Do you know what adeniods are?

Well Isaiah is soon to lose his. From what I understand they are little clumps of lymph cell that grow in the back of the nose and affect how well you can breath. In Isaiah's case he has obstructive sleep apnea and speech problems that can be helped by removal of the adenoids. Now, his Dad and Gigi (grandma) both have sleep apnea so I'm sensing a pattern here. From what I've been reading this can cause many problems with attention disorders and behavior as they progress through school. Mainly from lack of sleep. With apnea they are continually waking themselves up at night by not being able to breath or snoring. So during the day they are tired and irritable. They also breath through their mouth all the time. I had never even considered sleep apnea a child's problem but we are so glad to be catching it early. Funnily enough Peter is going to the doctor in the next week to be treated for sleep apnea as well. Yeah no more snoring at night;)

Isaiah is also going to have tubes put in his ears during the surgery to help his hearing. Apparently his ear drums are to sunken to allow him to hear properly. The doctor said he has about 15-20% hearing loss as of now. Between inserting tubes and removing the adenoids this should help him regain his hearing.

Next on the list is to get his speech problems checked out and have some speech therapy started. We started to notice problems when we moved back from Asia and now many people have commented on how hard it is to understand him. This is an important thing for us to work on before we move again and expose him to yet another language.

Pray for this little dude as he faces lots of Doctors and a quick recovery from surgery next Tuesday. Also pray that we'll be placed with just the right speech therapist who will be able to accurately assess Isaiah's problems and plan the correct program to help him improve his speech.

I need help

So we have a problem with Isaiah that needs to be addressed. He runs away. In the stores, at home, as soon as the door to outside opens, in parking lots, you get the idea. If you have experience in this or an idea to help correct this behavior I'd love to hear it. So far I haven't been able to reign him in. He's taken off in the grocery store three times on me, when I haven't been able to get a double cart and only comes when we call him at home about half the time. We've put him in time out, taken away toys, made him walk back with us and try again. So what works for you?

My little Susie turns ONE

From the beginning you were a wonderful surprise. Your Dad and I never expected to have two babies so close together and then you came into this world almost 3 weeks early.

I'll give a brief summary of your birth for those who don't know. We were living in Asia during the whole pregnancy. All through July I had lots of Braxton-Hicks, I was also sitting in Language class for 25 hours a week. So when we were eating dinner at a friends house I ignored the contractions I was having thinking they were just more BH contractions. But as the evening progressed I was getting more uncomfortable and told Peter it was time to head home. It took another 30 minutes before we were able to make it into an Auto Rickshaw for the 15 minute drive home. During the ride I think the contractions were about 3-4 minutes apart yet I still insisted that there was no way you would come before midnight, it was about 8:45pm then. In God's perfect planning the friend who was going to watch Isaiah when it was time was at our house along with 11 other friends from Scotland. So we dropped off Isaiah, called the doctor, and called a taxi for the hospital. We drove the 15 minutes to the hospital and made it there by 9:30pm. I was immediately taken to a delivery room. My Doctor had not shown up yet (because Pete called the wrong number) so the attending checked me over and said I still had a while. As the doctor began to suit up THAT time came. I rolled onto my back, had Pete get someone to raise the bed and after about 3 pushed Susannah was born at 9:53pm. She was so tiny and perfect. It was incredible how fast everything went and how easy it was (compared to Isaiah's birth). I made Pete follow Susannah and the doctors with her around, they had to take her out of the room for somethings. So I was able to get cleaned up and by this time my Doctor had arrived and saved me from a dose of IV antibiotics ("cause that's how things are done here" according to the attending). We had two nights in the hospital and then brought baby Schug home (she was un-named for 5 days) to a house full of 11 new people. What an adventure it was.



Isaiah thought having a real live baby doll was wonderful. It has been awesome to watch how strong their bond is. They hug and kiss, wrestle and fight, and always want to know where the other one is. They bring so much joy to us.


Susannah enjoying the sunshine in Thailand. Before she turned one she had been to three different countries and been through 19 different states. She is a trooper!
To my dear baby girl...
You are such a ray of sunshine, who can always make me smile. We have loved everyday you've been with us. I pray as you grow that you will come to know Jesus at a early age and trust in Him and follow Him all the days of your life. I pray you will never lose your smile and tender spirit. Yet you have a stubborn streak that will challenge you as life moves on. You are such a little spit-fire yet never turn down a hug with Mom. Thank you for all the ways you bring joy to my life.

And in a side note to Susannah, she beat her brother to the hospital. Last Thursday she fell off (possibly pushed by brother) the first step straight back onto her head on the wooden floors here and we I went to pick her up she passed out in my arms. It took a bit to wake her up and when she did her pupils were all funny. So I called the doctor and had to take her into the ER for a CT scan. Everything came back fine but she did have a concussion and we had to wake her up every 2 hours all night. Poor little girl, it's hard being so tiny and already running everywhere.

She has also manage to make it to the top of the slide and into the play structure at Chik-Fil-A. How she managed to get up the top of the 10 foot slide I have no idea! So I had to go climbing up after her and bring her down.