4 Months Old

Today Micah is four months old. I can't believe how quickly time goes by. We have already been back in Oaxaca for two months, which is how much time we spent in Washington for Micah's birth. And can we believe it's already March 2011. I feel like the new year just began. I guess when you're extremely busy, time goes by more quickly.

Micah is doing great and going in for his 4 month check up next week. He is nine and a half pounds as of now and seems long. He's is nursing full time and gaining weight just like he should be. Nursing full time is very much a miracle since he was born so early, had a feeding tube, and took mostly a bottle in the hospital. He holds his head up really well and is getting better at controlling his head movements. He has also nearly grown out of almost all his newborn clothes. Our little man has also started smiling more readily. It's not all the time, but definitely more often. He smiles at the Elmo hanging from his carseat and at Ricardo and I when we change his diaper. He also is making more noise and not just crying. He has started cooing and making little noises. It's so cute. He is also is becoming a great sleeper. He sleeps for a good chunk of time at night and takes two great naps during the day. All this great stuff happening and our little guy should really only be about 6 or 7 weeks old.

I love that we are developing a routine. So our average day looks something like this:

3am          Feeding
6am          Feeding and wake up
7am          Breakfast with the boys
7:30 am    Boys head to school
8 am         Devotions and Houseparents Prayer Time
9 am         Another Feeding and a Bath
10am        Micah takes a nap. I do chores, email or other housework, or I hang out with Jill.
12pmish   Micah wakes up and eats. We then go on a walk to the office to visit Janelle.
1:30pm     My two elementary boys get home and the afternoon madness begins
2:30pm     Lunch in the comedor and all my secondary boys get home.
3pm          Another meal for Micah and nap. Homework begins with the other boys
6pmish     Dinner in the comedor and Micah eats again.
7pm         Prayer Tuesdays or Church Thursdays in the Auditorium
9pm         Micah's bedtime routine begins with a massage, jammies and then he eats and goes to bed.
9:30pm    Boy's house is quiet and they head to bed.
10pm       Ricardo and I talk to each other and pray we get through the next day! Then we go to bed.

So our days are a bit crazy. Add to it the 90 degree weather and all the other children running around, there is definitely never a dull moment. Someone always needs clothes from the clothing room, or deodorant or school supplies. Or they want to practice driving or need to make a mask for school. So our days are full, full of challenges and lots of love.

We are so thankful for Micah and how is growing. We're thankful for each of our 11 boys and the blessings they are to us.

Micah is smiling so much more these days.

What Could Be Cuter?

Micah Salvador Bolanos

On November 9, 2010 we counted our 11th boy. Micah Salvador Bolanos came into the world 10 weeks ahead of schedule and just two and a half hours after we landed at SeaTac airport. Two months later I finally have a bit of time to write how his arrival came about and what it was like.

The plan was to go to Washington to celebrate Thanksgiving and have some much needed rest. However, the Lord and Micah had another plan. Our travel day had gone really well. We'd left Oaxaca in the early morning and were excited to be going to visit my family and have some time away from all the hubub of our daily life with ten sons. Our travels had gone without a hitch.

The last hour we were in the air, I had felt uncomfortable, but just thought it had been a long day and I would feel better once we got home. That was not going to be the case. We got down to the baggage claim about 5: 45pm, and I started feeling really bad. Looking back, I was starting to have contractions, but didn't really think that at the time.

So we got our bags. My mom and grandparents picked us up and I was still feeling really uncomfortable. We were heading to my grandma's house in Everett for dinner. No one in the car really pin pointed it down as labor pains. Though the "pains" were a minute long and two minutes apart. I could still talk through all the pain and move around. I don't think I could even have said they were contractions because it was just too early. He couldn't  be coming. I mean I had just gotten off an airplane.

We arrived at my grandma's and the "pains" got more intense. I couldn't sit still and was in a lot of pain. My mom called a friends midwife and she said, "Get her to the hospital. They will stop the contractions." My mom thought, "Contractions? She's not having contractions. It's too early."

But we made our way to the car again and my mother drove like a crazy woman to Providence Regional Medical Center off of Pacific Avenue in Everett. These fifteen or so minutes were the longest minutes of my life. The contractions were coming really close together and the pain was really really intense. She passed the Emergency Room entrance and had to turn around using precious time. As she pulled to a stop in front of the emergency room warm water started running down my legs. Scared to death, I told my mom that my water had broke. I got out of the car without my flip flops on and made my way barefoot into the emergency room lobby. It was about 8pm.

I yelled and cried at the receptionist that my water had broken and I was only 29 weeks pregnant. The lady and everyone else in the lobby just kinda stared at me. It took them a minute to snap into action and even then they weren't moving fast enough for Ricardo's liking. Once I was sitting in the wheel chair he just started pushing me quickly down the hall, though he had no idea where we were going, and he'd barely said two words through the whole evening.

So we were moving toward the Women and Children's Pavilion, the building where women have babies. We came to a curtained off little room where they had me put on a gown and wanted to get my vitals. My mom was parking the car. The nurse was taking my blood pressure when a gush of water from my body.  I told her I felt like I should push. She said, "no, you don't need to push." She continued with the blood pressure cuff. I told her again, " I feel like I should push."

"No. You are going to be fine. Don't push." Mind you she didn't check to see how far dilated I was or anything. She wanted to take my blood pressure and hook me up to a fetal monitor. Apparently I couldn't possibly know what I was talking about in wanting to push.

Within my body things were moving extremely fast, however the people around me didn't seem to realize this. Ricardo was there the whole time, though he didn't really say anything. He appeared scared to death and unable to speak.

Finally, (well it could have only been a minute or two) they started moving me toward a birthing room. We didn't even make it to the elevators. We pulled out of the hallway into the "delivery 'em fast room," and it quickly filled with people, though still no doctor. I would come to find out there were three nurses and the neonatal team of a couple nurses, a nurse practitioner, and respiratory guy. The neonatal team was setting up the recessitation cart and finally the doctor appeared.

Upon his arrival the nurse who I'd been trying to work with said, "She says she thinks she should push," like I had no clue what I was talking about. The doctor took a look and replied, "Well your baby is crowning so go ahead and push." I knew it had been time. So in three short pushes of 10 seconds each Micah entered the world at 8:15pm.

Before the last push, the doctor said he would cut the cord quickly and I wouldn't get to touch him or even really see that much of him so they could make sure he was ok. They took him quickly and cut the umbilical cord and laid him on the recessitation cart and went to work. Micah didn't make any noise and was really purple. It took a few minutes for him to get stable, but he was alive. They rushed him upstairs to the NICU, the Newborn Intensive Care Unit where he would spend the first 52 days of his life.

So that is the crazy story of the evening of Micah's birth. The Lord knew precisely when he was going to come into the world and had it been anytime earlier that day he would not have lived. He's our little miracle and we're so glad to say that today he is thriving, gaining weight every day and getting to know all his big brothers and friends around the mission.

I'll continue to write about our NICU experience and all the ways that the Lord provided for our every need. We are truly blessed.

The first time I got to hold Micah, the day after he was born.

Micah's first Christmas.

It's been a while.

So I know it's been a really long time since I've posted on this blog. And so much has happened in our lives in the last few months. I'm working on the rather long story of our little boys birth. It will be posted soon, but for now, here's a picture of our beloved Micah Salvador Bolanos.

Meatballs

So I know it's been a while since I have posted anything on this blog and a situation presented itself today that just has to be shared because it's the kind of the thing that I feel like happens on a daily basis in having ten teenage sons.

So there has been this issue for a couple months of someone, one of the boys, putting gross old food in another boy's closet. Pio's closet, or his bed or his shoes. We never really knew who was doing it. There were suspicions, Chucho mostly, but it was never proved.

Then today, today Pio came raging into our house with a bowl of old, smelly, rotting meatballs, that apparently had been in the fridge for a couple weeks. Someone had placed the bowl of meatballs and a note on Pio's bed. The note read, "Yum, yum. Eat up."

Ricardo smelled the rancid meal and nearly vomited. So Pio was quite livid, and with good reason. This called for immediate attention.  Ricardo went to the boys and said that meals would be suspended until someone came forward and admitted to putting nasty food in Pio's things. Peer pressure is one of our favorite teachers.

So a minute later, Chucho came to Ricardo and said it had been him. He had no reason for his behavior other than saying that "Pio bothers him."

We like to let our children choose their consequences. So Chucho's two options of consequences were to eat two of the meatballs that he declared "yummy" or do Pio's chores for two weeks. He chose to do the chores for two weeks which we believe is the better consequence. So we hope that Chucho will stop putting nasty food in Pio's stuff and will generally learn from this situation.

This is just a little snippet of our lives on a daily basis.

Eduardo

When I was 17 I spent six weeks at a children's home in Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico. I served there as an intern. The most profound moments I spent there, was when I watched three children leave the home.

It was a foggy, Saturday morning. It had been colder than normal and these three beautiful children were going back to live with their mom. Everyone was standing outside saying their goodbyes. Everyone was crying, as the kids got into the bed of a pick up truck. Their stuff was next to them in black, plastic garbage bags as they prepared to drive away. Their mom was in the front seat with her new husband. He was a nice, kind man who would treat them well. And with that they drove away into the world. You could see the tops of their heads over the tailgate.

And as I watched this seen unfold, and I held the hands to two little kids who were not going home that day, I looked around and noticed Edna. Edna ran the children's home, and she was standing off to the side, kind of out of the way. And she had tears running down here cheeks. And after the truck was out of sight, she wiped her face and went inside.

And in that moment, I had thought to myself, "how can she just let them drive away like that? She loved them and invested so much into them. And now, they are gone."

Today I have become Edna. The caregiver, the one who loves them so much, watching them drive away. And my heart is breaking. My Eduardo will leave today, after making some huge, very unwise decisions. And I understand the situation. My head works just fine, but my heart is broken. The decision wasn't mine, but I can't help but question, what is best for him? No one else sees much good in him, and I just feel bad.

He had never believed that he would be told to leave this place. And after the decision was made and he was told, he came with me and we went on a short walk. We walked to a bench and sat down. He asked a few questions and then started crying. I cried with him, I'm still crying now. I said, "Eduardo, but you are going back with your mom. You always tell me how much she loves you and you love her. You tell me how nice she is and that you love your grandma too. You had told me you wanted to leave and be with her."

And he said, "Andrea, I never wanted to leave like this. And how is she going to love me after all I have done?"

I tried to assure him that a mother's love doesn't end because you made a mistake and that his mom will always love him no matter what he does. I hope I'm right. So if you read this blog today or tomorrow or in a couple weeks, please pray for me and Eduardo.

I know in my head that God is sovereign and He works all things for good. My heart just hurts.

Haiti

We are off to Haiti. We're leaving tomorrow morning and will be gone until February 10. If you would like to read more about what we will be doing in Haiti you can check out www.camanochapelmissions.org

Thank you for your prayers.