Weekend at the Ocean

This mini vacation was so overdue but way too short. But 3 days is better than nothing, right?Everyone got to unwind, especially the adults, while the kids had a blast. They were busy non stop from riding their bikes and tricycle, going to the pool and playing in the sand at the ocean.

Since I usually just have one bed available for the 4 little ones, I started to sleep them in opposite direction and it works well. They had quiet the giggles all night and thought it was fun. Danica and Biruk

Courtesy shot by Danica. "Love my Man"

Misrak and Mommy. Trying to teach her not to be afraid.

Next Stop, Idaho!

Sorry, the story of this is on the bottom. I wanted to be on top but made a mistake.

15 kids between the Schumakers and the Hills, Anastasia and Danica are not in there.

BEST FRIENDS SINCE BIRTH (Nes and Biruk)
Okay these three boys together are TERROR!!!

Ready to go to the wedding

The Hill Family

One of my best friends! Signe, who is Nes' mom

Danica, Mads and Brook (new friends)

My favorite girl Omega!

Now this is the best story. Her son Soso announced to Signe that he wants to marry Amira so he can be a part of our family. Really he is totally and utterly in love with Kevin. Now lets hope they get married one day? Can you imagine what beautiful children they will have?

My precious two oldest daughters, Anastasia and Danica

We had the joy of being a part of the wedding for one of the Qualls' children, Mimi. What a beautiful, 21 year old radiant bride. I must have cried throughout the whole wedding, thinking it will be Danica's turn so soon, hopefully:) This was also the MOST kid friendly wedding I have ever seen in my entire life. They were having a blast. Prior to the wedding, we were able to be most of the day with my beloved friend Signe , who is the mommy of Biruk's best friend Nes.

More Firsts (Amira)

Today Amira lost her First Tooth. This is really, really special to her and very emotional for me. Biruk started losing his teeth last February shortly after they came home. Amira had her oral surgery to jank out all her front top teeth last May and get numerous crowns. But no signs of baby teeth falling out. She had to sit there toothless and was teased numerous times in school why she didn't have any teeth. Emotional for me because my baby had to suffer and was teased. Well she doesn't have to suffer anymore. Now it will be only a matter of time until her top teeth come in too.

Firsts

Micah was blessed with a brand new tricycle from a very special person. I have never seen anyone so excited over anything. He acted like he got a brand new car for graduation. That is truly another blessing about older child adoption. They treasure the small things that we take for granted. To see him riding it all day was such a joy. When he went to bed tonight, he wanted it in his room right by his bed side. Finally something he can fit for his size. Someone gave me a used tiny bike but he still can't reach the pedals.

BTW, my son has gotten super dark; this pictures is fake. He is not that light, the sun is just beaming on his face. My friend mentioned how he looks more chubby and he does. Isn't his face just so eatable? He even got little fat leg. Not fat like the baby ones but fat enough to pinch it. So cute. He has gained about 3 pounds and grown an inch. We will get real growth updates next week on our Dr. visit.

Ring Around the Rosie

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Comments

I have gotten a bunch of comments over the weekend but they are not all showing. My blog is acting up again. Just wanted to let you know in case if your comment doesn't show, like Susan, Carrie, Kathy and....

Happy Fourth of July!

I am home with Micah (he is sleeping) while the rest of them are out for the fireworks. Anyways, Danica just emailed me these ones:

SISTER LOVE: Misrak and Amira just LOVE Danica

Chillin on the back of the truck

Next Stop, Laci's House

Laci and I have known each other since early of 2006. We only live 30 min apart. I have always been really good friends with her sister Karly. We reconnected in 2008 when we found out we were both adopting from ET in fact using the same agency each time. We adopted 2x from ET almost the same times. The first time Laci's kids came home about 6 month earlier but this time the kids came home only 2 weeks apart. We had a wonderful time. Not having Danica there we still had 15 kids but they all behaved to wonderful together. Thanks Laci and Sergio for having us all over.

Our 5 Kidane Kids
My Gang

Micah thoroughly enjoyed this tricycle. I need to buy him one

My twins

So in love with these kids

What a Day! More Health Stuff

Today was really crazy. Lots of unexpected stuff but it all worked out to the children's benefit. Amira had a dentist appointment because she lost her crown and a possible abscess, her upper lip was so swollen. As we took her in the dentist fixed her crown but found that she indeed had an abscess on the same side. She said the tooth needed to be removed asap but needed to go to an oral surgeon.

In the mean time Micah had his ENT appointment. He has a hole in his ear. They don't want to prescribe anymore antibiotics and said they need to see how its doing without. If it is not getting any better they need to put tubes in his ears. Even though his hearing test wasn't scheduled until August, the Dr. demanded a hearing test today so we returned for that in the afternoon. He has hearing loss also. The only very terrible thing is that Micah cannot go in the water or like swimmig pool for a long time. That really choked me up. How can we do a summer without a pool, how can we explain to Micah he cannot go in the pool. He cannot even take a bath were he puts his head under the water. That is his favorite thing to do. I just don't know.

In the mean time Kevin checked back with the dentist at the military hospital and he also took in Amira without an appointment. Guess what, he pulled that tooth out for free. No more abscess, tooth going. My poor baby is looking like a grandma now. I really hope that her front teeth are growing in soon. Amira has now been front toothless for over one year and its starting to annoy her. It was interesting to hear the dentist say that the way the other dentist put in her crowns that they are coming in cricked so he wants to fix that too with some wires or something. We will also get both Misrak and Micah's teeth fixed for free and they even do Misrak all at once even though she is 7. So we have their surgery scheduled for Augsut 4. I just hope they both can hold out that long.

It was amazing to see all the children pray and thank God for his goodness and they were all so thankful, especially Amira, and my precious Misrak was just praying over the 2 little ones with her hands on their heads and my hands on their heads too and showed her thankfulness for making her siblings healthy it just made me cry. She told me tonight how much she loves us all and how happy she is. She says that often but tonight was special and she looked like an angel. I am getting choked up again.

Beautiful Day

This summer I am determined to keep up with my adoption friends that are near, like 30 min to 6 hours away. Today we met up with my sweet friend Courtney and her kiddos. We both adopted from Kidane and AHOPE. Our visit was long overdue, the last time we got together was in September when her boys just got home. Had a wonderful time Courtney:)

Sammy and Micah were good buddies at AHope. I can only imagine Sammy seriously protecting Micah there. He is such a sweet boy. Today they met again for the first time since both leaving AH and at first they were both pretty shy, it was cute.

Even these three below had to warm up for a moment. They had already met each other. These are all the Kidane Kids. Misrak didn't know any of them, she was only at Kidane for less than 8 mo cuz I snatched her up quickly, lol:)
After warming up, the two set are running off to the park.

Saying good-bye

One last photo with the boys!

Brotherly Love

My little man having fun in the sand. He was actually showing out in public today with a tantrum over nothing, it was funny

Amira being herself, off on her own, in her little world

This beautiful song was dedicated to all the Father's on Father's Day at our Church. Can't get it out of my head.

More Health Updates

Thanks for checking in. I know there are some people here who are checking in on the health status of the kids, especially for Micah and his growth and some have even a deeper bond since they have known him at AHOPE. Thanks M and J and others and even the ones that I don’t know following Micah's journey home but I do appreciate you and ones loving on my boy while he was there. We will see what the future holds for us but I have nothing but good feelings even if my precious son is only 5 foot one day. I had a dear friend tell me that Micah is so amazing because I said “Yes” to God even though I was afraid.

Let's start out with Misrak’s health since it is so short. She is still super well. She doesn’t require any meds. Her viral loads look good. All she takes right now is fungus medication for her head. BTW, she passed on fungus to the other 3 so all 4 kids are on fungus meds, hehe. As for the dentist, they denied her surgery at the hospital. She will have to do it at the office over a minimum of 3 visits to fix her 11 cavities. Let’s hope she is strong enough and hangs in there. She is only 7 and that’s a lot on a 7 year old.

Now to Micah: His iron stores are actually fine now so we can stop the iron. He is still some anemic, but that could be due to a combination of the meds and low thyroid. Which is the big news-- his thyroid levels on repeat are definitely low. The Dr. wants him to take thyroid replacement pills and re-check the thyroid in November. Growth hormone test is abnormally low also, but Dr N explained that this can be falsely low as long as the thyroid level is low. Low thyroid also on its own causes short stature. We are really making great progress at what we are finding out.

Micah is still detectable which worries me that maybe he has some resistance. We might have to change up his meds but having to deal with the meds and viral loads now with all the 4 kids, even though not all are on meds I am pretty mellow about it when they are out of whack. I still remember the beginning times with Amira, it was pretty stressful, every time they went crazy I thought she was going to die:)

Micah is also on his fourth antibiotic for his ear. Still draining with wax. We have an appointment for the ENT doctor mid July; and an appointment with the cardiologist for his heart murmur. Yeah he has a heart murmur too but the doctor says not to worry that they can be false. I have truly learned not to stress anymore until I know more.

His dental surgery is scheduled for July 7 but we might not do it just yet because the Army
Hospital might do it for free but that just a hope right now. They will have to do a lot of work; putting 6 porcelain crowns on the front and 8 silver crowns in the back and much much more. Some of this teeth are so badly rottened that there isn't even a tooth left anymore. I think his teeth are out of ALL kids are the worst. Poor guy. Glad he is so happy go lucky all the time. Can you imagine what he will be like when he is in perfect health already being such a happy kid? I think Jennifer commented that once on my blog and I totally agree with her.

Happy Father's Day

The kids are assembled in the girls' room to take their presents to dad! Micah always cracks up laughing when I line them up but this is what I started to do when we go places so they don't get lost. I just added the picture because it was so stinkin cute.

My dear husband is the daddy that I always wanted badly and dreamed of when I was a little girl. The day I got married, God blessed me with that kind of a husband. I am so thankful that he is the father of my children. I often say to Kevin that he is doing a way better job at parenting than I could ever imagine. He is such a kid with the kids and his parenting just comes so easy to him. He gets into their heads and knows how they think. He doesn't take life so serious the way I do and that is why it comes so easy to him. He is just the "bestest":) daddy.

Last Day of School

Today was such a wonderful day. Both, Amira and Biruk had their last of Kindergarten. Amira had a beautiful graduation ceremony, so please watch the videos below they are to die for. Both of the kids did outstanding. I clearly remember last September, I thought all hell broke lose which you can read here when Amira started Kindergarten. This teacher she had was truly an answer to my prayers. She was so strict but yet so nurturing that Amira totally bloomed and became an amazing academic student. Biruk did really well too but he never has a hard time learning nor fitting in so school is much easier. Amira will always be in introvert so it takes a special teacher to brake her or make her. Sorry I don't have anything of Biruk; his teacher didn't do anything.

Amira's Graduation Songs

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