Laughter

I'm ready for some chuckles, how 'bout y'all? I very much agree that laughter is the best medicine and is an incredibly healing outlet for sadness and stress. So. Have some headlines on me:

"...as we commit our cows to each other..." Them southern folks are so sentimental.

Yum! Man nuts!


By, "many stains" do you mean, "many stains" or "many stains"?

Oh, my gosh, can you imagine installing one of these in your shower!?!

Those are some talented deer!

Well, that explains a lot.

I am a sucker for honesty.

Oh! What a nice touch!

Hilarious.

This is a Christmas tree that was sent to the White House. Some small town Christmas tree farmer has absolutely no faith in our officials and their staff! They're probably from our neck of the woods, too!

"Just in time for Santa!"

In Memory

Richard Malachi's namesake, our Gramps, passed away last night. He was a great guy. Worthy of naming our son after. I'll post more later, but I want to post these pics of our favorite grandpa.

We love you Gramps.

See you later.

The 2 Richards

always sneaking ice cream

Gramps & Gram

When Micah was doing his internship.

Finalization!

T'was the night before finalization
and all through the house,
all my babies were sleeping sound as a mouse.






The sweaters were laid on the bunk bed with care,
In hopes that they'd be worn without complaints or glares.



Then the big morn arrived and with it much glee,
as we drove to the courthouse for the adoption decree!


The judge, with a smile, announced to the hall:
This boy is a Lewis now, once and for all!
He signed the magic paper and closed the magic book.
And out into the snow, with smiles, our new son we took.





This precious gift we've prayed for, God graciously did give.
Now our darling little Levi we're giving back to Him.

We promise, Lord, to raise him in the path of knowing You,
And teach him the beauty of Your word, that in his life You may shine through.


There's no better present then a blessed son at last,
One given to us in adoption today, One in a manger in the past.

So merry Christmas everyone, let your hearts be light!

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Conclusions, Candy Canes & Cousins

(Zephaniah's first candy cane!)

Well, Zephan's bio-mom had court today. Somehow I didn't know about it, but it's just as well because (drum roll, please).....she signed relinquishment papers. Our baby is legally free! We'll begin his adoption paperwork after the holidays!


I haven't missed any of his case court proceedings, so did I forget to write this one down on the calendar? Did I get the usual reminder letter and not open it? Did it get lost in the mail? I'll probably never know, but I'm relieved. It would have been really difficult watching my son's sobbing birth mom sign her rights away. Maybe it was divine providence that I didn't have to deal with all that. Now that she doesn't have a reason to stay sober and clean though, I worry for her. Especially come Christmas. There's a little guilt there, that on Christmas day we'll be enjoying the little booger while his birth mom is probably crying her eyes out. She has no family. If she was making better choices I would consider arranging something with her, but I can't have her around my little guy when she's battling these addictions. And visits seem to be hard on him, anyhow.
Please pray for her?

(This is Zephan and his cousin, Bree. I'm just posting it because, well, they're really cute.)

What Child did This?

Baby Jesus has been MIA for a while, now.

Micah smiles and says He must have ascended to heaven already.

I personally think he ascended to the chubby right hand of a mischievous little baby I know.

Does anyone else find it a bit odd that he only took baby Jesus? I totally would have pegged him for the cow who's missing an ear. It makes me smile to remember all the baby boys I've chased away from this manger scene. All the little chubby faces. Some run smiling, some run crying, but they all run; little diapered hinders disappearing down the hallway. Some drop the wise man, some hold their forbidden treasure close as they try to escape.

We usually happen upon one or two kidnapped figurines around May (although, sadly, the donkey has never been found and is presumed a casualty). And back in the closet they go to wait for the next baby boy who will inevitably try his hand at the Annual Manger Gauntlet.

It's SNOWING!!

Getting ready to go out into the snow:

In Celebration...

...of Micah being done with the term (he now has a couple of weeks off before the beginning of next term), we decided to open one set of gifts early.

Most of the tags read, "To: Daddy From: Daddy",

but a few were just for the boys to enjoy, like the Lego Star wars.

And Mommy even got in on the whole mess by getting the Wii Fit. I don't do video games, folks. I would much rather read a book. That having been said, this smart-alek Wii Fit has been a blast. It keeps track of your weight, BMI, workout time, and offers tons of fun training that really gets you moving (and laughing). One of my favorites where my children line up on a soccer field and chuck balls and shoes at me (you actually make Wii characters that look like each member of the family). I have to dodge the shoes and smack the balls with my head. The yoga is cool, too. And because you're standing on this special mat thingie, the system actually senses if your doing it right and helps you do everything correctly. It even berates you if you miss a day, like yesterday when I logged on, "Well! Hello, Nee! Too busy to train yesterday, huh? Well, I guess I'll have to try harder to motivate you." Then it shows me my weight.

Jerk.

I was in the hospital with my baby, OK? Stupid machine?

But, I love it.

M & L Productions

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Our stay at Dornbecher...

...was actually very nice. I couldn't be happier about the staff and the care my little one got there. If it's necessary to spend a prolonged period in a hospital, the beautiful view, sweet nurses, built-in Starbucks, playrooms (both indoors and out) and even Christmas carolers of Dornbecher's make it relatively easy.

Here's Zephan getting ready to head out the door while Mom and Dad gear up for the drive and stay. He's such a toughie.The view outside the surgery unit was so beautiful. We were waaaay up high.

Daddy and Zephan watching Kung-Foo Panda on his cool little TV while waiting for the anesthesiologist.
He likes the crib. Before the surgery, that is.

Here's our slightly inebriated baby just after the surgery. He hadn't had anything to eat in about 22 hours and he. was. hungry.

The culprit:


and Zephan the next morning, all better!

"FEED ME, WOMAN!!"

"Protected treasure of God". It just works on so many levels!

Embarassed or Relieved?

After the surgeons at Dornbecher Childrens Hospital extracted a penny from my baby's esophagus, I can answer:

...a little of both.

I'm going to bed, now.

Finals and Finalization

Today was the last day of the term for Micah. The last few days has brought the dreaded word upon us: Finals. The late night cram sessions and study groups has left him weary and worried. He just walked in and announced, "I'm DONE!!". What a relief! He's fairly certain that he got the A's he needed to apply for.....the nursing program. Yes. It wasn't too long ago that he was in school for x-ray technology. He finished the program and earned a degree. He has a great job that he likes in this field, but thinks nursing will offer us more security and a larger home to contain these boys of ours.

I'm proud of him. He'll apply in the spring and we'll take it from there, I guess. I asked, "What if you get in? Isn't this school full time, 5 days per week for, like 2 years? Doesn't it have a crazy internship that requires a huge amount of time at the hospital - unpaid, like the x-ray did? How will we pay the bills?" He responded with, "Yup. It will work out somehow. It did last time, didn't it?"

I love this man's faith. It's a fine example for our sons: If you want it, find a way to get it. No excuses.

And speaking of our sons: We are scheduled for our adoption ceremony at the courthouse on the morning of the 18th!!! The judge will sign Levi's new birth certificate, finalize his adoption and pose for pictures with us. December 19th, 2008 Levi will finally be a Lewis!!! For realzies!! I'm so stoked.

In other son-related news, this past few days has seen Zephan gagging a lot. He's had trouble swallowing his beloved food and drooling in mass amounts. He's been totally reliant on his milk bottles for nutrition, and it wasn't getting any better, so this morning we took him into his physician. There's no infection, no strep, the ears looks good, no fever. The kid just can't swallow anything solid. And when the docs (the 1st doc was stumped, so she brought in another doc...who also ended up stumped) felt his neck up and down, little Zephan's eyes got wide and he promptly freaked out. The consensus was that there may be something in his esophagus which is only allowing liquid through. So, Wednesday morning we're off to the hospital to force a Barium Swallow on our 13-month-old. He has to fast and then drink this contrast stuff, then they'll take pics of the glowing liquid as it goes down.

Sounds like fun!

My worst fear? That it's some sort of tumor, abnormality, or cancerous growth. Goodness knows that his in-utero life was tumultuous at best. Permanent physical damage is not out of the question here.

Second worse fear? Levi clotheslined the kid when we weren't looking and he got some sort of collapsed trachea. Levi tends to be a bit rough with his baby on occasion. But wouldn't we have known?

I don't know if I'll be more relieved or embarrassed if they yank out Solomon's Darth Vader head that's been missing from his action figure.

Poor baby.

Adoption News

Here's Zephan enjoying his rabbit. Gosh he loves that bunny. I'm ever so glad she's so tolerant of him and even appreciative of his affection. They are quite a pair.

I saw his birth mom at court and sat by her as we waited in the lobby. She confided in me that she had attempted suicide 3 weeks prior. I cried with her. I have never had a relationship with a birth parent like I have with Zephan's mom. I truly care about her. I monitor her myspace page for news of how she's fairing and keep up on where she is. I make sure she has new pictures of Z at almost every visit with document firsts written on the back for her. Maybe this makes her grief worse?

She hasn't seen him in 6 weeks as the caseworker said we were going to reschedule visits for a different time of day due to the baby's panicked behaviour upon being picked up by the transport worker. She felt that an after nap visit may ease his anxiety. She said she'd call and let me know when they were rescheduled, but I've heard nothing. Maybe mom's mental state has something to do with the preempted visits? I can't say I'm not happy about the lack of visits, though. Visit days are tough on him, and thus me.

The last court session ended in an uncomfortable question for the caseworker, "So, parent has not made adequate progress to return child home and it looks like this will not happen. Target adoption date?"

Caseworker: "September of 2009."

I put my arm around birth mom as she cried.

In happier adoption news, here's us filling out forms at the lawyers office for Levi's name change and our information to be sent on for the judge to finalize!! YAY!!