January Wrap Up...

We celebrated Martin Luther King Day with a whole different level of appreciation this year - so thankful for all the work Dr. King did to move towards racial equality. We still have a ways to go in this country, but I'm so grateful for all those that sacrificed so much to get us to this point.

I’ve been horribly remiss at keeping my blog updated. In part this is due to the five littles that keep me busy around here. Probably more fairly, it’s mainly due to the fact that I truly am not sure what to write.

I have ALWAYS been passionate about being honest through the adoption process. And yet once kids are home, being honest means on a lot of days, I’d be saying, “so in so child” drives me nuts because she does blah blah blah. I don’t want them to grow up, read this, and see I was complaining about them all the time. Not that I would sit and complain all the time, but kids’ perceptions of what a parent struggles with could be viewed as complaining about the kid vs struggling through the process.

So, I think I’m kind of to the point where I can write a little more objectively, depending on the day of course. I’m to that point where I think in blog posts throughout the day, so I know it’s time to start writing again. I will.

But I’m going to start easy, okay? I figured I’ll use a couple of posts over the next couple of days to catch you up on what’s been going on around here.

Did you notice anything odd in the picture above? Anything purple stick out? Yes, Sosie has a cast on! Oh my. We were doing our normal bath routine, I got them out dried off, lotioned up, and then we ALWAYS walk from my bathroom across the hall to their room to get dressed. While they are toddling along behind me, I hang up their towels in the bathroom. Well it wasn’t FIFTEEN SECONDS of my eyes off of them when I heard a crash and crying crying crying began that just didn’t sound right. (Red Flag #1)

I rushed in to find my sweet Sosie on the ground. It LOOKED like she’d peed (which has NEVER happened), and then she slipped in the puddle of pee. I stuck her in the tub for a sec while I got Lyla diapered and threw some clothes on real fast and then came back to bathe Sosie. She was crying, but I saw she’d vomited in the tub. (Red Flag #2) I quickly cleaned her off, and as I was pulling her out of the tub, her toes dragged the top edge of the bathtub and she cried suddenly in pain. (Red Flag #3) When she couldn’t put weight on it and was limping when I encouraged her to walk, I just KNEW it was broken.

We went to the ER, and I’ve only heard horror stories of EVIL social workers who swoop in with any kid injury and take all the kids to foster care. I tend to think in worst-case scenarios and was certain that I’d be sleeping in an empty house that night with my children scattered across the city with evil, abusive foster parents. Instead everyone was really sweet, several nurses were reassuring that their OWN kids had broken bones at the SAME ages, and the Xrays showed a small fracture in her tibia. We had a bright purple waterproof cast on by that afternoon, and she was starting to crawl around on it by that evening…

And then within a day or two she was hobbling around on that thing like a pro and using that cast to make fantastic banging noises on her crib! In a way her cast was kind of a good tool in attachment. She had to depend on us more, and she stayed out of trouble a little more. It slowed her down – she’s my rough and tumble, go 100 miles an hour, leap before you look child! I’d say moreso than any of our other four!

Four weeks later, we went back into the doctor and got that sucker cut off! She did SO great!! Her fraction has healed 100%, and she’s working on learning to get back to walking normally.