Growing

Zack

Little Zack has had a rough time lately. Two weeks ago he had surgery for pyloric stenosis. He seemed to do well for a while, then started vomiting again, so he spent another night in his favorite hotel (hospital).

He's been home since Sat evening and is doing much better now. He weighs 10.2 lbs which I think is 10 lbs 3 oz. That's up from 9.2 before the surgery.

I'm posting several pictures so ya'll can see how handsome he is. He has laughed out loud several times and is going to be a happy baby. I can just tell by the huge smiles he gives me.

Weilong is liking school. He's getting into little "fights" on the playground. I'm gritting my teeth and letting him take care of himself. He's capable of doing that unless several boys get on him. Can someone please tell my why little boys like to fight?? Please. I'm resigned to it I guess. Maybe Weilong is just a big talker and they don't know yet how kind and gentle he is. It is always the new boys who pick on him for a while, or boys that don't know him. He really gets along well with everyone in his class and is loved by everyone at school.

I'm trying to work with the boys to help them get up to speed on reading. Weifu's teacher is tutoring him two mornings a week before school. He can read well, but is having a hard time drawing the correct conclusions. Very hard for him to read between the lines and know how a character feels, or why the character acted as he did. Is this because of his time in the orphanage or because of his lack of reading comprehension. He easily remembers all the facts of a story, just doesn't understand why people acted as they did in them. Weilong doesn't have this problem. He understands the actions of people very well. But he has a hard time reading. I think because he had two brain surgeries last year and missed so much school. I'm working with him in the evenings.

One more thing

When I had Weilong at the Dr's office yesterday afternoon they said he is now 47 inches tall and weighs 46.8 lbs!! He's growing and I love it. Still very thin, but he now weighs more than he did pre-surgery. He eats well and is active.

Newest MRI Images

Weilong had his 6 month follow up MRI and visit with the surgeon. The Syrinx is still there, but has shrunk a little bit. The surgeon was a bit disappointed. He says there is some malformation at the front of the spinal column that is probably causing csf flow restriction and suggested that we might want to think about surgery. I'm afraid I just said "NO".

Weilong is doing fine, his headaches have all but disappeared, and we will not put him through another surgery at this time. Only if he starts having serious neurological symptoms or they tell us the condition is life threatening. I believe that they nasty old syrinx will shrink even more over the next few months. Remember how much swelling Weilong had in his little brain for such a long time? Well, I think that slowed down the shrinking, but now that he is so much better it will shrink like it's supposed to and even disappear.

Here are a couple of pictures from the MRI series. The syrinx did extend down to T1 before surgery, but now it ends around C4 I think. Oh, how I wish I had some kind of medical training.

Latest Medical Update

Great News! I finally took WL to the opthalmologist yesterday. I had been urged to do this by a couple of his other doctors. They were concerned that there was pressure on his optic nerve. But thank God this is not the case. The opthal. said that Weilong has 20/20 vision and the pressure is 100 percent normal. I think I actually laughed laughed with relief in his office. Weilong and I were giving each other the high 5 and saying "Thank you God", the doctor must have thought we were completely insane. Oh, how good it was to get a good report like that.

Then we went to see the endocrinologist and things are going well there also. Weilong is 46 inches tall now. The dr said he has grown 4 inches since we began growth hormone therapy on 12/7. And he weighs exactly 45 lbs. He looks very thin though. But he eats well and is healthy so we're not to worry about that. For now his dose of Genetropin remains unchanged. I am praying for another inch in growth by the year mark which will make 5 inches in one year. Weilong asked the dr if he could have two shots a day so he'd grow faster, but was denied. He said the kids at school are commenting because he is the smallest in his class. I'm afraid this is something he'll just have to deal with for now. I pray that he catch up with the others someday, but if he's always on the small side it's ok. His wonderful personalty goes a long way in winning friends for him. He loves life and loves people and it shows.

A very wonderful friend of mine (well of the whole family) is re-doing my floors. We have had an exciting week pulling up all the carpet. Now we are on bare concrete and almost all the furniture is in storage. She has started putting the base coat of skimstone on the floors. It's very exciting. And the sample part looks so wonderful. It will be so much easier to keep clean than carpet. And so much better on Julia's allergies and asthma. I can't wail til it's finished. I'll post pictures.

Weilong loves his teacher. He looks forward to school every day and is doing well. He is starting to enjoy reading. He wants to be a teacher when he grows up. He says his dad in China was a teacher.

Weilong has an MRI scheduled for the 23rd of the month. I am now looking forward to another good report. His headaches are so much less frequent. Maybe once a week now. I'm so thankful.

Weilong talks about the circus

Weilong talks about the tooth fairy

Pictures

Look at how much Weilong is growing. He is getting so tall. He eats well, but is still so thin. I think his weight cannot keep up with his growth in height. He weighs 44.6 this morning.

But his headaches continue to get fewer and farther apart and we're all so thankful for that. He is active and seems healthy and of course he's always happy. We are doing physical therapy at home every day, and have cut back to once a month at the therapist's office. Everyone gets in on helping him stretch those tight tendons.

Summer is almost over and we haven't visited Nana yet. I'm afraid I will have to put it off til later. I'm so busy and it's so hot. The kids are not happy about it, but I just can't squeeze a trip in before school starts.

More Growing

Weilong grew another half inch in July! He is getting so tall, but remains painfully thin. He eats well though. I think he is just growing tall and that makes him look thinner. He weighs between 44 and 45 now, back up to his weight before surgery.

I'm going to have to get him new clothes before school starts. Everything is too short. He's very excited about this. And his feet and hands have grown too. He looked at his hands the other day and said they do not look like his hands. They are longer and thin and the veins show.

The PT said I must be more diligent with his stretching exercises. His bones are growing faster than his tendons and muscles and that makes for problems. He is painfully stiff sometimes until we stretch him out. He's so sweet about it, but he says it is painful when the PT does it. I am much more gentle with him, afraid I'll break something. He urges me to push harder so I try. I would not make a good PT, too afraid of causing someone pain.

It has turned off terribly hot here in the Dallas/Ft Worth area. Over 100 for days on end. At times like this I wish I lived at the North Pole! But I keep thinking about how nice it will be this winter and that brings things into the proper prospective.

Two of my nieces have given birth to baby boys in the last six weeks, so that means mom has three new great grandsons. She is thrilled. I am longing to visit her and see the new babies. Maybe soon.

School starts on 8/25. How does summer pass so quickly? My boys are wondering the same thing.

I plan to take a lot of pictures later after the girls fix their hair. They are all growing so fast that I feel an urgent need to get pictures before they change yet again. Hopefully I'll get time to post some to my blog. I haven't seen Hannah for about a week and I miss her terribly.

Slumber Party

Will any of us get any sleep? We talked Andrea into letting us keep Zack tonight. I think getting up every three hours for feedings might be fun for just one night, don't you?

All the kids love the new baby. I'm afraid he'll never lack for attention, and lots of it. Isn't he precious?

Weilong Update

Weilong is doing much better. He has resumed normal activities! He does still have headaches, and we are still praying that they cease completely. They are not as severe as before and tylenol or ibuprofen help a lot. His vomiting is very infrequent now, still gets nauseous about once a week, but laying down and taking a rest helps. His endurance and stamina are almost up to pre-surgery levels in my opinion. I struggle not to "baby" him. But he's so sweet that I just can't help myself sometimes.

He is continuing physical therapy and doing well. Another endocrine problem has crept up, but his recent blood tests were fine so we're not too concerned. His next MRI and neurosurgeon appointment is August. It's so good not to be visiting a doctors office every day.

It's hot here and the children are swimming every day. They are keeping me busy, but it's much easier than I anticipated. They are all being very good for me this summer. Not too much fighting, just an occasional disagreement. I think they're growing up on me!

The boys are forgetting their Mandarin. I took them for Chinese food recently and they had a blank look on their faces when the people there spoke Mandarin to them. One older man urged (demanded?) that I put them back into Mandarin classes and Weilong was loud in his disagreement with this gentleman's opinion. The man insisted it would be in the boys' best interest, but both boys told me that they really really did not want to go. I don't think I'll force them, after all I cannot help them with their homework and make sure they do well in class. Such a hard decision for me. I want them to be able to retain their Mandarin language skills, but I don't think I can force them. That older man told me the boys would regret it when they get college age, and I know he is right. But I can't force them to learn something if I don't know it myself.

So, we're just going to take it easy and enjoy the rest of our summer. We'll try to take the kids on a little trip when things cool down a bit. Too hot right now to think about it!

I'll try to post pictures tomorrow. I let the battery run down in my camera, so I have to get it charged up.

Zach

Hannah's New Brother

We just got home from another exiting adoption journey! Not to China, but just as emotional and exciting. This time we traveled with Hannah and her Mom and Dad to adopt Hannah's new baby brother, Zach. He's such a beautiful sweet little boy and we love him like crazy cakes already. Prepare to see many more pictures of him because he is small and will be still for pictures, unlike the other kids around here.

I feel privileged to be invited along for this trip. I loved seeing the new family being formed. Such sweet memories that will last a lifetime. So, life is so exciting around here, never a dull moment. We're blessed with all these precious little lives to invest ourselves into. It's so rewarding. Like someone has already said "This is the hardest job I'll ever love".

Through the Years

These are the girls from Yongxiu, adopted in Dec 1998. Sometimes one would miss a meeting, or another of the group would slip into the picture, but for the most part these pictures are of the Yongxiu four. My sweet Julia lived with these sweet sisters for the first two years of her life. I'm so glad she has them and their families in her life.

Snowflakes in June

We had a wonderful time this weekend with our fellow Snowflakes. These girls and their families have been like a part of our family for nearly 10 years now. We're so thankful for them.

The picture of four girls are the ones from Julia's orphanage. They spent their first two years together in Yongxiu, Jiangxi, PRC.

Hannah

Hannah loves playing in with the clothes in the dress up box. Here she is in one of the girls' old Christmas dresses. Brings back memories of Christmas past.

Happy Birthday Lisa

Weilong Swims

Temporary Post

This post will only be up until it is discovered by the person pictured. He was in a friend's wedding this past weekend and I got a picture of him.

He threatened to erase my whole blog if I used the picture, but he is so handsome and so sweet that I had to brag by showing ya'll his picture. Oh, and the same razor that got hold of Weilong also attacked him!

Sorry, son.

Summer Buzzzzz

Weilong and his oldest brother had a run-in with a mean razor. I think the razor won! They are both almost hairless. Wonder what the razor looks like?

Don't you love that smile? I'm seeing it more and more often now. Weilong's headaches are much less intense than before and less frequent. I've noticed that the more active he is, the more headaches he has. But it's good to see him so happy and normal. I try not to be overprotective. He deserves some fun after all he's been through. He has already started asking for a trip to the beach again. May I please say that a long drive in the van with 4 or 5 screaming kids does not appeal to me right now. Maybe later.....