The Balloons Are On Fire And So Are My Eyes!

Kamron, the kids, and I got to go on a date with my dad last night. The kids are absolutely in love with their Papaw Johnny! Sadie pretty much wouldn't let go of him all night. She is 100% a Pepaw's Girl.


We went out for barbecue and then headed on to the Bluegrass Balloon Festival. Noah was so excited about getting to do this. He is completely mesmerized by hot air balloons and the prospect of seeing a balloon up close threw him into a frenzy! As soon as we finished dinner, he started saying (no less than 100 times), "I so cited! Let's go to the balloons!" He absolutely loved getting to see all the balloons glowing in the dark. His face was just aglow with wonder. I am a little sad that most of my pictures didn't come out- I just couldn't figure out what setting to put my camera on. The poor thing's being help together by tape, so I guess I should just be thankful it works at all! Anyways- here's a few shots from our super fun night out with Papaw Johnny.





We've also had some doctor's appointments this week. Noah went to the orthopaedist on Thursday. They said he's healing okay, but they wanted to put him in a brace for 3-4 weeks. He's actually tolerating having the brace on, which is a slight miracle. So hopefully in another month, he should be back to relative normalcy.

I went to the eye doctor this morning because for the last week my right eye has been drooping. My one eye only wants to look down and to the right. It takes serious effort just to hold my eyeball straight ahead. I have, however, been able to look at the floor with very minimal effort on my part. And I can tell you that the floor is in need of a good Swiffering. The doc said my vision is fine and that my droopy eyeball is caused by sinuses and allergies and will go away when allergy season is over. Whodda thought? I am convinced that allergies are the root of all evil and seem to cause pretty much every single ailment known to man. It had been about 12 years since I'd had my eyes dilated. I had forgotten what a weird experience that is. When my eyes were finally dilated and I was back up in the big chair the doctor started shining the lights in them. At first it wasn't so bad. Then he used this light that is a long vertical line of fire and you have to wait for it to move all the way across your line of vision. That light was so flippin' bright I was just sure that it was going to incinerate my eyeball. I was literally waiting to burst into flames. All I could think about was how a magnifying glass and bright light can catch something on fire. I was 200% certain that my eyes were going to be a pile of black ashes at the end of this procedure. By the time that line of light had gotten about halfway across my line of vision I thought I was going to loose it. I had tears streaming down. I could hardly open my eyes. I was holding my breath. I lose my inner monologue when I get that stressed so I said out loud, "I feel like I'm loosing control!!" The doctor just kind of gave me this "whatever" grunt and proceeded with the rest of the exam. I am not sure what possessed me to say it but as soon as it came out of my mouth I was mortified! If someone said that to me, I would start to wonder if they were going to go all Incredible Hulk on me, but this guy just shrugged it off. Well, maybe he rolled his eyes at me and stuck out his tongue. I wouldn't have known since all I could make out of him was a pitch black silhouette. Finally he was done. My eyeballs were not incinerated. They were safe and sound, albeit still droopy. Now that's taken care of and I don't have to do that again for at least two years!

I keep hoping any day now that we should hear something about our referral. About 2 1/2 weeks ago we heard from Jilma, our amazing adoption attorney, that the director of the orphanage sent her a letter saying that she had 2 little boys under age 3 who were adoptable. One of those little boys is supposed to be ours!!! Unless they happen to be brothers, and then that's a whole other joyous can of worms! Jilma said she hoped to know more information about them in about 10 days (age, HIV status). Ten days came about 4 days ago. We are learning just how slowly information travels out of 3rd world countries. Last we heard, both boys were undergoing HIV testing, which is great! Progress is being made and we hope to get our referral any day now!!! I am seriously checking my email approximately ever 27 seconds and just waiting for the phone to ring, hoping for any shred of news. I know it might not be the best thing to get my hopes up so high, but I just can't seem to help it. So here's to high hopes!!! And maybe, just maybe, those high hopes will also help the Cats beat the Gators tonight. Is that too much to ask for? I think not.