I have a moment to myself, so.. let's blog!

We have been home for 12 days and I just can't seem to get more then 2 minutes at the computer without having a little one pulling or screaming at me. So I haven't been able to keep everyone posted. Hang on, I have much to write. No pictures for now, though; just thoughts.

I am confident that we are all completely over jet lag, but I am not so confident that we (or maybe I should say me) have adjusted to our new life. I have to praise God, at the top of my lungs, for His perfect timing. We came home and the kids had one day left of school. I can't imagine living life with these 2 little ones without my 4 older ones! They have been a true gift to me. Mark has been too. I am so worn out, emotionally, that it is hard for me to get it all done. Everyone has picked up the slack and pitched in watching Ri or Elizabeth. It has been a blessing for me.

Why is it so hard on me? Well.. I think it is because Elizabeth is having such a hard time adjusting. For the first week, she was just plain exhausted. To take a 2 year old out of the country and her home for 16 days, turn her night and days around .. not only once, but twice, live in 3 different hotels, travel on 7 different airplanes, and then become a little sister to a bigger/ little brother is very difficult. Her life has been turned upside down. She was exhausted. And when Elizabeth is tired, everyone knows about it and mom is the only answer to EVERY tear... and boy are there tears!!!! So, for the first week, I understood and was pretty sympathetic. Well, we are on day 12 and the tears are still very, very frequent and very, very loud and very, very long. Now, I am attributing it to her being so sick. I just can't wait until she is back to normal to see if this is ALL jealousy or just jealousy that she can't handle due to exhaution and illness.

Sick? Well, do I have a story to share with you! If you followed our blog last time, you might remember when Elizabeth officially fit into our family. You see, our family is known for not being "normal" when it comes to illnesses. In 2005, Erin lost her short term memory, Emily had meningitis, and Sam was literally staked to the ground. That kind of sums up our family perfectly. We just don't do things normal. And... as you read the blog, China was no different with Jacob literally passing out on us. So when Elizabeth seizured and we had to call the squad 3 months after she came home, we figured it was just her way of trying to offically become a Miller :)

Well, Monday was interesting and exciting. We took Ri to the adoption clinic on Friday to have him evaluated. We figured that they are very accustomed to international kids. After talking with our family doctor, he agreed it would be a good idea. They did tons of blood work (over 25 tests), stool samples, TB test, and physical evaluation and nutritionist. We scheduled an appt at Children's Hospital for a reading of his TB test, dropping off the stool samples, and an exam by a physchiatrist and hearing/vision screening. They are very thoruough. Well, over the weekend, I noticed a spot on Ri's arm. At first I wondered what it was from, then I remembered the TB (tuberculosis) test. Yikes. What I knew pointed to a positive TB test. We didn't know for sure, but were pretty confident it meant a positive. Now what? We looked up all kinds of scarey things on the internet (the internet is soooo dangerous!). All we could think of was his health (the fears of it), then we couldn't help but fear for our kids because we knew they had all shared forks/spoons/cups... all that kind of stuff, then all the people he had been in contact with. TB is highly contageous (at least that is what we read and have since found out). So, we were very, very anxious to get to the doctor and have them read the test and do a chest x-ray on him.

Monday was the day. I woke up anxiously waiting to get ot Children's for the exam. Elizabeth woke up and was enjoying her morning milk watching a video. I had taken a moment to type something on the blog (I think). I heard some funny noise and ran into the other room to discover Elizabeth in a full blown seizure. This is her 3rd episode. The first 2, I called the squad. This one, I screamed for Emily to wake up. Poor Emily! It was 6:01 in the morning and she woke up to me screaming "I need you". I saw Elizabeth through the first seizure and actually kept calm. She came out of it, but not completely with it. She screamed and screamed in pain and tightened up a lot, gasping once in a while for air and continually grinding her teeth. I called the doctors office to see if the screaming and grinding of teeth indicated anything out of the ordinary and should she be seen. They told me to go ahead and take her to the hospital. In the meantime, we had to wake up Ri and the others. She did some "mini" type seizures in my arms. Not full blown, but intense grinding of her teeth and tightening her arms and body up against me. The kids worked together and Emily and I hopped into the van (I think Ri was with us too). We headed to the hospital and she came out of it. I thought she was fine, so 10 minutes into the trip, I had Emily turn around. We drove about 2 miles or so and Elizabeth started into a mini type thing again, so we turned around. She stopped and seemed ok, so we turned back to go home. About 3-4 miles later, she started moving her body as if convulsing, only to throw up all over me and the van. Turn around again! Well, this time Emily threatened me and said she wasn't turning home. Well, after throwing up, she was fine. She seemed back to herself. So we decided that we would head home. We went back in forth simply because we knew the seizure was due to fever and we knew she would be fine. We also knew Ri's arm had to be read and we HAD to have answers about TB. I figured that we would be at Children's and if I needed Elizabeth seen, I would do it then. Just as we decided to go to Children's instead of our hospital (Childrens is an hour drive), Elizabeth literally closed her eyes and fell against me. Now we sat trying to figure out if she passed out or just collapsed in exhaustion from the seizure. Poor Emily. I was making my 16 year old help me make decisions on Elizabeth's health. Poor thing! Well, I was pretty confidetn it was tiredness, so we went home. We got home, I changed clothes and we headed for Children's. My 16 years old driver at the wheel, and me dangerously holding Elizabeth for fear of her seizuring again. We headed into Columbus rush hour traffic.... again.. poor Emily! It was a very crazy morning. ON the way, Elizabeth woke up, threw up on me again, and then fell back to sleep. She woke up happy when we hit the hospital. You would have never known anything had happened.

Once at the doctors, Ri was confirmed to have a positive TB. We were then sent to x-ray. God is so faithful. We had been praying that his TB would not be the disease and not in his chest. We were so fearful of having exposed so many people. Our precious son has TB in what is called the latent stage. He is NOT contageous. It is the infeciton and not the disease. Someone who has the disease has probably coughed on him and infected him. God answered our prayers. Ri is safe and so is everyone else who has loved him already! He now has to take 9 months of medication in order to make sure that the infection never becomes the disease. It will be a long 9 months, but oh how thankful I am for the medicine and that we have adopted him. I sat back and thought of what would happen to ourlittle guy if he was still in the orphanage. Would it ever had been discovered? Would he ever have been treated? Or, would it have become the full blown disease and his life be taken? God is so good. I praise Him!

Well, since I began this blog, Elizabeth has woke up and screamed for 45 minutes. She has finally fallen asleep again. Please pray for her. After Ri's appointement, we took her into the Dr. Each time, in the past, when she has gotten a cold and/or seizured, it has become pneumonia within 2 days. I was trying to catch it before it headed that direction. But, Monday, she checked out just fine. Today, we were back at the doctors. She has mucuous in her lungs and appears to have bronchitis. Poor thing. The past month has been tough on her little body.

I need to sign off for now. Pray for Emily. She is whitewater rafting tomorrow with her youth group. This mama has a tough time knowing her daughter is on a raging river! She is in His hands, but, admittedly, I will rest better when she is in mine :). I can see mine, though I KNOW His are the only ones that are strong!