Final Post - NEW BLOG LINK!

As most of you know, we found out on Valentine's day 2008 that LaDonna was pregnant! [it only took 12 years!] Therefore, I thought it appropriate to create a new blog for our entire family. This blog will remain up (for as long as Blogger allows with no new activity), so feel free to check out the previous posts that tells the story of Mark Andrew's Adoption.

Going forward, you can find out what's new in Mark's and (soon to be) Emma Ruth's life at the following blog link:

http://azblakemore.blogspot.com/

Thanks to all who have followed our journey on this blog.

Love,
Troy, LaDonna, Mark and (coming in October) Emma Ruth!

It's FINAL!

We got word today that the adoption decree has been signed and is now FINAL!

Thank you all for your prayers and support this past year--we have a few more procedural hurdles before we get his birth certificate, but that I'm not worried about. Thank you Jesus for the gift of Mark Andrew!

Adoption Finalization Party

Well, LaDonna and I decided to go ahead with a party for Mark to celebrate the finalization of his adoption (it was supposed to be final on 5/2/08, but AGAIN, there was a delay--this time the judge was out for some reason). Anyways, we had a great time seeing so many friends. A good friend of ours gave us an extra special gift of a DVD compilation of pictures/videos set to music. It's a large file, so YouTube required it be broken into 3 sections. Enjoy!

Traditional You Tube Link
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HBaAFyHZP3U - PART ONE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkR2UD3IuiI - PART TWO
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2vR5IXCogw - PART THREE

I'll let everyone know when we FINALLY get the official signed order finalizing the adoption.

1 Year Photos

Happy Birthday Markie!

That's right; it's been a whole year already! Where has the time gone? This has been one of the best years of our lives. God is so gracious to His children that He allows such joy in our lives from such a "small" creation. Well, maybe Mark isn't as small as some:) God knew he would be the perfect fit for our family. Thank you for your continued prayers. Our journey is just beginning!

Colorado fun

We recently visited Northern Colorado for a weekend, Mark had great fun with all the relatives--we wish we weren't so far away.

Great-grandpa Harper sand to Mark before going to bed. He was quite attentive for several minutes!

Even Aunt Tonya was able to come down to see us.

But Nana is his favorite--wonder why!

A DATE!

We finally have a date! May 2nd. That is the day that a Louisiana Court should finalize our adoption of Mark legally. It's been a long road, and we can't believe it's been nearly a year. We'll be sending out an Evite soon for a big Finalization party. We hope many of you who check this blog regularly will be able to come. Here's a few fun pics I thought you might enjoy. He's getting quite a mouthful of teeth and crawling (nearly walking) all over the place!


See! I can even show you my tongue!

I can show you my cracker........ or I can hide it from you!

The end in sight

On Saturday, Feb. 23rd, LaDonna and I mailed to our attorney all the paperwork to finalize Mark's adoption. Mark is now 10 months old and we never thought it would take this long, but are grateful to so many who have continued to pray for us. We'll have one final post-placement visit with our social worker and then we should get word that Mark is now legally adopted! (and receive his birth certificate) Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to encourage us throughout this process.

I love my baths!

Yes, I still drool in the tub!





















But look at all this stuff to put in my mouth!

The Clydesdales!

Because the SuperBowl is in town, a new friend of ours was hosting (housing) the Budweiser Clydesdales. As you can see, Mark was not intimidated--but was LaDonna?

Dad (Steve), don't you miss 18-wheel trucking?

We're crawling now!

It only took about 3 days for Mark to really begin to crawl. It's as though he just decided he was tired of waiting for us to move him to the next "activity!"

Let the training begin!

Mark is officially on the move! Now the real training begins for mommy and daddy! Most of the weekend we would put him down for a nap and within seconds he was up on all fours or standing in his crib playing. We lowered his mattress to the lowest level possible. We are in trouble as he keeps growing. Any bets on when we end up putting him in a toddler bed?

The dogs are not quite sure what to make of this new development. They preferred Mark stationary and they could go to him. Now he can get to them and they are on the run! He has already attempted to jump on them...YES, jump on them! It is going to be a long process of teaching him gentle!

Please pray for us as we come to mind. We will need it and I think Mark will too!

Our little trooper

Unfortunately Mark had his 1st hospital stay last week. He had bronchial pneumonia in both lungs so we stayed Thursday night in the hospital and got to go home on Friday! He will continue on breathing treatments for a while and an inhaled steroid for several months. We thank God for Mark's disposition. He's a pretty happy boy through it all...now that we are home anyway!

As a first time mom, this has been a very scary experience. What a blessing it is to know that the Lord is with us through it all. In some ways I feel like HE prepared me to deal with this in working with an Allergy/Asthma clinic for over 4 years. Although I wasn't directly treating the patients, I was able to understand what was going on and how they treat it. It also helps to have a sister who is a pediatrician and doesn't mind being woken up before 6 am with a crazy mom on the phone asking if she should take her baby to the ER!! She calmly asked several questions and concurred with our pediatrician that "Yes, you should take him to the ER." Thank you Lord for providing that calmness that I needed! Thank you Tonya. I love you!

The ER was also scary! As soon as we walked in they put the device that measure the amount of oxygen in your blood on Mark's finger. I knew it wasn't great, but when three nurses and a doctor were waiting for us to come back, I got a little more nervous. They were very quick to begin working on him. He was calm until everyone began hovering over him. That was just the beginning of a very long day of poking and prodding.

As I sat and prayed while the nurses were doing different things to him, I knew God was there. He gave me a calmness in the midst of the chaos so that I could be calm for Mark. Once we were in a private ER room by ourselves I was able to comfort him and even got him to smile. That would be the last one for a while. He had to have oxygen, breathing treatments, a chest x-ray and an IV. There were two fire fighters who are training to be paramedics there and asked if they could do some of the procedures. Knowing how important it is that they learn, I agreed, as long as it wasn't any of the "important stuff!" I didn't mind them putting on the oxygen or putting on his mask for a breathing treatment, but let the experts do the IV! That was the only time I cried...the IV. I don't think it hurt all that much, but there were four of us holding him down. Little babies have a freakish strength during those times! It is hard to see your baby laying there on a table with four adults holding him down and a nurse trying to find the right vein. All I could do was pray. Pray for Mark, pray for the nurses, pray the the firemen holding him down, and pray for me to remain calm. The entire time it took to do this procedure his heart rate was over 200 and a monitor was going off like a siren in the room. I thanked God for giving the nurse a steady hand and great skills as she was able to get the IV in with the 1st stick. Although the chest X-ray was not easy either, it went very quick and Mark (and mommy) was able to recover from that trauma a little easier. He did very well with the mask for the breathing treatments. The respiratory therapist said he did better than most 8 and 9 year olds that she sees!

After about 3 hours in the ER the doctor said that he was going to have to admit him. Once they were able to get us a room we would be moved. That took another couple of hours and thankfully Mark was able to fall asleep in my arms. Since we had been up almost the entire night he was exhausted. Still not able to lay down to sleep, he preferred being upright. I was thankful for chairs with arms and also thanked God has healed my neck enough to where I am able to hold Mark for that long a period of time! It is amazing how your adrenaline takes over and you forget that you haven't slept in over 36 hours!

When we finally got to our room, we were thankful once again that it was a private room. Small, but private. The crib made me laugh. It was a steel bar crib that had rails high enough to attach to some sort of chamber at the top and looked like jail bars. I would put them up on occasion and tease Mark that we were in jail! The monitor on his toe was more like a tracking device. Once false move and the alarm sounds! I was very happy when they finally showed me how to make the noise stop :)

Mark was receiving breathing treatments every hour at this point and compressions to his back and chest to break up the stuff in his lungs. Although he was still able to flirt with the nursing assistant that was in the room often checking on various things :) The hospital was gracious enough to offer a bed or a chair to sleep in for the night. I opted for the chair since I wasn't sure how Mark would do throughout the night. I was very excited that I only had to endure that for one night!

God continued to provide a sense of calmness throughout the night. As I prayed watching Mark breath I was reminded of an email from our cousin when we were in Louisiana. You never know if you are going to have another day with your children. Each day has been a blessing and I thank God each day for entrusting Mark to us for as long as He chooses and for making me a mom. God has brought much joy to our lives through Mark. God is faithful, kind, loving, gentle, forgiving, patient, merciful, gracious, holy. He made His presence known to me that day in so many and wonderful ways. How blessed I am to know Him and know that He is there for me every moment of every day. All I have to do is talk to Him.

On Friday morning the doctor came in and listened to Mark's lungs. He said he was able to get air through them pretty freely and wasn't wheezing anymore so we could go home after the next breathing treatment. I was happy and a bit nervous at the same time. I wasn't sure if I was ready to take him home! Would I know what to do with him and all of the stuff they were sending us home with. God quickly gave me the calmness again. Reminding me that it is one step at a time and that Tonya is only a phone call away :) DeLinda had made the long drive all the way from Surprise to visit us. I felt bad that she was only there a short time when they said we could go. She was very helpful while she was there though. The moral support was HUGE! Mark will let you read books to him anytime. You make better noises than mommy! Thank you sister! I love you.

As we were getting ready to leave, the nursing assistant that had been assigned to us for both days said she was sad to see Mark go since he was one of her cutest patients. She also said she will be looking for his name in the pro sports world one day and know that she helped take care of him :)

Thank you to all who will be praying for us in the days and weeks ahead. We are praying this will be the last winter Mark has to struggle like this, but trust God to give us the strength if it isn't. Tonya reminded me that we can be thankful that we live in the United States where we have some of the best medical care available to us within minutes if need be. Thanks again to God for giving us so much.