2 Months After Surgery...

Well, actually this picture was made a little less than 2 months after surgery - it was made on Halloween. Micah was a cowboy/sheriff aka "Woody". What a handsome cowboy he was! He had a great time trick-or-treating. Kelli and I took he and Grace downtown Watkinsville where all of the merchants were "treating" the children. After our second stop, Micah looked into his bucket and said, "Wow!" After a few more stops he just wanted to stop and eat candy. I'm sure he was thinking that this holiday where you dress up in play clothes and walk around and get candy given to you was a great day!
I cannot believe that it has been over two months since his surgery. I'm really bad at keeping blogs updated, aren't I? Oh, well, as I told someone today, we're still in the "survival" mode here. Micah has recovered from his surgery well. His palate looks good for the most part - we think he may have a small hole at the front of his palate, near his teeth, but we're hoping it will close up on it's own. We go back to the plastic surgeon next month.
Micah's speech is picking up. As I picked him up at Mother's Morning Out today even his teacher told me he was starting to use his words more.
His personality continues to emerge. He is such a loving little boy. He's definitely precious to his mom and dad. We count our blessings everyday (even if we have to lay in the bed to do it!)

Home again, home again

Finally a picture of Micah after surgery. He was really glad (as we all were) to get to come home from the hospital yesterday morning. Micah was really relieved and actually let Bryan put him down. He felt pretty good and had lots of energy yesterday, but has been much quieter, and has not really felt well at all today. He is watching a movie on TV as I type this.
We are so grateful to the Lord that He has blessed us with the opportunity to be Grace and Micah's parents. We could never have imagined how much we would grow to love these little ones. With each day that goes by I think, I could not love them more. But everyday I wake up - and that love has multiplied! I have read a couple of really good books lately. One of them that I highly recommend is "Saving Levi, Left to Die, Destined to Live" by Lisa Misraje Bentley. I would like to close with a thought from her. She says, "Every adoptive parent wonders if there will be a natural attraction to a new child. And what if there's not? Does that mean you love the child less or are incapable of really loving him or her? No. You must simply love in deed first, and the feelings of love will follow. Our society has this love thing all twisted around. We think the basis of love is our feelings, but it's not. The New Testament teaches that love is a decision to act. Love is always about what you do for others, not what you feel."

The next morning....

There is a quote from an unkown author that says, "To the world you might be just one person, but to one person, you might just be the world."
This quote kind of sums up the relationship between Bryan and Micah, especially since surgery. Poor dad can hardly go to the bathroom. We had a good night, Slept on and off. The pain does not seem too intense, but he definitely doesn't feel well. He has been real brave, but is to the point that when the nurse or the tech comes in to do anything he cries. In fact after they come and go, Micah is usually ready to go for a wagon ride, so here we go with IV pole in tow. He ate and drank well last night. So far he hasn't taken anything this morning, but we're hoping when breakfast comes he'll perk up. We sure are hoping that when the doctor comes around we'll get to go home.
Our time here at CHOA has been a real good experience so far. The staff truly seems very caring. During this time we have realized how BLESSED we are to be the parents of 5 children and this if our FIRST hospital stay. We've had plenty of stitches, concussions, broken bones, but never anything too serious! As we've walked down the halls and see the children who have lost their hair because of chemo, the families that are camped out with children with very serious illnesses, hear the helicopter delivering a critical patient, hear a code blue called at a children's hospital we have realize that we are very blessed.

Surgery!!!

Neither of these pictures have to do with surgery, but they are the only ones I had to load on blogger right now. One is obviously a family picture and the other is of Micah on his first day of school.
Well, back to the topic at hand. We arrived at CHOA - Scottish Rite this morning about 7 AM. That means we left home about 5 AM. We tried to wake Micah up before we left home because he could have clear liquids until 5:15, but he would have none of it! So, we bucked him in the carseat and left for the hospital. They ask you to be here 2 hours before surgery time, for what I'm not sure. We checked in, payed our co-pay and waited in the waiting room for about 1 hour. Then we went back to the day surgery pre -op area. We were in an area just big enough for a stretcher and 2 chairs for about 30 minutes before we found out there was a play area. For those of you who know Micah's energy level you know how difficult that was! All of the doctors came by one by one to talk with us and then about 9:30 they came and gave him a dose of "happy medicine". That made him really "drunk" . He was very funny watching "Little Einsteins" on my ipod. He would giggle every now and then and his eyes would roll back in his head. They took him back to surgery about 10 AM. The first doctor up was the ENT who put tubes in his ears. That went well and took only about 5 minutes. Next up was the dentist. He removed two of Micah's baby teeth that were behind his front teeth. He also did some fillings on a couple of his teeth. Finally, the plastic surgeon went in and closed his palate and did some work on his lip and nose. He was in recovery about and hour . During that time they let us go to his room and wait for him. They brought him back to us about 1 PM. He was quite upset, but calmed down after Bryan took him. He has been quite pitiful all afternoon. Because of the swelling it is hard to tell how he looks. He gets upset easily, which is not normal for Micah. He is asleep again now - in daddy's arms... So far he has eaten about half of 2 popsicles. He is quite uninterested in everything ...We hope that he can go home tomorrow...

No fear here!

Micah loves the pool. This picture was made one day earlier in the summer. He has no fear. The first couple of times we took him to the pool he was a little unsure, but then he decided there was nothing to fear! The arm "swimmies" that you see in this picture bit the dust a long time ago. We had to go to a "body suit" with floatation devices built in. It zips up the back so that he can't get out of it on his on. (Yeah, the little brave one thinks he can swim so he started taking his swimmies off - in the deep end!) I don't think that I have ever known a child that wanted to swim so badly! We have made progress. He does know now to close his mouth and not to swallow so much pool water. At the beginning of summer we would come home from the pool and his belly would be distended from swallowing so much water!
We are so thankful that Micah is brave - surgery is only a little over 2 weeks away!

Micah the Brave

Micah is one of the bravest little fellows I have ever met. It doesn't seem that he is afraid of anything! For a parent that is a blessing and a curse! We have to stay on our toes all of the time to make sure that he doesn't do something to hurt himself or someone else. It will really be a blessing as we begin the process of having his palate repaired. Micah was born with a bilateral cleft lip and a cleft palate. His lip was repaired in China and on September 7 he is having surgery to have his palate repaired. I'll post more details later. We are anxious to have his palate repaired so that he will have the ability to speak and be understood! He has so much inside of him that he wants to say! We can't wait to hear it all!