Updates all around

I'm sorry that I've been so MIA lately but I just don't know where the time has gone...other than recuperating on the couch or in bed for the past 6+ weeks. As most of you know, I was hospitalized at the beginning of November with staph pneumonia in both lungs. I was in the hospital for 14 days. Let me tell you how long that really is. Each minute feels like an hour and the nights were the worst! It was extremely hard because I was away from Maggie that entire time. Michael wasn't allowed to bring her up to see me, due to the hospital's decision to not allow anyone under the age of 10 in as visitors due to the Swine Flu going around. So, I was missing my baby and she was definitely missing her momma. But we survived!

I have been home trying my best to follow the doctors orders - to rest, be still, not get out and don't overdo it. Ok Moms - you know how difficult that is - especially with a toddler! But I think I've done pretty well, and that's because of the wonderful help of my hubby, family and friends. Thank you all so much for all you've done to help us during this challenging time! I can't begin to thank you enough. I am able to drive now and I do get out of the house every now and then, but honestly, I can't do much. I just don't have much energy. The littlest thing wears me out and I'm still prone to get easily winded. So I will venture out to one place, do my thing and then head home for a nap. I've really limited myself to being around a lot of people as well, per doctor's orders. My immune system has been so suppressed from the illness and all the heavy duty antibiotics, that I just can't risk it. It hasn't been easy but it's been necessary.

I did see my pulmonologist yesterday and he said that my chest x-rays looked good. He was actually surprised to see how well they looked. He didn't expect my lungs to look as good as they did. So that's a good thing! The infections are either gone or much reduced. I am scheduled to see him again in 3 months with more x-rays, just to ensure that everything has healed up properly. I still see my internist every 2 weeks, as he is the one who will release me back to work. As of right now, he won't discuss me going back until after the holidays. My CT scan did show 2 things that I will need to follow up with him about - kidney stones and a hiatal hernia. I had kidney stones back in April and I just assumed that I passed them. So, either I didn't pass them or I have new ones. Either way, I'm not suffering from any pain but it is good to know that they are there, in case symptoms do arise. As for the hernia, he said it could've been there for a while, or it could have been caused by this latest episode. Not sure what is to be done, if anything, with that, so I guess we will see. Hopefully it's nothing to be concerned about. I've had enough to deal with lately!

While I was in the hospital, we received notification that our adoption court date had been set for December 9th. We couldn't have been more thrilled. We have been waiting since April to get our court date. Seriously, we had absolutely nothing to do but just to wait. Well, or so we thought. During the past 7 months, we have been told by our agency that everything was done, we were just waiting on Maggie's full legal file (we have still not received) and for approval/denial of continuation of her medical benefits (due to her sleep apnea). That was it. Nothing else for us to do. In the email regarding the adoption, which was received 3 weeks before the adoption was to be final, our agency proceeds to tell us that we are not in compliance and need to take 3 classes that have expired, as well as get our house re-inspected by the fire marshall. WHAT?! Are you serious? I thought maybe my pain meds have kicked in and I wasn't reading the email right. Nope - it wasn't the pain meds. They told us that we would have to have these completed for us to proceed with the adoption and that we basically had 4 days to get it done. Ok, first of all, I'm in the hospital and I would remain there another 10 days. Wasn't going to happen. Secondly, they didn't even offer the classes during those 4 days anyway. But most importantly, why are you just now telling us?! We asked repeatedly if there was anything we needed to do, where they missing anything, etc....Always the answer was no. You're good. Nothing for you to do. OH REALLY!?

I was furious. Completely irate. I just couldn't believe that this was happening. So I sent a very nice email explaining I was in the hospital, it wasn't going to be possible and we had to contact our attorney to have our adoption postponed. I've never been more upset. I am so angry with our agency. IF we had known, we could have easily taken care of all of this over the past 7 months. It could've been done in a week's time, HAD WE KNOWN. This was completely unacceptable to us. Oh, and our agency doesn't have any training classes during the month of December.

In all reality, we would've been hard pressed to get to the adoption proceedings on the 9th. It would not have been in the best interest of my health to be in public around so many people. However, it didn't feel like that at the time.

So, we are in the process of getting our classes scheduled and getting the fire marshall to come out again for another inspection. We are hopeful that we can get everything done in January and be in court to finalize the adoption in February! We would so appreciate your continued prayers. While there is nothing out there that needs to be done to tell us that Maggie is ours, it sure will be nice to have everything finalized and to just be done with all the agencies, visits, weekly reports, etc. Those of you who deal with the foster care system are yelling a big AMEN!

Next on my list of things to do: get Maggie potty trained. She's going potty anytime you ask her - so that's good! We'll just see how she does with initiating it. Should be interesting. I'm sure I'll have plenty of stories to share.

Well my friends, I'm beat....just spending this amount of time at the computer has wiped me out. Until something else exciting happens....

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a fantastic 2010!

Love you all ~