A brief update

• We got the report back regarding Bobbi's birth family. They were only able to speak with her grandparents, learning that her mother and older half-brother have moved with his wife and two young daughters to another EU country (which we know). Her grandparents were not really interested in talking much, but even with that, we were able to get a whole handful of little tidbits, that while in and of themselves are not much, were able to answer some of our questions and Bobbi's curiosities. And, of course, to open up a whole bunch of others. There's still hope that her grandparents will choose to pass the information on to her mother or brother and this may not be the end of the story. We shall see.
• Mira is doing really amazingly well. We are keeping ourselves completely isolated, knowing how easily she can get really really sick, and figuring even if we could make it through the COVID-19 virus, she probably couldn't, and since truly the one "goal" or dream that we had for her when we decided to bring her home was that she would not die alone - that when her time comes, she will die with her family that loves her surrounding her and touching her - this is not the way we would choose for her to go! Her nurse still comes in three days a week. She has stopped working for her other family because the mother in that family works in health care, so more exposure than Mira's nurse was willing to risk (and, I think she made the decision, too, knowing that Mira's need for professional care was greater than that of her other client). Rose comes into our house five days a week as well, but she's only coming here, or grocery shopping, even before Minnesota's stay-at-home order went into effect. 
• We have dear friends from church who are doing all of our grocery shopping for us so I don't even have to leave the house. They even brought and amazing full meal for us last Tuesday, which was Leah's birthday, to help her celebrate.
  
  
  

  

  Now my second-born is the fifth teenager in the house!

  

  And there's the fat hands of the youngest, helping himself.

• We DID have to go out for an orthodontic "emergency" for Leah. I talked with her orthodontist on the phone, and he agreed that what we were dealing with fell just over the line into "emergency," so was willing to treat. Her last appointment came two days after they were ordered to stop seeing patients, and her wires on the bottom were protruding far enough that they were irritating her gums. They agreed to just have us give them a call when we got there and come out into the parking lot with their wire clippers so we didn't have to go into the building. Owen, our new driver, drove us over there, with Evania, Reuben, and Eben along for the ride just for something different to do! We didn't even have to call when we got there because they saw Big Blue drive up and knew it was us!
• Bobbi, Krassi, and Reuben are doing physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy (each some combination thereof) over the internet starting this week, and it's gone really well. Krassi was showing off some of his skills this afternoon. See him sitting up so tall!
  
  And that's it for now. Just a bit to let you know we're still alive over here!