A Trip to the Doctors

Addison, my bestfriend Jodica and I made the trip to Edmonton, so we could see Addy's liver specialist last week. First I have to say we had a wonderful time playing and shopping.:) The weather was great and topping that all off we got to meet one of my favorite bloggy friends, Paige for the first time! It was so wonderful to meet in person as Paige has been such a support through Addison's adoption and once she came home. It was so neat to see the girls play alongside each other. Paige has two lovely girls in Lilah and Zoe. Above is a picture of 3 of our sweet girlies.

On to the big news......Addison's appointment went really really well!!!!! Yay! Her doctor is amazing! He did a scan of Addison's liver to look at the health. He believes that her body is possibly fighting off this virus and just wants to watch her for the next little bit. We will head for an ultrasound at home and some more bloodwork, and then we will see Dr. Yap every 6 months for now, unless things change. He didn't believe she was a good candidate for some experimental treatments that are going on, because these treatments are aggressive and haven't really shown a marked improvement in the patients at this point. Dr Yap was wonderful with Addy and took the time to answer my questions. We never once felt rushed or like he wasn't listening to my concerns for our sweet girl. He is hands down one of the best doctors we have ever had the pleasure of dealing with.

I have to say that I am now sighing a huge sigh of relief!!! Praise the Lord! I thank all of you who have surrounded us with love, prayers and support. We appreciate each any every one of you, those that we know well and those that we know through our blog. We will keep everyone updated on each of Addison's visits. However our greatest prayer would be that her little body would fight this virus and clear it from her system without out any medical intervention....a very slim chance, however our family worships a God who still performs miracles daily. So I will trust in Him and His will for our sweet little Addy!

We're Back!

This post is a long, long, long time coming! I really haven't been feeling like blogging lately....however I know I'll be disappointed if I stop! So I'm going to fake it, until I enjoy blogging again!lol!

Much has been going on in our household. I guess the biggest event was our holidays. We returned a week ago from two weeks in sunny warm Florida. It was a great vacation and so very nice to have Howard with us for three weeks straight! We also had Howard's Mom come with us, which was really nice. The pictures I have added are from our family picture session at the Grand Floridian in Walt Disney World.

Our Miss Riley-roo turned 6 while we were in Florida. She had a blast getting hair, nails and makeup done with Addison at the Bibidibobidi Boutique and then dinning with her favourite princess at the Akershus Restaurant in Epcot. It amazes me that she is already 6!

I think our favourite day hands down, was getting away from the crowds at the park and heading to Clearwater Beach, near Tampa. The sand was like powder and the water was turquoise and warm, and it was a warm and sunny day. I think our next family vacation will be more beaches less theme parks! lol!

On the home front. We finally have an appointment for Addison with the pediatric liver specialist in Edmonton. I will be taking her on Friday to go see this doctor, with my sweet little girl and many questions in hand. It will be interesting to see what he has to say........ Its been a long wait and I just would like to move forward with whatever he decides to do, or not do. If that makes sense!?!

The kids are all doing really well. Addison had a fabulous time on her first family holiday. As much as she was happy to come home to her room and her stuff, she was asking the next day when our next holiday was!lol! We are working hard on her manners. Something I guess we would be doing with any 3 year old adopted or not. She had a few weeks of not sleeping well before our holiday's, but now she is back to being a lean mean sleeping machine.

I am hoping now that I have posted this post that I will back to posting weekly......we will see!

Happy 3rd Birthday Addison

Over the weekend our Miss Addy turned 3. We had a quiet celebration as she and Riley were recovering from a nasty cold. We all had fun celebrating Addison's day, and she was tickled pink to receive a Kai Lan backpack on wheels (her suitcase, lol.) Its amazing to see how far we have all come in the few short months she has been home. We are so beyond blessed!

For me, her birthday was a day of reflection, prayer and thanksgiving. I reflected on who my sweet little girls biological mother is, prayed for her, and gave thanks to our heavenly father that this amazing woman chose to carry our sweet baby girl and place her somewhere safe so she could be found, and eventually placed in our arms. My heart broke for this woman who we will never meet. I can't imagine the strength it took for her to make such a heart wrenching decision.

Our amazing little Addy is growing in leaps and bounds. Its hard to keep up with all her progress. The girl can talk your ear off! She is such a trooper. Spreading joy and laughter wherever she goes.:)

Best Field Trip Ever!

Really the title says it all. When the rest of the school was at the ski hill, for a fun day, Nathan and his buddy got to go on their very own special field trip! Usually they would stay home for these days, as its no fun watching everyone else have fun up the hill. However this year both of the boys aides, planned a fun filled day! They even got out to walk a bit as it was so warm out! Here they are on the way to the Pioneer Museum.


One of our local businessman offered his "bat cave" for the boys to hang out at for the morning! Its like a "man cave" on steroids with many vintage cars a kitchen, XBOX 360 and theatre screen!

Nate was trying to tell me that he needed this car, and it was for sale for only $25,000! LOL!

Yep! Best field trip ever! Car racing!

we are so blessed to have amazing staff at our school who love our kids. We have attended school's where the staff is just there for the pay cheque. Not this school, they make an attempt to include all the students in fun days, even if that means planning a whole different trip for the kids who can't go up the ski hill. So thank you! You certainly made these boys day.:)

How time flies!

I remember this day like it was yesterday! Nathan's first day of Grade 1 and Josh's first day of Kindergarten and our sweet little Riley! Sometimes it feels like you blink and they are Pre teens and almost 6! Oh how I love these little munchkins! And how quickly I forget that they were once little like Addison, it reminds me to drink up every second with them! Before I know it they will all be grown and gone!

Nate's "Friends" Birthday Party

Nathan really wanted a pool party this year, with his friends. And I have to admit we don't always have friends parties, for various reasons, one being we are usually in Montreal, Nathan has a fracture, kids are sick, etc. etc. However this year we did! It was important to our Nate boy that Howard was home, so we quickly planned his party for the day after we returned from Montreal. It was pretty basic! Swimming, pizza and an ice cream cake. All the boys were really well behaved and I think they all had a great time. :)

Our great big 12 year old! Well he will be 12 on March 25th.


I seem to rarely be in any of the birthday pictures....so here the "original" 3 are.:) Ugh totally bad picture of me! But Whatever!

Here are the group of boys in the hot tub... 12 is such a funny age! They want to be treated like an adult yet they love to play like little boys! :) This group of young men are so great! Most of them attend our church, and both Nate and Josh have a wonderful time when they all get together.

The birthday boy, makin a splash!

Montreal

One of the two snow storms we experienced while in Montreal. Don't you just love the old buildings in historic cities, like Montreal? I do they do my heart good.

Nate having one of the series of X rays he gets every 6 months.....doesn't he look happy to be having his picture taken? Lol!


This little boy was in awe of Nathan! :) He was ecstatic to find out he was sharing a hospital room with Nate. And in return Nathan was so super sweet, he helped his new little buddy in any way he could! It made me so proud to see him being so compassionate and nurturing. The boys were at the school that the hospital provides for kids while they are receiving treatment away from home. That way the kids can keep up on their school work while they are hospitalized. Can I just say how much we love the Shriner's Hospital!

Nathan and I arrived home last night from a wonderful trip to Montreal, to see his specialists and receive an IV treatment that strengthens his bones. (In case you are new to our little blog, Nate is our oldest child and he was diagnosed at birth with Osteogensis Imperfecta/ Brittle bone disease.) We had a great time despite the lousy weather that included alot of snow, rain and freezing rain. We ate at his favourite restaurant we toured around and shopped til we dropped. Oh yeah and we saw all his doctors. :)

We had a mixed bag of news this trip, Nathan's bone density increased by 5% Yay! And he grew quite a bit. However his femur bones have become too deformed, so in September sometime Nathan will be going for surgery to replace the rod in his right femur and insert one in his left femur. We are waiting to hear from his orthopedic surgeons receptionist to book the dates. The good things are that once our Nate boy recovers, he will be able to walk with less of a limp, we have alot of time to prepare for our trip and the surgery, he won't miss his summer "fun" being in a double leg cast. There are lots of things to be thankful for. And we are going to focus on that heading into Nathans surgeries.

Its funny, because I think at the beginning of this year, as I was "mapping out" what our year would look like, with trips, work, etc. I was very conscious about instead of me making plans, taking the time to pray and listen to what God had planned for us this coming year. Well it kinda looking like 2011 maybe the Mervyn family's year of doctors appointment and hospital stays! lol! Not what I hoped for, but I can't help but see how big we have been blessed! I was reflecting on some of the points we learnt in small group last week about Life being a test, a trust, life is short, and that we are not home yet! And thinking how true all those points were!

I have to say 5 days away from home was therapeutic for this Mama. I missed my family that stayed home. But boy was it great to have some time to just spend with Nathan! It also gave me some perspective on all of our family has been through these last couple weeks. I feel ready to be back and consider it such a privilege to be a Mom of 4 beautiful amazing children. Also I think it was a little eye opening for Howard to be alone with 3 of our munchkins for 5 days. :) They had a wonderful time, but my honey was glad our flight made it home last night! lol!

We still have heard nothing from the doctors about Addison. We were told 4-6 weeks and next week will be 4 weeks, hopefully we get an appointment soon! She is doing well, and survived 5 days without me much to my dismay! :) I am just kidding! I am very proud she did so well without me.

Nathan had his friends birthday party tonight, and that will be the next thing I blog about, but I want to enjoy my last night with my husband for 24 nights!

I want to thank you all again for your love, prayers and support. Your comments on this blog, facebook and emails have brightened our days and lifted us up when it felt we couldn't make one more step!