The Fanning Four

It's been a pretty good year! Lots of changes and craziness but a fun adventure for sure! Little Miss turned 2, started talking up a storm, potty trained, fell in love with Peter Pan, went from baby to little girl, was diagnosed with asthma, went to the circus, rode a camel, saw sea lions in California, started preschool, transitioned out of her crib, and brought her parents so much joy. Hubby turned 33, was a lay director for Chrysalis, led a mission trip to Nicaragua, stood up for something he believed in at work and made a big difference, bought us a new house, joined a men's small group, and loved his family well. I turned 30, had a wonderful girls' weekend with friends, helped lead the Nica trip, moved us from one house to another, cried on B's 1st day of school, played in the PC Pops Orchestra, spent hundreds of hours on adoption paperwork, and loved her life. And somewhere thousands of miles away, a little boy was born and a family made the heartwrenching...

Our dossier passed the FL inspection and now has the Great Seal of FL on each document! Now its headed to Houston, TX to receive the official stamp of the Chinese Consulate. Folks, that's the last step before China!! So, in three weeks, guess where that dossier will be? CHINA!!!! So, we're looking at about three-four weeks from this point. Now, excuse me while I go throw up......er, uh, I mean jump up and down with excitement! What a mixture of emotions this journey is! We had a great Christmas with family and friends. Always a great time with my family and I met up with some college friends and laughed til I cried. Whole fam was sick but we're on the mend. Bethy's going to have adenoids out in January- I am relieved and hopeful! Here's some Christmas day highlights: Happy Birthday Jesus!!  Caleb got a blanket made by Grandma! "My bicycle, my bicycle", she exclaimed!

Hope you have a wonderful Christmas!

Had our second ENT appointment today. The ENT got to see Bethy in full "sick mode". And based on B's medical history, we made the decision together to get those adenoids out of there. It's a quick and fairly painless surgery but does require general anestesia. We'll schedule it sometime after Christmas in the first few weeks of January. The ENT hopes this will make a huge difference in quality of life for Bethy and we hope so too. So, that's the news... And now on to enjoying Christmas with my family! Merry Christmas all!

If you are a church person and have ever even slightly thought about volunteering with youth, you should do it! Even if you haven't thought about it,  you should try it, just once, and you might be hooked! Teenagers in mass can be quite scary, but get to know them and they are a delight (most of them anyways). I have been blessed to work with hundreds of youth over the years and it remains one of my favorite things to do. And just to debunk some rumors about what makes you a good candidate to work with youth I will say that: 1. I am not cool. Not at all. Not even a little bit. I play the oboe for goodness sakes! 2. I don't dress cool. Not at all. Not even a little bit except for the scarf I got recently which my girls thought was cute. And even then, they probably were just being nice because I "tried" to look cool. 3. I am a Mom. End of story. 4. I don't have the Bible memorized. Yeah, I went to seminary but it was for counseling and I barely passed the Bi...

Yesterday in the car, Bethy says, "Momma, watch out, hurry, baby bear Mickey Mouse is coming to town. Faster, faster!" ENT appointment tomorrow. I'll update once we know more.  : )

Have I said enough times yet how much I love our new agency? They're so on top of things and they email me whenever they do something. It's really helpful to neurotic people.... Just saying... So, I got an email from our agency today that they shipped our dossier to Tallahassee today to receive the Great Seal of Florida. Again, this just menas that our notaries are legit. I hear through the grapevine that FL has a fast return rate on these things but it is Christmas time so we'll see. We did have the option to drive over and take them ourselves but we have enough other things going on that we passed on that option. So, Yay for progress! Today at Bethy's Christmas party she was done eating and starting to get tired so I told her it was time to clean up and leave. I did give her the option to keep eating but she chose not to. I said, "Do you want to take those Teddy Grams with you?" "No thanks", she replies. So we walked to the trash can and she du...

Saw the allergist yesterday for Bethy's asthma. Here's the bullet point list: Asthma/allergies still not under control- I'm getting tired of hearing that! Ear shows signs of chronic infections- membrane is white instead of clear Her lungs sounded good- Yay! She's getting sick again and this will keep happening until we aggressively treat her allergies Allergist wants 6 weeks of aggressive meds and breathing treatment to try and clear out her system. Then, we'll wean her off medicines to see if we can find the least amount of meds to keep her on while keeping her healthy. From there we would watch her for signs of allergies/asthma and up meds as needed. In a month we'll do the skin allergy test to see what she's allergic to. That's kind of the short run down of the appointment. I think I'm still in a bit of denial. Like I'm waiting for someone to say, "She doesn't really have asthma. This is just a cold that keeps lingering."...

Today is the appointment with the pediactric allergist/pulmonary specialist. I never know what to expect at specialist appointments so it makes me a bit nervous. I'll update after the appointment. Bethany has been coughing a bit the past few days and had a runny nose yesterday. I so wanted her to just be better, so that made me very sad. Hopefully all these specialists can help us. Still in the waiting phase of adoption paperwork. But they have our papers and our money so it shouldn't be too long before they make their way to China. Here's some pics for you today: It's been cold here in FL. Bethy's play sink keeps freezing! I love it! Here's me about to send off our dossier. If it looks like I'm terrified, it's because I am: Here's a picture of my cutie all decked out for Christmas. We lit the advent candle at church that morning:

What a touching song.... Thinking of my sweet baby boy this morning. Hoping this will be the only Christmas we spend apart.

Our China dossier made it to the agency in Oregon bright and early Monday morning. It's warmer in Oregon than it is in Panama City right now. Go figure.... ANYWAYS, got a call from the social worker at Holt (our new agency, which we LOVE) to confirm reciept of the dossier and to tell me that it looked great. We still have some details to work out with the agency transfer process but we're getting there.  I'm just glad to hear that all our documents looked good. The social worker said, "Good job!" and "Congratulations!" And I know this may sound silly, but that made me feel really good. Ya'll, it was a lot of work. And having your homestudy and dossier complete is a HUGE milestone in the adoption process. And to hear someone that knows the effort it takes say to me basically, "Hey, girl, you did it and you did a good job!" was really nice. What's the fun in life if we never take time to celebrate the victories? Now the journey of our p...

Went to Fed Ex today to drop our China dossier . There's really no words to express what it felt like to leave my "baby" there. So, I won't try except to convey this real life interaction today that occured at Fed Ex. Me: Um, so, um, there's, um, a small hole in the top of the envelope here. Did I close it right? Do you think it could get water in there? Fed Ex lady: It'll be fine. I'm going to need you to put it back down on the scale so I can weigh it. Me (what I wished I could say): You wanna know how much it weighs? It weighs 15-20 pounds. It's 18 months or younger. It's a precious little boy who I'll call Caleb. Me (what I actually said): Ok.......sigh... Goodbye dossier, goodbye, I'll see you in China......

We had our ENT visit yesterday and I came armed with Daddy and Nana. I've tried taking her to difficult appointments before (like having blood taken) and have learned that Momma is not enough. That girl is strong! Plus, it's hard to listen to what the doctor tells you when you are wrangling a 2 year old. Thanks to the sleigh bell necklace Nana had and a general excitement that Daddy was home after being gone for almost four days, our waiting time was great. The doctor (who we saw before when B was a baby for a hearing test) was great too! Made everyone feel very at ease. So here's the basics: Her ear infection is gone- thank you antibiotics Her tonsils are a bit larger than average and looked a little irritated. We're being referred to a pediatric allergist who also is a lung doctor for further testing She didn't mention tubes but said surgery for anenoids would be last resort She sent us for xrays of B's adenoids She said if there's a problem with t...

Bethany was coloring this morning on some plain white paper. When I asked her to clean up the crayons she did a great job. She cleaned up all the crayons except for the white one. When I asked her why she left the white one on the floor she replied, "It's broken." By that she means she can't see it on the paper when she writes with it. : ) Made me smile! I have only heard Bethy cough a few times in the past few days and she doesn't have a runny nose either. And we've only had a few tantrums! Wooohooo for feeling better! ENT appointment still on for today- we'll see what they have to say. Happy December to you all!

Me: "Bethy, we need to go run some errands." Bethy: "I run there (points to backyard). Chase cat." Today while "running" and errand we were in the parking lot of the bank, Bethy says, "Run, Momma." Me. *Exasperated that the guy at Home Depot told us the wrong direction for the bathroom* "Aaaah, seriously?!?! Where's the bathroom?" Bethy: "It's fine Momma, it's fine." Who needs a therapist when you have a two year old to calm you down? Me: "Bethy, what did you sing at school today?" Bethy: "Kitty, poop, poop, poop." Me: "Sweetheart, I think you might be a little confused about the words of that song." If not, we're looking for a new preschool ASAP.