The Land of the Living

Hello All,

I am barely awake, but I'm here.  Today I finally feel like I am getting back to normal.  However, it still looks like a bomb exploded in my house... oh yeah, I have two boys... it is going to look like that for now on!   I can not remember a time in my life that I was this exhausted. The only other time that comes close was when we flew to Nepal and after 38 hours of being up went to sign papers and picked up Sam.  Yeah, I was pretty exhausted then too.  

David is doing better than I could have asked for.  Thank you so much for all of your prayers, they have truly held us up through this journey.  David has a great personality.  He is fun and outgoing and everyday brings new looks and goofiness.  Tonight he started to imitate Samuel and give him hugs.  Sam ate it up.  It is so good to hear their laughter and squeals as they play together.  Of course there are some jealousies going on, but they will work out.  

David had a rough day today.  It was test day.  The nurses couldn't find a vein so they stuck him 4 times while I held him down.  Not easy on anyone, especially little one.  They had to stick a cotton swab in every orphace of his body and that is not so nice.  I suspected that he had strep and we had that confirmed today.  He also has a skin infection that might be related.  So antibiotics it is.  (I knew it was strep because one of the children I nannied for got it all the time and I recognized the smell... blah).  We still have more tests that will be run and vaccinations to get... but we will wait for a few days at least.  David cuddled with me a lot today, which I loved, but knew it was because he needed the comfort after all the tests.  

Tomorrow Andreas leaves for 5 days.  Not ideal, but it has to be done.  The annual conference for the Methodist Church starts tomorrow in Stockholm.  Andreas' dad will help me out for a few days and then a few all on my own.  Please pray for all to go smoothly and me not to colapse.  I am a little worried the Andreas will lose some ground with David, but Andreas will be home until September and be able to make it up.  Also, pray for Andreas, there are some really hard things going on with the church and it maybe a trying conference, but essencially the Methodist Church will cease to exist here in Sweden in about a year and join into an ''interesting'' denomination that is well...''interesting''.  

It is time for me to head to bed, but I posted a few pictures from our first day with David.  I promise to write to those who have written me and yes, I will skype with my family as soon as we can get one of our computers to work the sound and the camera at the same time (my husband says we are getting a mac next time!)

One more thing. I think I mentioned a child in Russia that needed prayer so he could come home and PRAISE JESUS he was given the clear to come home!!!!!!!!  God is good and loves his precious children.  I read the Kirill could go home and cried like a baby.  Sometimes I am overwhelmed by the grace of God.  

Blessings,

Laurie (please excuse any errors, I am too tired to edit, thank you!)

This was about 30 minutes after we met him, we had to load up and go get pictures taken. I had only touched him about 10 minutes before this.  But he started talking in the van.  So sweet and amazing.

Andreas with his boys!

I finally have a brother!

Okay, I highly recommend this for anyone adopting and older child.  I saw it on  Youtube and so I bought a crazy electric car in China and David loved it.  He was playing with us and running to us instantly.  It really helped break the ice.  He was a little scared of it, but that made him come to be picked up an it became a game.  (grant you the sound it highly annoying,but hey it served its purpose. ) However, I may have to hide the thing now!