Hospital visits and more

Igor has a surrogate Grandmother, here in town. Her name is Estamae. She is in her 80's and loves, loves, loves our son. Igor is pretty fond of Estamae, so they get a long quite well. Estamae fell on Tuesday night and was taken to the ER and then admitted to the hospital. When I told Igor that Estamae was in the hospital and his dad planning to visit her he said, "I want to call dad and go with him to pray." I made the call. Igor explained why he was calling and Rob agreed to take him along.

I wondered, would anyone at the hospital stop Igor from going into Estamae's room? He is is only 5 years old. Nope, they walked right through the hospital and in to her room. (Maybe it helped that Rob has a hospital badge??) Estamae was upset that Igor was seeing her "banged up" but she also was happy to see him. They visited a bit and then father and son prayed. What a sweet, sweet moment.

"Tomato" update- we missed the tornado drill at school! Tomorrow we could be under another tornado watch... Based on the weather man's assessment of the situation in the morning, Igor and I may have another discussion about tornado's and our emergency plan.

Random topic- Did you know that some baby bottles, sippy cups, pacifiers, etc can harm your baby/children? There are certain types of plastic items you want to stay away from. My favorite blog with research on BPA free products is http://zrecs.blogspot.com/ . Check out their new BPA Wallet Card. The card is easy to carry around and reference when you are shopping!

Adoption reminder- Tomorrow we have the conference call with our agency. I am very excited. I hope to hear good news. I'll keep you posted.

Why are the "Tomaotes" coming mom?

Igor cannot say the word "tornadoes", he says "tomatoes." Today he said "tomatoes" a lot.

After school, Misha came over to play and have dinner with us. Igor had been watching the sky all day asking if big storms were coming because it was cloudy & windy. Right before dinner we headed to the grocery store. I had the radio on when the emergency broadcasting system alert sounded. There was a tornado alert for just north of us. I thought, I didn't deal with this on Monday at speech, we may have to deal with it today.... this time for real.

We returned home and there was another warning, this time for our county. Our house has an open floor plan, we do not have any interior rooms or hallways. Rob and I discussed where we should go if the sirens sounded because the hall closet (our default plan) could not hold all four of us. We talked to the boys about the tornado warning and the plan if the tornado sirens sounded.

This led to a rash of questions from Igor. Why is the "tomato" coming? Are "tomatoes" nice? can they hurt you? Why did the radio make that weird sound? Did God make "tomatoes"? Why did God make "tomatoes"? If you have a preschooler, you know the list goes on and on.

Luckily, the sirens did not sound and the warning expired. I'm praying the test sirens don't go off tomorrow during speech.

Fire station, tornado drills and shots- ouch!

Today was a busy day! I made a huge batch of caramel corn. If you ordered caramel corn over the weekend, it will be mailed tomorrow.

After nursery school, Igor asked if we could drive by the fire station. The garage door was open when we drove by so we saw the pumper truck. Igor asked if we could go in. We had a few minutes before speech so I said sure. Before we went inside Igor asked if the fire alarm was going to go off while we were there. (He still remembers to the fire alarm going off during speech in January.) I told him that I did not think so. The fire fighters walked Igor around and gave him a new hat. I was so proud of him for going into the station. Since the fire alarm, he has been too scared to go inside the fire station.

When we arrived at speech, Igor's teacher informed me that some time this week the tornado siren is going to sound so the children can practice hiding under their desk. I decided not to inform Igor of this event. It could happen any day this week; we go to speech twice a week so what are the chances it will go off while we are there?

After speech Rob and I went to get our Hep B & Meningitis vaccines. Igor wanted to go with us. Igor told the nurse he did not need any shots for Africa because he was going to stay at Babushka's house. Then he asked dad if he was going to cry. I almost cried when I was presented with the bill! OUCH! Our insurance does not cover the vaccines.

The nurse was very gentle but my arm is very sore. It probably hurts because we went to the church and helped clear away some trees that had been cut down. Rob and I have follow up appointments at the end of the month to get a second round of shots.

Our Agency has hired another Family Coordinator! She starts next Monday. This is great news for the Ethiopia program.

RENOVARÉ Weekend

This week Rob and I had the pleasure of meeting Richard Foster and William "Bill" Vaswig. My dear friend Liz introduced me to the Celebration of Discipline: The Path to Spiritual Growth several years ago. We read the book as part of our small group. It was nice to meet the man who re-shaped my thoughts on prayer, fasting and solitude, to name a few disciplines.

The conference was awesome. If it is coming to a city near you, I highly recommend it. A bonus was Bill Viswag was able to pray over our dear sweet boy. Words cannot explain the experience.

Six AWAA families are in Ethiopia right now meeting and picking up their children! I've been checking their blogs for pictures and updates. I'm looking forward to our turn in Ethiopia.

5 Months today

It's official, we have been waiting 5 months for a referral. I'm not sure how much longer we will wait. We "think" we will hear something this spring or early summer. It's just a guess. We've played the guessing game before with Igor and we were WAY off! So, our hearts are not focused on a month or a day or a season, yet....

A week from Friday, our agency will be hosting a conference call for families waiting for a referral. We are looking forward to the conference call, it should be filled with all sorts of great information. Oh, I wish the call was tomorrow... but like our referral, we will wait.

Look-alike Meter

I saw this on William & Susan's blog and I HAD to give it a try. From the day we brought Igor home, everyone has said Igor looks just like Rob. Yes, even strangers come up to us when we are out and about and comment on how much father and son look a like. According to the computer model, Igor looks a little bit more like me.... hmmmmm....

Spring has sprung... but only for a day

Today, we had a taste of spring. It was 60 degrees and a few of my daffodils opened. The majority of my daffodils are still unopened. They must sense that Wednesday and Thursday the temperature will back in the 40's.

The drought has taken a terrible toll on my bulbs. There isn't a crocus, Hyacinth or tulip coming up.... okay, I have ONE tulip out of the hundred or so bulbs I planted in the last 18 months. heavy sigh... I have been researching rain barrels and cisterns since we probably won't be able to water this summer. I think we will go to the next town over and buy 4 rain barrels. They are selling them for cost. I hope my father-in-law will help me make the modifications to the drain spouts. This will allow me to catch enough water for a few herbs and tomatoes this summer. I may break down and plant pumpkins... I need to stop thinking about my garden, otherwise, I will be ordering seeds online tonight.

On the adoption front, at least two families had favorable court rulings today and are the proud parents of beautiful girls! Six families will be in Ethiopia at the end of the week to pick up their children! The last time families picked up their children, referrals quickly followed. Here's hoping for more referrals in March.