Be specific!

I know I'm dating myself when I say that I've watched all of Bill Cosby's comedy sketches.  On VHS.  One of my favorites is the one when he tells his children it's time to get a shower. He makes sure to remind them to turn on the water, to wash - with soap, to rinse, and to turn the water off and be sure to dry off.

He has a point and I try to implement these specific instructions when telling my children what to do.

But I guess that when I asked someone to let the dog in,

I forgot to also ask her to unhook the chain as well.

Poor Linus was patiently waiting for me to rescue him.

Better luck next time.

Sister love

This is Mommy's New Man but it was bound to happen. . .

When you have older sisters, you can expect a dress or two, painted nails, maybe even hair ribbons.

Eden had been dying to try her doll clothes out on Victor.

Matching dresses!

Victor's hoping this means he's done with the sister love.

Home

There are so many cliches I could use today.  Simply put, it's great to be home.

We got home in time to surprise Isaac and Shoun who were at a birthday party.  The birthday boy's mom was in on the secret so we called her as we were pulling up.  The kids were down the street at a park so she told our boys that they had to go back to the house for a second, for a message.  Isaac said he considered that it might be us.  Since no one had time to wash up, Victor stayed in his car seat and the boys did a "Look, don't touch," round with Victor.  Shoun kept coming back for another peek and saying, "That's so cool."  I think these two will have a very special bond.

Then we headed to Allenberry.  I was hoping to catch the final number of Annie and surprise the girls as they came outside for their Meet and Greet.  We were a little late but did arrive before the orphans had returned to their dressing rooms.  What an emotional surprise!  I think Eden carries a lot of love and responsibility for the little brother for whom she desperately prayed.  She cried tears of joy and relief.

And as promised, since she wasn't allowed to hold or touch him in the hospital, she was the first to hold him when he came home.

And HopeAnne, also part of the promise, was next.

At home the next day, MomMom and PopPop had their turn as well as the boys who had now had a chance to sanitize and/or wash up.

Andrew arrived home from his missions trip this morning, stood at Victor's bedside, and wished him awake.  He finally got his chance to hold his littlest brother.  He wants to know at what age they start to play football.

Victor is flourishing and changing so much already, now that he is with at least part of his loving family.  He is gaining weight just as he did in the NICU, weighing 6 lb. 3 oz. at the pediatrician's office yesterday morning.  One more ounce and he'll be up to my birth weight.  It's always fun to picture it that way.

Soon Jesse and Mariana will be home and our whole family will be together again.  It's been a long time in coming.  And then Shoun leaves for church camp.  And Isaac goes to Suzuki camp.  And the big kids head off in all directions.  And Andrew leaves for college.  And...  And.... And....

And one chapter ends.  But another is just beginning.  Don't leave our story now; there will be lots more to come.

And prayer requests?  Victor is able to be off oxygen while he's awake but still needs it for feeds and sleeping.  Pray for every breath and that he can be completely weaned off the oxygen very soon.  Pray for our family as we adjust to being one big, happy family again.

Artsy kids

I don't know where my children got the art gene.  It certainly didn't come from me.  While I enjoyed creating, and often spent a lot of time on art projects, I can remember my middle school art teacher writing comments that implied that I hadn't spent much time on it.  Obviously my effort wasn't noticed. So, the fact that my children can create with marker, paint, photography, and colored pencil is astonishing to me.

Another woman in our adoption consultant's group had designed notecards as a fundraiser for their adoption.  I ordered some of her cards and also asked her more information about how and where she created the cards.  I gave the kids an assignment, create a work of art under the theme, "Adoption is..."

And this is what I got...

Well, actually, I cheated on this one.  Andrew had just taken it for photography class and I loved it.  So I included it in the notecard collection.

But he also took this one of two hands forming a heart which I thought perfectly represented adoption in our family.

This is Eden's contribution.

And Mariana has been on a series of hands.  She made a few options but I chose this one because of the butterflies.  We had a butterfly launch at HopeAnne's adoption.  I love the symbolism of new life.

And finally, HopeAnne's addition.  I think a bit of explanation is helpful here.  Hope drew 9 petals to represent the 9 members of her family.  Her new sister (this was before we knew about Victor and the little girls were hoping for a sister) is in the center.

Each card has a verse written inside.

So if you're interested in any notecards, they're available from a King family member near you.  We have packaged them in packs of 10, 2 of each design, for a minimum donation of $10 toward our adoption.

Today Victor is allowed to take a bottle for 4 or 5 of his feeds as long as he is ready.  We've already done 2 and he did just fine.

And the best news yet from the nurse practitioner:  "So, I think you'll be ready for discharge in 2 weeks.  Maybe sooner."  Praise God!  Pray us home.

Utah fun

"This is so much fun!"

When your 7 year old, known for peculiar likes and dislikes and everyday occurrences of the grumps, says this, you know you've found a good thing.

Right after I graduated from high school, my family went on a trip out west, to the states around the four corners.  One of the splurges of the trip was a helicopter ride into the Grand Canyon.  The other was a whitewater rafting trip in Colorado.  Back when one of the older boys wasn't so keen on this trip to Utah, I thought maybe a similar experience (the rafting, not the helicopter), might change his mind.

So, we arranged for the 5 older children to go on a river adventure and I volunteered to stay back with the 8 and 7 year olds.  While we know the 8 year old would enjoy it, I wasn't so sure with the 7 year old.  You never can always sometimes tell with her.  We found the location and dropped off the older kids but then the river guide asked about the younger two.  Well...  By the time the conversation was over, we were all signed up.  We knew this could go one of two very extreme directions.

She informed me a little while ago that she asked her father if she could do that again.  She says he told her that the next time we come back to Utah we can indeed go rafting again.  She also said that he'd better keep his promise.

Sure, HopeAnne, we'll definitely go rafting the next time we come to Utah.  Which will be...???

Happy 2 months to Victor Noah King!  Keep praying that he will come home before the expected time which is his original due date of July 26.  He's enjoying one more day being loved on and held by his daddy and older siblings.

King travel recommendations

If you happen to be planning a trip to Utah in the near future, let us be your travel guides.  First, of course, you must stop in to visit me.

Next, we highly recommend Olympic Park, home of the 2002 Olympic games.  We toured both the ski museum and the Olympic museum,

watched athletes in summer training in both ski jumping and Nordic skiing,

took the tour (Nordic track in the background),

and enjoyed the summer rides.

Shoun on the zipline.  He was just a few pounds too light for the Extreme Zip Line.

Mariana (above) and Jesse (below) on the Extreme Zip Line.  Of course we heard Ana before we saw her.

Ski jumps in the background where athletes were training as the kids were flying overhead.

Eden (above), Isaac, Andrew, and HopeAnne (below) on the Alpine Slide.  

The first three loved it.  Hope, not at all.

We also recommend Antelope Island in the Great Salt Lake, home of antelope (of course),

This one wouldn't look til we called his name.  Not knowing his name, we tried a couple til he looked up.  Andy, it is.

bison,

and lots of gnats or no-see-ums.  They all bite but we never got close enough to the former.  The latter, not so much.  The females bite and they have a preference for scalp.  We abandoned the picnic idea and ate lunch in the van.  We braved the bugs to get to the beach

so we could try floating in Salt Lake.

The water temperature was perfect and fun was had by all.

To hear child say, "I'm so glad we came on this trip" and another admit, "Love it out here in Utah"?  Priceless.  Thank you for praying for our family.  We are all having a wonderful time.  One more day of sightseeing, then some down time on Thursday, then...  Well, let's not talk about then.

And Victor?  The reason we're here?  Great news today.  First of all, he is now 3 lbs. 12 oz.  Secondly, Monday's eye exam showed absolutely no sign of retinopathy of prematurity.  This is truly a miracle! Thank you for praying for this specific request.

We are family...

We have an amazing hospital staff who took great pleasure in making this sign to welcome Victor's siblings.  And just yesterday I was looking at Victor's hand on my chest, and thinking, "We have Victor's footprints and I sure do wish we had some handprints."  The nurses must have had great fun taking all of these hand and footprints last night!

To witness each child meet their youngest sibling for the first time, this is joy.

Mariana sang to her brother.  He listened intently.

Andrew gave him advice on living with all of his siblings.  Victor was overwhelmed. He fell asleep.

That's about the best smile I've ever seen!

This makes Isaac look huge all of a sudden.

She was thrilled that little children have to wear a mask in the NICU and very interested in everything in the room and bed.  The mask stayed on the rest of the day.

Eden was so happy to finally meet her brother!  No words to describe this moment.  Her only disappointment was not being allowed to hold him.  I promised the little girls that they could be the first to hold him when we finally get home.

And finally, Jesse got a turn!

We are family!

Promised pictures

Last night Nurse Tamara gave me the privilege of giving my little guy a bath.  What a joy!  Up to this point, all I’ve been able to do is hold (but only three times a day), change diapers, take his temperature, do his oral care, and change his probe.  He was awake for the whole bath and seemed to enjoy it.  

My favorite part?  Washing that beautiful dark hair.  

Then we snuggled a little 

then put him in this cute onesie, his first gift from MomMom.  

What a happy boy!

Victor weighs 3 lbs. 6 oz. now.  As promised, here is a close-up of that double chin from two days ago.

He is amazing everyone with his ability to latch and suck.  Learning to feed himself is still weeks away.  He seems to be starting to show that he’s uncomfortable and hungry just before a feeding.  These feeds that used to be over 2 hours (ending just in time to start the next one) are being compacted.  They’ve been 90 minutes for a time and yesterday went down to 80 minutes.  Later today they will go down to 70 minutes.  So far he seems to be tolerating these changes well although episodes of minor reflux during a feeding does tend to result in forgetting to breathe.

Praise God for all of these steps in the right direction!

His high flow nasal cannula is still at 2.0 LPM and often at 24% (room air is 21%).  Remember when we were happy if he went below 30%?  Pray that his lungs continue to mature and strengthen and that there are no steps backward (which would be common) in this area.  The bradies should taper off and disappear around 34 to 35 weeks (Victor would be 33 weeks tomorrow).  I can’t wait until we start counting his age in weeks since birth (8 tomorrow) instead of his gestational age. 

I haven’t talked much about paperwork and the legal process.  It is not an understatement to say that this is the worst part of adoption.  Well, so is the financial part but it is what it is.  At each step of the way it seems like someone is asking for something else that we have to scramble to come up with, or worse yet, we need to go to another party to get but that party insists that it can’t be produced until the first party provides something.  And then paperwork gets lost or misplaced, including a refund we should be receiving which of course holds up our ability to pay back adoption expenses.  Please pray for clear sailing in everything!

ICPC is the interstate compact that must be completed each time you adopt outside of your home state.  Utah was easy and we passed the day the paperwork was submitted.  Pennsylvania has a reputation for being much more difficult.  We are at least thankful that they agreed to start this process before Victor is discharged and it is our prayer that Pennsylvania agrees to clear us before discharge.  Otherwise, Victor will be allowed to travel to any US state EXCEPT Pennsylvania.  Right now the paperwork is in the birth mother’s home state as that is one of PA’s requirements.  At this point there is plenty of time but we don’t want it to come down to the wire.

There was the possibility of getting a medical transfer to send Victor to Hershey once he was stable and if we were cleared to enter PA.  The hospital out here looked into it but unfortunately, it will not be possible.  Even the hospital social worker was shocked at how much they wanted to charge for this.  I thanked him for his efforts but assured him that since we just adopted, there was no chance of adding this on top of everything.  Of course, if we sold our house and moved our whole family into a little 1 bedroom apartment…

Speaking of our family moving, they’ve been on the move since yesterday morning and have made great time traveling west.  They are currently in Colorado where they plan some sightseeing, leg stretching, enjoying a nice meal at the restaurant of relatives of a friend (got that?), and a good night’s sleep in something other than a van bench.  Since there’s a table of police officers right next to me in the restaurant right now, I won't tell you how fast the Good Doctor drove to make it this far so soon.  I can only pray that my sons never catch that bad habit from their father.  Pray for continued safety, good health, and unity among the troops.  I just heard that HopeAnne is suffering some altitude sickness from her trip up to Pike's Peak.  Let's just say that once upon a time I left part of myself at the Grand Canyon.  Hope chose to do so on the way down from Pike's Peak.  Not so fun now but it will make the story better when we relive it at every King family Christmas for years to come.  The grandchildren will love this part.  This can last several days, however, so please pray that she is fine as soon as she arrives at the bottom of the mountain.