35

That is how old I am today.
As Garth Brooks put it "I'm much too young to be feeling this damn old". I will save all my fussing about how I feel for my personal journal though.
I had a couple of friends call and wish me happy birthday. Bev also came down with a card, Avon bubblebath and body wash. The best gift though was she hung around and fed Bre supper, bathed her and painted her fingernails.
Joey had to go back to work Sunday so we celebrated my birthday Saturday. It was simple and perfect.
He had taken the kids out for dinner at Applebees (I didn't feel like going). When they returned home they brought me back a yummy dinner from there along with a birthday cake that read "Happy Birthday Mommy". Joey also got me a gift certificate to Hasting's (books, CD, DVDs). The best part though was each kid had picked out a card and their choices reflected their personalities so much. Bre's was a little too grown up to be coming from a four year old but on the front was butterflies, flowers, and glitter. It just screamed Bre Bre. Marcus's card involved a joke about testicles. I could just picture him laughing as he read it for the first time in the card shop. Joey's was very sweet and sensitive (love you Joey). Dylan's was, well...it is the first time a card ever made me cry. His talked about how close we were and how I am his friend. When I read it I could feel the tears start rolling. All the cards will be kept and treasured forever.
I truly am blessed.

Doctor Visit

http://stephdpenn.livejournal.com/

Readoption Started

Joey and I, along with Bre, met with a lawyer today to start the paperwork on readopting her in the state of Missouri.
For those of you who don't understand or know why we would do this-let me explain.
Right now Bre does not have a US birth certificate. She has all her paperwork from China which has been translated into English. Without a birth cer. she will have to drag all this paperwork with her any time the situation calls for a BC. If we readopt her then the state will issue her a Missouri BC that lists Joey and myself as her parents at birth. She can then use her BC as everyone else does and be able to keep all those Chinese documents put up same and sound.
We were really torn on what to do. We are not trying to fool anyone into thinking she was born to us. I also feel as if this might be seen as the last step of wiping out her life prior to us in China. That is NOT what this is about, this is about making her life easier. Who would want to drag in a folder full of paperwork instead of one simple piece of paper stating their identity? Plus we couldn't imagine trying to register her for school in a year from now with nothing but Chinese documents.
We also decided on one other very important detail today. We were given the option of changing her name if we wished. Instead of just Breanna Grace she will legally be Breanna Lin Grace. I can not begin to express how much regret I had about not keeping any of her Chinese name. Her Chinese name is beautiful, Lin Jing Yi. I feel as if we were able to make that right with her today. We chose "Lin" because it represents the city in which she lived before meeting us, Yulin City.

Nothing New

There is really nothing new to report. Marcus is having a flare-up with his fibro but is keeping active (they won their baseball game Thursday night). I am having several issues while waiting to get an appointment with a neurologist in St. Louis. Instead of junking up this blog with my medical issues though I have decided to write about it on my private journal. Almost all of the posts on there are private but I will keep those about this issue public (for now anyway).

http://stephdpenn.livejournal.com/

MIA

I know I have been MIA lately and as usual when I disappear there is something else going on (you guessed right Sherry). So here it goes......

Around four weeks ago I got what I thought was a pulled back muscle but instead of getting better in a couple of days it kept on getting worse. Finally when it started to improve other problems came along such as my legs and arms going numb and feeling like pins and needles. Next came nausea, dizziness, and migraines. Now I have involuntary 'jerking' movements in my upper and middle body along with my extremities. My eyes also twitch and feel like they are rolling around in my head some nights when I try to sleep. There are also other things going on but I feel like I have shared my limit here, LOL!
After not sleeping NONE, and I mean none, for two days and nights Joey and I took off to St. Louis. Long story short we spent three days up there. I was given a CT scan and an MRI along with various blood tests. Everything came back normal, which is great all except my symptoms are not getting any better. I have had two different hospitals say they were checking for
Multiple Sclerosis but it is not showing up.
At this time I am trying to get an appointment with a neurologist in St. Louis and see what they have to say.