July Update

Hi All!  If you are still occasionally checking this blog, please forgive me for taking sooo long to finally write an update.  Life has been very hectic here at the Krol household as you can imagine!  Little Catherine is doing GREAT!  She is such a ball of energy and so much fun!  Her sweet smiles and mischievous glances warm our hearts daily.  She is learning more words every day and I am constantly amazed at how much she understands, even though she is not talking a whole lot yet.  She is able to say all her brothers' names and loves to echo me, especially when I am calling one of them!  Feeding her can be somewhat of a challenge as she seems to have lost the voracious appetite she had while we were in China.  Peanut butter and jelly and milk and cereal, two of our mainstays, are NOT her favorites.  She does love our macaroni and cheese, though, which is a very good thing! 

Broccoli a la mode!  (we will resort to bribery to get her to eat her veggies :)

It is so hard to believe August is here...summer is almost over and in some ways, I feel like it has just begun.  After spending most of June in China, July just whizzed by in a blur of swim practices and meets and doctor's appointments and now it is August and school is looming on the horizon.  The boys all had a wonderful summer season at the pool.  Peter and Patrick led their age groups in achieving points for the team, both placing consistently in Breaststroke and Butterfly.  Christopher also had a lot of fun and took plenty of time off his freestyle and backstroke.  Catherine Fujuan was amazingly good through it all as she spent some LONG hours at meets and practices.  It so encouraged me to see her joy at catching sight of one of her brothers (especially Christopher); she would point and giggle excitedly.  It is different having a little girl.  Some of my preconceived ideas have been shattered!  For example, girls are NOT quieter or calmer or less likely to get into things (at least ours, anyway!)  They DO, however, love their bows and dresses and baby dolls, which is so much fun for Mommy!

Our little Bullfrog
(That is the name of the kids' summer swim team)

Enjoying a story read by her big brother

We were able to see an orthopedic surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital last month and feel so blessed that we live not 20 minutes away from such a world-renown hospital.  Dr. Sponseller, the chief of Peds. Orthopedics, gave us the news that our precious daughter will need back surgery probably within the next 6 months to place a rod in her back.  It is called a "grow rod" and will need to be lengthened surgically as she grows (possibly every 6 months to a year).  Not exactly what we wanted to hear,  but not too surprising. The awesome part is that her doctor is the leading expert in this technique!  (God is so good!)  She has an MRI scheduled for the 17th of August which she will have to be put to sleep for.  Then the 19th we will return to hear the results and discuss surgery dates/details.  Please pray for these appointments that God would protect her and make His will very clear to us.  Our family has been so overwhelmed by the hand of God in our lives throughout this journey, and we know He will continue to carry us through.  And we are so grateful for the encouragement and support of all our family and friends...you are all a huge blessing!  I will definitely try to be better about updating you all more frequently on all the happenings here :)

The whole gang!

PS  I will post new pictures as soon as my IT guy (Peter, of course!) is available to help me :)

PPS  Finally got those pictures done courtesy of "Computer Geek" (aka Peter)