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