AWAY WE WENT TO THE DR TODAY!!!

Well can you say I braved it and took all 4 of the little ones to the DR. Gabby, Giovanna and Bella needed to be seen. They ALL are on antibiotics and cough meds.....Gabby on more albutural for the nebulizer and hopefully we will kick this soon. Im tired of the snotty noses and all the hacking they are doing...LOL

Anyways, i hope that everyone has a blessed night...............

I have a prayer request for everyone that reads my blog.....My online friend from Reeces Rainbow, Meredith and her husband Mike Cornish are adopting a sweet little 4.5 yr old from Ukraine with DS. They jsut got word this morning that they have moved her from the baby house to a mental instituion. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE pray that their paperwork will get translated and an appointment given to them really QUICKLY! Our God is in the miracle business so i know if its HIS will it will be done. Pray for Aleska while she is in Ukraine that she will be safe and loved for....Meredith and Mike will be ever so thankful for all whom lift their family up and their new angel to our Heavenly Father!!!!

Thanks

Praise report!

The Endocronologist(sp) called me today to give me Gabby's report....she said her thyroid was within the normal limits with her being on the right dosage of Synthroid, she tested NEG for celiac, BUT her growth hormone is 1 point away from being in the low. She did say that she would qualify for growth hormone therapy but did tell us to research it and then decide. She said it has been noted that females with DS have a larger chance of getting Lukemia.

So anyone out there have any suggestions for us and or have been through growth hormone with their daughter with DS???

Have a blessed day

ALL my girls

This isnt the best picture but one of the FEW pictures of all my girls in one photo. This was on Lily's birthday in Sept. Some of her presents are in the pic and she is proud of her stroller and talking baby! So cute.

Well I just wanted to do a quick post tonight and say hello out there to all my blog junkies...LOL Im glad to share a little about our lives with you all. We are very proud of our crew of 6 kiddos!!!!

I totally failed my mission of my everyday posts for Oct

Picture is one my son took at work. He works at Rose Mary Beach, FL as a security person. He loves the ocean.

Hi all! This is going to be a quick update as I am waiting for hubby to come home and we are going on a DATE! Jim Brickman and Lonestar's leadsinger are in town doing a concert and we are going. This will be so much fun but so cold, as it is outdoors!!! BRRR!

Anyway the marriage retreat was wonderful! WE are so blessed to be able to go! WE had a pleasant time together and a much needed time alone with no interruptions. The kids did survive, well i should say our friends did survive with the kids for the 30 hours we were gone. They were all peacfull and asleep when we got home Sat night around 8pm.

Michael come home on Sunday and left on Tuesday morning. This was a nice visit. On Tuesday I took Gabby to Birmingham to the endo DR and they run alll kind of tests! We should get results back by Monday. She is now gaining so much weight. Idont know if it just means she is now feeling safe and secure and eating EVERYTHING in sight or if her Thyroid is off or celiac disease. Pray for good results!

Gotta run I will post more pics soon.

Rita

My handsome son

Well today i wanted to just make a quick blog about my son. My one and only baby boy! It is so hard to believe that he is 18 yrs old (as his twin sister) They both are such a joy, however they both do have their 18yr old attitude sometime. But he is a good guy! He is living with my parents in Panama City Bch and working security at Rose Mary Beach resort community. He likes his job but I think he gets homesick. I do miss him but he is doing a good job and we are both very proud of him.....so here is a BIG HIGH FIVE to my big guy...(Well he will always be my baby boy)!!

He loves to hang out with his friends, go to church, shop and play raquetball. He has a new love to riding bikes as well for long distances. He wants to start college of some sort in the fall.

Each day I will focus a blog on all 6 of my pride and joys!

I love you son!!!

William and I will be out of pocket at the marriage conference so i will not be posting until Sunday so you all have a great weekend.

Well a few more days

Our friends came over tonight and ate and watched how our nightly routine goes.....I hope they can handle it!! LOL Im afraid Lily is going to run circles around them.....Mommy is firm and they arent!!!

Oh well, it will be very nice to be 100% with my hubby for almost 30 hours!!!! HAve a good night

Michael, I miss you!!!

oh the joys of family!

Photo taken by: BLINK

I am so happy tonight!!! My girls have been such a joy today. Im making this short.....

I pray for you all that you will see the joys in your life each and everyday....This picture was taken by my oldest daughter's boyfriend. When I seen it I just had to have it!

Enjoy your day!

My BIG HELPER

I have to share this short story with you all!

I was downstairs getting Isabella settled yesterday while giovanna was upstairs (we have a tri level house) and Gabby and Lily were napping....She got really quiet.

Then I hear dishes moving around and the drawers open and close. I put Bella down and go to the kitchen to see my Princess Giovanna trying her best to un load the dishwasher. She had all the plates out and on the counter in a stack, all the bowls and cups out and then was trying to put away the silverware (it wasnt a full load thank goodness) She was so darn cute. She does like to help when I do it so I guess she figured she knew what she was doing.... I looked at her and said "What are you doing?" She looked at me with such a innocent sweet face and said"Me Big girl, I help Mommy!" Oh my you just dont know I about cried!!!! It hit me, she really is getting to be such a big girl and at 5 yrs old.... I cant believe this is the little 20 mth old we brought home 3.5 yrs ago that could barely do anything at all!!!! PTL She is such a angel to me. I love all my girls (and one boy) dearly but out of all our adoptions, Giovanna's just still is so special. I guess we longed for another for so long, 14 yrs that getting her was an answer to my long awaited prayers. God is so good!!! Then the floadgates to adopion opened up and here we are 3.5 yrs later with 4 blessings in tow!

HAve a blessed day, just had to share.

She is back to her old self!

With much prayer....Isabella is back to her old self. She really had us worried...She has been sick throwing up, running fever, NOT eating OR drinking since Monday night. Finally yesterday, she started to drink and eat. When we took her to the hospital, they did IV, antibotics and run lots of tests. They thought it was rotovirus or salminila but i believe the tests were all NEG. So it must have been a terrible virus! She lost 3 pounds this week. She does however have a double ear infection.....so we will continue the antibotics until all finished. I think she thought she hadnt eaten in a year,because she drank more yesterday than she had in a week.....GOOD SIGN. Anyway this morning she is back to being boss and I am very thankful for that. I am just praying it does NOT make its way through the house.....

Im excited to say that another friend from church called us a while back and said they felt led to give us their paid spot at the marriage conference this weekend AND watch our girls for us!!!!!! We just confirmed that we would take them up on this with the exception that noone gets sick this week.......so everyone PLEASE pray that the girls stay well and that William and I can get a well deserved time together in God's word! We NEED this alone time more than we know!

Sorry I didnt post yesterday but it was a crazy day with the girls, William has drill this weekend, and Im trying to get caught up on a weeks worth of housework.....our social worker comes tomorrow at 12:30 for our 1st post placement visit for our Colombian adoption. They require 3.

Until next time....

Im EXHAUSTED!

Not going topost much, we are on our way to bed!!! I was in the hospital all day with Isabella. They were going to keep her. ....But the power of prayer!!!! She is home and hopefully on the mend from a TERRIBLE BUG!!!!!!!!!!

Will update in the AM.

WE WON the drawing!

Check this out. In Honor of Down Syndrome month Christina and Prince Vince had a drawing for these awesome shoes.....and we won. It was for one pair, but Christina emailed me and said to pick one for each of the girls...........Oh they are going to love these. Also you gotta see Prince Vince he is a handsome doll with DS. Above is a few shots of him....enjoy!!!! And I will post a pic of the girls in them as soon as we get them from Austria ......

Thanks Christina and Prince Vince for drawing the Andrews Princesses for your great shoes.

Stomach bug has hit!

Please pray for Isabella as I think the BUG has finally hit the Andrews' home. She hasnt eaten since yesterday at lunch and when i do give her fluids they come up within 20 min. Waiting to go to the base in the AM so please pray that noone else gets it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just a reminder that October is Down Syndrome Awareness month. It is a great time to ask questions and get to know someone with Down syndrome. So, if you have any questions, please ask! I am always happy to share stories about Giovanna, Isabella, Gabriella and information on Down syndrome in general. They really are the rays of sunshine to my day (all 6 of my kiddos are)

Buddy walk was today!

We had a awesome DS Buddy walk today here in Montgomery ALabama. This was our 4th yr and we raised over 41K dollars!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We had over 550 folks in attendance. Wow that is just so awesome! I prya that all of you out there attending a buddy walk will have agreat time and remember the joy that our kids with DS bring!

Camera is in the suburban so i will post them in the AM.

Much love to you all for praying for Gabriella...we will be getting a second opinion but for now we are pleased with the report!

Rita

Praise the Lord for He is GOOD!

Well we went to the neurosurgeon today and this is the report.

He said that her cerebellum (SP), back part of her brain was underdeveloped at birth. Some was missing, so to compensate the fluid began to form and fill in the hole. He said that it is not putting any pressure of the brain itself, as shown to us on the MRI. He told us that the fluid/cyst shouldnt grow any bigger by itself, just grow as she grows to keep the hole filled in. He said he didnt feel any need to do immediate surgery to drain it, because it would probable do it again, and as long as she was not showing any signs of danger he would monitor her every 3 months and so would the eye dr to check her pressure.......I like him.....he is te head professor of ped neurosurgeon at UAB. I think we will still contact my Dad's friend at Oshner in New Orleans I believe and get him to give us a second oppion anyway.

PLEASE keep her in your prayers and I am so thankful for all of you who have prayed already. I know the Lord has heard everyone's heart and that she will be just fine!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Our eye Dr I think made it sound urgent to the neurosurgeon yesterday thats why we were in first thing this morning...we sat there in a room from 10:30-1:00. Thank God we brought our laptop to watch movies on.

Gabby should do just fine!!

Our Down Syndrome buddy walk is tomorrow so we will update you all on how that turns out!

Rita

update number 2 on Gabby

Ped Neurosurgeon just called Dr. Jeffry Blount and they are getting us in at 10:15 in the morning!!! We will know something tomorrow afternoon to updat you all. Keep praying!!!!!

Rita

Gabby update!

Well our Dr just called and he is calling the surgeon now and sending the report to him. He did tell me that the cyst is large for her size brain and that it very well has been there a long time. He said it did need to be removed to relieve the pressure to her optic nerves and brain. It is attached to the cerebullum(SP) part of the brain that controls the nerves and balance...so this does explain her moving jumping eyes and her balance being off at times. PLEASE continue to pray for her and I will post as soon as I talk to the Surgeon today.

Thanks

Rita

URGENT PRAYER REQUST

I NEED all of your prayer wariorrs out there to please start praying. I just go the call from our DR about Gabby's MRI........She has a cyst on the posterior (front) part of the brain meausring 3x6 cm!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It is putting pressure on the optic nerves and they are swollen...... Im am shaking like crazy!!!! I know I know I know the Lord sent her to us.......but brain surgery?????????????????????????????? I just never thought!!!!!


PLEASE pray that the cyst in easy to remove and that she will be fine. We are awaiting a phone call hopefully today if not tomorrow from the specialist in Birmingham about what to do at this point.

Rita
rlba272@hotmail.com

Welcome to DS Awareness month!!!

Welcome to October!!

Down Syndrome

Awareness Month

First I would like to Welcome everyone to our little space on the web to share our beautiful girls with. WE have been so overly blessed with 6 AWESOME kids and 3 of them just happen to have a little extra something special called Down Syndrome. WE choose this life, we choose to have DS as part of our family, we choose Adoption of a special needs angel. WE encourage all of you out there in cyber space that reads about our family, to sit back and enjoy the most out of what life has given you.......enjoy the something extra special that our girls have......enjoy people with Down Syndrome....they too have something extra special to give!!!!

October is DS Awareness month and we just want to promote the acceptance of children with DS. They are the joy of our lives......wont you learn more........go to http://www.ndss.org/ OR http://www.nads.org/.

Thanks so much and in honor of DS month I am choosing to blog everyday for 31 days to help promote the awareness.......so this is it .....31 for 21!!!!!

Our DS Buddy walk is this Sat Oct 6th so pictures of our girls will be posted that night....

Blessings,

Gabby goes for PreOp today at 1:30

Well today I take Gabriella to Bpt S for her Pre op for her MRI in the morning. Please stand in prayer with us that there are no major issues with the results of her MRI. Please pray that she does well with being put to sleep for the 1.5-2 hrs procedure. Thanks so much for all your friendships and love for our family.