FINALLY.an update!

When did days stop having 24 hours and who forgot to send me the memo??
Malachi and Sopheak are quite happily married and returning from a lovely sounding honeymoon on the beach coast  and a wonderful beautiful hotel judging from the photos Sopheak posted. Her visa appointment went very smoothly last week and all is right on schedule for Malachi and Sopheak to return at the end of July. I know her parents and family will miss her tremendously as thier family is close like ours is. Its been very special for Malachi to be there for two months with her so that they got to know him much better before he "took their daughter  away" to Oklahoma!
Our  son Caleb also got married last week adding not only  another daughter-in-law to the family but a 9 year old grandson as  well. We met them briefly  before they got married over 4th of July weekend. They all came from Kentucky for the holiday.  I guess we'll get to know them a bit more when they come back for Malachi's American wedding in mid August.  How many moms have two sons get married within three days of each other? It was one roller coaster of emotions for this mamma , I have to tell you!!
Last week we were blessed with a very last minute openeing at the Pediatric MRI  center where Daniel needed to be fully anesthetized for his MRI procedure. He had his MRI done on Wednesday and it all went very well for him. Our appointment with the neurosurgeon is this afternoon. I don't know what all will happen at this appointment but my hope is that we will  be able to schedule surgery for the shunt placement and  make arrangements for a pedi-gastroeneterologist to also be available to do a G-tube intertion for feeding  at that same surgical time.( Naomi's  Pedi-Gastro doc does not practice at this facility so we will have two Pedi-Gastro docs in our lives!! She sees her Pedi-Gastro  doc   in a few weeks to assess status and do labwork. Last visit her viral load numbers were so very high but she'd grown quite a bit  and his idea was to up the dose of antil-viral medication and hopefully catch up with and overtake the virus before drawing blood again. She has not responded to the meds very well so far, but this med is really our only choice for the time being .)
Daniel has done well at home, except for feeding times. Having no swallow reflex causes a lot of issues, and for me to stimulate a response from him so that he will swallow.  (think nursing a baby or bottling a baby, they fall asleep, you flick their foot or some such thing to wake them up, make them fussy and inspire the to go back to feeding.........................) at every feeding or drinking. A 5 cc syringe helps with fluids, sometimes,  since he does not take a bottle or drink from a cup.  Fluids spoonful at a time are very messy and most innefficient. I had a formula scoop that I used for a while, but  the syringe works better and gives me better control over speed or slowness of delivery.
He does love music so when I sing to him that usually brings some smiles, as does coming along for praise and worship practice at church  and being in church for music time. I put him to sleep with soft music at night and nap times too. 
Drool..................there are not enough bibs or wash cloths to keep up with the drool, but the reflux seems a bit better since we started Zantac ,  well  sometimes  its better. I never go anywhere without a new bib and a fresh wash cloth.
I'm sharing some photos from 4th of July. Esther and Casey put together a big 4th of July BBQ so that we could meet Casey's parents. Pretty good group photos considering how many people are IN our  family group these days!!

Smiths and some Rogers too

Casey is on the far side with him mom Cindy , his nephew  Jaden is the blonde boy  next to Casey's dad Eddie,

Ther rest are Smith Soup ingredients with Caleb in oragne in back, Hannah and Jon with Charlie  Madyson and Blake on the right side

Can't get the glare out of that photo so Noah is kind of overshadowed in back but  here's a big portion of our crew!
Gideon , Leah, Jael, Noah, Isaiah,  Esther , Isaac, Caleb,
Daniel, Charlie , Naomi, Linda, Hannah and Rachel
Next  family photos will have Malachi and Sopheak, Tiffany and Bryden too