Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

We wish you all the most Blessed Christmas season filled with joy, love and family!!

The front of our card

The reality of our family LOL!

** We know many out there pray for our family - we are days away from getting LOA (they think) and Satan is attacking like nothing I have ever seen.  Dawson is an amazingly special child and we are begging you keep our family covered over the next days and weeks.***

God's Hand

For those of you who have been here a while you know Tao is our little "fisher of men".  Part of is what we call the puppy factor, but the other part is that I truly believe he has God's work to do.  It is nothing short of shocking to witness, shocking and oh so humbling.

Believe me when I say that I have had to put away ever bit of adoption knowledge we ever read, (and we read a lot because of Cav.)

So today was such an amazing experience . . . so much so I wanted to stand on top of the mountains and scream so people could hear me.

This story is as much for us as it is for you.  To remember that God very much is at work, uses the least of these to do His work.  We are his humble servants, listening at His whispers without including our own humanness.

So we have transferred from football to wrestling.  Besides our big boy I have 2 little ones who are crazy about wrestling.  In addition, the high schoolers love Brahm and Tao ( they love Cav too, but he just isn't quite ready to wrestle yet.)

Tao sat to watch the mat be lifted to the ceiling, and two high schoolers plopped right down next to him!

This morning as I was getting kids ready to come for our first all day tournament, Tao threw a fit (far and few between but really the kid is 3 - it's normal.)  I just felt he was supposed to be with us, so we finally calmed him down although we ended up missing big brother's first match.

Anyhow, midway through the day, this big cowboy stood next to where we sat on the bleachers, and struck up a conversation with Tao.  I am talking cowboy hat, huge belt buckle EVERYTHING!  We left and came back and the man drifted towards us again (not in a creepy way - he had come from Oklahoma to watch his nephew wrestle LOL).

AS this cowboy was talking to us and playing with Tao - one of the coaches from the christian school came up and asked if Tao was Chinese, I told him his story and we got to chatting.  The cowboy told my friend his parents had been a missionary in Korea.  We chatted with the cowboy some more and the baby gravitated towards him.  I think I have mentioned before but Tao loves being up, and held.  I assured the cowboy it was ok to pick him up.

Now comes the God part!  We asked if he had any kids - one he said and she was 32.  I asked if he had grandkids, because truly this man was wonderful with Tao.   I saw the tears behind his eyes (and I thought oh no don't make him cry in this noisy auditorium filled with wrestling matches and screaming parents LOL).  As he proceeded to tell us this story I watched Tao snuggle against this man's chest, heart to heart and lay quietly, completely at peace.

He proceeded to tell us he got a girl pregnant at 18, and paid for an abortion.  He entered the pro rodeo circuit and knew he would never be home to care for a child.  She couldn't go through with it, and luckily was able to go into a home for unwed mothers.  They cared for her until she delivered the baby. He had to go to court to relinquish his rights as a parent (and it sounds like it was a horrible experience.)  The child found him years later.  She was raised by a doctor and had, had a great life.

And as I stared at this gruff man, in the black hat, snuggling a once unwanted baby, I prayed that this somehow would heal a heart that was still wounded 32 years later.

I assured him that he had made the right and most unselfish decision.

He held that baby for another 30 minutes, as he slept.  Hours later when we left, I sent Tao over to say good bye (he also bought the little boys candy LOL!)

He hugged our little boy, and then quickly left the gym, head down.  I pray for his healing, and marvel at how God can use a tiny 3 year old in the craziest of places.

I know nothing of this man's faith, but I did speak of ours.  IF he isn't a believer I pray that this would open a door for him.

Detour

I thought I finally had it all together - we scheduled Cav to get his new legs made in Nov (you know so it would fall under our already met deductible).

Getting his leg casted for new spiderman legs!

His prosthetist suggested we make an appointment with the amputee clinic for the same day . . . and we were able to get in which was our first God sighting (and I probably should have know something was up LOL!)

I can't remember if I have mentioned this hoopty walk Cav has developed.  We first noticed it shortly after getting his arm casts off in April.  We thought it was either a bad habit or the weight of the casts had somehow changed how he felt his center of gravity was.

It just became more and more noticeable.  Our PT thought maybe it was his hip and core strength.

Heck, even the PT at the amputee clinic thought the same thing.

Yeah it took our fabulous orthopedist one look and he ordered x-rays.

TO catch newer people up Cav has Tibial Hemimilia - they were able to save, and straighten his tibia when he had amputation surgery - summer 2012.  They did this by chopping the tibia in 3 pieces, and placing a rod through it - which also meant 8 weeks in a cast which lasted 10 days before he had to be recasted - it was a VERY long summer.  We were warned he would need another osteotomy in the future but it was my impression it would be closer to middle or even high school.

NOT 18 months later.  I just wanted to cry, I was sure I was close.  When we accepted Cav's file, I read as much as I could.  I never saw anything about curving tibia's, continuous surgery AND we had no idea about the mild radial club hands or neglect, or sensory or, or, or.  My heart breaks for this kid.  God, he just needs a break - I prayed right there in that room.

They decided to do another x-ray because he hyperextends his knee backwards.

Even as a nurse I don't quite get how this makes a difference and really I DON"T CARE!!

AS I looked at the surgery schedule I realized a January surgery (the soonest he could do (heehee so much for our deductible.) would put Cav in a cast until MARCH - oh no March is when I am supposed to be getting Dawson (you know because you can plan these things LOL).  Of course he would have to be recasted for new legs after getting his cast off, and this would be another 2 weeks at least ugh

GOD I CAN'T DO THIS I WANTED TO SCREAM!!

And then we received HIS blessing.

We still have surgery scheduled for January 20th, but they are only going to do a 2 plate (usually you hear 8 plate surgery) where they place screws and a plate into the growth plate on the outer side and let the inner grow until it evens out a bit.

The second x-ray bought us time.

He will still need the osteotomy within the next 2 years.  So please keep him in your prayers.  He asked if we were going to take the rest of that leg.  We assured him we weren't and it wouldn't look any different.  But my heart breaks for him - he meets every challenge head on and I know he will do amazing but it's a lot.

He will be 2 weeks without his prosthetic.  They think he should be able to use forearm crutches (mainly because the weakness in his hands.)  THey will lock the prosthetic knee and they think he will be fine.  PLEASE specifically pray for no snow or ice during the end of January.  We do have his wheelchair (and scored the next size up at goodwill last night for $30!!) but the concern is without the physical activity his sensory issues will raise it's ugly head.

For those who are freaks like me here is the second x-ray.  You can see the pressure indent just above the white circle.  This shows how the forces of his leg and alignment are off and how much his center of gravity is off (I think that's right.)