I am back!

Well...it has been about a year and a half since I have updated this blog....poor forgotten blog. The kids are growing up much to quickly for their mother's liking. Cora is 3 now. She has had her palate repaired back in October of 2012. She is just a few days away from her 2nd forever family day. Owen is 5 now. He is in preschool this year and is really liking it. We weren't sure at first as he is a Mama's boy and wasn't real thrilled about going to school without mom. Ethan is 8 and a half. He is in 2nd grade this year. He is doing really great in school. He is playing baseball right now, and will be starting tackle football (it took a little convincing to get mom to agree to tackle instead of flag) this summer. Grace is 11 now. She is in 5th grade this year. School is going fairly smoothly for her this year. Grace discovered gymnastics last year, and she has really been enjoying it. She has several after school activities that she attends, and she manages to stay quite busy.

The whole purpose of this update is to let everyone in bloggy land that follows my blog (all 3 of you) that the Werners will be going to China again. I have felt for quite some time that we could make room for another little one, but TJ wasn't as sure. I had all but given up on the idea when we attended our church service several months back that was focused on adoption. God used another adoptive mama to speak to my husband's heart. It was after that church service that TJ got on board for another blessing through adoption. We have come to the conclusion that our family is not yet complete, and we are making room for another little blessing from China. We are hoping to travel yet this year for our new little person. :-)

There is much to share, but I will save that for another day.

Hoping all of you are having a blessed day.

-Katie

surgery day...or so we thought...

Cora went in for surgery on 10-16-12 to have her cleft palate closed. The plan was to look at her ear tubes, if they needed to be replaced, they would do that and then move on to the palate surgery. I was happy the the anesthesiologist offered to let me carry her to the OR and stay with her until she went to sleep. (I didn't even have to ask!) They told us it would take 4-4.5 hours until she was done....so TJ and I went and got something to eat and then settled into the waiting room for the long wait.

The ENT doctor came up to give us a report on how things looked with the tubes. One tube was completely out, the other tube was occluded with wax, and when they pulled it out there was actually some puss behind the tube. So both ear tubes were replaced. She told us that Dr. Coots was just getting started when she left so it would be 3-4 hours yet.

After about 30-40 minutes...we see Dr. Coots in the waiting room...we're instantly a bit confused. He had come to inform us that he couldn't do Cora's palate repair today....WHAT!!!???? Apparently, the perfectly healthy child we brought for surgery....was not as healthy as we thought. He got in there to get started and he noticed some pus in her sinuses, and she also had a little pus on her tonsils. He didn't feel like it was in Cora's best interest to continue with the repair in the presence of an infection. He said because her cleft is so wide he just couldn't chance it. We were not upset at all with his decision...just completely shocked that she had an infection....and we had no clue.

I still feel a little silly/stupid about the whole thing. She was a little crabby about 5 days before surgery, and I was a little concerned that she may be getting sick. The next day however...she acted fine, and I noticed a new tooth in her mouth...so I assumed that was what her problem was. She has acted like her happy little self since then. She had a CBC on Friday that was completely normal. She had no fever, no cough, no runny nose...so to say we were shocked about them finding an infection...is an understatement. I feel so bad that she has to go through all this again.

She is now home. She will be on an antibiotic for 10 days, and surgery is rescheduled for 2 weeks from today on the 31st...which means she will be in the hospital for her birthday....BUMMER! I guess we will just celebrate early. I think I am going to take her to the pediatrician the day before surgery...just to make sure they think everything looks good. ;-)

This girl even makes a hospital gown look cute!

Sorry about the poor picture quality...but her cute smile was just to cute not to share. I guess we'll get another chance for a better quality picture of her in her hospital gown in a couple weeks.

We were certainly shocked by how this played out, but everything happens for a reason. So whatever the reason, we accept that this is all in God's hands. So now we will continue to pray the infection goes away and that the surgery in 2 weeks will be successful and as pain free as possible.

Happy Wednesday friends!

-katie



Quick update

Just wanted to put a quick update on my completely ignored blog. The last 6 months have just flown by. Cora is doing great, and so are the other kids! We have had tons of doctor appointments between the 4 kids...
I got a call from the school nurse last week that Ethan had an accident on the playground, and she thought he needed stitches. We got to visit the lovely staff in the Mercy ER...and sure enough...it did need stitches. 2 layers of stitches in fact to get his forehead back together. He was really quite proud of his stitched up "battle wound," and was very excited the next day to go to school to show it off to all his friends. ;-) Other than the "battle wound," Ethan is doing well. He is excelling at all things 1st grade. He is such a fun and easy kid to be around!

Owen is now potty trained....yeah! It took about a week, and he had it down...we almost never have any accidents now. My baby boy is getting so big! Owen is still obsessed with all things Star Wars, and wants me to watch Star Wars with him on almost a daily basis...fun, fun! He definitely keeps me entertained during the day when the big kids are at school.

Grace is turning into a wonderfully entertaining young lady. She keeps us busy running her to eye therapy appointments (to get her eyes to work together like they should), soccer games and practices, awanas, and church choir. She can be quite sassy and the dramatics are increasing as she gets older. I am getting eyes rolled at me more and more often. And I am also getting that "mom you are so stupid" look from her more and more these days. She is definitely growing up! She is learning to become more responsible these days. I am proud of the young lady she is turning into.

Cora has made amazing progress in the last 6 months. We don't see any of the quirky "orphanage behaviors" anymore. She started walking in July, and is now running, climbing stairs, and getting into everything. She has made huge progress with her oral aversion issues. She finally started eating baby food off a spoon for us in late July. She is now eating small amounts of table food, and does fairly well with that. She is still cautious around some foods, but doesn't seem to have any fear of it anymore. She is still a bit hesitant to actually swallow some foods that have unfamiliar textures....but we are getting there! She is babbling a ton, but the only words we can understand at this point are Mama, and Hi.

I have left a ton out...but that is a very brief update on what we have been up to. Happy Sunday friends!

-katie

6 months

10-11-12...was exactly 6 months since I got to hold my baby girl for the first time.

She has brought so much joy to our family. We are completely overjoyed that she is our daughter! We are SO BLESSED!

Cora (and Grace) now....

Cora Marie we all love you more than words can say!

-katie

WHOOOOOSH....that's the sound of our summer flying by

Well, I am not so great about keeping this blog up to date. Our summer is literally flying by....3 weeks from yesterday the 2 "big" kids will be back in school. I will have a 4th grader and a 1st grader this year. How did that happen?!?! They are getting so big, so fast!

We bought the kids a big pool this summer. Well big for us...it is an above ground pool that is 4 foot deep....my kids think it is huge ;-) It has kept them so busy, and has been so nice to have something fun to do outside in the 100 degree temps that we have been having this summer. Everyone loves it...even Cora.

Speaking of Cora....she is doing amazing. She's sleeping well, she's been walking for about 3 weeks and getting better every day (I'm sure she'll be running to keep up with her siblings soon), she's adjusting to our family amazingly. Her siblings have also adjusted amazingly to having a little sister. I thought for sure that Owen would go through some jealousy, but he has done so well. They all continue to love her to pieces, and I swear they think she hung the moon. I know they wouldn't use these words, but I think they feel as blessed as TJ and I do that she is part of our family. We are so lucky to have her! Adoption rocks!

Cora has really adjusted easily to being part of our family. Our only real struggle with her...is with eating. While we were in China, she refused to eat anything but a bottle for us. The orphanage indicated that she was eating soft foods so while in China, I honestly thought it would all be better once we got home. We gave her a few weeks at home to adjust before we pushed the issue with food. When I decided to push the issue with her....it did NOT go well. It was like we were torturing her by simply putting a bite of baby food in her mouth. She was literally covered in sweat because she was screaming so much. Even giving her a sippy cup instead of her bottle would send her into hysterics....I decided that maybe we were in over our head and we could use a little help.

We were lucky to be in China with a couple that lives about 10 miles from us....and lucky again that 1/2 of that lovely couple happened to be a speech pathologist. She has given us many helpful hints for helping Cora and her eating, and she also helped us find a wonderful speech pathologist that specializes in eating issues in children. We are learning it is not necessarily a control issue for Cora like we thought, but a sensory issue. For example, she hates having food on her hands, and is very hesitant and fearful of new textures. (You should see her barefoot in the grass....not pretty) I noticed right away in China that she wouldn't put toys in her mouth when she was playing. This is one thing we have really encourage her to do here at home while she's playing. As she is exploring her world more by putting toys and other things in her mouth...her willingness to eat is also improving.

About a month and a half ago Cora was finally starting to let us put very small tastes of food in her mouth, but then she would refuse to swallow anything. She has made amazing progress in the last few weeks....she is now eating stage 2 baby food off a spoon and she is actually swallowing it! We have to make a few modifications for her like reclining her highchair....but SHE IS EATING! We have a long way to go before she is eating like a normal 20 month old, but we are making progress....praise the lord! Please pray that we continue to make steady progress in the eating department.

Cora had tubes put in both ears last month. She can very obviously hear much better now. She interacts with everyone so much better now that she is hearing us better. She is babbling much more now also. She has another appointment with the cleft team in IA city in mid August. We will be scheduling her palate surgery after that. We are thinking sooner than later for the surgery since she will only eat pureed foods at this point anyway. We are working to get rid of the bottles since she can't have them after surgery. I am hoping to have her down to maybe just one a day by the time we do surgery. (She gets 3 bottles a day right now.) I'm a little nervous that we are going to majorly regress with everything after the surgery.

I am sure that I have left out tons of our goings ons in the last couple months, but I know all of you would rather look at pictures that read my ramblings.....so here you go

This is one of Cora's favorite spots to play.

(Please ignore the dirty bib that she is wearing)

 This is Grace on the fourth of July...not looking so happy in the heat....but I love how you can see her cute freckles in this photo.

She is so stinkin cute!

This guy had a birthday and is now my big 7 year old (Please be kind and ignore the filthy         smeared patio door behind him...I find it impossible to keep it clean for longer than 5 minutes) ;-)

Owen and Cora are only 20 months apart in age.....I find their size difference hysterical.

He's near the top of his growth chart (yes folks, he is only 3), and she is barely on the growth chart.



Happy Friday everyone!

-katie

Life with 4 children is....busy!

I am not so good about updating this blog...I am sure the 2 or 3 people out there that actually follow this blog were really concerned about no updates right?!?! Life with 4 kids is busy, but life with 3 kids was also busy...so it has really been a pretty easy transition for us. Our laundry seems to have multiplied dramatically...I seriously can't ever seem to catch up. Cora is doing amazing, and we can tell she is really feeling much more comfortable in her environment now. We are all sleeping at night now....which is amazing. It only took about a week to get her sleeping though the night. Now that we are on this side of it...she really did transistion pretty quickly, but holy cow that first week was rough!

Look at that sweet face....we are so lucky to be her parents!

Cora arrived home about 2 weeks before softball and t-ball started. We were thankful she had that little cushion of time before we were at the ball fields 4 times a week. She is learning to be a lover of all things softball and baseball....haha! She is getting tons of attention from the other parents...so she is having a great time at the games. Owen can keep busy during the games by climing up and down the bleachers, and there are a couple other little brothers of players that he plays with so he's a happy guy at the games also. Grace and Ethan are both having a great time playing...so everyone is happy!

Cora has had 2 trips to the pediatrician's offiice so far. (I wouldn't let them do the shots and blood draw the first time....she hadn't been home a week yet, and I thought that was to soon to put her through that yet, so we had to come back.) She is barely on the american growth charts, but she seems to be a very healthy weight for her height! The 2nd visit....baby girl got 6 immunizations, she was diagnosed with bilateral ear infection, and she got a blood draw and finger poke. She was NOT ammused.

She had her first appointment with the cleft team in IA City last Monday. Talk about a whirlwind day. They didn't really give us a whole lot of information that we didn't already know. The plan is to wait 4-6 months to give her a good adjustment period before we do the surgery. TJ and I both feel like this is great, and we were both very agreeable with this plan. Plus it will be nice for her not to have "ouchies" during the summer.They want to see her maybe 2 more times before they do the surgery. We will probably end up with tubes in her ears prior to the palate surgery, but we most likely will do that closer to home not in IA City.

We have been having lots of fun with Cora. The kids think that it is so fun to take her new places, and do "firsts" with her. Here are a few pictures from the park the other day.

Baby girl LOVES to swing!

Owen cheesing it up for the camera...silly boy!

Ethan was nearly impossible to get a picture of...he didn't want to slow down long enough to get a picture taken....I guess that probably makes him a very typical 6 year old boy!

Grace...my first little love. Love this girl!

The kids still think Cora hung the moon....and by kids I mean Grace and Ethan. I think Owen could take her or leave her somedays. He's getting used to having to share mom during the day. He has done really well actually. It is Cora that seems to be the jealous one. She can be playing happily, and if Owen climbs in my lap....she is over by us in no time and quietly nudging him off of my lap....little turkey! She hasn't figured out yet that Mommy has plenty of room on her lap to love on her babies at the same time!
We have been having so much fun with her home. We feel so incredibly blessed that God chose us to be parents to all these munchkins!

Here is a picture of the kids at the park the other day. We made them take a break from the playground for a picture. (All 4 looking at camera = success!)

Happy Tuesday friends!

-katie

update

I didn't get the blog updated before we left China. We left on Thursday morning Apirl 19. We met our guide in the hotel lobby at 5:45...a little early in the day for my liking...but yeah we're coming home! Our flights were fairly uneventful. Cora did amazing on all the flights. I think she did better than her Mama. Other than a couple emergency poop explosions (by Cora...not TJ or I) everything went great. We didn't bring enough clothes to account for the pooping issues on the plane....so by the time we landed in Chicago...Cora and I both had poop on our clothes....(those tiny airplane bathrooms are not the most ideal place to deal with a extremely messy diaper)

We have been home for 5 days now. We are jet lagged and really struggling to get Cora to sleep well. She slept well for us in China but, now she has developed an aversion to being laid down to sleep. She slept all night last night and it was magical! It's amazing what a little sleep will do to improve your outlook on life! TJ and I neither one are very good at sleeping in a recliner...so we are hopeful the full night of sleep is a trend that will continue. I wouldn't even care if it was my bed she was sleeping in....just so I didn't have to hold her in an upright position all night. She has still been on "China time" and was waking up between 2:00 and 3:00am everyday since we got home, and she would not go back to sleep after that. I don't think we were either one prepared for how exhuasted we would feel.

On a much more positive note....we finally have all our babies under one roof! Cora is doing well adjusting to being home. She is such an easy going girl. (except at night) Her sister and brothers have been so excited to have her home, and Cora really seems to enjoy playtime with them. I let the kids stay home from school last Friday so they could spend time with us and their new sister...they loved that! Owen has been proudly telling everyone that he is a "big brother" now. So cute! We were so ready to be home...we were REALLY missing the kids at home. I will leave you with a picture of all my babies TOGETHER!

Happy Tuesday everyone!

-katie