His Faith

I have menioned on here before we are not cradle to gravers - but we plan to fulfill the rest!  In fact we had been away from the church for over 20 years.  Then 7 years ago all of that changed.

Seven years ago, this boy of ours finally was baptized and we began to follow our journey that God laid out before us.  We are Lutheran - we don't believe in works based salvation.  We didn't adopt to be saved, we didn't adopt for any other reason than God placed these children on our hearts, asking who will go to my children.

We simply said we will.

As I have mentioned before, while we were in the process with Fei

 the number one question people asked us was

"What are you doing TO your bio kids."

Our journey was CONFIRMED this weekend.

When our oldest became a member of the Lutheran church through confirmation.

Below is a snippet of his FAITH statement

he wrote by himself.

"God has given us many blessings that we are unaware of. He gives us the sunny days and entertainment. He has given me my family, my adopted brothers and sister and my biological brother and sister as well. God has chosen us to protect and save these three little children. Even though our latest miracle story is still in China everyone in our family has opened their hearts to Griffen. I feel it is my duty to protect my brothers and sisters and the rest of my family. A phrase that God has presented me and my family with lately is “Man up and protect the fatherless.” Meaning let us take care of the orphans and the widows and let us run with perseverance this race so marked out for us, for non of us know what will happen until it does, which we can either learn and build off of the mistakes or let them hinder from our race for God."

Of course, I was shocked when I heard his statement for the first time.  I know I was not so strong at 13 and truthfully as I sit here, broken hearted over another day without my TA, Hurricane Sandy, and our agency in Delaware, I wonder if I am that strong NOW!   I read the last line and smile.  My crazy impatience has truly hindered from my race.

His gift was a poster I created using his verse Hebrews 12:1-2

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us runwith perseverance the race marked out for us, ² fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneerand perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

Another First

It's funny, I almost have to look at pictures to remind myself that Cav and Fei were not here last Halloween.

That is until we talk about Halloween and trick or treating and they give me their stare of confusion.

Yeah, lets see we dress in funny clothes, go door to door, and ask for free candy - who's the orphan now!

Anyhow, it is times like this where we are seeing the biggest gains from Cav especially.

He used to freak in a crowd, unable to filter out the noise, activity and people touching him.

We have had a melt down everytime we have gone to a large event but now not until the end when we are leaving.  I think he works so hard to hold it together that when we are done so is he.

Most people are well meaning but have no idea the effect touching him, picking him up and hugging him has on his central well being.  It breaks my heart, and usually I am ticked at the constant people who jsut don't get it.

Really, I have determined that touching and hugging our adopted children is almost as intimate to them as if I were to pick up their child and breastfeed them.   

I wonder why the people can't see the look of confusion on their faces.  But these people are also aren't enough "in" our lives to see the meltdowns later.

Anyhow, that brings us to this afternoons activities.

We carved pumpkins. . . CAN I jsut admit, I HATE pumpkin carving - or atleast the tactile part of the cleaning.

It's slimy and makes my skin crawl.

 It dawned on me - this jsut might be how Cav especially is feeling in crowded places, being touched.

Heehee I even bought the stick in face pieces hoping that would be enough - but NOOOO!

THey cleaned, they carved, and even our little ones had fun, being outside, together, laughing.

The giggles by far outweighed the tactile issues

And really there is nothing funnier then Cav determining if this was a treat or not!

I have to say this was a great First for our little ones!

Add caption

Griffen's care package

Our little man is in a very closed orphanage.  This means no information, no updates and no pictures.  The only reason we got the minimal information in March/April was because his file was over a year old and we were not sure if he was even still alive.

Luckily, there is a very active yahoo group which I have devoured for information.

I was heartbroken to find out that Griffen will be moved from his foster home back to the orphanage about a week before come to get him.

I can partially understand the reasoning (the assumption is they won't relate us with the loss of the only family he has ever known) but oh it jsut breaks my heart.

 In fact, it has been giving me nightmares,
 thinking of our little 2 year old,
all alone again crying himself to sleep,
in a strange place.

So, I jsut made the decision to send him a care package in hopes it will comfort him while we are gone.

A blanket to keep him warm,
a lovey,
and of course a book of our family.
Hopefully, the backpack also arrives to carry all his stuff LOL!

We actually used a different agency to send the items this year and it was way cheaper.  So even if he doesn't receive anything we pray the warm blanket and lovey will be used for a new baby, as the cycle continues.

This time we used Lillian & Gretchen with http://www.chinaadoptionhelp.com/ and is was so much cheaper we could take the chance!

There is mixed information about whether he will get it during this week of heartache but we are praying he will.  especially since there will be minimal time between it arriving and his arrival.

pLease would you pray for his heart over the next few weeks.

No Travel Approval today but we told our agency we would be ready at the drop of a hat.

More Cav while we wait

I know I have other children LOL!

And we are waiting on our TA - which makes me want to sit and check the computer non-stop instead of the 1,000 things I need to do LOL!

We are yellow (this is the chart on chinaadopttalk under forums)

BUT this little - um big guy keeps us hopping!

This is how our day on Tues went

Leave the house at 7:30
8:15 - OT appt all the way down south
forgot the dang handicap sticker so run carrying his slow self to be remotely on time
call hubby to bring the sticker on his way to work.
Hubby arrives while OT is making splints for Cav's hands to help with the suspected carpal tunnel

9 am - leave OT an race back up north for our 10 am appt with prosthetist in Denver wishing we had a helicopter LOL!

10:15 - arrive - wishing I had, had time to stop for a coffee

10:15-11 - Mr Terry builds Cav's new legs, giving him a better knee and making him 1 3/4 in taller!

11-12 - Mr Terry teaches Cav how to use his new knee.  Shows me how to work it

Mr Terry - LOVES Cav and we LOVE him!!

His new KNEE!!  Gotta love the tool fabric on this leg LOL!

This knee is much beefier and he should have a more normal looking gait.  By touching his toe it bends then swings through.  He has a bad habit already of swinging his leg out to the side.  Also this leg set up will allow for him to run - we already seeing him much faster!!

12 - leave the prosthetist and promptly get lost on our way to Denver Children's for 1pm appt

1:05 - finally arrive, use Valet, see Mr Terry walking into Denver CHildren's and again run to our appt.

1:15 - Meet the hand surgeon recommended by the amputation Dr.  Well, first we met the fellow and medical student.  Show them Cav's funky hands, tell them he needs working thumbs to get his prosthetics legs on and off.

1:45 - Meet the actual hand surgeon and he takes about 2 minutes asking Cav - can you do this, how about this.  Light bulbs start flashing over everyones head as we see him try to lift his thumb away from his palm without using his fingers.

1:50 - Diagnosed with mild Radial Longitudinal Deficiency - if you think of the arm as a leg, the radius is the same as the tibia.  Basically, jsut like his longer leg and foot didn't develop right, the same happened in his arms but even more mild.  THe radial bones are a tad short but we will watch that for now.  But it caused his thumbs to become hypoplastic, and he is missing some ligaments.  This is why his thumbs have no strength and look like they dislocate when he moves them.  Heehee as I was writing stuff down on my phone - he kept saying if you google it you will see so, and so.  I finally told him that if our amputee Dr trusted him then so do we.  I jsut needed to write down the words for my husband LOL!

So Cav is between the B and C pictures

So, we are looking at tendon transfer surgery on both hands.  I also showed him Griffen's extra thumbs (cuz you so know God has a sense of humor LOL!)  We can do both boys on the same day.  The big question is should we do both of Cav's hands and be done or one at a time.  He has to do OT after they heal and this is where our insurance is lacking.

2:00 - Throw out the new splints

2:15 - Move a few halls down to see the amputee team.  I love the clinics but man it is overwhelming.  I am sure there were no less than 12 Dr's, therapists and prosthetists.  I lvoe this group - they rejoice with us at how far this boy of ours has come.  We got a few hints, they were amazed he had the knee for only 3 hours and was walking on his own, and were discussing at what age he can join the Children's ski team LOL!

X-rays to check alignment

**Cav wears his legs from the time he gets up (and momma remembers to get his socks) until bed.  They said they have never seen a bilateral amputee take to his prosthetics as well as Cav has.  I truly believe that this is because he was different without his legs in the orphanage.  And if I know anything, I know that my Chinese kids don't like to be singled out**

3:40 - finally, in the car and realize we jsut might have enough time to race back to the Springs, and see Tristan's wrestling match.

4:45 - walking into where the match is at and my phone starts dinging!  Yep, all the mom's and my hubby texting me to say he jsut won - dang!  We still went in, congratulated him in the hall and Cav got to show off his new knee to the biggest fan club!

Since daddy was home early we all went out to eat and really had a fun night.  

Holy Cow!!

I am not sure if you remember but when we first got Cav and did our first once over - we noticed that his hands were ODD.  As in his thumb looked like another finger, without that space for webbing.

But more importantly - in children with limb differences, all 4 limbs affected = a syndrome.  We went from a 1 in a million birth difference to the possibility of having EYE, KIDNEY and HEART issues.

One of the reasons my husband and I had to discuss the big D word - yep disrupting is the nice word, leaving him behind to suffer the consequences was the reality.  And so you know he came home, with his funky little hands LOL!

Since this was a new diagnosis we didn't have a Dr waiting at home to see him.  We went with who the sent us to, and it was confirmed that his hands were not developed correctly.  I discussed it HERE!

Needless to say we were saddened.  When we saw the hand surgeon he said to wait until Cav was 5 as the "fix" was a tendon transplant from his ring finger - ugh.

Because he also didn't have the THENAR muscle - the muscle below the thumb.

Once Cav got his prosthetics we realized we were going to need some help for his hands.  He can't get his legs on and off on his own as he has no thumb strength - yeah momma's not going to be there to take his legs off when he goes to college LOL!  We also realized he needed help with pushing his wheelchair correctly and using the walker.  Both of which he splits the thumb and pointer on one side and the other 3 on the opposite side.  Not real effective LOL!

Besides, his hands look just like monkey hands (which is the true term LOL!)  The Pinkie side is much longer, and the thumb side is under developed.

One advantage of our amputee team is that they got us in with the head PT who also agreed something needs to be done.

So we finally got in with a hand picked OT (as in confident enough in her skills to think outside the box.)  After a 2 hour exam she looked at me and said "I think he has given himself carpal tunnel from having to move around on his hands for so long."  

As in he DOES have the Thenar muscle 

(he wouldn't be able to do any pincer grasp without it)

HE CAN!

AND

he HAS the crease right next to thumb,

meaning there is the muscle!

So we will be taking both bits of information to the Hand Surgeon in Denver who our Amputee team hand picked.  Low and Behold that appt is Tues.

Regardless I am beyond excited.

It will mean splinting his hands, he might look like a dork for a while BUT oh if we can make that thumb muscle stronger and teach him to use his hands correctly - I could jump for joy for our BOY!!

AND ***Just in***

He had a meltdown at a church activity tonight (nothing new) but when we came in the house, he said sorry mom and then when I picked him up he laid his head on my shoulder and let me rub his back.  

It truly has been an amazing day! 

Cav's legs - 1 month

Yeah, I am a few days late but I wanted to share our miracle called Cav.

Since he is our son, I often forget how much of a miracle he is . . . and how much he influences those around us.  His amazing accomplishments really seem to hit people in a visceral way.  He is truly a testiment to God's amazing healing power.


SO a little look at our life and how his legs have changed his/ our lives.

He loves being upright especially at school!

  Being able to participate WITH his friends in a whole new way.

These are his cute little feet and piggies.  Our kids were so excited that he has a slit between his big toe and second toe so he can wear flip flops.

Of course we had to have an emergency visit with Mr Terry.

Cav's stumpies shrunk some from walking so much and we didn't realize we needed to watch for this and then add more socks throughout the day.

Luckily, our PT noticed and we got an appt.

Do you see that silver piece - yeah he busted his knee LOL

Luckily, we were still in Denver and so back to Mr. Terry

Roller chair races but I was to tired to stop them.  Besides he needs to learn to push with his leg.

We still are working on throwing and other things but look at that boy stand and balance!

AND CLIMB!!

Let me remind you he has NO feet, he can not feel with his feet where his is on the cargo net, he can't balance with his toes.  He has only had these legs for 1 month and still he amazes us!

Moving forward

Loved being able us the pics from Qingdao although not sure if you can tell 

We definately have ARTICLE 5 (A5)

And we are couple days into the wait for TA - Travel Approval!!