Weekend in the Hospital

So now that Aria is home.... I'm heading to the hospital. Their response to my pain today was to suggest checking into Duke Hospital for the weekend to get my pain under control and then have new scans done.

Aria just came home yesterday. She only wants her Daddy. But I want him too!! So now we have some dilemmas to solve. I'm nervous and scared. Please pray for everything to go smoothly, for them to relieve my pain quickly, for peace within our family with all the chaos, and for there to be nothing new found in the new scans.

Thank you!!!! I am probably heading to the hospital tonight, but we are just waiting on a call to confirm it.

Aria is Home!!!

Steve and Aria arrived at about 11am on Thursday morning!!! :) During their 12-hour layover in LA, Aria had a big "problem" in her pants... and Daddy didn't pack extra clothes in the carry-on! Oops! ;) So they took a cab to a nearby mall to go shopping. ha! Thus the new outfit for her arrival was chosen by Daddy. :)

Kevin was so excited to see Daddy!!!

And I was so excited to see them too!! Friends came with us to the airport and met us there in order to push me in a wheelchair. (There was no way I could have walked that far that day!)

Here's our family of five and Grandma!!! :)

And our family of five!!

Kien looked pretty intrigued with Aria. :) They likely knew each other before...but we'll never know to what extent.



Here's our welcoming committee!!! :)

I LOVE this picture of Daddy with his kiddos!!!



This was Aria's first ride in a car seat. She did ok for awhile, but then the crying began.

Our first time finally using 3 car seats in our mini-van!!! :)

"It's a Girl!" YES, She's Finally Coming Home!!!!!

God has been doing something else major in our lives this fall, and many of you who read this blog and pray for our family may not know yet. So I will backtrack a bit to give a recap of the story.

In early fall 2007, we received pictures of our 2 beautiful babies in Vietnam!! Kien and Aria were only about 4 months old, and they are 4 days apart. They are becoming twins. We expected to travel to Vietnam only 8-12 weeks later (which is what always happened with all other families). But to make a loooong story short.... that was not the case for us. The US changed the process for applying for a baby's visa to enter the country and become a US citizen. And then we ran into problems in early 2008. We were constantly waiting and believing that we would be getting on a plane within as little as a week. We lived that way for months! Finally, we were approved to bring Kien home....but not Aria yet. It was never supposed to happen that way. But we got on a plane in June to bring home our baby boy, not knowing when Aria would be able to come home.

We boarded the plane to Vietnam on Kien's 1st birthday and completed his adoption a few days later! And on his adoption day, we also spent an hour with our baby girl. She fell asleep in Steve's arms. I held our sleeping princess as well and even sang "Jesus Loves Me" to her. After an hour with her, we had to say good-bye. We hoped that she would be coming home within weeks, but we knew that Steve would have to go back alone when it was time.

To make even more of our long story short.... we finally got her approval this fall. So then we were faced with one of the biggest decisions we will ever make. We didn't mention it here, since it was such a huge and personal decision. Anyway, we felt that proceeding would definitely be a case of stepping out in faith....and trusting in God to provide. And that's the decision we made! We have considered her to be our daughter for over a year now. This wasn't just a matter of deciding whether or not to have a 3rd child. She really exists, and she was living in an orphanage. And we believe that we were her last chance at having a family...and she was our last chance at having a daughter. So after lots and lots of prayer... 2 weeks ago, we were told that Steve could travel that coming weekend for an adoption ceremony the following week!!!! Steve left 5 days later, and Aria's adoption ceremony took place on November 13!

My mom came back a couple weeks ago and is still here. We are planning to hire a nanny, but we still need to figure out the details. Prayers would definitely be appreciated for that as well!! ....for the decisions involved in hiring a nanny... and the finances involved!!!!

Thanks so much for the prayers for wisdom in making this big decision!!!! And thank you for all the prayers for Aria's approval so that she can finally come home to her family!!!!!!!! And PRAISE GOD for our beautiful blessing!!!! :) :)

So tomorrow morning, Steve and Aria will be arriving home!!!!!!

Status Update on Pain

I hear a lot of people have been asking about me, since I haven't posted since Thursday. ;) So I just wanted to write something really quick - but I have more to write later. I spent 12 hours at Duke on Monday, so that was pretty exhausting - and then had to go back again this morning! Again, I'll tell about that later. But regarding the pain, yes, I've still really been in pain. It's been quite miserable at times. I have had some good moments though. But today has been an improvement! I've still had some pain, but it's been so much better! I was up in the middle of the night (not due to pain), and I took pain meds before going back to bed -- so I think that's why I wasn't too bad when I woke up today!! :) And now they have increased my dosage of pain meds again as of yesterday (which will take 3 days to fully kick in ). But yes, prayers would still be appreciated for the pain! I've been in pain in my lower back and then down my legs (due to the pinched nerves in my lower back). The location varies. And my left arm has also been in pain. We stayed home from church on Sunday and I haven't been able to do much for the past few days (except spend hours at Duke!!). Until today, I have had to lie in bed for the first hour of each day before I can even move. It's hard to find any comfortable side on which to lie. And sometimes I can barely walk at all (literally - I have trouble getting from the bed to the dresser to get my pills). I hate to sound so miserably depressing.... but that is what has been happening. But I expect that the increased medication will help this week. And your continued prayers would be so appreciated too!!! I want to be able to get back to doing Mommy things and spending time with my kids. :)