What a Week.

If you are a follower of this blog, then you know that my last post was written in the throes of Lilly's first VEPTR expansion in Philly. And I think I left you hanging just before Tom and I began our whirlwind househunting weekend while Lilly recovered from surgery with family in New Jersey and Jared and Anna spent the first few days of their summer vacation with friends in Florida. That's where my blog updates abruptly ended.

And, as you may have noticed, it has been awhile since I have blogged anything. This is not because there is nothing to share, nothing happening in our lives. Not because we dropped off the face of the earth. Not because I want to keep my loyal readers in the dark. Oh no. That is not why. Mainly it's because I'm lazy. Yes. Oh, and maybe because Facebook is a shorter and sweeter way to shoot out quick updates. But even my Facebook page was a little quiet until this past week.

I guess the main reason(s) I have not been blogging is this: We are getting a house ready to rent. And have been searching for tenants. And buying a house in another state. ANd preparing to move in roughly 7 weeks. And adopting a 4th child on the fast track. And doing "normal life" with 3 active kids, now on summer vacation. And dealing with some medical issues for Anna (hearing loss in the left ear). And, this week at least, entering a total time warp and unexpectedly spending a week in a hospital room with Lilly and her mystery illness involving high fevers and infection of unknown origin.

OK, so that's why. I know, a sorry excuse to neglect the blog. My apologies.

Oh, one more reason not to blog from the confines of this hospital room--I had no internet access. That is a truly VALID excuse, don't you think? My rockstar husband, however, who happens to work in this hospital, managed to have the computer folks here extend the WiFi to our floor, so now I have internet access on my iPad (my mother's day gift from my awesome man.)

So I am now without excuse, sort of.

Since there is WAY too much to give you great detail on each of the things we are currently up to, let me just give you a quick update on each:

The VEPTR Expansion: it went well, she grew another inch, and her recovery in NJ with loving grandparents, Aunts, Uncles, cousins, and friends (and without Mama and Daddy nearby) went really well. Big kudos to Auntie Em for her amazing ability to juggle multiple children of multiple ages and keep Lilly happily distracted and greatly entertained.

The Move: Our house hunting weekend was ultimately successful. It was a whirlwind that started on a Friday when I left Lilly in NJ, drove to Philly to pick up Tom, headed to Northern VA (through old stomping grounds in suburban Maryland that were strangely familiar yet also oddly different in many ways after 10 years), and stopped briefly at the Tomatz' house (friends who moved to N VA from FL last summer)where we dropped off our suitcases and hopped into our realtor's car. For the next 36 hours, we drove all around the Vienna, Fairfax, Herndon/Reston areas of VA and walked through easily 20+ houses, some gorgeous, some not, some convenient, some not. Took lots of notes and looked at lots of photos online. In the evenings we enjoyed great food with the Tomtatz' and turned their living room into our command central, commandeering their computer and printer for our hunt. Our realtor was wonderful--let us know if you need a recommendation for a good one in the DC area--and made extremely efficient use of our limited time. The bottom line: on our 3rd day of looking, we put a bid on our first choice house, waited a few days for a reply, then--when learning our bid was not accepted on house #1, put a bid on our second choice house, around the corner in the same great neighborhood as the first one. Things are now rolling along on that front--inspection completed, awaiting appraisal, and we should be closing by 22 July.

Renting the House: Our initial tenants had to back out of renting it as he got a job elsewhere in FL, so, momentarily panicked, we rapidly put the word out and created an ad on militarybyowner.com. Within 12 hours of our initial panic, we already had a [phone call from a military family in Japan who were eager to send us a security deposit and sign a lease asap. They are excited about the house and the neighborhood, and we are excited to have a military family that is interested in renting for at least 2 years. Praise God!

Anna's Hearing: Anna starting complaining a few months ago that she couldn't hear well out of her left ear. This coincided with the onset of another viral illness, so I attributed the hearing issues to the virus and assumed it would clear up with time. Several months later, however, the issues persist, and she complains of hearing static, "morse code," and strange noises rather than voices or actual sounds in that ear. We had a hearing test administered,and have a followup hearing test scheduled for Monday. We will follow up with ENT and possibly some radiology studies top see what is happening with her...

And, finally, Lilly's surprise hospitalization and a week in a time warp. Which is another post of its own that will have to wait until another time to draft.


PS--but I am still lazy.