CONGRATS HOCKEY DIVISION B CHAMPS!!!!!

The Monarchs won the DIVISION B Championships!!!! This was an amazing game and their team was really fresh and they literally lost most of their games at the beginning. They had an awesome coach but he was new to coaching on this league so when the draft came for players he found out the Ethan and Owen were the # 1 And # 2 draft picks and since they are brothers they have to be drafted together (my rule because I want them on the same team). This coach had the first draft pick and he drafted my boys first. Well by the time his 3rd pick came along, there were very few experienced players left so we ended up with a team that had 2 amazing players (Ethan and Owen), a couple kids who had played a couple seasons and a bunch of brand new players. Luckily the new players had potential but it was pretty disheartening for the first many games as Ethan and Owen were out there desperately trying but they just got beat badly for many games. Finally about mid season something changed and they started to do better and better. Ethan was Captain and Owen was Assistant Captain and they both did a great job at mentoring the other kids and they really came far. Finally, we went to playoffs and we won-- then we went to finals and amazingly, we won against a totally stacked team that had only lost 1 game. It was a phenomenal game and we all just sat there with our mouths hanging open when we realized the other team was going to lose to our little under dog team. The final score was 5 to 3 and Ethan scored all the goals-- good job sweetie!!!!! It was an amazing game and season!!!

In the midst of game play

Ethan is 15 in black



Owen is 14 in black

Coach giving Ethan (Captain) a winners talk and he made a speech about how proud he was with Ethan that he really mentored the other players-- he almost cried!!!! It was amazing!!!

Ethan on cloud 9--- Couldn't find Owen for an individual pic. He was off celebrating with a few other boys.

The girls love the hockey games!!! Cousin Kylie came to this one too

The Whole team!!

Dog piling on the goalie-- he was awesome!!!



The coach took all the boys out to dinner because they won and at the last minute we decided to host a hockey swim party next Saturday so I will post pics of all these crazy hockey kids going crazy in the pool!!!

GOOD JOB MONARCHS and my CAPTAIN AND ASSISTANT!!!!!

And for your viewing enjoyment...

We have some video. I don't post video much because honestly I just forget to but tonight I went on a kick and here you g-- 4 lame videos of our family. Welcome to a typical night at our home. Yes it is loud and yes it is crazy but it is never dull or boring. So tonight Owen spilt his mazzithra (sp??) cheese pasta on the ground and decided he would use the vacuum to clean up his mess. Kevin got the great idea to vacuum Owen's hair because the cheese was in his hair as well. Well, here is what ensued:

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Craziness I tell you-- craziness!!!!

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And then we move onto Finley and her little personality. She cracks me up.

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Our little helper. She is so funny and is the best worker in the house (Owen takes a close second - you saw him vacuuming earlier- he loves to work around the house). It was so funny because we see the same dynamic with Ethan and Owen as we do with Finley and Mia. Owen works hard and then all of a sudden Ethan will realize that whatever Owen is doing might be interesting and will come up at the very end and try to act as if he had been working the whole time. Sadly, Mia does the same thing with Finley. Finley was clearing the table and when it came time to punch the buttons on the dishwasher all of a sudden Mia decides she wants to be the one to push the button although she had not helped at all-- Finley did all the work. So sadly we have 2 great worker and 2--ummm..... not so good workers-- :)

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And wonderful Miss Mia telling her amazingly creative story-- NOT!!! It's kind of cute.

Happy 4 year Gotcha Day ~ May 21, 2007~ (3 days late-opps)

I'm 3 days late on posting but things are crazy around here but I did not want this day to pass without recognition of our beautiful little girl and her 4th anniversary of her GOTCHA DAY!!!!!

Yes, 4 years ago on May 21, 2007 in Changsha Hunan China, we saw our beautiful little girl in person for the first time ever. She was just 6 months old but she was full of personality and she melted our hearts immediately. Here is when they handed Mia over to us for the first time.

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Back in our hotel room. She was wide eyed and taking everything in. She was perfection!!

So 4 years have passed and our little girl has experienced amazing growth and changes. She has turned into a smart and kind leader who has a magnetic force that attracts others.

Among the many things she has tackled, she has gracefully and lovingly opened her heart and her bedroom to her new sister only 3 and a half months ago. She has proven to be a caring and loving sister who has taught Finley so much.

She has shared her mommy and daddy and has given up the role of only daughter gracefully. While the transition has not been perfect, it has been a learning experience for Mia and she has grown in the process. She is a proud older sister and loves her mei mei more than anything!!!

She is a leader and leads in a loving manner and loves nothing more than to get everyone playing together!!

She is our picture of how God's plans are perfect. She is a picture of how He adopted each of us into His family and how He loves us unconditionally. She is my big girl whom I love more than how far the east is from the west!!!!

Happy 4th GOTCHA Day my sweet girl!!!

Where are we now??

Kevin is healing well but is still in a lot of pain and cant drive yet, so life is crazy busy running 4 + 1 husband around. He is not even close to back to normal and is on crutches for the time being so it makes things difficult to get around but he does manage to walk each day and is able to help around the house with the girls a bit. BUT, primarily it's me and I must admit, I AM TIRED!!! I am sitting here now on my new little Dell laptop (arrived in the mail on Friday-- since my others were stolen-- its a little mini-- love it!!!) and actually relaxing for the first time I can remember in a while. I am enjoying it but all the things are going through my mind on what I need to be doing to get the kids ready for the week and get to the grocery store to get a few things-- uggg-- I wish I could turn off my mind.

Anyway, we had another neurosurgeon appointment for Finley on Friday and we have a bit of a plan now. First off, we have one DR who comes from the wait till symptoms occur camp and another DR who is from the do preemptive surgery before symptoms occur. The two DR's have mulled over the options over and over and have come to a consensus that they want to see if the possible "symptoms" that I am seeing (clumsy, flat foot run, tires easy) are because of the tethered cord or just typical 3 year old things. She will be seen soon by the Spina Bifida clinic where all specialties look at her and make sure everything is good. They will be able to see if the "symptoms" are related to the tethered cord and if so we will have surgery ASAP. The other part of this that is really good is that the DR said that there are some strange kids that have a very stretched cord due to tethering but they somehow never show symptoms-- ever. He says it is rare but there are some kids that just defy the odds. He said that Finley is a bit strange to him. He asked her to touch her toes and she just bends over and does it. He then watched her bow her back and do almost a back bend while playing on Kevin's lap. He says there is no way she should be able to do those things being as tethered as she is. He said when touching her toes it should either hurt or she would avoid doing it or if she does, she should be leaking pee. He said she just does not fit the typical profile right now and he does not know if that will always be the case and if it is, he does not want to do unnecessary surgery. So, that is the plan as of now. We will get into the SB clinic ASAP and start running tests to get baselines and to see her overall functioning levels and then we will go from there. Overall, we are happy with this plan and hope she is just one of these strange kids that never show symptoms. That would be amazing!!! We pray for that!!!

So for your enjoyment, here is Finley's school picture. I put it on facebook but had not posted it on my blog. Every time I look at the picture I laugh hysterically!!!! I think she has the funniest picture in the world!!!!

So we are working on getting Finley to learn how to smile. She is working on it but is not totally there-- here is another try. I took it with my phone. Getting better :)

The girls are obsessed with my bra and they put them on all the time. They make me laugh. I know it is embarrassing but here is this is a picture I took with my cell the other day-- too funny!!!!

Oh ya, on a final note, Miss Mia decided she would finally do what all moms pray their daughters never do-- can we all say it together-- CUT HER HAIR!!!! Oh yes she did-- she cut her hair-- and yes the bangs. It is not horrible but her bangs are at about her mouth and they use to be the longest part of her hair-- so we have a cut scheduled this week to make it look a bit better. Also, she informed me later that day that she also cut Finley's bangs!! They are very not bad but you can tell a little bit when her hair is being pulled back. Oh happy day-- uggggg!!!!!

Home & More Professional Pictures

In an effort to keep your interest during this long update blog post, I am putting some of our professional pictures here and there. These are some from literally the very beginning of the CD that we were given. I have 186 pictures and these are some I chose from maybe the first 50 so I will post tons more as the week goes on but all I have to say is that I love them!! I love having these awesome pics and so many of them are candid or all funky-- things I would never do with a camera. Anyway, enjoy and I will put more up soon.

Kevin made it home from the hospital yesterday at about 5pm. He is in a lot of pain but we are keeping on top of it and making sure he takes his pain meds. He has done really well with moving and walked quite a bit today. He is able to navigate up and down the stairs on crutches as he became a pro on those 4 years ago when he broke his hip (the reason he had to have the replacement) and was on crutches for 5 months. Shoot, Kev walked the Great Wall of China on crutches, so going up and down the stairs post hip replacement is on crutches is nothing to this pro:) He will start physical therapy in the home within the next few days and he will slowly be able to move more and more in time. This is a slow recovery but he is strong and will be back to normal in a bit.

We are so thankful for all your love and support and our Sunday School Class started bringing meals to us tonight which is such a tremendous blessing to not have to think about making food in the midst of trying to so everything else. Tonight our good pals The Murphy's (who will be leaving to adopt their son from Russia in about 6 weeks) brought us some true good southern cooking-- Chicken Fried Steak, mash potatoes, green beans, corn bread and a home made pie!! It was AMAZING as Charity is from the south and knows how to do it up proper!!! The boys got home from hockey starving and I swear they ate everything that was left besides one steak--- YUM!!! Thanks so much Murphy's-- your amazing!!!

The kids are doing well. This whole Kev being out of the picture a bit has given Finley and I a chance to bond better. We were doing fine but she still HAD TO HAVE Kev put her to bed and really still went to him for the love and nurturing unless he was gone and I was a second. BUT, with him in the hospital and even now kind of out of commission, she seems to really be attaching to me well. She is actually happily letting me put her to bed and is choosing to hang with me instead of Kevin. I know that sounds lame when I type it, but choosing me over Kev for her is HUGE and I feel like we have made some strides.

I'm not sure if I mentioned it but they found my car all crashed up. I had to look at it today at the repair shop and I think they are at about $8000 in repair costs and if the engine has any issues, there will be more. I am so very thankful that they found the car and while I hold no hope they will ever catch these guys or get any of my stuff back, the car being found was big. We are now on the security band wagon and we now have window tract things that prevent the windows from being opened even if they are open (they forced open our kitchen window to break in). We now have motion lights on the front, side and back of our house which makes me feel so much more secure. And best of all, we now have an awesome alarm system that is monitored with every window and door alarmed upstairs and down. That really gives me peace of mind and I am happy to announce I have not yet set it off by accident :)

On the Finley front, we had our neurosurgeon talk with the other pediatric neurosurgeon at Loma Linda and they discussed Finley's situation and MRI results and now we are getting mixed messages about surgery now or later. I'm not sure what they are thinking but we are going to go in on Friday to have a final discussion about the timing. The problem is we are saying that Finley has no symptoms of losing function. While that seems true to us, we really don't know how accurate that is. She has somethings she does that we don't think much of but maybe they are symptoms. The problem is if Finley is totally symptom free then maybe we should wait to do the surgery (I don't really agree with that but that is their line of thinking). The problem with that statement is do we really know if she IS REALLY SYMPTOM FREE??? We have only been with Finley for 3 months. We don't really know what she was like a year ago and if things have changed since then. Finley runs kind of flat footed and she is clumsy. She also seems to tire easily when she runs or climbs stairs which could indicate lower leg deterioration. The problem is we really don't know if she has always been like this or are these symptoms that we need to address. So, we are going to meet with them hopefully Friday and give them all these "symptoms" that we may or may not be seeing and let them make the decision if they think we should wait or move on surgery now. I tend to be the kind of person that likes to get things done and the thought of Finley losing function because we waited on surgery freaks me out, so of course I am more inclined to do surgery now, but we want to go with what the Doctors recommend so we will see.

Anyway, that is what is up with us. I hope you enjoyed some of the pro pics.

Another Update

Just wanted to give a quick update on Kevin. He is doing well and was up to walk 2 times yesterday. They would only let him walk a little bit because people tend to overdo it the day after surgery so they made him only walk a bit-- but he did great and had no issues. He has had Physical Therapy and Occupational Therapy come visit him a couple time and will come again today as well. With PT he is walking and learning the correct way to do that with his new hip and OT is teaching him how to do all the little things like put on his socks and shoes and other fun personal things. The OT stuff is only to teach him while he is healing and has movement restrictions so he should be able to do all that stuff on his own soon (not sure how long but hopefully soon). The doctor came in yesterday and said Kev looked great and should be in line to be discharged Sunday. They had thought if he was doing really great that they might let him out today but I think that was a bit too soon and he had a little temperature last night so I'm sure they will keep him till tomorrow. Overall, he is great and we are trying to prepare for him coming home and having to climb stairs to get to bed. We will make it work :)



The kids are good and I was able to sneak the girls into see daddy yesterday. The rule is the kids must be 16-- can you believe that-- 16!!! So clearly the girls are a bit young but I just took them in the elevator and walked to his room like we knew what we were doing and no one asked us anything so we kept going and sure enough we made it to Kev's room. They were so excited to see daddy but Finley was kind of cautious and a bit confused. It took her a few minutes but she warmed up and daddy became daddy with a bunch of tubes coming out of him. I have been so blessed with so much help with the kids. Today we have hockey games and then I'm taking the boys out to see Kev and the girls are going with my mother in law Mary. Tomorrow-- well, I'm not sure yet but I will figure it out :)



Thanks so much for everyone's prayers and hospital visits. It has been nice seeing people drop in to say hi.

After we snuck the girls in :)

Kevin update- quick

Spoke with surgeon just now and Kevin did great. Everything went as expected and he lost little blood. The surgeon said kevs hip was worse than most of the 80 year olds he operates on and he was shocked he never used pain meds. He said his hip was horrible and it was time to get it out of there. He said we should expect another hour or so in recovery then they will give him a room number. I will let everyone know what that is. They expect him to be released saturday or sunday. They said it was a great surgery and keV did great!! Thanks for all your prayers.

They found my car-- yaaaa!!!! Pray for Kevin :)

I got a call at 7am that my car was found just about 2 miles from our house---- yaaaaa!!!!!! The police department called and Kevin went and met the detectives there and a fingerprinting person. I guess the whole drivers side of the car is smashed in pretty bad but Kevin said that is about it. Not sure about the damage on the inside or engine because all the keys were stolen but Kevin said it looked like they had just riffled though everything but that he could see the car seats were still in there. So, they towed the car to a tow yard and will spend the day fingerprinting everything and then this afternoon or tomorrow it will be released to be sent to the repair shop and then we just wait for it to be repaired. I am soooooo thrilled they found the car. This is huge to me and even though there is a lot of damage, it can be fixed and more than likely they wont total it out because the value of the car is still pretty high. So yaaaa!!!! The only good news with this whole robbery.

Tomorrow morning Kevin will go in for his hip replacement surgery. We are scrambling to get everything done before he goes in. We have an alarm being installed this afternoon on all our doors and windows in the house and Kevin is putting up motion lights in the yard. We have tons to do before tomorrow and of course, I am crazy busy at work and have to put in really full busy days. Anyway, everyone has been really supportive during this whole ordeal and we all appreciate all of your support. The blogger community is amazing (as well as my wonderful real life friends and family) and you guys have really supported me through this. Please keep Kevin in your prayers. Pray that this surgery goes PERFECT in every way. The surgeon is amazing and we went tons of work to get to this surgeon so we are very confident in his abilities. So please keep Kevin in your prayers. He should be in surgery in early afternoon and will be in the hospital for about 4 nights. I will update you on his progress.

Thanks again for all of your support!!!!

We were robbed-- Surgery and bad MRI results-- When it rains it pours:(

On Friday night while we were all asleep in bed, we our home was broken into. It was a very windy night so when the burglars pried open our kitchen window it was drowned out by the sound of the crazy wind that we had been hearing all night. The burglars came in the kitchen and stole my purse (with my wallet, work keys, jump drive and tons of other stuff), Kevin's wallet, I-phone, two of our laptops and then brazenly went upstairs into our bedroom where we were asleep and took our laptop on our desk in our bedroom just a few feet from where we were sleeping. A few other things were also taken. They then found my car keys in my purse and stole my Honda Odyssey Van. We did not realize things were missing until about 9am Saturday morning when we were getting ready for hockey. I was upstairs and Kev asked if I had his wallet and phone and I said no but went down to look in my purse and realized my purse was not there. We then started looking around and realized computers were missing and a few little things. Kevin went out to the side of the house trying to figure out how they got in and as he walked by the driveway he saw a large empty space and thought-- where is Christy's car-- sure enough, it was gone!! We immediately called the Police and they arrived shortly after and took a report and dusted for fingerprints. We didn't realize initially that they came upstairs but this morning I asked Kevin where my computer on my desk in our room was. He didn't know and we asked the kids and no one knew and I knew it was there on Friday because I used it but it was gone. We searched everywhere because the last thing I want to think is that that horrible people were in our bedroom while we slept but unfortunately the computer is gone and it always stays in our bedroom, therefore we must assume they were brazen enough to come into our room-- that scares me more than anything.


Needless to say, this has been quite the ordeal. Besides feeling violated and having to clean up the mess of reporting cards stolen, getting new drives licenses (will get those on Monday) dealing with trying to get a rental car with no drivers license and no credit card (BIG PAIN-- still don't even have a rental yet-- Monday) and explaining to our kids that a bad person broke into our house and stole our stuff and car, I am also having to deal with the fact that my work keys were in my purse and the purse was stolen. Mia is a little freaked and was a little teary eyed this morning before church asking why someone would do that. It's hard explaining it to the girls-- the boys are fine- but I can tell everyone is a little on edge-- especially Kev and I. The problem is Kev is having his hip replacement surgery on Thursday and this surgery has been scheduled for months so he is concerned with getting our house protected before he is out of it with surgery. This is going to be a hard next few days trying to calm our nerves and get our life in order BEFORE Kevin's surgery. We have a ton to still do and I am not a nervous person in anyway, but I am very anxious and nervous right now. I don't like feeling like this.

OK, besides the break in and Kevin's life changing surgery on Thursday, we had Finley's MRI results on Friday morning and unfortunately, things were much worse than we thought. While she is exceptionally high functioning (because the Spina Bifida was so low on her back -part of her butt crack) her spinal cord is very tethered to a bunch of fat in her spinal column and when she grows she will begin to lose function. The neurosurgeon said she is already being stretched quite a bit and is surprised she has not lost function at this point. Really we don't know if she has or not because we have only had her since January so we don't know if she has lost function over time-- because she is so functional, but maybe she has lost function we are not aware of. He said that it is not the question of IF she is going to need a detethering surgery but rather WHEN and he is inclined to do it sooner than later because she is already so stretched. We are having another neurosurgeon look at her MRI results on Monday but more than likely we are going to have to proceed with surgery soon. There are a couple bladder function and bowel function tests that must be done before her detethering surgery and both those tests require her to be under general anesthesia (with breathing tube so it will be better than her being put under for the MRI) so we are going to have to get those done ASAP as well. Also, when they do the 6 hour detethering surgery they will coordinate with a plastic/reconstructive surgeon and they will work on making her lipoma more natural. So in all, the surgery will probably be about 8 hours and we have neurosurgeons and plastic surgeons schedules to coordinate to get this done. With the 2 other tests and the schedules to work with, I cant imagine she will be having surgery anytime before mid June but we will see. I'm worried about the surgery but more worried about doing nothing and having her spinal cord stretched and her losing function-- therefore I don't understand waiting for the surgery as opposed to doing it now. Anyway, I will let you know what we decide but for now I'm just glad we know what needs to be done and we can now move forward.

So, as you can see, when it rains it pours in our family. I am trying to stay positive but it is not easy when things are just off. Emotionally I feel on edge and am just really worried about the break in and them coming back again and Kevin's massive hip replacement surgery and then the worries about Finley's surgery, and oh ya, my OBGYN wants me to have a couple procedures that carry recovery time as well (obviously going to hold off on those for now). If you could lift our family up in prayer, we would appreciate it. We are so thankful that we are all ok and that the robber did not have a confrontation with any of us but we are also having a hard time with the violation. Pray they find my van-- that is huge since I live out of my car and we planned on driving it for many years to come and cant afford to take on a new car loan.

Thanks for listening and sorry to be a total downer, but things are not too cool right now. I will keep you updated on any info on the robbery and the surgery issues.

Thanks,

Christy :)