LOTS OF UPDATES

I've just spent 1/2 my Saturday uploading pics and updating the blog. :)

It was LONG overdue and since we finally have a cold blustery winter day down here in the desert, I figured today was a good day for it!

Please scroll down as there are 4 or 5 new posts!


~and ~
I've had a few questions left in the comments (or on my Facebook :) ).

We do not know exactly when Elizabeth's surgeries will begin. We already have a pre-surgical consult with an oral surgeon to extract her molar....but our insurance doesn't cover this specific surgeon. SO, the cranio-facial surgeon's office is trying to find someone else, within our insurance, to do the surgery.

We are hoping her tooth extraction can happen in the next month, as it will take 3-5 months for the bone to grow into the space left by the tooth. Once the bone growth is confirmed, we can schedule her jaw surgery. We are hoping and praying her jaw surgery can happen in September, so that we can get the apparatus completely removed by Christmas!


Also-I was asked how Elizabeth's attachment was going, especially now that Biruk has been home nearly a year.

Thanks for asking. I should probably do a whole post about this....but in short, she is doing really well. There are still (and probably always will be) certain things that trigger her insecurities and she/we has really rough days. But God has given us the grace and strength to get thru those days, not to mention tools via our counselor to help guide Elizabeth back to feeling secure and loved.

We were quite fearful of how adopting Biruk would affect Elizabeth. She did struggle quite a bit right at first, but we think his addition to the family has actually served to help Elizabeth heal. She saw another child come into the family...and lo and behold...she was STILL loved...STILL here....nothing changed. We have seen huge improvements in her in the last year. We can't help but think that the security that came from her place in our family remaining constant even with Biruk's addition served as a catalyst for her marked improvement.

ANDREW-BUG

why in the world do they have to keep growing up?

I love this boy to pieces.

and this precious little man has hit a few milestones in the last few weeks. :)

see that big ole gap in his smile now?!

my sis was able to pull one of his top teeth out this past week-man that tooth was loose for a LONG time! In fact, it was hanging by the teeniest of threads...it was literally hanging out of the gum on one side!

If you can click on the pic and blow it up, you can see the other top tooth is about to do the same thing -it's quite loose as well! That one will be gone in a few weeks too I'm sure.

and my little math whiz is working on 2nd grade math already.

he finished 1st grade math on 1/21 and started 2nd grade math on 1/24.

he just really "gets" math. and he's good at it.

I love to see him excelling at something he enjoys!

CHINESE NEW YEAR CELEBRATION

a few weeks ago, our local Chinese Cultural Center put on a New Year's celebration.

we hadn't ever been, it was a beautiful day, so we headed downtown.

the celebration was OK. the kids loved it. John and I were a bit disappointed though ~maybe it's because we've been to China and have seen the real thing? For example: the food booths were serving fair food -like churros and fry bread. Really? that's so American! We wanted booths serving dumplings!!

oh well, we still had fun. :)

there is a Chinese market in the center so we grabbed some food to-go and picnic'd.

my 2 beauties.

JANUARY 2011 RE-CAP

catching up on blogging today. :)

here is a re-cap of the 2nd 1/2 of January.

school time is fun if you can use the dog as your pillow!

for Christmas my parents and John and I pooled our $$ for a trampoline for the kids.

the first week we had it, I swear the kids jumped 5-6 hours a day. :)

they still go jump several times each day -just for much less time.

I LOVE that they are having fun while exercising!

My sister and her family moved closer to my parents at the end of January.

We had the privilege of babysitting their dog Mia for almost a whole week as well as several of the kids various days!

Jameson and Jeremiah found the dress up clothes!

we were able to watch baby Joshua for several days in a row -even getting to have him overnight 1 night!

he's such an easy and happy baby that it wasn't difficult having him around at all!

can you guess who is my biggest helper ?

Biruk is a really good babysitter. :)

NANA'S VISIT

John's mom came for a visit in mid-January.

she brought each kiddo a gift...here they are anxiously awaiting the opening of the suitase. :)

unfortunately, the very morning she arrived, Becca and I came down with the stomach flu -and within 24 hours, our whole family was sick...and then, 3 days later, when it was Nana's day to leave, she woke up sick. kinda a bummer ~but we still managed to get 1 fun trip in while most of us were feeling ok. :)

about 20 minutes from us is a mock Wild West Town ~we all had a great time just being outdoors and walking around!

on the same grounds as the Wild West Town, a dog show/competition was going on.

I couldn't NOT take a pic of these poor poodles.

seriously -what WERE the owners thinking when they shaved them like this?!
I'm pretty sure the poodles were pretty embarassed to be out in public looking like this. :)

ELIZABETH'S UPCOMING SURGERIES

Yesterday Elizabeth, John and I went to her annual "team of doctors" meeting. We are BEYOND BLESSED to live close to a world renowned neurological institute that "just happens" to have a top notch craniofacial department. We saw Elizabeth's craniofacial surgeon in January just for a check up and she wanted us to see the team one more time before she proceeded with scheduling the sugery.

See -when we accepted Elizabeth's referral, we knew that she would need ear reconstruction and were prepared for hearing loss, etc. The minute they handed Elizabeth to us in China, we realized we were in for much more.....her face is assymetrical and her lower jaw isn't in the correct position.

Technically, Elizabeth is diagnosed with Goldenhar's Syndrome...and with that usually comes all sorts of problems ~kidney and heart for sure. We've seen countless specialists and have had numerous ultrasounds -there is NOTHING wrong with Elizabeth! She has astounded the specialists ~they can't believe NOTHING associated with this syndrome occurred to Elizabeth. All glory to God on that!

Well, we got more great news yesterday at our team meeting. Because her surgeon felt we were nearing the time Elizabeth's jaw would be ready for surgery, they wanted a baseline x-ray. The docs were excited as they showed us the x-ray -Elizabeth has 2 working jaw joints.

We didn't even know that might be a problem! :) They were excited that they woudn't have to reconstruct her left jaw joint -apparently it is VERY common with Elizabeth's condition to NOT have a proper joint. PRAISE GOD she has 1 and it looks good!!

We left our meeting with a 'roadmap' for the rest of this year. First up is a tooth extraction -Elizabeth's 2nd molar is sitting in the exact place the surgeon needs to place the jaw distractor (metal "spacer" placed in the jaw bone with a "key" sticking out thru the skin for me to turn twice a day -slowly breaking the bone-tell me that's not going to be super fun!).

Once the tooth is removed, we wait for bone to grow in the space left by the tooth ~3-5months. Then we call the team's orthodontist who will place teeny buttons/hooks on Elizabeth's teeth...these will serve as anchors for rubber bands that will help align the jaws once the distractor is in place. Think -teenager with braces...only she won't have the braces -just the rubber bands. :)

About a month after the buttons have been placed on her teeth, Elizabeth will have the jaw distractor placed in her jaw. We will probably have to turn it for 1 month...but the metal has to stay in her jaw for another 2 months as the bone regrows.

On one hand, I HATE that my baby has to go thru this surgery...but I know it's necessary....and they have to do this before they can do her ear reconstruction (because it will change her facial structure). I'm also SO very thankful that, by the time Elizabeth has the actual jaw distraction surgery, she will have been home nearly 4 years. God is SO good. With her RAD and PTSD, immediate surgeries could have been horrible for her emotional healing. God knew we would need that time to bond. :)

So today I will call and schedule the tooth extraction...the sooner I do that, the sooner she can heal and we can gear up for the main surgery ~we're aiming for that to happen in the Fall. I want that distractor out before Christmas!

THE ZOO-January 2011

John has every other Friday off, so the first Friday of January, we decided to take the kids to the zoo!

This was Biruk's first time to the zoo ~fun for us to experience it with him. :)

the newest exhibit-koalas! man are they lazy -they sleep ~22 hours a day. where can I sign up for that gig?!

this pic doesn't do these Bald Eagles justice. They are truly magnificent creatures.

the petting zoo is just goats.....we were laughing that Biruk was probably thinking "you Americans ~you pet these animals...in Ethiopia we EAT them!" :)

Becca is "milking" the cow

wooden horse racing

Monkey Village

tons of these little monkeys all around you!

can you see the little monkey right behind Becca?

she camoflauges perfectly -there is a cheetah up against the fence -took us a LONG time trying to find her!

so glad there is glass between the baboon and Andrew as he's trying to poke the baboon's face. :)

hehehe! both Biruk and the baboon are apparently looking at the same thing. :)

the menacing mandrill

love rhinos. there is something so ancient about them

can you see the lion laying in front of the kids?

the "African savannah"

our zoo has a bat ray exhibit -the kids LOVED it.