Okay, so our puppy won't eat. She throws up her water and she is lethargic beyond belief for a puppy. Then my uncle mentioned parvo, and I am now incredibly worried. I called the vet, but there is no cure-- just iv fluids and such. Our friends who we got the puppy from is worried too and I mentioned that I think the puppy has parvo and that is when she told me that the puppy has already had two sets of shots including the parvo vaccine. Thank goodness. Now I can breathe a little. Maybe she will be alright after all. Maybe we can nurse her back to health. She is walking around a little bit more and she loves drinking the rain water when we let her out to go potty. At least she is not getting worse. And she doesn't have diarrhea which is a good thing for all of us.
Another good thing out of all this is that Annalyn, Sveta, Anna, and G have stepped up and become Connie's personal little Mamas-- and they are learning a lot. Anna had her so bundled up with her head leaning over Connie that I thought something was wrong. "Nothing is wrong Mom, I'm just singing "Away in a Manger" to her." Precious, I know. They can predict when Connie is going to throw up, and when she needs to go potty. They keep her bundled up and cozy. They are dedicated to caring for her no matter what the outcome is going to be. We keep praying that little Connie will be up and about by Christmas.
Wouldn't that be an awesome gift?
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The rain keeps on coming in epic proportions that Sveta and I nearly drowned on our drive home last night. I am so thankful that John and I decided to get rain gutters a few weeks ago. The kids are going bonkers-- and I have resorted to letting them watch movie after movie. Thankfully for Rachel's birthday coming up-- we are going roller skating in two days. That should use up some of their stored up energy. Meanwhile, making cinnamon popcorn, playing hide and go seek, and running to the mailbox daily will have to suffice.
Still... what do you think about all this rain? I hear it's everywhere.
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G is doing well. My intention for blogging about doing respite is to let her family see how she is doing through regular updates, and to hopefully be an encouragement to others who are struggling with their kids or are thinking of providing respite sometime. It is still an amazement to me how kids can act one way for their family and be completely different in another. Not to say that the adoptive family is lying, but rather how a child will go on with the same behaviors for so long with that family that for the most part they don't know how to change. Tantruming, lying, manipulation, threatening to hurt siblings, having little self-control-- and then being a complete angel for everyone else. Sometimes respite breaks that cycle. Hopefully it will this time.
But that "angelic behavior" is a lie and so I try to get to a point where they are forced to be real and show their true colors. So I asked G to sweep because afterall she is going to be here awhile and needs to chip in. And she did without a peep of displeasure at first. But like one of my other girls, she didn't do a very good job. A part of me just wanted to do it myself and avoid conflict, but I called her back and showed her where she missed. A hint of displeasure was noted by me this time. Good, her true colors-- I think she will get there before her time here is over. She went back and did a much better job-- I think she saw through watching me with my other girls that I wouldn't accept anything less.
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Here are a few other things worth mentioning.
Anastasia (12 years old) asked to watch Cinderella.
Anastasia is proud that she can now pray at dinner, "Dear Jesus, Thank you for this food. Amen."
Not all homeless people are like
Ben. We went to drop off some food, shoes, and rain jackets for him and met up with some other guy who was in his spot. I guess many homeless people live in that area-- and this one was not anything like Ben. Sadly, this guy was a complete nut case, a real weirdo, and told me that Ben doesn't need anything and I should give it to him instead. Since he wouldn't go under the bridge to get Ben, I wasn't about to leave anything but the food with him. His response to the food we gave him--
The world is coming to an end. You watch. Harry Christmas-- not Merry Christmas. Okaaaay.. time to go now. It was broad daylight, and I had both Adam and Caleb in the car with me so I wasn't scared or sad for my safety-- I was just sad that we didn't get to give Ben his shoes. As we drove home, I contemplated never sharing this because of all the told you sos I am sure I will get. Well, if that is how you choose to respond, well I can't help that. And to tell you the truth, I will probably not encounter Ben again because of what happened this last time. I just know that meeting Ben on that one day was something that I hadn't really planned on but by listening to God, I allowed him to minister to Ben through me. Maybe it was only supposed to be that one time.
