Dear orphaned child,

this is your prayer:

PSALM 139

"O LORD, You have searched me
and You know me.
You know when I sit and when I rise;
You perceive my going out and my lying down;
You are familiar with all my ways.
Before a word is on my tongue
You know it completely, O LORD.

You hem me in--behind and before;
You have laid Your hand upon me.
Such knowledge is too wonderful for me,
too lofty for me to attain.

Where can I go from Your Spirit?
Where can I flee from Your presence?
If I go up to the heavens, You are there;
if I make my bed in the depths, You are there.
If I rise on the wings of the dawn,
if I settle on the far side of the sea,
even there Your hand will guide me,
Your right hand will hold me fast.

If I say, 'Surely the darkness will hide me
and the light become night around me,'
even the darkness will not be dark to You;
the night will shine like the day,
for darkness is as light to You.

For You created my inmost being;
You knit me together in my mother's womb.
I praise You
because I am fearfully and wonderfully make;
I know that full well.
My frame was not hidden from You
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
Your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in Your book
before one of them came to be.

How precious to me are Your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with You."

❤ ❤ ❤ You, precious child, were not an "accident". You were planned for and created by God. You are so incredibly loved and cared for--beyond all human comprehension. His eyes are constantly on YOU. ❤ ❤ ❤

We are...

LOGGED IN (LID)!!!!!

It's time to celebrate!!!!

THANK YOU, LORD!

Update on Andrew

I (mommy) marvel continually when it comes to Andrew. He is such a soft and cuddly little boy. He loves to hug and snuggle. He loves to tenderly rub cheeks with me. He loves to be held close while giving and receiving affection. He loses himself in my affection.
I melt.
He seems to melt, too.
There are days he is in no hurry to move on. I feel like I could drown in his love. I am overwhelmed by the tenderness of this little one.

In some ways he is a “little one”. He is only about a year old in “family life”, so he often acts like a dependent little baby soaking up the love and affection of his family.

At the same time, he is almost three years old. Thus, we can see a little independent boy desiring to emerge. We give him the independence he seeks—within the right limits. He is blossoming.

Two other reasons he seems so young is that he is so small—still wearing some of his 18-month size clothing. Also, he has mostly been a silent child. Silent, I tell ya!
Not even a “Vroom, vroom” when playing cars.
Silent.

He was evaluated by a specialty group, and cognitively, he is a firecracker. Verbally, though, he is speaking at the equivalent level to that of a nineteen-month-old. Thus, he has begun speech therapy.

His therapist is quite strong. The setting is play therapy, so unless he repeats a sound or word, he does not get to play. Even if he can’t say a word, he has to make a sound or grunt the same number of syllables as the therapist does. For example, each session begins with “Hello!” The therapist expects two sounds (to match her two syllables), not one. Not a wave—which went on constantly until he understood her expectations. The boy has just simply been content to be silent.

However, now we occasionally hear him playing with his cars and hear, “Go! Go! Go!” We love hearing him!

Here are a few of the words we get to hear:
“Chair-Chair” (Cherish)
“Andrew” (I LOVE hearing him say his name!!!!!! He works so hard at pronouncing his name!)
“Oree” (orange—the fruit)
“Mick Mou” (Mickey Mouse)
“Choo-choo” (train)
“Up, up, up”
“Down, down, down”
“O-kay”

Did I mention we love hearing his voice!

And, he prays on his own!!!!!! “Dear God, food, -men.” LOVE IT!!!!

We. are. SO. in. love!!

Happy Chinese New Year!

We are blessed to have a wonderful local chapter of Families with Children from China. The board outdid themselves in planning our Chinese New Year celebration! We celebrated for 4 hours straight--with a lot of action and activity. 

Unfortunately, my pictures were mostly blurry due to all the activity and the camera not knowing exactly where to focus. Oh well. It was fun!

The children learning some moves:

(Andrew is the little guy out front)

Show time!

 Where the children in our local FCC group are from:

And, since I was helping with Cherish's dance group, I didn't get a picture of her or her group. However, here is one of their dress rehearsal:

Xin Nian Kuai Le!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!

EEG Update

We received the update on Andrew from his EEG: "There was no seizure activity."

And, there you have it.
Simple.
Precise.
Wonderful.

We are thankful.

So, now we await his MRI. We are still wondering what is causing his multiple-times-a-day tremors.

We are glad to have one test behind us....

Andrew Update

Andrew has been having tremors multiple times daily. Some tremors are gentle--involving just his head, and others are forceful and abrupt--involving his head, shoulders, and arms. These tremors began July 2012 and have been progressively getting worse.

It has taken a long time to finally begin the diagnosis process. Andrew was to have this 8-hour EEG done, but illness had caused it to be rescheduled  He was also to have an MRI done of his brain, but that too had to be rescheduled due to illness. (He must be healthy for two weeks in order to be sedated for the MRI.) Thus, his new date for the MRI is March 18th.

Since he doesn't seem to be staying well for very long, beginning in March, we may have to quarantine him--no visiting stores, the library...until his appointment is over. (When the MRI is rescheduled, it takes 2-4 months to get a new appointment, and this needs to be done, as they will be looking for a tumor.)

But for now, we have one test completed. On Friday morning, Derek woke Andrew up at 1:30 a.m. and played with him until 6 a.m. when I woke up. Andrew then spent the rest of the day with me.

Since only one parent could be in the room, Derek went to bed at 6 a.m., and Andrew and I had a "date day" at the hospital.

Several people were praying for Andrew, and he was able to stay on the bed for 8 hours (a real concern of the nurses). He and I watched movies, cuddled, read books, played with trains and cars, played peek-a-boo with toys, etc.

I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that we were being prayed for, because Andrew didn't complain about the situation. His "hat" was itchy, but he endured it. It helped that he had worn his winter hat to the hospital, so I wore his hat the whole day. (His hat looks like his new "hat" with sides that go down the side of his face and attach underneath his neck.) So, momma wore Andrew's hat and Andrew got to wear a "new hat". =)

I watched him throughout the day. I kept marveling over the fact that he is our son. What a gift!

My love for him just kept growing and growing. We snuggled. We kissed. We hugged. We played. And then, we snuggled and kissed some more. It was so precious! May the memory of that special time remain for a long time!

Here's Andrew with his "hat" and the "sock" behind his head to keep all the electrodes and wires from coming loose:

Trying to keep busy: 

We are so blessed to call this little guy our son! We are so thankful we are able to walk through this time with him.

Thank you IMMENSELY for all who prayed for us! Andrew was so peaceful. I know people were praying.

Now, we await the results....