Saturday: 12/8/07 --- Hospital Visit Extended

Is there a Nabisco gene? I wondered this as I watched Tinsae eat her very first Oreo cookie. Instinctively her fingers and hands twirled the cookie around like she was working on a Rubik's cube. In about 60 seconds she broke the code and was claiming her prize. She was scraping the creamy white center with her four top teeth. She was all smiles. I guess that's one eating lesson I won't have the pleasure of teaching her. Maybe I can show her the dunk-in-milk technique when she gets a little older.

Well, we are more than happy to be spending an extra couple days at the hospital getting Tinsae the medical care and attention that she really needs. The transfusion to get her hemoglobin levels up was a great success. We hope the extra time will help us make some progress against her reoccurring fever and respiratory infection. Including her HIV meds, she is on about 7 different medicines. She takes all her meds very well. She is such a great little trooper.

We can see great progress from her treatment already. Her eyes are much brighter and her smiles are plentiful. Her whole countenance and disposition have greatly improved. But... heaven forbid if you try to give her a bath, change her diaper, or get anywhere near the sites where they drew blood on her tiny arms. She doesn't care what your intent is. She goes into a full blown meltdown...crocodile tears and uncontrollable wailing. She's such a drama queen. Then, when she finally calms down, she gives us the nastiest looks. She wants to hurt somebody! She's ready to trade us in for a new set of parents.

Little Miss Drama Queen may come home on Sunday depending on her progress . We'll have to see how well she's doing. Although we would love her to be home with all the kids, we are just taking one day at a time. Living out of a suitcase in Delaware with family and friends close by sure beats living out of a suitcase in Ethiopia alone ! It's not that Ethiopia was such a bad place, it's just that having a sick child in a 4th world country was pretty stressful.

Michelle stayed overnight with Tinsae at the hospital on Thursday night and I was with her last night. As you know, Michelle is the football fanatic in the family. I'm the football widower on Sundays. For Michelle's sake I hope we won't be in transit during the Eagles game. As the Eagles go down for another defeat, poor little Tinsae will be missing the attention of her mother. That's a pain that little Tinsae will have to learn to endure during football season. On second thought...while the game is playing, maybe it's not too early for Daddy to show little Tinsae that Oreo dunk-in-milk technique. I think one bag of Oreos will be just enough to drown her little sorrows...and mine.

Thanks for thinking of us and continuing to follow our journey!

...more than we can ever begin to imagine

Love Bill & Michelle