It's been awhile....again

Well, it has been awhile since October. Many things have happened since then. I feel like I am writing this post very quickly before Ethan wakes up. I do most things while he is napping now and I don't get a whole lot done anymore or so it seems to me.

Updates - here we go....

October was the last month I was on maternity leave. I enjoyed every minute of my leave from work. I was gone for 12 weeks and am now just working part time so I can spend more time with Ethan. I also love being able to get household chores done during the week so the when the weekends come, Dwaine and Ryan are here and we don't have to do as much house work now on the weekends. We can spend more time together.

Ethan celebrated his first Halloween with us. He was dressed as a pea pod. Mostly he was a mad pea because it was a warm day and his costume was very warm also. He was a hot, mad little pea.

I started back to work in November. That is going ok and I am glad to be back to work also. I loved my time off but now I feel like I am still using my skills to keep up being an MRI tech. We celebrated Thanksgiving with the whole family here. Carrie came home, Dwaine's mom and dad were here, his sister Patti was here and David came home from Korea. He is back in the states for the time being. He had two weeks off here at home and then started work at Fort Riley, KS. Just a 3 1/2 hour trip from here. Much better than half a world away. Now at least he is in the same time zone. Kansas still seems like a foreign country, though.

The day after Thanksgiving, we had Ethan baptized. It was a wonderful day filled with family and friends. I was amazed at how many people showed up at his baptism. His godmother is my good friend Toni whom I work with and his godfather is my brother Chris. Carrie, David and Ryan were all there. Carrie fixed a wonderful meal for us all and we enjoyed it very much. She was quite the hostess. I think if her carreer in music doesn't pan out, she should start a catering business. :)

Carrie and her long time boyfriend Gus were engaged just recently and are planning an October wedding. It will be held in New Jersey. We are very happy for them both. We do really like Gus a lot. My brother Chris also became engaged to his long time girlfriend Stacy. They will be married in December next year. 2009 will be the year for weddings. They will be married in Quincy.

David is back from Korea and is stationed in Fort Riley KS as I mentioned earlier. He will be there until June when he supposedly will be sent to Bagdad. He will be stationed there for one year. Please pray that he remains safe or better yet, that his duty may be assigned to another place besides Iraq. He will be in Kansas until then. It is nice to be able to see him more often now.

Christmas has come and gone. Ethan celebrated his first Christmas. He was more interested in the paper and boxes than the actual gifts. He had a good first Christmas. We spent Christmas eve and Christmas Day here at home with our family. Then we travelled to Oklahoma for Christmas with the Gelnars. The trip to Oklahoma was an event that I am not too eager to repeat any time soon. We spent 14 hours in the car with Ethan both on the way there and on the way back. So in 3 days, he spent 28 hours in the car. Too much for a 4 month old. Take warning all of you who have small children. Don't do it! Our visit with the family was very nice though. Ethan got to see his grandma and grandpa again and he got to meet a few of his cousins for the first time and also Aunt Cindy and Uncle Joe. He did remarkably well on the trip.

Our adoption (which is the primary reason I started this blog) is at a complete slowdown right now. We were logged in in Feb. of '07 and they have been working on Feb of '06 for well over 6 months right now if that tells you anything. We are going to wait a year and then re-evaluate our situation. China is not looking so good right now. We may switch over to special needs but that is slowing down too. Our little girl seems soooo far away right now.

We are anticipating a wonderful new year with lots of love and good times both with Ethan and our other kids and my brother as well. We are looking forward to two upcoming weddings and lots of fun with Ethan. I will post pictures later on but for now I hope you all have a blessed and happy New Year.

Lots of love,

Kelley & Dwaine & Ethan

Random thoughts

Hi again,

Just wanted to check in. There is not a whole lot going on which is a good thing. I like the quiet. Now that the house remodelling is finished, we have finally started on Ethan's room. He will probably be in college by the time we get his room ready for him. Dwaine started tearing the closet apart so he could widen the opening and put on new doors. I have started painting. I swear, if I have to paint one more thing after this, I think I will lose it. I am so sick of painting!

I haven't mentioned our adoption for awhile and that is because we are still waiting, and waiting, and waiting. Actually, it is a good thing for us to wait awhile now because I would like to get adjusted to Ethan first. He will more than likely be two or three before we go to China. Some friends of ours who are in our local adoption group should be getting their referral in a couple of months. Their log in date is in Feb. of '06. They have been waiting 2 1/2 years. Our log in date is Feb. of '07. We will be waiting a lot longer than that. We began our paperwork just over 2 years ago and a referral for us is nowhere in sight. At least now I have something to distract me from the wait now.

Speaking of Ethan, here is a picture of him in his Halloween costume.

Doesn't he make a cute little sweet pea? He will hate these pictures when he is older so I need to get all I can now. Oh, what the heck, here are a couple more pictures of Ethan. He is starting to smile now and not just gassy smiles, real smiles when he looks at us. I think he thinks we are funny looking old people.

David will be home in a few more weeks. Hopefully, he will be in the states for the remainder of his duty. He will be home for Thanksgiving & Christmas! That will be really great! We are looking forward to having you home, David!

Carrie will be home at Thanksgiving as well. We are planning to have Ethan baptized while the kids are here. Hopefully it will work out that way.

Ryan has moved into his new bachelor pad in our basement. He has his own space now and that huge walk in closet. I am going to have to arm wrestle him for half of it. I am planning to store a lot of our crap in there.

Chris and Stacy are officially engaged now. No wedding date has been set yet but she is sporting a really beautiful diamond ring! It really is pretty. I am so proud of them both for being such good parents. Stacy has taught me things that I did not know about being a mom. She is a really good mom.

Anyway, that's all for now. Hope you are all well.

Kelley

A Tribute to my Grandma

Marie Kuhn

Feb. 11, 1912 - Sep. 27, 2008

Things I remember about my Grandma

Her kindness

Her warm heart

Letting me play the organ in church after mass

Her interest in all of the activities of all of her grandchildren

Always asking me if I am saving enough money

Her snickerdoodles

The fact that she always called me Anne

Cardparties

The fact that she took care of my other Grandmother when she was dying because we couldn't be there.

Her holiday dinners

Cooking chicken on a makeshift grill in the back yard.

Mitsy & Taffy (her dogs that she loved)

Swinging on her swing with her.

Trying to make me feel better when I was sick

Her beautiful relationship with my Grandfather

Her strong faith in God

Feeding the squirrels from her kitchen window

Praying the rosary at her kitchen table

Praying the rosary in the car on our trip to Washington DC

Her love of travelling

The fact that she raised five children who have a strong faith in God

Offering to pray for me when I needed it

Grandma, I told you before you left that I would pray for you too. Please pray for all of us now and be happy with your family in heaven forever.

Our remodelling is finished!

Actually, it has been finished for a few weeks now. We have just moved Ryan into the bedroom that we added downstairs so I thought I would share some before and after photos.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

Basement Before and after

My kitchen is the best room in the house. We have a pantry now and two more walls filled with cabinets that were bare before. There is a lot of great lighting and it seems so much bigger than before.

The basement was one huge room that served no purpose except for storing our junk. Now there is a bedroom and a computer nook and we are planning on using our fireplace this year for the first time ever! I am so excited. We are going to make the downstairs family room a small room for reading or relaxing. Also with the fireplace, we should have a lot of good heat without running the furnace as much.

Oh and one more picture...

Isn't he so cute?!?!?!

Kelley

Ethan stories

Here is the latest news about Ethan. For those of you who know, Ethan was born with hydronephrosis which is an enlargement of the kidney. We have known about his kidney since my 20 week ultrasound. Well, long story short, our pediatrician has been on top of it and set up an appointment for us to see a pediatric urologist at Children's Hospital in St. Louis. That appointment was last Wednesday. He had a couple of tests done here which led our dr. to believe that there was a blockage in the tube that leads from the kidney to the bladder. Knowing this, we had discussed the possibility of surgery to unblock the tube. When the dr. examined him in St. Louis, he told us (after a couple more tests) that the tube was not blocked, but the bladder was refluxing back into the kidney. Something he may very well grow out of without surgery. Great news for us and Ethan. He is on a low dose of antibiotics so he does not get a kidney infection and he will have another ultrasound of his kidney in 6 more months to see if it is getting smaller. That was great news!

He is a really good traveller. We took him to St. Louis for his appointment and he did really great in the car both ways. We took him to Quincy to meet my family there and he did exceptionally well going and coming back. He loves the car.

He has been fighting some really bad colic. We have changed formula twice which helped but not totally fixed the problem. He would cry and scream for hours with no relief. Eating would make it worse. He would cry through his feedings and sleep only for little bits at a time. The pediatrician prescribed Prevacid wich is something they give people for heartburn thinking he had acid reflux. It didn't help. Next we were given Levsin which is a medication given to people who have irritable bowel syndrome. It has worked really well. He is eating better and sleeping better and when he is awake, now instead of screaming, he is taking in his surroundings and smiling and making contact with us. We still have some occasional setbacks, like today for instance, he has been crying most of the day, but for the most part, he has done much better.

He weighs almost 9 lbs now. He is changing every day. He is becoming more interactive with us and his appearance is changing a lot also. He is a really cute baby. We are still not getting much sleep but it could be a lot worse. I am glad I am not working right now. That would be tough.

In other family news, Chris and Stacy are engaged! I am so happy for them and Stacy will be a wonderful addition to our family. I am looking forward to having her as a sister in law. Lily is now 4 months old and sleeping through the night. I wish she could teach Ethan to do that.

Carrie is finishing up her last year of school and doing well as always. David is going to be coming back to the states around the first part of November. He will be in Kansas at Ft. Riley. We are looking forward to that. Ryan is a Junior now and is enjoying band and singing in choir.

Well, that's all for now. Hope you are all doing well. Until next time...

Kelley

Ethan Robert Gelnar

Ethan was born on August 13, 2008. He weighed 7lb, 4oz. and was 20" long. He is the best thing that has ever happened to me besides my sweet husband. I will just post some photos because to me, there are no words to describe the miracle of this precious little boy.










Ethan is a healthy baby and he is really good too. He only gets us up twice during the night. We had some difficulty with him in the beginning because he could not tolerate his formula. We went through two formula changes in the first two days he was home. He is doing 100% better now though.

He has a kidney problem on the left side. That kidney is partially blocked. They found this out during one of my prenatal ultrasounds. The pediatrician says it is a fairly common problem especially in boys. He may need to have it removed. The dr. would send us to St. Louis to a pediatric urologist. He may need to have a stent to keep the ureter open or they may need to go in and surgically remove the blockage. We had a test done at the hospital to see the extent of the blockage. It is not a problem at all for him now but as he gets older and the kidney grows, it can cause pressure on the kidney and he can suffer kidney damage when he gets older. So now is the time to fix it. But say a little prayer that we don't have to go at all. That is a possibility too.

Well, my little guy is asking that I feed him now so I better go.

Thanks for all your prayers and support.

Kelley

Baby on the way!

Well, just two more days until Ethan's arrival. I am excited, nervous, anxious, relieved, scared, elated and every other emotion you can think of. It is hard to believe that it has finally come to this. After years of thinking we could not have children, after almost two years into the adoption process, a baby is born! I can't believe how blessed we are.

I don't have his room ready yet. Our house is still under construction. However, good news is that the kitchen should be finished today! Just in the nick of time. Then they will be working in the basement anyway and that will be much better. It will still be a couple of weeks before Ryan's room is ready. Then we can move him downstairs and start the baby's room. I do have the bassinet ready. Linens are washed and it is stocked with diapers, wipes, blankets and other necessary things that he might need. His little clothes are washed and put away in his dresser. Today I will try to install my carseat base and get that ready. Then tomorrow, I will pack my bag and his and we will be ready to go to the hospital on Wednesday!

I am a little nervous about the c-section but I think that looking forward to the baby is over-riding that a little bit. I have one more dr.'s appointment tomorrow before the big day.

Well, wish us luck and I will try to post pictures as soon as I get home from the hospital. Talk to you all soon,

Kelley