Let's Just Get This Over With...

...so I can start blogging again. Dell & I owe you an apology but Mac is trying really really hard to make up for our errors.

Back in November, as we were preparing to move to GA, Dell helped me create an AWESOME presentation of BEAUTIFUL adopted children. Many of you shared pictures of your kiddos, and I sincerely appreciate each & every photo I received.

A few days before our move I had the honor/privilege of sharing our adoption journey to Cubby, and those pictures of your kiddos, with a very large audience. You may recall that I promised to share that video with you once we settled in our new house.

Well, to say we're anywhere near settled is really stretching reality but more than anything I want to share the video. Dell & I tried on many occasions to upload the video to Blogger but darn if I could get it to cooperate without the internet going kaboom each & every time I logged into Blogger.

After a series of maddening attempts to set up a stable and functional wireless home network, our internet woes were finally resolved last weekend. Seems we have a gremlin in the house who switched the wires on the router, making the connection fizz out every 3 minutes. Thankfully we have a nerdy great IT friend who figured this out in all of 30 seconds. His only charges were: letting his kids use Cubby's new swingset and letting them destroy beautifully redecorate our Christmas tree.

Anyway, after our nerdy great IT friend and his family left last weekend, I thought I was golden and would finally be able to post the video.

errr - - NOT.SO.MUCH.

The stress of the whole thing proved to be too much for Dell, and my loyal PC friend seems to be asking me to pull the plug. Permanently. Dell would rather sleep than turn on. If Dell does wake up, often times I feel like the cursor's blinking but the mouse just isn't attached. You get my drift. The ol' PC just ain't wanting to PC anymore.

Enter my sidekick at work - Mac. Mac & I are still getting to know each other, and we both have some kinks to work out but all in all it's going pretty well. Mac also knows how much I wanted to post the adoption video, so we're doing our best to figure out how to recreate it on a Mac platform.

I've been avoiding blogging because I knew some of you were really anticipating the video, and perhaps that was your only reason for stopping by which is okay. I'm just glad you're here and please try to be just a little more patient. It will be posted!!

For those of you who gave me a photo - THANK YOU! Although I haven't been able to share it with all of you yet, please know how touched the audience was.

We reached out to people who otherwise wouldn't have considered adoption, and gave them hope that they, too, could take that first step.

We gave confidence to a 16 year old girl to share her own adoption story. She, too, was adopted from Russia when she was just 4 years old. Something she has shied away from telling many people, but that day she proudly stood up and thanked her adoptive parents for the life they have given her and asked other to please consider loving a child who so desperately needs a family.

The list of people who stopped to speak to me after the presentation goes on & on, but let me share with you the most incredible one...

We inspired a young woman who was considering an abortion that adoption is a better choice for her unborn child...

We - you and I - saved.a.life! And, if she shared her story with those she said she would share it with, there is a very good possibility that the lives of 3 other unborn babies were saved as well.

So while I was extremely nervous about sharing our journey to Cubby with so many people at once, I honestly feel like God gave me the confidence I needed to get through the presentation, and the words certain people in the audience needed to hear. I couldn't have done it without many of you. Whether you sent in pictures, offered me encouragement or lifted up a prayer that I wouldn't pass out from fright, Thank You once again friends!!

You'll be seeing me more here at Love More, Laugh Often this year. I hope to see you too!

Happy New Year (belated),
Kar

A Challenging Week

One week after the "mother of all emergencies" and, thank goodness, Bandit is doing muuuuuuuch better. Sincere thanks to everyone who posted comments, sent private emails, called and even gave Bandit get well cards!!!

He came home on Tuesday but things were still touch & go and he needed nearly constant monitoring. He ripped out his catheter the first night home. That was a lovely thing to wake up to Wednesday morning - - blood E.V.E.R.Y.W.H.E.R.E., and as most of you know I do NOT do blood!! So, back to the vet on Wednesday to fix that. He didn't start eating until Thursday, which almost landed him back in the hospital for fluids, monitoring, etc. He is on a cocktail of meds which need to be administered multiple times throughout the day. One of the pills needs to be given to him an hour before eating or taking other meds, and it is given to him as a slurry which means it's added to water in a syringe and shot into his mouth. Up until yesterday he hadn't fought this much but my indication that he's feeling better is the amount of protesting he's doing now when I try to do the slurry syringe thing. He's having no part of it and inevitably one of us ends up wearing sticky stuff all over clothing or fur. He outweighs me by quite a bit and a few times I've ended up on my keester. Fun times let me tell ya!

When he does eat I need to spoon feed him at a very slow pace since his stomach is still recovering from the bloat and the surgery. He's ready to dive in and isn't so thrilled about actually having to taste and CHEW his food now but he is liking the individual attention!

I knew the surgical wound would be pretty significant, and trust me it is!! I got my first really good look at it today and it's HUGE. Remember, Bandit is a very large dog. If he stands on his back legs and puts him paws on Norm's shoulders, they can nearly look each other in the eye, and Norm is 5'10". Bandit's incision is almost the length of his entire body!!! It's enormous. I get a little nauseated when I look at it but it doesn't seem to bother him much anymore. I'm sure it's tender as it's not completely healed yet.

So, now the chaos is at a bit of a lull and we're all restarting the process of settling into our new house again. Or, at least, I thought we were...

We were supposed to have dinner with Becky, Keith & Peanut last night. Bailey had other plans for us. Apparently she is feeling left out of the craziness and individual doggie attention that Bandit has been receiving. So, yesterday evening and this morning she decided to have a puke and poop fest of her known. Other than telling you that Norm & I spent our evening with putty knives scraping dried diarrhea and vomit from our basement floor, I won't bore you with any additional information. You should thank me!!

On a side note, I still have Thanksgiving photos I want to upload. Anonymous also asked if I plan on posting the adoption slideshow sometime, and the answer is yes. For awhile, our internet was iffy and then we installed a wireless router and things went absolutely bizerk. Things with the internet seem to be back to normal now soooo...once Bandit's medical needs are over (sutures removed & crazy med routine done with) I'll have a little more time on my hands to upload the slideshow. Once again, I just want to thank everyone who gave me pix of their precious little ones. I can't wait to share the end result with everyone.

For now, enjoy the rest of your weekend and THANK YOU for caring so much about Bandit!!

The Mother of All Emergencies

Not exactly the tag line I wanted to read when I started my Google search this morning. But there it was *SMACK* in my face. Although I already knew the situation was bad...very bad...reading that made it much worse. It gave me the kick I needed to forgo the 20 minute shower I had planned and instead head to the emergency clinic immediately.

My precious Bandit Boy was sick, my mind knew what was going on but my heart refused to accept it.

When we got to the office my worst thoughts were confirmed. He had bloat, a life threatening condition where the stomach twists upon itself and and human guardians are left with two options only:

Surgery or Euthanization

The mother of all emergencies in the canine world. Time was of the essence, he could die in a matter of hours or even minutes.

We opted for surgery and tonight we are praying for his recovery. Would you join us please? He made it through the surgery but the next 24 hours are crucial for him. Our house seems empty. Our family is missing one of its members. Bailey is looking for her best friend, Ilya is looking for his protector, and I am just plain missing my Buddy Boy....

Before he left for surgery I told him he wasn't allowed to not come home. I pray he listened to me...

A Craving only Southerners Have

Thanks O & Susan for the tips YA'LL gave me about proper etiquette here in the south. I haven't used the "shut yur trap" on Cubby yet. I'll let you know how that goes!

Now, I did grow up in FL which some consider the "south" and others consider a hodgepodge of well, whatever. That said, I do have a bit of history & knowledge on southern living. For instance, I L.O.V.E. sweet tea and in the 15 years since I left FL to join the Air Foce, I continued saying ya'll (much to Norm's dismay). However, I did forget that all things soda are Coke until you're asked to specify which brand of Coke you really want.

But you know what I REALLY miss?? You know what I've been craving for the past 15 years? Road side boiled peanuts! And yes, they MUST come from a roadside stand. I suckered Norm into having some on one of our trips to FL a few years back. He about gagged to death and thinks they're the most wretched things ever. They don't surpass chocolate for me, but they're pretty darn close to the top of my favorites list. Every day, on my way to/from the office, I pass a hand scrawled sign that reads "Boiled Peanuts Ahead" and I'm just itchin' to stop.

So there you have it - - a secret craving that I can now fulfill no matter how weird Norm thinks it is. A question for my fellow Southern Women - - what else have I been missing out on all these years up north?

Life in the South

Is WONDERFUL!! Not to say that we haven't faced some challenges in the 2 weeks that we've been here.

1 - Closing should have taken place on Tuesday, November 10. The moving company was scheduled to deliver our stuff to the new house the next day. So when did we end up actually closing? Monday the 16th!! Thankfully the previous owners allowed us to move in on Friday the 13th (yikes!!) because the moving folks were threatening to dump our stuff on the sidewalk (or take it all back to VA). There was waaaaaaay too much drama involved with the closing, and at times I was ready to just say forget it but all is well now and we all LOVE our new house.

2- How in the world do you fit everything that was in a 7500 sq. ft house into a much more reasonable 2500 sq ft place? Yeah...we have a lot to get rid of!

3 - WHYYYYYYYYYYYY do birds keep committing suicide by dive bombing my car while I'm driving? Okay, so maybe their wings are tired from the whole migration thing but come on already! I'm SICK of plucking feathers out of my grill already. I've had 4 birds kill themselves this way.

4 - Moving folks gave us the inventory list when they delivered everything. They had over 500 things ticketed. By my best guess, we have about 300 more boxes to unpack. Oh joy! Hey Becky - - got any plans this weekend?! ;-)

5 - Our internet connection has FINALLY been set up. Talk about going thru withdrawals?!

As we settle in, I am so grateful for this opportunity. My new job is challenging but so satisfying. Ilya LOVES his new house, his new yard and our neighborhood. Our dogs are in heaven in their new back yard. Norm & I are surviving working together and have I mentioned how much I love eating lunch with my husband every day?

Anyway, I'll post pictures of the new place soon and I have the adoption presentation ready to upload. So, now that we're here the blog will be updated more often. I hope there are still people out there checking in on us!!

Take care,
Kar

We all love photos

But this weekend you have an opportunity to REALLY make a difference with photos of your adopted child. I have been given an opportunity to reach out to a lot of folks regarding adoption and am seeking photos of adopted children to include in a slide show which will run either before or during my talk.

To protect your privacy, your child's name WILL NOT be included. If you'd like to include other info, such as where your child was adopted from, the name of the orphanage/baby home, whether it was domestic or international, the date you met him/her, your "gotcha" date, etc., please feel free to pass it on to me as well.

As I've mentioned once or twice, we're moving to GA this Monday so things are a bit crazy right now. I'll post the presentation on this blog either Sunday afternoon or sometime mid next week.

If you want to participate, please email your photos to me at ip0995@msn.com or karyn0995@yahoo.com. My deadline to have this ready is 4pm tomorrow afternoon, Saturday, Nov. 7. To meet my deadline, I'll need your pictures by noon tomorrow.

THANK YOU for supporting this presentation!!

The skeleton in my closet

We all have them, don't we? Normally, though, we don't chose to highlight them in an arena as public as the internet. I don't want to be judged, so I thought long and hard about posting this. After all, once I hit "publish post" this is going to be in cyberspace forever and there's no taking it back.

Well, I decided to go ahead and just keep it real. I do have a skeleton in my closet, my guess is you do too. But seriously, is yours this cute??!!





On a side note, in ONE WEEK I'll be driving Cubby, Bailey, Bandit & my friend Kim to our new house in GA! OHMYGOSH there's still so much to do! YIKERS!

Oh, and no, we're not leaving Norm behind. He'll be following a few hours after we hit the road. Wish us luck!