It's A Small World After All!

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

First Trip to the Beach!

A few weeks ago, we took S and H to the beach for the very first time. It was our first vacation in over 2 years, and we were so excited to get away for a few days! (We've had a little bit going on, and I don't count the 2 trips to Russia as vacation, no matter what anyone says!) We went with both sets of grandparents, and we were so grateful for their help with our boys. I kept thinking about how far S has come from cold Tver, Russia to a beach in South Alabama!

Watching S see the beach for the first time from our condo balcony was priceless! His eyes got so big, and he seemed amazed by the ocean.

Here are S' top 10 favorite things about our trip...

10. Running all over our condo-there was a very long hallway in our unit!

9. Watching Elmo over and over and over and over again

8. Putting on a swim diaper (that meant we were headed outside!)

7. Floating in the lazy river

6. Sitting under the waterfall in the wading pool

5. Playing in the baby pool

4. Sitting down in the sand and letting the ocean water run over his legs

3. Collecting seaweed from the beach

2. Throwing sand on the beach (and not getting trouble for it!)

1. Riding down the water slide!

He had such a fun time and loved the water so much more than last year! He is still swimming with floaties, but I think he will catch on to swimming on his own very quickly. Hopefully we can start swimming lessons before next summer.

Baby H did well on the trip, too. He enjoyed sleeping in the warmth of the sun, and we kept him covered by either an umbrella or a tent when we were at the pool or the beach. A few months ago, I was not sure we would be able to take him on a trip anytime soon. But he is doing very well now, and he was a great little traveler.

Here are a few of the pictures from our trip...

S and Daddy floating in the lazy river...I loved that lazy river!!

S digging in the sand
Family pic

We attempted a LOT of these pictures...S was not too thrilled about taking pictures so we just kept smiling trying to get a good one!

I just loved this one of S.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

22 Pounds

This is a post I wrote a few weeks ago...I think it is time to hit "publish post!"

So, what has been going on...right after my last post, S had his feeding tube surgery at Vanderbilt and was in the hospital for a few days. It was hard to see him in pain and in such a quiet mood (very unusual for S!), but by the afternoon of the second day, he began returning to his old self. As he walked the halls of the children's hospital, he had to take his balloons with him, which was adorable! And of course, once we returned to his room, there was no returning to his hospital bed! He walked around the room, and treated his balloons like they were alive-they went into the bathroom, got in the tub, got rocked in the rocking chair, etc. He is so funny! Overall, he did very well with everything. I was initally very overwhelmed with the details of taking care of him with the tube, but that has gotten better with time. Currently, we give him a continuous overnight feed, hooking him up after he goes to sleep and stopping the pump the following morning. We had quite a bit of trouble with the tube leaking into his bed overnight, so we've now gotten a new pump that has worked better so far. He recently got his special "mic-key button" to replace the initial tube that had been placed during his surgery, and it has worked well up to this point. We also give S a bolus feed right after supper time. He typically sits in his high chair or booster seat and plays with playdough while we feed him. We could give him more of these feeds during the day, but we want him to eat at least some regular food. Right after the surgery, his interest in food, which was already pretty low, went down even further. Then, a few weeks ago, he got a stomach virus. While he was sick we could not give him tube feeds for a couple of days. After this, his appetite seemed to come back, and even with resuming the tube feeds, he is willing to eat at least a little bit again. So, I personally think that the virus (while very yucky!) was kind of a blessing in disguise.

We are taking him to feeding therapy weekly now and working on techniques to keep him eating while his tummy is not as hungry. At this point, we are not concerned with the quantity of the food he eats but just trying to keep him somewhat interested in food. Our feeding therapist wants him to eat at least 3 bites each of a protein, starch, and a fruit/vegetable at each meal. The first week, our goal was 2 bites of each, and, believe it or not, this was a challenge. But by the second week, things started to improve, and he was exceeding our goal of 3 bites. If he starts to become disinterested in eating, instead of letting him stop, we offer him the choice of one food versus another, even if we have to grab out one more food to give as an option. This allows him to feel a little bit of control. Another goal is to praise him for each bite he takes. We either clap and make a big deal out of the bites or have him give us "high 5s." We want him to have a positive meal experience and get lots of positive reinforcement during the meal. When he is done, we are still having him "kiss" each bite and place it into a "bye bye" bowl. This is to keep him from throwing the food on the floor and works very well. The past few visits we've had with his feeding therapist have gone very well! He has eaten his food quickly and done what he is supposed to do. Next, we're going to work on increasing his quantity.

The big question...has he gained any weight? Well, due to the tube often leaking overnight, the initial decrease in appetite, and being sick several times, he has not really gained much yet. He is a little over 22 lbs now, so he has gone up a tiny bit. But despite being so little, he remains a very happy and energetic little boy!

I will work on a few more posts with some updates and try to get a few pictures on here, too. Thanks to those of you who are still following our blog after the blog author has been MIA for so long!

Here is a picture of S while in the recovery area just after his surgery. I had just given him a little Elmo finger puppet!

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

S' Feeding Tube Surgery

Many of you are aware of the challenges we have had with S’ eating and his weight. He has been below the growth curves with his weight since birth and is considered “failure to thrive.” S is willing to try a variety of foods, but he eats very little volume of the foods and is often “all done” after just a few bites. Over the past year, we’ve done feeding therapy, calorie boosters, special calorie drinks, calorie supplements, appetite stimulant medicines, etc., etc. While these may have helped him gain a little bit of weight, he is still far below where he needs to be. His doctors are concerned not only with his weight but also with the amount of nutrition he is getting as they want to make sure he is getting enough for his development. Because eating and weight gain continue to be a challenge after all that we have tried and after lots of tests, his doctors decided that we needed to move forward with a feeding tube. This decision has not been made lightly or quickly, and it is something we have been considering since last fall. It has been a hard decision for us, but all things considered, we now feel it is the best “next step” for his growth and development. Many people have told us we should not be concerned—that he is just small, has lots of energy, has a high metabolism, etc.—but we are with him daily and know the stress of seeing our child not want to eat his food at almost every meal and we know the serious concerns of his doctors each time we discuss his growth and development. So tomorrow, we will take S to Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital, where they will do the surgery on his tummy to get him ready for the tube. He will be in the hospital for 1-3 days, depending on how the surgery goes, how well S does, and how the first tube feedings go. Please keep S in your prayers as he has the procedure tomorrow and as we start the tube feedings over the next few days. I'll leave you with a few fun pictures of S. Hopefully, he'll be back up and going strong in just a few days!
-

Monday, July 20, 2009

Summer Update on S

Our family has had quite a bit going on for awhile, and S has done very well through all of it! Here are a few updates:

Attachment: I wondered if his attachment would be affected with my pregnancy, but we really haven't seen any concerns related to this. He has definitely grown much closer to his daddy since Michael had to do much of his care since early in my pregnancy and basically everything once I was put on bedrest and in the hospital. Michael has been Superdad, and he has done an amazing job and has remained incredibly calm and in control throughout everything that has happened. They have a very strong bond now, and S loves his daddy so much! Fortunately, S still maintained a good attachment to me, even though I was away from home for 3 weeks and not able to pick him up at all for over 3 months. He definitely knows who his parents are! A big concern we've had since we brought him home has been his willingness to let anyone pick him up and to reach out his arms for people he barely knew. This has definitely improved, and he is much better at staying close to me and Michael now and always wants us to hold him instead of other people. This is a definite answer to prayer!

Eating: This continues to be our biggest challenge! Because he has not really gained weight (and still doesn't eat well at all) and is still so far below the growth curves and considered "failure to thrive," he will definitely get the feeding tube. The pediatric GI doctor said he may need it for 2-3 years...ugghh. His surgery is scheduled for two weeks from now. Then, he will start feeding therapy again, this time going every week. Michael and I still wish there was another way for him to gain weight, but we've been told this is the best option for him at this point. This is just another example of where we are having to trust God and pray that He will take care of S through the surgery and then guide us through what to do with taking care of S' tube.

Speech: S has been attending speech therapy for 2 months now. He is saying lots of words and is much more willing to repeat words that we first say to him. His understanding of words and what we say to him has definitely increased as well. Last night, he was able to tell us the animal sounds for cows, dogs, and lions. We were so excited as we've never seen him do this without us first going through all of them with him and prompting him. And today, he learned how to tell us "no!" The funny thing is that he says it softly and in kind of a sweet voice. We'll see how long that lasts! He did this throughout the evening, and it is still kind of funny to us right now, which I realize may change at some point!

His new role: S has been a wonderful big brother so far. Baby H finally came home from the NICU about 3 weeks ago, and as soon as he walks into a room where baby H is, he says "baby" and points to him. He likes to point to all of baby H's body parts and name them, too. Very cute! We're trying to get him to "help" us with baby H by asking him to bring us blankets, etc. A couple of times he has seemed sad when one of us is holding baby H and not him, but generally we have not seen much jealousy. Overall, things have gone very smoothly.

Thank you for still following our adoption blog after it has taken me so long to update it. I'm thinking about merging this blog and our new family blog Boys Will Be Boys that I created several months ago, but I haven't decided yet. Thanks to all of you who have checked the new blog and left encouraging comments for us. We really appreciate them!

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Our Little Opera Singer!

Several months ago S' grandparents gave him a DVD player to put in our car. We planned to use it when we took long trips, but with all that has been going on, we've not been able to go anywhere recently. Well, our trip to the hospital each night takes about 25 minutes each way, so we decided to install the DVD player last week, and we let S watch videos going and coming from the hospital. (You do what you have to do!) Up until now, he really only watched the PraiseBaby DVDs. Last week, I bought him an Elmo DVD (remember how much he likes Elmo?) He has had the best time watching this video and really pays attention as he watches it. It has a little opera segment on it, and earlier tonight, S was screaming (happily!) in the car. Michael wondered what he was doing, and I told him I thought S was imitating the opera singing. Sure enough, a little while later, he saw the same segment and started the same screaming...ummm, opera singing, again! It was so cute and very funny! He is a little mess!

Saturday, June 6, 2009

Introducing S' Little Brother...

The last few weeks of our lives have been pretty wild and crazy, but once again God has been very faithful. We've seen Him answer so many prayers, and we are excited to share with you that S has a new little brother who is now 10 days old. S welcomes his little brother, baby H!

I was concerned about how S would respond to me while I was in the hospital (I was there for 3 weeks), and he did very well! He and Michael have a special bond that has grown very strong over the past few months, and S loves his Daddy so much! Michael brought S to see me as much as possible (almost everyday!) while I was in the hospital, and we had established a little nighttime routine that included a visit with Mommy and little activities we did together at the hospital. Now we have a new routine that includes going to the hospital after bathtime to visit baby H in the NICU. (Baby H will likely be in the NICU for another few weeks or so--we hope not too long!) S has been very easy going throughout all of this, and he has done well with us and with our family members when they have helped us with him over the past few weeks. We are so blessed to have their help, as they have done so much for us! Now that I'm back home, S comes and gives me hugs, he will still lean over and relax on my shoulder while watching his movie, and he comes up and points to me and says "Mommy!" :) He still wants to take my hand and guide me to play with him, too. There are things I was concerned about related to his attachment with me being away from home, but we have not had any of these issues. Again, God has answered our prayers and we give all the credit to Him!

Here is one of our pictures as a family of 4!

I'm way behind on reading blogs, emails, etc., and I hope to catch up very soon. Thank you to those of you who have sent messages, left comments, sent messages on FB, and who have kept us in your thoughts and prayers. We really appreciate you all more than you'll ever know!

Friday, May 15, 2009

Events of This Week and Our New Blog

We had a good Mother's Day, and I can't believe it was our second one with S. He had just been home for about 1 month last year for my first Mother's Day. I got to church after Michael and S, and S ran over and handed me a card from he and Daddy. It was very sweet. After church, I found out they bought me a singing balloon (yes-another one!) that sings "You Are My Sunshine," and S has been having lots of fun with it! :) My parents and Michael's parents came over for supper (they all cooked and would not let me do anything but sit!), and we enjoyed celebrating with them as well!

S started his speech therapy this past Tuesday. Michael took him, and the therapist wanted to meet with him individually. His therapist said that he did well, and hopefully she got a good baseline of where S is right now with his speech and language. We hope this will really help with his words and his understanding of language. We've seen him make a lot of progress since the first of the year, and we hope that working with the therapist will help him add more words and begin to say more phrases.

That same day, I was admitted to the hospital for my bedrest, and I will likely be here until the baby arrives. We're at 30 weeks, and they would like for me to make it to 34 weeks if possible. So, I've taken up residence in the hospital for awhile, and Michael is holding down the fort and trying to make things as normal for S as possible. He is trying to bring S to see me almost everyday. I've started a separate blog to share about what is going on with the baby, as I did not want to pull this blog completely away from S and his adoption. Here is the link to our new blog: Boys Will Be Boys. It even includes a video of S visiting me for the first time here! I will definitely continue to update this blog as well.

Based on the events of our week, we've had to delay the procedure for S' feeding tube. We will try to do it as soon as possible after the baby arrives, but we could not have him and Mommy both in 2 separate hospitals at the same time. And I definitely want to be there when he has the surgery. Fortunately, he has eaten a little better over the past week and decided to drink Pediasure again, and we are very thankful for these small blessings.

Below are a few pictures from Mother's Day...

Wednesday, May 6, 2009

Update on S' Feeding Issues

I can't seem to place my pictures where I want in my post, so I guess I'll start with them. :)

S this past Sunday

S at his 2nd doctor's appointment yesterday

Yesterday S had 2 appointments at Vanderbilt-one with the pediatric GI doctor and one with a surgeon. The pediatric GI doctor and S' pediatrican had both called us within the past 5 weeks letting us know they felt S really needed a feeding tube in order to give him the appropriate number of calories to gain weight. So yesterday was the day we were to learn more about this and find out if we were for sure moving forward with the tube. S has eaten a lot less over the past 5 weeks and no longer regularly takes his calorie drinks, so we were not surprised to see he had actually lost a little weight. The pediatric GI doctor said he felt it was definitely necessary to place the tube. I asked him if it would guarantee that S would gain weight, and he said that it should definitely happen, possibly starting even in the first week. Starting out, S will only have the tube at night to give him half of his daily calorie needs, and we will try to feed him regular meals during the day in hopes that this will give him the remainder of his daily calories. S will also go back to feeding therapy once the tube is placed. (We've not been since late December, as the feeding therapist felt she had done all she could do at the time.) The surgeon said he would schedule the procedure for June. S will have to stay in the hospital for 1-2 nights, and with me still on bedrest, we are very blessed to have our families nearby for support.

The timing is tricky, as the baby will very likely come in June as well. (My doctors want to take the baby probably around 6 weeks before his due date, if not sooner.) We hope S' surgery will be very early in June and that we can at least wait until mid-June for the baby to come as he really needs to grow as much as possible before being born. Needless to say, we are taking things one day at a time around here, and thankfully God has given us a peace about the feeding tube and the concerns related to the baby. That's not to say that we haven't had some "moments" (I had a few mini meltdowns last week!), but we know that ultimately God is in control. We are praying that we can continue to trust in Him to walk us through the next couple of months and praying that He will help both of our boys grow and develop! I pray that we can look back on this time as just another confirmation of God's faithfulness in our lives.

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Take me out to the Ballgame!

Atlanta Braves baseball is a BIG deal at our house. We (Michael) record all of the games and then watch them on the DVR. In fact, because fewer games are being showed on major networks, we even switched satellite providers a few weeks ago so we could get all of the games. It was not an easy task, but we get pretty much ALL of the games now!

Well, yesterday Michael decided very last minute to take S to his first Braves game. The Braves are in Cincinnati this week, and Michael and his best friend (Uncle Gilley) decided at lunchtime they would take Silas and drive the 4 hours it takes to get there to see the game. Michael ran and picked S up at school, we quickly got S' things together, and they were on their way within about an hour and a half of making the decision to go. S did great riding up there and at the ball park. After being there for a little while, Michael took him out of his stroller, and they walked around for a few minutes. He said S wasn't very happy to get back in the stroller, so he had to resort to one of our "if the situation requires it" tactics and gave him his car keys! (These are a most special treat!) In the end, it was a great night for all of them. The game even ended well, and the Braves won 4-3! :)

Friday, April 17, 2009

Chasing Balloons

We have a couple of singing balloons from Valentine's Day and S' birthday. They no longer sing, and they don't have much air left. But S loves them! He gets so excited to see the Elmo birthday balloon and calls it "Melmo!" He can say "balloon" and has so much fun playing with these. Tonight he and Daddy found a way to make them even more fun. :)

Monday, April 13, 2009

Long Overdue Posts...

Wow! It has been nearly 6 weeks since my last post. I've had a lot going on with work over the past 5 weeks and have been pretty tired at night and on the weekends. I occasionally check blog updates but am pretty behind on what is going on with everyone, too. I'm so sorry, and I'll try to do better in the coming weeks!

I actually posted 4 quick little posts below this one about S' birthay, his procedure at Vanderbilt, his Gotcha Day, and Easter. If you want to read them in order, you can start with the post on March 13 about S' birthday and then read upwards.

A little update on us...I'm at 25 weeks now and am on bedrest as of last week. I'm not sure if this is indefinite, but it is possible that it is. This is quite a challenge with a very busy 2 year old! It is very hard to stay in bed lying on my side when he is here (and not at daycare) because I want to help with him and spend time with him. We need to come up with some creative ways to spend quality time together as I rest because I want to continue to maintain the positive attachment we've developed over the past year. We are very fortunate to have our families nearby, and they have been a huge help since S came home and continue to support us in amazing ways. If you don't mind, please keep us in your prayers that the baby will develop and grow as he should, that I will be healthy with the help of bedrest, and that Michael will have patience and endurance as he has to do most everything with S. We know God is in control and trust that He will take care of things according to His perfect plan. I've been praying a lot of scriptures and realize that I have to focus on my faith, not my circumstances, as we go through the coming months.

Thanks for catching up with us! I hope your families are all doing well and hope that you have a great week!

Sunday, April 12, 2009

Happy Easter!

S enjoyed his first Easter egg hunt at school on Thursday, and then we did some practice on Friday night prior to our big event on Saturday. Our church hosted the "Big Ol' Egg Drop" where we dropped nearly 20,000 Easter eggs from a helicopter. I was unable to go, but Michael, my parents, and Michael's parents had lots of fun watching S hunt eggs at the event. He got quite a few and seemed to have figured out what you do at an egg hunt. We were blessed with a huge crowd (they think there were >1500 people there), and we collected >1000 lbs of food for a local food bank. Here are some pictures from the event.

Then, we went to church on Sunday morning. A few times, I tried to explain to him the true meaning of Easter. I'm sure he doesn't understand now, but I know that, even though he is only 2, he is hearing what I'm saying and will one day understand. My niece is 3.5, and she told my sister last week that, on Easter, "Jesus rose from the deck...Mommy, do you think it was our deck?" :) She is very cute, and at her young age, is really working to understand why we celebrate Easter. We look forward to S better understanding what Jesus did for him as he gets a little older. We are so blessed to serve a risen Savior who gave His life so that we can experience the joy and peace of knowing Him and having a personal relationship with Him! I hope you and your families had a wonderful Easter!

Saturday, April 4, 2009

Gotcha Day Anniversary!

We celebrated S' Gotcha Day Anniversary on April 4! We had all of our family over (who live locally) and ate spaghetti (no, not Russian food, but one food S will normally eat a little) and strawberry cake! I got out pictures that we had from our trips and the electronic scrapbooks I've put together for him so far. We also watched his Gotcha Day video, which our family enjoyed as they had never seen it. We had a fun time celebrating! It is so hard to believe that we've only had him for one year, as it seems like so much longer, while at the same time, I remember so many details of our Russia trips, that it also seems like yesterday! :) We are so blessed to have this little boy as our son!

One year ago...

Gotcha Day 1 Year Anniversary

I wrote him a book, something I've been meaning to do forever, using one of the electronic scrapbook formats. My goal is for us to read this to him everyday if possible so that he understands his story. It is very basic, but I felt this was appropriate since he is so little right now. I'll post the link to it for a couple of days, if you are interested in seeing it: LINK REMOVED (please email me if you are interested in seeing the book.)

As I've reflected on Gotcha Day, God has reminded me of a verse that I often prayed while on our 2 trips. "The Lord Himself goes before you and will be with you, He will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid, do not be discouraged." (Deuteronomy 31:8) There were so many times during the wait and during our trips that we were so overwhelmed, but God knew exactly what was happening and reminded us of this promise. All of the uncertainty and craziness was definitely worth it!

Monday, March 23, 2009

S' Vanderbilt Procedure

After his 2 year old appointment and pediatric GI appointment (which occurred in the same afternoon), it was decided that S needed to have an upper endoscopy the following week. The test itself was very quick, but we had to wait in the "holding area" for over an hour and a half with a 2 year old who had not eaten all morning and who was very restless. Fortunately, as we waited, the nice folks at Vanderbilt said he could drive a car around the surgery floor. He was a wild driver! Here are a few pictures that we took while we waited...

By the way, the test results were normal. This was good/bad as we still don't know why he is not interested in taking in many calories but we are glad there is not a major problem going on. After this test, the pediatric GI doctor called us to talk about next steps, and there may be some changes coming to help with his caloric intake. I'll keep you updated as we learn more.

Friday, March 13, 2009

S' Birthday

We celebrated S' 2nd birthday in mid-March. We had a party for him and had 44 people come! We have lots of family nearby and also invited some of Silas' friends and their families. It was a full house, and he seemed to have a great time. He ate bites of cake and a cupcake--and really seemed to enjoy both! He received lots of nice gifts from our friends and family, and we had a great time having everyone here to celebrate his birthday! Here are a few pictures from his party:

Thursday, March 5, 2009

Memories!

One year ago today, we got the call that we finally had a court date! I remember the day exactly and how I looked down during the class I was teaching to see I had 4 missed calls on my phone-some from CHI and some from Michael. I knew it had to be important...Wow! What a day that was! Now, we've had S for 11 months (as of yesterday)! We went to get our 2nd post-placement report certified and apostilled today, and the memories of doing all of that paperwork before we got him came flooding to my mind. I had not thought about all of that paperwork in so long...it seems like it was so overwhelming for so many months, at at times, it seemed impossible to get some of the documents. But God was gracious, and He always removed all of the obstacles that stood in our way. And now, fast forward to today, we've had S for almost a year and will get to actually celebrate his birthday with him next week! Here are some recent pictures of S...I'll post more after his birthday party this weekend! :)

S and Michael at a bouncy party

Meeting up with Blogger Friends...it was great to meet some of you in person and reconnect with others we'd already met!

S and his hat!

P.S. S is going to have a little brother! :)

Saturday, January 31, 2009

News from S

S has some fun news that he wants to share with you so this is from his point of view...

I learned a new word that my Mommy and Daddy have been saying a lot lately..."baby." They keep pointing to Mommy's tummy and saying "baby." I think a "baby" must be that little hole that I like to touch on her tummy that makes her giggle, but they have been showing me a black and white picture too that looks kind of funny and saying "baby." And when we watch my Praisebaby video, Mommy points to these little people who just lay down on blankets and tells me they are "babies." A few weeks ago, they took pictures of me with this shirt on...

Mommy said something today about 15 weeks, whatever that means, and they said I will be a big brother in July. I guess I have to share my toys now...I think I have enough for me and the "baby." Mommy and Daddy say they are going to have their hands full. :)