HOME!

And life is very full and very busy!! It was pretty easy to play with my computer while caring for Daniel last week even with the paper chasing in Liberia. Daniel was "all" I had to do. Back now  to home base and Calico Acres Farm, dear husband and 7 other kiddos and all that was life before sweet Daniel came home.  Computer time has been way down the list of things to do and if you've been checking in to see how we are doing, I'm sorry there has been nothing for you to read.
We arrived back in Stillwater at about 11:00 Monday night and got home about 1 after a late Sonic run for FOOD!!! The plane schedule all day and the layovers during which Daniel slept on a bench and I was unable to go get anything to eat left me really hungry.  Back step to our final days in Liberia.......
Friday we got the release letter we needed, but at a price........................
Saturday at 4  PM we were notified that we needed AND YET  ANOTHER LETTER! "OH we didn't tell you Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday   that you needed another  letter and now its Saturday afternoon and the office is closed where you can get  that letter?  Oh sorry...you can still have it but since it IS  the weekend  it will cost $XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX>   Like that.
My political opinion here:  as long as there are  enough people who can still keep doing this sort of thing successfully ( who is going to stop them?) Liberia is doomed to stay a backward developing nation with no hope of getting ahead as a nation. It will stay a nation of a few powerful corrupt people justifying their greed  while ignoring and overlooking the needs of their  own nation.
HOWEVER.................miracles keep happening, Pigs  DO fly and when it came time to go to the airport, God provided a helper for me with my bags and with Daniel. A man named Craig had been working in Liberia on some mission  projects , needed a ride to the airport too and we picked him up from the mission compound guest house where he'd been staying. He hauled my bags while I tended to Daniel who was none too happy to be in a front pack.  At the airport we  had almost no problems and sailed thought immigration and into the waiting area for our  plane to start out journey home! Craig helped me into the plane, off the plane and into the Brussels airport where a group of young people from Arkansaas who I'd met the week before on their way to Cote D'Ivoire for missionary work   were coming back as well. They were so gracious to Daniel and me and helped with bags too.  The airline people were so helpful to Daniel and  me!!! We got bulkhead seating from Monrovia to Brussels and Daniel was able to sleep in a bassinette which hooks to the bulkhead wall. WONDERFUL!!!   There was no bassinette from Brussels to Chicago but the American Airlines staff in Brussels reworked the seating in a row right behind bulkhead and Daniel and I had  the center three-seat row all to ourselves. HE could lay down and sleep, and I could stretch out too. What a blessing!
Customs and Immigration in Chiacgo was so smooth and easy. I met several other adoptive families , including the family who was several rows behind me : a dad and his new Liberian 3 sib group on their way to Kansas and a couple with their Nepalese daughter. Daniel was pretty frazzled from the front pack and being too warm and he really tugged at the heart strings of customs who let us pass without a dismantling of my bags at all!!! Super easy to recheck them on to  Tulsa from there. The layover was long, but manageable...have phone and computer  and sleeping baby: it was good. PANIC MOMENT came when I sat down in front of the schedule board to plug in my computer to read and post for a while.... NO  COMPUTER!!!! I'd left it in the security bin when they were hand scanning Daniel and me  apparently! My hip was pretty sore from being so lopsided with Daniel and rollling bags but a very helpful security guard helped me retreive my little red Acer! Thank you Lord for all the helpful  people we  encountered!
Good seats from Chicago to Tulsa and AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, there was Charlie waiting for us. Such a precious wonderful sight he was !!! Dear  friends welcoming family in from China were also at the airport and it was precious to be able to introduce them to Daniel that night. Vic and Charlotte are as close to family as friends can be, and Vic is one of our pastor/ elders at church too. Special times.
Daniel has done well with us so far. He is definitely VERY special needs but the kids are all bonding with him and spending time with him. I am especially blessed by Jael and Gideon's tenderness to him. I knew Naomi would love him instantly and she has and does. The other kids are sweet to Daniel too. it blesses my heart so to see them all minister to his needs and check on him during the day.
His doctor appointment on Tueday was a total disaster  which crescendoed with the very out -of -his league and unsympathetic pediatrician taking it upon himself to set me up with another pedi two hours away and making arrangements with that doctor to direct admit Daniel THAT NIGHT to a hospital and my telling him that on our first day home from Africa this could not happen and we needed to work out something else. He exploded at me that he has spent an hour  of HIS TIME  (isn't that what my insurance company and I are paying hm for???) trying to help me and " I thought you wanted to get started right away ".  I asked him what benefit could possibly be gained from our going to the hospital that night.  I told him that with our appointment with him at 4 not starting till 5 and it being 6 right then, it would be 9 before we could even GET to OKC, and no doctor was going to evaluate Daniel  that late at night in a non-emergency situation  and was certainly not going to order any test s on him that night OR  do any procedures on him that night or possibly  even the  whole next day. HE idn't answer me. I asked why he thought that the OUT PATIENT tests which would be ordered for Daniel needed to be done as in-patient. He again refused to answer me.  I told him that we really needed to do things differently and at that  point he exploded and told me that I should go right ahead and do it myself. He threw the chart down on the table and shouted "Forget the evaluation. Forget the chart" I said "That is fine. I will pay my copay and we will make other arrangements then."  He shouted " Forget the copay. Forget the whole visit. You need to go take care of this yourself. I am though." With that he stormed out of the room.  He NEVER really examined Daniel other that to ask me if he could look at him (EXCUSE ME???????????????????????) and he listened to his lungs. PERIOD. In a very condescending tone which felt like "why did you even bring that baby in?" he asked me "What DO you want us to do with him?" 
So much for starting the evaluaiton tests for Daniel.  NONE of that should have happened if he had just been honest and said " I have no idea what to do for a child with all those issues." If he had ASKED  me before making plans to shuffle us 100 miles away less than 24 hours after landing in Oklahoma, it would have been different, but he didn't .  He was angry because when he asked me 4 times about when I was going to get Daniel's shots started, I told him that frankly that was the very least of my concerns at the moment.  He is a big  Pro-shots  guy so I guess I got on his bad side right off the bat. He is not our regular doctor. Our doc was on vacation and I really was jsut hoping to start the MRI/CT scan. EEG stuff. Those  ARE  all out paient tests, even on a small child. I reminded this man that my son had survived two years in Liberia with no meds or treatments and he was not at the moment in a life-threatening situation. He didn't like that either I'm guessing.
We have an appointment with our regular doc on Tuesday. I will call the Pedi neurologist tomorrow and see what I can glean on my own from her.
Daniel has way more siezures than I was told were happeneing. I've shown the kids (older kiddos) how to help hold him if he seizes when they  are with him and  explained to everyone why he does it and not to be freaked out. They are very matter of fact about it all. Feeding him is a very random experience. Some meals he is able to eat without incident and other times its as if his throat has no idea what it is supposed to do with food or liquid...if stores in the back of his throat for crazy long periods or he just lets it fall out. We have discovered that he hates bananas, likes carrots and apple blended baby food, likes anything sweet,  and water poured into his mouth with a formula scoop is the best way to deliver  water...slow, but  best.
He  really likes his car seat. I think it supports his back and his head really well and makes him feel very comfortable. He seems to like his stroller too. On his first outing to Walmart , a number of people saw him in his cat seat and ouhed and ahhhed over how cute he was. He IS a cute little boy. He has wonderfully proportioned ,  handsome features , aside from his sweet great big forehead and skull.  His skin is a beautiful rich color...he is not as dark-dark as many Liberians, but he is lovely! When he laughs and smiles he can light up a room. When I say "Hiiiiiiiiiiii Daniel" he tries very hard to reply with a sound that can be interpretted as "hiiiiiiiiiii" and when I say it back to him again it is sure to get more talk from him and more smiles. He sleeps well, and is content to be near by where he can hear us talk if we are not holding him, and he loves to be snuggled close in a nursing sort of position. THAT is his favorite.
Our wonderful church family folks  have brought dinner over the past two nights which has been such a blessing after our days of adjusting to adding Daniel to our routine.  Lots of changes here, with Malachi gone and adding Daniel but  I think we are doing well so far. I know that many people are praying for us as we start this new part of our journey and we are grateful!