Ali, our bionic miracle!

Ali, short for Alexandra came to us a few years back. As the youngest of 11, she is quite clearly one of the highest maintenance of our crew! Some of this is just her type A ...that's A for Atomic!.. personality, some of this is due to her previous medical fragility...( she was born deaf as a result of prenalal CMV exposure...) and of course a wee bit of this high maintenance personality is due to the fact she is the baby of the family!

As I learn to negotiate this blog thing, I will fill folks in on Ali at a more in depth level...for now we are just going to touch on the briefest points...Ali is deaf and through the grace of God, and the marvels of medicne ...she is a bilateral cochlear implant receipent. She has real life bionic ears! She wears Advanced Bionics' Hi Res 90k implant with Harmony processors. She adores the implants and wears them every waking moment. The way the implant works, in a VERY brief non technical way...Lol...is the internal electrode bypasses the damaged hairs in the cochlea and direct feeds the auditory nerve. The most amazing thing is the way the brain is able to take in this computer language and translate it into spoken language...Nothing short of a miracle!

They come for a weekend and stay for a lifetime!

As many of you know, 8 of our daughters were adopted. Louisa came to us right after we got a new puppy. Lol...I mean really, who would ever plan to get a new puppy with a new baby around? No veteran mom would ever go and get a new puppy then bring home a baby, sheesh!

A good friend of mine, was a tribal welfare worker. Rebecca Zeledon was an inspirational ICWA worker for the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians. Rebecca's job was to help support families on the tribal lands and bridge communication with the child welfare system. There are many issues for the folks who live on the reservations...but substance abuse, and domestic violence are some of the top. After about a year, the tribe gave us permission to adopt Louisa...( since we are not native american...this is HUGE...typically ICWA, or the Indian Child Welfare Act insists Indian children in Indian homes...but Louisa was a sick baby needing breathing treatments and close monitoring....we were the best option at the time...<>)

Anyhow, Louisa came to us at the ripe ol age of 5 mos..."just for the weekend..." Lol...just for the weekend has now turned into 8 years~ Louisa, age 7, is simply beautiful, both inside and out.

Louisa loves to play on the trampoline, and run with the dogs. She is super with pets and hopes to become a baby doctor. I envisioned a baby doctor like our lovely pediatrician, Dr. Marlene Quilala...( she could give Jane Seymour a run for her money....Marlene is one of those docs who stops and chats w/ you at the grocery store...my kiddos are her kiddos too...a long lost art in medicine if you ask me...)Anyhow, back to the topic...Louisa wants to CATCH babies for a living...ewwwww...what could she be thinking, Lol...Cause I KNOW she has no real clue where those babies come from....That child has the # on the TV down...she knows right how to get to Discovery Health Channel and watch those babies be born, Lol...

What an amazing journey this parenting thing is...

So here we go~ my first post in Solgatville

This is the start...a glimpse into our crazy life. We are blessed and insane all in the same breath. I thought to try and give everyone an update of each of the girls and of our family life, Lol... a wee peek is all you will get...

Each of my girls are precious beyond belief...and precocious to a fault! But, I am CERTAIN they will ALL be future leaders of their world. David and I have adopted 8 daughters, birthed 3 and now we find ourselves with grandsons. ( note to editor...boys are waaay different right out of the chute...Lol ) After 11 daughters the grandsons are making sure we learn something new every day!

We tend to keep busy raising our daughters (8 are still at home ) and finding time to steal for ourselves. So be sure to check back...there are plenty of adventures to be had in Solgatville!