March...
Another activity was just really beginning to take off. Late in 2011, Elijah joined a Boy Scout troop. One of his teachers had suggested it because he loved the outdoors and camping so much (loved reading books about it too). This was right in the midst of our expecting Christopher to have surgery to remove his prostate cancer in November that ended up having to be delayed because he contracted pneumonia...and a whole list of other unbelievable events all occuring within about one week. Hmmmmm...to say that Christopher was less than excited and less than supportive would have been a HUGE understatement. By March, Christopher was slowly getting his strength back after his January surgery and went on a weekend campout with Elijah. OH MY!!! Total turn around! Now Christopher was totally on board! Loved what scouting had to offer and even thought Josiah should consider joining too. Now I have THREE boys in scouts! Happy for all the fun they have together, all the learning they get to do, etc. (Not quite so happy about all the dirty laundry from camping.)
Back in January at Peiwu's annual well check, one of our pediatricians suggested that we consider having her undergo a genetic screening. Our sweet littlest princess is a mysterious puzzle!...with lots of missing pieces!! We have been faced with so many challenges and few answers. Officially, her "special need" diagnosis from China was a "developmental delay." However, it is definitely NOT as severe as her original paperwork indicated. But discovering much more is very difficult. The change in language makes testing now very difficult. How much is just environmental and caused by all the things lacking in her first seven years of life - prenatal nutrition, early nutrition and hunger, sitimulation, experiences, etc.? Or is there another cause? Well, that's why the doctor suggested genetic testing. Her features are Chinese...but also just off enough to hint at a possible genetic abnormality. We had waited a bit in order to have enough money for the co-pay amount for this VERY expensive testing. Now it was just a screening which means it only looks for giant, common, red flags. Cheek swab sent off to a lab...and...wait... The results? Peiwu is "a normal girl"! Yep...nothing earth shattering. No big answer to a million questions. No matter what the results were, the company always suggests further testing, but we have decided for now just to keep taking it one day at a time. We did add that little piece to out puzzle. Woo-hoo! Our daughter is a "normal girl"!!! :)
2012 has been a year for weddings here in Wade World. The first one was on St. Patrick's Day. Elijah was asked to be a junior groomsman in a family wedding. He was very nervous at first but did a great job looking handsome. For our little girls, it was the first wedding they had ever attended. All our boys exited the reception early to join their Uncle for his local, early, bachelor party (I said it was a year of weddings). So the girls and I stayed for the party...uhm...but I think somewhere in all of our fun...we became the party. It was a small wedding, and lots of the guests were older. However, a DJ was playing music, and music is for dancing. Right? So that's what my three girls and I did. DANCE and DANCE and DANCE! They had so much fun! They even learned the Electric Slide from one of the bride's maid's boyfriend. As we left though, I began to wonder about our future...at their Uncle's wedding?!?!?!?
Yes, they posed for the camera.
So...
...he went to Texas to visit his good friend the last weekend of March...
...LICE!!!!
So on a Wednesday afternoon, a child at my littlest trio's school was exposed to some playmates who had lice. (Christopher leaves town.) Friday afternoon, I get the email from the school that a parent noticed the little buggers playing on their child's head in the sunshine. I immediately started checking heads!
Not just one...not just two...not just three...
...(skip ahead)...ALL SEVEN OF US HAD NITS IN OUR HAIR!!!!!
Getting rid of lice is a HUGE undertaking!
Oh, and then there were the seven heads of hair. Everyone had to have their hair washed with a special lice killing shampoo and then nit-picked to remove all the egg sacs that are glued to the hair strand. Fine-toothed combing every strand of hair. Checking and double checking each head to make sure they are all GONE!
And Caleb had to be at work early on Saturday morning. Josiah missed a Saturday soccer game because his head didn't pass the early morning re-inspection. Miranda was exhausted because she was up until 2:00 in the morning nit-picking my hair. My washer and dryer were running non-stop all weekend. I only slept three hours total from Friday until Sunday night. But everyone in our house was CLEAN by Sunday morning, because we still had to be at church to lead Children's Worship.
When Christopher came home on Monday, I wouldn't let him step in the house without being checked. I bagged his baseball cap, insisted on shampooing his head with lice shampoo as a precaution, and washed all his clothes in the suitcase immediately.
I'm still so traumatized from our latest lice encounter that I totally freaked out on Miranda when she told me about her first day of Spanish class this fall. As she shared that her teacher would ask a question at the door and only allow you in if you answered correctly which earned you a sombrero too. "YOU DIDN"T PUT THE HAT ON YOUR HEAD!!! DID YOU?!?!?!?" Shocked and scared my poor girl.
APRIL is coming soon! :)
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