 weeks in February of 2008. So, just sit back and enjoy the ride, we know we have......