Our First Full Week with Jacob Jafar

Monday, April 18th-Gotcha Day
We showed up to the TH at about 9:30am and the Dr was checking on Jacob. She said he was very sick and didn’t know if we should take him or not. She told me he had a fever of 39 C. I didn’t know what that transferred to in F, so I wasn’t too worried yet. I started to cry and I didn’t ever know if we would pass court or not. I just kept thinking “we might be able to legally take him, but the Dr. won’t let us”. Well an hour later the Dr. met with us and told me we could take him if I did this list of things with him. Then the nurse told me that his fever was 102.7 F. Ahh! My poor baby! He was awfully cuddly all day. As I was walking out of the Dr.s room, Yonas-an AWAA employee- came to tell me we passed court and Jacob Jafar was legally our son! I shouted with joy jumped on Yonas and then started crying some more! Happy tears this time!! Yonas told me that he didn’t tell Brad yet, so I went to tell him. I was crying so he thought something was wrong at first. Then through my happy and relieved tears I told him “We passed!! This is legally your son!!” Brad was skyping with another family and their older kids. But he jumped up and rejoiced with me!!
There is another AW mama staying at the same guest house with us. We were all hoping and praying we’d pass court together on Monday and bring our kids back together. She didn’t have a scheduled court date (we did). So we heard first that we passed and they didn’t know anything about her yet. Yonas told me someone was still waiting at court to see if she will pass and that her case is more complicated. I think that was just because she didn’t have a scheduled court date. Praise God about an hour later she found out she passed too!! We were taking our kids home on the same day!!
We finished with some things at the TH, and Brad had a tearfully goodbye with an older kid that is waiting for the correct papers before he can be adopted. Brad is ready to start the process to come back for him and his little brother. We will see what the Lord has in store for all of us! So we left the TH around noon and brought Jacob back to our guest house. He wasn’t feeling that great, so he slept most of the day. One of the things I had to do for him is give him a Tylenol suppository. I had never done this before, so as I was changing his diaper one of the workers at the guest house asked if she could do it. She used to do some kind of health care before working here. So I gladly let her. But I had plenty of times to give it to him over the next 5 days.
At the TH they were feeding Jacob about 7 oz every 3 hours. He never finished a bottle when I gave it to him. So I was hoping to give him about 5 oz about 5 times a day. But he didn’t really want to eat anything. We bought him a little bed, but he is too big for it, so after a while he was kicking so much to stretch his legs we brought him to bed with us. He woke up scared about 10 times. As soon as he heard one of our voices he was OK. He also ate like 3 oz 3 different times in the night. I made up my mind that I wasn’t going to complain and just be thankful that God chose me to be his mama and love on him and hold him while he is sick!
Tuesday morning he woke up without a fever, but woke up from his morning nap at 11am with a 103.1 F fever. We called the Dr. at the TH and she wanted to see him right away. We rushed back to the TH before the Dr. left at noon and she checked him out. She thought he had double ear infections and still a high fever, so she wanted to keep him overnight for 24 hours of observation. They started him on antibiotics, which he HATES. I was crying, again. I didn’t want to leave him sick at the TH for lots of reasons. I am his mama and I wanted to be the one holding him when he didn’t feel well. But we left, with me crying, and went back to the guest house without Jacob. We woke up early the next morning and went back to the TH and the nurse told us he was fever free and we could take him back with us!! Praise the Lord!! We got to hang out at the TH with the other AW families for a little bit while we waited for our driver. He still wasn’t 100% better and was really liking cuddling with me! He did just a little better at night. He still woke up several times, but quickly went back to sleep after we patted him or gave him his pacifier. He ate 3 oz 3 times at night again. He also woke up in the middle of the night with a fever again.
Thursday morning he still had a fever and didn’t want to wake up. He slept all day. I woke him up to eat and give him a cool bath. Then I noticed that he had about 15 dots on his stomach, sides, and shoulder. Several kids at the TH have the chicken pox now, so I was thinking it could be that. He went back to sleep-all day. We just stayed at the guest house with him all day. He had a fever on and off all day too.
Friday morning he woke up with a slight fever and he still hadn’t pooped since we got him Monday morning. But there were no more spots, so I was really hoping it wasn’t chicken pox. We took him back to the TH and the nurse saw him and gave him medicine for the constipation. The Dr. was already gone, so she didn’t see him. She asked us to come back Saturday morning.
Saturday morning we went back to the TH, this was the week we were supposed to take Jacob and not go back to the TH- but we were there 5 out of 6 days. Saturday morning the Dr. said she didn’t think it was chicken pox, but maybe a reaction to the antibiotics or the new soap we were using. His fever was also gone and the only thing she noticed was his cough. She gave him some cough medicine and medicine for the constipation. On Saturday night he had his best night of sleep. He only ate one time during the night to eat and 2 other times because he was scared. We are hoping that we are finally starting a little bit of a schedule and he is much better!
Easter Sunday was a great day with Jacob feeling much better and we had a great first Easter together, I will post about it next…
We am so thankful for this 1st week with our son and we can’t wait to spend more time with him!! We are so thankful that God chose US to be Jacob’s parents!!