A New Year

This time of year is full of joy in our family. Dressing up for Halloween (Lukasz requested a Dr. Kane costume so he could dress just like his (now) favorite person in the world); stuffing ourselves on Thanksgiving; working on our land; school programs; movies to fall asleep watching on a Friday night on the living room floor; the kids hugging each other, huddled together under blankets on the couch laughing and dreaming together about what they would like to find under the tree.

Dr. Kane, Gen. Grant, Dr. Who,
Ironman and Clara Barton

Dr. Kane

Grandma's church Thanksgiving
Luncheon.

We had an amazing holiday season. Plenty of food, warm fires at night, hot chocolate at the ready.  Everybody willingly submitted to Mom's annual tradition of minimally dressing everyone up and having family pictures taken because darn it, this is her Christmas gift. 

And the kids each received one or two things they asked for but were surprised with gifts they had not asked for but absolutely loved: five harmonicas (one for each of them), two ukuleles, and a guitar.  Yeah, Mommy! You get to listen to five kids learn how to play three instruments all at once. 

Good thing mom thinks of unmitigated noise as the most pure form of joy.      

The robes from Grandma & Grandpa
where a hue hit. As was the book on
great military leaders for Iain.

When we asked what he wanted,
Lukasz just told us "a heart, a red heart

We even FINALLY saw a little progress on our house build.  We have a well. Hurray! And septic! The electric company has flagged the ground for the underground line and foundation guys are ready to go as soon as the snow melts and dries off the pad.

The well going in!

10K in December. Says 5k but this
was their 1st year with both. 

I made more progress in my running with the help of some little voices cheering me on. Hopefully, spring marathon training will go as well.

And now we look forward to a new year, hoping that it is as good as the last.

A Quick Update on Lukasz

Lukasz was scheduled for a palatoplasty on December 17 to correct an opening in the palate and to tighten the muscles on right side of his face in the hopes that he would be able to improve his speech. In November he was filmed speaking after having barium injected up his nose. The speech pathologist determined that the right side of his palate is not working correctly and air is being lost through his palate and out his nose.  The pathologist told us that his best speech prognosis with just speech therapy would be moderate impairment.  The hope is that the palatoplasty will give him a better prognosis.  It is unknown if the nerve controlling the right side of his palate muscles is functional and, if so, the surgery will not do too much.  However, if they do nothing he will have no improvement.  His speech is understandable to those that know him well but even we misunderstand him daily.  Thank goodness for ASL. So, the surgery is a necessary attempt to give him the best outlook for communicating with his peers in his typical kindergarten next year.

Unfortunately, when we arrived in Dallas for the pre-op appointment the day before surgery, Lukasz had suddenly developed a 103 fever.  So they canceled the surgery and we are awaiting rescheduling. Of course, he woke up the next morning completely fever free and full of energy. Typical Lukasz the live wire.  For a child with so many issues, he has an incredible immune system.

An Ache at the Back of Everything

I think that most adoptive parents would admit that the parentless children they could not adopt haunt the back of their mind at times unexpected. For me this is all the true during the holidays or any moment of true family joy.  Any time I find myself comforting a crying child, I immediately think of the children who have no one to hold them when they are hurting; to tell them they are loved and everything will be okay.  I cannot help but see the flash of little waiting, yearning faces, both domestic and international that have been shared by our agency or friends advocating for particular children in the foster system or Adoptuskids.com.

So, I thought that I would end this first post of the year with a little advocating for a boy in Lukasz' home country that has really weighed on my heart. If you are interested please contact me. 

I wish I could post his picture. His face is so stressed, lips pressed together with just a hint of a smile. He is 7 and this is what the adoption agency says:

He is very sociable, he is a calm child, he cooperates with his caregivers. He has sinificant speech delays and has been in speech therapy for years. His speech therapists say that his speech development is progressing! He grew up in a difficult home environment and needs a family who will give him a loving and stable home environment.

His home life was very chaotic, and he was afraid of his foster father at first (he is now doing much better). They are now thinking some of his speech issues are due to fear. “Children may exhibit signs of anxiety and have a short attention span which may result in poor school performance and attendance. They may experience developmental delays in speech, motor or cognitive skills.” They are now saying he is improving and “the AC worker who takes care of his case says he started to speak and has made visible progress since February 2015. And what is important he wants to speak while before he did not want and did not try”.