Look what I caught on camera!

[First, a disclaimer: most of what we've been posting is relating to Tsvetomira and there has been very little to fill anyone in on how Bogomila is doing! This is two-fold. One, Mira is who I've spent most of my time with since getting back to MN, and, when I'm here in the calm, peaceful hospital room, I have plenty of time to sit at the computer. Two, we want to respect Bogomila as a sixteen year old young lady who may not want details of her life as an open book on the internet. Until we have the ability to really talk with her and know what she's comfortable with, we are going to err on the side of sharing much less information about her.]

So, yesterday I spent most of my day (as I did the day before) sitting near Mira so I could see when she was awake to be able to interact with her, and just to watch in general how she's doing as I continue to learn what "normal" is like for this tiny daughter of mine.

At one point, I looked over at my sleeping girl, and look what I saw!

I don't care at the moment if it's a "real" smile or just a reflex. What I do know is that it is beautiful, and this is the Mira that I want all of you to see when you think of her!

A picture is worth a thousand words...

...but even those thousand words can't tell you the whole story.

This is one of the images from the MRI that was done on Tsvetomira a year or two ago. Matt and I are not extremely experienced at reading MRIs, but when we first received the disk with this information on it, we reviewed it ourselves and were well aware of the severity of what was before our eyes before sending it on to Gillette for them to add to her growing file in anticipation of her coming home.

Yesterday we reviewed it with the neurologist who's been working with Mira. She pointed out what we had suspected. Do you see all of that white space? That area is supposed to be filled with brain matter; Mira's is filled with fluid where there is nothing left of her brain. All that tiny girl's got to work with are the thinn ribbons of darker areas at the perimeter. If you want to know what "massive destruction of the brain matter" looks like, there you have it. As you get further down in the scan, her brain stem is intact, as is one other part (part of the thalamus, I believe), but that's about it.

It paints a pretty bleak picture.

But there is absolutely more to Mira than you can see on a brain scan, or a physical exam. She is in there. She is living in a very damaged "container" if you want to call it that, but the little person of Tsvetomira, able to feel pain as well as comfort, indifference as well as love, is in there!

Watching this unfold over the past week was incredible. I think I'd mentioned already how by Tuesday morning she was no longer crying when I started a diaper change - she had learned that I would be gentle. On Tuesday she would cry any time she heard Grandpa's loud, strong voice, but by Wednesday she had also grown accustomed to that and it no longer distressed her. On Tuesday we Skyped with Adam at one point, and I turned the phone toward her so he could see her, but his voice through the phone was very disturbing to her. so we quickly moved it farther away. When he arrived after lunch the next day, she was similarly bothered by his voice (but not Grandpa's anymore), but by the end of the day she was already okay with his presence.

Look - it's "Adam the normal guy" not "Adam the nurse" who you'll see in all of the other pictures. He was very intentional about dressing for his job. This picture must have been taken within the first 20 minutes or so of his arrival, because it's the only time he was in "plain clothes."

I love that she will vocalize if she is nervous or uncomfortable. She has two different cries - one is more of a moaning, and the other is a very carefully articulated "waaahhhhh" kind of cry. It is a joy to be able to praise her for this. "Good girl, Mira Pearl. You tell Mommy when you don't feel good. Mommy wants to know." It is not uncommon for severely brain damaged persons to be able to feel pain. What I marvel about with Mira is her ability to also anticipate pain, AND to learn when she no longer has to anticipate pain.

She is so in there.

After a rather bleak picture from the neurologist about the extent of her brain damage, she followed that up with this statement: We don't know where the soul is. Someone can have an entire half of their brain destroyed in a traumatic accident, and, yes, there are changes, but the person is still there. Even if the other half is then damaged, they are still there. The soul is something we can't see on "this" [the EEG/MRI].

I am often more impressed by God's marvelous design of the human body when I see someone like Mira, in whom so many things are wrong and broken, but she is still alive, and she is so alive - a system that can be so wrong, and yet keep fighting is beyond incredible.

But we have this treasure in jars of clay, to show that the surpassing power belongs to God and not to us. - 2 Corinthian 4:7

When I see someone like Reuben, or Krassimir, or Tsvetomira, I am humbled as I am reminded that God is no more dependent on my own intellectual or physical ability to save me than he is on theirs. It can be so tempting to rely on our own strengths, and being with these precious people who can't reminds me that in God's eyes we are all equally inadequate to the job of saving ourselves. We are so completely dependent on him. And both Mira and I are called to the same thing - to love Him with all of our heart, and our soul, and our mind and our strength. It isn't the size of my brain, or the extent of my strength, but the percentage of it that belongs to him.

We are so honored to get to be a part of this precious girl's life.

Milk and Molasses

I'm trying to write a nice, detailed summary of the week, but it's going to take longer than I had hoped, and I know many of you are waiting to hear more about how Tsvetomira is doing.

Today has been a very quiet day for her. She has spent most of the day sleeping and running a very low heartrate. Because all of her other vitals are looking good, and she *looks* good, no one is concerned by this. When I confirmed that a new seizure drug they started her on last night was at a high loading dose, and does indeed (like every seizure med, I believe) make you sleepy, it all makes sense.

Especially coming after a day full of excitement like Saturday was. I'll go over all of that in more detail at some point, too.

We met with a neurologist this afternoon, nicely at the same time that Matt, Owen, Bogomila, Gloria, and Rinnah stopped through for a visit. She learned from just the first little bit of Mira's VEEG (video electroencephalogram) that she shows all of the markers of Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, which is a severe, relatively rare form of epilepsy. Valproate, which is one of Mira's meds from the orphanage, is a common first choice medication for someone with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome. However, the Tegretol she had been taking is actually contraindicated in Lennox-Gastaut. Even though Adam was not working with the resource of an EEG, the combination of his assumptions from the blood work, and just his gut, he was spot on when he talked with us about dropping the Tegretol. (Score 1 for Adam!) The neurologist told us today that if Adam had not already had us stop the Tegretol, she would have had us drop it last night after seeing the first bits of Mira's EEG.

(I should note here, too, that Adam was very careful throughout all of his work with us to maintain his proper role as a nurse and not a doctor. He absolutely took the lead in all of Mira's medical care, but it was always done with careful consultation with me about what he was confident about, and where he was making his best guess, and together we worked to the conclusions that drove her care.)

Along with the confirmation that Tegretol was contraindicated, the neurologist recommended we start Mira on a different second seizure drug. This just happens to be a drug that we had tried (and hated with a passion) for five weeks or so with Reuben when he was first diagnosed with epilepsy six year ago, but is also one that Adam had been talking about with me on the plane ride home (during the boring part of the flight!) as he has had some very positive experiences with the drug. What beautiful timing.

Also noteworthy during the conversation with the neurologist was her reactions as I was describing what I was seeing in the ER yesterday that had me so very concerned. After I had started talking, she started asking me questions ahead of myself: was she arching backwards? (yes), were her cheeks very flushed? (yes), were her pupils dilated? (welll, no, but that's really the only one that didn't apply, and what she was looking for only requires four of six indicators to diagnose.) She began talking about something called dysautonomia. Dysautonomia occurs when the autonomic (or automatic) nervous system does not work properly, often due to injury to the brain. The autonomic nervous system controls body functions that we don't have to think about, such as heart rate, blood pressure, body temperature, and gut or bowel activity (to name a few!) Symptoms can be mild to severe. Mira's were definitely severe. What I was describing is what our neurologist calls a "dysautonomic storm." Treatment of dysautonomia is not one of curing as much as managing. If you're cold, get a blanket. If your bowels don't move well, develop a regular bowel program. But people with severe dysautonomia might require more active intervention (as per the hand out we were given). Mira's absolutely fit into that category.

She was experiencing a dysautonomic storm for nearly four hours yesterday afternoon. As you can apparently see, she lived through it. What began soon after Adam left, continued with increasing intensity and duration until about 7:50 when an EMT came to help me roll Mira up to Gillette, was a dysautonomic storm that was simply let to run its course. By the time we were in her room in the neurology unit at Gillette, she was slowing down. Still, rather than the "observation" she had been sent up for, even in her calming state, the wonderful doctor here took one look at her and told the nurse to not even bother with the admittance papers in front of her, because we'd need the one to admit her as an inpatient, and not the ones for observation that they had been prepared for.

And that's when I finally knew that someone was listening to me, and aware of the seriously complicated little girl we had here.

I'm guessing, too, that it's also the time when many of you had heard our various cries for help, and were lifting this tiny no-longer-an-orphan up before the Father who loves her more than an of us, because he MADE her. And with that, the storm was over.

And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep.  And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?” - Matthew 8:23-27

I longed for Adam as I pretty much had to start over with the history of what we knew and what we had been doing for the past week. And it wasn't just me - the doctor in charge of the floor last night also wanted to know what input he had for us, and as soon as his plane landed back home, she was talking with him, and sharing her thoughts, and he called me after they finished their call, and you could tell he was finally satisfied that Mira was in the hands of someone who would take care of her.

They are continuing her feeds using the formula we brought from Bulgaria, mixing up the feed with 140ml of pedialite, and 4 scoops of formula - exactly the dose we'd been giving her under Adam's guidance (that puts Adam up to 2 for 2). Even the pedialite was what he'd been wanting her on, and we had her on for a day and a half in Sofia, until her labs came back with her sodium going down again, so we switched back to Dad's hand-crafted saline. But guess what - they are also adding a dose of sodium to her pedialite mixture once a day, so now Adam's at 3 for 3. ;) She is on a pump, with the rate slowly increased from 10ml/hour up to 45ml/hour which has her getting pretty much exactly the same amount that we were giving her in a 24 hour period, but at an even more constant rate than we were able to manage on our own.

I am delighted by the relatively low-tech approach they're taking. Nice and slow, nothing unneccesary, but at the same time, nothing necessary is being left undone. Tomorrow should be another day of talking with some specialists, and making a plan for what should be done while she's inpatient, and what things can wait.

We still don't know if we're going home in a few days or a few weeks - partly depends on how they decide to feed her. They will not send me home with an ng tube, so we'll either need a j-tube and go home earlier (but have to come back as inpatient some time in the future), or a g-tube, and need to wait until she's stable enough for surgery, which is a very different kind of "stable" than where she is now.

And the milk and molasses? Well, in keeping with the very low-key stay we're having here (well, relatively!!) after the first try at an enema did not work; they came in with a bag full of, well, whole milk and molasses! That's it! Roto-rooter syle they go in until they can't anymore, and then the milk/molasses mix does its thing. And its thing it sure does! It's rather incredible that tiny little body had been holding that much volume of backed up stool, but I'm pretty sure she's going to feel better. Regardless, she's back to sleep, and I am so fatigued that I've to erase three nonsense sentence from this paragraph. My typing skills are good enough that my fingers can keep up with whatever flow of consciousness hits my semi-sleeping brain, and that's not really a good thing! I'd better quit. Looks like she's mostly done with the hard work of it, and they don't need me awake to change the final diaper when they think she's really done.

There's my girl - a tiny bit of her European formula on the left, and milk and molasses on the right!

So, tomorrow I will try to get more photos and more of the story up - this one is mostly just information, but hopefully helps some of you sleep easier, and pray more specifically.

Precious girl is still ours!!

At Gillette [by Matt]

Tsvetomira is now at Gillette Childrens Specialty Healthcare (where Reuben and Krassi go) and Andrea is feeling much more comfortable that they are listening to her and are doing everything they can to help. The Dr. even wants to talk with Adam as soon as he lands and is reachable by phone.

Bogomila is doing well. We got all her stuff unpacked and set up in her room and we had dinner and spent a bit of time just talking with her new siblings. She is currently listening to some of her music in her room by herself while she waits for her pajamas to get out of the wash.

Once I say goodnight to her, I will be heading over to the hospital to spend some time with Andrea and Tsvetomira.

Tsveti is not doing well [by Matt]

She is at the hospital with Andrea, but she is not doing. They are in the process of transferring to Gillette, but please pray. Andrea is very concerned that she is dying.

2 new US Citizens [by Matt]

The plane has landed and I now have two more daughters that are US Citizens and are for the first time in their lives "home". Andrea will call when they get through customs and immigration and then I will be picking them up and bringing them home briefly before running Tsvetomira to the hospital.

Tsvetomira did great for most the flight, but was having sustained seizures about 1.25 hrs before arrival and they gave her diastat (like we use for Reuben, when necessary) and she has been sleeping peacefully since then.

Can't wait to see them all!

A little creativity

It's almost 9 pm. We leave here at 5am tomorrow morning, though since I feed Tsvetomira at 3am, I'll really be up for the day at that point. We're nearly packed, except for things we need in the morning.

The whole week has gone much smoother than many of the scenarios I had imagined. Bogomila is a delight - very opinionated, very determined - all traits that will make being the instant mother of a teenager interesting, but all very much traits that make me so excited for her potential in the future.

Tsvetomira continues to be more than any of us are exactly comfortable with, but SHE continues to show that she is increasingly comfortable with us. Although there is a lot of wonderful information we are getting from the blood work that Adam is requesting, there are still many things that we are ill-equipped to fully understand. Although we do not expect a screaming ambulance ride to the hospital upon arrival tomorrow, we have multiple reasons to want to get Mira to competent medical care very soon after our arrival. Adam, as an ER trauma nurse, has a decent sense of what needs the attention of someone more skilled than he, and what does not. He has been an invaluable addition to our week, and a delightful person to get to know on top of that.

Today our most important task was to fabricate the chair that Tsvetomira will ride in through the airports. I feel a little bit like we're creating a prop. ;) Her chair has a number of purposes - it provides a comfortable place for her to travel with less jostling as we move quickly than we can do with her in our arms. It also has, intentionally, a very "medical" look about it. We are hoping this will provide a quick visual sense of the seriousness of her condition. This is not just a baby with a feeding tube; this is a child with a delicate medical condition, BUT (and important so we don't have trouble being allowed on the plane) a delicate medical condition that is being professionally managed. Adam's bag of medical supplies fits nicely over the handle, making it clear that all of the supplies in it (many of which are not typical carry-on items!) are intended for her. We also have in the bag a letter from our family doctor, also translated into Bulgarian, stating that it is medically necessary for Tsvetomira to have access to all of her feeding supplies and medications during the flight.

This captures the spirit of the afternoon. I'm sitting on the floor next to Mira (which is why you can't see her). Bogomila's on the floor playing music on the iPad. We can all practically sing along to some of them! We just have no idea what we're singing. ;) Grandpa is set up on the bed, surrounded by cans of baby formula, and Adam, ever prepared in his scrubs, is making adjustments on the chair, trying to get us as much of a horizontal surface as we can. Leah is busy in the middle. Krassimir's physical therapist gave us three amazing "fluidized positioners" that have been invaluable. That, along with a 2" twin size memory foam mattress, have become Tsvetomira's bed for the week, and transform the chair into just what we need for her.

Here it is, all finished (bag and everything), with Mira on the floor in her little corner. The gray cushion that she is laying on (with one of the positioners inside of it to prop her head up and support her chest), gets picked up and tucked in between the arms of the chair, completing the ensemble. I'm delighted that the leftover dark gray top sheet that I used last Friday morning to sew two big "pillowcases" for using with foam cushions this week looks so appropriate to the chair, as though it's a part of it! We plan to lift her bed cushion out when we take her onto the plane so we have an option for laying across the seats, or potentially even on the floor if we get the bulkhead we're hoping for.

And I'm off.

We are all so grateful for your prayers. We serve a God who acts, and we look forward to watching tomorrow unfold.

If all goes well, Mira, Adam, and I will get to accompany Bogomila home and say hello to my other babies for a half hour or so before we have my dad drive us to the emergency room.

What are you afraid of?

"And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the LORD, which I am commanding you today for your good? - Deuteronomy 10:12-13

This is where my Bible app was waiting for me this morning. Well, it's a few chapters down, but it takes a while to give 140ml of formula s-l-o-w-l-y through a naso-gastric feeding tube, so I ended up here. I've thought it before, but was reminded this morning that to ''fear the Lord'' by necessity requires that we do not fear anything else. Either we fear the one (God), or we fear the other (anything). The reason I think these are mutually exclusive is that the moments when we let fear of the other keep us from obedience to the One, we are losing sight of who God really is. 

Does this look scary? I've definitely had moments where it's hit me that way!

Diagnosis: Massive Destruction of the Brain Matter

Our impromptu nurses station set up in the bathroom of the hotel. This doesn't include the pile of supplies at the foot of Mira's bed!

It's possible even scarier to become the instant mother of a teenage girl!

But in both of those situations, there is One who can take away that fear. If I am serious about obedience to my God, I can not let fear of any other thing prevent me from that. I think there's a reason that the passage above ends the way it does - all of this is for our good! And it's no accident that that same passage is followed by this next verse:

Behold, to the LORD your God belong heaven and the heaven of heavens, the earth with all that is in it. - Deuteronomy 10:14

If this is the God that is on my side, of whom (or what) should I be afraid?

No one!

If God is calling you to something that scares you, stop and think for a moment about what you are going to fear as you live your life.

Simple Things [by Matt]

In Minnesota, it has been a very busy few days. I have not taken the time to post pictures of the progress on the bedroom, mostly because I have been too busy working on it! It is getting closer. I plan to be sanding/priming tomorrow (Friday).

However, I felt I needed to pause from my work to share this from today. At supper time, I came up from working in the basement to help get supper on ready and to get everyone to the table. I went out to get K from the living room and he was whimpering a bit and his nose was red and his eyes were wet and I immediately started to try to figure out what was wrong.

So I started at the beginning of the day. This morning K had a bone scan at the University of St. Thomas as part of a "stander" study that he is involved with at Gillette. It was not his favorite, as it is a "medical" environment, which always makes him more tense and it was a new location he had not been to before. Add to that the fact that they wanted us to hold him still for 30 seconds to 3 minutes to get accurate scans of his bones. 2 hours later we went home and he seemed fine. Maybe he was still bothered by something about the morning?

Around lunch time Andrea and I skyped to try to figure out what it is going to look like on Saturday when they get home and who is going to take T to the hospital and when, etc. As part of that call, Andrea had a chance to talk to each of the kids for a few minutes. Maybe K was really missing Mom after seeing her?

All day today, Owen has been cleaning his stuff out of his bedroom to make way for Bogomila's furniture so it is ready when she gets home. Late this afternoon, K had crawled his way in there for a bit. Was K upset because things are getting all changed around in his room?

At supper itself, he was just whimpering and giving me "the lip" and did not want to eat hardly anything. What is going on?

Toward the end of supper I thought I would see if he wanted to take a bath as that is usually something he loves and I thought it might get him out of his funk. I perked up and put his arm to his chest saying that it was "his turn", but pretty quickly was sad again. Now I am really wondering...

Then the light bulb turned on. He had had his AFO braces on all day from the time we went to the scan until the end of supper. We often take them off when he gets home from school or just at some point in the afternoon to give him a break and then sometimes put them back on again. However, with him not being at school and me being in the basement working all afternoon, I completely forgot about his braces not being taken off.

I took his braces off and with in 10 seconds he was his normal, mostly happy, self again. He still got his bath and thoroughly enjoyed it.

So here I was trying to figure out what kind of emotional drama he was dealing with and how in the world could I help him through it and the simple answer was that his feet were tired of being in his braces and he just wanted a break!

Now, back to the mudding!

Laughter

Bogomila laughs freely. Google translate gives us plenty of opportunity. Here's a fun little game to play: when Google translate is in English listening mode, say something in Bulgarian (or vice versa). It's best if you are not intending to do it. Practically guaranteed to get a laugh, followed by "ne, ne, ne, ne, ne!"

She passed!

Bogomila's last lab test result came in, and it's negative, which is exactly what we needed for visa clearance!! They will not be able to run the results over to the Embassy until tomorrow (Friday) morning, but no one here seems concerned about that being an issue for timing.

Thursday

Some of you in the States aren't quite there yet, but over here it's Thursday morning. I'm up after the 6am meds and feeding, and am getting ready for the day for when the girls wake up. (I may also lay down a bit if they keep sleeping this way!)

A few more of Mira's lab results from yesterday have come in, and one of them that is an indicator for re-feeding syndrome has shown a slight drop (not what we want.) At this point, our plan is to continue moving forward with the plan (which yesterday involved a change of formula from the one we were given at the orphanage to the one they told us previously she was using at the orphanage - really, I think they use what they are given at the orphanage. Some food is better than no food!) This new formula has a bit more sodium and also a bit more of the phosphorus that we want to see come up.

At the moment, we do not think we're in an emergency situation that needs to be dealt with her. Adam does want to run one more short panel of blood work tomorrow (Friday) morning so we can have a better picture of where she is before we fly on Saturday, but also think we can hold out until we get to the States. He is going to use my computer today to do a write-up for us to have at the emergency department of our hospital in the States when we get home.

Little bits

First of all, (as I type that, there are at least three things that jump into my mind as the first thing I would want to tell you! So here they are in no particular order!)

1) Adam is here. ;) (That was an easy one, so it came out first.) It is wonderful to have him around. We gave Tsvetomira (Mira) an all-over check, and she did great, except when he touched her feet. Then she cried. She has so quickly become so trusting of me! We were actually able to get her clothes changed without cutting, and without Adam having to do it for me. Partly, he was able to encourage me to not be afraid (much like Dondi did for me on Krassi's pick up trip!), and partly, her trust in me to be gentle with her is growing, so I can do a little bit more without frightening her, which means she is not as tense. It's a good cycle. Seeing her little unclothed body made me cry. Yes, I suppose, at the terrible gauntness, and the preventable deformity, but primarily I was overcome by the same emotions that I've had after giving birth to my biological children and I see them with my own eyes for the first time. The little birthmarks (and the one that's a little bigger), the shape of her spine, the flat little belly button - every little thing that is just her. She is so beautiful.

1) Mira is doing so well. Sometime between the midnight and 4am feedings last night (Bulgaria time, so 4pm and 8pm MN time), she "switched" and instead of surviving, but not really doing well, today she looks SO good. (Well, as good as any 25 pound eleven year old child can look!) We took her out to retake the blood work panels that Adam had requested on Monday, giving us the chance to see comparitively how she's doing, and the results are all moving in just exactly the direction Adam had hoped they would move - cautionary liver values are slightly lower, her sodium level, which was in the moderate to severely low range is now at the very bottom of the normal range!! And a few other significant numbers are moving in the right direction. As we, over Skype, hemmed and hawed about the best way to increase her sodium level without needing to split up our happy party of five by taking Mira to the hospital, we stumbled upon the simplest of simple measures: mix her formula with a saline solution instead of plain water, and make that saline solution by adding a teaspoon of salt to a 500ml container of bottled water! What a difference that simple change made!!!

1) We got the results back from the tests that were done on Monday - both girls are clear on the tuberculosis test, and one more that Bogomila needed (as a child over 14 or 15), also came back negative. We are still waiting on the one last sample that was taken Tuesday. We will not know the results of that one until after our Embassy appointment tomorrow.

Okay, now on to second things. ;)

2) Adam put a nicer tube holder on Mira. I took the opportunity when he had the old tape off to take a photograph of her. You can really see how very delicate her features are in this photograph.

3) Bogomila had a good day. Yesterday she kind of withdrew in the afternoon and just wanted to listen to her music on the iPad. We let her, knowing that she as a young adult, needs some space, but we were glad today to see her still being cheerfully engaged. Even though she also had her music on for a fair amount of the day (and is pretty involved in it), we were also having plenty of anecdotal interactions as we went along.

sisters

3b) She also got to connect with her psychologist, who lives here in Sofia, and they had a great hour and a half talking together. Her psychologist knows enough English that Leah and I were able to be somewhat involved in the conversation, and I found it to be a wonderful time where she was giving Bogomila plenty of good coaching on getting ready to be part of our family. I was able to share some tender thoughts I'd had a hard time getting Google Translate to communicate. For example, right before bed last night I sat next to her with my arms around her while she finished watching her show. She just leaned right into it. I started crying as I mourned all of the years that I did NOT get to hold this girl of mine. Google translate doesn't do that. She asked me that night why I was crying, and this morning, her psychologist was able to explain it to her. I wonder if some of her encouragement was part of Bogomila's more relaxed and involved afternoon. She was also MUCH freer with trying her English today! Last night she told me before bed that she was going to speak Bulgarian when she was in Bulgaria, and she would learn English when she was in America. I laughed and told her that was fair enough. And then today she was on it, trying new words, using old ones. Very good.

~~~

We still have plenty ahead of us - keeping Mira moving in the right direction and figuring out how to get her onto the airplane, and still waiting on the results of the last test for Bogomila.Thank you for praying! We are feeling utterly calm.

It's a long week. We're ready to go home.

A good morning

Tsvetomira had a wonderful night - she started rough, with what we are guessing were nightmares of some sort. Krassimir often did, too, especially at the beginning. After a big nasty diaper around midnight, she slept very peacefully through the night, and has had some wonderful calm-alert times this morning.

Bogomila has a favorite psychologist who is based in Sofia, and she was able to come and spend an hour and a half with Bogomila this morning. She says she doesn't speak very good English, but certainly enough that we were able to communicate a number of valuable things back and forth in addition to her just getting to visit with Bogomila. She has offered herself as a resource and given us her email address.

I've finally gotten photos off my camera, so will give you a mini recap of our Monday pick up day.

First stop of the day: walking over the treacherous ice to Bogomila's group home.

There's my girl! She's got her hat on and is already ready to go. She already had her bags packed - one soft-sided suitcase, a plastic bag with various personal items (a mug, a frame, a candle holder - all treasures she's picked up over the years with her monthly government allotment.)

Signing papers - she's ours forever now!! For the first time in her life since her birth, her mommy is fully responsible for her!!

Bogomila has been surrounded by many people who care for her. There were a number of other older children who showed up for pictures and to say goodbye, but we were also touched by the number of adults who gathered, and a few more who were waiting outside, to say goodbye to our daughter. Those people are all there for her.

And next, driving up to this place. Even with the changes for the better, the fact remains that this building will never look like more than a large, cold warehouse.

And there's my little Pearl! (And who's that old lady wearing my clothes? ;) Funny how gray the top can look in the right light!) Just like when we picked up Krassimir, Tsvetomira leaves with nothing - not even the clothes on her back. When we come in, I hand the little bag of clothes we brought for her to the nurse who leaves with them in the elevator. [Note - she's still wearing those same clothes, because I CAN NOT get the sweater dress off!! I can't even imagine how they got it into her. We're debating cutting it off, but are waiting to see if Adam wants to give it a shot. That way *I* don't have to be the "bad guy" if it's uncomfortable taking it off.]

Here we are listening and watching as a nurse shows us the basic routine for feeding. We are given syringes, a can of formula, and enough of her seizure meds to last us through a few weeks at home. And then we leave. No goodbyes for Tsvetomira.

Back through the mountains, bringing our girls on the first leg of their trip HOME.

Moving up

Just finished the midnight feeding. (We're giving half size feelings every two hours around the clock to minimize Tsvetomira's chances of reflux and aspiration.)

Good news: Adam (all on his own!) looked into changing flights, so his plane will now land in Sofia early afternoon Wednesday instead of Thursday. That means 24 hours more of hands on help as we get Mira into the best shape we can before flying, but also means that he's boarding the plane as I'm typing now, and will be unavailable to us for most of the next 12 hours.

Thank you to everyone who is praying!

He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow... - Deuteronomy 10:18a

Tsvetomira may not be fatherless anymore, but I don't for a moment think that means God is no longer in the business of executing justice for her! It's just one of the means by which He is doing so.

Two things to pray about

Quickly here, because there's not a lot of time in between feedings, washing up after feedings, comforting Tsvetomira when she cries, and trying to spend some time with Bogomila, too. I spend most of that time attending to the emails that come in that need attending to, and Skyping with Adam as needed.

So, the two things - one for each girl.

First, there is a new medical test required for older children that was put into effect in October or November. Without going into all of the details, we have had a difficult time getting the appropriate sample needed for Bogomila to be cleared for her visa on Friday.

With no visa, we don't fly home.

We made a second attempt with Bogomila at a sample this morning, but are not certain if it will be considered an adequate sample, or if the results will come back invalid. We will not know the results until AFTER our visa interview at the US Embassy on Thursday. That in itself is not a problem, as our representative from the adoption agency can run the results to the embassy later in the afternoon. The problem lies in whether or not the results will clear us to leave, or if they will require a re-test next week. This would obviously be a challenging complication on many fronts - we would need to arrange to stay another week, meaning my parents are gone from their responsibilities another week, and all of the arrangements I've made with friends to help us out the week we're home will have to change. But more importantly, Adam's rearranged work schedule makes him free THIS week to be here to fly home with Tsvetomira, besides the fact that we are hoping to get her into competent medical hands in the US as soon as possible. Please be praying that the results will be favorable, or that our government would be sympathetic to the fragility of Tsvetomira's life and consider a waiver.  My Dad has plans to contact his congressman today to alert him to the potential of fast action needed on Friday.

Which is point number two.

Tsvetomira is certainly hanging in there, and many of her lab levels came back at good places, including the ones that are indicators for refeeding syndrome. However, she has a number of levels that are moderately to severely out of range. Adam and I are working on adjusting things that we can here at the hotel to help stabilize her. He believes that some of these levels are chronic, and that some of them are likely caused by changes in her care over the last week or two as they tried to "prepare" her for us to bring her home.

Her sodium levels are very low. This can be caused by water toxicity (too much water changes the balance of important nutrients...like sodium.) Low sodium is, apparently, one of the first things an emergency room will check for if someone comes in with an unexplained seizure. It can also be caused by an excessive dose of one of the anti-seizure medications she is on. A few of her other levels also suggest a toxic dose of that medication. We have not yet received the results of that particular medication in her blood work, but Adam is guessing it's because if the levels are indeed as high as he anticipates they are, the measuring system will not work or the technician reading the results will dismiss them as inaccurate. At Adam's recommendation, we are discontinuing the med (it is one you can stop "cold-turkey" without any negative side effects - some seizure meds need to be weaned off) until her levels stabilize. We are mixing her formula with less water so she gets the same calories, but less water (she is not showing any signs of dehydration). And no beer.

No, really. He said that! ;) Not only is this guy a seriously caring nurse, willing to sacrifice of himself for the life of someone he's never met, but he's also got a sense of humor. ;) In reality, the liver function levels she's showing are either caused by too much alcohol, or too much of the two seizure meds she's on. So she really can't have a beer. I don't think she'll take it too hard!

Life is hard for this tiny treasure. Diaper changes cause her to cry even before I begin. [I take that back - we just got through a long diaper change with zero crying!!]

I don't have time to wrap this up nicely - it's time to feed her again.

Thank you for praying for these two girls. These are the kinds of prayers that are close to the heart of God.

On the homefront [by Matt]

Like most of you, I am waiting to hear the details of what has been happening in Bulgaria! I have received a few emails with little blips of info. All in all it has been a good day with some complications, but nothing that has caused major problems at this point.

One of the emails that came through was also an updated itinerary for Adam. He has changed his flight to one day earlier, so he will now be arrived in Sofia on Wednesday afternoon and will have one more day to help Andrea with Tsvetomira before traveling home on Saturday.

In Minnesota, other than Reuben have a rough 24-36 hours with seizure activity on and off, things have been going remarkably well. All of the kids have been doing better than expected with Mom gone. Even when we did Skype on Sunday, we were worried that Gloria might not respond well to hearing and seeing Mom and Leah on the phone, but she thought it was the greatest thing and when the call ended, she was just fine.

I can't wait to see Gloria's face light up when she sees Mom and Leah and Bogomila (and Tsvetomira, though Gloria will not be as excited about T, since she is not used to us talking to T over Skype like we have been with B) on the next Skype call, whenever that ends up being. There will not be room for all of the family to come along with me to pick up from the airport, but I think Gloria will be one of those coming, as she and Bogomila have a special bond that they developed when Gloria traveled with us to meet both girls.

Anyway, I have to note a BIG reason things are going so well at home is that Grandma F (Carolyn) is here helping. She has been reading a ton of books, helping with homeschool, washing and folding laundry, picking up the house and doing all sorts of other things I probably am not even aware of. She is making it possible for me to get business work done as well as get some time to work on the new room in the basement. I lost half a day of taping time when I was holding Reuben on Sunday afternoon, but that was the more important thing to be doing anyway.

Here are a few pictures I took when all the drywall was up, but no taping had been started. As of tonight, most of the 60% of the joints are taped and all of the larger gaps have been pre-filled in preparation for taping and installing corner bead tomorrow. The goal is to have everything first coated by the end of tomorrow.

 

Looking from the window area to the hallway and closet.

The window wall. Working at night means it is always dark outside, but during the day, these windows flood the room with south light.

Owen's bed cubbie awaiting the mattress platform that will be put in after the drywall is done and the cut outs for two books shelves.

Time to get a couple hours of sleep before Gloria wants to snuggle with me, since she can't nurse with Mom this week. So far Reuben has been out solid for about 3 hours without any seizures. It would be wonderful if he could get a full nights rest and be a little more back to his normal self tomorrow.

I love her

Oh, how I wish I had the time to download photos and give a full rundown of this very long, very good day. But maybe tomorrow. Or maybe not. We'll see!

But one bit about these two girls of mine who are so very much my beloved daughters!

We are getting creative with communicating with Bogomila without a live translator. One method that's working is the google translate app. It's not great, but gets us by, and with voice recognition, we can go faster than typing. As Bogomila and I worked together through getting her ready for bed, I voiced, "I will help you."

What did it pick up?

"I love you." Made me smile. But I tried again, thinking if we ended up with, "I love you. I will help you," that it wouldn't be too far off.

What I got?

"I love you. I love you."

It brought tears to my eyes. Yes. I love her, and because I love her I will help her.

And now I have 22 minutes to lay down and close my eyes before I give Tsvetomira her next feeding. Adam and I just got off Skype going over her labs that have results in already. Some are good, some are not so good. Tonight we continue her care here, with a few modifications, and tomorrow we may look into something beyond what we can do here just to help her get into tip top shape for flying.

Set free

There are so many points along the way in the adoption process that feel like they're significant. Sending in those commitment papers is an obvious one, but still rather benign - you can still back out (remembering that three families before us went as far as committing to Tsvetomira, but not a single one got beyond that!) There's the day you first meet your new child, flesh and blood - face to face - and suddenly there's an all around real person to the face and personality you've been envisioning and imagining. There's that wonderful day when the courts declare you to be legally the parents of your new daughters!!! They're really yours.

But then again, they're not. On paper it's real, but their lives still continue just as normal. They woke up the next morning in the same old room, with the same old routine that did NOT include a hug or kiss from mommy or dad, or the sounds of your very own brothers and sisters waking up along with you. It's just all...the same.

And then there's the day that you get to walk back into that place where you first met them, but this time you're not walking in for a visit, only to leave them behind, but only togetherness, and there are goodbyes, yes, (particularly there will be for Bogomila! Everything she's ever known, everyone she's known, her language, her culture, her foods - for even though we will do our best to incorporate those aspects of who she is into our family's life, it's not ever going to be the same as it was. And for Bogomila, it will be right for her to grieve - she has good things that she's leaving behind. One thing we admire about our strong daughter is her ability to look forward without fear of the unknown!!) but the goodbyes are nothing in comparison to the future that will open up before both of them as they live the rest of their lives as part of the interconnected web of a family!

I am very grateful that we are picking Bogomila up first. Because we are uncertain how Tsvetomira will handle the transitions, it's very likely that much of my time and energy will be absorbed by her once she is in our care, so for that wonderful first hour, I will be able to invest myself fully in my Bogomila, my oldest daughter, be with her as she packs up her belongings, says her goodbyes, and then goes out that door surrounded by her mother, her sister, her grandfather, and drives off forever as a beloved daughter - part of a family.

And then on to Tsvetomira. I hope she remembers my voice. I am so anxious to take her gently in my arms and whisper in her ear that her mama's here, and she's never going to be alone again.

Bogomila's group home from our visit in September

Tsvetomira's "Baby house"

It's easy to look at the above two photos and say that one is "good" and one is "bad" but they're really more similar than anything else - neither one of them, whether bright and cheerful or imposing and gloomy, is a home. And we don't need to be a perfect family (thankfully!) or have a perfect home (once again, thankfully! - I hear Matt and Owen got more sheetrock up on Saturday, though!) to bring these girls out of these institutions and into our family and our home, and our hearts.

Onward! Tomorrow is the day when they will be set free!!!

We're really here!

And, what, you may wonder, is Leah looking at??

Hey, Owen - this sure isn't the way we do it back in Minnesota, is it?? Even better, there's a guy IN the little loader that gets to ride while it's being lifted up!!! (The cathedral in the background of the photo of Leah was just a convenient reason to get a photo of THIS!)

Today we're tired, and recovering from a very boring flight. As a matter of face, we're hoping the rest of the trip is just as boring as this first part was so far (with the exception of the loader-lifter!)

Tomorrow we have a day to walk around the (cold and snowy) city a bit more, rest a bit more, and shuffle our belongings around a bit to be ready for Monday morning when, bright and early, we leave to go get our girls!!! No more will they belong at state-run institutions where they don't belong to anyone - they will be with us!!! with their family that they belong to. My Dad pointed out that it's fitting that we're on the sixth floor of our hotel - Tsvetomira will leave the infamous sixth floor of the orphanage she has spent her whole life in, and move to the sixth floor of a hotel with her mommy on her way home to her HOME.

Make that 200! [Now with photos!]

[This is Andrea hi-jacking Matt's post from a different continent. The internet is so weird. Here I am on the other side of the world editing/modifying something my husband wrote back in MN! Anyway, you can look below for the photos that I've taken off the camera.]

Since Andrea is on a plane somewhere over the Atlantic currently, I thought I would give a brief update on a couple of things.

First, Andrea did update the footie pajama count on the sidebar to 201, but did not have time to actually write anything about it after writing that we had 100. We are very excited about all of the PJ's that came in. Thank you to everyone who donated. Andrea and Leah and Scott all have their bags full of PJ's as well as a few other things, but they are maxing out their 2 checked bags for each person plus a carry-on.

What does 201 pajamas look like?? Here's Leah helping Andrea to unpack - because we had so many, we divided them up with our other things packed in between, and somehow made it without going over the 50 pound weight limit on any bag!)

There - are you impressed??? Well, don't be TOO impressed, because this photo doesn't include all of the ones still sitting on the bed! (See the photo below this one.)

There's still a pretty big pile on the bed, too!

Leah is sitting on the couch surrounded by pajamas - she's there to give you a reference point for where the seat of the couch actually is! That thing is piled HIGH with pajamas!!! Incredible!! I know Matt already said a thank you, but Leah and I, and Toni are sending one, too!! There are actually so many that Toni has asked if it would be okay to split them up and share them with another orphanage director she works with that also has a great need for something like this. The children at Pleven are more than amply supplied with what you were all able to help us bring, and I told her we would be glad to spread the coziness around to another group of children, too. She reiterated how pajamas like that are nearly impossible to get here, and how wonderful they are for the kids. (I know! Most nights in the winter there are five or more children in our own house wearing their fleecy footies!!)

Second, the insulators did make it yesterday morning and were pulling out of our driveway when Scott and Carolyn arrived shortly after 1pm. At 1:30, the inspector came and passed us on our insulation inspection. By 2:15 Scott and I were already working on hanging drywall and then Chad showed up at 3 to help as well and by supper time we had all of the ceilings up and probably 25% of the walls. We took a break for the evening, as Andrea and I had a client meeting and then there was packing to be done.

This morning before we took our travelers to the airport and then again this afternoon after we got back from dropping them off, Owen and I were working on drywall and the closet is totally done and the main bedroom has 1 piece left to put up and then we just have the bed cubby to do. I anticipate all the drywall will be up tomorrow and I will be getting started on putting up corner bead and maybe starting to tape and mud.

No pictures with this post as the camera is with Andrea and I have not figured out my phone well enough to take photos and then get them to my computer...maybe I will get there...I know it can't be that hard, it just has not been an important thing for me to figure out thus far. [So here's Andrea to the rescue!! Though, sorry Matt, I won't be able to do this any more this week!]

The ceilings are done and there is sheetrock on the south/window wall! (Still need to do a bit of trimming around the window opening.) Matt is measuring for the next piece on that first wall.

There's Dad and Chad (just his shoulder visible by the end of the purple wall) ready to measure and set up the next piece.

The next day (Friday before the travelers left), Owen and Dad got the interior of Owen's closet all done up.

Matt cuts, and holds while Owen gets the first few screws, and then he can finish while Matt cuts the next one!

Now the wall to the left of the window wall is done (except for the well pump/bookshelf cubbie).

And the wall on the right of the window wall? Matt's measuring...cutting...

...and there it's up! Instant room!

And there's that elusive bed cubbie of Owen's that wasn't done when Andrea left, and apparently still isn't done. But it will be before too long!

Thirdly, yesterday morning we had our last Skype call with Bogomila. Out of that call, one of the really neat things was hearing her talk about how she was excited to start PT in the States. She made it very clear that she wants to learn how to walk! Andrea and I were overjoyed to hear this. We have been confident that with PT, Bogomila could learn to walk [probably with some form of assistance from equipment) and be more independent, but we were not sure if she would be motivated to do so. Hearing her say that she wants to was wonderful.

One Hundred!

Wow! My parents just got in with one more pair, making an even one hundred pairs of jammies!

There's more in the van that we were given from the therapy center the boys are at, but they're not in the house yet, or counted, so I thought we'd celebrate this big milestone!

Tiny girl

We just got current height and weight stats on Tsvetomira this morning. I can't even find her numbers on a BMI chart because those don't have weights low enough for her height.

Our little Pearl is 96 centimeters tall (just under 38 inches). That puts her at the same height as an average three and a half year old child.

Her weight is 11.5 kilograms (about 25 pounds). That's the size of a smaller two year old.

I'd been waiting to get up to date information before I picked out the clothes I would bring for her. I'd been in my mind thinking she'd be about the same size as our five year old, Rinnah, and I didn't want to have to raid her drawers.

I won't.

Sweet, tiny, delicate girl.

There are SO many people working with us this week to make sure we've got everything in place that we can to bring her home safely!

[I just this morning published a post I realized I'd written three and a half years ago and never published. Because it was written at that time, I left it in that place, but it might be worth a read to better understand the situation surrounding this little one's life. You can read it here.]

Bedroom Update [by Matt]

Framing, window and mechanical inspections have been passed.

Insulators are scheduled for Thursday AM.

Drywall arriving today or tomorrow.

Insulation inspection at 1:30 PM Thursday.

Drywall starts going up anytime after the insulation inspection.

Provision and Timing [by Matt]

As I was driving back from the pharmacy (after picking up a new bottle of Reuben's "rescue" med since we had just used up his last bottle this afternoon) I was thinking about a number of ways that God has been providing for us as we prepare for Andrea to go get our girls and bring them home.

Last Wednesday I was with Krassi and Reuben at the YMCA while Krassi was having his pool therapy. Reuben and I were hanging out near Krassi and his PT, Lori, talking about plans for the girls and getting them home and we were talking about how we were going to be trying to figure out how to custom fit a car seat that Tsvetomira can be in during take-off and landing procedures. Adam has a seat he will be bringing and Andrea has ordered some memory foam and the two of them were planning to just cut and piece to try to get the best fit they can once Tsvetomira and the car seat are in the same location.

As we are discussing that, Lori with a mix of excitedness and sadness tells me that she has some positioning foam that she can give us that is specifically intended for doing exactly what Andrea and Adam will be trying to do. Lori was excited because this will be much better than the memory foam alone and she has it and she can just give it to us to use. The sadness is because the reason she has the foam is that a person that she had been treating for close to 20 years passed away and this person's mother gave the foam to Lori and told her to find someone who could use it. You could tell it was a bittersweet moment. It has also been neat to see how excited Lori has been getting about potentially getting to work with Bogomila and maybe Tsvetomira and help them to new levels.

As long as we are on the topic of people from the Therapy center, last week while Andrea was out with Gloria at her 1 year doctor appointment, I got a call from Reuben's OT (Kelsey) saying that she and Reuben's old PT (Brian) wanted to set up a Pajama Drive at the therapy center to be able to send some PJ's with Andrea to Tsvetomira's orphanage. As of Friday (after only two days) they already had 15 pairs. It will be fun to see how many they have by this Thursday when the PJ drive is done. If you have been following this blog for a few years, you will recognize these names from when we were getting ready to bring Krassi home and both of them helped us as we were working on the addition to our house.

Late last week we also got another substantial financial gift from someone who had already donated, but knew that God had been telling them to give more, so they did. Amazing!

Then on Saturday one of our neighbors called to tell me that he was going to be coming over to pick up his daughter, who had been playing at our house, and to drop of some PJ's and something else for us. Before I get too much further on this story, I need to also fill you in on some of the emails we have had with Toni (our Bulgarian attorney). We have been trying to make sure we have plans in case we need to take Tsvetomira somewhere for emergency care while Andrea is still in Bulgaria. We have a plan figured out and part of that plan requires us to have funds to pay the hospital if we end up needing to go that route.

In Bulgaria, medical care is free to all citizens of the country. The catch is that since Tsvetomira's birth certificate has been re-issued with changes related to the adoption, she (as well as any other adopted child) is no longer in the database and therefore can not get free care after the adoption proceedings have taken place. So, that means we would need to pay cash for her care. Based on Toni's estimate of cost for a worst case scenario stay, we has figured the amount we would need in cash.

When our neighbor arrives, he gives us a bag of PJ's and then an envelope that is something their family wanted to share with ours. You guessed it, it is the exact amount (in cash) that Andrea and I had been discussing!

I know Andrea has commented about this before, but if anyone out there is reading this and they are considering adoption and feel that God has called them to it, but they don't see how the finances can work, be encouraged. If God is calling you to adopt and you are obedient to that call, He will provide you with what you need.

Lastly, but by no means least, we have been getting volunteer support from our church and neighborhood friends who are making themselves available to bring food or take kids to therapy appointments or stay with our other kids so Andrea can take Reuben and Krassi to therapy if we end up taking Tsvetomira to the hospital and I am staying there with her.

I guess that was the last part about provision! Now onto timing.

Sunday morning before church, Leah said she did not feel well and that she did not want to eat breakfast and just wanted to stay home, so we let her stay home. Andrea said she did not feel well, but she would go to church anyway because if she stayed home she would end up keeping Gloria and/or Krassi home with her and it would not end up being restful anyways, so she would rather be at church. She made it OK, but as soon as we got home, she spend the rest of the day in bed trying not to move. Leah was fine the whole time we were gone, but ended up throwing up a couple times this afternoon.

I am glad I am going to have Carolyn here next week to help me as when I was trying to do everything today on my own without Andrea or Leah's help, it was a little crazy, especially at meal times!

By bed time, Leah and Andrea were feeling a bit better, but Gloria was running a fever and Reuben also seemed feverish. For Reuben, he might be sick or he might just still be off from his runs of seizures the last two days. Either way, something is moving in our house. Then as I am up laying kids down, I hear Andrea whisper up the steps that my Mom threw up in her bathroom and that I needed to come help clean that up. That is a step in the right direction...last time my Mom was ill, it was all over her bedroom on the wood floors. I much prefer the bathroom tile floors for cleaning up.

So what does this have to do with timing? I think it has everything to do with timing. Andrea and Leah are the first two to get sick, which means they stand the best chance of  being better in time to leave on Thursday. It would also be much nicer to have whatever this is get in and out of our house before Andrea and Leah leave and Carolyn and I are trying to keep things in order around here.

So in the midst of a crazy day, where it would be tempting to ask "why now?", I am instead able to say "Thank you". Thank you for timing everything exactly according to your plan and not mine and thank you for providing everything that we need.

Bedroom progress [by Matt]

Less than one week until Andrea leaves and two weeks until she returns with Bogomila and Tsvetomira. While I think (OK, I know) the bedroom will not be complete by the time they get home, I am hopeful that it will be usable, and at the very least, have Bogomila's room ready for her.

Last weekend when Andrea's parents were in town, her Dad and I were able to get the electrical all completed and since it is on existing circuits, we decided to just hook everything up and not just "rough-in" the electrical. So we have working lights and switches in the bedroom. This past week I passed my electrical inspection.

The temporary rigid insulation is coming off the window opening. You can see the temporary lights hanging from the actual recessed can fixtures and the outlet boxes and wires running at the base of the wall.

After a day or two of bitterly cold weather, today was sunny and nearly 30 degrees so Andrea and I took advantage of the lovely weather to re-open the hole in the side of our basement and install the new windows for the bedroom. By the time the sun went down and supper was on the table, both windows were installed, foamed on the interior, flashed on the exterior and all the exterior trim installed. It is a very good feeling to have those done.

Nailing the first window in after Andrea got it leveled and plumbed on the inside.

Getting the second window lifted in to place. Yes, you only need one window for egress, but we decided to go with two and to match the width of the windows above at the kitchen sink and align with them. Also note the flex duct hanging down in the left-hand side of this photo. All of the mechanical is roughed in and the old openings closed up.

I love January days when you can be out working with your gloves off and your hands don't freeze!

A fun photo at the end of the day showing the finished windows from the exterior. I like the "warm" glow of the window against the white house and the white snow.

Next is the framing and window inspection that is schedule for Monday afternoon. I am expecting that I should also pass that inspection without any issues. As soon as that inspection is done, I have a couple people who are going to help me go pick up the drywall and carry it down into the basement so that it is ready to go as soon as the insulating is done. I am in conversation with the insulator and anticipate them being able to be in and foaming the exterior walls before the week is out. And even before they get that done, I can start on some smaller portions of the closet and Owen's bed area that do not touch the exterior walls.

If all moves smoothly, it would be great to have the drywall all up by the end of next week and then be taping and mudding and maybe priming the week that Andrea is in Bulgaria so we can move the boys beds downstairs and just move them around the room as need to do final painting, install carpet and trim.

I will hold those plans loosely and see what the next couple weeks bring.