Please Pray!

As some of you know, my little guy, John, was born with a few issues. He suffered oxygen deprivation and IUGR in utero and he has some special needs.
Today we spent the entire day at the Naval Hospital... our appointment was actually for the 12th January but we got a call that someone had canceled and could we make it in that morning? John has been unchanged despite several months of therapy.. in fact in some areas he got worse (like his speech is slurred, he is not eating, he trips and falls constantly, has no stamina, black circles are under his eyes and he has become aggressive) so just to be on the safe side, I scheduled an appointment... I called early December and the first available one was for the 12th January 2010.
The lady on the phone said "don't come early, don't come late, be here at 10.30"...

I had (have) a full day... it's the last few days before Christmas, dolls need to go out, I need to wrap up a few things but thankfully not too many but I still ended up saying yes... I dropped Cody off to my MIL as there was no time to drive him to school which is in another district in the OPPOSITE direction to the hospital and John and I headed out. I had a doll in the trunk to be mailed and at that time I figured, ok, the appointment is early, I will make it to the post office no problems...
This is when you insert the "eeeeeee, wrong" buzzer sound.

First of all, John's neurologist used to be in the regular Naval hospital, smack dab in the middle of town... in a location where you could go by taking the metro... Then he accepted the position of Hospital Administrator.. in another area, in the other Naval hospital. The building, was built in the '50's used to be administrative services. There is no ambulance entrance, no handicap entrance and NO parking lot!!
In fact it is by the sea in an area very thickly populated...
While getting there, I realized they had changed the streets (it has been years since I needed to go to that building)...so I got lost.
I called to say I would be slightly late when I was nearing the hospital.. and I was only 5 minutes late when I saw the hospital... and then it took me another FORTY-BLOODY-MINUTES of going up and down EVERY alley in the area to find a place to park the car. The idea of just letting it be in the middle of the road did occur to me but I kinda like it so...
I was 45 minutes to get there and it involved a 15 minute hike from we parked to the hospital... with a child that generally does NOT walk more than a few feet without giving up and wanting to be carried (it's a little of a behavioral thing and a little of a physical, Cerebral Palsy thing)...

Do you know when we finally got to see the doctor? At 12.30... that was our punishment for being late... they put us at the end of the queue :(
John had a two hour therapy session at 1... we missed that of course.

The neurologist commented on how sweet and clever John was but now wants a repeat brain MRI under general done. He insists on John getting speech therapy (no Sh$t Sherlock! - excuse my French) and we got referred "upstairs". To make a long story short, by the time we had our upstairs appointment, all papers for the MRI signed and notarized and approved (hey the Navy doesn't spend money like that, you need a trillion signatures on the papers!) it was 2pm... it was 2.30pm by the time we made it to the car (John wanted to stare at the waves breaking on the sea front) and it was 5pm by the time we drove through the traffic to our home.

It's now 6pm and I got NOTHING done today :( well I got my son in to the hospital, I got the appointment for the MRI and the evaluation but the doll is still in my trunk :( and my heart is racing because I really wanted to send it today... TODAY!! :(

So please pray for the MRI on Friday, please please... and I hope my customer understands... :(
Sigh...
Here's to hoping tomorrow is a new, brighter day!

Stomp, whine, cry...

I'm really sad right now... I need to part with a baby I was intending as my 2010 resin (when I had the time/funds but some time in 2010 nevetheless).

I want to stomp my foot, I want to find another funding source... I don't want to give her up... but the boys' tuition must be paid urgently and the funds from another baby I was expecting will not be coming through, the lady needs more time and though I am generally easy with payments (they owe me a LOT of money I can tell you this much), this really throws a monkey wrench in my plans :(

Sadly I need to part with C.
I don't bond with each and every doll but I did with this one... Well, I can always sculpt another one right?
I didn't really have the funds to make her into a resin right now anyway... maybe by the time I've sculpted something else, I will have saved up for the resin as I really don't want to take pre-orders again. I prefer not to have people waiting anymore...

But today I am sad... but on the other hand, I would do anything for my boys and right now the best thing for my boys is to be in this private school... and I shouldn't really complain as because my dad works there I get 45% off... otherwise I wouldn't be able to walk past their front door, much less afford it for two kids..
Sorry C... Sorry I can't keep you but I will make sure you go to a great new mom!! :( waaaaaaaaah!

A teaser!

A teaser is all you get when you are working with a turtle's pace... ;)
Coming in 2010... just not sure in what form yet... lol



Hope you are all doing well!!

Help me help a child in need...

As Christmas approaches, we all think about those in need... Every year my boys and me, sort out their toys and give a good portion of (unbroken!!) toys to the church or leave them outside doors we know poor kids in our neighborhood live in.

Every other year I donate an OOAK to be raffled off at my dad's school and the money goes to the Make a Wish Foundation or The Child's Smile, here in Greece.

This year I really want to help ONE child in particular... ok, well, TWO ..
I want to sponsor a child in an underdeveloped country and I want to help a little boy in Taiwan to be united with his forever family in the USA.
It doesn't matter I am in Greece and they are not. Good deeds know no boundaries, color, race or religion (although both of these children are being raised Christians but that's a coincidence, I would still do it for a Muslim or a Jew or an atheist, it doesn't matter!)

I know money is tight for everyone right now so I will be auctioning off one mini baby every one or two weeks so I can raise the money so I can sponsor one child for a whole year... Then I would like to donate to Jeremiah's Promise to help this Christian American family bring their little boy home from Taiwan.
You can read about Jeremiah and this incredible family here.

If you want and can donate to Jeremiah, every penny helps... or you can bid in one of my auctions and get an adorable Kewy baby and know your money is going towards a good cause.
As soon as I have the money and have chosen my sponsored child, I will of course post pictures and updates as I get them.

On all other fronts, we are all on the road to healing except George who got really sick the moment he got home from Berlin!
The rest of us are doing well. I am quite drained, so much so, that this morning I didn't even hear TWO alarm clocks go off and thus missed getting the boys to school! I guess I needed the extra sleep... a week of sleeplessness will do that to you I suppose :)

I am off to run errands, ship dolls, clean house and cook, while dragging the boys along for the ride. Oh joy!

Hugs
Tina

Rough Night

We've had a rough night... John had a fever all night and Cody kinda felt warm but when I put the thermometer in, he didn't have a fever.
Thankfully we had NO MORE vomiting... good thing because I run out of blankets and pillows!! Which reminds me, I will go do my laundry now.

They are very bummed about their birthday parties :( such a shame I agree ... But maybe we can still do the Saturday one but without extra guests, just family and we can do the school one next week.
I will give them their presents and we will still make a came and decorate :) Then when they are better, I will invite their friends over again at a later date :)

This morning John does not have a fever or cough, he feels better and he drank some Pediasure. Cody has a nasty diarrhea! Yup, we caught something good alright! :(

Please keep us in yours prayers!!!

I spoke too soon...

John just spiked a fever out of the blue of 104!!!
He has already thrown up several times. He was FINE all day. I put them to bed normally and within 2 hrs he was shaking like a leaf. He threw up the Tylenol and everything else :(
I called the ped and apparently the on-call Children's hospital is FLOODED at the moment, the line of cars is a mile long.It's on the news and they are telling people to keep their kids HOME and try to bring the fevers down with drugs...

If he is not better in the morning I will take him in since he's been exposed to swine flu (mine for starters!!). Although he did become sick about 10 days ago, it was super mild and since I was confirmed I thought he had it and just breezed through it... now I am wondering if he DIDN'T get it at the time and THIS is actually swine flu... YIKES.
John is immuno-compromised!!

PLEASE say a prayer: That John flies through this thing and that CODY DOES NOT GET IT!!!!!
It's a difficult time because my husband is in Berlin and my mother in law is in the hospital with her father (G's 100 year old grandfather) who is struggling to stay alive so I have absolutely NO support system, not one person, if this turns ugly...
So please PRAY, please!!! My poor baby, I have NEVER seen him so bad, never :(

Back with guns ablazing!!

It's been a hectic last few days but let me catch you up:
I am feeling better except this morning some of my symptoms returned (a new virus maybe?!) but I am doing ok, holding my own, nothing serious :)

The boys are doing good, except John had a mysterious cough this morning. We were told to start patching his eye for 4 months, 6 hrs a day on Monday. I feel defeated tired. I know, I know, things could have been SO much more worse.. he could have DIED or be a vegetable and a million other things. Please don't shake your head thinking I am ungrateful. Believe me, I am not stupid, I KNOW what a good thing I have and EVERYDAY I thank God for my sons, special needs included!!:)
It's just that for ONCE I would like to go to a doctor and find my son NORMAL... DEVELOPING.. not need EXTRA intervention. I've been on this for FOUR years. More than four if you count the pregnancy and the bad turn it took...
Four years of worrying, four years of running around, waiting in doctor's waiting rooms, explaining to your child why he is different, holding him down for tests, doing special therapy, hospital stays, more tests, discouraging news, staying up at nights wondering, feeling sick to your stomach, trying to balance your checkbook because all of the above cost money, trying to save your marriage which took a heavy hit, trying to balance your other little boy so he won't feel left out, dealing with the comments from the people and family, not receiving ANY support... I've been locked inside these four walls for more than 4 years, day in day out... I've got ONE friend locally. O N E... all my other friends are online...
I haven't slept a full night in four years if you exclude the time I spent doing shows. Sigh.. you see, I am TIRED... that's all. I don't know why Monday's doctor's visit hit me so hard but it did... I want to throw in the towel and quit... but then I look at his face and I can't..
"If you want the Rainbow you must put up with the rain"... in our case the Rainbow would be John graduating, falling in love, marrying, having kids, leading a normal life, a regular Joe if you'd like... but this... this right now, is my rain... and I am drenched and I feel like there is no raincoat big enough for all my sorrow... except John himself. He is so much stronger than I am and I thank God daily for the priviledge of making me their mother...

Ahem... sob story over... doll time :)
So I've been working again for the last two days and I am hopeful people will start receiving photos tonight...
So stay tuned...

Fevers, chills and coughs...

I thought if you are an adult you are supposed to have a strong immune system... before having kids, I was never sick... except that first year I went into teaching. I was sick all year long that year... but after that, I wasn't and I stayed that way until I had the boys... and ever since then, I've been getting everything they have been getting, every single time and because they are usually sick all through the winter, *I* am sick through 90% of the winter.

See, the problem is, that us mommies don't get a break when we are sick. My husband's words are infamous; when I told him "Honey, I am so sick, I can't stand up" he replied "Well, take something then and make us something to eat, we are hungry!" (by "take something" he means some pill).
Buuuut, when HE is sick, he is like "Ow ow ow I am DYING I tell ya, my nose is stuffy, my throat hurts and I will surely DIE I tell ya!" lol :)

So for the past 10 days I've been "hanging on" except yesterday and the day before that, I've taken a turn for the worse...today wasn't so bad and I actually got some work done too...then when the sun went down, OMGosh, I feel so bad it's not even funny. I can feel the fever rising and I took a 45 minute long SHOWER just because I couldn't bear the thought of getting out of the tub and leaving that glorious, steaming, hot water behind... you know... in the tub... where it can't come over me in luxurious hot waves to take away my fever... and the best part?
G is on duty tonight...and he took the last four pills of Comtrex!!! (note: cold and flu symptom relieving medicine)
I felt better this morning so I let him have it with him...and now I don't feel so good at all and I have no medication to get me back on my feet... and I have promised pictures to someone and it's 11pm and I can't drag myself out of bed (Yes I am writing this from my netbook in bed!) to do that and I feel SOOOO bad...
Will you send some healing vibes my way? This stupid cold is kicking my butt for 10 days now... enough already!
And if this turns out to be swine flu, they'd better get me some Relenza or something otherwise I might kill someone!! ;)