Approaching 10 months home!!! Where is the time going????

 It has been so long since I have posted, but it still seems like only yesterday that we brought Silas & Andre home! Just one month from today makes a year that we boarded the plane to Ukraine! 

Life is so busy. The boys have started school. Silas is in Kindergarten & Andre is in Pre-K. Their class is combined. Tage is in first grade and D.J. is in sixth grade. 

With the exception of last week, the boys have been healthy. Strep throat plagued our house last week. Silas had some sort of infection at his g tube site and was hospitalized for a few days. Some strong antibiotics cleared it up. Andre, Maben & Rachelle all had some minor surgeries over the summer.

Silas will be doing a trial for the Baclofen pump in just a couple of weeks. If it proves that the pump will benefit him, he will have the surgery after Christmas. 

Silas' growth has been unbelievable! He now weighs 41 pounds and is 40 inches long! That is 24 pounds gained & 6 inches grown. I did not take any "before" pictures of him in a diaper until we were home & actually he was in the hospital. Many parents do, but I did not want to remember it, so I did not take a picture. I also did not start keeping track of his weight until he was in the hospital. For 3 days he ate very well & I suspect he was actually a pound or 2 lighter than 17 pounds before coming home. Now, I do wish that I had for comparison. But even comparing 1 month home to now is a drastic difference!

I think that is all there is to catch up on, I will let pics over the last few months do the rest of the talking :)

6 months home

7 months home

8 months home

DJ & Silas

Silas got his wheelchair in June!

Two peas in a pod

Maben & Andre love to cause trouble together :)
What else are brothers for? 

May 28, 2013

May 28, 2013

May 2013

They love each other!

August 2013

After school fun in the sprinkler!
September 2013

5 months home!

Silas and Andre  have been home 5 months! In a way, it feels like just yesterday but also feels like a lifetime ago! They have made HUGE progress in their little time home!

Silas has doubled his weight and now weighs 34.4 pounds!!!!!

Andre is now walking and is SOOO PROUD of himself!

One year ago today......

Exactly one year ago today, April 27, 2012, I came across Silas' picture on Reece's Rainbow. I had been on the website hundreds of times before. This was the first time I came across Silas' picture. I believe he had been previously removed because it was believed that he had been transferred. Also, RR originally was given the wrong birth year (2004) when he was actually born in 2007. After I saw his picture, I could not stop thinking about him. I thought and prayed a lot over the week that followed before even bringing up the possibility to my husband.  was easy to convince him :) It And as you all know, we decided to start the process of adoption. Little did we know of what God had in store for us :)

Today is special for another reason. Five months ago today was also Gotcha Day. I have not posted many pictures from this day, as they are still difficult for me to look at. It was the day that Silas starting having withdrawals from whatever drugs he was on, so every time I look at them I get a flood of emotions that are not at all happy. I start going through every memory of every step of that very day.  I hold a lot of anger towards the director for not disclosing this information and for not returning our phone call the following day. It could have been so much worse that what it was. I am also angry with myself for being convinced that he was such a "nice guy" and when Silas was still in the orphanage, a very good friend pointed out that he did, in fact, look drugged. I ignored her and thought that would never happen because he was in a great orphanage. So when I look at those pictures, I think of how scared I was, and even more how terrified Silas must have been.  I remember staying online all night with our wonderful stateside coordinator, Nancy, who gave me some tips on how to help him. So, Gotcha Day does not bring fuzzy feelings to my mind.  But here are some pics from that very day, early morning, before things turned ugly.

After the nannies dressed him, Andre was handed to us for good :)

The nannies in Silas' groupa allowed us back while he was dressed

Silas and most of his groupa

Andre fell asleep in Niko's van during a long day of "paper chasing."

Resting comfortably for the night

Silas finally asleep at about 6am, this only lasted for about 2 hours.

FOUR MONTHS HOME!!!!

Today March 29 is is a solemn day because it is Good Friday, the day Jesus Christ gave his life for us.
It is also a joyful day as we celebrate our boys being home four months!
The boys are doing amazing!

Silas now weighs 32 pounds, only 2 more pounds and he has gained DOUBLE what his weight was when he arrived here in America! He is getting stronger every day. Up until last week, he had no control of his right hand & any movement was involuntary. He has started to have a little control. I have found a Neurological Nurse Practitioner who has been the best! She has found a medication that targets the spasms he was having. It is actually an anti-seizure medication. He does not have seizures, but the fact that this has worked indicates that he has some sort of Dystonia. In researching the different kinds, he actually has symptoms of a few different types. The only way to know for sure is by doing a muscle biopsy, which his neuro NP does not want to put him through at the moment. Silas was scheduled to have surgery to correct his strabismus this past Tuesday but it was canceled at 7:30 the night before because his EKG report was lost by the hospital that did it. He is now scheduled to have it next Thursday. If you are wondering why he is in only a diaper so often, its because he is the most hot blooded kid EVER! The other day we were in the dentist office, I was freezing and he was dripping with sweat. It is never a fever, he just gets hot so easily! So when we are at home, I let him just stay in a diaper so that he is comfortable :) The picture on the left is from December 4, 2012, during his hospital stay. The other two are this past week!

Andre has also gained some weight! He is up 5 pounds since we brought him home. He is saying "Ma Ma" and signing and saying "More." He sometimes try to sign "more" with his feet. It is so funny. He blows kisses and gives them. He has learned to play with toys instead of hitting himself with them. He does still get over stimulated at times but it is only when we attend a gathering with a lot of people. We went out to eat for the first time since the boys have been home at Ruby Tuesday for World Down Syndrome Day. He did so well on his special day! He is starting to walk. He has taken a couple steps independently.The picture on the far left was of Andre while in the orphanage (It was his profile pic on RR) The other 2 are him now. Can you see the change? The one of him in the swing was this past weekend at church for an Easter Egg hunt. As you can tell, he was not interested in the eggs!

Andre at school

Andre celebrating WDSD at school

In the past 4 months, the boys have started attending school. We eased them in, first attending 8:30-11:00 3 days a week, now 3 full days a week. They attended their first Mardi Gras Parade :)
Andre celebrated turning 4 years old, which was the first time he has ever celebrated his birthday!
Most important of all, they are HAPPY!

Andre watching TV with his big brother.

All of my boys after a Mardi Gras Parade