Second Post Placement Visit

Tonight we have our second post placement visit.  It's hard to believe that it's been over 5 months since Madison joined our family.  She has definitely brought a lot of different things into the family dynamics.  She's grown so much during the past 5 1/2 months.  It's been fun watching her emerge on a daily basis ~ she defintely keeps us on our toes as you never know what she'll be up to next.

GUNG HAY FAT CHOY!!!!!

Happy Chinese New Year!  This is the year of the tiger!  Wishing happiness and prosoperity in the new year.  Here's a couple pics of the girls in their Chinese dresses:

5 Months Already!

Happy 5 Month Forever Family Day Madison!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!  Hope you have a wonderful day with your sweeties!!!!!

School Conferences

Last night, February 10, 2010, we had our second school conference for Samantha.  It went great.  We have learned that she is pretty advanced in her reading skills (at the end of Kindergarten they want you to be at a level "C") and she is currently at a level D, and almost to an E, which is the highest level you can go.  Overall for all the kindergarten classes, she is in the top 10%!  She has expanded her writing skills tremendously and her favorite thing to do in school is writer's workshop.  She has a wonderful teacher and she may be working with Samantha one-on-one for reading so that she can challenge her more and more throughout the rest of the year!

We are very, very proud of you Samantha!  Keep up the great work sweetie!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY SAMANTHA RAE!!!!

 Today I am wishing my bright, happy, beautiful, sensitive and most wonderful little girl in the world a BIG HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY!  Wow, I cannot believe our little girl is already 6 years old!  Where has the past 5 years gone?  It just seems like yesterday that we were coming home from China and celebrating her first birthday.  Well we were . . . just five years ago today!

On her special day, Sammie has chosen to have dinner at Red Lobster tonight.  She wants baby shrimp (popcorn shrimp) - yummy (as she days)!!!!!!  So after work we will head out for dinner and then she'll get one present tonight and the rest on Saturday when we celebrate her birthday with family and friends!

HAPPY 6TH BIRTHDAY SWEETIE!  WE LOVE YOU VERY MUCH!

Happy Birthday!

Wishing a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my hubby and best friend, Dale!  Also to Keira, Sammie's Tonggu Sister!  She and Dale share birthdays!  We have a connection with her family in more ways than one!

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Hell Day . . . no make that week!

Last week, beginning on Monday, January 25, 2010 started the beginning of H-E-L-L week for the Roth Clan!  Sunday we celebrated Samantha's 5th Forever Family Day with our good friends the Maupins, who also adopted their oldest daughter the same time we did Samantha.  Our families have been great friends since that wonderful time way back when.  Sunday was a great day, with the exception of the Vikings losing the championship game, but oh well.

Now onto the beginning of hell week . . . I woke up at my usual time on Monday morning and was getting ready for work.  I woke Samantha and Madison up at their usual times (around 7:00 a.m.).  Madison didn't seem her usual bubbly self that morning when she got up (just laid on on her little couch, kind of our of it).  I finished getting ready and was going to start getting the girls ready when I noticed Madison felt warm.  Thus I took her temp and it was 101.5.  I gave her some Tylenol at 7:45 a.m., called into work and daycare (Sammie didn't have school on Monday) and we were just going to stay home and have a quiet day . . . or so we thought! 

Madison began feeling better and ate breakfast and was playing and all seemed well.  Then, about 10:15 or so she went and sat back down on her little couch and pulled her blanket up on her and was sitting quietly.  Sammie was playing a game on the laptop in the living room.  I went in to get dressed and was going to recheck Madison's temp after that.  A  few minutes later, Sammie yelled, "Mommy, Madison is just laying on the floor".  Needless to say, I ran into the living room and she was laying on the floor in a weird position in between the couch and the coffee table (thankfully she didn't hit her head on the coffee table when she feel, if she did in deed fall, as Sammie said she didn't hear anything).  In any event, I quickly picked her up and instantly knew something was wrong ~ she had spit/drool coming from her mouth, her eyes looked strange, she was pretty limp and as a mom I could just tell something wasn't quite right.  I kept talking to her and tried to get her to focus on me and look at me and she would for a little while, but her little body was just like a rag doll.  I quickly called Dale at work and told him to get home ASAP and then I hug up and called 9-1-1.  Needless to say, they took her Children's Hospital by ambulance.  Both the EMT's and the ER figure she had a febrile seizure as her temp was 104 when the EMT's arrived at our house and was still 104 when we got to the ER.  We stayed in the ER for the better part of the day and after her temp came down and they ran a few test (strep and urinology to rule out a UTI), they sent us home with instructions to keep her on Motrim every 6 hours around the clock, which included waking her up during the night and to follow up with our own doctor in 2 days.  One of the scariest days as a parent of Madison thus far!  Her older sister also had a seizure episode back in November 2005, but hers was much different than Madison's was.  Sammie's was not a febrile seizure.  I wrote about this episode on our family's Yahoo Group.

Twelve hours later we are back in the ER at Children's Hospital, this time with Samantha.  She developed severe abdominal pain and started throwing up around 8:15 p.m.  At first we thought it might have been her nerves from everything that had happened earlier in the day with Madison, but when she kept throwing up every 20 minutes or so and couldn't keep anything down, I knew it was not just nerves.  After a phone call to the triage nurse line at the hospital, it was time to bundle up the kiddos and take Samantha to the ER as they wanted to rule out a bowel obstruction, etc.  Dale dropped us off and then took Madison back home.  After spending several hours in the ER, then giving her some anti nauseu medicine to stop the vommiting, we were told she had a severe case of the stomach flu.  After she was able to keep down a popsicle and some apple juice, they gave us a prescription for the anti nauseau meds and back home we went.  She ended up throwing up again when we got home (after the car ride home and I think was related to the car ride and being overly tired - she hadn't slept at all that night and here it was now 4:00 a.m.).  After that, she went to bed and slept all night with no more episodes of vomiting.  Thank the Lord!  See your child have the drive heaves is horrible.  Luckily, it was only a 24 hour flu bug, but we kept her home from school both Tuesday and Wednesday as it drained her little body big time!  After she got over the stomach flu, she then developed a cold. 

Tuesday morning the dawn of a new day or so we thought . . . Needless to say, Dale work up with the same stomach virus Samantha had.  It was not pleasant.  I felt a little bit ill, but didn't vomit or get the diarreha at all.  Madison was doing better and so was Samantha.

Wednesday, Dale took Madison in for her follow up doctor's appointed and she was given the thumbs up and said all looked well, but her doctor wanted us to keep her on Motrim for another couple of days . . . we didn't have to wake her up during the night, just give it to her every six hours while she was awake.  I went back to work today too!

Thursday and Friday for the most part were okay.  Madison' wasn't eating much and had developed some funny poo's and we thought oh no, not again.  Last time she had those same symptoms, she had a double ear infection. 

Now it is early Saturday morning and guess who wakes up with the flu stomach virus!  Yep you guessed it, mommy!  I do not recall when I have been so sick!  This virus is very strong and hits you very fast.  You are down hard.  Needless to say, my entire Saturday was spend either in the bathroom or in bed!  It took me a few days to recover.  The same virus also hit my sister's entire family of 6!  Saturday afternoon, Madison was still not eating and drinking much so back to Urgent Care she went with daddy.  No ear infections, but they thought she just might be getting her sister's cold.

Fast forward to Sunday and Monday of this week, and now Miss Madison has developed a case of having a hard time pooping!  Finally, she was able to go and now it is Wednesday and for the most part, the Roth Clan is on the road to recovery!

Let me tell you, when your kiddos are sick, as any parent knows, it is heart wrenching as you want to make it all better and right now!  I'm just thankful that for all intents and purposes, our girls are over all healthy!  Now, let's stay that way!  Please bring on summer!