A Morris Family Update

One of our favorite things to do is to fellowship with others and have true community through honesty and openness. Since we can't do that with all of you in person, we decided a blog update is our next best opportunity.  We have a lot of new things going on in our family right now and we wanted to share them with you.

Childcare:  As many of you know Abram struggled greatly with going to child care on Sunday mornings while we were in Sunday School and worship.  He wouldn't be just sad-- it was an uncontrollable cry and panic.  We strongly believe that he felt like we were leaving him.  Because Chris teaches an adult Sunday school class at church, he needed to go each Sunday, but I would stay home with Abe.  This was hard as I was missing fellowship with our church family, but we believed it was what Abe needed in order to attach to us and trust us.  However, in January we decided to try again... after many mornings of dropping him off with lots of tears, he slowly began to feel more comfortable.  Our church's child care workers are amazing and they had so much patience with Abe. He now goes in with smiles and he blows us kisses.  It has been an amazing transformation to watch and one of our biggest answers to prayer!  This isn't huge just so that we can go to church, it means he knows we are coming back for him whenever we have to leave!

Speech:  Abram also started going to speech therapy once a week.  We are so blessed by our wonderful speech teacher, Miss Katherine.  She is perfect for Abe and couldn't be sweeter.  She adores Abram and enjoys working with him each week.  At our last visit she said each week she is amazed at his progress and couldn't be happier.  While Abe isn't speaking in words we can understand completely, he is definitely trying and interested in talking.

Sleep:  When Abram came home in August his crib was in our room.  He would wake up periodically and make sure we are there and then it would take about thirty minutes to get him back to sleep.  This would happen several times a night.  Then after his surgery and hospitalisation he struggled with severe night terrors.  He started taking melatonin to develop a natural sleep pattern but his sleeping was inconsistent for a few more months.  In February we made the big move and put Abe in his room.  After a few rough nights, he is doing great and only wakes up once a night if he looses his panda :)  We are all sleeping much better!

Palate:  Abram has his yearly cleft team meeting at the Children's hospital in August.  At that time the plastic surgeon will look at his palate and we will discuss a possible lip revision surgery.  I recently took him to his first dental appointment and his dentist found that the back of his front two teeth are covered with decay.  He said it is vital that we save these teeth so when it's time for surgery there is bone to work with.  This will be an outpatient procedure that will require complete anesthesia.  Hopefully they can combine this procedure with another surgery.

Volunteer Work:  I am greatly enjoying this season in my life of not working-- but now that Abram and I have developed a routine I have been feeling like I should be doing something.  We traveled with a family to China who volunteers with an amazing organization called "Love Without Boundries."  It is an organization that offers "hope and healing to orphaned children" in China.  When we came home I joined their Facebook page and a few months ago they posted that they have a need for educational volunteers.  I submitted my application and a couple of weeks ago I had a phone interview.  I was offered and accepted the position as a co-coordinator for a secondary school in China.  I will be responsible for compiling student reports for their sponsors; I am excited to get started with this!  I encourage you to check out their website: Love Without Boundaries Foundation

Hawaii:  It looks like this is where we will be moving in April 2015.  Of course, with the military nothing is for sure and it can definitely change but as of now our we are planning on moving back to Oahu and we couldn't be happier.  We absolutely loved it there and we are excited to experience it with Abram!  We'll be expecting lots of visitors...

And our biggest news of all...

We have started the paperwork for our second adoption!!  Hopefully before we leave Monterey we will travel back to China to bring home a sibling for Abram.  We are in the middle of ALL the paperwork (again) but it is definitely worth it!  Hopefully because we are back in the states and because Chris isn't deployed the process won't be nearly as long!  We are using the same agency and adopting through the "Waiting Child" program (older child with special needs). We put in the same requests as we did for Abram: no specific gender, 0-24 months in age, cleft lip and palate.  We have already started praying for the child that God wants to place us with and we can't wait!!

Okay, I think that's it for us!  Sorry I did so much talking :)  Now we want to know what's going on with you and your family and how can we be lifting you up in prayer?  Our word for this year is "intentional" and one way we want to be intentional is through our prayers.  We greatly desire to know how we can pray for you.  We love you and thank you for all your love, support and encouragement you continue to show us! We are blessed to know you!

Maybe I'll start doing quarterly blogs to let you know what has been going on ... or maybe not and I'll just do one of these blogs whenever the mood strikes :)

Weekend Trips to San Francisco

Since San Francisco is only two hours away and because we had two holiday weekends (MLK and Presidents Day) we decided to take advantage of the long weekend and get out of town for a few days. Abe is such a great traveler and he sleeps anywhere, so its nice to be able to pick up and go. :)

Martin Luther King Day and Chris' birthday is always on the same weekend, so we always try to celebrate out of town if we can.  We stayed at the Marine Memorial Hotel which is in the center of downtown and has great rates for military members.  We arrived in San Fran on  Friday night then after enjoying a nice breakfast (Abe's favorite meal) at the hotel we drove to Sonoma.  The drive was beautiful and it gave us a reason to cross the famous bridge (Chris made me record our journey across).  Sonoma is also home to "Train Town." We knew we couldn't miss this... Abe loves ALL things trains. He was in heaven! Plus it had some rides for him to ride with his daddy!

At the entrance of Train Town

Riding the train around the park

I love this family picture of the three of us.

Unsure of these rides, but at the end he was giddy!!

Abe's first roller coaster... he did great!!

Giving a "thumbs up" with daddy

Now he is enjoying it!

Love his precious smile!

The next morning we loaded up and rode the trolley to Fisherman's Wharf.  Abe loved the trolley ride  and the driver even let him ring the bell as we got off.  We were in San Fran the day of the big game (49ers vs. Seahawks) so of course the boys were in their jerseys.  I was nervous for their safety, but just a few comments were made. :)

We rode the trolley down to the wharf to see (and hear) the sea lions.  

Chris and I quickly noticed that our travel habits change now that we are traveling with a toddler. Instead of finding the best place to eat in town and sightseeing, we eat at a loud, fast and kid friendly place then search out the parks that are open at night... :) 

Enjoying a night time ride on the slide.

Then, just this past weekend we went to San Fran again for Chinese New Year! We couldn't wait! We read books to Abe all week about the festivities and got his Chinese silk outfit all ready.  Chris found a hotel that was super close to the parade and we had really good seats.  Surprisingly, Abe lasted the whole time.  It was a fun parade and everyone would wave at Abe when they saw him in his festive clothing!

Not to sure what to think of the lions and dragons... just as long as they kept their distance.

I thought the kids were adorable!

The dragons were so long and there were so many!

Abe's favorite part of the parade was when the police motor cycles and fire trucks came down the street. This is a picture of the fireman waving to Abe. He was thrilled and couldn't stop waving!!

We have had some great road trips lately!  Hope you enjoyed our pictures. 

Our First Christmas with Abram

I know I'm a whole month late in posting our Christmas blog, but at least it's done now, right?!?!

We had an AMAZING first Christmas with Abe. It was so great to view Christmas through his eyes this year. We were reminded over and over again how blessed we are to have him in our home this year after waiting for him for four years!

Our Christmas season always kicks off with my favorite Thanksgiving tradition of eating pancakes for dinner on Thanksgiving Eve. As you can tell by the picture, Abe was thrilled to be eating pancakes for his dinner. Who doesn't enjoy that?

The day after Thanksgiving we started our own Morris family tradition of cutting down our Christmas tree. Abe had no idea why his dad was cutting down a tree and stuffing it into the back of our car, but he had a fun time running around the tree farm. :)

Abe standing in front of our tree AND pointing to the snowmen on his shirt. :)

Daddy and Abe with this years tree!

Yes, I had to take a picture with this great sign!

The finished product. Abe loved it!

Monterey and Pacific Grove are such great towns to live in, especially during Christmas! It seemed like there was an event each week to go to whether it was the Christmas Tree Lightings (there were 3 different events), Light Parade, or the watching the Sailboats on Parade.  We tried to go to as many as we could.  There is also a family amusement park here that had wonderful Christmas lights on display. I think that was our favorite!

Love this picture of my two favorite guys!

Snow! During the Charlie Brown show at Gilroy Gardens.

Another tree lighting...

Serious family picture at Gilroy Gardens

And of course a silly family picture of the three of us!

We had our own small Christmas at home before traveling.  It was fun to teach Abram how to open gifts and that they are actually for him to keep. After the second one, he got the hang of it and had fun playing with his gifts! So fun to watch!

Abe showing Daddy his new Thomas books.

Going after another present!

Of course the highlight of our trip was being in Louisiana for Christmas! My niece and nephew, Ella and Cade, hadn't met Abe yet. My sister said they were counting down the days to meet their cousin.  It was great to watch the three of them play! Such sweet memories!

Abe, Gram and I had lunch with Ella at school. Ella loved having Abe at recess with her!

Their first night together!

I think they might like each other!

So sweet!

Here are some more of my favorite pictures from our Christmas trip...

Family picture on Christmas morning

Decorating Christmas cookies for the first time. He loved it and didn't want any help!

The whole family around the table

Christmas Eve service... I think this is one of my absolute favorite pictures. It was such a special time!

Of course we had to travel to Natchitoches to see the lights! 

All the cousins

We had an amazing Christmas season... It's always an exciting time of year, but this year was even more special with Abram! I hope you and your family had a wonderful Christmas, too!

Praise the Lord for Complete Healing!

At first I wasn't going to blog about Abe's surgery, but the wife of Chris' mentor shared with me what her husband was praying for Abe. Once she told me that Bob was praying for Abe to be a "mouthpiece for God," I wanted to have this blog with pictures to show him when he gets older as a part of his unique story.  

The first part of our week was planned.  Abe was going to be in Lucille Packard's Children Hospital for two nights as he recovered from having his palate closed, tubes in his ears, and circumcision.  The doctors kept calling it the "blue plate special."  Abe's cleft lip was repaired in China before his first birthday, but the roof of his mouth was still completely open and needed to be closed so we could start speech therapy.  It was a long surgery, but the doctors said he did great.  

Before going into surgery

Feeling a little sleepy from the medicine. 

Our nurse, John. He was great and he loved Abe!

Right after his surgery... love that he is holding onto his panda!

Now sleeping with two pandas.  My mom found one in the gift shop, that Abe just had to have. :)

Reading with Gram

Going on a wagon ride around the hospital. 

We left the hospital on Sunday afternoon and headed home (the children's hospital is two hours from us).  My mom came up for Abe's surgery to help us during his  recovery.  For the next two weeks, we could only give Abe soft foods and not let him put anything (including his fingers) in his mouth, because it would reopen his palate.  Monday was spent sleeping and watching movies. He had a fever all day, but once it got up to 106 my mom and I were worried and we took him to the emergency room.

At first they thought Abe had pneumonia, but the next morning they realized he had a bacteria in his blood. He had a staph infection called MRSA.  None of his surgical sights were infected, so they think he had this bacteria in China and during the surgery it was released into his blood stream.  They started him on antibiotics immediately. His fever stayed high until Wednesday. Abe was so tired and didn't want to leave the bed, play with toys and of course he didn't want to eat or drink because his mouth was still sore.

It was a pretty rough week, but we know only through the power of prayer, the pretty severe bacteria stopped growing on Tuesday and it never returned.  After a pretty traumatic experience with an IV on Thursday night, we were ready to go home.  Thankfully we were assigned an amazing pediatrician and infectious disease doctor. They quickly found an oral antibiotic Abe could take at home that would treat his specific infection.  

Even though it was a rough, long week it did give Abe's a mouth chance to heal. We didn't have to worry about him putting toys in his mouth or getting upset because he couldn't eat the foods he was used to.  It was wonderful to have my sweet mom here.  She was such a blessing. She would hold Abe so I could take a shower, grab a coffee or eat dinner with Chris every night.  She loved it!! Also, every nurse and doctor that came into the room wanted to hear about Abe's adoption story.  Most of them had tears in their eyes as they listened. :) And the best part of the week... it gave Abe and I a week to bond.  Such a blessing.  I would sleep with him in his bed and every night we would go to sleep he had such a sweet smile on his face. I loved it!

So glad my sweet mom was here during the crazy week!

Abe and Gram laughing together

I love this picture. He's listening to panda's heart. 

Thank you everyone who prayed!  We definitely needed your prayers and we felt them!  I was amazed at all the comments on Facebook or messages that said their Bible Study group was praying for Abe. I also have a dear, sweet friend in Germany who was having a hard time getting ahold of me because of the time zones, so she prayed over the phone for us.  I was in tears listening to her message! Praise the Lord that we serve a God who heals! Abe is back to his usual fun self and eating everything!  We went for his post op appointment yesterday and the plastic surgeon said his mouth looks great!