Lens Implant Surgeries

What a journey we have been on over the last (nearly) three years!  I was looking back at some of the posts from the beginning, and I cannot even describe the emotions and memories that brought back.  Our little man has truly been through a lot.  As his parents, so have we.  As I read through some of those posts, the fear came back like it was yesterday.  Thankfully when I begin to be afraid, I can remind myself of how much worse this journey could have been.  Having talked to Dr. Metz just last week about some situations that could arise (most would have already come up by now), I am reminded once again that we have had a good journey.  I would have never chose this journey for my child, but since it was the journey we were given I am so very thankful for the outcome we have been given thus far.  God is faithful.

We were just talking the other day about how "normal" congenital cataracts seem to us.  It has just become a part of our lives.  I never thought I would have said that.  :)

We knew from the get go that Grant would eventually have another set of surgeries to have lenses put back in his eyes.  We were originally told that he would be close to school age when we did it, but when we went to his appointment in October, Dr. Metz told us we were good to go whenever we wanted to.  He said that his eyes wouldn't be doing much more growing, so it was up to us when we did it.  Longing for our child to be able to see something without glasses, we were so excited!

Having already been through eye surgeries, and having him be put to sleep 5 times before, you would think we would be use to it.  That was not the case.  This mother's nerves were still jumpy.  And unfortunately, I think our little guy could pick up on it.  The morning of surgery #1, he was clinging to his daddy.  :)

They gave him some versed, and he was quite happy after that.  He didn't even know where he was!  When they took him back, they said it would be about an  hour for surgery.  Three hours later....

I was so thankful to have him back in my arms.  We went for our post op check the next day, all was well and the drops began.  This time around they actually did things a little different.  The kiddos are getting an antibiotic shot in the eye while in surgery, and that takes the place of several drops.  This time around we only had two drops to give throughout the day instead of four.  He still had to get them every other hour.  All in all, he was doing good!

He never could get use to the eye shield.  It was quite the nightmare.  :)

 We had two weeks in between surgeries.  Imagine going two weeks with drastically different prescriptions!  His right eye was at a +5, and his left eye was at a +22!  Poor bud.  


We were just as nervous with the second surgery, but we had lots of hope going in that this would be our last one!

He was quite the pistol for this one.  He came out of recovery kicking and screaming, and jammed his finger under his eye patch.  I wanted to pass out when he brought his finger out and there was blood on it!  :/  The nurse quickly added more tape!

At the doctor the next day, we did find that he had scratched his eye.  His left eye was also not wanting to dilate.  We had to add a dilating drop for the next week.  Thankfully everything was going to be fine, he just really hated getting drops in that eye for a few days.  I imagine it probably stung a little.

We played around with some glasses, and finally decided on these.  They will be a slightly different color blue, but I like how they don't hide his beautiful face.

All in all, he has managed to catch up on a lot of sleep, and he is still as wild as ever.  :)  Literally the day after both surgeries we were having to keep him from jumping off of stuff!  His daddy just about had a heart attack!

 He is doing well now!  We went and his prescription seems to be measuring at +6.  It will get better over time, but he can see without glasses on!  Hopefully we will have new glasses to see even better with in another week.  I can't wait to see how he likes them.  Poor buddy doesn't know what he's been missing!  One thing's for sure, he hasn't missed a beat!  5 more weeks of drops, and hopefully we will be done!

I Don't Even Know What To Title This - An Update

Over the last couple of weeks I have thought to write this out several times.  I never could make myself do it, because quite frankly, it's hard.  What I have discovered is even harder is answering emails and messages about it, and explaining it over and over.  So, we thought it was time to put this out there.

We are at a point where we have exhausted every option for adoption available to us at the moment.  I mentioned in an earlier post that we were struggling with China because of a medication I take.  I will go ahead and put this out there.  I take an anxiety medication, and that is a huge issue with international adoption.  I've even considered coming off of it, but most of these countries ask "if you have ever" taken anxiety or depression medication.  The US prescribes these medications a lot more frequently than in any other part of the world.  In China, for instance, if you take an anxiety or depression medication, you have serious mental issues.  It's just not something they prescribe to people who live a "normal" life.  When people have asked me what medicine I took, they were shocked that this was what it was.  Most of the people who have asked take it themselves.

Here are a handful of countries we have personally looked in to.  If it wasn't an issue with my medication, the length of time having to be in country was an impossibility.  Some places require you to be in country for six months before you can bring a child home!

China
Taiwan
Korea
Hong Kong
Ethiopia
Hungary
Poland
Ukraine
Columbia
Costa Rica
Dominican Republic
Haiti
Honduras
Puru
Mexico
Mangolia
Thailand
Ecuador
El Salvador

There are more, but you get the idea.  Closed doors.  Frustratingly closed doors.

So, we started looking into what it would take to adopt state side.  Feeling like the greatest need would be DHR, they were the first phone call we made.

After many conversations, and trying to find any way around the "rules" we could, we finally accepted what they were telling us.  With wanting to straight adopt, you have to be open to at least an 8 year old.  We've been trying to find a child under 5 (a different list of problems because of that).  We didn't have to keep birth order, but we wanted to keep Jacob the oldest.  Without fostering a child, and possibly having them in your home for years and then losing them back to their families, we couldn't get a child under 5.

So then we started looking into attorneys and agencies.  One thing was consistent.  Private adoption in the US is through birth moms and getting infants.  There are infertile couples who have waited years who haven't been matched (Lifeline has families who have been waiting nearly 5 years).  There is NO WAY we wanted to even think about competing with these precious couples.  We want them to get their babies.  :)

We had an attorney tell us several months ago point blank, "You won't be able to adopt internationally because of your medication, and you won't be able to adopt state side because you can have children."  We didn't believe him then.

For 8 months we tried very hard with everything in our ability to make this work, and for whatever reason it just isn't.  We even had someone try to get us to adopt his niece's baby boy on this journey, and that fell through as well.  We know all of this is The Lord's will.  He has been putting our family together since day one.

A couple of weeks ago I was talking to the domestic program at Lifeline, and I was given some very profound advice.  She told me that it wasn't supposed to be this hard to get an adoption started.  It was very obvious The Lord was closing doors for us right now.  As I was crying on the phone with her, she said something I will never forget.  She said, "Crystal, I know your heart.  I don't understand why it isn't working at the moment, but I do not want to see you make, in a sense, orphans of your boys you have at home while you are trying so hard to make this work."

Wow.

So, we have stepped back.  We are enjoying every moment possible with these precious boys The Lord has given us.  We have a huge heart for orphans, and we don't think The Lord is done with our journey yet.  We pray for all of the Faiths out there, and we are thankful for an open door having to do with orphan care.  Hopefully we will be able to share a little bit more about that soon.

Life is good.  God is good.  Who knows what he has in store for our little family.  One thing is for sure, we are doing our best to follow His lead.  Who knows, maybe another little Peoples baby will be in our future.  We shall see.

And just so you know, we turned over our fundraiser profits to a family in the process.  We are praising The Lord along side them as they prepare to meet their little one hopefully one day soon!  Thank you so much for holding our hands and praying us through this.  It has definitely been a faith building journey.  We will continue to do whatever we can to help bring these angels home.

Adoption Update

After six looooooong months of searching and praying, we finally bit the bullet without a child chosen and signed up for Lifeline's Bulgaria program!  It was such a sigh of relief when we got the word that we were accepted, and we could finally start doing SOMETHING!  For me, I kept searching and searching for our child, but The Lord is obviously not ready to reveal her to us yet.  I am one who typically likes to be in control, which is hilarious to think about in an adoption situation.  I truly think that is the hardest part.  You have no control whatsoever.  We are learning to trust in our Maker now more than ever.  Our family's entire future is resting in His wonderful hands, and we know He knows what is best for us.

One thing I truly want to try my best to do throughout this process is be completely transparent.  Adoption is a wonderful and beautiful thing, and I would never want my words to sway someone away from it, but it truly has to be a calling on your life.  I have personally gotten very quickly attached to three different girls' pictures, only to find they weren't the one for us.  And that doesn't count the countless number of files we have asked for and reviewed.  If we didn't feel like The Lord was telling us to do this, we would have stopped a long time ago and got pregnant.  :)  Thankfully, the big man upstairs keeps us going when we feel like we can't go on.  And y'all, we are just in the beginning.  What a process!

Our boys, especially sweet Jacob talk about our little Faith all the time.  Jacob refers to our spare bedroom as "Faith's room," and he is always asking me questions about her.

 

We had some friends over last weekend who have a newborn baby, and Jacob and I had a blast loving on him all night!  There is really nothing like snuggling up to a sweet newborn, especially knowing that you won't lose sleep at night because of him!  ;)  Jacob asked tons of questions!  He kept asking if we were going to get a baby like that.  I told him that mommy and daddy were through having little babies, and we wouldn't have anymore.  Bless his little heart.  His face drooped, and he cried, "But what about FAITH!!!??"  It touched my heart so much.  I assured him his sweet sister will be with us one day, but she wouldn't be that little.

 

He also tells us quite frequently that we need to hurry up and go get Faith and bring her home with us.  Oh, how I wish it were that easy!  Mommy and Daddy would hop on a plane tomorrow!

 

 

At the dinner table the other night, Jacob told us he had a dream about Faith.  This was one of my favorite memories that I wanted to make sure I could remember forever.  He said that he was holding my hand and we were walking through Bulgaria to get Faith.  We would get closer and closer and closer.  And we almost got to her, but he woke up.  And then he said, "Mama, I didn't get to see her face."  Talk about a moment!  Then he immediately started asking me if people were being mean to her.  That boy has a heart the size of Texas.  I am so thankful for him.

 

 

Now that the process has officially started,  we are doing fundraising like crazy!  We had a yard sale last Friday and Saturday, and we are doing the same this weekend.  At one point last week, it really slowed down.  Wayne came up to me, and said, "Make me a sign that says Help Me Bring My Daughter Home.  I'm going to go to the side of the road like they do for Little Caesars."  And that he did!

 

 

 

And we also designed some t shirts.  We have had lots of sweet friends and family get these, and I can't wait for the first order to come in this week.  They are green (not as bright as this) with chocolate brown writing.  If you are interested in a t shirt, shoot me an email at peoplesfamily5@gmail.com and I will get it to you!

 

 

 

My hope is that through keeping a record of what all we are doing through this process, is that our sweet Faith will know she is so very loved.  I may not have a baby book from her end, but she will be able to see that her family was fighting to get her.  And that includes extended family!  Wayne's parents and sister have worked their booties off helping us!  There is NO WAY we could have done all of this work without them.  We will always be thankful for that.  And my sweet parents can't stand that they don't live closer to where they can help more.

 

 

And let me end by telling you how awesome our God is.  If you've ever thought of adopting, but didn't think it was possible because of the money, please don't let that stop you.  The Lord will provide!  The night we put our application in we found out our first payment was due in two weeks.  We were not prepared for that one!!  We quickly got the yard sale and t shirts together, and we still have one more day and over a week and we are only $400 shy.  To God be all of the glory for the great things he has done and will continue to do!!

How Do I Begin?

The last six months or so I've really been lacking on this blog.  I kept getting farther and farther behind, and it was so overwhelming thinking of all the posts I needed to do to catch it up.  It literally paralyzed me from writing because I knew there would never be enough time to catch it all up.  So here I go again.  I'm going to throw a whole lot at you that ALL deserve their own post, but giving them a mention is better than nothing.  Right?  I will vow now to try and post once a week or so to try to keep this family keepsake up.  :)

We started off the year with our little man turning two.  :)  Or should I say :( ?  I really am one of those crazy mothers that dreads my children growing up.  I am trying really hard to embrace each new stage though.  To start out his birthday, we headed to the zoo.  It's kind of become a birthday tradition of ours.  We ran into some friends while there too.  We came home and had a little family party for him that night.  We had a big party for him that weekend, but my mom still has the pictures.  :-)

Jacob also had his tball season come and go.  If I can say so myself, this little dude is a rock star!  He moves up a league next year!  Let the real fun begin!

The boys sang in church, and this was Grant's first time.  They both did really good!  And I still hear "The Lord's Army" from Grant about 500 times a day.  I can't help but think how much that has to make Jesus smile!

And that pretty much gets me to Mothers Day.  I have several pictures to share from then, so I'll let this be all for tonight.

Looking at these pictures and seeing how much they've grown since then is almost too much!  :-)

Blessings!

We're Not Going to China

Can I just say that the last three months have been a whirlwind of emotions!!!  From the previous posts, you can easily see that when we started the process we were China bound!  We were so excited, and had many visions and dreams of a little Chinese doll entering our family.  God had other plans.

When we first looked into China, we met all of the qualifications, so we didn't think anything about the possibility of it not working out.  We went to meetings and talked to several social workers with a couple of different agencies, and we found out one thing that would change our process from that moment forward.  I take a medication that China will not let you adopt if you take.  They gave us the option to get a letter from my doctor to explain everything, and we did.  It was sent to China, and we were so excited to see that they were giving us a waiver!  The only kicker was that we had to adopt from their Special Focus list.  We prayed, educated ourselves, and prayed a whole lot more.  We started looking into other options as far as countries go, and we had one door after another close.  We kept praying that The Lord would make it clear, close the doors we shouldn't walk through, and open wide the one we should.  After trying close to fifteen countries, we came to the conclusion that this window of an opportunity to China must be where we were suppose to go.

I never could get peace.  The more we learned, the more not at ease I was.  (Wayne was honestly handling this part better than I was.)  You see, the Special Focus list is a severe special needs list in China.  Don't get me wrong, Wayne and I are open to certain special needs, and are very open to the possibility of a cataract baby, but we also need to greatly consider our boys and our finances.  Neither one would really allow us to have a child that would have to be hospitalized frequently.  We KNOW if The Lord leads us to something like that, He is the ultimate provider and will always provide the resources, but that is just where we were at the time.

One night, about a month after we started this process, Wayne was filling out a preap online with an agency to see what possibilities it might would give us.  It came back with one country.  Bulgaria.  We both shrugged it off.  It was a country that requires two trips, which was not what we wanted.

Ha.  Ever tried to tell God your plans?

We continue this journey for about two additional months, and I was in complete turmoil.  It was literally consuming me.  We kept trying and trying to find some sort of loop whole with China, or some child on the Special Focus list that was a good fit with our family.

One night, after a full week of sleepless nights, my phone beeps with an email coming through at 11:00.  I grab it and Wayne rolls over and is reading over my shoulder.  It was the adoption agency from two months before trying to give us more information on their Bulgaria program.  I knew at that moment we should start praying.

The Lord got me out of the bed at 4:30 that morning, and I prayed, read scripture, and prayed some more.  I knew we set out for an Asian country, and I knew that it would have to be from Him to change Wayne's mind on that.  I prayed for guidance, assurance, and the changing of Wayne's heart if necessary.

A few hours later I sat and called the social worker who had emailed me the night before.  I tell her our entire story, all the closed doors, etc.  I tell her we wanted a girl (that had been a problem in some countries), we wanted to keep birth order (that had been a big problem in lots of countries), and I explained the medication I was on.  Her response to everything?  "That's not a problem."  After grilling her for nearly an hour, she told me we were the perfect fit.  I started crying.  It was a cry of pure relief.  I knew God was answering our prayers, and every closed door was starting to make sense.  Our daughter is obviously in Bulgaria.  One problem.  I knew Wayne would say, "but it's not Asia."

I prayed for his heart throughout the day, and I told him a little about it while he was at work.  When he got home, he came straight to me and told me he really thought The Lord was making it clear where we were suppose to go.  He told me it might not feel comfortable for us, and it might not be what we had in mind, but it's not about us.  I couldn't believe what I was hearing.  We were about to start a journey to Bulgaria.

source

For those of you, like us in the beginning, who aren't quite for sure where Bulgaria is, it's in Eastern Europe.  From what we've been told by our agency, Eastern Europe has some of the worst orphanages in the world.  Those are stories for another day, but it will break your heart.

And if you are wondering what these little angels look like, here you go.  They typically have dark hair and dark brown eyes.

source

As far as the agency goes, All God's Children International was the agency that contacted us.  We were going with them, but financially it makes more sense to use Lifeline here in Birmingham.  We have been talking with them the last couple of weeks, and we are really enjoying getting to know the ones who are going to help us find our daughter.  We are also in the process of moving to a different house, so for about the next month everything is kind of on hold.  I will definitely keep you updated as our home study starts.

Please continue to pray.  God has already shown up so big throughout this process, and we are trusting He will continue to do the same.  All the glory belongs to Him.  The Peoples family is very excited about this journey!

My Hiney

Weird title, huh?  There's a story behind that.  Most of the time our children are so much fun.  I mean, seriously, who couldn't have fun with these sweet guys?!?

I don't think before last week either one of them had truly embarrassed me.  Sure, they've had their moments out in public, but that's never embarrassed me.  Stressed me out?  At times, yes.  Embarrassed?  No.

That all changed last Wednesday at Praise Team practice.  Wayne was practicing with the team, and I was playing with the boys like we normally do.  I leaned over slightly while playing with Grant, and Jacob thought this was the perfect opportunity to fluff my dress.  My dress went above my hiney for all of the team to see.  Did I mention my back was towards the Praise Team?!  As in, right in front of them.   

Embarrassed didn't quite cover it.  I'm sure in about twenty years I'll think it's funny.

This kid...

cracks me up!!!!

In a waiting room yesterday, a little Asian girl walks in and he says, "Look mama!  I think she's Chinese!!  And now she has a mommy and daddy!"  I got an interesting look from said child's Asian mother.  :)

This next story needs a little explaining.  A few months ago, our Fritzie girl went way "hup in da sky" after mama somebody ran over her.  We stupidly immediately went that day and bought a toy poodle.  Well, last night, he was really having a moment where he was missing Fritzie.  He was crying so hard saying, "I miss my Fritzie girl so bad mama!  I wanted another big dog like her, and all I got was a POOOOOOOOODLLLLLLLLE!!!!"

These are the days!

Backtrackin' - Easter in Pictures

I have a confession.  I can probably count on one hand how many times I've picked up my camera in 2013.  It's just way too convenient to use our phones!  Unfortunately, I've sacrificed good quality images for that, but we at least have what we need for memories sake.

We had an Easter Egg hunt and party the day before Easter at church.  It was good fun!

Then we headed to Granmollie's to help cook for Easter lunch.

The bunny came to our house Easter morning.

We celebrated the real meaning of Easter at church.

And we hung out with some pretty cool people for the rest of the day.