Hand Picked With Love

Chic Shopper Chick: CSC Giveaway: A Micralite FastFold Stroller!

2008-08-08T10:37:00.000-04:00

Chic Shopper Chick: PICK ME!!!!!CSC Giveaway: A Micralite FastFold Stroller!

I ran across this wonderful giveaway and so want this stroller for Samuel... so that we can enjoy hiking along with our camping for the entire family. This stroller is lightweight and the best in upcoming hybrid to enjoy. It also has one handed driving which is a big plus especially when I have to also walk Jessica and her unstable gait. I am crossing my fingers that we can put this stroller to use for many years to come as Samuel may need the stroller for years to come due to inabilty to walk at this point in time. I know that if he is able to walk in the near future it will not be for long distances but with this awesome stroller he can explore so much more!

2008-08-07T15:29:00.003-04:00

WILL WE BE CHOSEN AGAIN TO ADOPT??

The hardest part often in adoption is the waiting to be selected by parents who will entrust you to care for their precious ones. We have been through this process several times and did not think we would begin the journey again at least not so soon after Samuel. He is only a year old and continues to work hard with his therapies and makes progress daily. But we are asking yet again for individuals to consider us for a very special adoption.

This time our focus in somewhat different....through the wonderful world of blogs we discovered that there are 3 life size stuffed puppies needing homes. The kids have been wanting a puppy but have no time to feed and walk a puppy so we have told them to wait. Well the wait may be over. These puppies immediately tugged at my heartstrings due to their markings.
The first is your typical dalmation when we adopted Timothy we told the lady that we did not care if he was black, white or polka dot. He is bi-racial and now that he is 5 he says sometimes that he is just like the firehouse dog black ad white. The second puppy needing a home is also black and white as is Claire who is also bi-racial but the one that tugs at my heart the most is the brown and white spotted puppy. Samuel our youngest has what is called a mosaic disorder which caused undevelopment of his brain. When he was first born the original adoptive family left the hospital once they realized that he may not be "healthy" and he "looked different". That's when we got the call we were on the way no matter what he was our son. Now his coloring is somewhat spotted and discolored but that does not bother us at all and he was hand picked with love to be a part of our family.
Please consider us to be parents of these adorable puppies I believe that they too were hand picked to be a part of our family and with on going therapy appointments, kindergarten and preschool they need just the right amount of care I can offer. Unlimited hugs and kisses from the kids and Claire may very well try to get them a bowl of food in case they become life like only for a moment :)

Thanks for your considerstion..... ready to knit them some welcome booties:)
http://www.5minutesformom.com/3961/three-stuffed-puppies/trackback/
Here are some photos of our little guys :)

2008-05-23T09:26:00.006-04:00

Just a few photos of Sam :)

Hoping to blog more often but Sam lets you know why it sometimes just does not happen.

Samuel pushing up like a big boy his head control and strength is so improving with therapy. Two weeks ago his sight improved so much that he was able to see bubbles. It brought mommy to tears as we were sure he would be blind and it seems that God has allowed him a miracle.

2008-05-23T09:09:00.012-04:00

My little Graduate

This week was a busy one but was also a quick trip down memory lane. Timothy who will be 5yrs old in June graduated from preschool. I cannot believe that it has been that long since I got the wonderful call to be his mommy forever. He was definitley hand picked to be a part of this family and despite being adopted - he is 100% my husbands son. He enjoys reading maps, is so concerned with time and schedules and so loves to ride his bike.

As he walked today wearing his white cap and gown with the largest smile that would make anyone melt. My eyes began to fill with tears as my little boy is ready to begin school. He is so excited that he will be in the "big" school and we are blessed to live close to a wonderful school.

2008-02-18T22:53:00.002-05:00

Hope everyone had a wonderful holiday - Ours was busy and the first without Papa Price. This was difficult as I so miss my dad and more importantly the time that my kids will not have with him. I have memories but they only have photos and limited memories. I think of him as Sam's guardian angel as he continues to overcome his delays. Good news is that his head control is getting stronger and he is also showing some signs of having more vision. This week he noticed his hands. The best explanation via his Physical therapist is that he is now 8 months old but developmentally he seems to be at at the 3-4 month level. We will take it.... On Feb 14th Samuel got his first bottom tooth!!!! It is so cute still trying to get a great photo but sooo sooo cute :) We are starting to plan for our family road trip this summer from Indiana to Seattle Washington along the coast of California and back to good ol Indiana. In a few weeks we will start shopping for the family pop up camper... I am getting so excited.

2007-12-14T17:07:00.000-05:00

Challenging Times But SO Worth IT!!!!!

Our latest Blessing little Samuel has been diagnosed with a condition that we are unsure how it will impact his development. He is missing the end piece of his Corpus Collosum(CC) known as the splenium or partial ACC (Agenesis of the Corpus Collosum).... What is this you might ask? Well the CC is the communication center for the brain that allows the left side to talk with the right side. The splenium is know to be where the visual process often take place. We were very blessed to discover this problem early as it is not always detected especially with someone like Sam who is not drastically affected. I simply noticed that his eyes were not tracking correctly which in itself was difficult as he has great hearing and was following every sound including footsteps. Once we made a trip back to the doctor he noticed a slight tremor in Sam's eyes and rather than saying "lets just wait and see" - he ordered an CAT Scan of the brain. The results only revealed a slight swelling on his occipital lobe which is where vision processing takes place. However, it was enough yet again that our doctor ordered an MRI immediately. As I awaited to hear whether or not there was indeed swelling - you can imagine my concern when the doctor himself called with the results and he stated that " Samuel is missing a part of his brain". Hmmmm swelling vs a missing part of the brain. Now it was time to worry!!!

I did all the possible research one could do online and by the time we saw a neurologist at Riley hospital in Indianapolis. She deemed me a Collegue and well educated and asked why I made an appointment. Although this was flattering and I know that my online medical degree*laughs* I wanted as many answers as possible did she have any of these? Nope but another genectic neurologist thought the possibility of a "syndrome" and mentioned a few that had liver and heart problems - However, all his test were negative for any abnormalites with his heart and liver which was great news. We have since also had a follow up ultrasound on his head as there was some concern of possible hydrocephalus but this too was neagative.

SO now Samuel continues to see a Physical Therapist weekly who attends our church and is great to work with. He is already able to roll and is getting stronger with his head control which was before somewhat floppy due to low muscle tone. He is tolerating pushing up on his hands while on his belly. Eating has been difficult due to his high pallette (upper roof of his mouth) solid foods that is - no problem demolishing a 8oz or more bottle. We also just recently saw a pediatric opthamologist who says that his eye itself is healthy and that his vision difficulties are mainly going to be related to his brain processing the visual information he is taking into his eye. At this point he has limited interest in toys due to his difficulty seeing them . He is starting to bat at hanging toys and starting to enjoy textures on some of his toys. He is a huge music fan and makes attempts to sing along.

My most favorite of his accomplishments is that he said Mum Mum weeks before he attempted Da Da and that took coaching from Dad to practice the sound. When he fusses it usually starts with mum mum and ends with Da Da Da Da DAAAAA DAAAAAA

I will try my best to keep you updated with his accomplishments - My goal for 2008 to keep more updates on this blog.

2007-07-14T15:26:00.000-04:00

IT'S A BOY!!!! Samuel Oliver

On June 15th, 2007 a wonderful little guy was born and was meant to be our son thanks to a set of Wonderful birthparents. He weighed 8lbs 2 oz and was 21 inches long. Timothy and Claire are so excited and this morning I heard Tim singing... "I so love my baby brother....I so Love my baby brother" After the loss of baby Charles I always thought that Tim was meant to have a baby brother here on earth just as much as an angel brother in heaven.

This journey was a little more difficult due to location but the birthparents never faltered in their decision and we are so excited to share our busy household with another little one. Steve is taking grad classes this summer but should be home next week which will give me a little break from 4 kids 24/7 every little bit helps :) Now that the family is complete I am going to do a better job of posting to keep people up to date with all our happenings.

2007-04-11T13:36:00.000-04:00

NOW!!!

Then....

Claire- THE Princess

When we were blessed with the news of baby Charles we were already matched and awaiting the arrival of Baby Claire who was expected at the end of June(2004). After losing Charles and making Claire's birthmother aware of our loss she assured me that soon I would be holding my new daughter. However, as June began to get closer we had some loss of contact with the birthmother and I began to fear that we were going to loose yet another child. On June 7th I recieved a call from a lady who was the biological mother of our birthmother- someone I had never met who was questioning her daughter placing this baby with us. She was asking if any "papers had been signed" - Well No because that cannot be done until she is born...... "she was born yesterday and her sister cut the umbilical cord". My heart sank it was happening again we were not going to be parents to this little angel and not only that we may never meet her. As Time went on I was unable to reach the birthmother to make sure she was ok - this worried me more than anything at least she was alive and being cared for. My baby Charles was resting in Gods arms.
Then one day as I sat staring at computer screen which held a screensaver of Baby Charles - I said a little prayer.... "Charles please watch over my little girl and keep her safe and please let mommy know what God has in store will I be a mommy again (tears began to fall)" The phonew rang and it was the bithmother and she was apologetic and asked if we "wanted to come get our daughter" My heart began to race and the answer was of course YES!!! The funniest part is that we were at the hospital to care and bring Timothy home. With Claire we picked her up at a Pilot gas station and began to bring our little princess home.
Claire is true princess with a hint of Tomboy..... her and Timothy are extremely close and were meant to be brother and sister. Jessica loves having a little girl around and it is so much fun to watch! She was meant to be our daughter despite the hardships and the time her birthmother needed to simply be strong and make the best decision for her child.

2006-12-08T13:11:00.000-05:00

Baby Charles - Only Here Briefly! "How about a Brother"

Well it was what I always refer to as my whirlwind week. On March 29th, 2004(Monday) I helped a friend by watching her boys while she had a c-section to deliver her daughter. As I left the hospital and headed to the gas station my cell phone rang.... We had just been selected by a birthmom to adopt a baby girl. We were so excited that Tim would have a sister come June.

On Saturday at 2am the phone rang- Steve answered and all I remember was him saying sure and then giving directions to our house. As he hung up the phone he said a baby girl will be here in 20 minutes. WHAT! It was the Child Services we were foster parents and they had an emergency placement. Once we settled around 10 am I realized that Steve was taking Jess to her high school prom and she had no dress. So I went Shopping with two little ones Timothy 10 months and the foster child 2 months. Not to mention Jessica would need full assitance in the dressing room. We survived she was dressed had a great time at the prom with dad. That evening when we got home we noticed on caller id that several calls had come in while we were gone from a number we did not recognize............Hmmmmmmmmmm

At 10pm the phone rang coming from that same number Steve answered and then gave the phone to me It was Timothy's birhmom. At first she was just asking normal questions How is he doing? Is he getting big? any problems? and then a question to me Do you guys plan on having more kids? I replied with eventually we hope he will have a brother or sister.... she replied How about a brother...... Are you pregnant? nope I delivered a boy today..... he is small but doing great 2lb 15 oz.

I was esctatic and Steve was hesitant as you remember we were waiting on a baby girl in June and this was only April. We decided that we would do this for Timothy as this was his biological brother. He was perfect when I arrived just small. I continued to visit in the NICU and the doctor said that he would most likely be released in a couple weeks. He required no assistance other than a feeding tube. The on April 15 in the afternoon the phone rang and he was diagnosed with NEC( necrotizing intercolitis) His intestines were no longer working and if they were to tear he would need surgery and they might be unable to repair them. So we dropped Timothy with grandma by this time the foster child was with another family as we foccussed on our family. After driving for 2 hrs of a 5 hr drive we learned that after going to surgery there was nothing more they could do. He would not survive but they would keep him on a ventilator until we were able to be with him.

After 13 days here on earth with us we placed him in Gods arms for eternity on April 16th. We would never trade any of the time we had with him. Most importantly we were chosen by his birthmother to care for a second child of hers and this meant alot. He is forever the guardian angel over our family and we will always treasure him as a part of our family.

2006-10-25T15:36:00.000-04:00

Well our next blessing was Timothy( summer 2003) - We commonly refer to him as the whirlwind.... since his adoption happened so quickly. We were in the process of completing our home study when I started to make phone calls to decide which agency or facilitator to use for our adoption. We were open to a child of any race or gender and therefore within in a week we got a phone call for a baby whose due date was Father's Day. I thought this would be so great and not to mention it was only a week away. We were to talk to the birthmother on Tuesday since Monday night we already had tickets to take Jess to see the Dixie Chicks. She is always full of smiles and laughed so much at the concert. We were to speak with the birthmother at 7pm and who would know if she would even choose us or not. SOOO Steve went shopping for hard wood floor to install in the house.... I was running errands with Jess and the cell phone rang at 12 noon on Tuesday..... She was IN LABOR and wanted to talk with us now! So we talked and she had to go to get the hospital(she said can you come now its time)--- I had to call Steve at the Hardware store and tell him to come home ..... We were having a baby!!! Her labor took less that 15 minutes once at the hospital and we had a long drive so we arrived 4 hrs after delivery. Although we called in route to discover that it was a BOY!!!

As we arrived at the hospital the nurse directed us to the first room to meet his birthmother. She was already walking around and waiting for him to return from the nursery. I provided care for him in the hospital while sharing her suite at the hospital- this allowed me time to get to know her and Steve took care of two of her other children at the hotel until she was released. Timothy had to stay an extra day to make sure there was no infection due to leaking amniotic fluid. She never faltered in her decision to place him with us and when

After spending time with him in the hospital we were nervous as anyone would be while they wait for all the papers to be signed. Once all the papers were signed we left the hospital and went to visit with his birthmom and take some most treasured photos. There is not a day that we are not thankful for the most precious gift she entrusted to us. Now we have a great strong young man who is already three years old and a excellent big brother to both of his sisters.

He is so compassionate with Jess and wants to help feed her, read stories, and loves to dance to make her laugh. What more could a mother want to see her child act as Jesus would do in his daily life. Timothy is named after the priest that married Steve and I ..... 8 years ago.

2006-10-18T15:31:00.000-04:00

RETT SYNDROME

I thought it would be fitting to start by giving everyone an introduction to our crew. Jessica is 24 yrs old and she has been a part of our family since the spring of 1999 6 months after Steve and I were married. She was 16 yrs old and we were blessed to have her be a part of our family. Jessica has what is known as Rett Syndrome - this is a neurological disorder which affects mainly girls as most boys often die from complications either prior to birth or shortly thereafter. Jessica is very fortunate that she remains healthy and is still able to walk and eat without the need of a feeding tube. Which is great cause she LOVES to eat despite the fact that it is hard to maintain her weight.

As you may notice in the photo Jessica's hands are in a wringing motion which is a classsic symbol for Rett Syndrome. October is Rett Syndrome Awareness Month and I challenge everyone to visit the IRSA website www.rettsyndrome.org to learn more about this disease. There are ways that you can help find a cure so that other girls might not suffer from its affects. Keep in mind Jess is soooo spoiled and we would not have it any other way. If you visit the website you can make purchases on amazon or book any travel plans for example through travelocity and other discount providers. A percentage of you purchase can help support IRSA to find a cure. The gene mutation has been discovered now we just have to find a cure. These girls are known as silent angels as they are unable to speak. Consider yourself touched by an angel today and say a prayer that we might put an end to Rett Syndrome. But I do ask that you not feel sorry for Jess and she is blessed and has made our life such a blessing. We could not imagine our life without her.

Timothy loves to feed "his sister" and even pipes up to order a salad for her when we go in the McDonald's drive thru. Today I caught him dancing for her to make her smile and it worked. Claire loves to feed Jess popcorn and any other thing she thinks she should share. Jess is the oldest in our crew and I will tell more tomorrow. Wow two posts in one day!

2006-10-18T11:55:00.000-04:00

I am making attempts to get better familiar with posts and especially pictures. I think this will take me little longer than I hoped..... Claire started speech therapy this week and the therapist was impressed with the number of words that she has. However, it is obvious that most of those words are not always used in the proper context. She also makes a great parrot which is a great skill to learn from.Timothy had a great time playing withh all the new toys that the therapist brought. I think this will be the biggest challenge- letting Claire work without him distracting.
I hope that my next post will include photos of the new house as well as fun poolside her at the house.

2006-09-29T19:11:00.000-04:00

I am my Kids Mom :)

Jessica, Timothy and Claire

2006-09-29T16:06:00.000-04:00

READ ABOUT US

After reading many others blogs I decided to join the land of "blogworld". I am hoping that it will be a great way to keep family updated as the kids continue to grow super fast. At first it will be a matter of catching everyone up to this point with a few summer photos eventually. Just as soon as I get things figured out. For those of you who may be meeting us for the first time we are a family that has been blessed through adoption with four beautiful children. One whose name is Charles is our guardian angel(4-16-04) and the biological brother to our son Timothy. I titled my blog Hand Picked with Love as each one of them was hand picked by God to be a part of our family regardless of how long as they were here on earth. I hope you will all continue to enjoy reading about our busy and wonderful life. Speaking of busy I have to go tend to little ones as I speak. Hope to see you soon!!