Fishes

On our first day of vacation, we visited friends of Lao Lao and Lao Ye who have a fish pond in their back yard. Micah had a glorious time feeding Cheerios to the fish.
Judy showed us how the fish would eat right out of your hand!
Mama was brave enough to feed the fish. After the fish ate his Cheerio, he would nibble her fingers.
Micah loved to cool his feet in the pond. Lao Ye helped make sure he didn't fall in.
We had just a wonderful time exploring Judy's gardens as well.

Old Friends Who've Just Met

We had the most wonderful pleasure of meeting a long-time online friend, Julie, along with her husband and son, Nathan (also adopted from China). They were passing through on their way to North Carolina, so they stopped for dinner and some hang time with us.

We all piled onto the golf cart and went to our favorite family-friendly hamburger joint.
After dinner we took the boys to a playground to burn off a little energy. Nathan had been in the car all day and was a little wired. Of course Micah spent the day asking (and signing) for "more Nathan!"
It was so neat to see the boys play together. They, too, appeared to be old friends. Although Nathan has been home for a year and a half, he and Micah are only one month different in age.
Here's our version of the Red Couch photo!
None of us wanted the evening to come to a close, so we hang out in the hotel lobby taking pictures of the boys playing.

I don't think it's the last we'll see of Nathan and his family!

There's not a word yet for old friends who've just met
Part heaven, part space, or have I found my place?
You can just visit, but I plan to stay.
I'm going to go back there someday."

...Gonzo, The Muppet Movie

Obturator Removal

Elmo had another rough day in surgery (his third!) He's getting to be an old pro at this. Mama and Baba got a call roughly 15 minutes into the procedure with a report that......

Micah's palate is intact and healing well!!!!!!

Tears were shed as Mama leapt into Baba's arms. Micah remained in the OR until his teeth were cleaned of all the gunk that had built up over the past five weeks.

We had a visit from the dental surgeon who was nearly as happy as we were to see that palate closed. He said "It's the weekend and I'm going to celebrate. I'm leaving before anything can go wrong!" He kept the obturator so they can document what was used and worked so very well. Micah still has some stitches dissolving and part of the palate is quite thin. This should get better and better over time. But because of this we are continuing the soft diet for a while longer, yet.

When Micah returned to his room, he was quite distraught to learn that once again he was wearing no-no's. The staff was adamant that the no-no's stay on and that he not cry. OK, not going to happen! Mama was unable to convince them that this wasn't pain, but a temper tantrum over the no-no's, so he got another dose of pain meds. After we were left alone in the room, I took the no-no's off anyways, after getting Micah to agree to "no hands in mouth." Once those and the IV were removed, he was able to calm himself down. He didn't want to stay in the hospital room, so he spent his post-op time in the hallway eating popsicles and playing with Mama and Baba.
Please pray that Micah's palate will continue to heal without developing any holes.

Survivor!

It's been one year since Libby was diagnosed with the "big C." She completed nearly a year's worth of doggie chemotherapy and is now considered a cancer survivor. We're so glad she's around as she if Micah's favorite playmate.

It's finally time!

Tomorrow we finally go get Micah's obturator removed. We haven't been able to get things coordinated with the ENT, so the procedure will be just the obturator removal. It's kinda a relief since this should be simple and straightforward.

Next week, vacation!

Summer Hair

Here's our little man's new 'do! He still cried through the entire cut. But as soon as it was done, he was back to his normal self. His favorite word for today is haircut!

Lotsa Doctors!

Micah is trying to keep a low profile to hide out from all the doctors we saw last Friday.

We started our day at 7:15 seeing the dentist. He attempted to remove Micah's obturator, but found that it was too firmly attached to his palate. We are now working to schedule OR time so it can be taken out under general anesthesia.

Then we moved on to the ENT where we learned that his ear tubes are still blocked. They attempted another hearing test. He was uncooperative and the test failed. They did do an old fashioned hearing test in the booth and found that he was hearing at 30 dB. I guess the magic number is 25 dB. They couldn't say that he didn't hear, just that he didn't respond. It could have been because he was terrified of the pink elephant that banged on a drum and cymbals! Yes, that was one of the stimuli. I was a little frightened myself.

They would like to do a hearing test under general anesthesia up at Scottish Rite. I said, "funny, because he's scheduled to go under general anesthesia next week." We are still waiting to see if we can get everything aligned for later this week.

We decided to treat ourselves by having ice cream for lunch! Mama was a little frazzled too.

Sweet Memories

Today was the farewell luncheon for our pastor's wife. Pastor John is retiring after 35 years at our church. In fact, he started our church as a mission plant. Of course when the pastor retires, so does the wife, or does she? She has her own career as a nurse which she will continue. And I'm sure she will always spread love and joy everywhere she goes. But it won't be at our church. At least not for a while.

Ginnie (I know you read my blog), you are a dear precious friend. You held my hand through my hubby's deployment. When you learned that we were adopting from China, you joined us on that journey. My joy became your joy, my fear your fear, and my frustrations, your frustrations. The countless hours you listened to me pine away for the child I had yet to meet. The joy in your voice when you learned that we received our referral. When we reached the top of the elevator at ATL upon arriving home from China with Micah, yours was one of the first faces we saw.

This is one of my favorite pictures. It depicts two incredible ladies who have shaped my life: Ginnie and my mom.

Speech

We've started weekly speech therapy with our Babies Can't Wait therapist. She's very popular in our house. Both of my children love her (the furry one as well as the not-so-furry one). She brings cool toys and flashcards with cool pictures on them. We are focusing on hard B sounds at this point, with a few P's thrown in for good measure.

We work daily on the flashcards and occasionally he pops some nice B's. H's have also spontaneously sprouted in his vocabulary. And the other night he said "pizza!" Much of his speech, however, remains unintelligible as it was before. Mama is nice and clear, but Baba comes out "Momo." Micah is still pronounced "Nuh."

On the other hand, his language is growing like gangbusters. His new favorite words are "huge" (when referring to just about anything bigger than a grain of rice), and "too" (Libby golf cart ride, too?).

The obturator is still stitched in his mouth. I'm not sure when it will be taken out, but it will most likely be in the next couple of weeks. He remains on his soft food diet. He's getting tired of it and Mama's tired of cooking that way, too.

I leave you with the many faces of Micah.

Little Red Wagon

NaiNai got Micah a little red wagon. To say that he likes this wagon is an understatement. We have had so much fun riding in and pulling that wagon.

Guide Me

“In Your Word, I see my life.
In my heart I can tell,
You’re my hope, my joy, my all;
and You will guide me well.”

Graceflock is in a local Battle of the Praise Bands! The video that has been entered is one of my favorite original songs written by one of our leaders, Gary Pederson. If you like what you hear, please consider leaving a comment. The winning band will receive a new sound system for their church, but our goal is mostly to make the top 20 and get our music out to a wider audience. We are currently in the studio recording Guide Me and other songs for our second CD to come out this Fall.

Please leave us a comment: http://www.ugclocal.com/wvfj/24285114.html

Ain't Misbehavin'

This is how I help Baba clean up from dinner. Note how gracefully my shoe-shoe flies through the air.

I love his expressions in these pictures. You can see them clearly if you click on the photos to enlarge them.

Independence Day

Wow - what a day! Our buddy Sheridan came down for the day with his mama and baba. 4th of July is a big deal in our community. Everyone decorates their golf carts and goes to the parade. We got there early to stake out a good spot. We enjoyed muffins and gogurts and the nice kids next to us gave the boys a balloon to play with.
Of course all good things must end and their balloon burst. Sheridan tried to fix it.
Here's the parade after parade: all the golf carts headed home along the path.
After lunch and naps, we went to the Fire Department expo and looked at the big trucks.
The boys are ready for flight!
We decided that the boys had had enough and called it a day before the fireworks. Maybe next year.

Happy 4th!

Good Report

We went to the dentist today and got a good report. The obturator is still in place and holding. From what he can see, the palate is still together and healing. He told us to keep doing whatever we've been doing as it seems to be working. We'll do our best!

Edited to add: This is the day we started to ween off the Motrin. He just didn't seem to need it. I just thought I should document that for those who are following our journey.