Adopting Ahren (& PBJ, too!)

Three days from now I will have PBJ in my arms. Four days from now I will have Ahren in my arms. I have been obsessively packing and re-packing. You see, each traveller gets 2 suitcases to check, not to exceed 50 pounds each. Since Katie is going with me, we get 4 suitcases to check, plus one carry on each. A total of 200 pounds of luggage. And that's not enough. Katie and I are packing very light for ourselves. The rest is full of donations, baby stuff, gifts for our foster families and more donations. We have received so much! You people are absolutely incredible. We have soap, toothpaste, toothbrushes, feminine products, clothes, shoes, underwear, socks, blankets and money to buy mattresses. I will be sure and get lots of pictures while we are there. This time we will have a laptop with us and I will be able to post pictures every day.

In other news, those of you who have read me for a while know that our Nanny is really part of our family. We have known her for many years, and when we found out we were having Levi she was our obvious choice for child care. Each day she comes to our house and watches Levi, another little girl named Mina (22 months old) , and (a couple of days a week) her grandson Grayson (age 3). Levi is the clown, Mina is the daredevil and Grayson is the sweetie. Grayson suffers from Type 1 Osteogenesis Imperfecta, or brittle bone disease. He has the mildest form and has done remarkably well having only one break up until recently. Then he broke his fibula in his right leg (smaller bone in the shin) and was in a cast for 8 weeks. It didn't slow him down one bit. Then, last week, he snapped the tibia (major bone in the shin) of his left leg. This is a bigger break than before and is a weight bearing bone. Poor little guy is miserable. He can't put any weight on it at all. To top it all off, it was his birthday and they had planned a Chuckie Cheese party. They rescheduled it until he can enjoy it. I always worry when he plays with Levi and Mina that they will 'break' him. One wrong step and his leg can snap. One fall and his arm can snap. How do you let a child have a normal childhood and protect them at the same time when they are like this? I'm afraid I would have him wrapped in pillows and not let him do anything. His parents are not like that though. They take some precautions, but nothing that prevents him from being a boy. Their philosophy is that he will have some breaks, they can't prevent them all, but it's more important that he has a normal life in spite of the breaks. Pretty cool, huh?