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Showing posts with label port. Show all posts
Showing posts with label port. Show all posts

Saturday, April 30, 2016

Best of Facebook: April 2016

4/1/2016: Click here to see post on FB:
In the process of updating our homestudy (we do so every year) and it asks for a "Statement regarding your motivation to adopt." Here is ours:

We believe God cares deeply for the orphan and as Christians we are the hands and feet of God to show love and care for the least of these. We believe that every child deserves a safe family where they know they are loved regardless of their abilities, behavior, race, age, or history. We desire to make the least desirable children know that they are wanted and the hardest to place children know that they are deeply loved by us and their heavenly Father. We have built our family through the beautiful brokenness of adoption and wouldn’t have it any other way!

We are not perfect but one thing we have proven in our family dynamic is we have the commitment to love children from hard places. We have parented difficult trauma-related behaviors, delinquency, disorders such as RAD, PTSD, ODD, ADHD, and Enuresis. We have also navigated parenting many medical needs including Giant Congenital Melanocytic Nevus, atypical Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome (aHUS), Microcephaly, seizure disorder, Cerebral Palsy, vision impairment, global developmental delays, short gut syndrome, and GJ-tube dependency. We are willing to work with doctors, counselors and therapist to provide the best quality of life for any child God calls on us to welcome into our large family!

:) What is your motivation?



I used to work with Parks and Rec and my favorite time of year was helping put together our bi-annual parade float. Although I don't work there anymore I still have the opportunity to create props and costumes and now the kids get to participate too! We have so much fun being apart of these parades and, oh, the memories we make!!!



We got a frantic call while out on a date tonight. "Mom! Mom! Are you on your way home soon!?!"
"No, we are still at dinner, why? What is going on?"
His voice was shaking, "Mom, Buttercream's in labor! The hooves...the hooves are out!!!"
I smiled and mouthed to Brian that our cow was having her baby, "Anthony that is great!"
His voice becomes more frantic and he is having a hard time catching his breath, "But mom! What do I do? Will you come home? What do I do?"
I want to laugh at his intense concern but instead I used a more serious tone, "Anthony, calm down. You have read every farm book we own, every book on cows from the library, every cow pregnancy article online and watched every cow birthing video on youtube. You are a fully trained cow midwife (midhusband?) so breath and you'll be fine. You can do it!"
I hear very controlled breathing in and out, "Okay, thanks mom. I can do this!"

Not but a few minutes later, as we were heading home, we got a call that it was a boy! Brian and I arrived to all the children in their pajamas huddled around the birthing stall watching as mama licked her baby calf clean, cheering as baby stood on his own and took his wobbly first steps, and cherished in their heart the miracle of a new life on the farm! Welcome baby Cornbread!!!


Port surgery 1/2: Today Brittney is having a new chest port put in and she is in a good mood! :)

Brittney has been doing great since we have been home from the hospital! We have seen vast improvements since switching her to a real food diet, her cognitive abilities and speech have improved and her vocabulary has grown. We have also been able to wean her off ALL five of her daily meds!

She is healthy and infection free so today she is having surgery to have a new chest port placed. Brittney has been a great blessing in our life! God is good and faithful!!!


Port surgery 2/2: Today Brittney is having a new chest port put in and she is in a good mood! :)

2nd video before Britt's port surgery. She is too cute! And so happy!


Post-op: Brittney's Port surgery went well! She is a little "drunk" but is doing good, in great spirits considering, asking for food and to go home. :)


Mirabel has taken over milking Willow while I work on milking our new-in-milk cow, Buttercream. Twelve years old and she loves milking her goats and, now, a cow. You may think, that's cool, milking a cow, must be easy if a 12 year old can do it. But I didn't hand this chore over lightly. That creature weighs almost 1,000lbs and one kick could send you to the ER. It takes and calm, gentle, forgiving and very patient spirit to have a cow stand calmly for you while you squeeze and tug on her nether-regions!

See I had to learn that kind of spirit, I had to beg God to give it to me after being kicked, swatted at with a urine-soaked tail and having the milk bucket knocked over. I had to forgive Willow, speak gently to her, move calmly around her, and show her love even when I felt like wringing her huge cow neck!

But you see, Mirabel may be like her mama in a lot of ways, but in this case she is not. Willow took to her immediately, trusted her, and stood perfectly still right away. Sometimes the best lessons in this life don't come from books or college but from the heart of God's creation, children and from the creatures we least expect it to, like Willow the cow. :)



The kids reminded me that this is Brittney's first RV trip! Texas here we come! Can't wait for a week of camping, family-time, and fellowship!


Many of you may know we were recently preparing to adopt a special needs boy from an adoption dissolution (disruption, divorce).

We have always approached adoption the same, that we are are open and willing to walk whatever path God has for us. That means if we are approached to adopt a child we say yes and walk forward regardless of the challenges that may lie ahead. We trust the Lord will give us the grace and strength to endure and the patience to love any of His children. We aren't special or endowed with more patience, grace or strength than any other Christian. We are simply willing to trust God in the area of family planning and adoption. We renew our homestudy year after year not because we think we can handle more but because God is the caretaker of the orphans and we were adopted by Him. Therefore as the hands and feet of Jesus we care for the orphans and we adopt after our Father. We don't pray for God to "open the door to adoption," we feel He already has. We first pray we will trust Him as we walk forward through the open door and then we pray He will clearly close the door if this is not the child He has for our family. We see lots of closed doors. We see even more trust as our faith in our awesome God grows each time.

With that said, although we were willing to adopt again and we were in process of making it happen, we were also praying the entire time that God would clearly shut that door by rising up a family in this child's home state to adopt him before our homestudy was completed. And praise God that is exactly what happened! A family has come forward for this little boy, in his home state and we couldn't be more excited. We are now praying for this child, his new family and whatever God may have in store for us (we are praying about embryo adoption, but that is a different story). :)



We are home! Our trip to Big Sandy, TX was sweet and quite inspiring, maybe I will find some time to write more detailed about it soon. But we are so glad to be back on the farm. I did miss it, even though we all thoroughly enjoyed the break!

We drove home all day Saturday and I spent last night/this morning from 1am-8am in the ER with Brittney. Turns out it wasn't as severe as we originally thought just several small things piled on top of each other so she just was feeling no good. She has a mild cold, an awful yeast diaper rash and added inflammation due to becoming a little lady, a mild bladder infection and constipation (even though we had a bm every day). Rest, fluids, prescription cream, antibiotics and some Miralax and in a few days I am sure she will be up and feeling great again! :)

When my expectations were to be hospitalized again this news is a blessing! Sometimes the difference between blessings and burdens is just in what lenses you choose to look at life through. With all this little girlie's challenges (and now womanhood, oh my!) I still wouldn't trade her for the world! She is God's gift and blessing to us! We are so undeserving!!!



Worry happens when we assume responsibility for things that God never intended us to. The remedy for worry is trust. Worry won't heal my broken toe but trusting in God' goodness gives me a peace while it takes time to mend.

"Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7

What are you worried about? Can you trust the Lord with that area of your life?

P.S. Excuse my poorly manicured toes, I even thought maybe I should re-paint them before taking a pic (how vain) but real mommy-hood sometimes looks like dirty toes and chipped nail polish. ;)



I am contemplating locking myself in a closet for 24 hours! LOL :) 
I feel like a comedy of errors! A couple weeks ago I schedule a wellness exam at my doctor as necessary to update our adoption homestudy.
So 2 days ago I take Britt to the ER and pick up a nasty cough, yesterday I break my toe, and today, IN THE DOCTOR'S OFFICE, I take a sip from my water bottle while holding my physical form and the paper perfectly slices my cornea!

Ha! Life is never boring indeed....



Britt-head is feeling so much better today! She is such an easy girl, seriously my easiest kid even with all her medical craziness, because her spirit is so sweet and joyful! She calls me over to show me all the toys she has been looking at sitting quietly on the couch. "Look mommy, toys, YAY!" Can't help but smile around this girl. We are seeing such a HUGE improvement in her mood, language, vocabulary and cognitive abilities since switching to her to an all-natural formula, Liquid Hope. It is amazing to watch!

Lots of good news today, my eye feels so much better, yesterday it felt like someone was rubbing a tree branch across it over and over. Ow! I don't have my vision completely back so I didn't feel comfortable driving, so a friend came by and picked up 3 big kids to go to the abortion clinic where we minister some Wednesday mornings. Then Anthony was picked up to help friends install gutters, lately because he is so smart and hard-working many friends and local farms hire him to help them out with building, yard and farm projects. And my favorite event is that Brian is off work today! It is beautiful out so we are all going to take a drive to an local fruit tree farm to plant the beginning of a fruit orchard on our property. God is good!



Mommy wars are real! Babies and kids don't come with manuals. Let us always season our words with grace, educate in private and encourage in public :)

Our baby Pygmy goat, Boberry, staring in his very first meme! ;)


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Monday, February 29, 2016

Best of Facebook: February 2016

2/1/2016: Click here to see photo on FB:

SO EXCITED! GI doctor just sent a prescription order for a formula made from REAL foods, called Liquid Hope!!! Why is this so exciting? Because this is the first time in 11 years my Britt girl will have something other than Corn Syrup and Soy oil as "nutrition" for her body! She will finally experience God's real, whole, natural, healthy, food and we can't wait to see how it benefits her mind and body!!! Picture is a comparison of ingredients from her old formula, Elecare Jr. and her NEW formula Liquid Hope!!! Can't wait!



"Daddy, can this be my cow this time? I am big now, I can feed him, I promise!"
Our Ty-man is turning 5 years old this month and this time its his turn to raise his very own bottle baby calf. Meet Pibb, he is a 3 day old Jersey bull from a local dairy. Here we go again!


That moment when you are tucking everyone in to bed but something doesn't feel right. So you get your rain coat and go check on your baby calf and baby goat. Baby Pibb is dry and warm in the stable, mama goat, Zelda, is staying dry in her house but where is baby Holly!?! It is storming bad here with flood warnings all night. Tonight is not a good night for tiny Holly to be missing!

Thirty long, wet minutes later I finally find a soaking wet baby goat in between a pile of pallets. Negligent mama Zelda got a good scolding and, needless to say, baby Holly is sleeping inside tonight! Oh the adventures I have with 7 kids and 50 animals!!!



As we prepare our to speak on adoption during a conference break-out session this Saturday and invite another TV news crew, SwissTV, to film us this Sunday I am filling my heart with Scripture, reading through Adopted for Life by Moore again and looking through memories of our journey so far.

Here are three things I know:
1. Personally caring for orphans is not optional for Christians. God calls it pure and faultless religion because it is a living, physical picture of our spiritual adoption; although we were once orphaned through sin now we are adopted as sons (and daughters) by God, our Father, through Jesus Christ.
2. Adoption is just plain HARD! It is messy, lonely and confusing. It is full of unforeseen trials, tears and doubt. It stretches us until we have reached the absolute end of ourselves and come to a point of fully relying on God for super natural strength, patience and endurance to finish this race.
3. We would do it again and again because adoption has put us smack in the middle of God's will for us; which is that we would grow in sanctification (1 Thes. 4:3), be made perfect and complete through enduring trials (James 1:2-4) and through loving others our joy would be made full (John 15:10-12)!

Adoption is necessary and difficult yet pure JOY!


There are over 150 million orphans in our world today. If all the orphans in the world started their own country it would be among the top 10 countries with the largest population, having a larger population than even Russia.

Christians, how great does the need have to become for us to finally act? Let us show the world our religion is true, in the way the bible calls pure and faultless, by caring for the orphan in their distress.



We enjoyed having new friends from SwissTV out to film and interview today! Can't wait to see what they turn our chaos into! Our only prayer is that we bring our Father glory and through us viewers may see a glimpse of Jesus!


"I love you, mommy." I love this girl and thankful for every moment with her! We are in the hospital again, keep Britt in your prayers. God is in control.

Yesterday when we noticed a sudden fever we rushed Britt to the ER. Due to the drug (Solaris) that she has infused to keep her life-threatening illness (aHUS) at bay she is more susceptible to deadly bacterial infections. We were all hoping her sudden fever of 104 was just from a normal cold, strep or even the flu. The hospital admitted us overnight as they waited for the blood cultures to come back. They were expecting all to be fine and Britt would be discharged today. Turns out the results are the worst case scenario, it came back that Britt does have a bacterial infection in her blood stream. But Brittney is a sweet, strong girl and is in good spirits. They have her on two strong antibiotics with the hopes to eradicate the infection quickly and that we will be able to stay at this local hospital and go home again in a week or so. Please pray for our Britt girl! we love her dearly!



Britt isn't feeling very good today. Although still her pleasant self she is more tired and doesn't want to do much other than sit and take care of her baby dolls. I caught a cold while here so I am happy to just enjoy our lazy Saturday together.


What a perfectly timed FB memory to pop up today as I sit with my girly in the hospital so thankful we said yes to her a year ago! The overflowing joy she brings to our family far outweighs the small trials that accompany her care.

Let me clarify for all of you who wonder and say, "Shannon, this special needs child you are considering adopting, she will take so much from your time, your schedule, your family and even your life! Why would you do that?"

2/13/2015: Well friends, to be honest, this child cannot take those things from me because I gave those up a long time ago. I gave those up when I met a Man. A Man that looked upon me, in my wretched state, not as too much work, but as wanted. Not as too much time but as worthy of love. This Man willingly emptied Himself, gave up all His energy and even His own life to make me His child. To adopt me into His family, His kingdom, His inheritance and give me new life eternally.

This life is no longer mine but Christ who lives in me. Isn't that the gospel? "And He (Jesus) was saying to them all, “If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it." Luke 9:23-24 (see also: Matt 10:39, 16:25, Mark 8:35, Luke 17:33).

Did God not sustain me through taking in five kids at once? Did God not sustain me when saying yes to a little boy from MI? I cannot let my trust waver now! God has already proved Himself mighty in strength and God will certainly sustain me to parent this child as well!

We believe that every child is worthy of love and a family regardless of their physical, mental, emotional or behavioral needs. By stepping out in faith by being open and willing to adopt again, we are simply practicing what we preach!


Good news! Yesterday they took two separate blood samples on Brittney, one from her chest port again and one from Saphenous vein (in her thigh). While the chestport sample still came back positive for bacteria growth the thigh vein sample was negative! This means we caught the infection early enough that it wasn't able to spread to the blood stream! It is an isolated port infection from when her port was accessed for her infusion Thursday. Now we are just waiting to hear whether we will have to stay hospitalized while antibiotics are administered or we will be sent home with outpatient antibiotics.


Hospital day #3 Valentine's Day

Brian and I had this weekend all planned. We had a sitter, hotel and were looking forward to an overnight trip kayaking with manatees. Finally a getaway we have been greatly looking forward to! Our weekend turned out much different than planned, chatting in a hospital room, eating cafeteria food and playing with our little girl.

But this is love. Love lays aside our wants for the needs of others. Love stays by your side. Love makes you family. Love is from God. God is Love! We are happy to be right here in the middle of God's perfect plan on this Valentine's day, a day all about love.


Tomorrow we should hear whether we will have to finish IV antibiotics here in the hospital, be released to finish IV antibiotics with in-home nursing or be transferred to Shands hospital to have Brittney's chest port replaced. We are anticipating being hospitalized all week but we have already lined up care for our kids at home since Brian works Tue-Sat. Times like this show us what an amazing and supportive community of Christians we have surrounding us! Praise God our Britt is doing good and I thank Him daily for YOU!!!


Brittney got to do crafts with the Child Life Specialist and Art therapist while I attended a 4-hour Skype training. Then we got to paint a hospital ceiling tile. Otherwise it's been a lazy day and I am quickly becoming antsy to go home. While appreciated the rest for the first couple days I am ready to be home. I want to pull up my muck boots, get my hands dirty and be back to my busy, crazy farm life surrounded by nonstop children and animal adventures!


Brittney is doing good, just tired. There are volunteers and therapy students during the day and they have many fun activities but we are both are getting ready to be home. A little bad news today, the blood culture from 3 days ago came back positive for bacteria growth still. We can't go home until we have 3 consecutive negative blood cultures and they have to each be negative for 72 hours. So each positive culture sets us back several days and makes it more likely we will have to go through surgery to replace her chest port. We are still praying they can eradicate the infection in her port and we are thankful we have been able to stay local and not transfer to Shands!


Brittney had an awful morning. We had some x-rays and tests and it looks like, even after 7 days of antibiotics, the infection is still present and growing. We will have surgery to remove her chest port tomorrow. They will put in a temporary central line then when the infection clears she will have another surgery to place a new chest port. Now we are just chilling and doing our favorite thing, playing with stickers!


2/19/2016: Click here to see photo on FB:

Just as I want to throw a big, sloppy, loud, ugly mommy tantrum because we got the news we will have to stay hospitalized at least 2 more weeks my phone rings. Another long-distance mama calling me for an ear that just says, "I've been there! I hear you!" This is the third call this week from mamas struggling as they bear the tough weight of this fostercare journey.

She encouraged me without knowing it. I shared our real with her and before I know it I am preaching to myself. About God's grace, His refining fire, and how He didn't make a mistake when He put you right where you are. God used that phone call to remind myself that during these most difficult times He is teaching me (or reminding me) how to rely and depend FULLY on Him. I am so flawed and far from perfect, for if I did have it all together I could point to myself but I don't, so I point to Jesus.

Deep down I know why I am here. I would rather spend 100 days in the hospital with this girl than 1 day at home without her. I may not be able to keep her from having to stay in the hospital but I can make sure that she is never again in the hospital alone. God doesn't need to pour out His goodness on me, for He already has when He called me to be the mommy of my sweet Britt Britt!



So many of you were sweet enough to offer to send a card or stickers to our Britt girl to brighten her stay here at the hospital. Let's do it! Handmade construction paper cards are perfect, no need for store bought, and whatever sheet of stickers you have lying around will bring her joy! SHARE to spread the word to show some love to a precious little girl!



We gots our hairs did! I put lots of bright and happy beads in it to brighten up our hospital stay! We can certainly feel your prayers, this hospital stay doesn't feel nearly as hard emotionally as it could. And a huge thank you for our two packages of stickers today, one from Maryland and one from Las Vegas, Nevada! You guys are amazing!!!


Thank you for your kindness and generous sticker gifts! You can see them all over Britt's legs! Lol! The doctor said she is doing well and surprised us by sending us home today!!! We have to come back in a few days for a check-up so no sticker deliveries will be missed but we can go home!

The doctor just came in and said we could go home today!!! We were expecting to camp out here until early March but they are working on discharge papers now! I am too excited!!!


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