Well, I had planned to update every week after returning home, but we have been incredibly busy last week and this week. Last week we had a meeting at church every night and that took a lot of time. We have also had many other things going on! That happens when you have 3 older children and they all are involved in something!
So, on to Joshua! He did great in church during the meeting. He was really tired during the week, but is learning about how to behave during services. At times it is a challenge to try to keep him busy and quiet in the pew, especially since he doesn't really understand what is going on. He has gotten the concept of bowing your head and putting your hands together to pray. He doesn't stay that way long, but understands what to do.
Last week, we started him on a medication for a parasite he has. I would name it, but it is so long and no one has ever heard of it anyway. He is taking an antibiotic for 20 days to get rid of it. Apparently it comes from drinking contaminated water. This would explain why he was anemic when we had the blood tests run. We also got his hearing and vision tested last week. They were both normal. We also started his immunizations on last Thursday. He got two shots. He will go back in 2 months for 3 more shots. He will have to repeat them all:(. So, this past week was full of appointments and running around.
He is really beginning to pick up words quickly and trying to use them without being prompted. He says diaper, bath, babba at work, babba's car/truck, Dobby (from Harry Potter), (Curious )George, pray, Amen, and definitely tries to repeat anything you say! He is a lot of fun to have around. He keeps us all laughing and extremely busy!
I will try to post again over the weekend! I will also try to put some new photos on here! So many of you have been so good to read about our journey and are curious about how he is doing! I will try to answer some commonly asked questions in our next post!
Have a great end of the week!
Janice
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Friday, September 14, 2007
Our Second Week Home
Joshua is learning rapidly! Everyday I am impressed with what he is trying to say and learn. He has begun to venture out of the room away from us a little bit. He doesn't have to sit in someone's lap or be right beside them all the time, but is beginning to feel comfortable to run about the house a little more freely! He has slept in his bed every night since Sunday night. He doesn't always stay in it all night, but comes pretty close. This morning he slept in his bed until 5:00 a.m. which seems to be becoming pretty normal and then he stays in our bed until about 6:00.
He has had fun this week meeting two new friends - Clint and Mason. Clint goes to church with us and lives in our neighborhood and Mason lives across the street. He loves being with other children and seems to play well with them. Communication does not seem to be a barrier for him with other children. Yesterday, he got on Mason's electric Harley and about took out their tree in their front yard. He had no idea how to work the thing!! It was sooo funny!! Those things go really fast!!
He has been to bible class now 3 times. He really likes going. He loves to do every thing everyone else does. He likes to put his sticker on his chart, pick out a song to sing and say the prayer. He gets a little nervous during the lesson and the singing part of class and asks to go to the bathroom. He doesn't really need to go, but just wants out of the situation that he feels uncomfortable in. I can certainly understand how he feels.
Today, he played outside for a long while and he actually peddled his trike for about 3 turns!! He gives up rather quickly because it is hard, but he is really beginning to catch on! He is also going up and down the stairs better. We are trying to make him start up with his right leg since it seems to be the one he has the most difficulty with. This is just an attempt at making his leg stronger. He has to hold our hand going up if he walks instead of crawls. His legs are just not strong enough to go up by himself - yet! He is getting more comfortable going up and down on his own. He seems to understand that he knows he can't do it by himself. He is very careful about it.
New Words this week:
Good Morning, See ya, Clint, Mason, Baba at work, More clearly- Chase, Sissy & William, milk, eggs, America, cheese, ball, Gigs (our dog's name), teeth, shoes, brush teeth, bath, cold, hot, pray, grow, big, God, popcorn, shewwe(for when something stinks - which is quite frequent with 3 boys, a man and a dog in the same house!) - !
New Songs: Jesus loves me, My God is so Big, Read your Bible & Pray every Day
Joshua is all about playing and having fun! He loves to play! He is very loving and sweet. He has gotten so much better about sitting for longer. Today I was able to sit with him and read and entire book to him - Dr. Suess's "The Hair Book". I could not believe it! We haven't even had him a month and he is already able to sit for that long. When we first got him, it was about 5 seconds at the most. Open book/shut book!
Wednesday Joshua managed to confiscate and throw away my keys! I started looking for them when it was time to go to church and had to use the hide-a-key to get there. When we got home we checked the trash can and sure enough they were there!! I am going to have to watch that! He loves to throw things away!
I don't know why I am so amazed at how well he has done. I would suppose it is from my lack of faith. We have prayed about this and so have so many others on our behalf so there is no reason to expect anything but good. He has done so well and we feel so fortunate to have had such a smooth transition.
We got papers in the mail today from Shriners Hospital. He will go there on December 6th for his intial evaluation. We are anxious for that day to get here! We will begin to count down the days! We just want to get him the care he needs as soon as possible and see what we need to do to help him. We are so thankful to Dr. Burch for referring us to them!
So many people have done so many wonderful things to help us! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family of God's people that help us in so many different ways!! I will continue to update the blog about once a week just to keep everyone updated on his progress! I still can't believe how many people have read this thing!!
Since I was a child I can remember always wanting to do something big & grand for God. However, I have come to realize as I have grown up , that being a mother is the biggest and best thing I could do for God. Done right, mothering is the most important job that God has given anyone. Everyone needs a mother and it is the most vital part of shaping a child's life and personality. If mothering is done with the purpose of teaching their children how to glorify and praise God and to be a living sacrifice for Him then what else on earth could be either more important or more grand than that? I cannot think of anything!
Have a great week! Live for Him!
Love,
Janice
He has had fun this week meeting two new friends - Clint and Mason. Clint goes to church with us and lives in our neighborhood and Mason lives across the street. He loves being with other children and seems to play well with them. Communication does not seem to be a barrier for him with other children. Yesterday, he got on Mason's electric Harley and about took out their tree in their front yard. He had no idea how to work the thing!! It was sooo funny!! Those things go really fast!!
He has been to bible class now 3 times. He really likes going. He loves to do every thing everyone else does. He likes to put his sticker on his chart, pick out a song to sing and say the prayer. He gets a little nervous during the lesson and the singing part of class and asks to go to the bathroom. He doesn't really need to go, but just wants out of the situation that he feels uncomfortable in. I can certainly understand how he feels.
Today, he played outside for a long while and he actually peddled his trike for about 3 turns!! He gives up rather quickly because it is hard, but he is really beginning to catch on! He is also going up and down the stairs better. We are trying to make him start up with his right leg since it seems to be the one he has the most difficulty with. This is just an attempt at making his leg stronger. He has to hold our hand going up if he walks instead of crawls. His legs are just not strong enough to go up by himself - yet! He is getting more comfortable going up and down on his own. He seems to understand that he knows he can't do it by himself. He is very careful about it.
New Words this week:
Good Morning, See ya, Clint, Mason, Baba at work, More clearly- Chase, Sissy & William, milk, eggs, America, cheese, ball, Gigs (our dog's name), teeth, shoes, brush teeth, bath, cold, hot, pray, grow, big, God, popcorn, shewwe(for when something stinks - which is quite frequent with 3 boys, a man and a dog in the same house!) - !
New Songs: Jesus loves me, My God is so Big, Read your Bible & Pray every Day
Joshua is all about playing and having fun! He loves to play! He is very loving and sweet. He has gotten so much better about sitting for longer. Today I was able to sit with him and read and entire book to him - Dr. Suess's "The Hair Book". I could not believe it! We haven't even had him a month and he is already able to sit for that long. When we first got him, it was about 5 seconds at the most. Open book/shut book!
Wednesday Joshua managed to confiscate and throw away my keys! I started looking for them when it was time to go to church and had to use the hide-a-key to get there. When we got home we checked the trash can and sure enough they were there!! I am going to have to watch that! He loves to throw things away!
I don't know why I am so amazed at how well he has done. I would suppose it is from my lack of faith. We have prayed about this and so have so many others on our behalf so there is no reason to expect anything but good. He has done so well and we feel so fortunate to have had such a smooth transition.
We got papers in the mail today from Shriners Hospital. He will go there on December 6th for his intial evaluation. We are anxious for that day to get here! We will begin to count down the days! We just want to get him the care he needs as soon as possible and see what we need to do to help him. We are so thankful to Dr. Burch for referring us to them!
So many people have done so many wonderful things to help us! We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family of God's people that help us in so many different ways!! I will continue to update the blog about once a week just to keep everyone updated on his progress! I still can't believe how many people have read this thing!!
Since I was a child I can remember always wanting to do something big & grand for God. However, I have come to realize as I have grown up , that being a mother is the biggest and best thing I could do for God. Done right, mothering is the most important job that God has given anyone. Everyone needs a mother and it is the most vital part of shaping a child's life and personality. If mothering is done with the purpose of teaching their children how to glorify and praise God and to be a living sacrifice for Him then what else on earth could be either more important or more grand than that? I cannot think of anything!
Have a great week! Live for Him!
Love,
Janice
Saturday, September 8, 2007
Our first week home - Whew!
Hey everyone! I just wanted to update you all on our week. First of all we went to the pediatrician on Tuesday. All the general tests came out negative (Hep b & c, HIV, unrinalysis, etc.) He was a little anemic, but only slightly. Probably due to poor nutrition. I know that is hard to believe since he is sooo chunky, but enough food and the right kinds of food are not the same. We got those results back yesterday. We also went to the Orthopedic surgeon yesterday – he is a member of our church who is referring him to the Shriners hospital in Lexington. He will probably need some braces that fit into his shoes to correct his feet problems. Apparently his feet malformation is due to the inner muscle of his calf which never developed. However his feet can be corrected by these braces. Praise God for that!
When he goes to Shriners, he will see a whole team of doctors who specialize in spina bifida. There will be an orthopedist, urologist, nephritist (sp.- kidney doc.), nuerologist, etc. We will see all these specialists in one day and return home. Hopefully next week we will know when our appointment is. Dr. Burch thought we could get him in in about a month or two, but we will know soon enough. We still have lots of things to do here anyway. He has to have a hearing and vision test and also has to start all over with his immunizations. We got him started on vitamins with iron yesterday. I don’t think he will need them long. Last night I sautéed some broccoli in butter in garlic and he ate a huge amount of that – more than I could eat!!
He will also need some physical and occupational therapy which we will contact the school system for. Since we homeschool, I think they will come to the home for that. I am not sure, but I think he might possibly need some speech therapy some where down the road. He is coming along with his English! He can say: please, thank you, amen, eye, ear, nose mouth, tongue, hair, chin, shoe, mama, baba, gigs, get down, bye bye, milk, yeah (yes), nite-nite, I love you, outside and sit down. He understands much more that this, but is not able to verbalize it yet.
As far as sleeping goes, he has been sleeping in the floor of our bedroom for the last week. We started Thursday putting him in his bed for his naps (which happens to be the only day he has had a nap at home). The rest of his naps happen in the car while taking the other kids to and fro. Today we will purchase bed rails for his bed and maybe begin putting him in his bed at night on Sunday night. He is doing better at going up and down the stairs. He doesn’t even try to walk down them anymore since he realized how fun it is to scoot down!!
He is loving his new toys. We have purchased a trike for outside and a ride on toy for inside. We are looking for a used wooden swing set with a slide. We have also bought him some toys that will help with motors skills and thinking processes. So far we have gotten a Mr. potato Head, the square toy where you have to fit the shapes into the right place, stacking toy, magnetic numbers for the fridge and a see and say farm animal toy. We had some hand me down BIG legos from the boys and he has loved playing with those!! All of these toys have really helped him with using his hands and thinking things through. He has progressed so much in a few weeks. It is amazing to watch!!
Update on Joshua with the dog: They love each other – most of the time. Gigs will let Joshua pet and kiss her. She will let him throw her toys for her to fetch. She will even roll over on her back for him to rub her stomach! The only time they don’t get along is when he has something like a broom in his hand – just let your imagination run wild and you can picture it! He especially likes to zip her up in her kennel! He locked me out of the house a few days ago when I was letting her back in! Everyone was asleep and I had to walk around the house on the crunchy, pokey grass barefooted to hopefully find another door unlocked!! Needless to say I did get in the house and I was really glad I was not in my pajamas!!
Lawrence is finally over his jetlag. He was really sick all week, but is better now. The rest of us have felt good for about 4 days now.
Thanks so much for your prayers on his behalf and ours! Things are going much more smoothly than we had anticipated and I know that is because so many people have been praying for us and our transition! We love you all and appreciate all the many kindnesses shown to us over the past week!
Love, The Kelley Family
When he goes to Shriners, he will see a whole team of doctors who specialize in spina bifida. There will be an orthopedist, urologist, nephritist (sp.- kidney doc.), nuerologist, etc. We will see all these specialists in one day and return home. Hopefully next week we will know when our appointment is. Dr. Burch thought we could get him in in about a month or two, but we will know soon enough. We still have lots of things to do here anyway. He has to have a hearing and vision test and also has to start all over with his immunizations. We got him started on vitamins with iron yesterday. I don’t think he will need them long. Last night I sautéed some broccoli in butter in garlic and he ate a huge amount of that – more than I could eat!!
He will also need some physical and occupational therapy which we will contact the school system for. Since we homeschool, I think they will come to the home for that. I am not sure, but I think he might possibly need some speech therapy some where down the road. He is coming along with his English! He can say: please, thank you, amen, eye, ear, nose mouth, tongue, hair, chin, shoe, mama, baba, gigs, get down, bye bye, milk, yeah (yes), nite-nite, I love you, outside and sit down. He understands much more that this, but is not able to verbalize it yet.
As far as sleeping goes, he has been sleeping in the floor of our bedroom for the last week. We started Thursday putting him in his bed for his naps (which happens to be the only day he has had a nap at home). The rest of his naps happen in the car while taking the other kids to and fro. Today we will purchase bed rails for his bed and maybe begin putting him in his bed at night on Sunday night. He is doing better at going up and down the stairs. He doesn’t even try to walk down them anymore since he realized how fun it is to scoot down!!
He is loving his new toys. We have purchased a trike for outside and a ride on toy for inside. We are looking for a used wooden swing set with a slide. We have also bought him some toys that will help with motors skills and thinking processes. So far we have gotten a Mr. potato Head, the square toy where you have to fit the shapes into the right place, stacking toy, magnetic numbers for the fridge and a see and say farm animal toy. We had some hand me down BIG legos from the boys and he has loved playing with those!! All of these toys have really helped him with using his hands and thinking things through. He has progressed so much in a few weeks. It is amazing to watch!!
Update on Joshua with the dog: They love each other – most of the time. Gigs will let Joshua pet and kiss her. She will let him throw her toys for her to fetch. She will even roll over on her back for him to rub her stomach! The only time they don’t get along is when he has something like a broom in his hand – just let your imagination run wild and you can picture it! He especially likes to zip her up in her kennel! He locked me out of the house a few days ago when I was letting her back in! Everyone was asleep and I had to walk around the house on the crunchy, pokey grass barefooted to hopefully find another door unlocked!! Needless to say I did get in the house and I was really glad I was not in my pajamas!!
Lawrence is finally over his jetlag. He was really sick all week, but is better now. The rest of us have felt good for about 4 days now.
Thanks so much for your prayers on his behalf and ours! Things are going much more smoothly than we had anticipated and I know that is because so many people have been praying for us and our transition! We love you all and appreciate all the many kindnesses shown to us over the past week!
Love, The Kelley Family
Sunday, September 2, 2007
Home and the first 3 days!
Joshua on his new trike!
Joshua opening a present of a handmade blanket and a tooth fairy pillow from Joann and Bud Albers.
Chase and Olivia touching some wall in the Forbidden City. It is said in China that if you touch this wall it means marriage in your future! William did not think he wanted to touch it. He is not really interested in marriage!! - YET!
Sorry I havn't posted in the last few days, but with jetlag, unpacking and catching up it has been too much.
Thursday morning we took the subway to "The Forbidden City" and Tienam Square. Went back to the hotel and packed up to go to the airport. We had to take two taxis!! We made it fine and the taxis stayed together - believe it or not.
Our trip home was uneventful. We left Beijing at 3:45 in the afternoon and got to Newark at 5:20 the same afternoon!! Is that weird or what? It was a 13 1/2 hour flight in which Joshua slept about 9 hours of that! Benadryl helped a little!! It did not work for the rest of us though! We got to Newark rechecked our luggage and made it to the next gate with about 1o minutes to spare! Enough time for Lawrence to go and purchase two small pizzas and one large drink for all of us to share and guzzle down quickly before boarding our next plane! Our flight to Nashville was a little late leaving (about 40 minutes), but we still arrived in Nashvill at 9:10 p.m. on shedule. We collected our luggage called the hotel to come and retreive us and we got in our car about 10:30 p.m. Thursday night. We were all starving and we got some fast food and started home. Joshua did not mind getting into the car seat at all! He adjusts to everything so easily.
We got home around 11:30 p.m and were welcomed by balloons, cards, gifts and most importantly food!! We were blessed to have several families purchase milk, bread lunch meat, drinks and snacks for us and some other families bring us casseroles ready to bake!! They have been really helpful to us as we have struggled with jetlag the last few days! We went to bed about 1:30 am on Friday morning. I got up around 10 and everyone else got up around 12 or 1 p.m. Lawrence went to the office, I ran some errands which included adding Joshua to our medical insurance and buying him a tricycle. That night we all went to bed around 10 p.m. Some of us slept well (Joshua - 15 hours and Chase - 10 hours) the rest of us had a hard night.
Satuday night again - Joshua and Chase slept well and the rest of us did not!
Today - Sunday- was great to be with our family in Christ! Joshua did really well in bible class. I stayed with him and he wanted to do everyting everyone else did. Lawrence preached a lesson on the spirit of adoption and we came home ate lunch and took a 2 hour nap!!
When we first got home Joshua was terrified of the dog! We have made great strides in the past 3 days! Yesterday he saw me throwing the dogs toy and Gigs bringing it back and he decided he wanted to throw it to her. He still did not want her to touch him, but he did want to play with her.
Today he is petting her and playing with her a lot. He is still a little afraid of her but is adjusting quickly!!
Tuesday we will take him to the pediatrician. We will hopefully get a referral to an orthopedist (Doc. John) and hopefully go to Shriners soon to have him evaluated. He is a clumsy walker and has a hard time going up and down the stairs. We are teaching him to crawl up and scoot down. He is sleeping in our room at night. He starts out on the floor and ends up in our bed by around 2-3 a.m. We will eventually get him in his room, but need to make sure he is comfortable with his surroundings and can get up and down the stairs easily.
Thanks for all of your comments. We have enjoyed going over them and reading them! Joshua will be glad to read them as he gets older!! He will be glad to know he has such a wonderful family - both spiritual and physical - and that they were all praying for him and waiting for his coming to the US!
As our plane landed in Newark, NJ, I was struck by the fact that he was now a US citizen and the freedoms that will bring in his life that he otherwise would never know. However, I am more grateful and struck by the fact of the freedoms he will have in a relationship with Christ that otherwise he may not have ever known. We rejoice in his coming into our family and are so appreciative of everyone accepting him so joyously!! Praise God for his mercy, compassion and goodness.
We love you all and thank you for your support throughout this journey! We will still be updating photos and stuff about Joshua's medical progress periodically so keep checking!!
Take care! Love, All 6 Kelley's
Joshua opening a present of a handmade blanket and a tooth fairy pillow from Joann and Bud Albers.Chase and Olivia touching some wall in the Forbidden City. It is said in China that if you touch this wall it means marriage in your future! William did not think he wanted to touch it. He is not really interested in marriage!! - YET!
Sorry I havn't posted in the last few days, but with jetlag, unpacking and catching up it has been too much.
Thursday morning we took the subway to "The Forbidden City" and Tienam Square. Went back to the hotel and packed up to go to the airport. We had to take two taxis!! We made it fine and the taxis stayed together - believe it or not.
Our trip home was uneventful. We left Beijing at 3:45 in the afternoon and got to Newark at 5:20 the same afternoon!! Is that weird or what? It was a 13 1/2 hour flight in which Joshua slept about 9 hours of that! Benadryl helped a little!! It did not work for the rest of us though! We got to Newark rechecked our luggage and made it to the next gate with about 1o minutes to spare! Enough time for Lawrence to go and purchase two small pizzas and one large drink for all of us to share and guzzle down quickly before boarding our next plane! Our flight to Nashville was a little late leaving (about 40 minutes), but we still arrived in Nashvill at 9:10 p.m. on shedule. We collected our luggage called the hotel to come and retreive us and we got in our car about 10:30 p.m. Thursday night. We were all starving and we got some fast food and started home. Joshua did not mind getting into the car seat at all! He adjusts to everything so easily.
We got home around 11:30 p.m and were welcomed by balloons, cards, gifts and most importantly food!! We were blessed to have several families purchase milk, bread lunch meat, drinks and snacks for us and some other families bring us casseroles ready to bake!! They have been really helpful to us as we have struggled with jetlag the last few days! We went to bed about 1:30 am on Friday morning. I got up around 10 and everyone else got up around 12 or 1 p.m. Lawrence went to the office, I ran some errands which included adding Joshua to our medical insurance and buying him a tricycle. That night we all went to bed around 10 p.m. Some of us slept well (Joshua - 15 hours and Chase - 10 hours) the rest of us had a hard night.
Satuday night again - Joshua and Chase slept well and the rest of us did not!
Today - Sunday- was great to be with our family in Christ! Joshua did really well in bible class. I stayed with him and he wanted to do everyting everyone else did. Lawrence preached a lesson on the spirit of adoption and we came home ate lunch and took a 2 hour nap!!
When we first got home Joshua was terrified of the dog! We have made great strides in the past 3 days! Yesterday he saw me throwing the dogs toy and Gigs bringing it back and he decided he wanted to throw it to her. He still did not want her to touch him, but he did want to play with her.
Today he is petting her and playing with her a lot. He is still a little afraid of her but is adjusting quickly!!
Tuesday we will take him to the pediatrician. We will hopefully get a referral to an orthopedist (Doc. John) and hopefully go to Shriners soon to have him evaluated. He is a clumsy walker and has a hard time going up and down the stairs. We are teaching him to crawl up and scoot down. He is sleeping in our room at night. He starts out on the floor and ends up in our bed by around 2-3 a.m. We will eventually get him in his room, but need to make sure he is comfortable with his surroundings and can get up and down the stairs easily.
Thanks for all of your comments. We have enjoyed going over them and reading them! Joshua will be glad to read them as he gets older!! He will be glad to know he has such a wonderful family - both spiritual and physical - and that they were all praying for him and waiting for his coming to the US!
As our plane landed in Newark, NJ, I was struck by the fact that he was now a US citizen and the freedoms that will bring in his life that he otherwise would never know. However, I am more grateful and struck by the fact of the freedoms he will have in a relationship with Christ that otherwise he may not have ever known. We rejoice in his coming into our family and are so appreciative of everyone accepting him so joyously!! Praise God for his mercy, compassion and goodness.
We love you all and thank you for your support throughout this journey! We will still be updating photos and stuff about Joshua's medical progress periodically so keep checking!!
Take care! Love, All 6 Kelley's
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