To Philly and Back...

We made it to Shriner's and back in one piece!!  Hallelujah!!

We arrived at 7:00 am even though Aaron's first appointment wasn't until 9:30.  If we don't go that early then we end up caught in rush hour traffic in one of the major cities we have to pass through (DC, Baltimore and Philly).  After breakfast we went ahead and checked in at the clinic despite being too early for any of our appointments.  The waiting room was completely empty. 

They immediately took Aaron back.  Hallelujah!!

Dr. Z came in (arm doctor) right after one of his assistance had removed the cast contraption.  He was well pleased with how Aaron's arm looked from the outside but sent us off for X-rays. 

Aaron was NOT too sure how much he liked having his arm free and clear. 

But as we were sitting there waiting to go back to X-ray (all of 3 minutes) I sat down beside my scared little guy and gently cradled his arm.  I then bent it up towards his face.  He leaned his head down and was able for the first time in his life to touch his mouth with his thumb. 

The look on his face was priceless. 

I wanted to cry. 

Instead I grabbed up his bags because the X-ray technician was calling for us to come get the X-rays.

After X-rays we hustled back to the examination room and Dr. V (foot doctor) immediately came in and started checking out Aaron's feet and braces.

The good news - he doesn't need to go back into casts at this point.

The bad news - his left foot is beginning to revert and we are going to need to be more mean with the night straps. (NOOOOOO!!!!!)

Dr. V. decided to go ahead and get Aaron measured for new braces (Hallelujah) since his feet have grown. 

 He has not quite outgrown the current braces but he is close and having him measured on this trip saves us an extra trip in a month or two.  In the meantime he had the one strapped adjusted to cut down on the pressure sore that Aaron had developed on his left ankle.

Right after Dr. V. left, the nurse came in and opened up Aaron's chart to display his X-rays.

I am NOT a radiologist.  I do NOT know how to read X-rays.

But I was smart enough to read those X-rays.

Aaron's plate had cracked and his little bone was NOT perfectly aligned.

Since Aaron had fallen THREE TIMES on that tiny little arm in the last 4 weeks (all horribly traumatic episodes)... I was NOT surprised by what I was seeing but it just about stopped my heart.

Fortunately I didn't have but a few minutes to freak out before Dr. Z came sweeping in with 4 other doctors in tow (I assume they were all doctors).  He reassured me that all was okay. 

The good news - in 2 years we will never know that anything was amiss on the X-ray.

The bad news - instead of getting a simple hinged brace that would have allowed Aaron to begin using his arm.... he got a solid brace that covers his entire arm.  On top of that he also got another brace over his upper arm to provide more protection in case he falls again.  On top of that he got a sling that will help hold the arm in proper alignment.

Poor little guy informed me quite a number of times on the way home that he doesn't like the new brace. 

I don't much like it either....

OH WELL...

Now we just have to figure out how to keep our active little boy from from falling on his arm!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all those who prayed for us.

We were able to leave Shriner's at 12 noon (Hallelujah).  Considering we saw 2 doctors, had X-rays done, had to go to orthotics for brace adjustment AND fittings and OT had to create an entire brace for Aaron's arm.... I was stunned we were able to leave so early.  We got caught in one traffic mess outside of Philly and were slowed a bit going around DC but despite this - we were home in almost record time!! 

  

Aaron did amazingly well the entire trip.  I gave him Advil before they began fooling with his arm which helped keep his pain level down.  He slept most of the way in the van on the way up (Hallelujah) and even for a few minutes on the way home (shock)!   He was talkative, happy and in good spirits most of the day. 

Thank you for keeping us in your prayers!!

P.S. - All the pictures taken were from a borrowed camera.  I left mine in my van so one of the drivers lent me his, downloaded them and sent them to me in an e-mail!!  The Shriners rock!!

Focus on the Families

See this little guy...

This is Andriy and he is SO CLOSE to having his family cross the ocean to get him.

He's special because he is one of Andrea's kids.  She's one of my favorite bloggers.  She spent six months across the ocean last year loving on some children in a few orphanages and institutes.  Through her yelling she was able to get several of those LOST KIDS listed on Reece's Rainbow.  Andriy was one of them and now he has a family coming.  That just plain makes me cry. 

The Burlingham family is of course in need of funds to bring him home and so they are doing a HUGE giveaway.  You can click HERE to find out more about it.  Please consider helping this family out by PRAYING and donating.....

Finally.... I have one more family who is very special to me....

A family that needs tons of prayer as well as a bit more money to get them fully funded....

The Morenos.

For almost TWO YEARS now they have been working to get their Baby J. home. 

Last winter, they watched the Davis family face the judge in their region and get turned down.  They watched the Hook family face the same judge and get their child, but only after major grilling and a lot of blood, sweat and tears.  Now it is their turn. 

They are leaving in a few short weeks and we need to be MIGHTY in PRAYER for them. 

Please go encourage them with your words on their BLOG - let them know you are behind them on bended knee.  Drop some money in their account so they have one less thing to worry about and put them high on your prayer list.  It is time Baby J came home!!

When Baby J comes home - we are all going to stand up and give God the Biggest Standing Ovation of them ALL!!  Three babies will have been rescued from a region that was CLOSED CLOSED CLOSED to special needs adoptions!  How utterly amazing is that??

So PRAY People!! PRAY!!

And FINALLY FINALLY....

We need to keep praying for the Maddex family.

PLEASE DON'T FORGET THEM!!!!

They are the ones who were told NO by the judge a few weeks ago.  See my post HERE. 

They have now been in country for 41 days with no end in sight.  Stuck.  Waiting.  They are appealing the ruling and these things take time.  Pray for them as they navigate these murky waters.  What they are doing is HARD.  They have kids at home.  They have bills to pay.  They did not plan on spending all these extra weeks in country.  Please pray that their mountain gets moved.

They want to bring this little guy HOME. 

He has NO future where he is living.  He will end up transferred to a dead-end institution like the one where Aaron lived.  Please pray that they get a court date for their appeal and that they will be granted Danil as their son.

PLEASE PRAY!!

TWENTY-FOUR HOURS

In 24 hours Aaron's wrap-around cast contraption will finally be removed!!

This picture was taken about 2 weeks ago but it definitely illustrates how he feels about getting that thing off.

His cast does NOT look like that anymore.  I don't have a current picture with his shirt off but believe me.... He is in desperate need of getting it removed!!  The wrappings are coming undone... we have been pulling cotton out by the handful... his entire shoulder is now visible.... and the whole mess is covered in sand - inside and out since all Aaron has wanted to do in the last week is play in his sandbox.

One more day.

Tomorrow Aaron and I make the long trek to Shriners.  We are meeting the van at 2:30 am. 

I'm dreading it. 

Aaron is beyond excited.  He is overflowing with joy for tomorrow.  He honestly thinks that his arm is fixed.  Sweet little son with his terribly high hopes.  He doesn't realize that the whole process tomorrow is actually going to be painful!  And he isn't going to have a free arm.  He is going from a cast to a splint of some kind.  And the point of the operation was not to fix his little arm but to increase function in it. 

On top of that, we are also seeing Dr. VanBosse for his feet.  We know he is going to want us to pull the night straps tighter which is going to be an absolute nightmare as Aaron adjusts to the new pull. 

He does not like those night straps.... At.All.  

Plus, his braces are desperately in need of adjustments.  His little left ankle bone has been rubbing terribly against the brace which means we haven't been able to tighten his straps across that ankle for the last couple of weeks.  We've been waiting for this appointment to address that issue.

So much to do tomorrow.

It is going to be a very very long day.

Did I say I was dreading it?

My sweet little guy. 

Please pray for him tomorrow. 

Pure Sweetness

I got me some handsome sons.

Just saying!!

And now for the Cutest Aaron moment of the week....

He was sitting at the kitchen counter waiting for his breakfast when out of the blue, in his cute little Aaron style, he informs me quite matter of factly.....

I Wika My Ewijah!

Oh Yes he does.... He wikas his Ewijah!

And thankfully.... his Ewijah wikas him too....





A Closed World

...story continued from here...  here...   here....

On the day after the judge told us we had to wait two more weeks for our next court date, we were in shock.  Two weeks seemed like forever.  We were jet lagged, scared and isolated from family and friends.  We had on again, off again internet service that limited contact with our boys at home. We didn't think things could get much worse.

We were mistaken.

During those two weeks, our twice-a-day visits with Aaron were just about our only pleasure. One of the ways I passed the time during those visits was by taking pictures.  I love my camera;  I love snapping pictures everywhere I go. However, in a suspicious society with a 500-year tradition of secret police, cameras can draw a lot of unwanted attention. I knew enough to avoid taking pictures of military sites, policemen and so on. I wasn't THAT stupid.  But I still got into trouble, several times, for taking unwanted pictures: near a fountain inside a shopping mall (who knew?), near a jewelry display (perhaps they thought we were taking inventory for a later robbery?), at a gas station (??) and at a non-military government building. Rob, who doesn't like cameras anyway, was ready to throw my camera under a truck after a couple of these finger-wagging episodes.

Taking pictures of Aaron was by far my favorite activity.  I wanted to capture every look, every activity.  I wanted to record those moments, both for him and for us, so that we would never forget all of our firsts together. I wanted to record Aaron's firsts just like I recorded Ben's and Elijah's.

The director at Aaron's institution hated my camera.  It seemed to frighten her-- perhaps because she feared what it might expose. At the time, I didn't understand or appreciate her fear. Having lived my life in the free world, I was a bit naive. I didn't know what it was like to live in a closed society, one in which people lived in terror of their own neighbors. Her world forced her to keep her head down and her eyes on the ground.  In her world, people didn't smile at one another, didn't greet one another, and often communicated with growls and yells. In her world, cameras represented spies with evil intentions. I didn't understand her world.

On our second day back with Aaron after our month-long absence, my camera got us into our worst trouble yet.  Aaron was still testing us to be sure that we were really going to stay this time.  He was nervous, and so were we. It wasn't a time for enforcing discipline, so we just went along with whatever he wanted to do.  When he took off down a path, we followed him-- past the boys sitting in their shed, and around the building to another shed that housed the institution's tractor, horse and wagon.


When we reached the shed, Rob picked Aaron up so that he could have a better look at the tractor. It was a perfect Kodak moment. It was the first time Rob had held Aaron since our return, and I wanted to record it. But I had left my camera behind on a bench, so I hurried back up the path to retrieve it. I grabbed my camera and hustled back to get the shot.

I also snapped a picture of the tractor....

and the horse and wagon.....

and the clothes hanging on the line, and the apples spread out on the ground to dry (covered with flies)...  

As we walked back up the path, Aaron stopped to examine some bugs....

So I also snapped a few pictures of some flowers along the path...

Innocent acts by extremely naive people.  These were hardly the pictures a spy would have chosen to take. However, while I was rushing to retrieve my camera from the bench, I must have looked as if I were on some sort of spy mission. All the while I was snapping these harmless pictures, ominous phone calls were taking place.

The caretakers who were watching us from behind curtains, called the director about my questionable behavior, and the director called our facilitator. The director began screaming and cursing at our facilitator, accusing us of taking illegal pictures of her boys and her facilities. Apparently, we had come too close to the center of their secrets. Hidden in those buildings were boys they didn't want us to see. We had no idea that we had walked into a hornets' nest.

The next phone call was from our facilitator to me. To say that she was upset with me would be putting it mildly-- she was beside herself. She had already warned me about the camera, more than once. Now our adoption process was in jeopardy over it. The director was demanding to examine the contents of my camera and threatening to kick us off the grounds. 

We had to take the camera up to the office and show it to her. 

I was shaking like a leaf as I carried that camera up to her office. The director met us outside, accompanied by one of the groundskeepers who knew a tiny bit of English.  He took my camera and went through the pictures. He saw the tractor, the horse, the flowers and so on. He shrugged his shoulders, looked at the director and indicated that all was well.  She nodded her head and marched back into her office.

No explanation. No expressions of regret, misunderstanding or apology.

It isn't their way.

We were left to pick up the pieces of our shredded dignity. No longer were we naive. No longer did we walk those paths in blissful ignorance.  For the rest of our time there, we lived in terror of phone calls and angry directors.  Terror of suspicious caretakers who watched our every move. Now we understood that we were living in a closed society, and we felt it with every step we took.  

Through this episode and others, God was opening our eyes to the plight of the Lost Boys. He was introducing us to their world, with all of its secrets, sorrow and pain. A year later, I still haven't forgotten those episodes of fear. I am grateful that we battled through them. Without those images, experiences, and moments of feeling utterly alone, I might have found it too easy to forget about the boys we left behind.

The closed world of the Lost Boys needs to be opened. Their cries need to be heard. We need to do whatever we can to bring light into their darkness.

....to be continued... 

Consider Yourself

Last night I CONSIDERED MYSELF very blessed to have two extremely talented sons.

They knocked my socks off.

They are in the musical OLIVER.

Elijah is the Artful Dodger.

Ben plays multiple roles, including the nasty undertaker's son.

Aaron - well.... he didn't go on stage but the night of the dress rehearsal he did get to ride in Mr. Carl's wheelchair.

Mr. Carl and his sweet wife Sandy are two of Aaron's biggest supporters and one of the first families to donate to Aaron's adoption.

Getting a ride on Mr. Carl's fast wheelchair makes for a very happy little boy!!

(All the pictures are from the Thursday night dress rehearsal)

Fatherless Friday

So here's the scoop.... A little less than two years ago I stumbled upon Reece's Rainbow. 

Since we were NOT going to EVER adopt a child with special needs, I felt quite safe looking at all the pictures of the kids on the website.  I could pray and care but didn't have any thoughts in my brain of ever actually getting one.  It was not on our radar. 

Each year for Christmas in Rob's family they draw names.  That Christmas we were given the names of Rob's two nephew-in-laws.  I thought it would be cool to pick two boys off the Reece's Rainbow Angel Tree, make a donation to their grant accounts and use that as part of their gifts. 

Picking was hard.  I looked and looked and after a lot of consideration, I picked two little guys who had NO money in their accounts and who had a list of woes that would stop any heart.  Sadly, I figured that neither boy stood much chance of ever being adopted.  The strikes against them were pretty high. 

A few days after Christmas, December 27th to be exact, I decided to see if anyone else had donated money into the accounts of my two little guys.  While I was looking, I ended up stumbling upon a picture of a little boy in a red striped shirt with the words:  HELP I HAVE JUST BEEN TRANSFERRED written boldly under his name.

And well, you know THAT story.... THAT story is currently sleeping in his bed while I type out this Fatherless Friday story....

But what about the two little guys....

The two little Angel Tree guys whom I picked so long ago?

Artem K and Emory..

 

The two little boys with no money and little hope?

The two little Lost Boys?

Both of them had captured my heart.  I longed for them to find families.  I watched and prayed for over a year and a half.  Checking, praying, hoping.  But for some reason, I never really blogged about them, apart from just one or two times.  Not for lack of concern.   Quite the opposite.  I loved both of these little boys.  They helped lead us to Aaron.  They are beyond precious to me.  I have lifted them to the throne over and over again. No, I didn't blog for lack of concern or interest.  It was an inability to get on paper my heart for these two treasures.  I never had the words.  They meant too much.    Each glance at their faces caused me to cave in.  Groan out to the Lord to find them a family.  Plead for their lives. 

I couldn't blog until today.

You see, tomorrow morning - bright and early - a young married couple, with their little girl in tow, will be crossing the ocean.

They are getting Emory.

God heard my groans.  He heard the cries of a helpless little boy across the ocean. 

He heard and answered.  Emory has a family coming.

The day I found out I dropped to my knees.

Grateful beyond words yet pleading for the other. 

Artem K.

Wearing a Pooh Bear shirt under his overalls. 

Five years old.  Blessed with an extra chromosome.  Born to an alcoholic mother.  Abused and neglected by her for his first year of life.  He now sits in a baby house.  But not for long.  He is due for transfer soon. 

He needs a Mama. Someone to love him.  Cherish him.  Hold him.

On Wednesday Artem had a little over 3,000.00 in his grant account.

On Thursday he had 7,423.00 in his grant account. 

My heart stopped when I saw that.

God is on the move.

He is answering.

I can't help but blog.  Emory has a family and GOD IS MAKING A WAY FOR ARTEM.

I am not the only one who has been longing and praying for Artem to find a home.  My dear bloggy friend Patti has been shouting for a long time for him.  

Please shout with us.  Pray with us.  Share sweet Artem's picture.  Help us find this little guy a family.   Donate to his grant account. TAKE PART IN WHAT GOD IS DOING!

ARTEM NEEDS A FAMILY!!

Sorrowful Days

What can I say?  When we prepared Aaron for his surgery at Shriner's in August, we tried to explain that the Doctor would be operating on his elbow so that it would work better.  We tried to explain in the simplest of terms what would be taking place.  Upon hearing our words, Aaron became convinced that his arm would be 'healed'.  No more would he be different.  No longer would he be unable to do what Ben and Elijah can do.  He wanted to be made whole.  Break.My.Heart.

It was obvious to Aaron when he woke up from the anesthesia that the surgery did not do what he was envisioning.  Because of this, over the last weeks, Aaron has been mourning the reality that when his arm comes out of his cast, it will not meet the deepest desires of his heart.  It is at night when I am tucking him into bed that the grief spills out.  He wants the cast off.  He wants his arm fixed.  He wants to be like his brothers. 

It has not helped matters that twice in the last week he has fallen.  Scary falls.  Both times he has landed on his casted arm.  Fortunately the cast protected the arm but the trauma of falling, the pain, the frustration, the loss are more than his little heart can bear.  It grieves us both as we watch our son process the reality of his physical limitations.  This surgery has opened his eyes wide and it is only going to get worse as the cast is removed and the miracle he has longed for does not come to fruition.

What can we say?  How can we comfort our littlest?  He is just a little guy who has suffered so much on so many levels.  My heart hurts for him.  I just don't know what to say.

Sometimes...

Sometimes in life, we get the privilege of cradling an answered prayer in our arms.

Sometimes we get to witness with our own eyes the evidence of God at work.

Sometimes we get the pleasure of seeing the impossible prayer answered.

A little helpless girl.

Tiny.  Frail.  Rejected.

The prayers of a righteous man.

Sometimes....

Go Away Mom

Little one FINALLY decided that going outside with a cast on his arm was something he could do.

Three weeks inside the house has been long enough.

Three weeks without his bike has been pure agony (Aaron's bike is being fitted with brakes - we figured this would be a good time to do this since he can't steer with the cast on).

Three weeks has just been way too long.

FINALLY little one decided that he COULD walk down and play in his sandbox.

Finally.

But he is NOT going to give mom the pleasure of a smile.

That would be asking too much!!

Lily Break

Yesterday I didn't do a Fatherless Friday because I was taking a Lily Break!!

Yep.

I got to spend the afternoon loving on my Dad's girl.

Remember her??  Zara??

The precious little one that my Dad picked off the Angel Tree?  The one he prayed over and loved from afar?

Well she is here at the University of Virginia hospital recovering from open heart surgery.  She's doing well.  I had the privilege of loving on her yesterday while her weary Mama and Grandmom took a break.  My Dad will get the privilege of meeting her tomorrow. 

Oh How Good is God!! 

Lily's surgery went well and after she finishes a 5 day round of antibiotics for an infection she acquired - she should be good to go home!!  What a blessing.  

God is Good!