Day Two...

Such a ham! Clearly she is taking after her father!



RosaLoca did very poorly in family court on Tuesday... things are looking fantastic for us. She is now denied most of her rights to Lacy... the saga continues...

Meeting the Family!

Lacy's first day home was filled with new experiences, and much to our relief she is loving every minute! I had to work last night, so Randy took Lacy out to his parent's house. Of course I called Randy a dozen times asking for detailed explanations and play by play commentary throughout the evening!

Lacy loved his parent's dogs. These dogs are incredibly sweet towards her, and Lacy was in heaven. I could hear her squealing with excitement when I called Randy.
Grams and Gramps spent some time showing Lacy the computer! I am not sure who is more excited about this new arrangement!

Still not home

We were not allowed to take Lacy home yesterday. Today is supposed to be the big finale. Who knows!?! There have been a few more kinks in the road, but I am holding strong. (Ok, maybe a few breakdowns). I will elaborate on everything later, but for now I work the next three nights (kinda used up most of my paid time off this last week) so I will prob. be back on Friday for a wrap-up. Also, my folks bought us a super cool video camera, so I am going to try to figure out how to get some video on my blog as well.

Ciao!

Oh... I have another crazy birth mom story (who will henceforth be called RosaLoca) She called the room yesterday in tears again all worried about how sick Lacy is and the fact that she is in the ICU... for the MILLIONTH time I explained to her that she is NOT sick, this is just a place for her to get the vent set up. While I had RosaLoca on the phone I asked her a few questions that I had previously been unable to answer regarding Lacy's birth.

ME: "So the doctors have asked me about Lacy's birth... was she a c-section or did you have her naturally?"

RosaLoca: "She was a c-section and we both DIED in the room"

ME: showing no surprise to her statement "You don't say."

RL: "Oh yes, but they revived us just in time! We were dead for a while. You know, it was a very hard pregnancy for me. I lived in TwentyNine Palms and had to walk almost 36 miles to work every day while I was pregnant with Lacy. I was all alone and I had to work to pay the bills. I didn't have anyone around to help me" ***

***In a previous conversation, RL told me that she was abused during her entire pregnancy by Lacy's birth father (who shall henceforth be known as The One Handed SpermDoner.) So obviously she wasn't too clear whether she was alone or not!

ME: "36 miles you say?"

RL: "Yes, it was not that easy, I think that is why she has her problems. Lacy is the reason my other child was taken from me... they said it was too dangerous for my child to be around Lacy in my home, she has that tube in her throat and my daughter could pull it out, so they took her away from me to protect Lacy."

ME: now totally pissed at this bullshit because RL has NEVER had Lacy in her home... "Rosa, I don't think that's the truth, you never had Lacy in your home with a trach, she went from the hospital to TK (the sub acute facility she grew up in) so there is no possible way your other child could have been an endangerment to Lacy's well being, she never had the opportunity"

RL: "Well, they did it to prevent anything just in case Lacy comes home. They needed my home to be safe".

ME: "OK, I gotta go now. Have a nice day" CLICK.

Norplant anyone?

Happy Birthday!!!!!

Happy Birthday, Sabrina!

We met ten years ago and we have been through it ALL!

It makes me happy to see how wonderful your life is going!

I am proud of you for all you have done!

Happy Happy Birthday!

Say A Prayer!!!

We are supposed to bring Lacy home for good today. But we are waiting for her bronch this morning. (bronch: bronchoscopy) She was supposed to get it done last week, but because she is under the state care, any invasive procedures must be approved by a judge. We had hoped to have it done and have her home last week, but no dice... so now we sit and wait. The bronch is scheduled for 11:30 am this morning and we still have no signed paperwork from the judge. Love that social services dept! Soooo please say a prayer that everything works out, we are anxious to get home and I am running out of paid time off at my job!

Side note: Randy and I shared our "last supper" together last night. We have known each other for over nine years so this was kind of a bittersweet moment for us. Our last dinner out as just the two of us!

OH, by the way...

I just received the report on our home inspection from the county... my house was rated "Exceptionally Clean"... so... to all of you nay-sayers who have lived with me, or have seen my version of housekeeping, I say: Bite Me. The government thinks I am exceptional. Let me see your paperwork!

Ready, Set... GO!

Over the past five months, Randy and I have visited Lacy almost every single day. With Randy back in school right now, I usually hang out around the house in the afternoon waiting for him to get home and then we pack up Lacy's dinner and head down to the facility to spend some time with her. Last Monday, around 3:15 PM, I was watching a little Oprah when the phone rang.

"Hello, this is Loma Linda Children's Hospital, can you have Lacy here by 5pm tonight? Make sure to bring her wheelchair and crutches" (PS Lacy has none of that, she is a perfectly normal kid with the exception of having her breathing problems... this was my first clue that these people had NO idea what was coming into the unit!)

"Ummm, yeah, sure. I will make the phone calls."

My internal monologue was as follows: OH MY GOODNESS! OH MY GOODNESS! OH MY GOODNESS! OH MY GOODNESS! Ok, maybe it was more like OHHHHHHH SHIIIIIIT!

Within moments of the phone call, Randy was home and we were tossing clothes and toys into a bag for Lacy! We rushed down to the facility and waited for the "transport people" to show up and take her to LLU. Quickly we were all ushered into the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit where for the FIRST TIME we were told that this could possibly be a multi-week stay. And just for the record, no, she is not allowed off of the unit. It was now my job to amuse this perfectly-healthy- almost-three-year-old for, at this point, an indefinite amount of time! And could I please do my best to keep her on her bed and attached to all of the monitoring.

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I called off work for the week, and moved into the PICU with Lacy.

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That's where I have been ALL WEEK.

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Lacy has been poked, measured, poked three more times, prodded, and checked out by immeasurable amount of doctors and other specialists. I am impressed how well she has just rolled with the situation. Every single person who walks into the room comments on how normal she is. Doctors, therapists, specialists... they all say the same thing, "Is THIS Lacy? She doesn't look like anything is wrong with her!"

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On Tuesday (maybe wed or thurs, I can't remember anymore) the birth mom showed up to the hospital with her "fiancee" in tow. These are some crazy people, I must say! Mom told me how she has seven children (has lost custody of all but Lacy...for now at least!) She told me about Lacy's dad, who I found on Megan's Law website... he is 32 yrs old, 6'1", and MISSING A HAND! Nice. Mom wasn't much better, she is a freaking nutcase and has hundreds of stories about how she is just a victim in this whole thing and that the courts are out to get her. FREAKING NUT! The Fiancee told me that he is a "crack baby". Friggin' Awesome.

Monday is our estimated day of departure from the hospital. Things could change at any moment, so I am not all that sure of the exact time... ok, gotta get in the shower and get back to the hospital. Will write more when I get home! Wish us luck!

Firsts...

Today was Lacy's first car ride home...

And our first dinner as a family...

And her first bath...

We were lucky enough to take her out on a "day pass". We picked her up right after her nap and she hopped right into her car seat and was ready to go.

On the way home I realized I still needed a few things for dinner... so with a little hesitation we stopped at the grocery store. Randy and I were both incredibly nervous because Lacy has never seen anything like a grocery store in her life. We were both amazed how well she adapted to the situation. We gave her the option of riding in the seat of a grocery cart or the cart with a little kid's car attached to the front. She INSISTED on riding in the front little car. Randy pushed the cart down the isle to the produce area, and I immediately took my defensive position against anyone or anything that might startle Lacy. It was the strangest experience. I was suddenly like a pit bull, ready to attack if needed. She, however, was very quiet and watched everything with an incredible intensity. I explained what we were doing every step of the way and she seemed to even enjoy herself. After we grabbed a few items, I let Lacy pick out some flowers from the floral area. She made sure to hold onto them all the way to the check-out area. Within a few minutes we were back in the car and on our way home.

Lacy was excited to see her new home, but at first didn't want to go any further than a few inches away from either Randy or myself. Until she saw Tink. Randy picked Tink up and Lacy was so sweet with her. "Hello, my name is Lacy. What's your name?" she said. Tink ignored her. "You have very pretty ears" added Lacy. Tink continued to ignore her. Lacy gently reached out and held Tink's paw (Randy had the death grip on his cat just in case, so we weren't too concerned for Lacy's safety at this point) and while holding Tink's paw Lacy said, "You have very pretty hands." I was pretty impressed with how gentle Lacy was with the cat.

During dinner, Lacy's nurse, Julie, from her facility dropped by to see her new home. Lacy was thrilled to see her and show off her new bed, toys, and her cat. Lacy even went potty for her Julie to see.

We hope to have her home soon. Randy and I can't wait!

Oh! I almost forgot my absolute favorite part of the night... during dinner Lacy turned to Randy and said, "Randy! You are in TIME OUT right now!" of course I cracked up laughing, and she immediately turned to me without missing a beat and said, "JO, eat your dinner! You are in time out too". What an assertive little personality! I love every bit of it.

"This is my very serious face, Jo"

Lacy has been practicing her "very serious" face lately. I was lucky enough to get a pic with my cell phone. Today was yet another court date. Pre-court trial, actually. Birth-mom is refusing to relinquish services (mom gets a $50 a month check to use for Lacy... other than the bag full of candy bars and a stuffed cat that smelled like an ash tray -which I helped Lacy name Virginia Slim- her birth mom has used none of that money on Lacy!) and mom doesn't want to give that monthly check up, I guess. Fortunately we have been given approval for Lacy to head off to the vent clinic at the children's hospital and from there she will come home with us! Looks like we are even closer to getting her home.

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one more pic, just because she is soooo freaking cute!

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Our only baby photo

One of the nurses was super cool and sent me a baby pic of Lacy! How cute is this? Still no word on things with her, but we should hear something on Monday!

Visiting Lacy

We are still in a holding pattern in regards to Lacy's status with us, however, this weekend we will complete our training with the facility that she lives at, and upon completion we will be able to take her out for the day to the park, out for dinner, things like that. This weekend we are living at the children's facility for 48 hours and we are totally responsible for her care. It's 3:15am right now and I couldn't sleep, so I snuck out of the facility and came home to do a few things while Randy and Lacy are sleeping. (One of us has to be there at all times!) Here are a few pictures of our day yesterday. My friend, Donnelly, let me borrow a few of her daughter's princess dresses for Lacy to play with! She loved them!

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Randy and Lacy walking back into the facility

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Lacy pretending to sleep on our bed in the "family" room (more like a family closet!)

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Lacy outside playing with Randy

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Lacy in her princess tent!

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Outside again!

Just a bit much!

Our cat is under the impression that she is the queen of the universe, and I am learning to be okay with that...

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However

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When I come home after a long night's work to find her all curled up on MY SIDE of the bed... I have to put my foot down! Lately, on the nights I don't work, she gets very upset that I am sleeping on HER side of the bed! Sheesh!

I love Paul Potts!

It just makes me happy, that's all.

Father's Day BBQ

This weekend Randy spent time with his father in a BBQ competition. If you have ever encountered any Isley sponsored event, you know that Isley men take their food preparation very seriously.

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Big Randy, Uncle Jim, Matt, and Randy all prepared the food.

the entries included:

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Smoked Ribs

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Tri-tip

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Turkey

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BBQ Sauce

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Chicken

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The boys earned second place for their ribs...

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And they took first place with the BBQ sauce! Congrats!!!

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Suddenly I See...

Is it ironic that Hillary Clinton is considering using the opening song from The Devil Wears Prada as her campaign song? Just a thought.

PS did anyone watch the republican debate on cnn?

I love me some McCain... on Osama bin Laden: “We will bring him to justice, and I will follow him to the gates of hell.” Seriously, John, tell us how you really feel.

...and ya know, I kinda heart Hucakabee.

Mitt Romney creeps me out. I about fell over when he compared himself to JFK!

I give Giuliani props for his statement about abortion... but I doubt he will even make it to the primaries.

That is all.