Recovering Noah

Hey, I just wanted to post a quick update about Nandini. I posted the first update this morning and it's now 8:00 at night on Tuesday - and Nandini is slowly starting to emerge. She slept through the night and had a good breakfast. She was still really shy and mechanical with us through the morning. We ordered pizza for lunch (can you believe the best Pizza Hut I've ever tasted is in India??) and she ate a bit. She seems to love anything made with bread. Anyway, she has a terrible cough and fever, so we gave her some medicine and we tried to put her down for a nap. She didn't really sleep, but in a strange way, I think she sort of bonded with us over being sick. We were taking care of her and stroking her hair and rubbing her back - and I think she just started to let go a bit. She's really picking up on things. I sat in front of her and she played "Beauty Shop" with my hair and combed it and tried putting it in a ponytail. She also colored a bit and played wi...

Well, here we are. It's 9:00 in the morning and we just finished eating breakfast. Nandini ate almost a whole piece of buttered toast, some scrambled eggs, mango, pineapple, and a bit of idli (a South Indian dish). She's got a terrible cough and cold, so we're going to introduce her to the world of icky cough syrup in a minute. I may let Mom take care of that one. lol. Okay, where to begin? No matter what I'm about to write, just know that today is better. When we went to the orphanage yesterday, we spent about an hour doing formalities and going over paperwork. Finally, they took us to the school room where the informal school was going on. It's a bit like preschool. Anyway, there were about 10 kids in there and when we opened the door, Nandini and another little girl came running over to us and started hugging us and begging to be picked up. I was so excited because I couldn't believe she ran over to me like that. Then, she realized who I was and she went int...

In 40 minutes, we are leaving to meet my daughter for the very first time! Right now, Mom is sitting in the hotel restaurant chowing down on South Indian food and chatting with a couple from CT that is also meeting their daughter today. I, however, can't stomach a thing. I'm so nervous and excited that I'm afrad to eat. The good news is that my belly is getting smaller. lol. Seriously, though, I'm afraid to eat because I just don't want to chance getting sick or anything. The food's been great, but nerves are getting the best of me.We're in Pune now - the City of Nandini. :-) It is GORGEOUS here. I love Pune. It's completely different from the part of New Delhi that we're staying at. The Seasons Service Apartments are really nice. There's a pool and an indoor playground. The orphanage is two blocks away and we saw some of the kids sitting in the window when we drove by yesterday. When we got here, I had a terrible migraine and went to bed immedia...

We're here! We arrived last night at 11:30pm.... after 28 hours of travelling. And we are exhausted!First of all, the flight from Brussels to New Delhi was excellent. I cannot recommend Jet Airways enough. They treated us like stars. The service was fanastic, the food was incredible, and the in-flight entertainment system was awesome. (How do you like all those adjectives? lol). Anyway, we finally landed... and our greeter wasn't there! We waited an hour and a half - and were dripping with sweat. It was midnight and about 90 degrees. So, I called the greeter guy that Holt gave us and his phone was turned off. We finally found a really nice guy to help us out and he let us use his phone and helped us buy a ticket for a prepaid taxi. I was so grateful - and a bit disoriented - that I tipped 1000 rupees. Yeah, that's right. 1000 rupees. Mom scared me to death when she calculated that I'd just given a stranger $260 dollars.Thank goodness she's bad at math (as I obviousl...

The Countdown Begins In 40 minutes, we are leaving to meet my daughter for the very first time! Right now, Mom is sitting in the hotel restaurant chowing down on South Indian food and chatting with a couple from CT that is also meeting their daughter today. I, however, can't stomach a thing. I'm so nervous and excited that I'm afraid to eat. The good news is that my belly is getting smaller. lol . Seriously, though, I'm afraid to eat because I just don't want to chance getting sick or anything. The foods been great, but nerves are getting the best of me. We're in Pune now - city of Nandini . :-) It is GORGEOUS here. I love Pune . It's completely different from the part of New Delhi we're staying at. The Seasons Service Apartments are really nice. There's a pool and an indoor playground. The orphanage is two blocks away and we saw some of the kids sitting in the window when we drove by yesterday. When we got here, I had a terrible migraine ...

Well, I don't have anything insightful to post, but thought I'd pop in and say that we made it safely to Europe. Just another 16 hours to go. Ugh. I always thought my bottom had a lot of cushion, but let me tell you, it is ACHING. We are going to look for something good to eat, but everything is written in French. Hello, people! English is the universal language. (Just kidding. That was for you, Geri). And I did complete 2 years of college French, but I can definitely say that it's not like riding a bicycle. It has not come back to me. So, we may starve. Except my mom packed a bag of mini-sized Snickers on her carry-on. God Bless Her. Okay, just a quick note to say hi. I'm not sure when we will get another chance to use the computer. We are anxiously waiting to get to India and soak it all in. I cannot believe that we'll be meeting Nandini for the first time on Monday. Can you believe it??? Oh, and if you want a good, inspiring read, then check out "Lea...

Well..... the big day has arrived! We are leaving for India in a few hours. I cannot believe it's all about to happen. When we started the process back in January, we were hoping that Nandini would be home by March. 2008. And look at us now. We're about to leave, and she'll be back for Thanksgiving. Thank you God! So, I have all my bags packed. I ended up packing 18 outfits for Nandini. But you can mix and match, so really the possibilities are endless. And since she'll only be with us for 5 days before we leave for back home, I'm thinking that I overpacked. Or maybe it was my dad saying, "Are you crazy? Do you really need all that stuff? How are you going to carry her and lug that suitcase all over the world? You only need two outfits. Have you ever heard of washing dirty clothes? Huh? Tell me. Have you?" Therefore, after careful consideration, I was able to weed out 5 outfits - leaving us with 13. I mean, it's going to be 90 degrees there. I'm ...

Now that I refuse to let autism rule my life, I'm able to see the humor in it. Okay, sometimes. Usually after having a bit of chocolate. But we all knew that, didn't we? So, anyway, I thought I'd post this picture that I took of Noah. Only another mother of a child with autism can understand. It's Noah discovering that Nandini's Swan Princess Barbie Carriage is much better than those stinkin' Hot Wheels that he's been playing with all these years. Oooh! Big, huge, gigantic wheels. That spin. And they're so pretty. Go Barbie! :-) Noah's Mom

It's 8:00 in the morning and the kids are asleep. Eli finally went to bed around 6:30 - this morning. Which means that I am one tired mamacita . He's doing better now, but started running between 103 - 104 temperature last night. I have no idea what it is, but he gets these little episodes about 2x a year. He'll get a sky high fever, stay up all night shivering and whining, and then be fine in the morning. It's happened about 6 times in the last 3 years. Very weird. Of course we're not complete ogres. We did break out the pharmaceuticals. Thank goodness for dye-free Motrin. Which reminded me that I need to pack some of that and some dye-free Benadryl for the trip. Both Noah and Eli got really sick once they left the confines of the orphanage, so I want to be prepared for Nandini - and I'm hoping that Eli's episode last night didn't occur simply to remind me to pack medicine. You know, as a premonition of what's to come on the trip. Have I ever m...

Do people even do Flat Stanley anymore? If you haven't heard, it's a great (home)school project. And since I'll be in NY, Brussels, Paris, and India next week (yeah, yeah, I am SO bragging), I thought it'd be a great way to get some pics for your Flat Stanley project. http://www.flatstanley.com/ So if anyone wants to send me a Flat Stanley, you'd better get it to me within the next week. You can email me and I'll send you my mailing address: recoveringnoah@yahoo.com . Of course, NY, Brussels and Paris will all be airports - but I'm sure Charles DeGualle is sporting a mini-replica of the Eiffel Tower somewhere admist the gift shops and souvenir stands. As for India, I can get some really good shots - hopefully. (But we're not going to the Taj this time around). So drop me an email if you're interested! Hey! Maybe I can get the older kids at the orphanage involved. Who knows? That would be really cool, wouldn't it? Noah's Mom

So, as most of you know, Noah is still in diapers. Well, I just got finished changing him - and he had a stinky - and Eli, who is ever so tactful, crinkled his nose and said, "Ewwww.... that's gross!" And Noah knows what's going on, and I didn't want him to feel embarrassed, so I just calmly said, "No it's not. Everyone poops." - so here's our conversation: Eli: Ewwww.... that's gross. Me: No it's not. Everyone poops. Eli: Everyone? Me: Yep, everyone. Eli: Even God? Does God poop? Me: Ummm.... well.... ummmm... I don't know about that one. Eli: So is God nobody? I just told him to wait and ask Daddy when he gets home. And hopefully he'll forget by then. But it completely caught me offguard. Sooooooooooo.... how would you have answered that question? Does God poop? Noah's Mom

Whoo hoo. Crisis averted. The reservations are made... let the packing begin! We'll be leaving in just under two weeks - Nov 8 and returning on Sat, Nov 17. So if any of you are in the Big D around 4:00 that day, feel free to stop by International Arrivals for Miss Nandini's Big 'Ol Texas Welcoming Party. (And, yes, A. Jayne, we should be there for Thanksgiving. Nandini likes dahl, roti's, veggie mish mash, buffalo milk, and bananas. Think you can put that on the menu? lol. Oh, and she also likes chocolate. Little sweetie takes after her mama). Speaking of which... we will be flying via Brussels and Paris. Ooh la la. Let the Duty-Free Belgian Chocolate wish list begin right here... but just know they'll be riding in my carry-on luggage and it's a long-haul flight and Nandini and I just might get a tad bit hungry (and anything involving hazlenuts is guaranteed not to arrive to it's original destination). So, the good news just keeps on flowing. Our church is ...

We're going to India! We're going to India! (cha cha cha). Eli has made me put on Nandini's princess costume... and, of course, being the chocolate loving gal I am (and being 31 years older), the only thing that fits me is the hot pink feather decorated crown and the glitter/streamer decorated magic wand... but anyway, I am decked out in a crown and waving a wand and Eli is wearing his knight costume with his Spiderman mask and we are cha-cha'ing around the living room with our new favorite song... "We're Going to India. We're going to In-di-A". Yep, we finally got our travel clearance yesterday. We're going to India! So, what a relief. The stress is finally rolling off my shoulders. I do know that it will quickly be replaced with the realization that we have to fly to Charlotte, then New York, then to Delhi... resulting in a NINETEEN hour non-stop flight from Delhi to NY on the way back and an overnight stay in NYC and then NY to Charlotte to Dall...

Wow. It's been a few weeks, hasn't it? Our internet has been down and just got fixed. I have to tell you... it was such a blessing. I had no idea how completely addicted I was to the computer. The first day without DSL about killed me. I couldn't figure out what to do with myself. I just kept wondering around the house like a lost puppy. And then, by the second day, I was loving it. The internet, I have decided, is a "Family Time" drainer. Maybe it's not for you people out there with self-control, but I think I have a highly addictive personality and I find myself just surfing the net to pass time. It's disgusting. I hate it. I actually found myself wishing that the whole thing would just explode or something so that I would never have to get online again. I've really enjoyed the past week just playing with the kids and cooking and reading. It's been so great not being glued to a computer screen.. and the kids have loved it, too. Alas, howeve...

NOTE: If you came across this page by googling "Shirt Chewing", please click here for the most recent post on Noah's shirt chewing. Thanks! Sugar. Who knew that five little letters could wreck such havoc? As I've mentioned before, Noah has a terrible shirt chewing habit. I can't quite remember when it all started, but we all noticed that it STOPPED completely when we were in Austin. The only thing that was really different was his diet - since we were living out of a hotel for a week. When we got home, we racked our brains to figure out what it was.... what food triggered Noah' s shirt chewing. We were home about 2 days when Noah started chewing again. Agave Nectar. Sim had put agave nectar on Noah's waffles. We took the agave nectar out of his diet and the next day, the chewing decreased. A few days later, I gave him a peanut butter and jelly rice cake. He started shirt chewing. It had to have been the jelly.. which goes to show that just because it's...

Okay, so this is not going to become a blog about vaccines, but with all the buzz being created by my new favorite person - Jenny McCarthy - people are starting to pay attention. This is a post that refutes the CDC study that vaccines play no part in autism. Wow. I had no idea that the people in the original thimerosal test study in the 1930's were all dead by the end of the study. Wouldn't that make you go... hmmmmmm?? But somehow it's okay to put it in our vaccines? Oh, and isn't it odd that the person in charge of the study is a vaccine patent holder himself and on the advisory committee for childhood vaccines? Like I said, I am PRO-vaccination. Vaccines are good. They're life-saving. I am all for wiping out serious disease. But please take the junk out of them. Please acknowledge that not all kids can handle them. Like Dr. Kartzinel said on Larry King last night.. if you give every child in the world a cat, some will be fine and some will be allergic. All kids ...

Okay, I'm not a confrontational or even a controversial person. Now, I can stand my ground, and I do turn into a Mama Bear when it comes to my kids - but I'm not some hot-head who likes to stir the pot. So, having said that, I think it's worth looking at the full-page ad that Generation Rescue put in USA Today this morning. http://www.generationrescue.org/pdf/070626.pdf It shows you just how many vaccines children under the age of 6 were receiving in 1983 versus how many they are receiving today. In 1983, by the time a child reached 6 years of age, s/he would have received 10 vaccinations. Today, in 2007, that number increases to 36. What gives? I am NOT anti-vaccine. Please understand that. But I am for a delayed vaccine schedule. I think doctors should give one vaccine at a time and monitor individual response. I'm also against what the manufactures put in vaccines. Even though thimerosal is "supposedly" no longer in vaccines (except for the flu shot - it is...

Yea! We're back! Wow, what a week. I know there's no way I can do this post justice. I wish I could just videotape myself talking and put it on here. There's no way my fingers can type as fast as my brain is thinking. I'll get all the frou-frou stuff out of the way first. Eli was NOT impressed with Sea World. Hmmm... aren't we glad we didn't splurge on going to Disney? He was scared of the rides, did not want to get wet, and had a fit when we tried to get him to see the sharks. Apparantely, he didn't like that it was dark in the shark exhibit. Okay, so this is a child who has gone to either the zoo or the aquarium nearly every single WEEK for the last two years.... and he's scared of the sharks?? Oh, and we missed Shamu because I wanted to save it for it last and then got the time wrong... even though it clearly said 4:00 in the guide that I had in the stroller. The poor guard guy or whoever he was was kind enought to let us watch the whales swim in th...

It is 11:45pm and the alarm is set to go off at 4:00 o'clock. And what am I doing? Sitting here blogging. But I can always sleep in the car, so it's okay. We are headed to Austin tomorrow via Sea World. Eli turns 4 on Monday and he's been begging us to go to Sea World for the last 9 months. I think he saw a commercial about it or something and that's all it took. At least we got him to quit talking about Disney World. Honestly, I think he just wants to go somewhere that ends in "World". I once told him that we were going to Wally World (Walmart) and he got SO excited. And he didn't even care when we pulled into the Walmart parking lot. It had the word "World" at the end of it - so that's all that mattered. He is terribly excited. I have a feeling we will be hearing about his excitement for the entire 5 hours it takes to get down there. Sim and I will be half-dead and Eli will be a ball of energy. But it'll be cool. It's always cool to...

I am not that hard to please. Just give me a wad of cash and point me in the direction of the nearest SuperTarget and I will remain on a marvelous high for at least 2 weeks. But today, I discovered something even better. I went into Mardel Christian Bookstore for the very first time. I am majorly in love. I LOVE IT! It weren't for the fact that the kids were getting antsy and I did not (in fact, never) have a fat wad of cash on me, I would have happily stayed there until they kicked me out at closing. What an awesome place. A homeschoolin' mom's place of paradise. If you could see me typing this, you would witness firsthand the goofy grin I have on my face as I'm remembering my journey into the wonderful world that is Mardel. (Insert big, fat, happy sigh). A friend suggested that I buy "The Power of the Praying Parent", so when we had a few hours to kill between therapy appts today, I stopped off in Mesquite, pushed my buggy through the door and instantly beca...