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My nephew is back home. Thank God. I'm sure my brother and his wife are so glad to be sleeping in their own beds tonight. My niece is also happy to have her baby brother home. They will go back to St. Louis for a check-up in a couple of months.

Thank you for your prayers! I hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Medical Update

We went to see my nephew yesterday. The sight of an IV in his arm brought me to tears. He was groggy and the areas under his eyes appeared a little dark and hollow. However, I was grateful to see that he still looked roly poly. As the spinal test and blood work results come back, the doctors seem to be dismissing the virus theory and are leaning towards a tumor.

We hope that my brother, his wife and their son can return home this weekend. My nephew will continue to take anti-seizure medicine and will be monitored by MRIs every few months. If the tumor's size says the same, it is likely that it will not be removed until he turns two.

Doctors say a baby's brain is like jello and that this tumor could have existed when he was still in the womb. There is hope his brain will develop normally and that the tumor may not affect anything or at least impact very little in development and cranial capacity.

The Children's Hospital in St. Louis is very nice. Although, like most people, I'm not a big fan of hospitals, effort has been taken to make this hospital look as kid friendly as possible.

Thank you for your prayers.

Prayer Request

I've been debating whether or not to post this but I think our family can use the prayers you might offer on our behalf. One of my nephews has been in a St. Louis hospital since yesterday. He was unresponsive with raspy breathing on Tuesday morning so he was rushed to a Jefferson City Hospital and later flown to St. Louis. Although an MRI showed a spot on the left side of his brain, the physicians aren't sure if it's a tumor or an infection. He's doing much better. He was already alert last night. The physicians will meet tomorrow and come up with a game plan on the next steps to take with his medical care.

We plan to visit him tomorrow. Jack will probably not go as the physicians may limit contact to adults only.

My brother says if his son's medical case was included in one of those hour dramas, they would only be ten minutes into the program. It's frustrating for them and us because without a diagosis there is no defined solution.

Fish Funk and a Foot Fetish

Jack and I visited the grandparents today while Mike stayed home and tried to catch up on work. That can only mean one thing. When I came home, the grandest funk greeted me. It smelled like Mike had been canning pickles. The pungent smell of dill seemed to be in the air. Well, Mike made gumbo and insisted it was a fish smell. I'm still looking around for the glass jars of pickles.

Jack and I attended a Tastefully Simple party at my SIL's today. While we were there, Jack seemed enraptured by a couple of ladies' painted toes. Now, grant it, my toes were painted but held little fascination for him. I hope he does not become some foot fetish perv that hangs out at beaches and parks and steals women's shoes. I guess I'll have to start painting my Fred Flinstone feet. Normally, I don't mess with nail polish because I don't like to draw extra attention to my feet. But I have a couple of nail polish shades, including black. Thanks EE. I guess I have a good reason to go Goth now.

I hope everyone had a good weekend. The Olympic games begin this week!

Glow in the Dark Baby?

I'm working on a story about sun safety and spent part of my day looking up sun safety/skin cancer posters on Google. During my searches, I found Ninos of Ra. You have to check out this hilarious Web site. I especially love the description under the pale baby. Hopefully, this site won't give you any viruses or anything like that. I'm not computer saavy enough to know that. I do know that this site will give you a good laugh.

On a serious side, tanning beds are bad, according to a dermatologist who we interviewed yesterday. I always knew that. I also knew a girl in high school whose family had their own personal tanning bed. I can't afford a tanning torture device so Jack will just have to be pale. But shouldn't all babies look like this?

If the organizers of the Web site wanted to give people an even bigger chuckle, they would have put a bikini on the baby in the tanning bed. Just a thought.

Sweaty wedded bliss

Mike and I attended a coworker's wedding this morning. I could tell by the address that the ceremony was going to be at someone's home so I was curious as to where we would find ourselves. The address belonged to an exclusive subdivision. The house was huge and I couldn't wait to see the inside as we walked towards the massive building. Then we found ourselves directed towards the back of the home. Ok, so we were going to be outside during the wedding. Neat, I've never attended an outdoor wedding before. Oh, so the chairs were all in the hot, hot sun during the entire thing?

Needless to say, although the wedding was beautiful, we were miserable during the entire 15 minutes plus. When I say "we", I'm not just talking about me. While makeup was dripping off my face, poor Jack was restless. I was comforted by the thought that we would be inside after the ceremony. Well, ok, so they brought the cake and the punch outside onto the non shaded deck after the formal hitching. Well, alright, so we would probably go inside this huge house after they served cake and punch. We would finally get to see the inside and escape the heat. Well, er, immediate family went inside for pictures while coworkers and mere acquaintances stood outside comforted by a couple of fans. They were even so kind as to bring outside two containers, one for trash, one for the plates, silverware and glasses, so we wouldn't have to bother stepping a toe into the spacious air conditioned house.

Hmm...so I know this house belonged to an employee of the bridal party but WTH gives in 90 degrees humid weather? My poor Jack was miserable. I'm not very good with heat. We ate our cake and punch (I've never been one to pass up that combo) and got the heck out of dodge.

I've thought about writing to Dear Abbey. If you're going to have just a cake and punch reception, don't you think you can afford an air conditioned hall?

Post Placement Visit #2

So, life is ironic. After spending some excruciating hours cleaning yesterday, we ended up meeting with our social worker at her office tonight. I bet God was chuckling over that one, but at least our house is clean. Mike and I joked that we should have these visits more often.

We had a wonderful visit with our SW. She's fun to hang out with and talk about stuff. Our next and last visit with our SW is in September. That's kind of exciting but also sad. I'm not sure when we would have the opportunity to see our friends at the agency again. Our agency only works with couples on domestic adoption if they have one or no children in their home. If we also adopt Maggie Rose, we will no longer be eligible under their guidelines. I love our agency and would like to have them on our side again if we decide to pursue another domestic adoption. Only God knows what the future of our family looks like. However, I could go for a "real" Magic 8 ball or cheap pyschic.

Jack's picture is another great one by EE.