Anna Joy 10-8-2009

Welcome to the world Anna! We have had quite a time lately. Anna was born on Thursday last week with much strife and illness on my part. I ended up in the hospital for 8 days with my blood pressure doing really wacky things. It is still not quite stabilized but we are working on it. She was almost an emergency C-section on Wed night but my bp finally came down and we were able to wait until Thursday morning for her birth (she was actually due Nov 2nd). She is absolutely precious. We did an amnio on Wed morning to check her lung status. All was good. She weighed in at 6 lbs 10 oz and 18.5 in long. She is too tiny for 0-3 month clothing so my sister-in-laws mom did some emergency clothes shopping for us :) All the kids are so excited about baby Anna. Eli and Ru can't get enough of her and try to kiss and touch her all the time. Can't stay at computer for too long so I will post pics and update more later.

Proud or shameless Parents are we. HELP!!

We have entered Eli into the BabyGap casting call and would love your support. It takes a minute to go to www.gap.com/castingcall. Enter Eli's contestant number 946083687 and vote once a day. He is just the cutest thing - not of course to be outdone by Ru or Noelle, but his personality would actually allow people to take pics of him :) You do have to sign up for a Disney account - it's free and quick. Thanks much!

Baby Anna news and kids pic

Baby Anna is over 4 1/2 lbs now and is looking good! Unfortunately, I am not looking as good as my blood pressure is going up, swelling is not going down and stress is rising as well. I head back for a check up on Friday of this week for blood pressure. Keep you posted.

Noelle came home from school today early because she was sick - well really it was just allergies that made her cough so hard she threw up. Oh ragweed, you really need to go away!

Eli and Ru are doing ok, but both are teething and ornery. Eli is getting 1st year molars and Ru is getting 2nd year already!

Enjoy the pic!

First Day of School

Finally posting first day of school stuff! Noelle has been in school for 2 weeks already! Where does the time go? First grade and homework has begun but she loves to read and do math so its all good :) All other kids are doing just fine. New pics soon. Anna is still cooking and looking good. Another ultrasound this wed and hopefully a good pic!

Referral Anniversary

Hard to believe that a year has gone by since our referral (Aug 11)! It seems at some moments like it was yesterday that we first saw the pictures of our new children, but then at other times, it is like they have always been with us. We are so excited to see what the next few months have in store for everybody. Ruthie is now walking on her own, up to 10 steps at a time! Eli is still running and crashing into everything in sight. The kids have grown so much. At referral and now there measurements were/are:
Eli: 2008 24 in. and 9.4 lbs 2009 34.5 in and 30 lbs

Ruthie: 2008 21.6 in and 6.8 lbs 2009 31.5 in and 27 lbs

We are so happy and thankful that they are with us. We can't imagine life without them and remember their birth mom often.

A fun evening and pregnancy update

Well, it appears that I may have gestational diabetes. Oh yippee. I will be heading in next week to chat with the nurse and educator. All the kids are enjoying the warm weather - finally! Noelle has been swimming lately and the kids are enjoying going for walks. The pictures are from sidewalk chalk the other evening. Yes, we did have to change their pjs because they got full of chalk dust. it was a spur of themoment thing. Enjoy!

Basic news with pics

We've been busy lately with VBS and the twins club picnic along with other daily common life stuff. Noelle has been at VBS learning digital photography for the week. I will post some of her pictures later since they are still on her camera. We had a great time at the twins club picnic with over 400 people in attendance - all families have some version of multiple births and there were soooo many babies there! It has been cold and rainy so we haven't gotten out very much lately - hopefully that will change. Enjoy the pics and new updates will come soon - another doc appt for Annie on Tuesday.

Ru's big mess

Twins club picnic

It's RU!!!!!

Ru and Mom

Feed the pig

Eli being helpful

Dad and Eli

Lookin Good!

I had a doctor's visit and ultrasound today for baby #4. All is good to this point and the placenta is still working very well. Thank you all for your votes in the baby naming poll. While Abigail was the clear winner, we have elected to go off list and allowed Noelle to offer a name. We all really liked it and so, new baby girl will be named


Anna Joy Okrasinski aka Annie


She is currently in the 60th percentile for growth which is great for us and still projecting the same due date. The expected c-section delivery date is Oct 26th. Woo Hoo! Here is a pic of her smiling :) Keep praying and we will keep you all posted. She moved as the pic was taken. Sorry

Doctor visits today!

So I have huge children. Not really a surprise. I thought for sure Eli was over 30 lbs though and he wasn't on the doctor's scale today. Officially at 15 months here are their results:

Eli - 28.3 lbs 34 in (that's 90th and 97th percentiles on US charts - unbelieveable)

Ru - 26.3 lbs 31.5 in (90th and 75th percentiles - can u imagine my little 4 month old 6 lbs ruthie is now in the 90th percentile for weight!!)

Since the kids came home in Nov, they have always been 2 lbs apart. must be a twin thing :) Kids are doing great and only cried for a little while from their shots :(

Noelle did good too and we are now on a more frequent feeding schedule with her for hypoglycemia. She may outgrow it by age 8, but we will see. Otherwise, all is good!

Happy 4th of July!

Hope everyone had a great 4th! We celebrated with the whole family up at gramma and grampas house. We cooked out and had sweet corn. It was a fabulous time and the twins first 4th. They are almost citizens!! One more set of paperwork to go! Woo hoo!

First Haircut!

Eli had his first haircut by Dad today! It was okay at first, then not so fabulous but ended with big smiles and the reward of a bath! Both he and Ru love splashing in the tub! Enjoy the pics!

Happenings at the Os

Well, Eli is really walking now. We will soon have video of this amazing feat (still a bit Frankensteinish, but getting better everyday). Ru has been pulling herself to standing and cruising furniture now for about a week. They are making huge gains in the physical area these past few weeks. It is so exciting to see. As is the destruction that occurs on a daily basis in the house!

Ru is also developing more language skills and is adding more words to her vocabulary. Eli finally slept through the night! Praise God!! He has done it for two nights in a row so far. We are hoping it is a permanent change!

We are halfway to filing our income tax return :) Ru's SS card came in the mail today so Eli's should soon follow. We did not file them together so that we did not have consecutive numbers. This was the advice given by the very friendly and helpful person from the SS office. We can't wait to pay off our adoption loan! Our state reimbursement came in last week and they awarded us the higher amount since the kids needed to be adopted together (put them into the harder to place category for adoption). So that covered a fourth of our loan and now we hope that we will get enough back from the gov in year one to cover the remainder. we shall see!

We went to the Gurler house music festival on Saturday and had a great time! (sorry no pics). We also went to a wedding renewal that evening and had a great time! We got to see Aunt Audrey and the twins enjoyed themselves immensely. Sunday was a great father's day up in Rockford with my folks. We played dominoes and had pork roast. It was yummy. We are in week 21 of the pregnancy and everything is looking good still. Baby girl is kicking up a storm and making my life oh-so-pleasant! Enjoy the pics!

The view from our place
A typical Noelle pic - i personally like the squirrel in the background
Chalk at lunch with Daddy!

Tub time anyone?

Naming Poll now open!

We have thoughts on names and would love your input. Vote until July 4th!

It's a GIRL!!

Just a quick update as our computer is down. According to the ultrasound, we are having another baby girl! No, we have no clue what her name will be, maybe I should do another poll :) More later with an ultrasound pic.
Jeanne

Florida trip

What a fabulous week in FLorida! It was great weather with a bit of rain most days. We spent a morning at the beach and many hours in the pool at our friends' house. The twins loved all the dogs and were very well behaved. Ruthie cut all four molars during the trip and is also working on her eye teeth on the bottom. Eli cut one more tooth on the bottom - way to go slow teether! That makes 5 for Eli and a mouthful for Ruthie. Here are some pics with narration of our trip. Enjoy!

Our hosts for this fun excursion were Mark and Alana. They housed and fed us for the week. Thanks for the great hospitality guys! Food was of course awesome and we even got famous Alana cake (Bakin' for God!) Did I mention the dogs? 3 Chihuahuas - Tito, Paco and Lupe. Face lickers extraordinaire. Then, amazingly, a dog just followed Adam and Mark home from Petco over the weekend and now they have Bella - the sweetest most hospitable dog I have met. Eli liked to lead with his lips when approaching the dogs.

This is Paco and Lupe. Tito was in his kennel slepping.

Bella

All the kids had a great time playing at their house both inside and out. Here are some candids of the fam.

DId I mention that Eli is a camera hog these days? This is his typical ham smile whenever he sees the camera :)


The pool water was a bit colder than usual because of all the rain they had gotten the week before we came down and the first couple days that we were there. Very brave daddy, very brave.


Noelle and Sarah had a craft time quite a few days. They made visors with foamy stickers this day. They had a fabulous time playing with each other and swimming in the pool!

We went to the beach since the twins hadn't been there before (no time on our last trip). ELi is a water boy for sure! He loved wave jumping with daddy. Ruthie wanted no part of the big blue ocean and was very content to destroy all sandcastles that Adam and Noelle built! Did I mention that sand got every where? We are still getting it out of Ru's ears!

The guys decided to do a rockband for us after dinner at Mo and Jeff's one night. It was very entertaining! (Jeff O, Mark, Jeff D, and Adam). They just moved into the house after getting married in early April. It's a very cute place with a nice back yard. I am thinking a pool would be great back there!

If we get the pics from child dedication I will post those too. If not, then I will not be posting until after our ultrasound next week on Tuesday. After the ultrasound, we are hoping to announce teh sex of the baby so that we can start working on names. Might do a poll for that one. Names are really hard for us! Have a great week everybody!

Jeanne

Random Quotes

Two quotes I never thought I would have to say:

To Noelle - "Don't comb the plant!" there are little hairs on the stem of the new tomato plants that we are putting in our garden. We will see if they live long enough to get planted!

To Eli - "Don't lick the stove!" Technically he is trying to kiss his reflection but that is just nasty!

I swear between raising kids and teaching middle school , I should have started a book a long time ago.

Jeanne

Random Pics

Some pics for your enjoyment.

Ru

Eli and Ru

Typical smiley Ru

When all else fails, chew on plastic. They love the lids to the gerber fruits.

Quick update

Doctor's visit today went well. The baby's heart beat is 146 bpm. Noelle was usually around 144 bpm :) We will do a level 2 ultrasound on June 9th and my next visit will be on June 12th. Updates after the 12th for the new little one unless something happens.

Eli is in the throes of a growth spurt! He is eating us out of house and home and is crabby as all get out. Sleeping a lot too! Oh boy. He is already in 2T tops. Reminder, he is only 13 months old right now.

RU continues to amaze us with her developing skills. She is doing fabulously at therapy and is actually accepting the therapists more as time goes on.

Noelle is ready for school to be over! She is excited not to have to wear uniforms for the rest of the year. Problem - we don't have many clothes that fit her since we figured she would be in uniforms for another 2 weeks. Her summer stuff is ok, but it is cold here again! only in the 50/60s today. enough of the cold already!

Sorry no pics this time. Next time for sure!
Jeanne

Catching up a bit

Here is our April report. Yes, I know it is May. That 's why this is entitled, catching up a bit.

Noelle turned 6! She was super excited and we celebrated with the family at gramma and Grampas house. She got some fabulous presents and a delicious cake. Her birthday was on Easter this year so we had a fiesta Easter complete with Tacos and other such yummy items. We did have the traditional bunny cake for Easter as well as birthday cake. (Thank you Auntie Kris! The bunny was delicious!). We did an Easter egg hunt sponsored by a local church so we took everyone for a stroller ride and found lots of eggs - with chocolate and Bible verses inside!

Noelle was also a junior bridesmaid in a wedding in FLorida. It was beautiful weather, Noelle did great and the kids loved the pool! We are heading back there at the end of May so watch for more pics. The babies loved the warm weather as well.

Dad took the kids on a walk around NIU - Noelle got to wear her new hat (birthday present) They had lots of fun with the art students creations!

Noelle and Dad also had a formal dance at Cornerstone (her school). They had a great time eating and dancing!

I think that sums up April. New baby is still alive and kicking. Hopefully we will have more news in the near future to share!

Thanks for sticking with us!

Jeanne

6 Months Update!

We had our 6 month check in wiht our social worker and everything is great. The kids are developing so quickly! Eli will soon be walking and Ruthie is really trying to get her crawl on! Here are the way overdue pictures. Enjoy!

Eli standing

Sisters

Ru is getting so big!


Out for a stroll

Kitchen Helpers

Aren't they the cutest?

Applebee's for birthday dinner (chosen by the big sister of course)

The kids :)

Eli

Ruthie's Easter Hat

Baby Picture

If anyone still reads this, you are in for a surprise! The unbelievable has happened. For 17 years or so, we were told that getting pregnant on our own was just not possible for a variety of reasons. Well, we have proved them wrong without even trying - no, I mean really without even trying. It appears that I am 8 weeks pregnant! Yep, that's right, pregnant. As in PG. Heartbeat looks good, but we covet your prayers for this new little one as I was taking medication for my high blood pressure that can have negative effects on Renal development (Kidneys for all my non-medical friends out there) We will have a level 2 ultrasound at week 20 (June I believe) to look at kidney development and other such things. We are speechless, excited, bewildered, astounded, happy, scared, overwhelmed and a whole bunch of other things. I will put up a post about the kids birthday soon so you can see how huge my children have gotten and how much of a cake hound Ruthie is!!! We will keep you all posted :)

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The Bad Blogger

Finally I am posting but it isn't with pictures - I will get them up soon. Life is moving forward and is full everyday. Eli is cutting his first two teeth, Ruthie is cutting her 5th and maybe 6th, Noelle is finally getting her top tooth coming in (she has lost 7 and is not yet 6 years old!). Our health has improved for the most part although the kids have never lost the congestion that they had while in Ethiopia. It is still a constant part of our lives and wiping noses is a continual project.

I have an interview on Thursday at Lewis University and have applied to 3 others. Some would mean that we don't have to move but 2 of them would require us to try and sell our house and relocate. They all sound really interesting and would be a good fit, so we are of course leaving it in God's hands and will wait to see if any one gives us an offer. If not, I will return as an adjunct for NIU in the fall.

The kids will be having a birthday soon and we are having a nice family gathering at the Gparents house. They come back from vacation next week. Noelle can't wait :)

Pictures soon! I promise!

Update

Well, I still have shingles and it is annoying (painful too). We have had help coming in everyday from 8 am until 4 pm since I can't really hold the kids, feed the kids etc. I took myself off the pain meds as I had no life (very incoherent and such). I am on the mend, but it has already been 3 weeks. They told me it would probably last at least a month. I didn't believe them - I do now. We have also had many people drop off meals. The help we have received has been awesome. We would not have survived without it. Thank you so much to all who have helped us out in our weeks of need - you are very much appreciated!


The kids are doing great! We just had a visit to the doctor's office and here are the stats.

Eli - 22.4 lbs and 29 in
Ruthie - 20 lbs and 27 in.


Both kids are on the growth charts now and doing great. Both qualified for early intervention services and so will be having physical and developmental therapy starting in February. We are waiting to see the occupational therapist still. Here are there developmental ages:


Eli - 7 months
Ruthie - 4.5 - 5 months


We were very encouraged by these results given their past history! They are naking so many gains every day! Ruthie sits all by herself now and Eli can't wait to walk - forget the crawling! Ok, here are the pictures :)

Sickness update

YOu aren't going to believe this, but I also have SHINGLES. Remember the chicken pox outbreak at the orphanage? Yep - shingles. and mighty painful too. Semester starts next week - fortunately I had just about everything already ready to go. I am house bound and on the couch until at least thus Thursday when I go back to the doc. Keep you all posted. Thanks for the prayers - boy do we need them now more than ever! Please don't forget Jeff as he is pulling full time baby duty at this point since I am not really supposed to touch the kids and things like that!

Jeanne

Sickness part 2

Sorry everybody. I have had and still have viral pneumonia that just won't go away. I am on my third different antibiotic to try and get rid of it. I ended up in the ER last night for about 4 hours and discovered that I also need to have my gall bladder removed, but we can't really do that until I am over the pneumonia. This means that I am trying to live on vicodin while taking the antibiotics. It is not a pleasant site at our house. Some of you may be getting the "I need help!" phone call. Jeff goes back to work on Monday which means I need to take care of the kids. Hard to do when I can't really lift stuff. I will post pictures soon but have not been able to get them together as I am not really coherent or in good shape at this point. I promise the next post will be a much happier one!

Jeanne

Sickness

Sorry for the lack of posting. We have all (except Jeff) been sick. The kids still haven't kicked the congestion from Ethiopia so we are heading back to the Dr. to see if there is something else he can do. Noelle is being tested for stomach parasites (such fun). I have the cough that won't stop mixed with congestion and fever. Doesn't life sound grand at our place? (Yes, that was a bit of sarcasm) I seriously will try to be better about posting but I am trying to sleep when the kids do, even though they have typically been on opposite schedules lately. This morning I actually woke a sleeping baby just so that they would both go down for a nap at the same time! Oh the evil that we parents do. Ok, enough blather - here are the pictures that I know you really wanted to see anyway :) Eli is now firmly into 12 month clothing and actually has long enough legs taht even some of those aren't big enough! Ruthie is in 6-9 month, but the legs are a little bit long on her - go figure. Noelle has lost her 5th tooth! She has the typical missing a top front tooth grin and sppech issues :) It is so cute!

Happy Ru!

Eli and his Blocks!

Happy Boy!

Home!!!!!

We made it home finally! I will post more later, but wanted to get something up for you guys. Ethiopia was amazing. The people are so friendly and we had a great timemeeting fellow adoptive families as well. Here are a few pictures of the first meeting day. Enjoy!

The babies are huge (ok, in comparison to where they began they are giants!) Unfortunately, they are both sick. We are heading to the doctor on Monday to get everything figured out. They ate yogurt today and loved it :)

Today's the Day!!

Word arrived in our email this morning that we are good to go for teh embassy! They finally received our paperwork. Praise the Lord and Hallelujah! We leave today for DC and Friday we leave for Ethiopia. We will not have a chance to post while in Ethiopia, but we will be sure to let you all know when we arrive home and will post pictures of the adventure as well. thank you all for joining us on our adventure of a lifetime! We can't wait to share our family with you!

Packing is almost done - sleeping is a distant memory (Noelle woke up around 6:30 this morning - wow.) Mom wil have updates just in case of emergency.

Chat later friends!
Jeanne!

We get to go!!!

Our paperwork has finally found its way to Ethiopia! This means we do get to go get the kids and have a fantastic Thanksgiving! We are so excited that sleep is really not an option :)

Baby shower this past Saturday was awesome! We got to see so many friends that we hadn't seen in a while and ate great food. Eli and Ruthie have many new toys to play with and some darling outfits as well.

2 days to go - we can barely stand it!

Jeanne