Last Friday, June 26 we went to the Dallas Zoo. It ended up getting pretty hot, but we still had fun. Elise liked the birds, snakes, frogs, lizards, otters, and anything that moved. The resting animals did not grab her attention. She was not a fan of the gorilla; probably because it is bigger than her.
Ready for the zoo
Penguins
More penguins
First gorilla
Waving at second gorilla
I touched the glass to show her it couldn’t get us.
The gorilla checking out Elise
Birds
Happy Elise
Turtle, he moved to slow to grab Elise’s attention
Albino alligator
Rattlesnake, took this picture for my brother James.
This snake could definitely eat Elise.
All worn out; this is about the only time her cheeks look chubby.
So we’ve had a pretty busy weekend…went to the zoo Friday; family pictures Saturday; Bedford Splash tonight. I don’t have the zoo pictures ready yet, but here’s a link to a slideshow of our family pictures.
And an Emily update: The family is hopeful that early this week Emily will move down to the regular floor. She continues to not need the ventilator so now the doctors are working on changing up her medications and getting her off the feeding tube. Things are definitely moving in a positive direction.
This week we put together a new video of Elise showing off some tricks. Specifically, here she is dancing, clapping, and weighing in on Dallas sports teams:
An update on Emily: We recently found out that Emily is back on a ventilator but off of her blood pressure medication. She still has the unknown infection and has also come down with a touch of pneumonia. In spite of all this, the family sounded like things were better. Please continue to pray for all of them.
Emily, who was adopted from Vietnam, is the almost 2 year old daughter of our friends Tod and Margaret. Emily is in critical condition at the Dallas Children’s Medical Center. What started about a week ago as a viral infection and then strep, has since turned very serious. After receiving penicillin she developed a rash and then went into toxic shock syndrome. At this time the doctors are very unclear about what is going on with little Emily. The swelling has slowly begun to go down and more tests are in the works. Emily will probably be there for the next few weeks. Margaret is asking for everyone’s prayers. Please pray for Emily to heal and for the wisdom for her doctor’s to figure out what’s going on. Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers.
I copied this from an email I received from another adoptive family. Margaret has been the one organizing our playgroups with families who adopted from Vietnam. I know how instrumental prayer was in connecting us to our daughter Elise, so please pray for this family. I know they will appreciate it!
After Elise’s birthday on Thursday, we went out for Vietnamese food for lunch on Friday. We went to Pho Tai where we had been before with friends. The waiter said, “She not look like you. She look Asian.” I smiled and said, “She’s Vietnamese. We adopted her.” Then it clicked for him.
I also found out on Friday that the lovely tornado knocked out Target’s power for 24 hours, so they had to cancel my cupcake order. Luckily, I got a Costco membership the week before for my birthday, and we bought a giant birthday cake.
So on Saturday, we had plenty of cake, and Elise had a good time with all her family. She got lots of nice gifts and enjoyed opening them. She needed a little encouragement to get through them all because she wanted to play with her new things. I think we totalled 18 guests and 21 people in all; that’s a pretty good turn out.
Mmmm, bbq pork
Too much vermicelli
Trying to get every last noodle
Reaching for the giant cake
Staring intensely at the cake
Mommy’s turn to look silly blowing out the cake.
Licking her lips
Not too messy, but the next day was a different story.
Fun with tissue paper
Excitement
A doggie, her favorite
And we have a talking Elmo
A pink dump truck, we have already learned the song and have to sing it 4 or 5 times in a row for her.
By this point, she’s wondering why we keep showing her fancy new things and putting them away.
My youngest brother Ben, he’s not always sure what to with Elise. He’s used to being the baby.
Yesterday was Elise’s first birthday. I baked her a zucchini cake; she’ll get all the traditional messy frosting at her party Saturday. And Scott and I gave her her birthday presents from us, so now I’m going to overwhelm you with pictures. Enjoy!
Mmmm…zucchini cake
Cake and presents
Why are you making me wear this silly thing?
Singing “Happy Birthday,” I can’t tell if she enjoyed our serenade.
What is Daddy doing to my cake?
Present #1
Yeah, animal faces painted on wooden balls
Taste test #1
Present #2
What’s inside?
Ahhh, they’re all looking at me.
Give me that finger puppet
Present #3
A book of Vietnamese folktales
These are big pages.
Present #4
It’s soft.
Taste test #2
Ahhh, doggie, my favorite
Mmmm, cake
Look at my yummy cake
I will wear the silly hat only because I’m distracted by cake.
Finished. (I taught her one sign.)
Last, I tried to read a birthday card from Mamaw and Papaw.
As I sit here listening to a chainsaw and the rain, wondering if the water spots in our bedroom are getting bigger, I’m eating chocolate chip ice cream at 10:30 in the morning because I would hate for it to go to waste should we lose power again. Plus, it’s helping me destress so is blogging.
Last night at around 7pm, we were watching the news. The tornado sirens were going off; I kept wondering if we needed to head for the laundry room. Then I looked at the location on the weather map and said, “That’s headed right for us,” and everything goes black. Scott ran upstairs to get Elise. I grabbed a candle and heard things falling, so I’m starting to panic. There was a high pitched noise in the wind also. Well, Scott manages to get Elise and wrangle Shiner, and we close the door to the laundry room. About five minutes later we hear a knock on the door, and we both looked at each other. We were shocked. Then we heard it again. I remember whispering, “Go see who it is.” It was our sweet neighbor who lives alone; she was scared. She had seen the tree fall over, so she joined us in the laundry room, too. After everything passed over, we peered outside at the tree; Elise thought it was playtime; the neighbor went back home; and we settled back down.
With Elise asleep, we all went to bed in the hot, dark. I couldn’t sleep because I kept worrying about Elise. Then I heard stuff falling off the roof. Eventually, I feel asleep until the power came on at 3:30am. Then we just woke up to a stormy birthday morning for Elise. The power was on only to go out again at 7:30 am. Elise thought it was funny that the lights kept flickering. Around 8 am, we heard another knock on our door; it was the neighbor. She said, “You need to check out your roof.” Our roof? I grabbed the camera, and these are our photos of the damage. I don’t think we will ever forget the night before Elise’s first birthday!
A few shingles
These birds normally nest on the pole, but they were clutching to Beverly’s door.
The tree in front of our house
Definitely snapped
Beverly’s roof
Our roof
The sun tried to peek out over our roof
Our garage is behind the tree, but the tree didn’t fall in our driveway.
A little broken to the left of us, towards the stop sign
Our house on the left and Beverly’s on the right
Karen’s tree, she lives to the right of Beverly
Third tree down on our street; this is to the right of Karen’s house
As you can tell, Elise is keeping us so busy that we rarely have time for the blog. I’m not sure I even have new pictures! I can’t leisurely snap pictures now that she’s everywhere and into everything. I got these on my phone.
A new play house
Check out my chair made by Daddy’s Pawpaw
It’s also good for standing on
Reading her birthday card from Uncle James and Aunt Ashley
Looking out the blinds
In that tupperware cabinet again
I guess she’s growing up, but she’s not gotten much bigger. So far my summer dilemma is finding small enough swim diapers; I’m not having any luck. Everywhere I’ve looked has had a size small, but Little Elisey needs an extra small. My new plan is to search the internet.
Then in my spare time I’m trying to make lists for Elise’s birthday party this Saturday. Her actual birthday is Thursday, June 11, and we are having a family party on Saturday. We will see how well everyone crams into our townhome, and I hope I don’t forget anything – like presents…when will I be able to wrap those?
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