Pamster's Planet

Tyler and Queen Nadini (Grandma)

Tyler was free with his kisses when we visited Grandma in the hospital last weekend. Needless to say, Grandma was thrilled.

Opening Ceremony: The Pageantry

OMG - These images are so cool! I am so excited
Pam West, Housestaff Coordinator
Peds Residency Program
x5-3582
________________________________
From: info@nbcolympics.com [mailto:info@nbcolympics.com]
Sent: Friday, August 08, 2008 9:30 AM
To: West, Pam
Subject: Opening Ceremony: The Pageantry

Hello, A friend (Pam) has sent you a link to NBCOlympics.com. Click below to view this content.

Headline: Opening Ceremony: The Pageantry

Visit NBCOlympics.com to get up-to-date news, video, results and much more from the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Unity Fund - helping impoverished families in China with medical expenses

Love Without Boundaries, one of my favorite charities working with orphans in China, has started a new fund that aims to prevent families from abandoning children to orphanages when they cannot afford necessary medical treatment.  People in China love children but most rural families are POOR.  They don't have systems like Medicaid and Medicare.  People have to pay cash when they  or their children are hospitalized.  There's no "treat now, we'll bill you later" kind of system. 

Now imagine you are already dirt poor and you have a child with a severe illness or deformity.  There is just no way to scrape together cash for treatment.  But you happen to know that the orphanage in the next town over will take in the baby and will pay for surgery.  What are you going to do?  Keep your baby and let him suffer or abandon your baby at the gates of the orphanage and pray that he gets the medical attention he needs?  What if there was another option?  What if some kind people would help you get your child's surgery paid for?  That is where LWB's Unity Fund comes in.  Their goal is to keep families together by helping with extraordinary medical expenses. 

And this is where you, my dear readers, come in.  Can you spare a buck? 

We are having a $1 challenge to kick off this fund, where we are challenging EVERYONE we know to pop $1 in the mail (LWB, 306 S. Bryant, Ste. C-145, Edmond, OK 73034) to help a rural child in need. Who needs an extra diet Coke today when you could put those four quarters in an envelope to save a life? Can we get 5,000 people to send in $1? We won’t know until we try. Spread the word! And enter our contest!
Let’s celebrate the joy of families as we launch this new fund to help those families in China truly in need.

The fun part is LWB is running a contest to help promote the fund.  You can send in an e-mail to get one entry. 

All you have to do to enter and receive one chance in the drawing is email info@lwbmail.com and say “I support helping rural children in need.” That will count as one entry!

You can blog about the fund on your own site and get 5 entries.  Or you can create a video and get 50 entries.  The prizes are Chinese adoption-themed books, jewelry, and t-shirts - nothing too spectacular but still fun.  More details here.

Thanks for supporting China's children, whom we now consider to be extended family.

This one's for you, Sarah

2008-07-19_Swiffer_JPG
Originally uploaded by Qcaller

Here's Sarah the night she first met her new puppy Swiffer (at her 40th birthday party). The other pic was taken a week ago when she had a bunch of us over for a girl's night. Swiffer decided to climb into an end table and take a rest. He could observe the gathering and no little girls were grabbing at him.

Credits here

I am so NOT Punk Music

You Are Punk Music

You've thought long and hard about what mainstream society has to offer... And you've pretty much decided that most normal things aren't for you. You're creative, expressive, and likely to do things yourself. You are a rebel and a fighter. You'll defend your point of view to anyone.

What Kind of Music Are You?

Today's Sweet Shoppe Designs blog writer took this cute quiz and I thought I would too. Just had to laugh at the outcome. So not me. Of course, they didn't have a category for NPR listener. ;-)

EDITED TO ADD: Now that I read the description, it does actually kind of describe me even if the music choice is all wrong.

Just got back from Chuckee Cheese.  We met up with Aunt Mimi and her boyfriend John and his son.  Tyler loved the music.  Annali was pretty freaked out by all the noise and crowds.  She finally warmed up towards the end of our time.  Her favorite game was the machine that sucked in the tickets and gave out a receipt.  We had 49 tickets.  That plus one penny bought us a tiny plastic frog, an itty bitty plastic snake and a couple of Chuckee tattoos.  I took my camera but the battery was dead, darn it.

Nite nite.

Prayer requests, updates, and news

A while back I pointed you all to the blog of a family in North Carolina.  To recap: Mom has CF.  They found out they were pregnant last fall and had a micro preemie baby in January.  The baby is doing very well.  Mom had a lung transplant to treat her CF and had been doing very well until recently.  Apparently there is a type of cancer that is a known complication of the lung transplant and the drugs used to prevent rejection.  Mom started treatment but it didn't work.  She is now back at Duke U. Hospital where they are getting ready to start a new treatment.  More details here.

Closer to home, most of our grandparent-generation of family are facing health issues.  We're talking about 9 people in their late 80s and early 90s.  We are so blessed to have so many grandparents at this point in our life but I think the next few years may be really difficult for us all.  Here are the latest issues that could use some prayer:

• Grandma Nadine in Wichita - strokes, circulation issues, pain in her legs
• Grandpa Ernie in Wichita - mobility issues (I think it's a knee problem but they can't operate)
• Grandma Jessie in Ottawa - dizzy spell, general decline in health and not able to get around as much anymore.
• Grandpa Skipper - dizzy spells, falls, complications from diabetes
• Nanny Sue - it would take a novel
• Papa Gene - Alzheimer's, infections, falls
• Grandma Piercy in Fairbury (soon to be Costa Rica) - dementia, high blood pressure
• Grandpa Piercy - heart/lung issues, exhaustion from caring for Grandma

Certain people who are very important to our children will be doing a lot of traveling the next few weeks.  Please pray for safety for them.

Our church, Birchwood Baptist Church, has been going through a lot of changes the past few years.  Right now, we are remodeling a lot of spaces in the church.  Our pastor is on sabbatical for 4 weeks.  Some new programs are being developed.  I'm excited about the direction we are headed; however, change can be hard and stressful.  Please pray for unity of purpose, vision, and spirit in our church.

In other family news, Annali celebrated her 3rd birthday a couple weeks ago. We had a fun and chaotic little party for her.  In typical fashion, her mother left all the planning to the last minute.  If you weren't invited it was simply an oversight on my part and I apologize.  To those who attended, thanks for joining us on such short notice.  Thanks also to my folks who hosted the event for us.  My pics are here and Mom's are here.

I got a promotion at work.  Yippee!  I am now one of two new coordinators for our pediatric residency program.  One person retired and another moved to a new position in the hospital.  Both had been there for nearly 20 years.  Miranda and I are excited to dig in and get to know our new positions.  I'm splitting my time between the new and the old position for the next week or two.  We have some big projects pending in the GME office that need some attention and can't wait for someone new to fill the position.  We've got a great temp working on a scanning project.  She's going to help out some with phones and mail but I still have to spend time at both desks for a little while.

We've got a crazy storm brewing right over our house so I'd better shut down the 'puter ASAP. Ta ta for now.

What makes you dance?

I've been seeing this video all over the 'net lately.  Just love it.  It is so filled with joy and wonder.  Enjoy.

The creator's website is here.

Something fun for the 4th.

Saw this on the Sweet Shoppe blog and had to do this fun little quiz.

What Your Fireworks Say About You

You are focused, single minded, and intense. You don't let others see your intensity often, and when they do, they are quite surprised. You burn brightly, but you also burn steadily. You have the endurance to get the one thing you desire most.

The Fireworks Test

Weekend Update

We had ourselves a busy little weekend.  Friday night we had an impromptu gathering with family at El Maguey and then up to the country for fresh gooseberry pie.  Makes me pucker just thinking about it. 

Saturday, my Dad watched the kids while Alex helped the men at church with deconstruction of the 3rd floor in preparation for a fantastic new kids area.  Meanwhile, Mom and I attended bible study.  This study by Beth Moore is so very meaty.  I hate that I can only get in 2-3 of the 5 days of homework each week.  I guess that's is better than the 0 days of bible study I was doing previously.  We have 2 weeks until we meet again so hopefully I can get myself caught up and back on track.

Saturday evening we went to the wedding of Steve and Natalie.  It was a really lovely affair.  S and N both looked fabulous and very happy.  I think the highlight of the evening for me was doing the Cha Cha Slide with our kids.  Annali wasn't sure what to think of it all but Tyler was loving it.  Other than during that dance, Annali was having a fantastic time and was running around, squealing in excitement.  Tyler had a great time going up and down the stairs.  At one point we walked all the way down to the first floor and rode the elevator up with another bride and groom headed to another banquet room in the building.  The wedding and the reception were in a great place: The Clubhouse on Baltimore, formerly the Kansas City Club.  My friends and family from Grace Baptist will remember that Anna Sue McCleave's wedding reception was there back in the 80s.

Sunday was my day to take photos at church again.  Alex was, of course, singing with the praise team.  We decided to take Tyler to the nursery for the first time by himself.  Annali thought about going to her class but when she saw PoPo she decided against it.  He took her up to hear the children's sermon and she got a little snack.  NaiNai has been helping out with Papa Gene and Nanny Sue up at the country so PoPo was on his own for lunch.  We invited him to join us at The Big Biscuit and he ended up treating us.  Thank you Popo.  After naps, the kids went with Popo to visit Great Grandpa Skip while Daddy went back to church for more dirty work and Mommy did some much needed cleaning.  Tyler didn't really take much nap so we got some great backyard photos of him while Annali slept.  He was loving all the attention.

On the health front, I'm feeling much, much better.  All these drugs seem to be doing the trick.  I'm getting back to my baseline level of allergy-related phlegminess with just a little residual cough and lung butter (ewww!).

Alex wanted me to take a moment to record Tyler's vocabulary.  He is saying:

• Hi & Bye (pretty much sound the same) [he's getting the wave down, too]
• Up
• Mama
• nana (for banana)
• Annali (the vowels, not the consonants)
• Uhh Uhh (the all purpose grunt)
• the sign language for "I'm all done, get me out of this high chair now."

My mom can weigh in with any other consistent sounds he's making.

It seems to us that he has really made big strides in receptive language the past few weeks.  He just seems to understand so much better what we are saying to him.  He is a very lovey boy who wants to give kisses to all his family (too bad they are open mouthed slobbery kisses).  Annali is so funny when she imitates Tyler's grunts and giggles.  They crack each other up.  I love to hear them laugh together.

Photo by Gary West.

Heavy reading

Do Orphanages Really Want to Find Birth Parents?

I've been following this blog, written by Brian Stuy, since we started the adoption process for Annali in 2005.  Over the past year or two the blog posts have been getting more and more difficult to process.  If I were new to the China adoption process and just started reading this blog, I would never submit an application. 

There is tons of controversy about what is written on this blog but none of the critics have spent nearly as much time on the ground in China as this man has. 

Brian has been bringing to light stories of baby trafficking and the ways in which orphanages may be operating in terribly corrupt ways.  The things he has been writing about call in to question the veracity of every so called "fact" we have about Annali's early life.  We'll never know the truth about her first week of life and now I question even the things we thought were probably true based on commonly accepted ideas.  At this point, there is nothing we can change nor would I want to but I do have to think very carefully about what I present to Annali as truth about her past and what is merely supposition or wishful thinking.  Tyler's history is possibly more straight forward due to his medical issues but again there is no way of knowing. 

I think we are going to see some major changes in the Chinese adoption process over the next couple of years, some of which may not be pretty.  Even though I have a not-so-secret wish for a third child, I don't see how we can bring home another infant from China in good conscience.  Perhaps our family will be complete with A. and T.  Perhaps a domestic adoption will be in our future. 

God alone knows. 

The best thing I can suggest at this point is to pray for the lost and lonely children of the world.  Pray for the families in deepest poverty who cannot support the children in their lives.  Pray for all the people working in various ways to benefit children.  Pray for the hearts of the crooks and the exploiters who only see children as a commodity.