On Adoption and Orphan Care: A Proposed Resolution

A proposal by Dr. Russell Moore

Springtime Happenings

Just an update on what's been going on in the Ryle house this spring.

We traveled down to Foley for my Mamaw's 80th birthday. A lot of family was able to come, and it was great to catch up with those we don't see often! We got a photo of Mamaw with all five of her children, which hasn't happened in probably decades. Happy birthday, Mamaw!

While down on the coast, we also got to visit with the Ryles. Caroline had never met Philip's Aunt Shannon, Uncle Bill, and cousin Lauren (first time I was abel to meet Lauren as well!), so we enjoyed spending some time with them at Bebe's house. Caroline loves Bebe (Philip's grandmother) - she just laughs and laughs at her!

Here is Callie in her beautiful Easter dress with her beautiful Easter basket (both made by Mimi - thanks, Mom!). We were able to celebrate Easter by having my parents and Erin over for lunch.


Philip's family came in April to visit with us and to go to the Bama spring practice game (A-Day). We enjoyed visiting with Nana, Grumpa, and Tio Daniel. Hopefully they can one day come to a real fall game!

(The Ryle boys look so goofy in this pic because they have a tradition of all standing on their toes to appear taller. However, when they all stand on their toes at once, it doesn't have the desired effect!)

We also went down to the neighborhood lake to attempt to catch a "giant" catfish that they saw when they were visiting last August when Caroline was born. The catfish was either sleeping, avoiding us, or has been caught, as all we saw were turtles. Next time, maybe, we will have better luck.


Thanks, Ryle fam, for coming to see us! We can't wait to see you in Miami in a couple of weeks.

We also have been enjoying having my parents so close by (and the fact that they now live on a lake)! Dad's new boat is awesome. We've been out on it several times, and I even took the jet ski out for a test ride a few weeks ago. Caroline is not super thrilled with riding on the boat. The life jacket she has to wear is so big on her! She looks very uncomfortable. I think that she is just going to have to tolerate it this summer, and maybe next summer she will enjoy boating more. But I can't wait for it to warm up so we can really enjoy the lake! I hope Caroline doesn't take for granted the fact that she has one set of grandparents with a lake house and another set of grandparents who live near a beautiful beach. I foresee a lot of swimming in her future.

Philip's birthday was last weekend, and we went to the Birmingham Zoo together to celebrate. It was Philip's (and Caroline's) first trip there. It was a beautiful day (not too hot), and most of the animals were out and about. We even got to see the new rhinos that live there! We enjoyed spending the day together to celebrate Philip. Happy birthday, Sweetie!

Nine months

Today was Caroline's 9 month checkup. She weighed in at a whopping 15 lbs 4.5 oz and was 27 inches long. She's hanging in there at the 5th percentile! A little bit about our baby girl at this stage:

She is such a great eater. She still loves her milk, but also really enjoys any solids we offer her. There really isn't anything we've offered yet that she's refused! She does prefer fruits to veggies (what baby doesn't), but she's amiable to the veggies if you alternate bites. At this point she is eating three meals a day, with about 8 oz at each meal. I still make the majority of her food, unless Publix is having a BOGO sale and I have a matching coupon. :) She is pretty good with finger foods, though she gets tired of feeding herself after a few minutes (unless it's Cheerios, which she'll eat her weight in) and wants you to step in with the spoon to finish it off. Oh, and the poodles are thrilled now that she's getting finger foods! Ellie has scored herself a few baby biscuits by waiting patiently below.


She's not a mover quite yet. As a reflux baby, she spends minimal time flat on the floor. This has led to a lack of rolling, scooting, crawling, etc. She pretty much sits (which she did at 4 1/2 months) and plays. She's almost ready to pull up. I think we will skip crawling and go for walking. :) (As you can see, Ellie really loves Callie!)


As for sleeping, she goes through phases. Some weeks she is sleeping all night and taking two two-hour naps, and other weeks she is only napping 45 minutes at a time and waking at night to nurse. Who knows. I love her long naps when I get them; more time to work on my research! The end is in sight!

As much as we love our pediatrician, Dr. Dudgeon, we have seen far too much of him during little Callie's life. It seems like we are always having to run tests for strange problems. My sis-in-law Michelle is a pediatrician, and she can attest to how many times I've called her with "The doctor found such-and-such. He doesn't think it's a anything, but we're running this and that tests to make sure." Michelle commented to me recently how all of the supposed problems we've tested for are common pediatric problems that she sees all of the time in her practice, but that it was unusual for ONE baby to have them all. Every incidence has turned out to be either nothing or something much less than suspected and easily treatable. We are so thankful for that!

Most recently was her leg, which she was refusing to bear weight on. So we went to the pediatrician two weeks ago for him to check it out. Unfortunately, she also had a fever and high white count, so off we went to the pediatric orthopedic surgeon to make sure she didn't have an infection in her joint or hip. Thankfully, there was no infection (the white count and fever were just a run-of-the-mill, unrelated-to-her-leg virus), and the doctors suspected that she had a buckle fracture in her lower leg, which would heal by itself without any intervention over the next couple of weeks. We went back this week to x-ray it again to check for new bone growth to confirm this diagnosis, and that's what it was! She's all better now, but she sure likes to keep us on our toes. :) We have no idea how an immobile 8 month old who doesn't even really roll over fractured her leg. I never thought I would be writing "first broken limb" in her baby book! We're just thankful it was nothing more serious. Dr. Dudgeon, we hope to not see you for another three months!