Jewel the Squirrel: Day 2

 Kenya and I slept on the couch with the squirrel in her box right in the middle of us on the fold out table thing in the middle of the couch. Kenya fell asleep around 11 pm and the next feeding was at 11:30pm I tried to wake her up with no luck and I couldn't believe my team mate had bailed on me already. I fed the squirrel and tried to fall asleep but I kept thinking Jewel was going to climb out of her box and fall somewhere on the couch and I would never be able to find her. Then it was time for her next feed 1:30am I tried again to wake Kenya up with no luck. I will tell you this took me right back to having a newborn which at the time I LOVED but I'm pretty sure from this point on I only want to adopt kids 1 and up. Back to the 1:30am feed the squirrel did pretty good she kept drinking too much and it would come out of her nose then I would have to wipe it off and try to feed her slower. Really who wants to slowly feed a squirrel at 1:30am not me but I did it.  Then I tried to get the squirrel to sleep in her box but all the sudden after not really moving in 10 hours she learned to crawl. Great... So I put her in my hand and wrapped a blanket around it till she was nice and asleep and put her back in the box. I am telling you it was just like having a newborn baby although I don't put my newborn babies in a box or feed them cats milk. I can't remember how many times I woke up to feed her I think 2 or 3 my little side kick Ms. Kenya didn't wake up for any of the feeds but was convinced this morning that she helped me with all of them. 

I was so excited when we finally woke up around 8:30am and Jewel was still ALIVE we did it. Kenya and I fed her one last time and I got ready super fast so I could get her to the vet still alive :) I kept Judah with me while I was getting ready because I didn't want him to grab her. Of course the second I turn away I see Judah putting something pink in his mouth so I yelled at the top of my lungs JUDAH NOOOOOOOO I flew across the living room to pull what I though was the squirrel out of his mouth I was thinking "great I kept this squirrel alive all this time and my son is going to kill it 5 minutes before I take it to the vet and I'm sure get some awful disease  from eating a squirrel."  As I got closer I realized it was just the close pin we used to keep Jewels box closed... that was close. 

As we drove to the vet I was pretty proud of my Mommy Squirrel skillz. We took it in and they were so nice. They said the doctor would take great care of Jewel and they kept saying how little she was. Judah was saying "hi baby hi baby" then I said okay it's time to say bye to the baby squirrel and he said " I want baby I want baby" Judah was more sad to leave the squirrel there than Kenya and I were. It was really cute! 

So that is the end of days with a pet squirrel. It was fun but I can't really say I want to do it again. I am very glad Kenya got to have that experience though. 

Jewel the Squirrel

I took our dog outside to go to the bathroom and I noticed him playing with some sort of bug or warm.  I didn't have my glasses on but I went and got them so I could see what he was playing with. As I walked over there I got totally freaked out to see this pink thing jumping all over the ground. At first I thought it was a worm then I thought it was a naked mole rat (both super gross) but as I go closer I realized it was a baby animal of some sort.

I put it in a little plastic container with a wash cloth and texted a few friends to see what I should do. One of them said to take it to PetSmart so that's what I did. I didn't plan on leave that place with this critter I just wanted to find out what it was and give it away. 

I went up to the cashier and said "okay I know this is strange but I found this and I have no clue what it is or what to do with it and I don't want to keep it." She took one look and fell in love. She told me it was a baby squirrel and one of the employees there had a pet squirrel. I was so excited to know it wasn't a baby rat and I was hoping this would bet the babies new owner.

He came up and told me all about how to raise baby squirrels and how much work it was. I told him I didn't want to keep it and he said "well I don't want to either." haha

Just at that time someone walked up to pay for their things and the cashier said "hey do you want a baby squirrel? It is super cute...) He said he didn't but his in laws raised squirrels and released them back into the wild in Oklahoma. I said "well would they want to come get this one?" No luck he  called them and they were about to go out of town :( 

The guy with the pet squirrel gave me the number to a vet that takes in squirrels and I was excited for this glimmer of hope. I called them and there wasn't anyone there who could take him until tomorrow morning. The lady asked if I could care for him for the night and bring him in the morning. You all have to understand something before a few months ago I was not an animal person at all. I didn't like dogs, or cats, or really any pets. Then we dog sat for some friends and I fell in love! I never understood how some people were "dog people" but something clicked and I got it. We have now welcomed Dallas into our family and we love him. I will blog about him later let's go back to Jewel the Squirrel. Before I became a... oh man it's still kinda hard to say... before I started liking animals I'm not sure what I would have done with Jewel (Kenya named the squirrel) I might not have done anything but now I knew I had to do something. Jewel was fresh out and still had the umbilical cord attached. I decided to keep the squirrel until we could drop it off at the vet in the morning. 

We did everything they told us to do. We wrapped Jewel in a wash cloth and put her in a box on top of a heating pad set on low to keep her warm.

I feed her cat formula every 2 hours.

Kenya is having so much fun helping with the squirrel. 

Looking at the squirrel in person it is so cute but after looking at these pictures I realized it is pretty ugly. Still we will love and take care of it till tomorrow. Look how tiny it is in Kenya's hand. We are thinking it is only a few days old.

This is my friend Shannon holding Jewel. We didn't hold her with out the cloth at first but after reading more information we decided it was safe to hold her.

Here we are the team of two ready to wake up every 2 to 3 hours through the night to feed Ms. Jewel. Kenya wants me to wake her up so she can help. I figure if nothing else this will be a great learning opportunity for Kenya. She loves animals and wants to be a horse doctor one day so I guess we can start small like with a squirrel. 

I am about to wake Kenya up and feed Jewel one last time before my alarm starts waking me up. I am really hoping she doesn't die tonight.  I will update in the morning after we take her new home at the vet.

If for some reason you too find a baby squirrel HERE is a great website with TONS of information. 

Part 2

My sweet friends Aaron and Karen welcomed their 7th child into the world last week and I was so blessed to get to be there for baby Moriah's birth. Karen and Aaron's love for the Lord and their passion for raising their children in a God glorifying home is a beautiful thing!

Karen just had a natural birth less than an hour before this picture was taken. She is so beautiful and you would have never know she just gave birth by looking at this picture!

Love them!

My sister Brandi and her family just moved back to Texas and I can't tell you how excited I was to get to celebrate her 29th birthday with her.

Kenya picked out the cake and she was so proud of it!

All the "big" kids helped blow out the candles.

Everyone wanted to see what she got!

In and Out opened not too far from our house and I couldn't wait to go eat there! My Step Dad Kevin, Destinee and I all went and it was soooo good. I thought there would be crazy long lines but they were not bad at all. In fact we got our food about 15 minutes after we got there.

Destinee...

and me... we were so excited.

Double double animal style, animal style fries and a chocolate shake YUM!!! If you order their fries the normal way they are just okay but if you get them animal style you will LOVE them!

I think those are all the major events that have happened these past few weeks. Now I can rest easy for a month then blog again... Just kidding I hope to blog more then that.

Sorry it has been so long...

I have not blogged on here in over a month... We have been really busy and I just haven't really felt like it. I have been trying to spend less time online and spend more time taking care of and spending time with my family. It has been hard to find a balance between FB, blogs, adoption stuff and spending time with my family but that is for another post. I am here to catch you up on our lives these past few weeks.

We have been enjoying going to the museum. This is a HUGE light bright and the kids love it. Judah got water all over his clothes in case you were wondering why he is sporting a onsie with no shorts.

Kenya and Judah LOVE the light room. 

This was one of Judah's favorite things to do. 

Kenya and Isabel were cracking Angela and I up. They wanted to be behind the rope not in front of it. Normally I would be all worried about Kenya breaking the rules but I didn't really care that day.. My bad... I know... 

Here they go again sneaking back there.

These two can not hang out when they are older...

Destinee and I took a one day road trip to get the last of the papers for the dossier apostilled. 

We had a blast together! 

We couldn't figure out where the building was after we parked so we used the GPS on my phone.

We made it... Overall it went well. We had to get a few things redone but our completed dossier is not at our agency awaiting approval... once they look over it they will send it to Eastern Europe... hopefully soon.

We decided to give ourselves a tour of the capital notice it in Dee's glasses??? Okay it is kinda hard to see  but still a cool picture... 

Funny story... Destinee and I wanted to eat somewhere that could only be found in Austin so she said we should go to Chuy's. I was all for it. Well as it turns out the food wasn't all that great and there are at least 3 pretty close to our houses haha.

We went through a few super hard weeks with Judah. I loved him but he was so hard to watch. He was into everything and wouldn't listen to anything we said. I am happy to report he is doing much better now and is a joy to be around. This picture was taken during those few hard weeks.

Here I am getting ready to mail off our dossier!!! 

We went to the lake with a few of our friends and had so much fun just hanging out and reconnecting. 

Over the years a few of our friends from this "group" of friends have moved out of state and we miss them so much. Curt and Mandy came for a visit and it was so great to hang out with them for a few hours.

Judah getting ready to give his future wife Aubrey a kiss. He is three days older than her.  

I had the amazing opportunity of being the stand in Dad for a very dear friend of mine. Her husband had no  choice but to leave for work during her labor so I came and took his place for a few hours. It was such a neat experience getting to help her through the pains of labor. The hospital even let me catch the baby and Laura let me cut the umbilical  cord. Both of those things have been life long dreams of mine and I never thought I would get to do either of them.

Sweet baby Anya was almost named after me but I lost the coin toss...

Kenya is getting so big. I am doing school with her and she is loving it! 

This is part one of me trying to fill y'all in on our lives these past few weeks.

GARAGE SALE IS ON!!!

WE GOT LOTS AND LOTS OF STUFF!

This wedding dress is in great condition.... no stains:

We got baby stuff (cloths, toys, jumpers, strollers, and much much more)

TVs:

Lots of clothes:

Baby/toddler bed, co-sleeper

Stove in great condition (very clean, looks new)

Bikes, fold out bed couch, etc...

Lots of shoes of alot of different styles:

It is a beautiful morning out right now so come visit us and help with our adoption fees :)