TinkerBell Mia

New life New blog

2009-07-25T18:37:00.002-05:00

I have started a new blog.. I figure a new life a new blog so if you would like to visit it, the link is http://mylightadmired.blospot.com hope to see you there :)

Slide Show For You

2008-12-01T15:03:00.002-06:00

Here is a lil slideshow of all kinds of Pics of Mia for your viewing pleasure :)

Pictures

2008-11-11T14:49:00.002-06:00

Figured I owed you few that remain a few pics at least. I happen to have these on my computer at work so I'm showing them to you :) Mia's First day of school this year 2008-2009 Hasn't she grown?!?!?!
Playing at home with a McDonalds toy

Her fall school pic. It's blurry because it's a pic of a pic but SUCH a good pic, her BEST school or even pro pic BY FAR!!!

At work with Mommy.

Our lil mascot...she LOVES going to work with Mommy

So there you have it. You can tell how much she has matured in the last year. My baby is so big!!!

Mia's FIVE!!!

2008-11-11T13:43:00.004-06:00

Well today is officially Mia's birthday, she is now 5 years old... I can't believe how time flies!

Of course all weekend long, when we had the birthday party at my mom's for family, she was excited all day yesterday she was telling everyone today was her birthday, yet when I woke her up this morning and said happy birthday she matter of factly yelled NO!...lol

My baby is SO not a morning person...lol.

I don't have a camera I can connect to the computer at the moment but my mom and sis got lots of cute pics I will put here or myspace when I get them....waiting waiting waiting...lol

Oh and her lil party turned into a mini slumber party. Jordan (13) Kenzie (11) and Taevy (8) stayed the night and helped me keep an eye on Mia on Sunday so I could get my house clean. It was great to have the help and Mia loved it so much that she cried when she was left with "just" me...lol

So when I get pics I will try to let you know... but definitely wanted to tell you MY BABY IS GROWING UP!!!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY GIRL!!!!

I know 2 posts in 2 days...lol

2008-11-04T09:48:00.004-06:00

Ok one more short post. If you come to my page instead of from a reader you can tell I have changed it all...lol.

Well there is a reason for that. Mia thinks she's TinkerBell so TinkerBell is all over my house so why not her blog...lol.

It's a weird connection for us because I have loved fairies for a long time... actually have a fairy tattoo :) So I am all about supporting her love of TinkerBell...lol

Long time no see

2008-11-03T15:52:00.003-06:00

Ok I know it's been over a year since I posted...sorry. A lot has happened. Phil and I got a divorce, Mia and I lived with my mom for a while, I got a job got my own place, lost that job because Mia had bronchitus for 2 weeks with a 102 fever while on anti biotics got a new job and just plain didn't want to bring all that to the blog. Well I'm better now. I doubt I will post much but wanted to let any of you that are still wondering about us that we are good. Phil is still a great dad and a pretty good ex husband. Mia is happier than ever and is 110% caught up developmentally. She shows us she has more and more vision it seems like every day. I'm doing good. Money's tight but that';s everywhere...lol and there are a lot of newer pics of Mia and I and our dog Timber on myspace.. myspace.com/trugyrl you can even add me as a friend if you want. I don't post much blog wise but I try to keep adding pics even if they are just pics from my phone as I get them and lord knows my mood changes daily...lol.

Anyway sorry if I worried you all now you know

xoxo
Nichole

Pictures, pictures, and more pictures...

2007-10-08T22:43:00.000-05:00

I have all kinds of pictures for you this time. They are posted in the order they were taken and I will give a brief description of what they are. So here you go, you Mia junkies...lol

Just a new hair style I tried out on Mia. I think it turned out pretty cute
This outfit was an AWESOME find. I bought the pants and a long sleeve shirt (not pictured) with the same material as the cuffs at KMart in April I think.
Then in around August I found this short sleeve shirt at another KMart and it goes with the pants as well. You can see the same material in the flower
here are a close up of the cuffs for those that are blind as a bat like I am

And here is a long sleeve sweat shirt I found a few weeks later and I am pretty sure it goes with the outfit as well. Now this whole 4 pc outfit I found at different times and paid around 15.00 bux total for the whole thing. Can't beat a good deal.

I also found these boots at WalMArt and couldn't pass them up. Her black biker boots from last year she outgrew so "luckily" she needed new ones. I LOVE these boots on her and she gets all kinds of compliments on them. The little silver tabs at the bottom say "I love Shopping" and boy does this girl ever LOVE shopping...wonder where she gets that heehee...

Mia has been home 1 year officially on Sept 20th 2007. But she was sick with a cold, these were taken the next day and I love them. Another clearance outfit from KMart...3.50 woohoo
I love how you can see the sun rays in this pic.
She is getting so good about standing and smiling for the camera

Of course sometimes she gets sick of it and gets silly
Clapping is an all time fave for Mia.
here is her Halloween costume for this year. Her hair is not done right but I just wanted to try it on her to see how it looked, and of course show you guys. Last year she was little red riding hood so this year she is going to be little bo peep...lol. I like the nursery rhymes, can you tell...lol. She was NOT happy to have this on just yet however so this is the best pic I took of 5...lol
Then the other day, I think last Saturday, we were playing in the front yard. This is an outfit, well pants, my mom bought her. Are they not the cutest things...4.50 at Kohl's, us women love our deals...lol
She loves being outside and she is getting much braver about walking around independently.

My little girl is growing up :)
And she knows it
Such a pretty face
And a stunning profile
A little lady, she sits like this often...unless she is wearing a dress...lol

Here she is walking around the yard
And walking
And walking
And walking. She wouldn't go far and I kept my eyes on her the whole time, but she never ran into anything. I love how she is practicing using the little bit of vision she has. She will also gladly walk around with her cane if you give her the option and as long as no one is holding her hand...lol
Here is another outfit my mom bought her at Kohl's. the shirt and skirt are sewn together and I bought some thick black tights to wear under it so she can wear it in the cooler months, and of course ya gotta add those knee high boots...lol

So that is about it for me and our family. Nothing too exciting but lots of pics for your viewing pleasure.

Enjoy

PS my baby is turning FOUR in a few weeks, Nov 11th, and we are having a HUGE skating party with family and school kids at one, so this should be interesting...lol

Pictures, school, and an idea

2007-09-08T20:36:00.000-05:00

I am done apologizing...lol. You know I am being bad about updating the blog so no need to keep reminding you...lol. But here are a lot of pictures for your viewing pleasure.

Ok The first picture is an old picture from her first day of school ever last March. Then I have added this years pictures from her first day of school this school year. It is amazing to see how much she has grown in such a short time.

Mia's First EVER day of school March 2007

Mia's First day of school this school year. Same pose. If you look at where her shoulders go to on both pictures you can also see how much she has grown. You have to look at where the back pack rests in the March picture though

As you can tell it was kind of windy...lol
She was being silly. Is this outfit not one of the cutest things?
Just another really cute outfit, her second day of school...lol
And yes the pink "do-rag" stayed in all day, until she came home from school
And then her third day of school I went a little crazy with pictures because I LOVE LOVE LOVE this outfit. Gotta love Wal Mart at times...but this one was double what I paid for her other school clothes so it had better be worth it.
I tell you this outfit is SO cute on her
And when you add the shoes, you can't beat it.
My mommy is being silly
But I will act like I am going to go along with this...
Oh my she is silly
Are we almost done yet?

YAY we are almost done...
Ok ONE more then I am done I need to go to school!!!

Then We had to get rid of Mia's little card table. The vinyl got ripped and Mia was just ripping it more. So we went shopping to find a replacement.

This is what we found. And it fits PERFECTLY in the house. Mia had to get used to it, but now she is ok with the "New" chair...lol

AND I have all kinds of hair dohickies for Mia's hair, I am sure you have noticed this. Well I have been trying to use different things to keep them all together. Well at first I had a small tackle box. Worked ok but too small. Then I got a med size double sided tackle box. Worked well again but the sides came open WAY too easy and I spent a few days resorting things. So when we we at Lowe's the other day we found this tool box. And it is PERFECT!!

The top holds Mia's detangler and combs and brush, and each little individual box holds different items. And then I got a sharpie and marked each box with what is inside of it for easy finding of certain things.
Here is an example of one of the insides of the boxes. Now all of her mini rubber bands are separated by color and is SOOO much easier to get exactly what I need instead of pulling out twelve to find one. I LOVE IT!!
Ok so those are my pictures and the little stories behind them. So be happy I actually got something down this time...lol.

I know I am bad

2007-08-13T20:11:00.000-05:00

So I have included LOTS of pics for you. Not a lot to tell you about in words though so pics will have to do.

Just a neat hairstyle I thought you guys would like
This pic shows all her teeth the best. This was not too many days after the surgery though so that is why her gums look so red.
This was a week or so ago. She is so much happier now that she has her teeth fixed
And so are we
let's Jump for Joy!

And say YEEHAW!!
I went swimming with Grandma B this weekend.
I loved swimming with her
It was really fun kicking in the water
And wearing Grandma B's hat

I love to splash
This is my new favorite thing!
Don't you wish you were here with me?
Hahahahahaha I am special I got to swim
I love swimming with Grandma B

Now I know my mom is going to kill me for posting those pics ut we had to do it. They are Mia's first swimming pics. And she had so much fun. And if you guys are curious that is a suit with a built in inner tube...lol.

Mia has less teeth and whiter teeth too

2007-07-25T16:51:00.000-05:00

Well as you all know Mia had her dental surgery yesterday. And oh my goodness what a long day...lol. We were to be there at 10 am to check in. Well we didn't get her back there until almost noon. Nice huh. But they came out and weighed her, yea she has lost weight because of her teeth, 4lbs to be exact...not good. They came out gave her a shot in the booty and she tensed up and cried but then she melted in my arms, it was too funny not to laugh, we took her to the room and laid her down and she was so out of it she didn't even feel the IV being put in... so that was some good stuff. Talk to me a bit about what they are doing and I go sit in the lobby... fun stuff. I do get permission to leave to go get lunch for myself though...thank goodness because I was hungry. At some time or another they come and get me and say they had to pull another tooth, because they found another REALLY big abscess. So that made a total of 5 extractions, 5 crowns, 3 spacers, and 1 filling...poor baby. About 2:15 or so they come and get me talk to me about how it all went and bring my sleeping baby to me. Let me tell you, I have always thought Mia has pretty lips, well she looked like she had triple Botox injections yesterday afternoon. So they left her with me to wake up and as she did she of course drooled. Well silly me wore a white shirt...yea not a good idea when your child is drooling blood. So 6 blood spots later she is talking and laughing, not exactly understandably but she is swollen so that is to be expected. So we come home, she bleeds drool more in the car fun stuff I tell ya. But we get home she eats 3 packs of pudding...lol. Drinks some milk and is a happier baby, clingy but happy. She also wanted some toast, so I lightly toasted some bread put some cinnamon butter on it and cut it into little bitty pieces, she ate it up. So here are some pictures for you. One shows her teeth before, a few from Saturday, and then the rest from yesterday.

You can look at her front teeth here and see how bad they are

Who would of thought that Saturday she had such a big abscess, plus this is a good picture

Another from Saturday

At home, poor baby has botox lips :-(

Doesn't she look miserable?

She is in a better mood here, see the blood on her shirt and her lips are still swelled up pretty good

Not a great pic but you can see where her front teeth are gone and how nice and white the others are.

And here is a close up of her teeth before

Now I was asked yesterday by my sister if there are any teeth in her mouth that have not had work done. The answer is yes, but very few, they are the bottom front ones that you see in this pic

Once Mia is back to complete normal and the swelling has gone down some more I will take some new pics all together of her pretty new smile. Right now her lips have gone down quite a bit but she is still a little swollen...who wouldn't be. So a few days from now I will take more pics to show you guys. Thanks for all your prayers and well wishes for our darling Mia.

Kansas Sunflowers

2007-07-20T21:04:00.000-05:00

I know it has been a long time. And I am sorry for that. Not all that much has happened so far this month. So this post will get you up to date in less than 5 minutes...lol.

On July 5th I got sick, really sick, couldn't even handle a cracker. I was sick until about July 9th. It stunk big time. BUT one good thing came out of it.

While I was sick I did not smoke much, actually a pack lasted the entire time, a pack usually only lasts 1 day, so for it to go 4 days is a HUGE deal. SO I decided that if a pack can last 4 days I don't need it. So I have not had a Cigarette since July 8th. Woohoo.

Then on the 15th we had our 7 yr anniversary. Woohoo again. Nothing too exciting happened but it is still important.

Then next Tuesday Mia has her dental surgery. I am so happy that this is finally getting done.

Oh and the pictures will be slime for a while. I desperately need a new hard drive because I have hardly any space on mine to download a pic. The picture above is in our neighbor's back yard. You see during the school year they planted a sunflower seed and we were sent home a little dixie cup with a little sprout coming out of it. Well Renae is gardener extraordinaire so I gave her the little seed to plant and let thrive, I would of killed it in a week. Well this is a picture of Mia with her Cessna Sunflower. The one behind her is from the same plant. And originally it had one big stem but it snapped so, so far it has made 3 blooms. And Renae feels like she has a little piece of Mia in her backyard now.

So that is about it for now. Told ya nothing too exciting has been going on...lol

Belated Father's Day BBQ & Meeting Bright

2007-07-03T11:33:00.000-05:00

Well each year on Father's Day we have a BBQ at my mom's house to honor my step-dad Dennis. This year it didn't happen on father's day because they had gone to Nashville with Anita and Eric to go get Bright. SO we had it on Sunday July1st. Let me tell you it was so much fun. Mia was a dream for the most part and Bright... what can be said about Bright, he is soooo stinking cute and such a sweet boy. Here are some pictures of the event. My parents had all but 3 grandchildren there on Sunday it was a joy to watch the cousins play together.

here is an attempt at a pic of all the grandchildren there, my youngest niece Emma was having none of it so she is not in it. From left to right. Samren, MacKenzie, Mia, Naomi, Jordan(holding Bright), Bright, and Taevy. Just a good looking bunch of kids, and MAN do the girls out number the boys.... BUT you should know that there are three grandsons not pictured...they are in Alaska with my sister Jenny and her hubby Chris.
Another attempt, this time moving Bright out from right in front of the tree trunk. And Taevy was chasing down their dog Ivy, so she is not in the picture either. Can you tell Mia is getting tired of standing still?
One last try. Everyone looks really good, would of been a GREAT picture, if Mia had smiled...lol. She had had enough...lol

Then MacKenzie, Bright, Taevy and Mia playing ring around the rosies
Bright walking towards me after he finished lunch. Is this boy not the cutest thing?????
Good profile of Bright...I am smitten
Bright wanted to read books with Emma
Mia was so good with my mom this weekend. She loves her Grandma B and she showed it this weekend. This is such a good picture of them.

I was trying to get a good pic of Mia and Bright together... this is the best of the bunch...lol.
Bright sucking on his beads
Mia sucking on her beads...lol
Nice profile of Mia
We tried to get a family picture of the three of us in our American Spirit clothes. Well Mia was having none of it and Phil and I blinked at the same time, it looks like we were trying to take a pic of us sleeping...lol. Which is how we felt at the end of the day...lol

Huge Praise, and of course some pictures...lol

2007-06-22T19:16:00.000-05:00

A while back we applied for a medical grant for Mia to get her teeth fixed to help us cover the 1500-2000 out of pocket expenses. Well a few weeks back we got a letter saying we would be notified by the beginning of July. We got kind of excited but didn't want to count our chickens before they hatched.

Well today we got a package from UPS. Inside was a little teddy bear with a United Healthcare children's foundation T-shirt on and an approval letter for a grant of up to $1500.00 We are so happy, God has truly blessed us.

Now onto all the problems we have had with Mia's dentist. We got a call back in MAY saying that insurance had covered a larger amount than we though and that our out of pocket was only a little less than $400.00 well We could do that. So we scheduled the surgery for July 2ND. Then we went in to get x-rays and make sure nothing had changed or needed to be added. Well it turned out that an extra tooth needs to be extracted and a spacer add as well as an extra filling. No problem brought our out of pocket up to a lil over $800.00 We just needed to schedule it a little farther out , so we scheduled it on 23rd of July. Well then two weeks ago we got a call saying that they could not do it on the 23rd and it had to be on the 2ND, we said fine but you have to take half now and half later. She said well that will be almost $900.00 now and $900.00 later. I said wait, how is it that the price has doubled in two weeks. They said that we had added things, and I said we understand that but there is no reason why insurance dropped a thousand dollars. Then we decided to just find another dentist that is willing to make payment arrangements from the beginning and will not double our out of pocket every time we talk to them.

My brother in law's girlfriend, Mandi, is a dental hygienist at a pediatric dentists office, so we have a consult with them Next Wednesday. And according to her he does except monthly payments, and I think it is even more likely when we show him we have this grant. We just need to pay one month up front and from then we can use the reimbursement check for the next months check and so on.

We are so happy and excited and I will keep you all up to date. Who would of known getting dental care for a child could be so hard.

Also my little girl is growing up, I just wish she would be willing to grow up by using the potty too...lol. She is now drinking consistently from a cup with no lid. The first day she kept trying to shake it too see if there was drink left, but she has gotten over that with only one spill. Now she just picks it up and drinks. The other day I asked her if she was a big girl, she said yea, I said well big girl's use the potty, don't you wanna use the potty like a big girl, she said no, I like diapers...lol

What is up with that!!!

Our Father's Day Weekend

2007-06-18T13:24:00.000-05:00

Well the weekend started out by my sis finally getting Bright home from Ghana. I love this picture and just had to show it off. The story of his homecoming is on her blog.

Then nothing too exciting on Saturday, cleaning house, going to work, you know just everyday stuff.

But on Sunday it was a different story. We got up and Phil, being the man he is, couldn't just do nothing so he busted his butt on yard work and such. And of course we made Phil's Father's day gift and gave it too him. He loves it so much and Mia had a BALL making it.As you can see we hand painted her hands onto the t-shirt, let me tell you ...not such an easy thing to do... also learned that Mia LOVES finger painting...lol What kid doesn't right I plan on making something like this every year so we have her hand prints from now on at least once a year. That is why we wrote her name and the year on the shirt.
Then Phil got a Father's day kiss
Such a happy daughter and a loving daughter

This one is from Mother's day at Botanica but it is still a good pic of the two of them, and it is appropriate to show for the father's day post
My little lady, I love this dress, it was a hand me down from my sis and Mia looks so cute in it.
SO excited. I am so lucky to have her as my daughter

And as you can see Phil proudly wore his shirt yesterday.

And Mia gave us both a present yesterday as well. As we were getting ready to go run errands. Well I go into our bedroom and low and behold I see red all over our white sheets. I thought Mia had found the finger paint in the trash but we quickly discovered it wasn't paint. It was LIPSTICK!!!!! I look down and there are two lipstick lids on the floor. There is baby powder all over my vanity. We search the house for the missing lipstick. Lipstick on her bedroom door, on our bedroom door, on the wall in the hallway. But no lipstick tube...lol. So I look inside the vanity drawer and there it is!! Half a tube of "retro red" lipstick with a lot of it pinched off, you can see her little fingernail marks on it...lol. AND the rest of the baby powder. So Miss Mia has decided she is definitely a lady and wants to wear makeup. Oddly enough we never found any on her or her clothes. Well there was one small mark on her arm that I thought was a scratch that turned out to be lipstick....oooo the joys of parenthood...lol. SO that was our father's day weekend. Sorry it has been so long since a post. Just busy with everyday life and having Mia home 24/7 again since school is out.

Oh and news for the folks, Phil and I are on our last packs of cigarettes. After these packs we will not buy anymore, so we may be grumpy but we won't be smoking...lol. And for those that don't know, we don't smoke with Mia in the car or in the house. We smoke outside and if at all possible we try to keep Mia away from us when we do.

Have a great week guys.

What do Rubber bands and Candy Circus Peanuts have in common?

2007-06-06T16:56:00.000-05:00

So are you curious? What do ...

Rubber bands and...

Candy Circus Peanuts have in common???

They both go in your hair...lol

This is Mia's scrunchy face...lol. Isn't it funny????

I gave Mia a few candy peanuts the other day. I look over at her and she is pulling on her hair. That is when I realized that she had it stuck in her hair...lol. It was NOT fun getting it out of her hair and this was the end result. Nice huh...

SO off to the bathtub we went. Which Mia happens to love.

As you can see she is all smiles

My pretty girl.

So pretty

She even let me have fun with her hair when I washed it...lol.

Have a great week guys.

Another article, but this one gives hope

2007-05-30T18:02:00.000-05:00

This article gives hopes to those with ONH and optic nerve problems. It just shows that the medical world is really not that far away when it comes to miracles. Of course if God wants it discovered and to work it will.

Schepens Scientists Regenerate Optic Nerve for the First Time

New Hope for Sufferers of Glaucoma and Spinal Cord and other Central Nervous System injuries, diseases

Boston , MA — For the first time, scientists have regenerated a damaged optic nerve -- from the eye to the brain. This achievement, which occurred in laboratory mice and is described in the March 1, 2005 issue of the Journal of Cell Science, holds great promise for victims of diseases that destroy the optic nerve, and for sufferers of central nervous system injuries. “For us, this is a dream becoming reality,” says Dr. Dong Feng Chen, lead author of the study, assistant scientist at Schepens Eye Research Institute and an assistant professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. “This is the closest science has come to regenerating so many nerve fibers over a long distance to reach their targets and to repair a nerve previously considered irreparably damaged.”

This research, which has been supported in part by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Defense and the Massachusetts Lions Club, has always been a priority of the institute, but in recent times, urgency around it has increased, according to Dr. Michael Gilmore, director of research at Schepens Eye Research Institute and professor of ophthalmology at Harvard Medical School. In addition to the thousands of Americans blinded by glaucoma and injuries that destroy the optic nerve, and hundreds of thousands disabled by spinal cord injuries, “we were hearing stories of soldiers in the Middle East whose lives were saved by body armor, but who were returning with severe damage to limbs and eyes,” he says. “At the same time, we learned of the untimely death of Christopher Reeves. It was, therefore, a priority for us to redouble our efforts to find ways to restore damaged nerves.”

According to Senator John Kerry, who supported funding of this important work, "Schepens is doing cutting-edge research that can make a real difference for a new generation of troops returning home with nerve damage. We need to support our troops in actions, not just words, and I am glad that we have been able to get funding for this important work." Adds Congressman Lynch, “Last month, I visited the Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington and met with dozens of service men and women who could benefit directly from the good work of the people at Schepens. Their vital research will not only enhance the lives of our soldiers but also gives hope to every American who suffers from diseases of the central nervous system."

Many tissues in the body continually renew themselves if injured. However, this is not true for nerve cells or their fibers (axons) in the Central Nervous System (CNS). The CNS consists of the brain (of which the eye and optic nerve are part) and the spinal cord. For all mammals, including human beings, CNS nerves lose their ability to regenerate after injury at the point in their development when they are fully formed. For example, the optic nerve loses this ability shortly before birth. So for those afflicted by glaucoma, which destroys the optic nerve through excessive internal pressure, or with injuries that sever the optic nerve after that developmental milestone, destruction can be permanent and blinding.

Chen and her research team have dedicated themselves to learning the reasons why CNS tissue stops regenerating and to finding ways to reverse that process, using the optic nerve as their research model. The optic nerve, which connects the eye to the brain, consists of millions of nerve cells, which, when uninjured, transmit visual information from the retina to the brain for interpretation

In earlier research, Chen’s team discovered several processes that they believed “locked up” the optic nerve’s ability to regenerate. The first lock, they found, was the turning off of a specific gene – BCL-2 – which, when turned on, activates growth and regeneration. The second lock, they theorized, was a scar on the brain created shortly after birth by “glial” cells. (glial cells have many functions in the brain, one of which is to create this kind of scar tissue). The researchers believed that the scar puts up a physical as well as molecular barrier to regeneration. Although there may be other “locks” to the regeneration door, Chen and her colleagues believed these two were the most important.

In the current research, Dr. Kin-Sang Cho, research associate in Chen’s laboratory and the first author of the paper, tested two keys to unlock regeneration. The first key involved the development of a mouse model in which the BCL-2 gene is always turned on (or is overexpressing). The second key was the use of a mouse line carrying mutations of “glial specific genes” that lead to the reduced “glial scar” formation.

By unlocking the regeneration with the first key, for the first time, they observed robust optic nerve regeneration in postnatal mice, which nerves grew rapidly and reached from the eye to the brain in four days. But the regeneration happens only in the younger mice whose brains had not yet formed a “glial scar.” In the mice that were slightly older and had developed the “glial scar,” regeneration failed again.

Dr. Cho then added the second key by combining BCL-2 overexpresser with the “glial gene” mutation to prevent the development of the “glial scar” in the older transgenic mice. He found that the combination of the turned-on BCL-2 and the mutation of “glial specific genes” caused the optic nerves to return to an embryonic state and stimulated rapid, robust regeneration of the optic nerve—again, as with the younger mice – within only a few days.

“We could see that at least 40 percent of the optic nerve had been restored,” says Chen, “but we believe that an even higher percentage actually regenerated.”

The next step for Chen and her colleagues is to determine if the regenerated optic nerves were functional. In other words, did they cause the mice to see again?

Chen also believes that this combination BCL-2 and scar prevention technique could work to regenerate other Central Nervous System tissue, increasing the possibility that spinal cord patients could walk or move again.

This work has important implications. "The possibility of restoring sight following optic nerve injuries is tremendous. Fifteen percent of all wartime injuries include the eye and those with optic nerve trauma are the most grave. Today’s medicine has little effective treatment to offer and blindness is often the end result,” says Retired Lieutenant Colonel Robert C. Read of the Clinical Applications Division at the Department of Defense’s Telemedicine and Advanced Technology Research Center .

"This outstanding breakthrough by Schepens scientists offers new hope to those who suffer from blinding diseases and injuries, including our returning soldiers. The potential application of this discovery to treatments for other central nervous system injuries is yet another reason why I have been proud to support the Department of Defense's funding of the Center for Excellence in Military Low Vision Research," stated Congressman Mike Capuano.

Adds Congressman Stephen F. Lynch, "This extraordinary breakthrough demonstrates what we can achieve when we support public and private partnerships between the Defense Department and the best researchers and scientists in the field. Because of the decades of work and progress by Dr. Gilmore and Dr. Chen and the entire team at the Schepens Eye Research Institute, the search for a way to repair nerve damage in the human body has taken a giant leap forward.”

"I'm so pleased with the work going on at Schepens," Rep. Jim McGovern says. "They are on the frontiers of research that will dramatically improve people's lives. And the Federal Government must continue to be a partner in this vital effort."

To obtain a copy of the study, "Reestablishing the Regenerative Potential of the Central Nervous System Axons in Postnatal Mice,” email Patti Jacobs at: mailto:pjacobs12@comcast.net

Schepens Eye Research Institute is an affiliate of Harvard Medical School and the largest independent research institute in the world.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 23, 2005
CONTACT: Patti Jacobs 617-912-2544 or pjacobs12@comcast.net

Dong Feng Chen, M.D., Ph.D. 617-912-7490 or dfchen@vision.eri.harvard.edu

This was only two years ago. Can you imagine how much has happened since then. I look forward to one day Mia being able to see the colors with clarity. I know God has that in store for many people. But if not at least I can feel confident that someday some of te people that deserve to see get to.

An interesting article about ONH and SOD

2007-05-30T17:14:00.000-05:00

This is an interesting article that came across my ONH/SOD group and I thought it was interesting enough to point out things that are exactly like Mia and things that are opposite of Mia. My remarks will be in color while the article itself will be in black. I know it is long and you don't have to read it all. If you like you are welcome to just scroll to the red words...lol

Re:view , 03/22/2003 35 1
A multidisciplinary approach to educating preschool children with optic nerve hypoplasia and septo-optic nerve dysplasia. Bahar, Cheryl *~~*Brody, Jill *~~*McCann, Mary Ellen *~~*Mendiola, Rosalinda *~~*Slott, Gayle *~~*
COPYRIGHT 2003 Heldref Publications
Optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) is presently the third most prevalent eye condition of children enrolled in early intervention programs for the visually impaired (Hatton, 2001). As special education programs have seen an increase in this diagnosis, educators are beginning to observe
common traits, behaviors, and learning patterns consistent in this population. Professionals working with children with ONH must be aware of the special needs associated with this condition so that they can develop and provide appropriate interventions. A child with ONH in
the classroom can achieve optimal success when precise adaptations and goals are in place. In this article, we discuss the observations and experiences of a team of professionals at the Blind Childrens Center in Los Angeles. This multidisciplinary team, which works specifically with
children from birth to 5 years of age who have been diagnosed with ONH, includes a general educator, an occupational therapist, a speech therapist, a teacher for the visually impaired, and an orientation and mobility specialist. These children are functionally blind and may have a
diagnosis of septo-optic displasia (SOD). Working as a team we have developed strategies and specific interventions to work toward the individual potential of the child.

What Are ONH and SOD?
Optic nerve hypoplasia (ONH) is the insufficient development of the optic nerve during pregnancy. In those children with this diagnosis who have nystagmus and bilateral severe vision loss, this condition has associated brain and hormonal abnormalities; these abnormalities are less common in cases where vision loss is mild or unilateral. A child who has ONH and midline anomalies of the brain (an absence of the septum pellucidum and the corpus callosum) receives a diagnosis of septo-optic nerve displasia (SOD). These brain abnormalities can be identified by an MRI or CT scan. Hormonal inefficiencies connected to the thyroid, growth hormone, pituitary, adrenal, and anti diuretic hormone require examination by a specialist in hormonal disorders.

Common Observable Traits Associated With ONH and SOD
A clear understanding of the common traits frequently associated with ONH and SOD is critical to developing suitable goals for the child. Little has been written on the learning characteristics often seen in these children, but frequently they exhibit noted global delays that are not typical of children whose only diagnosis is blindness. Over the past 7 years, the staff of the Blind Children's Center have worked with at least 10 children with this diagnosis and have observed that they, especially those with a severe vision loss, frequently present some or all of
the following characteristics:

Moderate to severe delays in information processing
Extreme tactual and auditory defensiveness Mia has problems with Lawnmowers and Vacuums and Hair dryers. And she has some major problems with bare feet and touching new things
Difficulty with transitions
Rigid adherence to routine
Strong interest in rhythms and music Mia loves music of all kinds, this is one of the first things we noticed about her in Guatemala
Restricted food preferences and eating problems related to an aversion to textured foods Mia has some definite preferences and knows what she will and will not eat. For instance, she ate all the green beans but wouldn't touch the pork chop that was cut into very small pieces for her
Avoidance of social interaction and engagement If she is somewhere new and with new people she will close into herself and leech onto Phil or I. But once she gets used to the environment it is all we can do to keep ahold of her...lol
Profound distractibility
Mild hypotonia (low muscle tone)--in many children
Developmental delays in motor functioning
Lack of initiative in exploring their environments
Atypical language development
Enjoyment of swinging Mia LOVES to be in the swings or to be swung around. Or even just to be pushed in circles in a desk chair
Lack of spontaneity in verbal interactions This couldn't be farther from the truth . Mia talks all the time whether we initiate the conversation or not.

It is important to note that not every child with ONH and SOD experiences all of these traits. The authors devised this list from watching numerous videotaped and anecdotal observations and from the reports of teachers and specialists.

Strategies for Educational Interventions
Ongoing comprehensive assessments across all education domains help teachers and specialists establish appropriate goals for their students. A team approach, using numerous observations in a variety of settings, has been the most effective method used at the Blind Children's Center.
Specific teaching strategies draw on a child's strengths. In this article, the authors explore specific procedures adopted by the general classroom teacher, occupational therapist, speech therapist, and the teacher for the visually impaired.

Allowing Time to Process
A teacher working with a child who has the characteristics described above must, most of all, be patient. We have found that children with ONH and SOD need extra time to process information given to them. It is almost as if you can watch the lag time between introducing something to the child and the time it takes the child to respond to the stimuli. It is crucial to give students with ONH and SOD extra time to process information.

The Importance of Routines
A predictable routine in the classroom can help a child with ONH and SOD cope with potential classroom stress. These children find transitions extremely disruptive and frustrating. Establishing schedules and adhering to them gives a child the opportunity to anticipate what is
going to occur next.
For example, Sammy (all the names of children used in examples have been changed) had great difficulty adapting to the new classroom environment. He would get used to one activity and become easily frustrated when it came to an end. After two weeks at school, Sammy became less disturbed and more comfortable with the predictable classroom routine. His days followed an expected schedule of free-play, circle-time, snack, an indoor activity, outside time, occupational therapy, and lunch. Sammy began to anticipate the next activity, and his tolerance of transitions improved greatly. His teachers used language to alert him that the next activity was about to occur. Sammy's receptive language skills also appeared to improve as his responses clearly indicated that he attached the label for an activity to the actual event. (When the teacher said, "It's circle time!" Sammy would begin to sing the good morning song.) Although establishing classroom routines is extremely important, it is equally critical to be aware that many children with ONH may become inflexible within that routine. Because Jake loves music, his teachers always played songs during mealtimes. Having played the exact same CD everyday for a couple of months, they changed the music. Jake became agitated, stopped eating, refused to feed himself, and cried. When the teachers put the original music back on, Jake immediately smiled and began eating. His teachers used a fading process to reduce his reliance on that particular CD and subsequently introduced a variety of music during mealtimes. Teachers need to prepare a variety of experiences for their students within a predictable framework. Although the music was a helpful tool, Jake had become habituated to certain songs.

Overcoming Tactile Defensiveness
Often, children with ONH and SOD experience extreme sensitivity to different textures, particularly on their hands and feet, and to tastes and smells. They demonstrate their over responsiveness by avoiding, moving away from, crying, or even gagging when touching items that others enjoy (e.g., stuffed animals, play dough, Jell-O, even clothing fabrics). These reactions make certain activities unpleasant for the child.
Lily, for example, screamed every time her teachers took her shoes and socks on and off. This is Mia to a tea plus some. It was a HUGE day when she went with only socks for two hours at school. After about only 15 minutes of crying when they took them off. She refused to touch anything that did not have a hard plastic surface. Her teachers began slowly to introduce new textures during various activities during the day. They tried to couple this introduction with swinging--one of Lily's favorite activities. When Lily was in the swing, her teacher would place a textured ball in her hand. At first she resisted, but gradually she became more accepting of these new textures. Presenting less acceptable items ("messy" textures like play dough or finger paint) when the child is involved with something she likes, such as swinging, is an extremely effective strategy for combating tactile defensiveness. Another efficient approach is to use a firm touch while handling the child. Light touches can be disorienting and upsetting to children who have difficulty processing tactile stimuli. Tactile defensiveness is a huge obstacle faced by children with ONH and requires intense intervention. Because many children with vision impairments require their hands to explore, to discern their surroundings, and to read Braille, putting in place strategies to overcome this aversion to touch is vital.

Combating Auditory Defensiveness
Children with ONH and SOD often "misread" sensory cues and over- or under react to what is happening. They may be extremely sensitive to auditory input, putting their fingers in their ears, withdrawing, or even screaming when they hear certain sounds (e.g., another child's cry, a
noisy toy, a vacuum cleaner). Mia HATES the vacuum and the lawnmower and weed eater. We had started making her stay in the room sitting with either myself or Phil while the other used the "noisy" thing. Now when she hears a lawnmower she says "lawlower...it's ok" when I mentioned to her TVI about it one day when the grass was being in front of the school so Mia was a little upset, she said it was very good that I was "forcing" her to be around those sounds or she will never get used to them. They may resort to comforting, stereotypical behaviors such as rocking, humming or singing, flapping their hands, or banging toys together. Building in "time out" sessions for children during the day by providing outlets for physical activities like jumping on a trampoline or swinging and finding a place for children to be quiet and undisturbed is an important component in the daily scheduling and set up of the classroom. A beanbag chair, rocking chair, small tent, or even a sturdy giant cardboard box may be appropriate places for
some "down time." It is important to build a child's tolerance to different sounds within their environment. Quite often parents claim that they are unable to take their child with ONH and SOD to the supermarket or to the mall. Without help and support, both parents and children will be deprived of going places and sharing life experiences. Richard is an example of a child who demonstrated this hypersensitivity. He screamed when the music was a little loud or the other children in his class were a little noisy. He would plug his ears tightly and rock back and forth in an attempt to block out the noise. His teacher, while sensitive to Richard's aversion to noise, could not have the other children in her class stay quiet all the time. She decided slowly to increase the volume of the music played in her classroom so that she could desensitize him to the intensity of the noise. Every 30 minutes she slightly increased the volume of the music. The next day she would begin playing the music at a slightly higher decibel and start the process
over again. Over time Richard became less sensitive to the volume increases.

Using Music and Rhythm in the Classroom
For many children with ONH and SOD music is an excellent source of pleasure and comfort. Teachers and specialists at the Blind Children's Center have observed that music tends both to calm and focus children with this diagnosis. Using an exaggerated vocal intonation and tapping out rhythmic beats to words is another musical element that appeals to children with ONH and SOD. Music helped Sammy, a child at the center, improve his language use. He was just beginning to talk and enjoyed imitating certain sounds that he heard. When his teacher clapped out the syllables of a word as she said that word, Sammy paid close attention. Every time he went to the orientation and mobility (O&M) class his teacher would clap while the name of his O&M teacher. Sammy then attempted to say his teacher's name. Many children with ONH and SOD learn many concepts primarily through music. It is as if their brain becomes alert to the sound of music. Through many years of trial and error, teachers and specialists at the Blind Children Center have learned that singing through their lessons is an effective educational tool. Once the child becomes familiar with the activity and can complete it independently, they then fade out the singing.

Language Acquisition
Specific intervention techniques can help to develop appropriate language skills and generalize those skills to social interactions. The behavioral manifestations and characteristics of some children with ONH and SOD may negatively influence language learning and acquisition.
Specific sensory sensitivities and extreme interests and preferences can influence how they acquire and ultimately use language. The acquisition and the use of functional language may be atypical for children with ONH and SOD. Children with ONH and SOD may also demonstrate auditory sensitivities that can reduce the opportunities for language learning. An aversion to loud noises and over-stimulating environments, as well as sensitivities to specific types of auditory input (e.g., low or high pitched voices) can result in avoiding verbal and social interactions. A strong interest in music and rhythmic activities can negatively influence language learning. The desire to hear particular songs and tapes repeatedly, to the exclusion of other activities, may prevent further exploration and listening opportunities. Language patterns learned through over-involvement in music and songs tend to be rote and imitative. Possibly the language may lack meaning and attention to real objects, events, and activities occurring in the immediate environment. Language behaviors, such as echolalia (repeating previously heard linguistic units without real purpose or meaning), can result from acquiring language through music. Intervention to increase the development of language and its appropriate use requires careful consideration of the child's desires, interests, and aversions. For example, if auditory input results in the child's withdrawing or tuning out, attaching physical interaction with a simple language model (e.g., tickle tummy, fall down, go up or down) may be effective in maintaining the child's attention while the teacher models appropriate and meaningful language. If an interest in music dominates the child's world, music can be matched to an activity to help the child learn meaningful language. Encouraging active rather than passive language use requires waiting and anticipating the responses and requests of the child. For example, adults
may want to allow the child to hear his favorite musical toy but wait to give the toy to him until he asks for it, either behaviorally or verbally. This helps the child to initiate communication and
encourages a more active conversational partner.

Motor Development
The occupational therapist needs to observe the child with his parents or caregivers. During that time, the child can be given various play materials so that the therapist can observe his responses carefully, noting how he moves independently and is able to problem-solve through motor planning. When a child has a severe visual impairment in addition to other disabilities, this evaluation is more complicated because the therapist must determine how much the child's vision problems contribute to his overall motor functioning. Children with ONH and SOD, especially those with severe vision loss, often exhibit developmental delays in motor functioning. I am assuming this means potty training as well. But we are working on it. Mia is just not the least bit interested. These children may crawl later, walk later, and show a lack of initiative in exploring their environments. Postural insecurities, poor muscle tone, and poor motor planning abilities may make movement difficult. Therefore they need many opportunities to move, and motivators often need to be in place to encourage them to move efficiently through the environment. Such an approach helped with one of our students. Richard came to the occupational therapy room and sat by the door. If left alone, he would stay in the same spot for the entire 40-minute session. His therapist began placing his favorite musical toy at various locations in the room,
and slowly he began to move toward the toy. We did this with Mia when we first came home from Guatemala. I just figured that she was going to have to walk around eventually and she needed to start ASAP. So turns out I did the right thing...lol. After a couple of months, Richard became more familiar with the room, and he began exploring the space independently. By coupling a motivator (a favorite toy) with a less favorable activity (moving independently) a desirable behavioral outcome is more likely to ensue. An orientation and mobility specialist can also assist in this area.

Conclusion
Numerous strategies exist that can help children with ONH and SOD acquire skills. The importance of appropriate intervention that takes into consideration these children's specific needs and interests can help to influence development positively. A teacher or therapist working with a child with ONH and SOD must be extremely patient because these children often achieve developmental milestones at a much slower pace than children whose only diagnosis is visual impairment. Educators and therapists need to gain a deeper understanding of the ONH and SOD diagnosis and how it impacts the child. Ongoing comprehensive assessments across all educational domains will help teachers and therapists establish appropriate goals for their students. With the preschool classroom teacher, occupation and physical therapists, language therapists, the teacher for the visually impaired, and the orientation and mobility specialist working together as a multidisciplinary team, children with ONH and SOD receive optimal
opportunities to flourish in their education and home environments.

So while some of these characteristics to describe Mia not all of them do. But it is interesting to see. And it is so wierd to be able to read a medical report that describes my daughter in so many ways.

And for those of you that are "new" to my blog, you should know Mia is diagnosed with ONH but not SOD as of yet. Although it can show up later in life.

I know that Mia is getting everything plus some she needs at school. We are very lucky that we have such a good VI program and such a good VI teacher. But it was also nice to read that the things they are doing are proven to work.

Staying the night with Grandma and Grandpa True

2007-05-27T22:12:00.000-05:00

I know three posts in one evening, but I have the time, so if you don't like it don't read...lol.

On Friday the 18th you all know Mia went horseback riding. But what you don't know is that she also went to the new Wild West World with Grandma and Grandpa True that night, she had a western kind of day...lol. Since they were having an evening event we just decided to let Mia stay the night with them and one of us would pick her up the next day.

Well we were worried about her since she has not slept anywhere but here since she came home from Guatemala. Turns out we didn't need to worry about her, we needed to worry about us. We didn't know what to do without having Mia here, it was WAY too quiet and it was even hard to get to sleep; even though she wouldn't of been making noise at that time anyway. She had a blast and Grandma True learned that Mia is a sleep mover..lol. She kicks and knees and pushes and squirms...lol. And people wonder why I don't sleep well when I sleep in her bed...lol.

So since it went so well the other night we asked if they could keep her last night, so we could do the room thing without her under foot and also because Phil and I both had to be at work fairly early this morning and it would not of been fun to wake her up before she is used to, plus it let me sleep in a little longer since I didn't have to get her ready and drop her off.

Yet again she did great. Phil and I did better this time too, probably because we were busy with the room arranging and then we rented "The Holiday" on Pay Per View. Cute movie by the way. Anyway she does fine staying the night with Grandma and Grandpa True I just don't know if I like that or not...lol.

What does she want for dinner?

2007-05-27T22:03:00.000-05:00

Ok so it is Sunday night and I went to the grocery store for pork chops and Phil is going to BBQ. So Phil makes 9 GLORIOUS pork chops with home made BBQ sauce. I made some green beans and mashed potatoes. You tell me, does this not look scrumptious? But ...no... what does Mia want? Well she did eat her serving of green beans, but the she wanted and only wanted...
OATMEAL!!!

Now let me tell you, from someone who doesn't eat or like oatmeal, I just don't understand it. But she will eat it 24/7 if I let her.

And this is a double helping that she ate. And I know she wants more in the morning...BUT that will be blueberries and cream instead of peaches and cream...I just don't get it...lol. But at least it is healthy...

Mia's new room

2007-05-27T21:31:00.000-05:00

OK I don't know if you remember but right after Christmas we went and put Mia's room into JUST a room and then made the front room into a toy room

The Toy room right after Christmas

More of the toy room after Christmas

One more of the toy room before Christmas

And this is the best picture I have on the computer of her room after Christmas. She had a full size bed laid on the floor so if she rolled out she wouldn't get hurt. She has always slept very good on this bed. And then after we made the toy room all that was in her bedroom was her bed her chest of drawers and her hamper.

Well we decided that Mia did not need that big of a bed and it just encouraged her to "make" me sleep with her on "bad" nights. So I called my mom who luckily still had my twin bed from High School and she gave it back to me. There is a dresser and Chest of Drawers and Nightstand and dresser shelf that matches this but we didn't need all of that and my mom was using the dresser and shelf and chest of drawers so we just took the bed and the nightstand has been in our shed this whole time so we will use that.

Saturday night after work, we took Mia over to Grandma and Grandpa True's house where she stayed the night, more on that later, and Phil and I set to work on her "new" "big girl" room. Here is the almost final result, we just need to take the nightstand out of the shed and clean it up, then her books will go in the two drawers it has.

Here is her bed now, and this quilt is one my Nanny, who passed away a year or so ago, made for me and it fits perfect with the decor of the room. The empty space by the bed is where the nightstand will go.

We got this toy shelf and bins at K-Mart, where I work now, to store Mia's toys. It is perfect!

And this is the other view of the room with her dresser and some more toys along with her closet, kinda...lol

And here is Mia on her first night in her "big girl bed" she loves it. Phil plans on making a railing to go along the outer edge of the bed so she doesn't fall out and a little stepping stool so she can get in and out of bed easily.

Doesn't her room look great? I love it. Next...the toy room turns into a bedroom/guest room with the full size bed that she used to use and the dresser that is in the previous pictures of the toy room and still needs to get refinished since it actually goes with her old headboard and the chest of drawers in her room...lol. That is a honey do for Phil this summer. But first he has to finish the siding...lol

Cute things she says

2007-05-22T10:30:00.000-05:00

OK this is a post just of word's that Mia has for things that are super cute and I want to have record of, and give you a laugh.

Lawnmower = Lawlower
Breakfast = Feckfast
Chicken Fettuccine Alfredo = Chikacini Alfwado
Booster seat = truck seat*
Sandwich = Sammich
Chocolate = ChoKe eh lat
Bath = Baff

ok there are more but that is all I can think of now

** The booster seat only gets used in Phil's truck, so Mia has renamed it the truck seat...lol

Mish mash of news

2007-05-21T22:03:00.001-05:00

Well I know I have been neglectful yet again. I really have not forgotten you guys I promise. I have just been busy. But I wanted to catch you up. And let you know that, at least for now, I will probably only be blogging once maybe twice a week. But I will always try to do once a week. Anyway here are some pictures and I will explain them as we go.

Mia and Daddy at the Botanical Garden on Mother's day
Good picture of these two
We went horseback riding with the VI kids on Friday and Mia had a ball. She LOVED it so much. This horses name is Nugget and is 31 years old which is 124 horse years, so very gentle.
More on Nugget
Mommy had fun too. I love to go horseback riding
We went nice and slow with Mia on her.
Then we let Mia ride Lucy alone. She was not too keen on this. Even though I was on one side and the Ranch owner was on the other.
She warmed up a bit. But not much
I had a lot of fun though
Both Nugget and Lucy were beautiful. Later we both rode Lucy together and got a little trot out of her. Mia and I had a ball but Phil did not like that... he just knew Mia was going to fall off even though I had my arms on either side of her. And then even later I rode Nugget alone and went into the pasture and trotted a bit on my own.
Also the cat was just not working out. Phil had gotten used to Gato and was "ok" with him. But he just did not like the new cat, which we called KitKat after one of your suggestions. So we made the hard decision to find him a new home. That was on Thursday. Well Sunday a friend of Phil's was getting rid of his dog and we went to visit. And get this Mia LOVES this dog. He is an Australian Shepard and 4 years old.
His name is Haus or Haussie and they had to get rid of him because he was pestering the neighbors goats, he is a herding dog after all.
Haus has fit right in with us. Mia loves him and pets him and hugs him and lets him give her kisses. And today we took him with us when we went to get Mia from school and he was so good. We happened to meet the O&M therapist (Orientation and Mobility) and he got to meet Haus too. He thinks Haus will be wonderful with Mia and he could not believe how calm he was. Haus had never had a collar and never had a leash and he took right to them both. He let 15 Pre-K kids pet him and hug him at once and never even flinched. The Pre-K teachers even thought he was Mia's seeing eye dog he was so well behaved. Another thing we talked to the O&M teacher about is that we are going to get Haus a Harness and start letting Mia "walk" him. Of course we will have the leash but that way she gets used to holding the harness for when she does get a seeing eye dog.He thinks it is a great idea and said that we are obviously doing everything we can to help Mia succeed.

Phil took this video tonight while I was at work. And it just shows how good of a dog Haus really is. Phil wasn't even holding the leash at the very beginning, although he did have to to get Haus to turn around. He is such a good dog and we think he is the perfect fit for our family.

My First Mother's Day with Mia Home

2007-05-14T21:47:00.000-05:00

We had a lovely day. We got up and ate breakfast, nothing fancy. Then went over to my mom's house to see her and My Step-Dad Dennis' mom, Grandma Evalyn who had never met Mia. We were there for about 2 hours and then went over to Phil's Mom's and spent another hour or so there. Then we went to The Wichita Botanical Gardens. It was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. We took a few pictures, but our goal was to get a few good ones of Mia and I, since I am usually the one that takes all of the pictures. I think we succeeded...what do you think?

The Koi Pond
Mia and I walking, I love this shot, Phil thought I was retarded for asking him to take it, but once he took it, he said it did look cool.
We were walking down one of the trails and came across this little tree and bigger tree on either side of the trail and thought it would be cool to get a picture of us between them
One of my two favorite pictures of us together.
Mommy making Mia laugh
Look off of a deck type landing.

Playing in one of the water fountains
This one is good too, but Phil zoomed in a little too much so it is pixalated when blown up
Mia was scared of the big water fountain, but like the little one earlier...lol
We tried to get one of her with some pretty flowers but she got mad when I let go of her hand...lol. She was a MAJOR Mommy's girl at Botanica

Here is my other favorite.

I tell you Botanica is BEAUTIFUL, if you ever come to Wichita for some reason and you want somewhere pretty to go, and you like to look at nature and flowers, this is the place to go...lol

Oh and it was free yesterday for Mother's Day. And BOY was it BUSY!!!

So happy mother's day again to all mother's, mother's to be, and mother's of the heart.

Happy Mother's Day

2007-05-13T10:24:00.000-05:00

Happy Mother's Day to all those new mother's, old mother's, and waiting mother's. We all have one thing in common and that is that we are in LOVE with our children and we are ALL mother's. We plan on going to the Botanica Garden's today to get some special pictures of Mia and I together on our first Mother's Day together, I will post those later. But for now here are some pictures from this past week.

I kept telling Mia to back up and she thought it was hystarical...she would back up and then rush forward again. And this dress I bought about a year and a half ago hoping Mia would be able to wear it her first summer home. And since it is 24 months I was afraid that she would be too big already, but as you can see it JUST fits, although I doubt she will get to wear it again. MAYBE one more time...lol
More backing up...lol
Mia says "hi"
My pretty girl. The necklace and bracelet were made by Phil's Aunt Cheryl for Mia. And she LOVES them...
She is SOOO happy it is Mother's Day. I love this shot it has so much character.
Serious Girl
OK, OK pictures are over...NOW!!! I am SOOO bored...lol

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY may it always be in your memories together.

Meet My Kansas Friends...kids...lol

2007-05-07T22:31:00.000-05:00

I got permission to post the pictures with my IAK friends kids in them. So here they are.

Jsera, and Jess from Kazakhstan, and Aubrianna and Carlos from Guatemala.
Aubrianna and Carlos
Aubrianna and Carlos
Jsera, Aubrianna, Carlos, and Jess

Aren't they just some of the cutest kids in the world?!? We will definately be getting back together as soon as we can.

Kansas Weather

2007-05-07T13:30:00.000-05:00

As I am sure you know Kansas had some pretty crazy weather this past weekend. Well the International Adopt Kansas Yahoo group had decided about 2 months ago to go to the Sedgwick County Zoo to get together and meet. Well we got up on Sunday and of course it was raining but it was supposed to stop for a few hours so we went to meet up with everyone at the zoo. There were supposed to be 8 families that came but the weather kept a lot of people away. The few that did brave it had quite an adventure from the first minute...lol. There were four families that came at 10:30am to meet and as we are paying the tornado sirens go off and we are rushed to the bathroom, before even paying...lol. What a start...
After that we went to the Ape house and saw the chimps and Oragutangs. Got a few pictures there and off we went. As we were walking we were told that the sirens were going to go off in about 15 minutes and to head to the Rain forest building, called the jungle. So we did. Oh and they were celebrating Cinco De Mayo as well, the music made Mia cry and it was SOOO LOUD we couldn't hear ourselves think. Anyway we went to the jungle and Mia was so traumatized by the music that she would NOT let her vice grip off of my neck. Now sirens so we went to the reptile house, Mia was better in here and walked around with her cane by herself. Then a downpour started...ol. So we stood and watched the rain for about 10 minutes. Then when the rain died down one family decided to call it and went home, weather 1 Zoo 3...lol. So those remaining decided to get some food and sit under a Gazebo in case it started raining again, and yes Mia was still freaked out by the music. But she managed to eat a little bit of hot dog. And it is a good thing we used the Gazebo because it down poured again while we were eating...lol. Then we decided to head to the Lions. On the way there we stopped at the gift shop and Phil and I bought an umbrella...l0l. And a good thing, we were only about 15 steps away and the rain came again. And back to the Ape House we went, since it was the closest...lol. THEN we went to the Hippos, on the way to the Lions, and they were above the water, it was pretty cool and I got some good shots of it. Then we hear ROARING and rush over the see the Lions, we JUST missed the male lion roaring his head off but he got as close to the were we were as he could , it was so cool, and then... you guessed it it started to rain again...lol. Back to cover so we got to watch the lions for about 10 minutes before the rain stopped again. So we headed to the Gorilla house. It is inside as well and knew we could rest and sit comfortably and see some animals at the same time. After that we headed back out again and another family decided to call it too. So we are at weather 2 Zoo 2...lol. After about 10 more minutes though the other family decided to call it too, the clouds looked pretty scary and thunder was rolling in. We wanted to go to the petting zoo first though so we started heading that way. Then the thunder got really bad and it was starting to lightning so we gave up and headed out as well. We stopped at the gift shop to get Mia a memento and, you guessed it we were rushed to the bathrooms yet again...lol. After about 5 minutes we were let back out and we got our mementos and Phil went to get the car while Mia and I stayed dry. Then we headed home. And of course another storm was about 45 minutes driving away. WHEW what a day. But it was fun, we actually had A LOT of fun. Now for the pictures

Mia in the Gorilla House

She is finally relaxing, we are far enough away she can't hear the music...lol

Have you ever seen broken glass in a Gorilla house? Now imagine you were standing there when it happened...lol

And in case you are wondering what the sign says, this would be it. You should know the Gorillas were ONLY in their indoor habitat

Here is our best family picture yet, I LOVE it and I think I will be putting it in my header

Here is one of those Hippo pics I was telling you about, cool huh???
And Another
HMMMM I wonder what she is thinking
I know, quit taking pictures
I am outta here...lol

Daddy and Mia in the Ape House, see the chimp behind them?
This is him, isn't he CUTE?!?!
She hears the music
In the jungle, she was NOT happy
That DARN music

Mia touching a Gorilla hand print
How tiny she is in comparison
She is closer to the Gibbon's hand size
In the Ape house
Leave me alone...lol

I do have some pictures with some of the other kiddos that were there but I am waiting for permission to post their pictures on the blog before I show them.

Kansas weather has always been crazy!! But this weekend was a bad weekend to live in Kansas, especially Greensburg. Fortunately we do not live in Greensburg, but my Brother-in-laws family did. His mom, and both of his Grandma's lost their homes completely. And from what i understand one even had to be cut from the rubble, because she was in her basement and the house collapsed. Luckily the Basement held, but they had to cut through the floor of the house to get her out of the basement. They were going today to see if anything could be salvaged. From what I understand both of the Grandma's houses were completely leveled, but his mom's house still had a few walls standing, so they may be able to salvage some/ a few things. It is so sad, if you guys could all say a few prayers for the people that live in Greensburg I would appreciate it. It was/is only 110 miles from Wichita and it easily could of been part of Wichita.

Here is a picture of the town of Greensburg now, as you can kind of see it is mostly leveled. They say about 75% of the town is gone. Here is a link to an article http://www.brownsvilleherald.com/articles/town_76151___article.html/kansas_tornado.html

Where to begin...

2007-05-04T16:34:00.000-05:00

OK as you all now I am in contact with Ann at Until All Have Homes. Well she emailed me yesterday asking if I could do some searching and see what I can find in terms of some kind of foundation or people that are willing to help us place the MANY VI or Blind kids they have on their site. I of course said yes and I have done some preliminary searches, still waiting to see if those will be fruitful. But while I was waiting I decided to check out and see exactly how many kiddos we are talking about. I went to their available situations page and went to going through every child they have listed. Some have other concerns more important that their vision problem, and just need corrective surgery, others have been told they can't go to school because they are blind. So here is my count and it BROKE MY HEART. I want to bring ALL of these kids home!!! A certain one grabs my eye and I want him SOOOO Bad but we just can't do another adoption right now.

On their Africa Page there are 4 yes FOUR kids that either need corrective eye surgery or are completely blind, my new "son of my heart" is on this page, his name is Abraham.

On their Asia Page there are TWO there. And Zella just chokes me up, she SOO wants to go to school but is not allowed.

On their Asia II page there are TWO more. I just don't see why these kids are not being scooped up.

On their Eastern Europe boys page there are TWO more... is this getting ridiculous to anyone but me?!?!?!

On their Eastern Europe girls page there is ONE beauty. She just wants a home!!!

And on the Columbia page there is ONE little boy who has pulled at my heart strings since I first saw his picture, little Jose is an Angel that NEEDS his family NOW!!

Now if you have kept track that is 12.. I repeat TWELVE kids that need homes and are not getting one because they have similar problems as Mia. If you have read this blog for any amount of time you can see how much Mia has grown and how much she is thriving and how it really isn't that much more work to have a blind or visually impaired child. It just kills me. I want to cry and scream and FORCE people to accept what I have and do daily. I want to FORCE people realize that just because a child cannot fully see or cannot see at all does not mean they cannot have a full rewarding life. BUT for most of these 12 kids if they are not adopted they will have NO life AT ALL!!! They will be shunned and ridiculed ALL THEIR LIVES!! They will not get an education they will not learn how to do anything for themselves. They will suffer needlessly and their only crime is that they have vision problems. I want to cry as I think about all the children out there that need homes and how just because I say so it does not make it any more important for blind or VI children. But people need to figure this out. Mia is the most rewarding thing I have ever had or done in my life!!! And I know that these kids will be just as rewarding for some other family. I also have some kind of feeling that all of my kids are going to have some kind of vision impairment. Of course I have never said as much to Phil, but the way I feel about these kids it is very possible in my mind. Plus after our first child being VI/Blind I would think it would be more difficult getting used to a child that can see completely. But who knows. Anyway I am just BEGGING you guys, if you are thinking about your future child or looking for your daughter or son. Go and look at these children. You have no idea how rewarding they will be in your lives.

LOTS of pictures!!!

2007-05-04T11:39:00.000-05:00

OK I know you are all DYING to see some new pics of Mia. So here you are. And I might even have a small story to tell with each picture...lol

Ok I know you all have seen this picture, but I have a story to tell to go with it. When I talked to my Step-Mom Donna, she told me that she had this picture in her wallet and she went to pay for something at some store. The cashier asked if this was a picture that came with the wallet. Donna proudly said, "nope that is my granddaughter!" Now how cool is that!!!

This was on Tuesday and yes she is wearing a light long sleeve shirt. It was chilly and rainy on this day so I HAD to put her in long sleeves, AND this outfit is so cute, my mom bought it for her on sale at Kohl's and I love it. She looks SOOOO good in bright colors!

Love this smile!!!

See the wet rainy gunk...
She was singing a song
Here is her eyelash picture, that Guatemama's LOVE to take...lol
This was yesterday. Phil was taking a nap so we were playing outside, in the HUMID yard. She was chasing me...lol. And no I was not going fast...lol. But she sure looks like she was bookin it...
Smelling the Iris, she said it, "smells goooood."

More playing in the yard. This was right before I let her take about 20 pictures or so. Of course she didn't point the camera at anything but she had fun punching the button...lol

Our lousy attempt at a Mommy and Me pic. Please excuse the hair and makeup free me...lol
I love this picture, even though it is cut off. But she looks so happy
And then she looks like she is thinking
More running around the yard
And even more running, she was WORE OUT by the end of the night...lol

I know you all remember Gato. Well Gato went to Heaven. We had started to let him out during the day this spring, and yes I know that contradicts my pet peeve...lol, but he just LOVED it. Well on Wednesday morning Phil let him out when he went to work and we hadn't seen him since. Yesterday as Mia and I were playing outside we heard some kids talking about a dead cat. I asked if it was a gray and they said yes and told me where it was. So I went and looked and sure enough Gato had been run over and was in the ditch covered in mud. I went and woke Phil up and told him and asked him to go get a trash bag and go pick him up to throw him away. I literally could see him when I sat on our porch, just had though he was a pile of mud before, but now that I knew it was him I couldn't stand it. So Phil went and got him, by the looks of it, he was hit sometime yesterday. But I don't think he suffered. Anyway I was upset and called my Aunt Sherry who is a cat lover and I knew would understand my tears. And she offered me one of her cats, who she lovingly refers to as Little one. So without further ado here he is. I can't decide on a name I like though. I keep trying things out and nothing seems to fit right.

He looks like Gato with LONG hair. Our first attempt at a name was Mofur, because he has SO MUCH FUR!!!
Then we though Spaz, because he freaks out and attacks himself...lol. It is quite entertaining. But no he is still too sweet for that.
Then I though of Vinnie, because he sucks on his paw like a pacifier and I thought of the movie "The Pacifier" with Vin Diesel, but it still doesn't seem right

I have thought of Bear, Tiny, Fuzzy Wuzzy, Dude, Sulfur, and I have no idea what else. I just can't find one that "fits" so I will just observe a few days and then maybe it will hit.

Oh and my mom and sister were worried about us taking him, because as a kitten he was a little wild. He would lunge at my aunt in her sleep a few times and he scratches. So they were worried about Mia. But Aunt Sherry and I had already decided that if there was a problem she would take him back. Last night he was more about getting comfortable and exploring so he didn't want anything to do with us. Today though he is ALL about loving, he wants me to love and love and love on him. He has rubbed against and choked me on his fur...lol. He sits at my feet as I sit here on the comp. The most interested he has been in Mia so far has been just watching, he is not used to a little person so he basically just stays away. So, so far so good. And he really is a sweet boy. So give me some ideas on names guy!!!

Catching you all up

2007-04-30T16:16:00.000-05:00

Where to start....

It has been a long yet short week. I have not gotten very much done, yet a lot has gotten accomplished. I have learned more Braille. Did two assignments in my Hadley School for the Blind course and I am working on my third, it involves observing Mia and her navigational techniques. I have gotten laundry done, yet very little dishes. I have cooked and we have eaten it all up. I have paid some bills, yet there are so many more to pay. School is almost out and I have no idea what I will do with Mia this summer, but I look forward to it as much as not. Mia is growing in leaps and bounds and becoming more communicable each day. I swear she has a new word and understands it's meaning each day. I have not taken very many pictures but I did take a few. We have our Irises blooming which, to me, means that Spring is OFFICIALLY here. Phil has worn tank tops two days this week and gotten his first slight sunburn of the season, he works outside remember. It has rained a lot and has made the grass in the lawn grow. As well as Phil is officially 27. Mia is getting better with her cane every time we use it, but I still have to position her hand correctly and she stills decides she doesn't want it and throws it down, no matter where we are...ie...Best Buy... twice...lol. I have talked to my mom, my mother in law, and my step mom about various things and enjoy talking to them all in different ways. So I honestly have no idea where to start...lol. Nothing too exciting jumps out at me so I will just ramble on and you can decide to read or not to read...lol.

I love my life, it is hard sometimes but what life isn't. Even people with insurmountable amounts of money have hard lives, at least to them. We all have our ups and downs. Most of our downs have to do with finances, but again I know we are not alone...lol. Mia is the HUGE bright light in our lives. We honestly have no idea where we would be without her. Phil has become so much more gentle and loving since Mia came into our lives, and I have kind of, gotten better as a housewife/SAHM, but not really. I enjoy spending my days with Mia and watching her grow. Introducing her to new things and watching her excitement as she plays. She is still repeating most everything we say and is technically language delayed, but for a child that had to a learn a whole new language starting 7 months ago, she is thriving. She understands opposites...lol. Which is a game with her. We will tell her to do something and she will say, I said no, then we have a game where I will say either I said yes, or I said no, and she always changes it to say the opposite of what we say. She is starting to use her words instead of just crying when she wants something. And she understands that when she is crying/screaming and wants something we can't understand her words. To the point that she says I can't understand you back to us...lol We are blessed by how easy her temper tantrums are and have been blessed with reconnecting with an old friend. Who has two GORGEOUS boys and her daughter a short 2 months to be born. Mia can now go and get things I ask her to, such as her diaper out of her bedroom or the wipes off the table, and I LOVE that she is independent enough to comfortably do these things that most 2 year olds do on their own anyway. We often forget she can't see what we can see and it is amazing that she understands what we say to her half of the time. We will say look at this, or see that, or right there next to the block. And she just uses it to find what she needs. She is truly an amazing gift from God in our lives. OK I guess I have rambled on enough and now you can see the pictures...lol

This is the extent of a temper tantrum. She just throws herself down and pouts.
No screaming or crying, just a quiet little pout that we ignore, well except this time when I took a picture, because honestly it makes us laugh.
Then of course she wants to show off and is all better. No more pouting because she has our undivided attention...lol
I have no idea what she was doing, I did when I took the picture. But it is funny none the less
And how can anyone NOT love that smile, Lord I love this child
Here are our pretty Irises, I know I am a dork I took pictures
And some more, notice that bud, well it is a full fledged flower now
from the top, such pretty flowers, and so simple...just plant and forget and you have beautiful flowers every Spring

And one more.

I hope you all have had a wonderful time this last week while I have been neglectful. I know I have. And please let me know if you want me to continue on the Braille training. I am so far ahead of where I left off with you guys, and I just don't know if I will honestly ever catch you up, with the frequency of my posts lately.

BAD BLOGGER!!!

2007-04-29T22:20:00.000-05:00

I have been so bad lately about blogging I am SOO sorry. I promise I will have a nice long post tomorrow with new pictures and all!!!

But for now I will say that we have hit the 10,000 visitors mark. It was someone looking for blogs on Haiti Adoption that didn't even stay a full second.

Visit 10,000

Domain Name

rit.edu ? (Educational)

Rochester Institute of Technology
Location

Continent
:
North America
Country
:
United States (Facts)
State
:
New York
City
:
Rochester
Lat/Long
:
43.0899, -77.6376 (Map)
Distance
:
1,100 miles
Language

English

Time of Visit

Apr 28 2007 5:06:46 pm
Last Page View

Apr 28 2007 5:06:46 pm
Visit Length

0 seconds
Page Views

1
Referring URL
http://blogsearch.go...ui=blg&sa=N&start=30
Search Engine
blogsearch.google.com
Search Words
haiti adoption
Visit Entry Page

http://miasvisionexp...g-blogger-award.html
Visit Exit Page

http://miasvisionexp...g-blogger-award.html
Out Click

Time Zone

UTC-5:00
Visitor's Time

Apr 28 2007 6:06:46 pm
Visit Number

10,000

So thank you random visitor from New York, you are a HUGE milestone for me...lol. Hopefully you learned something from your visit, since you came via a school computer...lol.

Anyway I promise I will make a MUCH more interesting post tomorrow and explain my absenteeism!!

In response to UO t-shirt

2007-04-26T14:36:00.000-05:00

I got an email in private from one of the many people I sent this post to via email. It is something I think we all need to know and hear. I have received permission to post this story, although I have changed names to protect the emailer.

Nichole,

While I do not necessarily disagree with anything you wrote in your response to Urban Outfitters, I do completely understand their sentiments about adoption. Some people (and there are more of them than you would want to believe) adopt because it is the "in" thing and it gets them attention. How do I know? Because someone in my family has done it three times. My adopted family member who is now 21 was adopted when she was 9 months old and all my family member's friends were adopting. This family already had 5 children but my family member wanted to be like her friends and went through a private adoption agency so things were much easier and brought home a biracial baby. I love my adopted family member so much but my family member loved her as a baby and while her friends thought she was "so cute" but once my adopted family member began to grow up and have problems my family member's love stopped and my adopted family member is probably worse off now than if she had never been adopted. Her second adoption occurred within a couple years of the first, this time it was a 4 year old little boy. He had unlimited emotional problems and when she finally admitted she couldn't handle him, instead of doing what was best for him, she went to court and had the adoption "undone", he was six the last time I saw him. He lived with this family for 2 long years and his life was hell in this home but in public, she had the "family" she wanted and got all the attention she wanted because she was such a good person to adopt these poor needy children that no one else wanted especially when she had 5 children of her own to take care of.

Now my family member is almost 60 and has adopted again, this time it is a little baby, the daughter of my adopted family member. Again, she is using this little baby to gain attention and all 5 of us biological family member's worry about what is going to happen when our this little baby begins to grow up and isn't so cute and cuddly. There aren't any other kids in the house to make up for this person's lack of affection when this occurs and we were able to try and fill in the gap with my adopted family member.

I am very pro-adoption, have four children, one of those children is blind and my husband is disabled but when we meet that special baby, believe me she or he will be a welcome member of our family. But there are times that I wish the guidelines for adoptive families were more strict and that adoptive parents be required to undergo psychological testing so that situations like what happened in my family wouldn't happen. I also think that people like Angelina Jolie, are providing a better physical home for the kids they adopt but I doubt they are able to provide those children with the individual love and attention that adoptive children need so they can be healthy emotionally mature adults. My adopted family member has RAD and so does my other family member (I believe, but she refuses to see a therapist or even consider the idea). My adopted family member has been diagnosed by multiple therapists with RAD.

I think your darling daughter is beautiful and am confident that you are giving her a wonderful life that no one else could provide her with. Just please remember that not everyone who adopts does so with the good intentions you and your family have.

Sorry but I thought I needed to share this story and viewpoint with you so maybe you could understand

As you can see I said family member, she, adopted family member, and little baby instead of what these people's placement is in this emailer's family is. I know it is kind of hard to distinguish between the people but I think you get the main idea. How sad that this happened and is happening every day. And although I still can't stand what UO did, it does at least kind of help explain why they thought this was "funny". Many times we only hear about the people that are adopting to have a family, to love a child and treat that child as our own. But it is sadly the case that some people do adopt just to join the "in crowd."

OK I complained

2007-04-26T11:23:00.000-05:00

OK I heard about this one one of the many blogs I read, forgive me but I can't remember which one now...lol. Anyway Go to this link now how utterly disrespectful and demeaning is that?!?!?! I have written an emial to complain and if you guys want to you can as well. Here is what i wrote...

I have to say that your "adopting is the new black" t-shirt is very offesive to me. You see I have an adopted daughter. I have two adopted nephews and an adopted niece as well as an adopted brother. Adoption has nothing to do with the "in" thing it has to do with wanting a family. It has to do with providing a child in need a family. And I know you are probably thinking about all the celebrities that are adopting, but maybe, just maybe, they are adopting to give back, since they do have the money and resources to help. I know you did not mean this shirt as offensive, but it is to the many MANY mothers and fathers that have and are adopting for one reason or another. And believe me adoption has been going on a LOT longer than it has been the "it" thing to do. I would seriously consider taking this shirt off your site or something. Because one thing you should know is that the adoption community is HUGE and we usually stick together. You can see my beautiful daughter at http://miasvisionexperience.blogspot.com and maybe just maybe seeing the face of a child that is loved by her adoptive family will remind you that adoption has nothing to do with the "it" thing at the moment.

Now I don't know if I was too harsh or too nice, but I felt it needed to be said. And I hope they do check out this blog and ee that I am spreading the word about this site. But at least for me, Urban Outfitters is banned...anyone that can be that offensive to a whole group of poeople and children should not be in business. I mean imagine a child that is old enough to read, reading that shirt, now they can get angry and tell their AP's that they just adopted to be like the rest of the crowd...how sickening would that make you feel if it was said to you?

Thinking Blogger Award

2007-04-24T22:15:00.000-05:00

I have been nominated for the thinking blogger award, by Jennifer over at PJ Academy, which means I already won...lol. SOOO I get to share with you all, five blogs that make me think. I tried to pick blogs that I don't "think" have won yet. So here they are in no particular order, except maybe alphabetical...lol.

Tracy of at Our Unforgotten Daughter She has a LID of 3/06 and I "think" that means she still has a wait ahead of her, but it is hilarious to read her posts from crazy antics to rude city people. And who would not love the name of her blog. Tracy makes me laugh often and I hope she realizes how many people care about her and her family and pray for them.

Dawnz over at Praying them Home the love she has for her children is amazing and it shines through in each post, as does the love she has for the Lord. I truly look forward to reading each post and seeing how her kiddos are doing, especially little Emilee and her son Jack in Haiti.

Heather over at Selam! It is truly amazing to watch how much she truly loves her new children's biological culture. There is no doubt that her children will never forget where they were born.

Avery over at The Discombobulated Chronicle of an Eccentric Sojourner or just "Leave it to Avery" if you prefer...lol. Avery is hubby to Heather but his blog has more nitty gritty to it. Of course you get to see more beautiful pictures of their kiddos, but you also will hear more about adoption ethics and reform than most adoption blogs.

Maggie over at The Open Window how much she has gone through just to be matched with her first child is enough to put anyone in the insane asylum, but she has made it through it, and we or at least I have enjoyed watching it happen and praying for her nightly. And she has JUST been matched with her little guy "Slugger"

You all have no idea how much I enjoy reading your blogs and feeling like I am "there" with you through the good and the bad. You are all in my prayers and I know that anyone that finds your blogs as a result of this award will come to love them as much as I do.

Thanks for making me think guys, now it is your turn. Save the thinking award picture from this post, choose 5 blogs that make you think, and pass it along.

Milk Bubble and Cane Walking

2007-04-21T11:49:00.000-05:00

Mia can make milk bubbles. She learned how to last night, and she figured it out all on her own...lol. Here is a picture and a video

She also has gotten her cane, and we practiced walking back and forth to mommy and daddy yesterday. Here are some pictures and a short video of it.

And yes our house used to be that ugly blue, we have re-sided the house to a pale yellow called Prairie Wheat and we plan on painting the garage to match. So don'thate me for the blue please...lol

We are so blessed

2007-04-20T14:59:00.000-05:00

As you all know I am on a few email groups for VI/Blind children/parents. Well I just today realized how blessed we truly are to have such a good established VI program here in Wichita. I see the emails from frustrated parents about how they are having such a hard time getting their children what they need and we were blessed enough to get offered things I didn't know even existed. It is so sad that people have even had to go as far as hiring a lawyer to get their children's needs met in their IEP. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have to fight for 5 working days, 8 hours each day, for Mia's IEP to get set appropriately, and acceptably for us and the school. We were there for about 2 hours and it was done. We have our O & M teacher offering to come to our house to help us with helping Mia. Yet people are having to fight to even GET O & M therapy for their legally blind children. We got a cane especially made for Mia, actually two; one for school and one for home, yet people are waiting a full semester just to get the one cane given to their child. I don't think the school and district will even fully appreciate how much we feel blessed and lucky that we have them to advocate for our child instead of fighting us to advocate for our child. I did tell our Vi teacher, who is AWESOME, that I feel blessed to have her there to advocate for my child, and to help my child succeed.

Her VI teacher has even gone as far as providing me with materials to learn to read and write Braille. I have a Perkins Braille Writer and when I need paper I tell her. She and I write notes back and forth in Braille to help me learn to read and write it. As well as sending extra sentences home for me to practice reading since you can only read the same sentences over a few times before you aren't reading the sentence but remembering what it said without even looking at it. Because of her I can read Grade 1 or Uncontracted Braille. I can read anything that is spelled out letter by letter. I can recognize the numbers and punctuation. I can read the alphabet contractions, I know which letter alone is what word, such as H alone is Have. I can even read a few extra Braille contractions. And it is all because she has provided me with what I need to succeed. And therefore for me to help Mia succeed. I can make labels to put on objects to help Mia learn to read the word and know what it says. I know I can stop in her classroom and ask the VI teacher anything and she will stop what she is doing to help me and answer my questions. For instance today, I went into her room to ask her what the appropriate way to hold the cane is. She took the 20 minutes before class and showed me and even offered to let me come in and have extra training some day so that I can help Mia succeed in her cane walking. It is something I don't expect but she says I should. She tells me it is her job to teach me as well as Mia so that Mia can succeed. Because the reinforcement at home will help her succeed. And I agree that I should know these things to help Mia succeed but I don't want to cause her any extra work. It is so nice that she WANTS to help me learn so that I can help Mia. So many people would say well if you want to learn it then learn it but it is not my job to teach it to you! I know that Debbie, or Mrs. Heeren, will always be in Mia's life. I want her to see how much she has helped for Mia to succeed. She has a picture wall where she has pictures of her kiddos. And it is so neat to see when she says this little girl is this woman now and this is her daughter. She is still in touch with this woman after years of school have completed and she is now a mom herself. And all this while she battles Breast Cancer. She has no hair, she just finished Chemo therapy, and she is still there to cheer Mia and I on. So many people would just say I am battling cancer I have more important things to worry about, I am taking a year off of work to concentrate on my health, and rightly so, but not Debbie. She loves Braille and to teach Braille so much that she is there every day and fighting the nausea and hot flashes and all the other stuff I will never know about, because she loves my child. By the end of school I will be sure to get a picture of Debbie with Mia. I hope to get one every year, while she is in elementary school. Which is quite a lot longer than most because she still has 8 years before 6th grade. Amazing, 8 years with this loving wonderful woman that God has blessed us with. 8 years I get to watch Mia be loved and taught by her and watch Mia love her right back.

I am almost in tears as I write this because it is just one more thing that God provided for. HE knew that Mia would need people like Debbie Heeren to help her succeed. And HE knew that the VI program here in Wichita is AWESOME, HE KNEW...HE knew it all and he amazes me more and more every day as I watch this beautiful child grow and succeed in everything she does. I just don't understand how some people don't believe in God. There is no other way to explain all that has happened except that God provided and KNEW!!! God is GREAT and AWESOME in his knowledge. I just hope I never forget that. Oh and also because of this, when I get Mia's Blog Book made I can make the Braille pages myself.

I will try to get some pictures of Mia with her cane this weekend. No pictures today though. Today is all about God and how wonderfully he provides.

Mia's first friend birthday party

2007-04-18T10:53:00.000-05:00

On Sunday we had the first friend birthday party for Mia. She was a little hesitant at first but then had a lot of fun. Here are some pictures of the event. I did cover the faces of the children I did not get permission to post on the blog.

Mia and the birthday girl, Alexyys 5, playing ring around the rosie. This is Alexyys' mom's favorite picture. She loves Mia to death and hugs and tickles her every day before class.
Here is Mia eating a cupcake, well more like cupcake icing...lol. Please excuse my dumb look and no makeup Phil took this picture...lol
Here is a better one of Mia enjoying the cupcake.
Mia's little friends. friend 1, friend 2, friend 3, and Alexyys. I LOVE Alexyys' hair and such a pretty little girl
eating pizza. Mia LOVES peperoni pizza...lol. And as usual Mia was the smallest, unless you count the 2 month old baby...lol

And now the answers to our Braille test. Here ya go

Just a Braille Lesson

2007-04-15T20:07:00.000-05:00

Ok this post is ALL about Braille...YAY!!! With this lesson you will know the first 10 letters of the alphabet and the base for the rest of the alphabet. You see for letters 11-20 you just add the number 3 dot in the cell. Pretty simple really. Anyway here is what we have learned so far.

Previous words
Letters A - I
Today's word, notice the R is an H with an extra dot?
Today's letter J
This shows how some letters are mirror images of each other. These are also the easiest to get wrong. When you are reading or writing Braille.

Here is our Reading Test. Write them down on a scrap paper or put them in the comments. I will reveal the answers on my next post.

And this is the writing test, is you choose to take it. Obviously you can't leave these answers in the comments but you can write them on a piece of paper and I will show you the answers in my next post as well.

And if you would really like to test your knowledge. Check out these lessons. I have completed lesson 1 & 2. I am confident in a - j, pretty good with k - t, with a little hesitation, and ok with u - z, with more hesitation. But I was able to complete and get correct lesson 1 and 2. Can you?...let me know.

Another Good Day

2007-04-12T20:11:00.000-05:00

Well Mia had a good day. Nothing too exciting happened so I will just say what did happen...lol.

The other day I was outside the school waiting for Mia and one of the mom's and I were talking. She then told me that there is a modeling contest going on at a convention center and I should enter Mia because she is just too cute. Well it was so sweet. But unfortunately I know if Mia could not handle a photo studio I KNOW she could not handle a stage...lol.

Then today this same mom invites Mia to a birthday party on Sunday. So Mia will be going to her first "friend" birthday party. It is so sweet. And this mom is so good about including everyone. She was one of the first mom's to talk to me when Mia started school.

Also heard from school that they need to reschedule me coming to get my mini Braille lesson to be able to bring the Braille writer home. Testing didn't get finished as planned for the 4th graders so she needs to finish that. No big deal, she asked if I could come on Monday so I "should" be able to get it then...lol. Also I was told that when they were going to Library her teacher asked if she wanted to use her cane, and she excitedly said YES...so if things continue this way we should still be able to bring home the cane this weekend.

Now on to our Braille lesson. And since Cameo is the only one to respond to my question, she gets her way...lol. I will use the simbraille which shows the "extra" dots of the cell.

Previous words
Previous letters
Our new word cell
Today's letter I, in cell placements 2 and 4, and is an exact opposite of E.

Here is a cool site I found as well. The Braille Store I have already ordered the alphabet flashcards to help with my learning. And if any of you are REALLY interested you can also get more "hands on" info and knowledge.

For me the reason I can remember the letters is because I act like my hand is on the Braille writer. If I can't remember what one is, I go through the motions of typing out the alphabet in Braille on my imaginary Braille writer and I can find the answer.

Thanks and Video

2007-04-11T20:34:00.000-05:00

Thanks everyone. You have no idea how much better I feel. I honestly did not know if I was over reacting or what. At least it was just not me.

Also it is official. I can start a fire just by turning on our ELECTRIC stove... Cooking Dinner the other night and our burner catches on fire.. I say fire Phil comes running and blows it out and then it starts back up. He said Grease Fire I said Baking Soda and that was that. Of course the house was smokey and the white pan is a little brown now, but no major damage...lol. I can officially say I can burn ANYTHING!!!

Funny story. Sometime last week or so Mia was talking about kissing.

N = What is kissing

M = Kissing, and makes kissing sounds

N = Who are you kissing?

M= CJ

At this point Phil's eyes are the size of pancakes...lol

N = You kissed CJ at school

M = Yes kiss CJ

Now what a story to tell her later....lol. And she tells us every other day or so that she kissed CJ, but when I asked CJ, jokingly, if Mia was kissing on him he just said NO!!! and speed walked away as his dad and I laughed, to ourselves of course...lol

Also when I picked Mia up from school today I found out she got a wonderful new thing...HER WALKING CANE!!!! It looks like this, but only about 2 foot tall...lol And with a black handle. She is supposed to be able to bring it home this Friday if she does well with it at school. But she was tapping it as they walked out of the school. So I think it will be coming home on Friday. So we will have lots of fun this weekend. The Braille Writer and her Walking Cane

Also I decided to give you guys a show. I took a small video of Mia laughing on my digital camera. I only wish I had sound because her laugh is super contagious. But I think her smile and obvious pleasure will get a few giggle too...lol Sorry it is so dark, you would not belive that all lights were on...lol

We are playing the name game, you know, Mia mia bo bia banana fana fo fia me my mo mia MIA, and she was telling me names to say. She thinks it is hysterical....lol

And now for today's Braille Lesson

Previous letters, please note that D & F are exact Opposites, you will need to remember that

Previous words. Sorry they are getting so small I am getting quite a word bank made here...lol

Today's new letter is H, cells, 1, 2, and 5

And what other word would be more appropriate that cane...lol.

Also wanted to ask you guys if you want me to continue to use both types of Braille or if you prefer one to the other, so number 1 will be WITH the extra dots, and number 2 will be WITHOUT the extra dots which is actually how you would see it or feel it. So you guys decide, with or without, makes no difference to me. I go to bed thinking about the placement of my hands on the Braille Writer for the letters....lol.

So that is about it for me,

Oh one more thing.. Mia is OFFICIALLY MIA!!!! We got her name change in the mail today, all we need to do is sign and send in a small check for her new KS birth Certificate. She has been a True since October but now she is LEGALLY... MIA ELAINE JUDITH TRUE, which means, My Light Admired True, which she is one million percent.

Good night and HUGS to you all

OK come on!!!

2007-04-10T19:42:00.000-05:00

OK tell me if I am bein too sensitive??? I got this comment on the post about Mia's Penney's photo shoot. I think it is a little harsh....What do you guys think??? Well 6 pics from the bottom I had said "Again cute, but nothing too special...wow that sounds mean, I guess I should say there are betters" I even admitted it sounded mean and rephrased it. But I try to make sure not to edit myself and if I have a correction I say it withouth erasing my "bad choice of words" Anyway here is the comment.

Anonymous said...
Every photo is special. Each moment you spend with your child is precious. I hope you aren't blunt like that with her saying that her photos aren't nothing special. All of her photos were gorgeous.
April 10, 2007 6:54 PM

Am I being too sensitive or what. And OF COURSE I would never tell her that she is nothing special. And I wouldn't say to her that her pictures are nothing special. I KNOW she and everything about her special. And just the fact that this person felt the need to remain anonymous means they are just trying to get me upset, which they did, so good for you.

Anyway what I am asking is if you guys think I am being too serious and getting too upset about this. I am going to delete that comment and I am going to not allow anonymous comments anymore. I refuse to go private but if I need to go to a different blog format to allow private posts I will. I just hope this stops here.

No Braille today I will try to do it tomorrow. I am just not in the mood...sorry to my loyal readers.

Our own Photo Shoot

2007-04-08T14:41:00.000-05:00

So I decided that since it was Easter and I remembered we had this GORGEOUS Dress from Esayda, Mia's foster mom, that we would have our own photo shoot. And I have to say some of these pictures are MUCH better than the ones we got taken at JC Penney's...lol. Above is number 1

number 2
number 3
number 4
number 5
number 6

number 7, looks kind of like a school picture...lol
number 8
I love the serious look in number 9
so cute in number 10
my Absolute FAVE in number 11

Now these are free. If anyone wants a copy just let me know, make sure to give me the number...lol.

Today's Braille Lesson Previous Letters

Previous Words

New Letter G, all four of the top "cells"

Our word today is of course Mia...lol. What else would it be...lol. I can remember all of the letters so far...can you?

Mia's Pictures are online

2007-04-06T23:20:00.000-05:00

Well we got Mia's pictures available online now. So I can show them all to you. We can pick up our prints on Wednesday...yippee! I started with the bad and ended with the good.

First off. I was NOT supposed to be in the picture...AT ALL but they kept wanting me to calm her and snapping pictures while I was doing it. I also did not want my arm in the pictures but, whatever, I am going to set up my own portrait studio with sheets and such and get some really good smiley ones.
She was miserable. This was at the end
But doesn't she at least look cute, no matter how mad her face is?
This was the very first picture, I told them she is blind and it will take quite a few frames to get good pictures, they just didn't care, of course they were MAYBE 18 years old, what 18 year old DOES care?
Can you tell she was not liking sitting there alone?
She looks like a deer standing in the headlights
Then we thought to bribe her with candy. Funny how candy sometimes does the trick...especially chocolate.
This one is probably the best of the "bad" bunch, not good but not bad, I wouldn't even put it in the "ok" category, which is coming up now.

Cute smile, cute picture but not the best, well it is the best without her hands up and one of the best in a landscape setting
Again cute, but nothing too special...wow that sounds mean, I guess I should say there are betters
Cute and a better picture with the chocolate.
This would of been perfect if her feet would of stayed crossed as they were in the beginning.

Next are the ones we bought. I think these are the best.

This is the one we got the most of, 9 wallets, 4 - 3.5 x 5, 5 x 7 with wallets and billfolds, and an 8 x 10
This one we got a sheet of 1 5 x 7 with the wallets and billfolds
And this one we got a sheet of 1 5 x 7 and the wallets and billfolds.

My faves are the first one and the last one, but the reason I choose the one over the other for our package, is because it is ALL about Mia. I am not in it in any way shape or form. I know the other is just my hand, but still I did not want to be in the picture. But it was the best of her standing up.

Anyway I hope you like the pics, and if anyone for some odd reason wants to order any let me know at nicholetrue@yahoo.com and I will send you the info to order them online...of course it would be better if I have some clue of who you are...lol.

Ok now today's Braille Lesson

Previous Letters
Previous words

Today's letter and word, F and dice. And just because I am so nice and want to share the secret...lol. In the word dice, there are both the letters "I" and "E" they are exact opposites. and to not get them confused. You always remember that E comes first in the alphabet so it has the number one "spot"...does that make sense?...lol oh well it makes sense to me...lol

Have a good night and Happy Easter Everyone!!!

My Present from Mother Nature

2007-04-05T16:27:00.000-05:00

Well today I am 28 years old..yippee..enter sarcasm here. And what do I get from Mother Nature??? SNOW, I kid you not it is SNOWING RIGHT NOW!!! Granted it is not really sticking but it just ticks me off!!! On Monday it got up to 83 degrees and now it is snowing?!?!?!? Here is my proof

If you look closely you can see a little bit of the snow. And you see how the picture looks blurry? Well that is how hard it is coming down. Nice green grass and tulips go great with snow...right?!?!?

And it is starting to stick a little bit. And you can really see a little bit better how hard it is coming down against Phil's work truck.

Now for today's Braille lesson. I decided for now, at least, to show you both with the extra dots and without them. With the extra is first then how you would actually "see" or feel the Braille bumps. I also made the picture a little smaller. In case you have ever seen Braille they are not large dots, they are literally "about" this size.

here are our previous lessons

Here is our new lessons. I also have a cool tip to remember when we get to the letter I. But I won't let you know until we get there. See if you can figure it out by looking at the words and letters above and the letter "e". I won't have a prize but it will be cool to see how many people catch it.

You can go to this site to practice what you have learned. It is actually kind of fun, even though you have a cheat sheet...lol

Responses to Comments about Braille lessons

2007-04-04T17:16:00.000-05:00

cameo said...
I LOVE these daily lessons!!!!
April 4, 2007 12:33 AM

I am so glad you are enjoying them. I know I am

ManyBlessings said...
Nichole,I'm trying my hardest to learn this right along with you and it's been FUN!!!! :) Thanks so much for doing this!!!dawnz:)
April 4, 2007 7:39 AM

No Problem, and I will let you keep on thinking I am doing it for you... ; - P

Betsy said...
Dumb question here... are the small dots "bumps" too? I think it would be much easier to learn if you can focus on the "big" bumps and not the little ones too at the same time. At any rate, BIG KUDOS go to you for learning Braille.My brother and sister were born deaf and my parents learned sign language to communicate with them. It enriched all of our lives.
April 4, 2007 9:31 AM

There are no dumb questions, it is actually a very logical questions. And no the small dots are not raised. I just have them there so you can see where the "bumps' go in correlation to the rest of the cell. But if you guys would like I can start using the Braille without the little dots and just what you would actually see.

Jesse said...
I think it is so cool how you are learning to read Braille, and the lessons are cool too!
April 4, 2007 12:26 PM

I am glad you like the lessons, and I am having a blast learning them myself

Jesse said...
I'm loving the Braille lessons, and I think it's pretty cool that you found a software that's easy for you to use. Have a great day.
April 3, 2007 9:09 AM

You have no idea how happy I am to have that software...lol

Third Mom said...
This is amazing, thanks for sharing it. Years and years ago when I was a junior high - high school teacher, I learned Braille to type out homework assignments and tests for one of my students. It was really amazing - an incredibly efficient writing system. I loved learning it.
April 3, 2007 9:44 PM

I know I am enjoying. So if you are enjoyed it nearly as much as I am, you must of had a ball...lol

cameo said...
And thanks for the braille lesson! I look forward to it every day!
March 31, 2007 11:20 PM

I look forward to it as well...lol Glad I am not alone

Cat Lady said...
okay, so let me see if I am understanding this...each letter is based on a set of "bumps" in a 2x3 box?
March 30, 2007 6:34 PM

Yep, you get it perfectly

cameo said...
How cool! I'm so excited!!!
March 30, 2007 10:02 PM

I would of guessed it, you comment every day...lol. But I LOVE it.

Debbie said...
The braille lesson is so cool! I never knew how it worked.
March 30, 2007 11:20 PM

Well now you do... glad you like it

melody said...
Braille lessons, cool. My boys would love to learn. Thanks.
March 31, 2007 1:10 AM

If you would really want to teach them in homeschool let me know. I found a great place where you can download 15 lessons and it is a slow an sure method that even has homework for reading and writing it. That is basically my "lesson plan" but I am doing a letter a day instead too many at once.

A Special Family said...
I can't wait to learn with you!!!
March 31, 2007 4:11 AM

And I can't wait for you all to learn with me

Now I THINK I have responded to them all. And if you want me to start using the Braille without the extra dots, let me know. It is as easy as using a different font. I will go with the majority...lol. have a great day folks.

We got Mia's Braille Bible today

2007-04-03T20:36:00.001-05:00

I while back I had found a site where you can order a Braille bible for free, for Blind and visually impaired children. I sent the link to my mom thinking she might like to get one for Mia as it is always more special to get it from someone other than your parents. here is the link if you are interested http://www.braillebibles.org/Braille.htm

Here are some pictures

All ten volumes of the children's beginner's bible

The first page

I put a piece of paper under the clear Braille page in hopes you could see it... but you can't so at least you get to see the fun picture...lol

Now we have our Braille lesson. I talked to Mia's VI teacher about it today and told her that I am doing this and that it is helping me to remember it as well, because I am "teaching" others. So therefore I am seeing it every time I show you guys. That is also a reason I am showing you the stuff I have already showed you as well as what is new for the day. Hope you guys don't get bored with this...lol. Her teacher is so pleased that I want to learn Braille. She said so many parents don't. But I can't imagine not. I mean I want to be able to help my daughter with her homework. But if I can't read what she has written than how can I help her? Also next week sometime, we still have to set a day, I am going to go to her school for about an hour and her teacher is going to teach me how to use the Braille writer. Mia gets on anyway, so they are giving it to us early so that I can learn as well, but she wants to teach me how to use it first before just sending it home...lol. I understand that.

Anyway here is the lesson

ABC the letter's we have gone over.

The words we have "learned" already

Today's new letter and word. D and Cage. I hope you guys can really see how this is coming together. I know I can tell the difference in A - B - C - and now D although I will have to work on that one...lol. The word's not so much but I want to keep showing and seeing how the words come together. So I am going to keep doing the words. And after we get through the letters A - J we will have a little quiz. I will write words out in Braille and see how many people get the words correct. Of course I will have the letters a - j above the braille words... at first... then the next time I will let you all in on the answers.

Nothing too exciting, but a Braille lesson

2007-04-02T20:03:00.000-05:00

I don’t have anything really exciting to talk about today. The most exciting thing is that we found out we do NOT have to buy a new fridge like we thought. We had a mysterious “leak” some brownish “water” was puddling up and Phil thought it was the fridge breaking so we were trying to figure out how we were going to “pull this out of our rear ends” Well so today I decided to REALLY clean the fridge, my mom had mentioned maybe the drain being plugged. So I took everything out; food, shelves, drawers. IT ALL and I scrubbed the living daylights out of it. Well then I got everything put back in and it looks brand new on the inside..WOOHOO. Next; time to tackle the door. So I am taking everything out of the shelves in the door. What do I find??? A bottle of cram soda that had been put in the door, half drank, and had spilled…causing the mysterious “leak” . So I got the door cleaned out and scrubbed the exterior and the fridge is perfect and no more puddling of cream soda…YAY….lol. You are probably wondering how bad my fridge was… let me say it took about 3 hours total to get it all done…yea bad I know but now it is perfect…for how long? Who knows…lol

Also I found the COOLEST tool. It can be found here http://www.duxburysystems.com/default.asp , you go to products and then freeware and then Duxbury Braille TrueType Fonts . This download allows you to write in Braille by using your regular keyboard in Microsoft Word. Just follow the directions. It is SOOO cool and it is what I am going to use to “teach” you your Braille today. You see I am writing this all in word and then I will copy and paste it to the blog. Cool huh?!?!

So we have learned
A = A
B = B
Fish = Fish
Jab = Jab

Below is what the above looked like in Microsoft word. I screen saved it to show you. Oh and it also spell checks and grammar checks for you, but it will show up in print in the spell check..SOO COOL

Now I know that Fish looks different, that is because the Microsoft word Braille font spells everything out. Where as in “real life” you would use the contraction for “sh” I do not have the ability to do that with this tool, but since we are just learning the words and letters anyway it is not a big deal.

SO today’s letter and word is

C = C
Aid = Aid

Again the below is what the above looked like to me as I wrote it. So cool, I am in LOVE with this software!!

I hope you are all enjoying the Braille lessons, I know it is helping me to learn it as well. And also with this wonderful new Braille font I can make labels to put on the back on Mia’s pictures that say Mia True age 3 April 2007. Then all I have to do is use a needle to poke through the back and she will be able to read it when she is older… SO COOL!!

**Ok that sucks, I can't transfer the braille on Word to the blog, but you should still check it out.** added after pasteing

We got Mia's pictures taken

2007-03-31T22:38:00.000-05:00

Well we got Mia's pictures taken today and they turned out ok. Phil had to work so his mom, Gaylene came up there to try to help to get Mia to cooporate with the pictures. Well it worked to a point...lol. Out of 15 pictures we got 3 that we really loved and bought. 4 that were ok but not something we wanted copies of and 8 that were just not printable...lol. Halfway through the pictures we had to bribe her with a candy bar to get her to smile...lol. That worked for a while and we got pictures of her with one of her favorite things...cholcolate...lol. She was just not into it...lol. She wanted nothing to do with it, but we got a few that are good to keep for memories. We plan on getting a new family picture around Christmas time. And we only spent $22.00. So that is really good for good quality pictures. All in all we 9 wallets of one of the pictures, an 8 x 10, 9 wallets, 4 - 3.5 x 5, and a 5 x 7 with 3 wallets and 3 billfolds, in another pose, and a 5 x 7 with 3 wallets and 3 billfolds in another pose. So really that is a very good deal. We also paid to have all the pictures available online for our family to order more if they want more than what we have and give them. They said it takes 7-10 days to get the access code and such for those to be viewable online. As soon as I get that I will share it with you all as well.

This is a windsock Mia made at school while they were studying "wind". It is really just a newspaper bag and streamers, but she made it and it is cute so neh...lol. Phil was so taken by it that it is hanging in our living room right now... and who knows how long it will stay there...lol

After the pictures We, my MIL, Mia and I, went to the children's Dept to spend some $5 stars, which are basically $5 coupons, that I got for being my lovely self at work...lol. Okie Dokie had a wonderful say of $4.99 a piece so Mia got two new outfits. So what does $20.00 in $5 stars get you at Penney's?

This cute little outfit that is yellow with a pink cupcake on the front that looks like it is a tank under a T shirt, and this adorable little plaid skirt, with built in shorts, $9.98 for most people... FREE for me...lol

AND this coral shirt with metallic beads in the shape of a butterfly with the wonderfully cute cap sleeves and this little plaid pair of shorts. $9.98 for most people...FREE for me. AND both outfits are interchangeable. Or at least the yellow shirt can be worn with the shorts...I haven't decided if I like the coral shirt with the skirt, since there is no coral in the skirt.

So if anyone wants to help me get more $5 stars just let me know, all I need is to get you to fill out a credit application...lol.

Now onto our Braille lesson, if you remember correctly I told you I was going to find a better way to get the cells to you guys, well I found it...lol

Here is a site you can see all the Braille cells if you like... http://www.afb.org/braillebug/braille_print.asp , it isn't the same site I got the Braille alphabet card I have saved on my comp now but it is still a wonderful site. And it shows you how it all works out.

If you remember I showed you the letter A, which is just a dot in the 1 place on the cell. To make the letter B it is a dot in the 1 & the 2 cell. Like above

And our word for the day is jab. I found some wonderful lessons I am going to be using to "teach" you guys the Braille. Each day I will also TRY to share a new site about Braille or something Braille related as well.

Mia Loves School

2007-03-30T13:26:00.000-05:00

Mia loves school, sooo much. I can't get over how much she talks about school. I don't remember ever being so enthralled, but then again i don't remember being 3 years old either....lol. Today when I took Mia to school she decided she was a big girl and was walking around the school halls without holding my hands...this is HUGE!!! She has to be VERY comfortable with a place to feel good enough about doing that. She even hung up her back pack, with little assistance from me, in her locker and walked into her classroom without holding any ones hands, of course she wanted me to walk with her all the way to where she was to sit down and I got her a book. But this is such an improvement over the scared child just 3 weeks ago. We also have gotten a few things back in her back pack that she has done in class.

Here are her first "art projects" from school. The letter this week is K and they are learning about the wind and what all it does and helps
Also got this, this one says she was exposed to impetigo... lovely.. I did ask her teachers if this child that had this is one that helps Mia and guides her, since Mia holds hands more than most children I thought this was a reasonable question. And no she did not have any direct contact with the child and did not touch any toys the child did...woohoo, still have to keep ours eyes open for it though
Same day, same kid even, we got this one. This one says ringworm, so Mia was exposed to ringworm and impetigo..fun huh?!?! Oh the joys of public school... lol

Oh and I am going to teach you all Braille as I learn it. Braille is learned differently by a sighted person than a unsighted person. We learn braille by learning the places the dots are with our eyes, while an unsighted person learns with their fingers...

Braille is a combination of 6 different dots set in different ways to represent each letter

Similar to this, although this is a crude example. I will have to look for a better way to show you guys....lol

So today's braille letter is A =

I put the gray dots in to show you what is not being used

This is the word Fish in Braille. Mia's library book is One Fish, Two Fish, Three, Four, Five Fish! So I figured I might as well work with what I have....lol. But you can still see what I mean about sighted people using their eyes to read Braille. So stay tuned, you will all know Braille at least a little bit by the time I am done with you....lol. I will try to always do a letter and a word, hope you all like to learn new things....lol.

Quick Funny Before Bed

2007-03-27T22:47:00.000-05:00

Ok I had to work tonight and I asked Phil to give Mia a bath and to have her in bed around 9, since she didn't sleep well last night. Well he did these things, which I am grateful for.

After I got home he told me a story of something that happened tonight while Mia was in the bath. It is too funny.

Phil was talking to Mia about animal sounds, this is the conversation as it was told to me...P = Phil, M = Mia

P ~~ what says meow meow
M ~~ A kitty cat
P ~~ what says woof woof
M ~~ a dog
P ~~ what says, insert snoring sound
M ~~ Grampa True, he growls

How funny is that....lol. It took a lot of effort not to laugh out loud and wake Mia up. Phil later called his folks to tell them. His mom answered the phone and Phil said he wanted to tell them something that will give them a smile. So he told his mom the story, his mom cracked up. When his dad heard her laughing he asked what so funny and she told him, and he said...Ahh you can both go to H***... apparently Rick...aka Grampa True...didn't find it as funny....

I figured this would make you guys laugh and it needs to be recorded for Mia anyway... so all have a good night and a wonderful Wednesday.

**Edited to add... Apparently Phil did not tell me the WHOLE truth... Grampa True did say that but he was laughing when he did...lol**

Quirky Quote Qontest

2007-03-26T14:02:00.000-05:00

OK I am all about a little bit of fun. And jewlsntexas is having a contest where you give your favorite Quote and she will give a prize of a custom template for your blog. Well I learned about this from 5 minutes for mom so I figure what the hay...lol.

So here is my quote...

God brought us to it, and God WILL bring us through it... author unknown

When we started the adoption of Mia I was working at my in-laws flooring company and had the radio on. A listener had won a contest and she was saying that the thing that got her and her friend through "whatever it was" was this saying. Ever since then I have used it as my motto for adoption. God brought us to adoption, he is not going to give up on us and not bring it to fruition. I have said it so many times that I have now seen other people I know using it. It is an uplifting comment about how God is in control no matter how much we want to think we are...lol

So if you would like to enter this contest, be sure to say that you heard about it from me, that way I get an "extra" vote for my quote....lol

Much love and be blessed
Nichole

We got Mia's picture appt set.

2007-03-23T23:10:00.000-05:00

I called and scheduled Mia's pictures for March 31 at 11AM. I have to work at 2 so I am hoping this will give us plenty of time to get done, but if not I will wear my work clothes to the photo shoot and Phil and Mia can pick me up later when I get off at 8PM.

Also I am SOOOO ready for school to start. I love Mia but those 3 hours a day seemed to be doing miracles that I never truly appreciated...lol. I got spoiled after just one week, well two technically but with Mia sick she only went to school one day the week before spring break.

Mia is 100% again...PRAISE THE LORD. She is till coughing on occasion but we are not too worried about that and she still has some anti-biotics left so we are still giving her that. And the coughing has gone from every 30 minutes or so and more at night, to about once every 3 hours or so and we don't hear it at all at night, well maybe the occasional cough but mostly not.

So anyway I just want to give you guys an update since I had mentioned the pictures and showed you the dress.

Have a good night.

I got permission...

2007-03-23T21:01:00.000-05:00

from Anita, my sis, to share a picture of Bright on her blog, so I am showing it here too...

Here is the original picture

Cropped it for a close up

And here it is with a "spotlight" feature. I think I like this one of the three, same picture, the best....lol

Now is he just not the cutest little guy ever?!?!?!

I did it.

2007-03-22T22:31:00.000-05:00

It took me a long time but I FINALLY got all the posts from the old blog copied and pasted to the new blog. Now all of my archives are in one place, and since I have this one set to send the post in an email to my email address, I also have them all in email for printing out and making into the book in October, I plan on printing out each year and having it bound to make a yearly book for all that has happened in the last year.

So now all the new people on my blog can easily see where we started... And let me tell you it took FOREVER to copy and paste all the posts and the comments to go with them...fun huh... yea remind me never to do that again...lol

So if you wanna know more baout Mia, from the beginning of her being home, check out the 2006 archives...lol Oh and it was bout 115 posts, so if you got A LOT from me in your blog reader I am SOOO sorry...lol

Nichole

We need your prayers

2007-03-22T13:24:00.000-05:00

OK a while back I took Mia to the dentist for her teeth. And they are in dire need of work. Which requires sedation. Here is a link to the original post Anyway we have had one heck of a time, because insurance will only cover $1500.00 dollars of the work and the work is an estimated total of $3346.00. Well we all know that I do not have this kind of money sitting around. And we had to use our tax refund to pay back some laons to family members. So we were going to have to wait until NEXT tax season to get it done. Well then my mom saw an article in the Wichita Eagle, I cannot find a link on the web for it... this is what it says...
"GRANTS UP TO $5000 CAN HELP WITH CHILDREN's MEDICAL NEEDS

The UnitedHealthcare Children's Foundation is expanding its program of assistance grants to children whose medical needs aren't fully covered by health insurance.
Parents and caretakers may apply for grants u to $5000 for things such as therapy, wheelchairs, or dental work. Children must be 16 or younger, and families must meet economic guidlines and be covered by a commercial health insurance plan.
For mor einformation, visit
www.uhccf.org"

I went and applied and all I need is a letter from the dentist staing the needs and costs and a copy of this past years tax return. So what I am asking you guys to do is pray that we get this grant. Mia's teeht are so bad and it is not fair to her that we cannot afford to get all the work she needs done, done. Also she will need to be sedated for this so part of that total of $3346.00 includes sedation.

Oh and BTW I am going to be copying and pasting old posts, and backdating them, from my blog before deletion to have them all on one blog, so sorry if your RSS feeds pick up REALLY old posts...lol

Everyone Loves a Brown Eyed Girl in the Spring...

2007-03-21T18:03:00.000-05:00

Well Spring is alive in Wichita, KS and I have pictures to prove it. Here are some pictures of a few trees blooming in our neighborhood.

Crab Apple Tree in my neighbors yard. Isn't it beautiful? I love how it blows in the breeze and leaves the white blossoms all over the neighborhood. And I love how it is such a perfect bell shape without any pruning.

This is our little Red Bud Tree. It grows a little bit every year. And the blossoms are so beautiful when they are in full boom. Phil wants to cut it down every year, but I keep telling him it is not going to happen, it is too pretty and does not require ANY care...lol

Here is a close up of the Red Bud Blossoms, they are so delicate and so pretty. I will be sure to take a picture when they are in full bloom. But this just proves that Spring is right around the corner.

I had to get out of the house, and where did we go? Target of course. We usually go to WalMart but I wanted to look at new stuff this time...lol. I found this ADORABLE shirt that I just could not pass up. After all my brown eyed girl needs to advertise how much everyone loves her...lol
Also found this ADORABLE pink eyelet dress. It is so dainty and pretty. We plan on taking Mia to get Professional pictures taken next weekend at Penney's, after all we get a discount since I work there and they do such a good job. Can you picture Mia in this dress? She will look so precious in it.
And I fell in LOVE with these shoes. And they go perfectly with the dress. Of course I cheated and found the shoes first...lol. But they look so cute together. And since Mia does not like going without socks we will put some frilly white or pink socks with it.

So when we get the pic previews I will be sure to show you guys. I can't wait to see how well they turn out.

And of course all this means Mia is back to herself. Still a little clingy but not as bad as yesterday, which is WONDERFUL. I actually had to go and get her for her to sit on my lap, because I wanted her to today.

Mia is all better, and spoiled to boot...

2007-03-20T21:58:00.000-05:00

Well Mia is all better today. She has not had a fever over 99 and she has eaten and drank a normal amount today. Although the milk that I gave her once was not so good on her stomach. So she had a bout of "d".

But now we have the unexpected side effect of her being even more spoiled than before. She will not let me sit alone, she will not go play alone, she will not do anything alone. She will cry if I leave the room and she will cry if Phil tries to do something for her.

What fun I tell you I am sick of sleeping in Mia's bed, I am tired and don't sleep well on that bed. I can handle her sitting on my lap but I can't get anything done if she is attached to my hip...lol. So now I have to let her cry it out a little bit. Today after I changed her clothes she cried for 30 minutes before I gave in and told her if she stopped crying she could come sit with me. Then later this evening I played with her hair for about an hour. Then when I was done she screamed because I took her off my lap for 5 minutes. Then she calmed down and it was 9:30 so I decided it was time for bed. She went and gave daddy hugs and kisses, but refused to tell him goodnight, when I told her to tell him goodnight she said, "I DID" Then when I refused to carry her into her room and made her walk she threw a fit. When i walked into her room and said get in bed she ran to her bed and THREW herself on her bed in the most pitiful way she could. I was bad mommy and laughed. I told her she had to go to bed and she cried and cried and when I kissed her goodnight she turned away from me. Then when I kissed her forehead and covered her up, she kicked the blankets off of her in the most laughable way. I of course did not laugh that time, but said ok sleep with no covers...lol.

So now we get to "de-spoil" Mia. It is going to be loud in our house for a while. I have a feeling that crying is going to become a staple in our house for a while.

Anyway if Mia is feeling better tomorrow we are going to go to Target, I have to get out of the house. I don't plan on buying anything but I just have to go and I am getting sick of walking aimlessly around WalMart.

So I will let you know how the de-spoiling goes tomorrow and the window shopping...lol

Update on Mia and a new blog

2007-03-19T20:48:00.000-05:00

Well I have been writing everything down about Mia today. Every time I take her temp I write it down. That way if we do end up going back to the doctor I can let him know how it is fluctuating.

So here is how her day went... starting with Sunday night before bed.

Sunday
10PM temp 102.9
11PM temp 102.6, gave her Tylenol, and sent her to bed, also did the touch test to see if she is hydrated enough and she passed
Monday
1AM temp 99.0
8AM temp 104.5, gave her Motrin and we laid down together on my bed to get more sleep
11AM temp 99.7, got up from bed and she ate a few cherrios and drank a little Sprite
12:30PM temp 100.8, gave her Tylenol and her anit-biotic, Biaxin
1:30PM temp 98.6 PRAISE GOD, gave her a lukewarm bath, cloreseptic, and she ate a little toast and drank some Pedialyte
3PM temp 98.4, took a 2 hour nap
5PM temp 98.2, gave her more Motrin
7:45 temp 100.6, ate some toast and more sprite
8:45 temp 100.0, gave her some more Biaxin
9PM temp 100.4, gave her Tylenol and put her to bed.

So Mia has been a little better today. If it gets back up to up to 103 or 104 I will take her back to the doctor for sure. But since she got down to normal, for the first time in a week, we figured that maybe she was getting over it and on the mend. We shall see what tomorrow brings.

As far as the new blog. I have made a new blog that's sole purpose is praying for orphans and adoption. You see I have been in contact with Ann at Until All Have Homes and between the two of us we have made a weekly prayer request on the Mom's of Grace board in the Adoption forum. And then as miracles happen she will update me and therefore I will update the Mom's of Grace forum and my new blog. My hope is that it will bring more prayers to the orphans of the world and help them find their forever families. I also will add prayer requests about adoption from individual, and would like them to be able to ask their request to be posted on the blog. I do not know how fast this will become active, but it is more for me than for "popularity" I want to be able to keep track of the miracles prayer brings. If you would like to check it out, it is called Adoption Prayers

It is still a work in progress and I plan on adding links to site that have children that need homes. I also will be making a button and putting it in my sidebar here for your ease of finding it if you choose to go back and check for updates. Please join me in prayer for the orphans of the world. Please join me in praying that they find their forever families soon.

Well, we are not going to Tulsa...

2007-03-18T12:02:00.000-05:00

Mia is too sick for the ride and we need to be close to our doctor. We thought she was getting better with the anti-biotic and even let her go outside for about 30 minutes yesterday, in a long sleeved outfit even though it was about 70 degrees. Well last night her fever sky rocketed again back up to 104.5. She wouldn't eat and she was just a whiny little clingy thing.

Well I called the emergency hot line for our doctor, who I had heard was on call this weekend, and he said to alt Tylenol and Motrin, like I have been told, and to put a wet washcloth on her forehead to help cool her off. He said that if we wanted to take her to the ER for our peace of mind then we could, but he didn't think they were going to do anything different. I asked him if he wanted to see her again on Monday and he asked if I had noticed a difference since Mia had been on the Anti-biotics, it has been 4 days on them now and there should be a noted difference, I told him she was coughing less and her fever had stayed pretty low but other than that not really. Well he said if I wanted to I could bring her back in tomorrow.

Well Phil went out and bought Motrin and Popsicles and jello and Pedialyte, because she won't drink anything either. Her fever came down pretty quick and we put her to bed, she slept better, only waking every 3 hours instead of every hour. And she got up with a101.1 temp. Well she had some toast and Pedialyte and her fever flew back up to104.4. So more Motrin and washcloths and of course a blanket with her on the couch to try to sweat out the fever.

She finally stopped whining and is laying on the couch with Daddy. Her fever has already gone down a little bit to 103.3 and she is talking more and being happier. But it is still scary when her fever goes up so high and she just screams and whines to be held, and then cries because it hurts to be touched...Phil just took her temp again, we are taking it every 15 minutes as worried parents, and it is down to 102.0.

Anyway last night when her fever spiked I called Eric, my BIL to let him know we wouldn't be coming today as planned as I know Mia couldn't handle the car for 3 hours to get there, and asked if he wanted to take it day to day or just call it and us stay home. He said to just stay home and get Mia better. His mom agreed to watch the kids next week and he said he can get rides to work from friends at work. I of course cried because I know Anita was counting on my helping out so that Melba, her MIL, would not be stuck with it all. I feel so bad that I am letting her and Eric down. But Eric is so understanding and even said I need to concentrate on getting Mia better not going out of town. And I have to tell myself that often, as the day goes by, because I KNOW that she is my first responsibility and SHE is what and who I need to worry about the most, but I HATE to back out when I know people are counting on me.

Anyway it would seem as though Mia is under attack. I don't know or maybe she is just really sick. Either way we are all exhausted, as Phil and I have been taking turns sleeping with her in her bed because she wakes up so often. And Poor Mia is just not herself. SOOO If you guys could all pray for Mia to get better I would really appreciate it. It has definitely seem to hit as soon as I agreed to go to Tulsa to help Anita and her family.

Much love to all and God Bless

Mia on the couch eating a popsicle with a washcloth on her head. Look how pale her face is compared to her arms. My poor sick baby.

Went to the dr and redid the blog...

2007-03-15T22:07:00.000-05:00

but not at the same time or for the same reason...lol.

Ok I took Mia to the doc today... turns out it is a good thing I did. She has bronchitis.. yea fun. He mentioned pneumonia about 5 times and made it sound as if I would of waited until we got back from Tulsa it could of turned into it. So Thank God I took her. So now she is on anti-biotics for that... Oh and both of her ears are full of fluid as well as the left ear starting to look pink. So he said it looked like the left ear was trying to start an infection. Even more fun. Hopefully the anti-biotic will kick both of them out of her system and I can have my normal, happy, loving, playful baby back. Right now she is grumpy, whiny, crabby, clingy Mia, I still love this Mia but so help me this girl needs to feel better soon before I lose my mind...lol

Now onto the blog look. As Jennifer mentioned in the comments I redid my blog...again. I get sick of my blog looks and have to change them like underwear, BUT I don't like the plain templates that blogger comes with, so every once in a while I play with the HTML until it turns into something I like. Well I have always used the classic templates, I have never been brave enough to try the beta templates. Well today I got brave and this is the outlook. So I can add the stuff I want easier and it still has a pic of my baby girl at the top. Now when I get sick of this one I will have to try a WHOLE other template because I cannot for the life of me figure out how to change the complete background color. I can change the bottom half but not the top half...lol But luckily I chose the blue BECAUSE it would look ok with the picture I wanted to use.

SO if anyone wants me too I can change your template header for you. Just let me know. I have a tester blog I use to test the things out on before I actually put them to a blog. And now I can kinda do both classic and beta blogger.

Ok I think that is enough for now...lol

I have been Critiqued

2007-03-14T13:07:00.000-05:00

I had heard about this from Jennifer over at Life is not a cereal so i decided to try it out.

Here is the deal, you head over to Critique My blog. It is a great way to up traffic and get a little bit of extra notice, and you know we all deserve that. So go check it out.

Anyway here is my Critique
I felt honored by what he said... what do you think? Do you agree or disagree?

My sick Baby

2007-03-14T12:00:00.000-05:00

Mia is sick, and I hate it. There is only so much I can do. It seemed that the stomach bug missed her but now she has this horrible cough and sneezing. And on top of that last night when I got home from work she has a temp of 102.2 I gave her Tylenol and put her to bed, woke up and her fever was 104.4, I quickly gave her meds and toast and water. She chugged the water. I can only imagine her throat is hurting from the coughing. I laid her on the couch gave her a blanket, put Vick's on her chest and neck. Her nose is running now, which is good because it means it isn't going down her throat, and it is clear, not green or yellow, which would mean a sinus infection. She has been talking about her ears a lot but when I ask if they hurt she says no, I don't know if she is telling me to take her temp again, so I took it again and it was down to 102.7... so down but still high. Then I decided to show you guys how pitiful and sick she really looks.

My poor Baby

Cuddled up on the couch with her blanket and water
Look at that pitiful face. You can just see how sick she really looks, just look at her eyes, they are dark and if you notice the right eye, the one crossed more, even looks a little swollen kinda like a black eye beginning.

Anyway it is time for a nap to try to sleep off the fever and meds. Have a good day.

Praises and a sick kiddo

2007-03-12T12:57:00.000-05:00

First off I want to start you all off when a couple of praises about Miss Mia and school and her blood work from the endo...

School... on Friday we got to school a little bit early so we played on the playground a bit. Mia slid down the slide by herself, which she would not do in Sept when we got her home, she also sat in a big girl swing, no bucket swing, and held on while I pushed her lightly. THEN when we were on our way into the school I used the steps, we usually just go up the wheelchair ramp as it is easier but the playground was closest to the steps, anyway she started counting the steps up when we were walking up the steps. I know that seems silly because she can count, BUT she has never actually counted objects, she was counting the steps as she went up them, 1, 2, 3 it was such a proud mommy moment and it was just a little show of how much school is helping her.

Then I got the letter from the endo about Mia's blood work to see if she needs hormone therapy associated with SOD, septo optic dysplasia, and at this time, ALL her hormone levels and everything associated with the pituitary gland is within normal range. We do have to watch her height and weight to make sure it goes at a normal rate, but as of right now... NO HORMONE THERAPY AND NO SOD... PRAISE THE LORD!!!

Now onto the sick kiddo. I will start with a little bit of how this little bug hit us. On Sat morning I got up around 4am with the "Big D" BIG TIME, I was going literally every ten minutes for 6 hours, then the fever hit and I ached and hurt ALL OVER. I couldn't eat, and didn't want to. I FINALLY forced myself to eat 6 saltines and it just about did me in. Well come Sunday I felt better, no fever no "big D" and I was ok, still a little achy and still not hungry but MUCH better. Then it hit Phil, he was going about once and hour and he got the fever and aches all over as well, except he had an appetite. By the time I got home from work yesterday I was actually a LITTLE hungry so I forced myself to eat some soup. SO for all this weekend I had one can of soup and about 10 saltines, YUMMY...lol. Luckily I have WONDERFUL MIL who came and got Mia both days, so Phil and I could get better and try to keep Mia from getting sick. Well last night the "big D" hit Mia. She came and sat on the couch with Daddy and said "tummy hurt", now you should know she says this often when she wants a little bit of attention and a little cuddling, we rub her tummy and she is "all better", so Phil rubbed her tummy and she was "all better" well about 20 minutes later I went to check on her and she was laying in bed, she said "mommy I pooted" which is our word for fart, well when I checked she did A LOT more than poot...lol. Poor thing had it coming up her diaper all over her pants and her bed, as I was cleaning her up and changing her clothes we noticed it was on the carpet, AND on the laminate in the hallway. SO I changed her diaper, put a vinyl panty on top of the diaper, to try to catch overflow if it happened again, and put her some PJ's on. Then went about cleaning up the floors and bed. We checked her temp and sure enough she had a low grade temp of 99.8, bot much but enough for us to realize she got whatever bug we had. SO I called my MIL to let her know, since she was around us AND Mia all weekend, that she might get it and also called my mom to let them know, because my step dad was over earlier while I was at work. We gave Mia some Pepto and Tylenol and let her cuddle. Well within about an hour she acted fine. But in another 30 minutes she had it again. This time not as bad because the vinyl panty did it's job, but...and if you have a weak stomach skip this, her diaper was a puddle of gross. Phil and I both knew if she got the aches as bad as we did she would be miserable and both agreed that we would take the pain allover again to stop her from feelings it. Well by the time she went to bed her fever was gone and she had only had those two bouts of gross. This morning we get up and she is fine, no more gross and she is acting fine. I did keep her from school today because it has not been 24 hours since her fever and boy am I glad I did. She was complaining about her tummy again and that her teeth hurt and she needed chap stick and she was REALLY clingy. So I get her chap stick, rub her tummy, and see if she has a fever, sure enough she has a fever of 100.6, not a big one but enough to make a little one hurt.

So my baby is sick today and I have a feeling I won't be getting much of anything done today if she stills need to cuddle all day.

If you could please say a little prayer for her health, I really hope she does not get it nearly as bad as I did, nor as bad as Phil did, so far it looks like she got about 5%-10% of what I had.

Well that is it for now.... talk to you all again later... oh and there is a small update on Anita, be sure to check it out and leave her a comment to let her know you are thinking good thoughts and praying. She does have comment moderation on however so she will approve comments when she returns and has a chance. I just know that hearing that all of you are praying while she is in Ghana will do her heart good.

More pictures of Mia.

2007-03-09T20:36:00.000-06:00

These were taken today after school. It was such a BEAUTIFUL day I HAD to get pictures. Plus Mia looked exceptionally cute in the bright blue.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this picture
Look at that smile
How can you resist but to smile when you see it?
Here she got caught in the middle of saying "I like school", her new FAVE thing to say
See the spring flowers trying to poke through? Aren't they a breath of fresh air?
Mia thinks so
Ilove this little girl more than life itself. She is truly a blessing from God

Mia in glasses and I updated my template...again

2007-03-09T20:16:00.000-06:00

So I promised you pictures of Miss Mia in her new glasses. Here is what you have. These were taken on Wednesday after school when we first got the glasses. As you can "kinda" see they are a pale purple. about 1 hour after these pictures she decided she did not want glasses and they were barely salvageable...lol. They were bent up something fierce. Luckily i have a handy hubby who was able to make the work and we decided ONLY to use the glasses at school since that is the only reason we got them, because the school requested them. They are not for vision they are for protection. Anyway here are these pics.

Here is my pretty girl in her pretty glasses
And a pretty smile to go with them
Here she looks really bored
I call this her "studious" pose
She cracks me up...lol

Ok and as you can see I also changed the coloring around. I love this coral and I think it goes well with the other glasses picture I put at the top in the header. Now before anyone gets confused I can't seem to make the title go away or move to the bottom of the header, I I positioned the picture behind it so that the header is right below, my daughter's eyes.

Get out of that pit

2007-03-09T14:10:00.000-06:00

Ok some of you may know and others may not know, I have been diagnosed with depression for about 10 years now. I take medication and it makes me feel better. I can go on crying jags that last for days. I can also go the extreme opposite and be nutty and not be able to sleep. Now I realize I am making this sound a little pit like a bi-polar commercial. I am not bi-polar, my brain just does not handle emotions like most peoples do.

Now the reason I am telling you this is because on the Mom's of Grace forum there is a depression support group. It is private so you have to have permission to read the posts and post in response to posts. On this forum it was suggested we read Beth Moore's Get Out Of That Pit. I jumped right on board, always looking for a better way to deal with my "stuff".

Let me tell you this book is AWESOME. I knew from the beginning that I would get a great deal out of this book. See it tells how there are 3 ways to get into a pit, 1. to be pushed into it by a circumstance or trauma that may have occurred, 2. to fall into a pit by accident, not meaning to but you are there none the less, and 3. to jump head first into the pit, meaning knowingly committing an offense and going for it even though you knew it was wrong and could get you into trouble.

I am guilty of all three types of getting into a pit. The first being when my dad died when I was 15 and me not knowing how to handle the "stuff" that came after it in a healthy way. I won't go into details here but I did many things I honestly don't think would of happened if my dad had been alive. I was angry at my dad, I was angry at the Lord and most of all I was angry at myself. The second one being when I just let things go, I went with the flow, if others were smoking I smoked, if others were drinking I drunk. I went with what the crowd thought was cool. it didn't matter that I knew it was wrong. I am still dealing with some of the consequences to this day, such as my nicotine habit. Also I knowingly did things I knew were wrong, just to get instant gratification. I won't go into detail here, because honestly it doesn't matter what I did, just that I did it. It doesn't matter how I got into the pit, I was there.

This book shows us that we can get out of the pit. We can call to the Lord and he will deliver. We can ask for forgiveness and he will forgive. We can ask for redemption and he will redeem. BUT we cannot do it on our own. We HAVE to ask the Lord for help. If not we will never fully get out of the pit and Satan will have a little bit of a stronghold on you. Below you will find one paragraph out of the book. I trusted God to show me which part I should quite. I opened the book and read it, and I think it is a good thing to remember.

Stay with me here, beloved. Surely you know that it takes one to know one. The only reason I'm not still in a pit is because, after many warnings, God mushroomed such devastating consequences of sin and emotional unhealthiness that it nearly killed me--did kill the old me, as a matter of fact. As Job 33:29--30 says:

God does all these things to man--

twice, even three times--

to turn back his soul from the pit,

that the light of life may shine on him.

God brought me to a place where I was willing to do anything to get out of the pit and everything to stay out. To be out of the mud and mire and have my feet upon a rock became what I wanted more than anything in the world. If you have the same tendency toward pit-jumping, I wish more than anything to talk you into crying for deliverance before you reach the point I did. Before your world as you know it comes tumbling down. Praise God, he is the re builder of ruins, but surely there are easier ways to get a new home than to let an emotional tornado tear the old one down.

Now how did that touch you. it touched me as I reread it to type it in. I know that the Lord is my redeemer and I pray that I can keep myself out of the pit. I honestly feel like I am out of it for now. That being the key word, "for now".

I GOT MY BLOG BACK!!!!!

2007-03-08T21:12:00.000-06:00

As you can see I got my blog back. I never got any correspondence with Blogger but I looked tonight when I was added to my sister's blog and sure enough I do have it back. They changed the URL to http://miasvisionexperience6.blogspot.com/ you see they added the 6, but I got it all back...I was so happy to see it I almost cried. I will stay here for obvious reasons, and I want to make sure to keep the posts I have made in the interim and I don't want to have to change everyone 's bookmarks and blog readers for little ol' me.

but I am SOOOO excited!!!!

Prayers for little Bright needed NOW

2007-03-07T14:24:00.000-06:00

OK as you may all remember a while back I told you all the WONDERFUL news that I had a new nephew named Bright in Ghana. Here is a cached version of that post Well we found out that Baby bright who once looked like this

and now looks like this
is in grave danger of dying. We have JUST found out, today, that he is severely anemic, that will be a chronic condition and will not be repaired by proper nutrition and care, and likely has an enlarged heart and liver. He could also possibly be collecting fluid in his lungs. My big sis, Anita is going to be flying to Ghana this Saturday to TRY to get Bright into a hospital and getting the blood transfusion he needs. Unfortunately even if Anita could bring him home on Monday he would not be healthy enough to fly... he is THAT sick. SO Anita's doctor is writing a letter to the US Embassy to try to get them to rush the paperwork to get Bright to come home ASAP. As it is now IF he were home he would be in the hospital in serious condition. SO we need to get this baby home and getting the medical care he needs to survive. As it stands now Anita will be leaving to go to Ghana on Saturday, the 10th of March and returning somewhere around the end of the month. Mia and I will be going to Tulsa to watch her kiddos and help her family while Anita is gone, the week after next over our spring break. As much as I would want to go RIGHT NOW. I have to think about Mia and her school and how she is JUST getting used to it and it would really be bad to RIP her away from it right at the beginning. Luckily we can do it over spring break and everything should be ok. I still need to talk to work about it, but Phil said that if worked had a problem to just quit and I can find another job, I can't get another sister and nephew. Family comes first. I am so proud of Phil for this as he has a hard time not being in control of the situation, and this is so spur of the moment.

Anyway the reason for my post is to ask you all to PRAY PRAY PRAY for my little nephew Bright and of course for Anita and the rest of her family. They have got to be going through so much and have got to be so scared. Please say some extra prayers for our family n Tulsa, and of course for Mia and I as we travel to Tulsa to help out. Mia has never been away from home for more than one night, so I don't know how she is going to handle it.

Thanks a bunch, love you all lots

Mia at school

2007-03-07T14:16:00.000-06:00

OK I am really going to be posting two posts today. But this one is first because I want the next one on top so LOTS of people see it.

Mia is officially a bigger girl than I ever, honestly, wanted her to be in such a short time. You see Monday Mia cried for 5 minutes when I dropped her off. it broke my heart and I cried the whole way home. But she was better by the end of the day, a little leachy, but better. Yesterday, Tuesday, she cried for 3 mintues, eyes the teacher timed it for my knowledge and benefit, to show me that it is getting better. Well today she said Hi to Mrs. Macannon, one of the VI Para's, and took off her coat, siad, bye mommy and took her hand to head to class. No tears No NOTHING! I was happy to see it, but it made me feel like my little girl doesn't need me anymore...BOOHOO my baby grew up over night...

That said I am glad that she likes school and likes to go and is not scared for me to leave her for a short time. And that she knows that I will ALWAYS be back to get her. But oh my it hurt my mommy heart to see my baby grow up before my eyes.

Also Mia's glasses came in today, we will be going to get them after school. I will post pictures tomorrow.

From a Baby to a big girl

2007-03-05T17:38:00.000-06:00

Well Mia had her first day of school today. I think it was harder on me than it was on her. But we all made it through...now to get to tomorrow...lol.

I got her ready and she had lunch while I got ready, you know mommy needs a shower too...lol. Then off we went. I have been talking about school for the last couple of days really trying to talk it up so she would not be AS scared, and it seemed to work. As you can see from the pictures below. We walked into her classroom and she went straight to her teacher, no problem. Then I went to say good bye. UGH this part killed me. I said Mommy has to go now, give me hugs and kisses, she SCREAMED bloody murder, and it took everything I had not to grab her back and run away never to return. But I left. I cried the whole way home but I left. I came home and tried to will the time to fly... but it didn't. I checked my email and checked the Mom's of Grace forum, and read all my blogs. And FINALLY the time came to go get my baby!!!!.

I got there about 20 minutes before school was out so that I could figure out which of the two rooms she was going to get picked up from. Well my first choice was the right one...lol. I go in and I am talking to one of the Para's when Mia comes in with the other, forgive me as I cannot remember every bodies names yet...lol. She is talking and laughing and reaches up and wants to cuddle. I stay quiet and watch. Then I say "Hi Mia" and Mia JUMPS out of the Para's arms, I mean she almost couldn't keep her hands on her jumped...lol. Mia wanted her mommy and was NOT letting me go until we got outside and were heading to the car. Then Mrs. Cody the Sped Ed Pre-K teacher comes in and tells me how she was the hit of the class and everyone wanted to be her helper. That at recess she wore out about 4 kids in her walking around the playground. She was not interested in the equipment yet but she REALLY liked walking around the sandy playground. But overall she did great and she said she would go back tomorrow. Anyway here are some pictures, that show my baby turning into a big girl all in less than 24 hours

Here is my baby girl yesterday when she was still my baby.
More from yesterday. She looks so little
All except that little pooch sticking out from under her shirt
Of course when I tried to pull her pants up and her shirt down, she pulled her shirt UP
And it cracked her up...lol
Here is outside the house before we left for school. She is showing signs of being a big girl here
Doesn't she look so mature...boohoo
I will be taking this picture yearly to show her growth. But she looks so TINY up against that sign
And here she says " I can do it Mommy I am a BIG GIRL!!!"

And it broke my heart.

Another Hair "DO"

2007-03-05T15:34:00.000-06:00

I had some fun with Mia's hair yesterday and I think it turned out pretty cute. I also stayed that way all through nap and up until I took it out to take a bath. Anyway I just wanted to show you the new cute hairdo that I am sure will become part of Mia's summer hair catalog...lol.

2007-03-04T12:03:00.000-06:00

I got this in an email. It is really amazing

2007-03-04T11:04:00.000-06:00

How Sad...

I got this email on two of my Yahoo groups. It is really sad that this could be Mia someday. Please read the following and be sure to say a prayer for this family tonight. They need all the prayers they can get

Hi all:This is just Rose writing in with a concern and am wondering if anyone can think of anything that can be done.I don't know if I told anyone on any of these lists or not, but I'm expecting a baby. I'm almost at the forty-week mark, so I could go in at any time now.For anyone that's either from Canada or is familiar with the Canadian law, I have a question for you.The children's aid society of Brantford, where I am presently residing, is involved with me because of the fact that they say they have concerns because of my visual impairment.I am considered partial, so I do have a little bit of vision, though not enough to read print.CAS first told me that they were involved because they felt that my baby would be at risk because of my visual impairment. They've been involved since early October, perhaps early November. They had drawn up a service plan for me in December, which was signed in early February.This service agreement stated that I had to be willing to participate in parenting classes after the child was born, that I was to go to all my appointments after the birth, and that I was to report any problems I felt I was having with either myself or the baby. They also said that as long as I did everything they'd asked me to do, such as going to parenting, prenatal as well as postnatal classes, that I was to keep my child.It has gone from that to not being able to keep it.They are now trying to say that they have other concerns. I will have you know that I am living with my boyfriend who is totally blind.We both have extensive experience with children.CAS is also saying that I have little to no knowledge of what it takes to raise a child. They are also telling me that neither my boyfriend or I can look after ourselves, much less a child.They are also saying that I have refused to go to my doctor's appointments. There's never been one time I didn't go to my appointments, with the exception of last Monday, because of the fact that my care was transferred over to the midwives at the birthing center where I'm going to be giving birth.I went to see a lawyer today about my case, and I found out that CAS had written a letter to him saying that they had other concerns. That's where all the junk about me not being able to take care of myself came from, was the letter they had written to my lawyer.From what my lawyer is telling me, there's nothing that can be done at this point until CAS has presented me with documentation saying that the baby is going to go into foster care, which they have not yet done.CAS is also telling me that I have not gained enough independence.They are also trying to say now that when I was staying at a maternity home for a while, I had refused to use my cane, thereby endangering the infants that were there. They are lying through their teeth here, because never once did I leave my cane somewhere whenever I was walking around in the house.They are also saying that I have been refusing assistance. This is also not true. I have been trying to ask for assistance, and have gotten a lot more than was expected.I guess what I'm trying to ask, is do you know if there's anything that can be done to try and prevent this agency from taking my child?They have said to me that this is going to be for a minimum of six months, perhaps longer. If it goes beyond one year, my child will then become a crown ward of the CAS, by which time I'll be screwed, because there will be little to no hope of me getting her back.I will also have you know that my caseworker had first made this foster care idea sound like a suggestion, then when I was on my way to the birthing center,she'd dropped the bomb on my head that she had already had foster parents lined up for my baby.When we got to the birthing center, she told the midwives there that after the baby was born and I was ready to go home, the foster parents were going to come and take the baby to their home from there.As I said, they have not yet presented me with any documentation stating that this is going to happen.I do have the Canadian Council for the blind advocating on my behalf about their concerns, but for anyone in or from Canada, what I'm trying to ask is if there are any more advocacy groups or something that I could possibly get to advocate for me on my behalf about all of this?Any suggestions anyone has will be greatly appreciated.Thanks,Rose

Now I know you are probably thinking this is in Canada, but there have been responses where this type of thing has happened in California as well as Georgia. So this could some day be what miss Mia has to face. We need to really look into making sure this type of stuff is in the "old days" I cannot imagine with today's technology and God's Grace that people still think so little of a person with a vision impairment that they can't parent. UGHH it is sick.

I know I will be praying for this family and of course for the heart of the people involved to have their hearts softened.

2007-03-02T23:33:00.000-06:00

Mia's IEP

Ok I promised that I would fill you guys in on how Mia's IEP went. First let me tell you what an IEP is, for those that don't know.IEP stands for Individual Education Plan. And it is for a special education student. It lists their goals for the year and what will be expected of them through out the year.

That said. Mia had hers yesterday morning. There were about 10 people there in all. Mia will start Pre-k on Monday and will spend 3 hours a day there. Monday through Fri. She will spend 1 hour in the reg ed/spec ed class, and 2 hours in the VI (Visual Impairment) room. In the VI room she will work on self help skills such as toileting and washing hands, and eating with a spoon and fork. She will also be introduced to different tactile surfaces, to build up her tolerance to different textures. She will also work on smooth/rough, square/round...etc. In the reg ed/spec ed room she will work more on socialization.

The spec ed room is half spec ed and half reg ed, so she will be exposed to many different children, with disabilities and without. 26 total kiddos and 4 adults. the spec ed teacher, the reg ed teach, the spec ed para and the reg ed para. And for a while one of the VI para's will go into the spec ed/reg ed room with her. To get her more comfortable.

And it has been decided that Mia is the Joy of everyone...lol. Everyone had glowing reports about what a joy she is and how they know she is a very smart girl. Even the people from Payne, the neighborhood school, want me to bring Mia by to visit them, even though she won't be going to school there....lol.

Mia will also be getting 20 minutes 2 times a week of O & M (orientation and mobility) where she will learn to walk with a cane and with a sighted guide and such. it will take her a little bit to warm up to the O & M teacher I think, but once she does she is going to LOVE him...lol.

So basically everyone loves Mia and everyone wants to be around her...lol.

Oh and because the opthomologist prescribed Mia glasses for protection, we have to get some, not just the sunglasses we have been using. So before we went and enrolled Mia we went to WalMart and looked at their frames, as they are a little cheaper than most places. We found some pretty cute frames for her and they are going to be putting in a thinker clear plastic with UV protection in them. I know the eye tech had to think I was nuts but I took pictures of her in the frames to show Phil and of course you guys.

Here she is in her new glasses. this is when she was still happy...lol The frames are a very pale lavendar color.

Then she got ticked off and was not happy anymore...lol

And yet another of her not so happy face.

So she wasn't too happy for a while there, BUT we found out a new thing she likes. She likes to help push the cart at WalMart instead of sitting in it. She had her little hands wrapped around the bars and walked in front of me and helped Mommy push. She LOVED it...lol.

So all in all we had a good week. Oh and I almost forgot to tell you , the good and the bad news.... Mia starts school on MONDAY!!!!

AHHHH My baby is growing up, that would be the bad, but YAYAYAY she gets to start her school and learn the things she will need in life to succeed. Has there ever been a more mixed statement...lol

2007-03-01T16:44:00.000-06:00

Mia had her IEP today. I will go into further detail either tonight after work or tomorrow. But needless to say it went GREAT!!

2007-02-27T10:49:00.000-06:00

Why go to Church?

I got this in an email and thought it worth sharing with all....enjoy

If you're spiritually alive, you're going to love this!
If you're spiritually dead, you won't want to read it.
If you're spiritually curious, there is still hope!

Why Go To Church?

A Church goer wrote a letter to the editor of a newspaper and complained that it made no sense to go to church every Sunday. "I've gone for 30 years now," he wrote, "and in that time I have heard something like 3,000 sermons. But for the life of me, I can't remember a single one of them. So, I think I'm wasting my time and the pastors are wasting theirs by giving sermons at all."

This started a real controversy in the "Letters to the Editor" column, much to the delight of the editor. It went on for weeks until someone wrote this clincher:

I've been married for 30 years now. In that time my wife has cooked some 32,000 meals. But, for the life of me, I cannot recall the entire menu for a single one of those meals. But I do know this .... They all nourished me and gave me the strength I needed to do my work. If my wife had not given me these meals, I would be physically dead today.

Likewise, if I had not gone to church for nourishment, I would be spiritually dead today!"
When you are DOWN to nothing.... God is UP to something! Faith sees the invisible, believes the incredible and receives the impossible! Thank God for our physical AND our spiritual nourishment!

All right, now that you're done reading, send it on! I think everyone should read this! "When Satan is knocking at your door, simply say, "Jesus, could you get that for me?"

I think this small posts says a lot. It really does make you think. I hope you have enjoyed it as much as I did.

2007-02-26T11:51:00.000-06:00

A meme from Susan.....

Well Susan over at Dads 3 Chicks has tagged me with a meme about why I blog. I am supposed to list 5 reasons I blog. SO here it is.

1. I started this blog as an easy way to let friends and family know how is is doing and such. it has since turned into a one for all and I find myself talking about myself and my feelings as well.

2. I want to promote special needs adoption. So many children out there with special needs need homes. And people are often scared by their disgnosis. Mia alone has a scary term associated with her own special need, legally blind. But in fact these sn kiddos are so special and so fulfilling in life that people will never realize if they don't give it a chance.

3. This has turned into a journal of sorts. I can express myself here, in writing, better than I can in person and in my own voice.

4. I plan on keeping this and printing it out one day for Mia to have. I may even have it bound at Kinkos, titles Mia's first year home and such. That said it will not be very easy to do if I cannot get my old blog posts back.

5. And last but not least. I have found such a kinship in the blog world that is unlike anything I have ever experienced in my life. It is so easy to become obsessed with others lives and how they are doing in life in general. I tend to feel a closer connection to many bloggers that I just do not feel in person. I just pray that someday I can meet some of the wonderful women I have "met" through blogland.

That said I get to tag 3 people...YAY. So Kate M, Dawnz, and Anita. I think that you all will have some wonderful reasons why you blog.

2007-02-25T21:53:00.000-06:00

Well February has been a bad month.........

I had made a promise to myself to keep my house clean. I did pretty good in January but in February I got sick after sick after sick until the house just fell to pieces because I was too tired to do anything but sit and either watch TV or at the comp or both...lol.

Well today Phil and I got the house back in order. The living room is basically spotless, the bathroom is sparkling, all the bedrooms are clean and vacuumed. And the hallway is nice and clean.

The kitchen we didn't get finished with but I AM going to work on that tomorrow. All I need to do is about an hours worth of dishes and sweep and mop the floor and put a few things away. Maybe 2 hours worth of work to get the kitchen as spotless as the rest of the house.

I also got all but two loads of laundry done, then bedding, so make that 4-5...lol. And that will be done tomorrow as well. I don't like to do dishes and laundry at the same times as they tend to totally sap the hot water supply so I may leave a load or two of laundry for Tuesday. But overall the house is clean and it IS going to stay that way...lol.

Other than that nothing too exciting going on this weekend. I work tomorrow night and then Mia's IEP is Thrusday morning. I plan on going to meet the VI teacher at Cessna, the school Mia will be going to, on either Tuesday or Weds. Probably Tues. so that after she meets Mia if she wants to change any of her goals, she has a little bit of time to do so.

Oh and I talked to her VI teacher and they are very excited to be getting Mia. They have one other preschooler in the VI program that comes in the afternoon, but we don't know if Mia will be going in the morning or the afternoon. But I also found out that the preschool teacher's child, who is an adult now, is VI; so she has personal experience with VI children. I was SOOO excited to hear this. I think it is going to be GREAT for Mia.

Just another way that the Lord is watching over Miss Mia and making sure she has all that she is going to need.

2007-02-24T13:13:00.000-06:00

Walking with the Lord..........................................

I have been thinking lately and I have even talked to my yahoo christian group and the mom's of grace forum about it. I sometimes do not feel like I am walking to the Lord but rather standing still and then, proclaiming I am a christian. Yet I think to myself how am I really a christian if I do not walk farther and farther and research more and more.

I was told that my feelings of worthlessness and such is just the work of Satan trying to take control. And that I needed to lean even more on the Lord to get the strength to not give in. That my calling may not be to be able to recite scriptures and such but to promote adoptions and special needs adoptions. That I have such a heart for the orphans that is clearly the Lord's work.

Maybe that is true. Or maybe I am fooling myself. But I find myself leaning more towards that, that really is the truth. That I love the world's orphans and I want to do whatever I can to encourage others to adopt, special needs or not.

I know that I have accepted the Lord as my savior. I know that Jesus is the son of God and that he gave his life for my sins. I know that through Him anything is possible. But I do admit that there are times when I want to cry out, "WHY LORD WHY?!?!"

I do not have testimony about me finding Christ. I was raised in a church and cannot remember a time when the story of Christ did not exist in my day to day life. Even if I didn't go to church I still read the bible and prayed to the Lord and asked for forgiveness of my sins. And Lord knows I have not been the perfect Christian but I know and He knows that I can ask for forgiveness and I will be forgiven.

I know that without a doubt that the Lord had his hand in everything Mia. That without Him that we would not have her. I mean we went from no savings for an international adoption to having her home in less than a year with all fees paid. I know that without Him and saying prayers and asking for direction and help that none of that would of been possible.

SO I thank the Lord daily for all he has given me and I ask for the strength to continue his work and ask for direction to the path He wants me to reach. I know without a doubt that Mia having any vision is a miracle blessing from God.

That said there are many people that claim to be Christians that really aren't following the path He would like. They don't really think about what God wants when they make a decision. And I can honestly say that 2 years ago I was one of those people. Yes I was saved and yes I asked Jesus into my heart, but I didn't really do anything to strengthen the bond that held me to him. I took for granted that he would always be there and I could just let him be and not worry about him. Now I look back at those times and I often think, "what pain I must of caused the Lord, to see me going through so much without asking for his help or guidance." I think about the things I had done that would not make the Lord pleased with me, and I wonder how he could ever forgive me. Then I remember that he will always forgive me as long as I ask.

Every so often I get into a slump where I just don't feel like a child of Christ and I sink deeper and deeper into a depression. I wonder if he really does forgive me and how He must be ashamed of me and turned his back on me, and that I am fooling myself to think he is actually waiting, on the other side at the gates of heaven, for me. It is one of those times that brought me to this post.

Just the other day I felt like I was not as "Christian" as the other women on the yahoo group or even on MOG. And I let Satan jump in there and hurt me. I cried in despair as I thought about how bad of a person I am. Luckily God gave me the strength to voice my fears and I was reassured that the Lord DOES love me and he DOES forgive me and I DO have a purpose in the LORD, I just may not know it completely yet. That it was Satan trying to weasel his way into my heart and giving me doubt about the Lord.

Now I know sometimes I do not seem so much like a christian here as I would like. I talk about the mundane and about Mia and I leave it at that. I don't venture into the christian "talk" as much as I would like to because I don't want to offend others. Now I realize that Mia alone is a testament to the Lord and his graciousness. So my plan is to have a weekly, if not more, post about my walk with the Lord. It may just include a scripture I found nice, or enlightening. Or it may be a long post, similar, to this one. I think that doing a weekly Bible /Christian post may help me farther along my walk with the Lord and my understanding of the gospel. it may help me to be guided into my calling for the Lord. Who knows maybe I am meant to be an inspiration to someone some day that might read my post and think "I really do need to change my ways, and follow the path of the Lord."

So my hope is to turn this into a more "christian friendly" blog. Of course I will include Mia in it as always, as that is what really started the blog to begin with. But if my words help one person to turn to the Lord and ask them into their hearts, then I have done my job. I may never know if my words have any effect on another person. But in my heart I know that the Lord will be pleased that I am working more for him than myself.

Be Blessed everyone, as I am

Nichole

2007-02-22T21:42:00.000-06:00

Anita asked....................................

How I got the drop down menus for the blogroll.

Anita and Family said...
I'm still waiting to see how you put your blog rolls up with the drop down button. HINT HINT!!!!!!!!!!Anita

So I decided to fill you in. I asked on the MOG forum how to do tha,t as my blogrolls were getting way to long and were SOOOO disorganized. If you ever saw my house you would not think this would be a problem, bu it irritated me....lol

Anyway I was told to try out http://www.flooble.com/scripts/expand.php which I did. You can change the colors of the button and choose if you want it opened to begin with or closed, as I have it, until you open it. You just put what you would like in the blogroll into the box and it makes the button. For the MOG blogroll I just put in the link for the MOG bloglines and it fills in the rest. You do have to add another button on your blog to make this one work, but it is not visible on the page, just the HTML page. Anyway I hope that helps. I know I really like having them organized that way and it makes the blog look much more "clean".

2007-02-22T20:08:00.000-06:00

OK well if I am going to use this blog......

I may as well do something constructive. So Mia has been slowly wanting to potty train. So we have been on potty patrol. Fun huh?!?!? Of course we have yet to get her to doing anything other than sit on the potty...lol. But we are using pull ups instead of reg diapers and we make her sit on the potty every thirty minutes or so. I have tried a few things to get her to understand what we want but nothing seems to work. We have done the vinyl panty thing... nope she soesn't care if she goes in them, well she did the first time last month but now she could care less. So we went to reg panties. Nope could care less. So I thought ok then go naked, the house has central heat and air. But all that did was piss her off. She stood in the bathroom and cried...lo. So I said ok then sit on the potty, so she sat on te potty for an hour, she refused to get off... did she go, NO of course not...lol.

Here is a picture I took of her in her panties, of course they are 2T-3T but on my skinny Minnie, they look about like a adult small...lol.

My skinny minnie in her big girl panties...lol.

Then the other day Phil called me over to the couch to look at Gato and this was the position he was in. It was so cute I had to take a picture...lol.

Look at his little paws covering his nose....is that not the cutest thing?!?!?!?!

Gato has gotten so big, but he is a good cat. He follows me where ever I go which is kind of cute. But it irritates Phil. At the same time he says that is the most loyal cat he has ever met...lol Also Phil won't completely admit it but he likes El Gato. He has said many times that he is "alright for a cat" but he would never admit to saying it so shhhhh it's a secret....lol.

Anyway that is about it for now. I hope to get back in the swing of things soon. I just have to get over the shock of losing the blog for now. Still no update to give youguys on that front...lol

Oh yeah and if you look over to the right there is a little girl that says Princessa Mia under her. I made this cute little thing at http://www.blessthischick.com/btcmachine/index.php check it out it is pretty fun. I made this one of Mia and then one for my avatar of Mom's of Grace. Actually it was MommyMelissa that showed it to us. I don't know if she has a blog but there is her user profile.

HUGS to you all

Nichole

2007-02-20T19:58:00.000-06:00

Many Thanks to Debbie Brown I was able to get ahold of about 31 of my most recent posts that I had made. Of course my email is being wierd and I can't read the emails she wrote me or see if the posts have pictures but I will take what I can get. So this is for you Debbie Brown. and sorry I can't link to your blog but of course since you visit you can maybe leave a comment to let people and myself know which blog is yours...lol I can't even give this post a title...fun huh. I am going to have to turn off my comp for a while to see if that helps. I am also going to resize all my pics to make more room.

Anyway Debbie This is For You!!!!

2007-02-20T16:03:00.000-06:00

OK here is the newest info. Supposedly blogger can recover your old posts. I have read accounts when it has been done. And the first thing you are supposed to do it to get your url back. That is already done. But from what I can see it takes about a month before they get everything done.

So good news is they supposedly can get the posts back, the bad news is that it may take a while.

I am sick with disgust at myself. I cannot believe that I let myself do this. UGHHH

Oh well I wil just keep trying to get it back. And if you did not get to see any recent posts here is a link to a cached search that will show you my last few posts. http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:UY3tyawtcbQJ:miasvisionexperience.blogspot.com/+salmonella+%2B+Mia&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us

Wish me luck that I can get my blog back. The template is not too important but I will cry my eyes out if I cannot get back those 4 months of history since Mia came home.

Sorry guys

2007-02-20T10:53:00.000-06:00

I was messing with some stuff and thought I had deleted a different blog. I got an email this morning saying I deleted this one so now it is up. Sorry to scare eveyone...lol

Now I have to go and remake this one my own...UGH....what fun....

Salmonella... warning if you have a weak stomach do not read

2007-02-18T21:44:00.000-06:00

Yep you guessed it... we got Salmonella from the peanut butter. You remember when I said I thought we had the flu... I was wrong. So here is the nitty gritty of Salmonella poisoning.

Your poo will be grass green. Now there is no chance that you will ever forget this color if you ever saw it. Mia's poo started getting reen last Friday the 9th. I thought I would keep an eye on it but she seemed fine. I did a search on green stool and it said that food coloring inyour food could cause it and Mia had been eating a lot of fruit loops. She had no other symptoms.

Until Monday. We both statrted getting fevers. It went to about 101.9 for her and 102.2 for me.

Come Wednesday we were both still about 101. I still thought we had the flu. No big deal. Then Wedsday night the Big D hit me.

Then we got the news of the PB recall and I got thinking ... just maybe we got ahold of the "bad stuff"

Mia's poo is still green. Then I remember that when I looked up the causes of green poo I saw that bacteria can cause it too.

So Friday I called the doctors office, told them our sympotoms, told them we hd the recalled PB, and lo and behold sure enough we have salmonella.

Now we are both on anti biotics and are slowly feeling better. Mia is still complainging of "my tummy hurt" and I still have bouts of the big D and I still have a slight fever. But overall we are getting better. And Mia's green poo is less green and more brown again.

So now you know what to look for when it comes to salmonella and such. Now I know you guys have got to be thinking I am exagerating about how green her poo was. I am not it was almost exactly this color. When I picked up the anit biotics and told the pharmacist that we had salmonella and that my dauhter's poo was as green as I have ever seen. He said that only two things can make poo that green, salmonella and drinking lake water with GR something or other in it. So look out for that green poo...lol.

C.J. said...
Giardia...that's bad stuff too.

Glad the poo is resolving and that you got things treated. That can be quite dangerous.

8:15 PM

Jennifer said...
Glad you are all on the mend!!!
yuck!
Smiles,
jen from Mi

10:31 PM

A Special Family said...
Poor you and Mia! How awful!
Hope you are both back to your 'regular' (pardon the pun) self soon!

2:58 PM

The McKenzie Crew said...
You poor babies!!
That stinks!!

(literally:)

Julia:)

7:41 PM

Expandable blogroll..edited

2007-02-17T21:42:00.000-06:00

I was told about a wonderful thing that makes the blogrolls expandable. So now I have both blogrolls as expandable. if you are interested in one of the blogrolls just click on the + sign and it will expand. SOOO much better.

Thanks CatNC on MOG!!

GrandmaB said...
Great job Nichole!

12:27 PM