Recovering Noah

It's been so long since I posted here. I wasn't even sure that I would remember my password. And, actually, I really haven't planned anything to write out, but I just had this overwhelming urge to post today. Maybe so that I can look back on this post next year and see how far we've come, I'm not sure. But here we are... and here I am.... 2016 was a challenge. Not just for our family, but for everyone it seems. I look around and 2016 just seems to be a year of hurt. It was a tough year on so many levels.  A little over a year ago, on December 23, 2015, we were told that my husband most likely had a certain lung condition that gave him only three years to live. We are so fortunate that it was NOT what they thought, but it led us straight into 2016 full of fear and despair.... feelings which continue all the way through today.... and may lead into 2017. To condense a very long story that's full of grief and misdiagnoses and full on panic attacks (for me), I wi...

Hey y'all! It's been an entire YEAR since I last updated this blog. I can't believe there was once a time where I blogged daily. I think Facebook has ruined me for blogging because it's so easy to just post a quick update here and there.  My blog posts always turn into novels. ;) A year ago, I posted my educational plans for the kids over the summer. Well, that turned out to be a big wash!  My niece, Hannah, came to stay with us for six weeks over the summer and we decided to can the school and just enjoy our summer break. We had a ton of fun, so it was worth it! So what's happened in the last year and where are we headed? Here's an update on each of the kids: 1. Noah turned 13 last October. THIRTEEN!! Y'all, I have a teenager! Noah's doing really well. Not a lot of progress, but zero regression, so it's all good. We stopped doing biomed with Noah 7 years ago, although we continued to do therapies here and there, as our budget allowed. And, i...

I don’t know if I’ll return to blogging or if this is a one-off post, but what I do know is that I have so many thoughts whirling around in my head and it’s always better if I can just write them and get them all into one place. We just finished one and a half years of homeschooling.  We're now supposed to have a 7 th grader, a 5 th grader, a 4 th grader, and a Kindergartner, but what we have is, well, I don’t even know  what we have. I was telling my parents yesterday that I think I pulled the kids out of public school too soon. I pulled them out because they were failing and their self-esteem was suffering and they were emotionally suffering and our family was falling apart. But I pulled them out before their half-term report cards came back, so there’s nothing official on record to show that they were failing. They would have received an F on their report card, but there is no report card. They would have both been held back if they had stayed through th...

Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that I would go 7 months without blogging. Honestly, it's been the last thing on my mind, and it wasn't until I received a comment the other day asking if I was blogging anywhere that it really occurred to me that I hadn't blogged since February. Generally, when I don't blog for stretches at a time it's because we're going through a tough period. I learned long ago that it's really kind of depressing to read blogs when people are going through a rough period, and even though I wonder if other moms or families would be helped in knowing that maybe they're not the only ones going through struggles raising kids with special needs (especially as they enter the pre-teen years), it does serve as depressing reading. Plus, and I've mentioned this before, I made a mistake of using my children's real names when I started this blog and I wish like anything that we had a bit of anonymity. Also, and this is a repea...

Oh my goodness... how on earth has it been 2 months since I last blogged? Someone warned me that when I started homeschooling that I could kiss my blog goodbye. She was right... I rarely have any free time to sit down and type anymore.  I construct all these elaborate blog posts in my head, but they never make it to the computer. And then before you know it, 2 months have passed by and you don't even know where to begin. So, I'll try to start somewhere... We officially started homeschooling at the beginning of January. The first week was heaven. The second week was hell. And the third week was the same. By the fourth week, things started to even out and we have started to find a rhythm.  It's NOTHING like I thought it would be and at the same time, it's everything I hoped it would be. I think my biggest fear was that I would go crazy being around the kids all day.  And that's hard to admit because it just sounds so awful. But, if you want to know the truth, I ...

I have started and restarted this post a million times. I started it being serious and I started it being funny and then I'd erase it each time because I didn't want to offend anyone... because the truth of the matter is this - when you talk about your educational decisions for your kids, some people are going to get offended. And I hate offending people or causing controversy or any sort of discomfort whatsoever. But here it is... we've decided to pull out Nandi and Eli from public school, and next week, we will start homeschooling them. I'm going to be the first to admit that I'm a bit of an educational snob. I am extremely pro education. I love to read and I love to research and I love to think that my kids will go off and get advanced degrees and discover how to clone people and make robotic machines that will do all the laundry and fold it and put it away so I will never have to do it ever again. I have high , if somewhat slightly unrealistic, hopes for my ...

Our family would like to wish all of you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! May you get lots of kisses under the mistletoe, Nutella in your stocking, remember the reason for the season, and stay up to watch the ball drop. We're ending this year with the flu (all of us!), lots of school meetings, tons o' school drama (more about that later!), and more medical bills than I care to count (another hospital stay for Naveen just last week!!). But this year also brought our missing puzzle piece (Naveen!), new friends, old friends, the loving and continued support of our family, exciting travel, and lots and lots of laughs. May we continue to be so blessed in 2013. Happy Happy Joy Joy and a big Ho Ho Ho! From our family to yours, Meeeerrrry Christmas!

Just wanted to let everyone know that Naveen came home from the hospital late Saturday night.  He was diagnosed as having an ESBL strain of Klebsiella Pneumoniae.  It's a super bug and only responds to a few antibiotics. Fortunately, it's responding to the two that Naveen is currently taking. He'll be on IV antibiotics until Dec 5 and I'm administering them every 8 hours. Let's see... does anyone really think I'm competent and organized enough to handle that?? I flushed his IV with blood thinner the first go around and forgot to clamp his IV shut, but he made it through in one piece. I've got it down pat now, although I feel completely and utterly sleep deprived. I'm usually in bed by 9, but have to stay up until 11 for his night dose and then get up at 5.15 am for his morning dose. And I'm such a light sleeper that I wake up every time Eli goes to the bathroom at 3 on the dot and can never go back to sleep.  The kids will tell you that I'm jus...

I think whether you're pregnant or in the midst of an adoption, you can't help but mark each holiday in terms of what will happen "next year".   "Next Christmas, she'll  be here." or "Next Easter he'll be here."  A year ago, as we were gathered with our family at my aunt's house, I was telling anyone who would listen, "Next Thanksgving, Naveen will be here!" and I imagined him sitting in my lap, all dressed in orange and brown (my favorite colors on my Indian babies), tasting pumpkin pie for the first time, and holding hands while we said grace.  Never in a million years did I imagine that he'd be spending his first Thanksgiving in the hospital. He's doing fine. It's nothing too serious. He just caught some sort of a bacterial super bug that can only be treated with IV antibiotics. We should, hopefully, go home on Saturday or Sunday, with an IV in and a home nurse will stop by to give him his antibiotics for the ...

Update - Oh my word! Never underestimate the power of 3 hours of homework a night to completely upset your whole schedule.  Soooo many things not getting done this week. We are REALLY struggling with Eli's learning issues and his homework. Everything makes sense now that we know what's going on and we're desperately trying to find a way to help him learn. I am really praying about homeschooling right now. Those who know me fear for me.. and my kids! haha. Our family dynamics are not the best for homeschooling. Each child would do good on their own , but all together.. all day long?  But I am spending several hours a day reteaching what they're learning in school AND I spend ALL my time trying to figure out ways to teach them in the way that they learn mess. It's a jumbled mess right now. Ideally, I'd like them in school so I can devote some time to Noah and Naveen, who don't get much attention when the other two come home from school. But at this point, they...

It's time for another Gratitude post. What, you say? Another one? Did we just have one of those? Yes. Yes, we did. But things are crazy and I'm feeling overwhelmed and so I need a bit of perspective. Again. About ten years ago, I remember my mom was feeling pulled in all directions. My granny, my granddad, and my great aunt were sick and my mom was the primary caregiver for all of them. She lived thirty minutes from them, but would drive to see them everyday. Shop for them, take them to their doctor's appointments, do their laundry... and still make it home by 5.00 o'clock and have supper waiting for my dad when he got off work. Just two years earlier, she'd undergone chemo for breast cancer and was still living in fear that it would return.  Sim and I were in the final stages of Noah's adoption, and my brother and his wife lived 3 hours away. She felt stressed, pulled, and all alone. That's kind of how I'm feeling right now.  Just pulled in a...

6 months!! Can you believe it?? I'm not kidding when I say that I sat down at the table Saturday morning and spent a good 30 minutes staring into oblivion while mulling over the fact that November 4th was Naveen's 6 month Gotcha Day. 6 months!! Where'd the time go? So much has happened and things are just so crazy busy that I don't get a chance to blog much anymore. I have great intentions of being a super consistent blogger, but the fact that I have commitment issues, plus the fact that feeling pressured to write everyday stresses me out, means that I end up constructing a ton of blog posts in my head, but rarely type them out onto the computer. So, here's a quick bullet list of what's been going on, followed by pictures! Naveen had surgery on October 12 to repair his right kidney. Knock on wood, we think it worked! We go back next Tuesday to his see both his urologist and nephrologist for a follow-up. Naveen's completely regressed in almost all ...