Ramona Mae

Last year Easter really snuck up on me. This year Lent passed me by somehow. But I gotta tell you, I can feel Good Friday barreling down on me like a mack truck.

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The green monster has reared its ugly head around here. It’s not the first time and I’m sure it won’t be the last, but this latest bout of jealousy seems nastier than usual. Jealousy is such an icky emotion, I’m not even sure you’ll want to read on, but if you do, be forewarned: The following thoughts may make you want to slap me, backhand.

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Ramona is getting very hard to photograph! She’s so wiggly and expressive, it’s hard to get a clear shot with anything but flash. But here’s my best attempt at capturing her new helmet-free look…

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Well, after another bout of colds that stretched from last week to this one, Ramona has developed strep. It’s no biggie, just a really funky rash and the hassle of getting her to take the antiboitics, but man are we tired of getting sick.

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Well, today was the day. Ramona will no longer need to wear her helmet. This is the first time in over a year that she hasn’t had something strapped to her head or face all day. Here are the before and afters…

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Although it doesn’t show up in many photos, Ramona has a real fondness for her pacifier, her “pa”. We put a minimum of three in bed with her at night and I’ve seen her hold as many as six at once (that’s one in the mouth, two in one hand and three in the other). She doesn’t have it all the time and it doesn’t seem to be affecting her speech development, but I do wonder when she’ll be ready to give it up.

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As Simon approaches his second birthday, I’ve been thinking a lot about how to talk to him about adoption. I know he’s too little to fully understand that the way he came into our family differs from most other children. But I wonder what’s going on in his cute little head. I wonder if he “remembers” being separated from his birth mother. I wonder if on some deep level he feels that loss.

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Ramona’s heart cath has been scheduled for April 25th. I will meet with the cath lab surgeon a couple of days before to get an idea of their plan but here’s my understanding:

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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about a conversation I had with a casual acquaintance some months back. We were discussing the great lengths that Ramona’s medical team has gone to in order to preserve her life. She inquired about the medical bills and I confessed that I sometimes wonder what God would think about using so many resources to save one child when those resources could probably save thousands in other parts of the world. She remarked, “Yeah, whatever happened to survival of the fittest?” I was troubled by this comment and filed it away in my Weird-Stuff-People-Say folder.

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