Comfort continues to effect people around the world!

(Here is Comfort at soccer camp 5 weeks after open heart surgery!!!)

I thought I would share this comment that I received from a wonderful adopting mom who has now been to Ghana and is home with her adopted daughter. You can check out her blog at http://lemongrovelane.blogspot.com/ and see pictures of her trip and of her trip to Korle Bu Hospital where we took Comfort the day after we arrived in Ghana. When the cardiologist at Korle Bu told us that children don't have chest pain with heart conditions I knew that there was nothing they could do for her there. They just don't have the equipment, supplies, or specified knowledge in cardiology. But, the outcome was great! Comfort made it home to the US with 8 days to spare (isn't God's timing amazing??) and was admitted to Seattle Children's Hospital with chest pain caused by her failing right ventricle.
It is so great that Jeanie was able to bring much needed supplies to Korle Bu. Here is the comment that she left on May 27th:

I came across your blog address this morning and saw that yesterday was your day to take Comfort to Children's Hospital. She has continued in my thoughts and prayers, and I hope all went well yesterday. I will eagerly watch for good news on your blog! :) By the way, Laurel's blog post detailing your trip to Korle-Bu resulted in my having made contact with an organization dedicated to helping the kids there. They put me in touch with a doctor there, and I now have several suitcases full of medical supplies to bring to them (most from a local hospital, and we are also buying some additional equipment.) We're hoping to go to Ghana in the next week or two. So, Comfort's visit to the hospital in Accra will directly result in some help for the other pediatric patients as well - I just you might like to know the effect Comfort had! :)

Lanae

Family Pictures

Here are some great family pictures with all 8 kids and our granddaughter and daughter in law and our future grandchild is hiding in Tamarah's tummy! I got a great side shot of Tamarah's cute round tummy, but I'll save that one for our family album!
On the bridge from front to back: Cassidy (our granddaughter) Comfort, Josephine, Brian, Nathan (great smile Nate) Lanae (Mom) , Maggie, Tamarah (our daughter in law, married to Ryan) Kelcey, Ryan, Tyler and Mark (Dad)

We are having so much fun with the new kids, and they are doing great. They have been such a blessing to our family. We just can't believe that they are here and Comfort has had her surgery and is all healed. Wow, amazing.
Lanae

We're still here!

I know it's been a while since I have updated and I have received some emails wondering if we are still alive :) We have been laying low, taking a breather, adjusting to our new improved family life!! I will be posting pictures over the next few days of all of our family adventures during the last month but for now I wanted to update everyone on how we are doing. We are really doing great. As you know the first few weeks home were sooooo stressful and the months before coming home were just as stressful, however I have to say that everything has worked out so well. Comfort has recovered from surgery in record time, Brian and Josephine have adjusted great and were so good while mom was away at Children's with Comfort. Mark and I have discussed how things could have gone so differently with the kids at home and mom away, but my bio kids stepped up to the challenge (as always!) and took over the home front and my new kids were great.
Comfort has had another echo cardiogram and everything looks great. Her heart is functioning well enough that her cardiologist doesn't want to see us back for 6 months!!! She now runs full speed around our yard and is so happy!
We also had our Brian and Josephine's post adoption medical appointment and had all the tests done and we are happy to report that all of the blood tests came back negative (Hep., HIV, TB, Anemia, etc).
The kids are eating well, and I am planning on posting a list of foods that I made for them that helped them to adjust to our American food. I love to cook and have taught a cooking class called 'Cooking Around the World' so I was really excited to learn to cook some Ghanaian meals and I asked lots of food questions while in Ghana. I have heard different opinions about food adjustments and adopted children, but our method seemed to work really well, so I will post about it soon for those of you who are adopting and looking for ideas.
We are now off to the orthopedic doctor. While I was in Ghana I noticed that Comfort favored one leg so I asked Children's while she was there and they suggested checking it out after she recovered from surgery, so off we go. We are praying that it's not serious, but also thanking God that we have excellent medical care when we need it. We are truly blessed in so many ways.

Moving into a new stage of life as one big happy family! We love our new normal!!!
Lanae