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.

 

 

14 WFIE News Story

Not sure who set this up but it was a very nice story. Trying to do an interview after living on an airplane/airport for 20 hours and little sleep is tough...

Adjusting to home

We think Andrew is doing better at this time change than mom and dad. Andrew slept 6 1/2 hours on the big plane ride. He then fell asleep before we took off from Chicago. We had to wake him to get off the plane after we landed in Evansville. We don't understand how he has been such a trooper. Waking up in a different place every couple days, waiting in long lines several hours at a time, going through multiple security checks, riding in planes, trains and all kinds of automobiles.

After arriving to an overwhelming welcome at the airport, it is time to settle in at home. We had dinner, which was really breakfast time to us, when we got home. After we ate we played with all kinds of new toys in the basement. He had no problem at all scooting around the basement exploring and playing. Andrew got his first look at our 3 black labs when they came to the back glass door happy to see us. Andrew wasn't quite so sure he was happy to meet the them, his eyes got as big as saucers. We left the kitchen since we didn't want to scare the little guy right away.

We gave Andrew a bath then we watched ourselves on the news then we went to bed. We are not use to the cold here, we had to turn the heat up in the middle of the night. Surprisingly Andrew slept until 3:15am then was ready to get up. Jason got up and took Andrew to the basement. They ate a snack and played until about 5:30 when Andrew was ready to sleep again. Jason rocked Andrew to sleep and everyone slept in until just after 12 noon. Andrew woke up in his smiling laughing mood and we still seemed to think he likes us.

We all ate breakfast then we played in the basement. We did try to catch up on the stack of mail and some emails. Kimberly started unpacking and dove into the 3 suitcases of dirty clothes. About 4pm Andrew crawled up on the couch and was ready for a nap. He slept for an hour then we woke him to go to the airport. We figured we hadn't seen an airport for 24 hours so we would go visit. But really one of the families that travelled with us was returning home. It was good to see they made it back ok.

The short drive also gave us a chance for Andrew to try out his car seat as they are not required in China. Mom and dad felt it was good to be out of the house already. Not sure why we felt that way but we assume because our schedule stayed so full we were always on the move. We stayed up until after 11pm and got Andrew asleep. He slept in his crib until sometime in the middle of the night he woke up crying. Kimberly got up and took care of him. Slowly some sort of routine should be setting in, it is just going to take a few days.

Home Sweet Home!

All 3 of us are home! Everyone is doing well, just a little tired. What day is it? We had our first bath at home. Thanks Dylan for the fire truck robe!
Thank you to everyone for the warm welcome, you are all great friends and family!

Leaving Hong Kong!