Session 2: Day 2

Today has definitely been a "torn between two worlds" kind of day.  Jackson ended up with a fever in the night last night again so we scrambled to try to get him to the doctor today.  He couldn't be seen by his regular doctor so we got an appointment at another one and then found out they don't take our insurance.  Jack ended up having to leave work and take him to urgent care.  His fever was 103.7 when they got there and his poor scratchy sad voice was just about more than I could bear today.  Turns out that he tested positive for the flu.  Boo for that and boo for the fact that it pretty much means none of them will be able to come and visit us this weekend for fear that they will pass it to Laila.  The two big kids NEVER get sick so I just can't believe that it's him.  I am thankful that he got it after we left but so torn to want to be with him but can't.  Stinks.

Up here on the Michigan front however things are amazing.  I was able to be in the classroom with Laila this afternoon and she just jumped right back in and is doing GREAT.  She got two bravos today for two successful trips to the potty!  One of her successes was while I was there and it may be TMI but that potty was FULL!  She was also able to sit on the potty all by herself while I read her a story and normally I can't get her to sit by herself.  She also has eaten all of her lunch and snacks both days so far.  She ate a whole jar of baby food, drank close to 8 oz of juice and ate 1.5 cheetos today!  I sat amazed with her at lunch watching her sit by herself in her chair (regular chair, not wheelchair), hold on the to the bar with one hand for balance and feed herself with the other hand.  I told the girls that I was amazed because we can barely get her to eat more than a few bites at home these days and she basically never eats at school back home.  They had just assumed she had been eating well since she was when we left 6 months ago so they didn't mention it to me yesterday. 

The other thing that is so fun is that I got to sit with her in circle time and see the absolute difference in her language and participation.  She's calling the other kids by name and speaking up when it's her turn to play the "who stole the cookie" game.  I really think that being in preschool this year and having such a great speech therapist back home have made her vocabulary just soar this past six months.  She was also sitting up so well on the floor with just having a foam semi-circle behind her. 

I'm so happy that she can be back here and is doing so well.  Hoping that it continues!!  Tonight we're off to go to a meeting for the riverbank run.  I'm excited to see what it's all about and I was asked to speak to the group and tell them about our team coming up from Indiana and tell them about Laila, CLC and why we're motivated by them.  There is also going to be someone from WOTV that is going to tell us about nutrition. Should be pretty neat :)

Thanks for reading with us and please keep Jackson in your prayers!  Now that I mention that, please also keep a little girl named McKenna in your prayers.  Her mom is staying here at RMH and gave me permission to share that she is having a last effort brain surgery on Friday that the doctor says he's 99% positive won't work.  She's only 1 :(  Please pray for them as well.

Thanks!

Session Two: Day One

Today was a success!  We started out with no vomit (miraculous!) and as you can see in the picture she was in a pretty good mood.  She sat content in her bumbo watching Mickey while I finished getting myself ready.
We got to CLC and she didn't seem to remember the outside and then when she got inside and saw her conductors she got a very serious face.  She stayed that way for awhile and then Andrea came and asked her if she was happy to be back at school and she just looked at her and said "my chair."  Andrea said "I asked you a question, are you happy to be back at school?"  Laila thought then said "no."  HA!  That girl is so funny.  So Andrea told her that attitude won't do and went on her way.  I do LOVE how much the "get" Laila.  I love the way that they speak to her and wait and expect her to respond because she truly can even though she fools most people by pretending she can't.

There are like 13 kids in her class this time!  Whoa!  I think the most there were last time was 6 or 7.  I love it because that is one of the big parts of her gaining confidence is being able to see all these other kids like herself and know that if they can accomplish things then it's possible for her too.  Because of the size of the class, parents are not all staying in the classroom for the first week like I did last time.  I will be in the classroom tomorrow afternoon and Thursday morning.  I'm fine with this because Laila really does better without me there.  I was in and out of the school today because I had a conference about our goals and every time I walked past her classroom I heard no crying!  Woohoo!  They only time I actually heard her cry today was when I was helping her on the potty right when we got to school and another mom I hadn't seen since last time hugged me and Laila fell off the potty!  oops!! 

I'm not sure what's going on in Laila's mind but she has been asking to go on the potty a ton lately.  She doesn't go most of the time (unless she's with Bamma Kathy!) but I'm excited that she wants to.  Her conductor today said she asked a few times other than the scheduled times in class today but also no success.  Well I can't say no success, just her actually wanting to be on the potty is a huge success!  I did buy pull-ups for the first time yesterday because it is so hard, especially in public restrooms, to be able to get her diaper off and get her on the potty in an short amount of time.  Having trouble potty training??  Try having a child who doesn't walk, stand or barely hold any of their own weight at all.  Oh, yes, I'm a sweaty mess almost every time!  You'd think I'd be thinner for all that work with her!

In our conference we focused mostly on Laila's arms.  She has such a strong reflex to throw her hands up in the air if she is startled, excited, doesn't like something, and all sorts of other reasons.  She also tightens them so much when she concentrates which makes dressing and undressing, writing, doing iPad activities, driving her power chair and all the things she likes to do even harder as well.  Our doctor (at Riley) has tried to get us to put her on a muscle relaxer again but I just think that the cons outweigh the pros.  The hazy mind and relaxation of the whole body just seems to be counter-productive to what we're trying to do with her.  Andrea agreed.  Laila is physically able to relax and straighten her arms so it's not a matter of botox or muscle relaxers, it's a matter of getting her brain to figure out how to control her arms.  Enter:  Conductive Education.  They really work on getting their minds to understand and control their bodies by narrating everything they are doing with songs and fun rhymes.  I'm very excited about this being one of our main goals for this session and they seem to be coming up with a good plan to help.

So what did I do today?  Well, I brought her, had a parent meeting which was a blast getting to see everyone again, was going to run but the treadmill here at RMH doesn't work, went to Aldi and then........got a Diet Coke and fruit n' yogurt parfait from McDonalds for $1.06 with my house discount!  Oh man, this could mean trouble for me!  I unloaded my groceries, ate my delicious snack, head out to my conference then checked out the MAC which a is a fitness club right next to CLC that I can go to for free.  I plan to go run there tomorrow morning after I drop Laila off.  I wonder what it will be like running on a treadmill that isn't 4000 years old??  No complaints though because ours was given to us for free by a wonderful couple that we adore.

Please keep Jackson in your prayers as he was sent home from school today with a fever.  Have I mentioned lately how thankful I am for my family??  I have an amazing husband who is willing to play Mr. Mom while working and juggling housework, cooking and refereeing a 9 and almost 7 yr old.  I also have an amazing mom taking the kids every day after school and other family who jumps in to helps out with the kids while I am gone and especially today when Jack's at work and can't leave.  Laila and I are so blessed to have people who love us and people who believe in her so much that they sacrifice themselves for us to have this opportunity.  We love and thank you all who made this possible.

Looking forward to what the next few weeks brings!

Back At RMH

We've arrived and settled in at the Ronald McDonald house again.  I can't believe how different I feel this time.  I know what to expect, I know it's going to be hard but I also know it's totally going to be worth it.  We were greeted by familiar faces here and that makes a world of difference too! 

It's amazing to me to see how much Laila has grown in the last six months.  She wasn't scared of our room and did really well going to bed tonight.  Last time it was a real struggle to get her adjusted and she was still going through a rough time with sleeping any where besides home.  She moved around a lot before joining our family and I think that had a lot to do with her anxiety.  I love seeing her happy and settled and knowing that she is safe and at home as long as she's with her mommy :)

We headed down to the kitchen and saw a few of our friends there and will make some new ones I bet. There are three CLC families staying here this time which is fun! Laila was sitting at the kitchen table babbling away telling everyone "I sit at the table," "I have purple glasses," and yelling at me "I hold you hand."  She's very into hand holding these days which is super cute and fun.  Then we went to Walmart (which is hard to find in Meijer country up here!) and made a stop through the Subway drive through.  Thank you Grandma Mary for your generosity with giving us some gift cards for our stay up here!!

We're excited to go to school tomorrow even though I'm not sure Laila really remembers what she's getting herself into.  She did tell me this morning that she wanted to stay with "Van Syoc" (her preschool teacher back home).  I know when we get there she'll remember it.  She's got an amazing memory.  Now to see if she's excited or if she cries.......

Thanks for sharing in this time with us.  I always look forward to seeing if people follow our journey and it helps me to want to continue to write and share.  It's been helpful to be able to look back at the things she's learned.

Laila back in her "bedroom."  HA!  Like my make shift IV pole for her feeding pump?!?

We did it!!

I didn't realize when we started training that the last day would be the day before we leave for our next four weeks at CLC.  Tonight I actually ran 3.5 miles!  I never in my life thought that would be something I could do.  Jack has worked up to running over 6 miles as of tonight.  Earlier this week he just started running to see how far he would go and has just kept increasing his distance.  He's doing so great!!

I have to say that I'm surprised at the other things in my life that have changed since I started this.  I find myself eating less and healthier.  I feel like I don't want to just go run all this way and then cancel it out with ice cream or I don't want to eat a big greasy burger because one day I did that and it felt like the thing was kicking me in the ribs the whole time I was running.  While I haven't lost a lot of weight yet, I do feel like my clothes are fitting better which is nice :)  The other thing that is so exciting is that Emma and Jackson have started walking and are doing between 1-2 miles.  They are following our example and Emma has even signed up to walk the 5k for Laila too!

Our team has grown and we have raised so much more money for CLC than we had thought we would.  We decided to try to get some corporate sponsors from our town since we're three hours away and they wouldn't have been included in soliciting so far.  Our town and families have responded in such a huge way and have shown so much love for Laila that it just amazes me.  Check out our fundraising page here.

Tomorrow we check back in to the Ronald McDonald house and Laila starts her next session at CLC on Tuesday.  Be looking for blogs with updates of how she adjusts back and what kind of progress she makes.  Pray she doesn't cry the first three weeks of a four week session again ;)

Please also pray for us as we are just beginning our adoption paperwork again to bring our son Ranjit home from India.  This might get a little tricky doing paperwork from another state while Jack is home with the other two kids!

Over the Hump

Could it be?  Am I over that hump that everyone says you get to when you start running and stop absolutely hating it??  I think it's true!! 

I just finished up my sixth week of training for the 5K run for the Conductive Learning Center.  I have never been a runner.  I was a cheerleader in school for several years and it was very hard work at times but nothing like this.  (no laughing!!)  Jack found an app on our iPods that is helping us build up to running and this week really kicked up the running portion quickly.  From my last run to today's it increased by five minutes.  Literally a week ago I was thinking of quitting.  I knew the time was going to increase rapidly this week and I just thought I couldn't do it.  Then I looked at my baby girl. 

Laila and I will be heading up for our second session at the Conductive Learning Center in just two weeks and this is incredibly hard work for her.  Literally everything is hard work for her.  How can I expect her to give everything her all if I'm not willing to do this?  I made a commitment to do this for her and I have wanted to quit so many times but I won't.  These kids deserve this from us as their parents and supporters.

So yes, I'm over the hump.  I'm to the point of looking forward to seeing how far I can run.  I've stopped looking at the little clock going "I've only gone 30 seconds??" and started looking at it and having joy over how five minutes passes quickly when at first 90 seconds almost killed me.  That was my prayer, that I could make it to this point.  Thank you Lord!

Please take a minute if you can and check out our fundraising page.  So far we have seven on our Legs for Laila team and a few more have said they are going sign up to go with us.  We are also gathering corporate sponsors so if you know of a business that would donate please let us know.  We have to have the business names by Wednesday 3/28 for them to be included on the CLC t-shirts.

Who could not love or do everything they can for this little face who's saying "momma, I'm on elbows!!"

Legs for Laila

Laila's school in Michigan was picked as one of the charity partners for the Fifth Third Charity Riverbank Run in Grand Rapids, MI this year. So guess who's running.......

Deciding to do this run made me think back to my blog when we were at CLC last when I had come home and decided to take my sister's exercise class.  You can read about it here.  Anyway, I basically realized that Laila has to work so hard for everything she does and I can't even motivate myself to exercise!  I can say that since then I have been attending my sister's classes on the days I'm not committed to something in one of the kids classrooms and I actually have a lot of fun with it and feel a lot better when I go.

So this girl who has NEVER been a runner, EVER, has decided to run for Laila in this charity event.  Jack and I have both committed to it and have created a donations page in Laila's honor.  We have a few other friends and family members thinking of joining our team and are so excited to be able to do this for Laila and for CLC.  If you are interested in running or walking with us please leave a comment and I'll get you the information.  If you are interested in donating, please click here for the link to our donations page.  You can also see some of the pictures of Laila from CLC on our donations page as well.  Please, please consider donating any small amount you can to help this amazing school.

Daddy even has to run with his head in the ceiling while we're training indoors in the cold weather.  How's that for dedication!

*Just a side note.  We know that a lot of you have already been helping us out by buying t-shirts and giving donations for our adoption.  Please know that we know that everyone can't give to everything.  We had already planned to do this for Laila and want to follow through.  Give if you're led but don't feel you have to.  I wish I was a millionaire just to be able to give to all the worthy causes!

Valentines at Oak Grove

Iwas able to go with Jackson on his field trip to Oak Grove this week.  Every year the kindergarteners go and decorate Valentines cookies with the residents.  I’ll just state again how much I love that my kids love to go to the the nursing home and that they are not afraid to talk to and interact with the residents.

Jackson was able to decorate his cookies with Grandma Hamstra and we were so glad.  They actually didn’t bring her out for it for some reason but we pulled some strings ;) and got them to go get her.  It worked out really well that we did too because having Jackson interacting with her and with some of the other residents made some of the other kids in his class a little more comfortable to dive in and get started too.
 
We know that we are living on borrowed time with Grandma Hamstra and we are so thankful again that we live right down the street and are able to spend this precious time with her.  What a lovely woman she is and we love to see her face light up when we come to visit :)