Myla turns 2!

Let's get the hard stuff out of the way first, maybe you should sit down...a routine ultrasound of Myla's kidney after the UTI drama unfortunately found a mass about half the size of her left kidney.  Given our family history of cancer and the fact that I'm a pediatric heme/onc nurse the word "mass" was very scary for all of us to hear.  Through a series of multiple conversations with multiple people we decided to have Myla undergo an MRI (under anesthesia) to make sure the mass wasn't cancerous.  THANKFULLY, the MRI results showed that the mass is made up of multiple fluid filled cyst-like things.  Our plan is to continue the antibiotics she was already on (3 times a day:() for a month and do a repeat ultrasound to make sure that the mass has shrunk as well as a VCUG to look at the anatomy of her kidney area to see why this all happened in the first place.  Despite the fact that we are so grateful that it was not cancer, this journey has been a difficult one and has given me a glimpse (albeit very small) into what some of my patient's families go through regularly.  Watching your child be sick is hard, sometimes unbearably hard.  We're not 100% comfortable with where she currently is because there is still something wrong and we haven't gotten to the bottom of it yet but we are grateful that it doesn't look like the worst.  Myla is not 100% sure either...she is not quite back to her "normal" self.  She wants to be held a lot more and always wants to have her nuk and her favorite stuff animal Lilly.

Amidst all of the Doctor's appointments our sweet Myla Bea had her 2nd birthday.  Since we've started a tradition of Avery getting her nails done on her birthdays we thought we should offer it to Myla too.  She had been telling me for 3 days that she wanted pink nail polish so into the nail salon we went!  Much to my dismay Myla changed her mind the second we got there and panicked when the nail lady walked towards her.  She ended up walking to Starbucks with Daddy for some chocolate milk while I finished getting my nails done (I wasn't going to let a 2 year old ruin my relaxation;).  We visited Aves at school for her Thanksgiving feast and just hung out the rest of the day until Myla's party.

We did a "Brown bear brown bear" theme after Myla's favorite book that she makes us read to her CONSTANTLY! It was a lot of fun preparing for the party and both Andy and I were shocked at how much fun she had.  At the beginning she was literally running laps around the house, bouncing with excitement; a memory that both Andy and I said we hope we never forget.  You could tell that she knew this day was special and it was special because of her.  We had lots of yummy soup and tons of delicious bread as about 35 people joined us to celebrate Millie.  It was so much fun!!!

The room!  My friend Brittany came over the night before the party to help me decorate:)

All the food was themed with the book.

Super cute cupcake toppers.

Our sweet birthday girl!  The outfit was made by a co-worker and it was ADORABLE!  (if you're in need of one for yourself/your child let me know and I can get you her info:)

Trying to get pictures of multiple 2 year olds is nearly impossible...Here is Sophia and Millie!

Not so sure about everyone singing to her

Really not so sure...

Then happy to have family by her side:)

And she was definitely excited to jump into eating cupcakes.

We decided to let her open a couple of presents but once she opened one she wanted to keep going.  Her exclamations included shouting, "what?" and "Elmo!"

We are stocked up on tattooes for a while and super excited about it!

She got a life size Elmo from Grammy and Grandpa Rog which she was really excited about.  It took a while for her to let us take Elmo out of the box and now that he is we're trying to get her to warm up to him, she'll definitely come around soon:)

A big thank you to everyone who helped us celebrate our little Myla Bea, it was a very special day.  We also covet your prayers as we continue on this journey to full health.

On my last side note for this post, we got some very sad news last week...our cousin Caitlin went home to be with the Lord.  She had been sick on and off for a little while and her body could not fight anymore.  We wish that we could be with our family in Oregon to share stories and mourn her loss but we take hope in the fact that she is dancing in Heaven with Jesus.  We miss you Ms. Caitlin Marie and we love you Aunt Julie, Uncle Don, and Courtney.

Halloween 2013

Unfortunately Myla has NOT been feeling well.  She's been on antibiotics for a urinary tract infection which was associated with really high fevers, vomiting, diarrhea, and just plain old misery.  It was a hard 1.5 weeks having a sick kiddo which included 2 clinic visits and 2 ER visits.  The last ER visits she got a ton of fluid and some anti-nausea medication in an IV so she started to feel better after that.  They also did an ultrasound recently to make sure the infection didn't travel up to her kidneys.  Needless to say, she was not feeling well for Halloween!  The plan was for Avery to be Aeriel (or just a mermaid) and Myla to be her best friend Flounder (or just a fish).  Who knew Flounder costumes were so hard to find?  We bought a blue fish costume and glued some yellow stuff all over it and called it Flounder, it was pretty pathetic but she's 2:)  We went over to our friend's house for the night of Halloween and did some trick-or-treating there with their kiddo Finn.  Myla didn't enjoy it very much and the pictures DEFINITELY show it which is kind of hilarious.  We're so glad that she feels better now, enjoy the pictures!

Aves as a mermaid

miller as a fish:)

my parents stopped by to see us, what a treat!

and there it is...

the lion showing us his "roar"

avery and finn trying to hold it together while myla continues to cry

cut out myla and you have a really cute picture happening here!

one last try...just didn't happen (but that's an awesome pumpkin!)  Hopefully next year will be better!

Miller Update

As many of you know we have numerous nicknames for Myla (miller town, millie, miller-light, etc.) and we are celebrating her because...she just had her last developmental specialist appointment!!!  wooohooo, yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah!!!  We're so proud of her.  When we took her to the specialist a few months back they thought she was still about 3 months behind but at this point she is all caught up and even ADVANCED in some ways.  We couldn't be more thrilled for this amazing news and we're so proud of our sweet millie bea:)

p.s.  not really any news on the adoption homefront...we got a call a couple of weeks ago about a little boy to see if we were interested and we weren't due to his age.  For now we just sit around waiting for another call:)

Millie showing us how well she can eat!

Searching for bugs at Sophia's 2nd birthday party.

Aves was really proud of all the bugs she found:)

Myla and one of her favorites Finnley on their first official date (with parental chaperones of course)

We love family bikerides.  This particular day we rode to our favorite mexican restaurant close to our house called Mexxi's.

Piper gets more well behaved every day.

me and aves

Daddy and Millie:)

Baby Shower!!!

Some of our friends from church (Kathleen and Jen, not to name names:) decided to throw us a shower this past weekend so we could get a lot of our church family involved in our adoption process.  Details were a little tricky since we don't know what age/gender we're getting or when we're getting a child BUT it turned out so nice!  It was a very low key shower which took place in the park by our house. Husbands and kids were all invited and we had a ton of yummy pastries/goodies/yummy food to choose from.  We played one game ("Who knows the Koning's the best") which was really fun/funny and just hung out and talked, it was perfect!  The BEST PART was that Kathleen made the next little Koning a quilt for people to sign, it was so thoughtful.  Everyone at the shower signed it and we got to take it home with fabric markers so people can continue to sign it.  Such a thoughtful gift and such a perfect shower, thanks to everyone who came and especially to Jen and Kathleen for planning it!!!

Ben, Lee, Michelle and sweet baby Elia.

Christine and Tricia playing the game (I should mention here Brian won...)

Kathleen and Myla...

If this was her child it would be a framer:)

cute decor.

All of the kiddos excited to add another one!

Another cute kiddo photo...Finn is doing his "cheese" face

Oh man they're cute.

The quilt that Kathleen made...we get to have people sign the white parts and then we'll do something creative with the big green square...too cute!

Friends!

Avery's favorite thing she opened...a pencil with fake poop on it.

Kathleen and I!

Me and the party planners Jen and Kathleen!!!

Team Koning...we're ready for the next one!

An unfortunate experience...

Let me just pre-warn everyone that this post is not for those of you that like all the fluff, flowers and happy faces on this blog, it's real, and it's hard and it's what we're going through so stop reading now if you're not interested:)

Last Thursday we had an appointment with our adoption agency to go through the "child availables".  My mom came over to watch the girls while Andy and I anxiously drove all the way to Modesto for this experience.  We didn't really talk about any expectations that we had, but in hindsight we were both expecting to look at all the kiddos and walk away with some options of future Koning kids.  We thought the hardest part was going to be saying no to all of the kids that needed loving homes because we would want to take them all home, we were wrong, way wrong.

As we started opening the different folders of various counties reality hit us.  In the system (in our experience, in CA) there are mainly older kids and large sibling sets (sets of 4-6 children ages 6 years and up).  Each page had a picture of the child at the top with some of their interests and then their "story" below.  This included why they were taken away from their parents and the horrible situations that they were in.  At first we were reading about each and every kid.  The social worker had told us despite the fact they might not be within our set "parameters" we might fall in love with a child because of their picture or story so we were trying to be open.  After about the 4th child, Andy and I felt physically ill and had to stop.  We then only looked at details of children that fit our parameters and even then, it was too much for us.

After an hour of this we walked out of the room defeated.  The social worker asked if we had found any children we were interested in and I broke down.  For those that know me personally, you know I cry a lot so if we're honest this isn't the biggest surprise of my life but the situation seemed so hopeless.  Not necessarily for me and my family and our future family, but for these poor kids who have been through Hell and are just waiting for someone to love them.  After a super awkward 15 minutes with the social worker and the 2 receptionists I pulled it together and we left.  We had a really hard time putting a finger on why we were so upset and feeling depressed.  Looking back, we think it was just a really rude awakening of the evil in the world.  We're so sheltered here in San Ramon and can be so focused on things like choosing the perfect new paint color for our master bedroom that we easily forget there are people, children specifically in horrific situations.  It almost instills a bigger fire underneath me to adopt because there are so many people out there that need help.

Both of us felt like we walked away empty.  We were expecting to have interest in at least a few children but walked away without any options on top of being upset about all of the things we read.  Despite this, a good friend had texted me asking how it went, when I told her how awful it was, her response was a beautiful reminder.  She said "Praise God for clarity.  Your baby is out there, and you have a powerful God orchestrating the whole thing."  Amen sister, we believe this and trust in this (even though it's sometimes hard to remember during the discouraging times:).  We went home, squeezed our girls, and took a 2.5 hour nap, it felt good.  We hope to not have to go through this again. Our social worker is on vacation until the end of October but we do have someone else looking for our child/children.  All we can do at this point is pray for safety for our child and patience for us.  People weren't kidding...this really is the hardest part.

Where We're at Today...

First off we just want to say thank you thank you thank you for the love and support everyone has shown us since the last blog post.  Being open/honest in this type of forum is scary but we wanted to do it for those before us and those that will come after us.  So many people were able to relate to where we are at which only makes the process easier for all of us involved.  Knowing other people have gone through/are going through similar things helps, so thank you for the kind words.

As of last Friday (9/20/13) we are officially "open" and our child search has begun!!! (round of applause, happy face happy face, insert exclamation here).  We couldn't be more excited to start this part.  We have an appointment Thursday at 1000 to go look at the "child availables"...everything we've been dreading so feel free to pray for us.  Pray for wisdom and pray that we won't say we're interested in every single one;)

Not much else in the land of the living at the Koning household has been happening, I'll post pictures that we've taken over the last few weeks so you can see the "goings on".

Aves had her first day of pre-k...she's the cutest in her class;)

it means myla gets some alone time

this is how she feels about it:)

We hang out a lot with friends...Myla is in love with her friend Finn:)

One day I came home to these two dressed as they are...one homeless looking and the other in her princess dress.  We decided to fly a kite (thank you team lynch!) and it was sooooo fun!

oh wait there's avery in her usual state, mad that it's not "her turn"

Daddy teaching myna

daddy teaching aves

aves doing it on her own:)

Despite the fact that Aves' eyes are closed this was a phenomenal day/time with Megan Voos.  She was one of my youth group leaders growing up and my small group leader my senior year of high school.  She's awesome and helped to lay the foundation for my spiritual life.  Her super great sister in law Michelle (if you ever meet her, talk to her, she's a medic and has a very cool life story) came with her 1 year old son too, it was a fabulous time of being open and talking about life.

Aves is still doing swim lessons every Tuesday/Thursday and she is getting really good, she was even bumped up to a higher level!  She's doing back stroke and free style (taking after you auntie cake!)

Our friend brian...showing Myla's favorite place to be right now.  She not only loves being with him, but specifically, on his shoulders:)

We love babies!!!  We got to watch our nephew Franco for a couple of hours which was soooooo fun! He helped us make cookies and entertained us.

This past weekend we decided to do a sewing project...can't wait to teach this girl her way around the machine!

Myla was more into my glasses...

This was our face when we found out we were "open":)

Avery's face...

Myla is still not sure...

My matching babies:)

our sewing project...capes!  They both got to pick out their own fabric, myla chose elmo and avery chose princesses (duh:)

They turned out very fun!  Myla has worn hers all day today, to Costco, Target, etc.  

Ta ta for now, more updates to come shortly.