Rylan’s Journey Home

Just a note to let everyone know that Cameron is much, much better!  After a very rough week, and then a complete weekend with lots of rest, last week he was turning the corner.  The fever, vomiting, chills, etc all seemed to slowly go away.  His appetite came back, and thankfully the Scarlet Fever started to go way too!  That was horrible!  All I can say is that to watch your child scream in pain for 1-2 hours because his “underwear area” was burning him so bad… I could hardly take it.  The hot spots on the body were bright red in color and looked like a severe sunburn.  He couldn’t even stand underwear on it was that bad.  He still has areas where the rash is healing, and some dry patchy areas of skin on his face, but it is 95% better than it was!  We are still noticing that he seems to tire more easily than before and with that comes whiny and crabbiness, but I think he’ll get to 100% total health soon.
Tomorrow he starts Little League T-Ball with his first practice.  He is saying he doesn’t want to go, so I’m trying not to talk too much about it.  He’s nervous that he won’t know how to play the game.  We’ll sort of show up there tomorrow, and I hope he decides to try it!  His last day of school is Wednesday with dismissal at 10:30am.  They then have a goodbye ceremony where his class will “graduate” from pre-school!  So this week will be busy full of his activities.
Rylan continues to do extremely well!  He is picking up new words every day; peek-a-boo, thank you, shoe, feet, cow, water/aqua, mommy, mama, daddy, pappa, grandma, puppy, nice puppy, choo choo…..  He is still sleeping all night long - praise the LORD!  We couldn’t have been luckier.  He just fits right in and it’s like he new he was coming to us.  He is a joy!
Rylan and Cameron will be in full-time daycare starting next week.  Rylan again has adjusted well and loves it at Mindy’s, so I have no worries about being back to work!  Although just as the weather is getting nice here
Things at home have been going well.  Cameron continues to have his struggles sharing his toys with his brother, but he also has consequences for bad behavior now.  When Rylan first came home I was more passive about it, but it’s time to let him know that Rylan is here to stay!  He commented to me the other day “Mom, send him back to where ever it is you got him”!  Ohhhh yeah, he’s a 5yr old little pistol some times!  Really though, it’s been more about me getting my routine down.  Realizing I can’t do everything in a day, and that house cleaning will wait.  Changing just that has made a world of difference in how our day goes, and how the boys get along.  It doesn’t say much for my house though!
I hope everyone has enjoyed the long weekend, and has celebrated Memorial Day in some way.  Today is my dad’s birthday, so we spent it here at my mom’s outside (and eating DQ Ice Cream Cake)!  Tomorrow is back to work.  No fun getting up two kids and having to be to work at 7am (throwing in a 45 min drive each way).  So far I’ve not been late…  Keep your fingers crossed I can do this everyday now!

Oh people, Cameron has been so sick this week.  It’s got to the point that I am getting a bit scared by this.

First it started out around April 20th or so that we had passed a stomach flu around.  Then about 2 weeks ago we had bad colds and congestion.  We thought finally we were getting over all that!

Well, Tuesday morning Cameron woke up not feeling too great.  I had to be to work at 7am and he wanted to go to daycare.  I thought maybe he was just feeling yucky from getting over all the above.  Sinus in your tummy can be upsetting.  I wasn’t at work an hour when Mindy called.  Cameron wanted me to come get him.

As soon as we got home he started vomiting and had diahrea.  He was so sleepy and just couldn’t move much.  By evening he started developing a tiny rash on his back.  That night, a high fever of about 102.5 kicked in.  I was worried and he slept in bed with me.  

By Wednesday morning it seemed a little bit better.  The fever broke at 4am and I thought we turned the corner.  Not so.  Within a few hours later more of everything above.  Now the rash had nearly consumed his entire body!  In the car we went to Urgent Care.  One look at him by the doctor and she determined he had Step Throat and Scarlet Fever!  Also, more than likely a stomach flu with it!  She gave him a dose of antibiotics in two immediate shots.  The rest of us were tested for strep, but negative.

Wednesday night then was much of the same routine exactly.  Thursday and Friday also.  It is now day 5 and this is still going on!  He looks terrible.  The whites of his eyes are not white, more like a light yellow and blood shot.  He is pale all around his eyes and mouth.  His lips are bright red.  His private parts are horribly covered with this rash and causing him great pain!  The fever continues.

Last night I grew more scared.  We got him to take some Tylenol which brought the fever down at bedtime.  By about 11pm, it was back.  This morning he says his privates feel better, but his mouth hurts bad.  The fever is at 99.8.

I’ve been soaking him in the tub with Baking Soda and apply an Aloe Vera gel to the areas that I can.  I’m near packing the car and taking him back in.  He can keep food and liquids down though which is an improvement.

I’m more worried about the fever, and his appearance as he doesn’t look right.  I would have thought the antibiotic would have kicked in by now after going on 72 hours.

Rylan, thankfully, has none of this!  Amazing!!!!

Happy Mother’s Day to you all! If there is anything that I have learned over the years of trying to build a family, there are many types of people who fit into the role of MOM. I’ve also learned exactly how hard being a mother can be! My Mother’s Day didn’t start out exactly the way I had planned it. The kids were naughty… and I mean really naughty! They didn’t seem to get that it was “my” day! Regardless, after being emotionally drained by 10:30am we loaded them into the car and headed out to meet both sides of our family for dinner at 11:00am. Besides being exhausted, my darn cold was still hanging on. I really felt tired, crabby, and sick. My allergies are screaming lately too! After needing to get after Cameron once during the meal, the rest of it went quite well actually! We then proceeded to drive to one of our friends’ mother’s house. Sonja and I have been to Guatemala 3 times together! So we took photo’s from that trip and glued and pasted a collage of pics. Sonja and her husband remain in process of bringing their daughter home and we wanted to do something for her. Anyway, my kids acted like complete monkeys! We left there wondering the entire way home what the heck are we doing wrong! Sonja swears they weren’t bad, just being boys, but she is way, way toooooo kind! So, immediately we started implementing some new techniques and not giving in to every demand or request! Cameron keeps a calender to keep track of his good and bad days. If he gets enough smiley faces in a months time, we will go to Wisconsin Dells and take a special train ride while there. If not, we don’t go and he starts over to another month. Rylan, well, he’s too small to really get it yet. We just need to keep him from pinching and pulling Cameron’s hair when he gets a chance ; ) I think being we were so drained by the end of the day, and not feeling well lately, we just were not getting down on the floor enough with them to interact. We sort of got into expecting them to just behave and get along. HA! Well, I put into play our new plan yesterday and you know what - they were great! Seriously, only a couple attemped hair pulls and pinches by Rylan - and Cameron I only saw him bump Rylan in the behind once on purpose. That was a milestone compared to what it had been like. So, we go with a new plan of attack. Household chores will have to wait until the weekend or when the kids are in bed. I can’t have my hands 20 places at once and it makes everything SO much more complicated to try. We are just 7 weeks into being home so I guess I can’t expect everything to be perfect! Cameron is home sick today with the stomach flu again. I thought this morning maybe it was just allergy/sinus upsetting his tummy. I took him and Rylan to daycare, and got to work by 7am. It was an hour later and he had Mindy call me…. he didn’t feel good. He’s been sleeping now for almost 2hrs so I know he really doesn’t feel good! Hope he’s better tomorrow and that Rylan doesn’t get it!

I feel like I’ve fallen off blog land lately!  Sorry if I double up on kiddo and home updates.  It’s been as crazy as usual and we appear to remain the 3-ring circus!
Our house was first blessed with a stomach flu bug.  We are really happy that not everyone in our family ended up with it though.  We only “took out” John’s brother!  I was shocked at that.  Typically these things spread like wildfire.  So as sorry as we were that he got it, we chalked it up to feeling pretty lucky. 
After the stomach flu we went onto colds.  Just me and boys there!  My mom called one day thanking me for a sore throat, but it seems to have went away quickly for her.  Rylan, Cameron and I are still coughing, blowing noses, and having trouble breathing after an entire week.  We’re better though… so I’ll stop complaining.
Thursday night we had a thunderstorm here.  Friday I braved it and took both kids after they woke up to the 100 Mile Garage Sale!  Since I seem to raise roosters for children, they are up at 6am every morning!  So we got a good start as most opened at 7am.  I have to say they both did pretty good for the first 2-3 hours.  A family friend, Christy, saw me out with them at a HUGE community sale held indoors.  Rylan on my hip and Cameron trailing behind me with his papersack (waiting the opportunity to fill it up)!  I was sweating like mad as it was work weaving them in and out of people, but we had smiles on our faces…. yet!  Right Christy!!!??  Anyway, the novelty began to wear off as Rylan wasn’t grasping the concept that every ride on toy at every sale was not his!  He’d hold on for dear life as I’d have to pry him off!  Cameron was the trooper that day!  He had a lot of patience with him and chewed me out for not just buying the toys!  Hmmmm, seems I came home with nothing for me so his lecture must have worked a little bit!
By Friday night, after stopping at John’s parents, we were pretty exhausted and ready to come home.  I went to get a glass of water…. and much to my surprise…. we had none!  Just when Rylan was in a meltdown mode and flopped himself off the bed while John was changing him.  Both kids dirty and in need of major cleaning.  So we went from that evening until today, Monday, without water!  Not fun!!!!  We are guessing we had another lightening strike that Thursday evening.  It took out our water pump which is inside our well 500ft in the ground!  Last time it took out all 3 garage door openers, our water, and a tv!  We’re counting our blessings this time.
Our “former” agency had another hearing last week in Michigan.  They had pled guilty to tax evasion and a form of fraud but the several other charges were dismissed.  The judge in the case is now trying to determine if restitution is to be paid to 22 families, us included.  Along with this they will be on probabation for 11 months and can’t work in the adoption world for 3 years.  A very light sentence in my opinion!  I’m not counting on getting anything reimbursed to us.  It would be nice, but I don’t want to get my hopes up. 
What makes me so angry is that I facilitated the entire adoptin myself from start to finish.  My “agency” did NOT give me medical updates as promised.  My “agency” did NOT give me pictures as promised.  My “agency” did NOTHING to support our family during what should have been an exciting time.  What they did do was cause us to lose 6 months of our son’s life because of their inefficiencies, and that can’t have a price put on it!  Along with that they caused us an amount of stress that I can’t begin to put into words.  Adoption is hard enough much less seeing your agency featured on a day time talk show!  Then to have them “raided and arrested”!  Once all that happened we began to wonder if there really was a child, which is one of the main reasons I went to Guatemala in May 2007 to see Rylan.  That was an extra expense we hadn’t planned, but I had no choice.  That is a decision that I will NEVER regret and that I truly believe is what saved our adoption.  Again, I went back in Dec 2007 as I had to check his welfare for myself.  I had to form a relationship with our attorney over there…. who by the way wasn’t easy to find!  Our agency certainly didn’t offer up the information for me to reach him.  It took me nearly a month to get to him.  So NO, I don’t think they’ve been punished enough.  I know our agony, our fears, our frustrations, our anger…. and I’ve seen it in the other families with whom I’ve become good friends.  Shame on anyone who would take advantage of people in such a way.  To toy with our feelings is bad enough…. but they held children’s lives in their hands and didn’t care.
I’m back to trying to Ebay again.  I have so much to sell that it isn’t funny!  Check out the link on the blog if your interested in tea cups and unique glassware!  I’m going to try to list on Mondays and Fridays for now.  Not much, just a bit.  We’ll see how it goes!
As for the boys, they are doing ok.  They are terrific when you have one or the other…. almost like ANGELS!!!!  But Cameron is having a tough time when in a confined space with Rylan lately.  It’s like he can’t help but have to annoy him by hitting and pushing…. most of the time not hard, just enough so Rylan complains by letting out a whine or cry.  Rylan is of course learning this exact behavior from Cameron now.  And let me tell you, he is 22 months old and ready to box his older brother up!  Rylan doesn’t take much and he comes right back at Cameron.  On the flip side I’m told at daycare Cameron defends Rylan tooth and nail.  When Rylan is sleeping, Cameron can’t wait for him to get up.  He wants him to go everywhere with us.  Must be the love/hate relationship thing now?  Urgh….. Calgon take me away!