We're Home!

We've been home for a full day. Sorry still no pictures to share - just not enough time to post them :-)  We're so happy to be home, but it is aLOT of work. Thankfully, we mentally prepared for the changes the boys would experience, so nothing is a surprise or unexpected.

Remember that while you read, please. Nothing is a surprise or unexpected. I'm just sharing our real life here and keeping it real.

The boys have regressed a bit. They are once again both super-duper-needy. Of course the munchkins want to be comforted by us all the time since they feel so crummy.

How is David doing?

David has been waking up at night crying and screaming again. He seems really afraid and anxious especially at night. He doesn't like to swallow. I think it is a combination of pain and things in there just feel so different. We are keeping him on pain meds, but he doesn't need them exactly right on time ~ we can stretch out the time between meds for him. His voice sounds about the same. So far he doesn't need to wear his no-no's (arm restraints) all the time. He seems to understand that he shouldn't touch his face and mouth. He wears no-no's when he sleeps and when we're in the car.

How is Samuel doing?

Samuel is swallowing better than David, surprisingly, since he should be in alot more pain. We are keeping Sammy on pain meds religiously every 4 hours. He starts fussing almost right on time, so we make sure we are staying ahead of the pain. Samuel doesn't try to touch his face yet, but I predict that he'll wear his no-no's most of the time as he feels better. One finger in his mouth could pop his stitches and ruin the surgery. His voice sounds so much different and he speaks more clearly. That part has been really cool.

What about these no-no's?

The boys are cooperative when we put the no-no's on. I'm waiting for the munchkins to use their no-no's as weapons on each other...

What about eating?

Mealtimes are a trip. David is on a pureed-type diet. We are learning it is much easier to keep him happy. We've got more choices for what we can feed him. Samuel is on a liquid diet. He doesn't like sweets very much, so it's been tough to figure out what to feed him. Pediasure is very sweet. Most smoothies are pretty sweet. Sometimes he wants broth, sometimes not. He hasn't wanted any milk yet. We usually have to prepare a few selections for the munchkins each mealtime before we find something they like. This means we present one thing at the table and if it bombs we run to the kitchen to figure something else out while the unhappy munchkin screams and/or whines. We have to feed both boys because they can't put spoons in their mouths. They can use a cup by themselves, but they don't want to do that for very long. I suspect this is mostly because their upper lips hurt, and partially because they want us to take care of them. Ya, mealtime is a trip.

Are they taking medicine?

The boys have four medicines each. Two are taken every four hours, one is taken every six hours, and one is taken twice a day. I made a chart to keep track. We have a cup full of syringes on the counter.

How is Josh doing?

Josh has been a wonderful big brother. I haven't been worried about him being too rough with the boys, and he's been really helpful. My (Chris') mom has been here to take care of Josh while we were at the hospital, and now she is taking care of all of us again.

                                                         Thanks, Mom!

How do they look?

Their faces are swollen. They look like they hurt. They each have four or five steri-strips across their upper lip. You can see stitches in David's upper lip, and Samuel's 3 lip parts are swollen in 3 big bumps. You can still see Samuel's tooth that was on his funky lip-bump. Samuel's steri-strips look like they are pulled tight. David has a nose splint sewn into his nose. You can see the two plastic round pieces in his nostrils, and little dots across the bridge of his nose where the nose splint is sewn in. They both still have crusty blood in places.

Despite all the challenges they have right now in their little lives, overall, the boys are doing a-ma-zing! We see their happy and content and silly little personalities coming back slowly. They are little troopers!

And even though this has been incredibly stressful for our whole family, I do believe that having both surgeries on the same day was the way to go. No, it isn't easy for any of us. Yes, I will still worry and be stressed out way more than I should. It just forces us to lean harder on God for His strength and grace and peace. He brought us to these beautiful, perfect little boys. We still know that this is His grand plan for our lives. We'll just trust that God will bring us through all these challenges.

He always does.



Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. But as I told you, you have seen me and still you do not believe. All those the Father gives me will come to me, and whoever comes to me I will never drive away. For I have come down from heaven not to do my will but to do the will of him who sent me. And this is the will of him who sent me, that I shall lose none of all those he has given me, but raise them up at the last day. For my Father’s will is that everyone who looks to the Son and believes in him shall have eternal life, and I will raise them up at the last day.”     John 6:35-40

We are going home!!!!!!!

Chat at you from home!!!!! Thanks for all the prayers and well wishes!!!! (((hugs))), Chris & Jason

Good Morning from the Hospital

It's about 10am, and the boys are awake and happy enough finally to color with crayons in their coloring books. Praise God!

Last night was sort of long. Jason ended up spending the night. There would have been no other way to be happy and restful last night without both of us here. Jason slept in bed with Samuel, and I slept in bed with David. The rooms here are set up for one patient, so our two adult-size beds and two IV poles and extra monitor pole and two tray tables is quite cozy  :o)

Samuel slept pretty well. He is not a fan of the nurses and doctors, so when they come around he gets upset. We are keeping him on his pain meds even if he's not grumpy, just to keep ahead of the pain. He's not drinking much this morning, so it's too early to tell if he can go home today. He is still spunky little Sammy.

David slept not as well last night. Until about 1:30am, he kept waking up about every 20 minutes or so. He seemed afraid and anxious, but would calm quickly after I reassured him that I was still there. We think he has memories of his first surgery over in China, and we have no idea how that experience was. After 1:30am, David and I got longer blocks of sleep and we were even able to stretch out time between his pain meds. This morning he ate a full bowl of Cream of Wheat and is slowly drinking apple juice. It is possible that David can be released today. He already asked me for a few kisses this morning. Still sweet little David.

(((hugs))),
chris & jason

The Party's Ooooverrrr!

David is back in our room now sleeping a sound morphine-induced sleep. ZZzzzzzzz

The doc was not able to close his hard palate. David's soft palate was closed up (that's the part toward the back of the mouth that closes off your nose when you talk so you don't sound all nasally).

Nasally. That's a technical term that I just made up.

David will still sound nasally and be hard to understand when he talks since his hard palate is open. The doc said David will have to grow more before we're able to close his very wiiiiiiiide hard palate. I have a feeling we're looking at multiple surgeries to close his hard palate. The doc also did some work on David's lip and nose. The specific thing worth mentioning is that David's upper lip muscles were not attached at all when then did the lip repair in China. These muscles are now attached. I think the little man already looks a little different in his nose/mouth area even with the tape and stitches and swelling and blood goop.

Samuel is still sleep sitting in Jason's lap. He will be the munchkin in the most pain.

Please pray for a quiet night and that we can keep on top of the pain meds.

Love & (((hugs))),
chris & jason

One down, one to go

Samuel's surgery went well. It went five hours, and the doc was able to close up his palate. They did the lip adhesion too which means they put Sammy's lip parts together. His lip doesn't look a whole lot better now because it is pulled pretty tight. It will look better over time, and the next surgery (his lip repair) will fix him up so he looks even better.

Sammy is still oh so uber-cute you wouldn't believe it :o)

David is in now and we don't know how long his surgery will take. The doc planned for about 4 hours and they started around 1pm. The reason we don't know how long is the doc doesn't know how much tissue they have to work with in his palate until he gets in to take a look. If there is lots of tissue to work with, then the doc may be able to close up the whole palate and that will take longer. If there isn't alot to work with, then they will be done sooner. That's the palate part. If he does do a lip repair, we're not sure how much the doc can get done as far as cleaning up scar tissue, redoing his muscle connections, and lining things up better. So who knows how long that will take.

David has charmed and won over the entire surgical staff...

OK, time for more pain meds... then Mama is going to try to nap. HAHAHAHA

(((HUGS))),
CHRIS

oops caps lock issues with my one finger typing hehe

Happy Surgery Day...

We are going to use our blog to update all our peeps who are thinking of us and praying for the munchkins while we're here at the hospital.

First, we are humbled by all who are praying for the boys. Thanks and love and hugs to you all.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

This morning started early for all of us. I woke up Samuel last night at 10:30pm to get some food in him. He ate only a little bit, then had a little juice at 4:30am today. He seemed OK and not starving this morning.

David ate this morning at 4:15am. He didn't eat much, unfortunately, and he is hungry already. Thankfully he can have clear liquids up until about 10:00am, so hopefully he will be happy with that.

Samuel just went in for surgery. When we all went back to the prep area, Samuel started screaming and crying. He saw plastic bins (like the ones the phlebotomist has the vials in at our lab) and he absolutely freaked out. (side note: I don't know if I shared that he has had two blood draws with no luck because he was so freaked out and traumatized by the first evil-phlebotomist who dug around in his arm for way too long) He was inconsolable for a while, and eventually came out of it when Jason held him. When the anesthesiologist came in, he gave Samuel a mask with bubble gum scent inside. We played with it for a while, and he put on a surgical glove, and Jason made a surgical glove balloon... He seemed OK at that point with the docs and nurses walking in and out (thank you Lord). Samuel seemed happy when Jason carried him back, and only fussed a little when the mask was on him and blowing in his face. We waited in the waiting area for 20 minutes, and the ENT came out and said he was done with his part... so far so good!

Now we can just hang out for about two hours until they need to prep David.

Hang out and grow an ulcer relax and keep David distracted from his growling tummy. It is a beautiful day for a walk. We even brought David's hot pink stroller we bought in China :-)

We are blessed with amazing people taking care of our munchkins today: the anesthesiologist, the plastic surgeon, the ENT, and each of the nurses we saw this morning.

More to come in a few hours when we know more...

Have a beautiful day,
(((hugs))),
chris

T minus 3

OK, I had to do another T-minus post, you know, since I got gypped out of T-minus posts before we left for China. Remember? We went from T-minus 10 to T-minus 3, like, overnight... Actually, literally, overnight. Just when you think you have 9 days to get ready for an adoption trip, surprise! you're leaving in 3 days :-)

All in God's absolutely, perfectly, magnificently, perfect timing.

So today we're 3 days out from surgeries. Jason and I are a little nervous. Nervous about this upcoming mouth-reconstruction-type surgery, nervous about the painful recovery, and a little nervous about the illness that is still visiting at our house. The cold/cough situation does seem to be waning a bit. David still has a cough when he first wakes up, but he doesn't cough much throughout the day. Status quo for #1 and #3, so they are no worse off. And still no fevers.

Thank you all for your prayers. God is listening :-)

Here are a few pictures from our picnic yesterday (including the new pic at the top of our blog). Have a beautiful day!

(((hugs))),
chris

2 Corinthians 6:3-4  We try to live in such a way that no one will be hindered from finding the Lord by the way we act, and so no one can find fault with our ministry. In everything we do we try to show that we are true ministers of God.

Surgery Update

One week from today. That's when the munchkins' surgeries are scheduled.
I am stressing about this waaaaaay too much. I am not in control. I am not in control. I am not in control.

OK, not doing well turning it over to the One who is in charge.

Let me back up for you. When we scheduled these surgeries, we decided that having the surgeries on the same day is best for our family. Some people think we're nuts, and some people are super-supportive. It seems the super-supportive people are the ones who have done this sort of thing themselves, or who know us best, or who work at the surgeon's office. Anyhoo, the surgeon and the ENT were available together on September 28th so we grabbed that date up. The operating room peeps needed to juggle some surgery rooms around, but they made it work and got us in. Now the next day that both docs were available was November 22nd. So IF we can't do surgeries next Wednesday, September 28th, we're looking at postponing for months. And who knows if November 22nd is still available for both docs. And wouldn't it be not fun to be recovering around the holidays?

The reason it is best for the munchkins to do the surgery sooner is this: the sooner we close up their palates, the sooner we can start speech therapy so they can start learning to use their mouths correctly to eat and speak intelligibly. In the U.S., we do cleft lip surgery around 1-3 months old, and the palate surgery is done around maybe 7-9 months old. Yes, the munchkins are still young and they should do just fine, but David is already three years past when U.S. docs would have closed up that palate. That's alot of time in kid-years.

The reason I am stressing: we have a cold and cough living in our house. Great time to visit, you $@*)!# stinkin' cold/cough! Josh had the cough first, and he seems to be doing better already. He still has a runny nose. Now David has the cough, and today he is the one I am most worried about. Samuel has a runny nose, but I'm not sure that is anything new and he isn't coughing yet.

Please pray for the munchkins to get healthy. At least healthy enough to have surgery next Wednesday.

In the meantime, I'll work on trusting that it all will happen according to God's plan. I know it always does.


The Lord is my strength and shield.
I trust him with all my heart.
He helps me, and my heart is filled with joy.
I burst out in songs of thanksgiving.

Psalm 28:7

Happy Sunday from the Munchkins

Jason has been working alot lately, so we have been having fun without him!

The other day I found the munchkins in the backyard eating pears. We have pear trees, so this isn't so unusual.

Except for the fact that the munchkins are really short.

And the pears are up high.

So the pears that they were nibbling on were the ones half-eaten by the squirrels and sitting on the ground. Gross. Very, very gross. I am sure they ate grosser things in China, but still I threw those pears away and gave them fresh ones off the tree. Here they are enjoying the clean, fresh pears:

Here they are after a bath and wearing the very cute towels handmade by Great Aunt Ellen:

One day, we decided to paint. With our feet:

Another day, I found the boys in Jason's closet trying on his shoes and boots. Check out our cowboy. Very Colorado-ish, wouldn't you say?

And little Samuel was buried by his brother David. Buried under a bunch of toys:

Life is good.

(((hugs))),
chris


Psalm 118:24  This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.

Falling in Love

It's strange - this adoption thing. You wait and you wonder as you go through this long process that you would like to have control over but never do. God reminds you how much you are NOT in control. He reminds you that HE is in control over and over. And Satan attacks and you need to lean in and stay focused on the One who is in charge. Then you get there and meet your child and it's strange.

Weird. Odd. Like nothing I could have imagined.

Maybe because this child who you know is yours, who you have been so excited to meet, who you have been praying for, dreaming about, who you take the teeny bits of information given to you and try to guess at who they are, and you know the only way you EVER could have been matched with this child was by the grace of God because really it is like finding a needle in a haystack as they say... but when you meet your child, he is still a stranger to you.

Does he like broccoli or pasta or hamburgers? Does he like his back rubbed? Does he like to be outside? Will he be able to eat OK? Will he freak out in the car seat? Does he like Play-Doh or puzzles or blocks? Is his hearing OK? Does he like baths? Will he need to be carried everywhere? How long before we can go out in public or visit family and friends or go to church?

Then they say, "Here you go. OK, fly away now!" and you take this little stranger who you can't communicate with on a loooooooong airplane ride, and the next thing you know... the little stranger is walking around in your house and it feels like babysitting.

Like a really long babysitting-gig-from-hell that you can't get away from... I tell you coming home ain't no picnic with four people in the house having jetlag, and the munchkins both being (understandably) EXTREMELY needy trying to adjust to their new lives while grieving the loss of their China life. And the big brother being (understandably) EXTREMELY needy since he missed his mom & dad so much and now he's shipped off to 1st grade. Alot to handle for the munchkins, as well as the parents and the big brother. It definitely falls in the category of "not fun".

It's a process, I guess, this "falling in love" stuff. I am thankful for another blogger who adopted two and kept it real. She shared how incredibly hard it is, and that she does have a favorite. I can totally see that. My favorite newly-adopted-orphan-child bounces back and forth between the two. I hope the munchkins can't tell.

I have been practicing the "fake it till you feel it" method of loving and parenting our new sons. (If you disagree with this, well then I say you've never been here and please kindly keep it to yourself :-)  What I have been doing is:
I tell the munchkins over and over, "I love you!"
and I pick them up
...and snuggle them
.....and comfort them
.......and play with them
.........and tickle them
...........and we all laugh
.............and you know what?

I fell in love.

(((hugs))),
chris

John 14:23  Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them.

Fun & Haircuts

I'm not feelin' blahblahbloggy today... Enjoy the pictures!

This water mat was fun then big brother turned the water all the way up and made it SUPERFUN!

My guys eating my favorite ice cream ~ peppermint!

#1 before

Seriously. Can we not get a good normal picture of the "after"?

#2 before haircut and very VERY excited to have Mama cut his hair

#2 after ~ gotta love the cheeseball smile :)

#3 before ~ he has no idea what's coming...

Mama, why did you "clipper" me???

(((hugs))),
chris

Clefty Updates

Today was Cleft Palate Clinic day for us!!!

At the clinic, docs from all the disciplines that we will need for the munchkins were there to evaluate them. There were probaby 10 kids at the clinic, and we all just rotated through visiting the various docs. We saw a pediatrician (who coordinates the program), an audiologist, two orthodontists, two oral surgeons, a pediatric dentist, an ENT, a plastic surgeon, and a speech pathologist. The speech pathologist also helps coordinate the clinic, and she was the one who spent so much time on the phone with me before we traveled to get the munchkins.

The orthodontists, oral surgeons, and dentist were all in one room, as were the plastic surgeon and the ENT, so it wasn't as lengthy and overwhelming as it sounds :)

Our next step is to schedule surgeries. Here is where we're going to start:

• David will have a palate surgery. He has a very wiiiiiiiide cleft, so the surgeon said he will try to get his whole palate closed up, but we may need to do the closure in stages (i.e. multiple surgeries).
• Samuel will have a combined surgery - a lip adhesion and palate surgery. The lip adhesion means that his lips won't be completely fixed, but first the sides of his top lip will be attached to his funky lip bump (which is actually called a prolabium if you want to get technical and doctor-ish). This way his upper lip can start growing back toward a more normal position while it heals. So it will still look funky after surgery. In the same surgery, the surgeon will close Samuel's palate, which should be completed in just one surgery. (Samuel's next surgery will be about 6 months later, and his lip will be fully repaired at that time, including repositioning muscles and lining everything up.)

So tomorrow afternoon we'll call and schedule surgeries. And just like the craziness in adopting two at once... we're thinking we will have both surgeries on the same day!!!

Pros for having surgeries on different days:

• Only one munchkin at a time will be recovering and in pain, and coming off anesthesia.
• There will be only one munchkin potentially waking us up at night due to pain/trauma/anxiety/post-surgery issues.
• Only one munchkin at a time will be uber-needy because they just had surgery. (I'm not sure how this differs from our every day uber-neediness especially a month ago when we first met them... but I'm sure it's probably worse.)

Pros for having two surgeries in one day:

• Both munchkins will be recovering and in pain and coming off anesthesia together, rather than us doing it all once and doing it again a month later.
• We'll potentially be up anyway with pain/trauma/anxiety/post-surgery issues, so we might as well get up with both boys (i.e. we'll just be sleepy for one block of time instead of two).
• We have experience with both munchkins being uber-needy at the same time.
• Jason only needs to take off work for one short block of time instead of two.
• We're pureeing food for three weeks of the recovery time anyway, might as well make a double batch!

Cons for having two surgeries in one day: Will probably grow Chris a new ulcer and a few new gray hairs. But we all know that Tums is one of Chris' new BFFs...

We're both leaning toward doing the surgeries on the same day. Please pray with us for clear direction on this decision.

(((hugs))),
chris the crazy two-fer momma


1 Chronicles 16:11   Search for the Lord and for his strength; continually seek him.