Anytime that Ri can find something to put his little body in, he does. He cracks me up.

We have been blessed by so many people throughout the adoption of Elizabeth and Ri. Sometimes I want to share with you all the details, but often choose not to for fear that others might feel they need to do the same thing or for fear of sharing something I shouldn't. So, I have kept much between us, the Lord and the precious family or individual who God used to bless us. In this case, though, I wanted to share with you what we have done with the generous gift that Mark's coworkers gave us for Ri. We have never had a playroom for any of our kids. As we began accumulating items for the little ones and as we began to focus on my need to begin working on their "education", we started trying to figure out how to make them a playroom. This is the result. We took the room the computer is in, took out the couch and piano, put in an entertainment center with a tv/vcr for Barney, Sesame Street and the like, and began figuring out how to "decorate". With the gift from his coworkers, we were able to purchase the flooring and several wonderful books, videos, and learning tools (garage sales are priceless when it comes to little kids toys and books!). The kids absolutely love it! Even the older ones do.... Erin actually wants us to rip up her carpeting so that she can have it in her bedroom :). She cracks me up! So, this is the result. Knowing me, I am not done with it, but I wanted to post a picture or two for you to enjoy. Since this picture, I have taken down the picture that was up before and have begun placing the kids artwork up. That picture is below.

This is with some of the artwork beginning to be put up on the walls.


This is a birds eye view from our beautiful daughter, Elizabeth. She LOVES taking pictures!

What can I say... I just love this picture of my beautiful little girl.

Well, I seem to have slacked off this past week. I guess time has just gotten away from me. So, this morning, I thought that I might catch you up a bit. My good friend mentioned that she read about Elizabeth's EEG but I didn't post much about it. Sorry about that! Yes, she had an EEG done last Monday. We hope to have results this week. We are not expecting anything to show up, but the doctor was pretty insistent that we have one done. For those of you who have no idea what an EEG is, it is a test done on the brain. They are testing her to find out if her seizures truly are as a result of fevers or if there is something else going on. I am not sure if I posted how the test actually went for her, but I think I will share it again even if I did. You see, for me, it was a small miracle. Elizabeth generally freaks out when it comes to some unknowns. In this case, I figured she would freak out at just being in an exam room with things on her head. We were told that she had to be sleep deprived so that she would sleep at least 20 minutes during the test. Ha ha! How do you sleep deprive a 2 year old who has an hour drive??? And then, how on earth will my 2 year old ever sleep in an exam room with things attached to her head and in a papoose!!?????? Boy did I have a challenge ahead of me. And to top it off, I had forgotten her blanket. Ugh.

But, God is so faithful. If ever I saw the hand of God, it was during this exam. I don't mean that lightly in anyway. I am convinced that God gave me the idea to go to COSI a few hours before the exam. I have never thought of it before. So, 20 minutes after it came to my mind, we were out the door. I took the boys and Emily kept Ri for me. We went early enough in the morning so that it wasn't too difficult to keep Elizabeth awake. AND, COSI is just 5 minutes from Children's, so it was easy for me to keep her awake then too. We played hard at COSI. When we got to Children's, Elizabeth showed absolutely no sign of sleepiness. The appointment was at 2:00 which was good, because that is her general nap time. As soon as they called us in, she walked straight back... until the nurse turn to go into the room. IT was then Elizabeth started freezing up. She stopped and looked at me with a pa nick in her eyes. I figured it would be a long 2 hours. A cartoon was playing on the tv, so I distracted her a little. We found out the nurse had Barney, so once the nurse left to get it, I held Elizabeth and kept reassuring her that they would not hurt her. Then I found out she had to be strapped into a papoose. Ugh. There was no way that Elizabeth would let us do that! Well, the time had come to strap her in. Barney was playing. I told Elizabeth to lay down on the bed (papoose). She began to fight me, but I reassured her that I would lay with her. So, I laid right down with her. The nurse decided that she would try the pappoose without strapping down her arms. After some hesitation, Elizabeth laid down and relaxed with my arms laying over top of her and holding her hand. Then came the fun part. The nurse was going to glue 25 or electrodes onto her head. What do you think? Would your 2 year old lay still for that??? I was told that she would have to use a specific glue because of her age. Well, God was so good! Elizabeth was laying so still and not fighting one bit that the nurse decided to try using just the paste instead of the stronger glue. Can you believe it??.... she laid there and allowed the nurse to color on her head, wash each spot and "attach" each electrode to her head? Wow! Then she had to sleep for at least 20 minutes. Yep, you guessed it. She fell right to sleep just as the last electrode was in place. She slept for the 20-30 minutes of testing. Then she had to be woke up for the last bit so that she was awake during that. If any of you do not know, Elizabeth wakes up horrible, even when she is rested. But to give her only 30 minutes of sleep on a sleep deprived day is nuts. She was going to scream like they hadn't heard before. Yep, you guessed it again.... she opened her eyes, looked at me, looked around the room, felt her head, and then just laid still the entire time. She finished watching Barney. Then the nurse removed every wire and even washed her head. Yes, there is no doubt in my mind, it was a God thing. The nurse was amazed. She rarely ever uses the paste on 2 year olds.

So, that is the EEG. I hope to know something this week and will post it when I do. But onto today. Today, Ri has his cardiologist appointment. It has been a long awaited event for me. I will post what we find out either tonight or tomorrow. Please pray for him as he goes through the testing and that the results are good.

For those of you who are prayer warriors, please pray for our good friends. They were in the process of adopting again and discovered that they are expecting.... twins! They actually were expecting triplets, but the third baby did not survive. She is in her first trimester and the lives of the twins are in danger. She is experiencing some complications. Please pray for these precious babies.

Well, I need to begin waking kids up. It is a long day of doctor appointments. Ri and Elizabeth are both doing wonderfully. It is hard for us to believe we have only been home 5 1/2 weeks. It seems like Ri has always been with us.