The Root Canal

Well, I confirmed it:

I am not brave.

The root canal was terrible, absolutely terrible.

They spent one entire hour trying to get my mouth numb. This included 10 injections. Nothing. My mouth refused to give in to numbness!

At that point the endodontist was anxious to just get the show on the road and so he told me he was just going to drill open the tooth and inject directly in.

That's when the tears started streaming down my face.

So they started drilling...and injecting.

And every few minutes they would get to a point that was not numb and I would scream out. And then they would try numbing it up again. And so on and so forth.

I sat in that dentist chair, gripping the armrests for dear life. Every muscle in my body, tense...waiting for the next burst of pain.

And the tears kept streaming.

It was terrible

But at least it's over.

The Tin Bunny

Lorelai recently watched The Wizard of Oz. 

She promptly turned her bunny into The Tin Man.

My Little Linguist

For years I have been trying to figure out how to instill within my children the desire to achieve; to better themselves; to be self disciplined. How do you make a person want those things? 

I finally came to the conclusion that it had to happen naturally - it couldn't be forced. 

And happily...it's begun. 

Alexandra awoke last week with an announcement: she was going to teach herself Italian. 

"I already speak English and Spanish. Now I am going to learn Italian...and I am going to keep learning languages one after another." 

My heart soared. This is what I have always desired for my children: for them to see their own potential. For them to understand that they can do whatever it is that they set out to do. And for them not to be afraid of working hard to get there. 

Io sono una mamma felice!

Learning Italian with the help of Rosetta Stone.

I am finding her notes all over the house. She has me quiz her daily.

 

I Am Not Brave

Remember that day back in early August when I wrote a post about having to get a root canal done? Yeah, well...that never happened. Elisabeth ended up in the hospital that day and I conveniently forgot to reschedule (thanks to my dental phobia). As a consequence, I have been having some pretty major tooth pain and haven't been able to eat on the left side of my mouth for months on end.

But it was worth it (so I thought) if it meant I wasn't in the dentist's chair.

Fast forward to this past Tuesday. My months of negligence caught up with me. 

In the late afternoon my left jaw started to swell up and I could feel a huge lump under the skin (hello tooth abscess). And the pain...oh the pain! Needless to say, the dentist had me make my way to the ER to get some antibiotics and steroids in my system through an IV.

Now for a confession of sorts:  

I am not brave like Elisabeth.

This is when they came at me with a needle (exhibits A and B):

 

 Shameful, I know.

 But finally they got me (exhibit C):

It was worth it for the morphine though. To have all that pain be whisked away...twas delightful! 

Then I started getting sleepy...and talking. Apparently I told Donald that we just have to go to Washington DC because I have to see the constitution. (Morphine brings out the patriotic side of me).

So the good news is that they were able to do some temporary dental work to ease my pain and clean out the infection (exhibit D):

 

The bad news is that I still have to go in for that darn root canal. This Thursday in fact. Ugh.

And finally, I leave you with a picture of a saggy, lump-filled left jaw. 

It's a beauty, isn't it? (exhibit E):

   

So I just hid behind QE's curls for the day. No biggy.

 

Family Portraits 2012

Thankful

 

All photographs by my dear friend, Charlene Hardy.

Click here to visit her website.

Did you read our big announcement? 

Click here if you missed it! 

Have a blessed Thanksgiving.
Eat lots of pie!

The Big Announcement!

We are adopting!

 

So, I finally felt it was time to share our exciting news. 

There is going to be a fourth Sorenson daughter; a beautiful little girl from Ethiopia!! 

Of course, it's a very long process (one that we've been working on since mid-summer), but hopefully everything will continue to run smoothly so that we can bring her home before too terribly long. 

(Alexandra and Lorelai are soooo happy to have another little sister!)
(And Elisabeth is excited to have one more big sister!)

It really is  

a small world after all!

My Little Indian

 

Big Day Ahead! 

QE has a dentist appointment this morning and then we have to immediately hop on the road and drive to Spokane for a neurology appointment in the early afternoon. Here's hoping that the neurologist agrees to increase her meds; her seizures have been getting increasingly more frequent and severe...and because of that I've noticed she has stopped saying 'hooommme' and 'mama'. I miss hearing her say those things. (Seizures are such a kill joy).

Passports

We took the children to our local Walgreens this past weekend and got passport photos taken. We've got something big in the works and these little girls of mine need to be ready to head out across the Atlantic....

 

It's a 

Small World 

After All...

Why my writing looks like chicken scratch...

[I discovered that Lorelai posted this picture onto her Instagram account yesterday. She captured the moment well.]

 Yesterday morning it was raining. If there is one thing I do not like to do while it's raining, it's fuss with a wheelchair. So I decided to just carry Elisabeth around instead. Not too terribly hard a task...until I had to fill out a pile of papers at the pediatricians office. Yikes, that took some careful coordination (and my writing looked like chicken scratch). But such is life when you are raising a daughter with brain damage (and when the rain is pouring down). 

I'm wishing for some warm, yellow sunshine today.

(well...I doubt I'll get warm, but perhaps a little yellow...)

They're Back!

Behold...I have fingerprints once again! 

 I marched back on into the police station yesterday (four weeks after my first attempt) and the fingerprint tech was quite impressed with the drastic change. My prints went from fuzzy blobs to actual defined little swirls. 

 

[I know you can't tell in this pic...but this set is actually clear.]

Recipe for growing back fingerprints:

~use gentle soap (None of this anti bacterial business)
~ no hand sanitizer
~do not use cleaning products without covering hands
~use lots of lotion.

Easy peasy.

 I can keep moving forward with my secret project now. 

Hip hip hooray!

Lorelai's Baptism

[Lorelai at home just before leaving for her baptism. That is the same baptismal dress that I wore when I was eight!]

[With Donald, shortly before he baptized her.]

Afterwards...

 

[A new dress from Grandma - love the gold accents!]

 

We are so proud of you, Lorelai!

A Birthday Review

It's been a few weeks now...but here is look back at Lorelai's 8th birthday:

(Better late than never is what I always say.)

[If Lorelai is at home, she is in a leotard or a swimsuit.]

 

And that's how you turn 8!