Well, I will admit that we are terrible about blogging. I am now officially a Facebook & Twitter addict. However, I cannot either find or make the time to blog. Which, when you think about it, is somewhat obscure when you have little to discuss, or duplicate everything in other social sites. I have tried to get Jo Anna to blog for the family, but alas she is old school (notice I did not say OLD) and does not have time since she went back to work full-time to support our adoption cause. So, since I have thought more and more about including a link to our personal family blog on our communications, I figured I should update the postings.
So what is new around our home? Well, first off our adoption. We are a few months in and still have a ways to go. I am hopeful we will indeed have our dossier finished and in the hands of the ICAB by the end of the month or early in October. We have our psychiatric evaluations to finish this week or next, biometrics, more forms (never-ending) and then any more forms that are required. The home study is in the final stages of preparation and we have a great case worker. What is all that to say for those of you who are not familiar with the process? We expect our boy(s) to be received sometime next year (2010). Yes, you heard me...we do seek either 1 or 2 toddlers (siblings) between the ages of 2-5. And, for those of you completely unfamiliar with our circumstances, we are adopting internationally from the Philippines. You may ask why from that country? That is a post all by itself...not for bad reasons.
Our girls returned to Calvary Baptist Day School this fall sememster. Sarah was diagnosed with mild ADD this summer, so we had concerns that she might struggle like she did a bit at the end of last year. Well, she has a great teacher that has been around since the school started 20+ years ago. Also, she is seated in the front of the class and they are employing "Touch-Point Math" which seems to really help her proficiency. We are hoping to avoid medication if we can, utilizing environmental changes and exercising her brain when we can supplement her school work. Rachael on the other hand had a very likeable teacher, but we feel she was not sufficiently challenged. This year she has a much more uh, "strict" teacher so that should help. They are both enrolled in dance this fall at Baylin Dance Studios (same place for 5 years now), with Sarah being asked to move on to a more advanced class since she was far ahead of the others in her day's class last year. This was the first year that they were both looking forward to dance prior to the start of the season. Sarah really needs that extra special instructional time.
Jo Anna's health has been consistently good this year, despite her increased work load. She has had and continues to face many challenges at work. Her stress level has been rather elevated during this period. We have made many strides to try and balance the workload amongst all family members. It stresses me out to not be able to help her more with all that I have been facing lately, however we have made it through. She has had to back off from being a Discussion Leader with the international Bible study, BSF that she has been involved in.
Next, my (Scott's) health. I am currently 35 years old and pretty much beginning to fall apart at the seams. LOL I have had degenerative disk disease which progressed into a herniated disk that more or less blew out last year in August. That was not fun. I had a rare condition called an extrusion, where the gel-like material in the inside portion of the disk is forced out of the outer layer, leaving just a "donut" there. It is much weaker than before and I am in nearly constant pain. Long work days make it even more difficult. I had flare up this past March which led me to having 3 epidurals in less than 2 months. I was trudging along until yesterday when I was first eligible and had my most recent epidural. This one hurt...bad. I yelped twice and then proceeded to suffer most of yesterday and slept about 4 hours last night. Anyway, I am confident that we will be able to manage this condition and it is not life-threatening.
On the other hand, I had a situation about 5 weeks ago where I had what could have been a life threatening condition. I woke up one morning and felt short of breath and had a rapid heart beat. Well, I gave it some time, as I thought that maybe it was something I ate the night before or the like. It persisted, I almost fainted once, then again and ended up in Forsyth Medical Center's Emergency Department shortly after that. I presented with a rate of 180 beats per minute, a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (despite taking my heart rate-controlling beta blocker that morning, which I actully take to control a hand tremor). To make a long story short, it took 3 doses of a standard beta blocker on top of what I had already as well as the "chemical defibrillator" in order to get me back into rhythm. I nearly had to be cardioverted with the proverbial "paddles" to revert to sinus. Anyway, skipping a few steps and days, I had a positive test for heart disease, only to have that confirmed as a false positive by a heart cath about 10 days ago. WHEW! That was a close call indeed. Even though there is an early history of heart attacks as well as strokes and heart disease in my paternal family, it still does not explain it. I am working closely with my family doctor to try and determine if anything else could lead to it, and therefore prevent a possible recurrence. I will follow up to this post should we find anything.
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