18 Months

Has it really been 18 months since that day in Chengdu when Yang Rui became Rae Michelle Dear. A LOT has happened in the last 18 months. There have been great days and some horrible days. God has blessed us with this amazing little girl who is full of wonder and many questions. She is making great strides in her language thanks to her awesome speech therapist. We seem to have her blood disorder more manageable, and we do not have to do weekly platelet counts.  She will have have her second eye surgery (hopefully the last)this summer. She has also been seizure free which is truly a miracle.  She has defied science and baffled doctors of how well she is doing. We do still have a medical thing or two creep in occasionally (like missing a permanent tooth and no wisdom teeth), but we mostly just laugh and move on.

Yes, we found out she is missing a permanent tooth, one of the front teeth.  I just laughed when the dentist told me, what else was I to do.  Thanks to our wonderful orthodontist, we are waiting till all her permanent teeth come in before they do an implant.  Thankfully she has plenty of space in her mouth.

Rae is an amazing little girl, and it is fun to watch her get excited about things and learn new things. Our family has been so blessed by her.  I can't wait to see what God has in store for her.

Our first family photo 18 months ago

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What to say..

I know I do well writing some weeks and others not so much. I get ready to start, but then something comes up and I don't get it typed up. I often just put a quick blurb on Facebook. Many things happen in our family each week and I need to do better writing them down, not only for me but for my girls. So here goes...

A couple of weeks ago hubby and I left on a Vision Mission trip to Italy.  Our girls did not go, but they did get to stay with my in-laws for 2 weeks.  I know your first thought - Italy - why? why not? Italy is one of the least evangelize countries in modern world.  You may think they are all Catholic - less than 10% are practicing Catholics.  Here is the shocking statistic - less than 1% are evangelical Christians! This is why Italy. Out of a country of 60 million people, less than 1% have a relationship with Jesus Christ.  It is a sad fact to think of the lostness of such a beautiful country.

For eight days we visited different areas of the country to see where our church would like to partner and help the local Christians and missionaries. We were in Rome, Naples, Arezzo, Milan (Binasco), and Torrino.  We enjoyed meeting local missionaries and pastors, and also enjoyed getting to know the people we traveled with. The main missionary we worked with was Charlie Worthy.  He is basically the coordinator for all the mission work in Italy with the IMB.  It was a crazy, busy trip being in a different city every day.  We are looking forward to seeing where God has us work and sharing with the church how they can. The trip also included getting to see sites of the country and to eat local food.

I enjoyed seeing the areas of the country where Peter, Paul and the early missionaries walked. Visiting the Vatican was amazing as well as seeing the ruins of the Roman empire. We did get to visit the Colosseum where Christians were killed for their faith for sport.  It was amazing to see a country that dates back to Biblical times and to see sites older than America, and it reminded me of when we were in China.  Here in the US we just have nothing that compare to those sites. While there I was just reminded how thankful I am that I have a direct relationship with Christ.  I can go Him on my own and not thru anyone.  He is my sole source of joy and forgiveness

Hubby and I did enjoy a little time away.  We missed our girls and were worried about being away from the little one so long.  They did great, but we did have to do a little disciplining via Facetime. It was nice getting to spend time enjoying each other and to reconnect. We enjoyed holding hands and being silly walking thru the stone streets of Italy. Getting away as a couple is something we need because life gets busy, and we need time alone together away from (almost)everything.

Hubby and I at Sant'Elmo in Naples over looking the city.  That is Mt. Vesuvius on the right.

This church represents the state of the church in Italy. It like many others are no longer in use.

Our Little Reader

We are proud of all our girls. This week all of them performed in our annual homeschool recital. I had trouble figuring out what Rae could do, so I decided she could read one of her books. She has come a long was since November and is really enjoying learning new things. She is proud of herself when she learns something she thought was previously hard. Here she is reading one of her books.

Quick Rae Health Update

Last week we had a busy couple of days of doctors appointments with Rae. In addition to her weekly speech therapy, she had her checkup with her neurologist and ophthalmologist.  Her neurologist is just amazed with how well she is doing.  She has not had to up her medicine, and she has not had any seizures either.  Her doctor was happy how well she has been doing in speech therapy.  She is reading now, and her therapist is helping to fill in the holes in her language that were missing. It is fun to watch her try to sound out EVERYTHING!  It is hard to believe it has been almost a year since that horrible morning.  Rae is just defying science, but all the thanks can be given to God.

Ophthalmologist appointment was a little more difficult.  It was an appointment where they had to dilate her eyes, and do a complete exam. The big question this time was if her eyes were still drifting - sadly - they are.  It is definitely better after the first surgery, but she is still occasionally sees double and the right eye drifts.  We now need to decide if we go ahead and do the surgery or wait another 6 months. She doesn't complain about it, but I do wonder if that causes her headaches. 

This week she will be going to the hematologist to see how things are. She has already had one IVIG treatment this year due to her count dropping way too low.  She is doing great with everything she has to deal with.

One appointment coming up I am dreading is the dentist.  We were suppose to have already seen them, but due to misunderstanding it has been postponed til next month.  I will also be inquiring if we need to go ahead and have some early orthodontia intervention.  I am hoping due to having had all those baby teeth removed so early, it has not caused any spacial problems.

So, she is doing really well with everything as long as we just keep on top of everything.  We are very thankful to God how He has taken care of her.

The Lost Medallion

This past Friday we took the younger girls to dinner and movie since Hannah had teen night. There are a couple of movies out that all the girls wanted to see, so we had to find something Hannah didn't mind missing. I happened to run across a movie being advertised on our local Christian radio's website. I decided to check it out and see if it is was something to we would want to see. It is called The Lost Medallion. It is a clean family-friendly movie with definite Christian themes. It is much like an "Indiana Jones" type movie. One interesting thing about the movie is that it stars Alex Kendrick from the Sherwood Production movies, and he also helped with the movie. The main characters in the movie are 13-something aged kids. There is also a nice little twist in the end.

Check out their website to see if it is playing near you. If you live in Central Ohio it is playing at Easton and Dublin. Go support this great family friendly movie. We need more like this!

May His Praise be Always on Our Lips

I wrote several weeks ago on this blog about our church doing a 21 day fast. The fast could be anything from TV to food. We were to pray and ask God what He was calling us to fast from. Sometimes it is hard to see what may be a strong-hold in our lives, or often we just don't want to admit it or give it up. So, one thing hubby and I did was we chose something for each other to fast from.  I chose something for hubby, and he asked me not to listen to a radio show that I enjoyed listening to in the mornings.  Was the show bad, no. It was a distraction.

I am not a person who always enjoys total silence.  I cannot sleep in quiet.  I can do quiet occasionally, but I needed to find something to listen to as we go about our mornings.  I do have a couple of apps on my phone that I can use to listen to Christian radio.  The ones I use are IHeartRadio and TuneIn. One those you can listen to KLove which is the best Christian radio station - nothing but positive messages, limited commercial, and not too many repeated songs (like our local radio station). You can also listen to them online.  Another place I found great worship music is Praise.com.  This is the perfect place to listen for just praise music -  no dj's, little to no commercials.

I know there are probably others out there.  I do know about Pandora, but it is getting limiting on how much you can use it before you have to pay.  If you do have DishTv of DirectTV they have Christian stations you can listen to.  I do not use those during the school day, but they are great when cleaning the house.

What are you listening to?

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New Recipes

As a mom, we get stuck in a rut of cooking the same foods even though our family likes them. I get tired of cooking them. I do have some standard go to recipes, but I like to change things up every once in a while. My family does get concern when I spring something new on them. Thanks to Pinterest, I have been able to find some good and often more healthy dishes to cook.

Last night was one of them. One kids was a little worried about it, but she decided last night she liked it. One could not get enough. The dish I found was Salsa Chicken. It was recommended by my trainer and my mom said it was an old Weight Watchers recipe. I liked it because you throw everything in a crockpot and 6 hrs later you have dinner. One thing I did do was to buy a good quality salsa since it was the main flavoring ingredient. It also happens to be one of my favorite salsas - Frontera Jalapeno Cilantro. After it was done, I pulled the chicken and put it back in the crockpot to mix back with the all the juices and salsa.  To make it easier for the family I took the tortillas and put the chicken in them with a little cheese and toasted all of them in the oven.  They were a hit! My brain was thinking of different things I could do with it and maybe other seasonings I could use.  I have used a similar version, but with BBQ sauce.  The family liked it as well.

My crockpot is getting a workout this week.  Last night before going to bed, I put oatmeal and apples in the crockpot for breakfast.  I knew since it might be a morning for all of us to be home, and it would be perfect.  Most of us liked it. I just liked having breakfast as a family, during the week.

Up for tonight a family favorite out of the crockpot - pulled pork.