Happy 4th of July!

It is the 4^th of July, the day after Andrew's 2nd birthday and he has already been through so much. With the prayers from our friends and family and the tough little trooper he is, everything has gone amazingly well. In a short 3 months and 23 days Andrew has: flown 8800 miles to get to his new home, made one trip to Riley Children's hospital in Indianapolis, made 4 trips to Shriners Hospital for Children in Chicago.

Andrew has been walking by himself with the help of a push toy in front of him. He loves to walk and be outside. He asks to go outside and walk several times a day. He can stand for about 1 minute without help. Andrew is really friendly as long as it’s not a crowd of new people. He loves his cousins and lights up when he sees other children, any age. Andrew is saying several words and picks up and retains a few new words every week. He can just about tell us what he wants. We have occupational and physical therapy coming to our house every week to help with all his learning skills.

On May 19^th, Andrew was baptized into the Catholic Church. Since he loves to take a bath we decided to do submersion instead of the normal pouring water over the head. Everything went well and it was a great day to celebrate with friends and family.

After some doctor visits and X-Rays we discovered both of Andrew's hips were out of socket. He has had open reduction hip dysplasia surgery on each side to fix this. In addition he has had surgery to lessen the tightness in the neck which causes his head tilt (torticollis). Andrew is in a cast from his chest and down both legs to his toes. He will remain in it for 5 more weeks. He also has a soft collar around his neck which is removable and allows us to do neck exercises.

Andrew has been adapting well but gets frustrated because he has lost all mobile freedom. He also cannot turn over when lying down. Mama has been building her strength by holding Andrew quite a bit. We have had to be creative, and it is challenging at times, to position Andrew where he can sit up. Getting him comfortable to sleep has been the most difficult task. So far ice cream has been his favorite treat and he has been rewarded several times. Andrew does not complain about anything we have done to help him.

Andrew has a severe case of scoliosis with kyphosis. It is measured as a 100+ degree curve. Once his hip cast is removed we will have about 6 weeks to be cast free. He will then start having back cast to keep his curve from getting any worse.  He will eventually need surgery to put rods in his back to straighten it out, but he is too small for this right now.