Definitely a Christmas to Remember!

Wow! What a Christmas. Emmy Love was diagnosed with RSV on Christmas Eve. Honestly, RSV never even crossed my mind. I really just took her back to the Dr. on Christmas Eve because her croupy cough had turned more into what sounded like a whooping cough, and I didn't want to ignore it. So, we get to the office and the nurse practitioner hears her coughing and stops and says she has RSV. She listens to her and says she is wheezing and tells the nurse to grab a nebulizer. I, being the over reactor that I am, was freaking out. She said the next 10 minutes would determine if we would be headed to the hospital or not. Long 10 minutes, to say the least. Looking back, I think she overreacted, making me a wreck. Calm, she was not. Scared out of my mind, I was. After 10 minutes of treatment, Emmy had completely stopped wheezing. Praise God. She said we could treat her at home, but we needed to buy a nebulizer. On Christmas Eve. Merry Christmas Emmy! Here is a nebulizer! People, let me tell you that money was tight here at our casa on Christmas Eve. And also, finding a nebulizer on Christmas Eve was going to be difficult as the pharmacy she was sending us to was about to close for the holiday. And what happened next was nothing short of my Christmas miracle. One of the moms who's children go to Hope's school has been so sweet to us. She loves our Emmy and had just stopped by a few days earlier to share some baby items with us. As I am starting my car, she and her children were walking out of the office. I got out to say hi and we talked about what ailments our children were having. When I told her I was on my way to get a nebulizer, she told me to wait because she was pretty sure she had an extra one at her mom's house, where she was heading to. What?! So, she called me a little while later and confirmed she did and it had new tubing and everything. And that we could have it. She even brought it to me inside Walgreens where I was waiting for.ev.er. for Emmy's medicines. What are the chances of her being at the same doctor's office on Christmas Eve, and having an extra nebulizer as I am sitting in the car adding numbers in my head of how we were going to swing all the meds plus the machine? I am certain it was a "God Thing." I told her she was my Christmas miracle! 

Hope and I later headed to the airport to welcome April, Paul and Logan home from China. Certainly another Christmas miracle. Adoption has always just been so amazing to me. Such an incredible way that God builds families. To witness them coming home with the child who God meant to be in their family was something I will never forget. I pray that adoption is in the future for us one day.

So, we definitely could not take Emmy Love to church  for Christmas Eve Services. John again planned a family service for us here. We did one once before when the roads were too bad to venture out. Both of those Christmas Eve's are two of the most memorable for me. Afterward, I put our big nativity set on the floor in front of us, and asked Hope to tell us the story of Jesus' birth. It was so sweet to hear her tell it while having the figures act it out. And then Noah tried to ride Mary's donkey. ;)

There were cookies and milk for Santa put out. And reindeer food thrown on the lawn. The kids went down so easily. I was worried this year about missing their reactions if they woke up and came down stairs. There was no need to worry! They slept like rocks. I woke up first and fed Emmy and gave her a treatment before waking everyone. And when I went to wake up Hope, she said, "Happy Birthday Jesus!" Love her.

This is them waiting to go downstairs:

Please enjoy Noah's hair.

He came!

The "Pink Dora 'tar" Noah decided he wanted at the last minute. and talked about nonstop the last 2 days before Christmas. Yep, it's pink.

Emmy is a texture lovin' baby. She loves all things snugly. Santa knows her well.

Look! Mommy was there for Christmas morning!

More snuggly items for the bug. She had a very Merry first Christmas, even if she was feeling crummy.

Daddy knew Noah needed a garbage truck. Noah agreed.

At Walgreens Hope was very sad she did not have a gift for her Daddy. So, I let her pick something out. She saw this and declared it to be "The perfect gift." What is it you ask? Flarp. That's right. Putty that makes tooting noises. Who do you think liked it more? Actually, it's hard to tell. Daddy loves some potty humor too almost as much as Hope.

After we hung out at home with our new toys, we loaded up and headed to Little Rock to be with my family. I am so thankful that my parents have always made such an effort to keep us a close family. Our goal is to keep out little family close as well. We enjoy being together, despite our differences, and have lots of love and respect for eachother. No doubt it's all thanks to all the forced QFT we had to endure growing up.(My mom would make everyone cancel plans often just to spend some "Quality Family Time" together. We groaned everytime we heard the phrase QFT!) Part of me wanted to stay in Texas all day Christmas day, but in the end, there was no way I was going to be the one to break that tradition. This year an interesting discovery was made when Jessica, Ross's girlfriend, asked which sibling was the nicest. Um, Can't be me, Ross agreed it couldn't be him, and well, surely you know it can't be the ultimate teaser Vince, so we decided it had to be Jennifer, but only by default because of who her 3 siblings are!

When we got back to my sister's house, Emmy started breathing funny again. We called the doctor on call who said to stop the breathing treatment we were currently giving her and get her to the emergency room. So, John, Emmy and I spent the rest of Christmas at Arkansas Children's Hospital. Definitely a Christmas we won't forget.

As an update, Emmy had a hard week, but as of today, she seems 100% back to normal. Unfortunately, Noah woke up with it on Tuesday. Really, I wasn't very worried about him because he is 2 and 1/2, but he has had a hard time getting over this. He too has been on the nebulizer stuff all week,running high fevers, wheezing, coughing, not sleeping... and today we were back at the clinic with more wheezing and a double ear infection. They did say the wheezing was sounding better and hopefully he has turned the corner. I am so ready for everyone to be well!