Officially Adopted (again)

It's been quite a paper process and a wait, but Tuesday morning, 3/23, Phil and Joshua and I appeared before a local judge and had Joshua's adoption in China officially recognized. :-) Paperwork has now been sent off for a new birth certificate and his Social Security number. He became an official US citizen the minute he was processed through Immigration in Seattle on 12/18/09, but it's quite a long paper trail STILL to get through all the post adoption details. I think we'll finally be done in December 2010 if all goes according to schedule!

Joshua is learning more English words daily :-). He's very schedule oriented, and gets upset when family members don't arrive or get picked up "when they're supposed to". But he's usually a cheerful, LOUD, playful, loving, exploratory young man. And he's still very, very busy and keeps mom hopping all day long!

Joshua, Ryan and I went to Seattle for several medical appts from 3/12 through 3/17. Joshua had a long (1hr 20 min!) sedated contrast MRI. He does have Sturge-Weber Syndrome, which was no surprise. But we don't have the full report yet as to how severe or mild it is. We see no signs of it (can cause seizures, autism, MR) other than possible ADHD ;-D. Joshua needs to go back out in June for a baseline EEG to check for hidden seizures, and other appts. [it is SO fun to get a kiddo up at 3am for EEG's while IN a hotel room and then try to keep them awake yet quiet!]. So far, his only special need will surely be for speech therapy... there are some sounds his mouth can't seem to make (yet) due to deep Port Wine Stain in a jaw. But maybe, hopefully that's it! :-)

Settling in?

Life is still a roller coaster with a new, loud, VERY busy little addition to our already busy household. But I think we're all starting to settle into various routines here and there? Joshua is quite eager to learn all he can, as fast as he can. Sometimes that's great! (using American toilets, brushing teeth, changing clothes, knowing when the kids leave for school and come back). Sometimes not so great. (putting his story books with my paperwork, helpfully throwing ANYthing in the garbage, seeing if headphones work in electric outlets, turning lights on and off all day, feeding cookies to the cat, etc). We're blessed to be getting the 2 and 3 yr old stages all in a 5 yr old package, LOL!


Our autistic 11 yr old is still having the hardest time of all with the new changes in his life. Sharing Dad, and any toy, are the toughest parts for these 2 boys :-}. But we all have more and more fun moments also, as pictured here, of Joshua, Robert and Ryan. :-)



Joshua has far fewer crying spells now that his bad teeth are fixed. He even likes ice cream now! (wouldn't eat it pre-surgery). All other surgeries and tests will probably be postponed until we go to Seattle unless he worsens. We're scheduled to go in March, but it will all depend on the weather and roads at the time since I (Cindy) will be the one driving (Phil has teaching commitments), and there's quite a few mountain passes between here and there!

One surgery done! :-)

Joshua's surgery ended up being at 9:30am yesterday. He did great pre-op with the wonderful help of a translator explaining everything to him :-). His eyes are GOOD... no sign of glaucoma at this time. A huge PTL!

And the dental repairs went according to plan. He is now sporting 2 stainless steel caps on repaired molars that will eventually fall out. He's now cutting TWO new molars on that same side of the mouth. Ouch!

But he way overreacted to either the anesthesia or the demerol or both :-(. He went into recovery by 10:30am, but was still not breathing well enough (O2 kept falling into the mid 80's) on his own to go. And he was very depressed... tears were rolling down his little cheeks by 2pm. He was not talking, not interacting, starting a fever, and not even trying to take deeper breathes :-(. But Phil had the wonderful idea to get him up and walking. That perked him up :-), and they let us walk over to the doctor's office at 3pm for a couple more tests he needed. We didn't get home until 5pm. EXHAUSTING day! They wanted him back this morning for yet another test - but we're all too wiped out. It'll have to wait til Monday.

So great news that ended with really depressing news. Joshua now needs an even longer, more painful surgery in the near future, and it needs to be done 150 miles away from home. He's REALLY struggling with the aftereffects of yesterday's meds still today, and we know we probably have no choice but to do this all over again soon. So Phil and I are pretty down today also. In the midst of this morning's chaos and distractions, one of the children had a nasty medication mixup, another had an anxiety attack, so... we're praying for a much better afternoon, evening, and tomorrow for this family! ;-)

Thanks all!

Heading to Surgery Friday

We are waiting, waiting to hear back from our local hospital as to when Joshua's dental surgery will be this Friday. The dentist is guessing it will be the first surgery at 7:30am. If all goes according to plan, the eye specialist will examine Joshua's eyes for glaucoma and visual acuity just as Joshua goes under sedation, and then the dental repairs will be done.

Joshua's blood work and stool tests all came back normal! :-) His China TB test was within international standards, but a repeat TB test here was positive :-(. His lung xrays are clear of TB, so we're waiting to find out if it was a false positive, or he has latent TB that needs 9 months (!) of medication to prevent a possible future outbreak.

Joshua also had a contrast CT scan of his head, and did GREAT with the help of 2 volunteer translators coaching him to "hold still" :-). The great news is there is no sign of Sturge-Weber Syndrome calcification in his brain :-). The bad news, is there are anomalies that suggest mild Sturge-Weber :-(. We won't know much more until we can get him to Seattle for a contrast MRI that's read by a specialist. PTL they have an awesome one there, and we're already booked to see him in March. But the anomalies make this mom a bit anxious about Friday's surgery sedation! Please help pray Joshua sails through this surgery easily and recovers quickly? Thanks!

Happy New Year!

As midnight approaches on the last day of 2009, I'm reflecting on all of the changes for us in 2009. And that makes me wonder what 2010 will bring! The Adoption Roller Coaster ride is settling down (3 post placement visits to go yet, and legal paperwork to finish up everything). But life with 4 children will be anything but settled ;-).

There hasn't been much to report yet from Joshua's pediatrician visit. Blood was pulled, and stool samples turned in, but we don't yet have the results? A CT scan and/or MRI will need to be done, eventually. And a chest xray was done (continuous mild cough) and showed NO calcification in the chest, PTL :-) ( a risk with his birthmarking on the chest and back). But there is fluid at the tops of both lungs. Joshua started antibiotics yesterday to hopefully get rid of the fluid IF it's bacterial? He still seems pretty healthy otherwise :-).

The pediatrician approved the sedated eye exam and sedated dental surgery for 1/22/10. I don't know if "I'm" ready though!

Joshua has been fairly happy, healthy, curious, and fun most of the time. He's had spells of grumpiness the last couple of days also. Teeth? Antibiotic? Growing? We'll have to learn more Chinese and he'll have to keep adding to his new English words. :-)

THANK YOU ALL for your part in bringing Guan Yan home :-).
Cindy and Phil

First Pic of all 6 of us together at last :-)

Eye Appointment

The eye appointment today was a bust. I didn't know enough Chinese to help get Joshua to look at the eye chart, and he didn't/couldn't name the pictures he saw (or didn't see?) on the eye chart. And everytime the doctor shone a light in Joshua's eyes, he shut them tight :-}. So doc sent us home with a practice eye chart. And we'll practice the light in the eyes part also.

Joshua is at high risk of glaucoma where his Port Wine Stain birthmark covers the one eye. The doctor said he'll need that eye examined every 6 months for the rest of his life! He wants to sedate him at the hospital to get a good exam. :-( So the sooner we can teach Joshua how to do these exams, the better!

So we don't yet know if he's in the early stages of glaucoma in that eye. BUT he definitely is not in the middle or end stages of it :-). And that's a huge praise right there!

Joshua saw his first snowfall today, but he didn't like the flakes falling on his head ;-D.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!