Round 9

The light at the end of the tunnel is now in view!!  Yes it is!!

Check out this boy standing on his feet!!  The right foot is down!  Flat.  The left foot... ALMOST...

So close in fact that Aaron is in his LAST cast!  Yes - you read that correctly... We are close to being DONE with the casting process.  Dr. VanBosse determined yesterday that one more cast will make the difference.  So Aaron is now sporting his last set of casts... One black and one red... That is going to make for one happy boy!!!!

We go back in two weeks to remove the casts and Aaron will then start wearing braces to keep those stubborn feet in place!  I can't tell you how relieved we feel.   Of course we are nowhere near done with trips to Shriner's.  Not by a long shot.  But accomplishing the goal of getting Aaron's feet down so that he can walk safely is huge.  And giving the Shriner's men from Richmond a break from having to drive us up there every single Friday is another huge relief.  We are so very grateful for their willingness to do this for Aaron.  They are an amazing group of dedicated men! 

The down side to all these trips to Shriner's is that they make for enormously LONG and EXHAUSTING days.  You spend most of the day either sitting in the van or sitting in the waiting room.  Since we have never won ANYof the DOZENS of i-pad adoption giveaways - sitting all that time can be very tedious!  BUT - the up side is that we get to meet the most amazing children. 

This precious little one, Robyn, captured my heart weeks ago!  She would ONLY smile when I wasn't looking through my obnoxious camera lens!  Smiling or not - she is precious!!

And this little guy, Peyton - He just plain humbles me. 

The absolute HIGHLIGHT for this week for me was meeting these little girls...

Gerri (7) and Victoria (4)

Gerri (blue striped shirt) is from Aaron's country and was adopted about 6 months ahead of him.  We followed her adoption every single day.  She too has Arthrogryposis.  I was blown away by her size (Aaron, who is 6, is sitting and the girls are standing in the picture).  Pictures never capture size but she is so amazingly petite.  I just wanted to grab her up in my arms when I saw her but of course restrained myself.  I was also blown away by her speech.  You would never know she was not from the US.  Victoria is also adopted and is as cute as a button!

It was such a pleasure to talk to their Mom, Nancy, who has been an e-mail friend for a year.  To see other Reece's Rainbow families - to witness with my own eyes the transformation in the children - words just can't begin to capture how that feels to me.

To think that a year ago both Aaron and Gerri were orphans.  Gerri was slated to be transferred and Aaron already had been doomed to a life of nothing.  A year later they are standing next to each other - free.  Cherished.  Loved.

God is good!