Overdue Update

Logan is doing great.  We are muddling through many many doctors appointments. We had a great experience at Shriners in Lexington in December.  Saw a couple of different doctors, OT, PT and met with the prosthetist.  Legs are in the works.  We were going to start while we were there but I had made the comment that I thought the little stretching I was doing on his legs was helping.  His legs are always spread apart.  His right leg will not come to the midline and his left leg does not raise in front of him.  Hearing that I thought stretching was working they have decided to wait a month.  They are skeptical it will work but feel strongly that if we can get his right leg to line up underneath him and his left leg to move forward in front he will walk more normally.  So we have been stretching the boy like crazy.  All the kids know how to stretch him so if anyone has free time with them they stretch him.

I was amazed last night with the progress we are making.  I can't wait to show them what we will have accomplished. 

Ok so I am a horrible blogger - the above was written in December.  We did great at stretching.  The Shriner's staff were amazed when we went back three weeks ago.  They casted him for prosthetics.  We should have a trial pair of legs ready in a couple more weeks.

Logan's teacher was thrilled that she understood what he had told her.  He tells everyone he is getting two big legs and one arm.  He then looks at his left arm and says this arm is good.  Although the arm is a ways off we will only do a right arm as he does a bunch of things with his fleshy thumb. He has mastered the iphone and ipad with it. 

Speech wise he has significant delays.  The reality is that years in a crib and in a large group of special needs kids with just a couple of adults did not provide him with much in the way of vocabulary.  The speech therapist is a bit stumped as to how to diagnose him.  We did one round of testing and really did not accomplish much.  So she called back and asked to do more this time with more interpretors. So back we went  - had the ST asking questions, a Ukrainian translator on speaker phone and a Russian translator in the room.  They would show him a picture of something and ask him what it was - an answer in any laguage would have been correct.  He flat out doesn't know words.  He would physically show us what to do with the object (ex. a knife he would pretend to cut, or binoculars he would touch his eyes) but he did not the names of the object.  It was a frustrating hour and a half for all of them.  Not so much for me -  that is how we communicate - a daily game of charades.  He also very seldom will use more than two words together.  If we ask him to say "blue coat"  he will either say blue or coat but not both.  There are exceptions:  batteries nee harasho (batteries no good) and helicopter charge are phrases he uses daily.  This weekend he said two full sentences:  Don't pull Mama's hair.  Don't pull Lyosha's hair.   (Yes he has a hair fetish especially when tired or upset - every night he wants to nestle in my hair before bed - you can figure out what I am telling him daily.  The consequence of meanly pulling Mama's hair is a tug back on his hair)

He is a very happy, content child.  He will do anything we are going to do.  He will eat anything we eat.  He does need a lot of confirmation that we are going home after whatever it is we do. So he will ask if we are going home afterward.  The conversation is usually:  We are going to basketball now  L: damoines puja?  M: After basketball we will eat - Patome basketball kushet patome kushet damoines. He then repeats it over and over and tells anyone we encounter.

Going to stop and post this before I get interrupted again.  I will try for more stories and pictures or videos next.

Those left behind

Ruslan aka Randall

What a great older DS boy!!
It took us a few days to really get to know R. He was not seeking out all the attention that some of the others were. He was content to swing and sing to himself while waiting patiently for someone to kick a soccerball with him. Oh how he loves to kick a soccer ball.
...

He is such a kind gentle boy. He would patiently wait to ask to look through our photobooks. Unlike some of the others he was happy to just look - he didn't need extra attention while looking through it. He was the most careful with the books always being sure to return them safely.

He has some speech issues. He talks and sings but is hard to understand. I think just before we left he was taken for surgery on his palate which may be why he has speech issues.

In addition to swinging and kicking the soccerball he loves crafts (stringing tiny beads and coloring) He loved the electronic toys we brought - remote control helicopter and translator. But unlike many of the others he always waited his turn, was careful with the items and always gave it to the next boy when his time was up!

Unfortunately R is older - his time is running out!! It's a pretty easy region - the 10 day wait has been waived in the past - and the boys are taken care of. Please feel free to ask questions and I have more pictures if anyone wants to see them!!

 

http://reecesrainbow.org/39642/randall

Advocacy - Max

One of the hardest parts of international adoption is leaving the other kids behind.  When we adopted Laura it was a little easier because we knew most of the kids were just social orphans - they had family that would come and visit and had the hope of reunification.

That is not the case for the boys of Logan's institution.  Although he and his friends were the 9 lucky ones their future is bleak.  We saw first had what their life will be like.  They are fortunate - they are higher functioning and will be given jobs on the institution grounds and have a minimal purpose in life.  It won't be anything like the life Logan will have with opportunities abounding.  They will wake up and do there job, they will be fed and then do there job, fed again and then put to bed.  They will never leave the institution. 

One of the boys I worry most about is Maxiim.  He appears to have cerebral palsy. He is stiff and a bit distorted.  He does not have the luxury of PT and OT to help him function better.  He sits hour after hour in a wheel chair. 

He will not be one that is given a job onthe grounds like the others.  As he gets older and bigger he will be moved to a bed and left there.  He will be put in a diaper and left in bed - fed there and left - the diaper changed once or twice a day.  He will no longer be taken outside he will just be left to lay there.

For the first two days I did not notice Max.  When I did see him he had been wheeled outside, the wheelchair parked and left alone for three hours. 

The rest of the boys interacted with us.  As I pushed Logan's wheelchair back to the house I waved at Max.  His eyes came to life - he was noticed.  Later when I returned he waved and smiled. 

After that I made it a point to include Max as much as possible.  I would push his wheelchair to where the group was. If we were playing with balloons I would make sure he had one.  He soon learned to pop the balloon.  He thought it was hysterical.  It also got him attention - everyone would look. 

Of all the kids there I think he has the most room for improvement.  With a family that will stretch him and help him I think he has a ton of potential!  He is speech delayed also but again has so much potential.  If you want to know more about Max contact me.  He is listed on Reece's Rainbow with the screen name of Evan.  Here is the link http://reecesrainbow.org/1407/evan5004

Weekend

The girls were in the Ohio Christian Schools state volleyball championship this weekend.  So we had to make a road trip 3.5 hours north.  One little boy was very nervous about this.  He closely watched our travel as we drove.  When we got to the hotel he was not happy to hear we were sleeping there - he wanted to go home.  Through dinner he repeated a milllion times - tomorrow we go home.  After dinner we took him to the pool swimming.  He is an absolute fish.  He loves to fall into the water - he does not anyone close to him.  He falls to the bottom of the pool  eventually rises to the top and waits for you to pull him out.  He can hold his breath for a super long time! 

 

After an hour of swimming he fell asleep quickly.  He awoke expecting to go home right away.  Less then happy with the plan of eat, volleyball, eat volleyball, eat go home.  A million times of reviewing the plan and we finally headed home.  He was one thrilled boy when we pulled into the driveway!!

 

And one last vidoe of another thing we have figured out how to do.... Open and close our bedroom door.

 

The Bus

Things continue to go well.  Logan is going to school full time.  He seems to enjoy it.  Yesterday was his first day to ride the bus.  We have a teen friend who gets him off the bus and gives him a snack and nap until I get home an hour later. The bus driver told her there was a little mishap... She forgot to strap the wheelchair in (because "she is new at this") and it toppled over. So we asked Logan about this. He was hysterical talking furiously in whatever language he speaks showing us what happened. Shaking his body back and forth spinning in a circle and falling over yelling "oopa". Fortunately he wasn't hurt. It had us in tears laughing as each time he showed a sibling he got more animated. By the time I got it on video you would have thought a tornado had come thru the bus. 

So here is the exaggerated story...

 

 For those that are more overprotective then me Robert is on the safety committee for the district and is calling the head guy to enlighten him. It is not being taken too lightly. But the reenactment did provide us with some good laughs.

We are home

We arrived home Thursday night.  Our family has a tradition of going to skyline chili for a meal on the way back home after being out of town.  We had some friends who knew our tradition show up and welcome us home!  Several classmates of Mason's made HUGE signs welcoming us back.  It was a very pleasant time and great food.

Logan did great on the travel home.  In all we travelled for 22 hours.  He only slept for about 30 minutes.  The great news is he was so well behaved for the majority of the trip.

Logan has done fantastic being at home.  He loves the washing machine.  He loves to sit and watch it.  He is not too excited about the dog (can't blame him) But at least the dog is trained to stay in the kitchen and laundry room so Logan has the rest of the house.  This is only a problem when Logan is watching the washing machine.  :)

Here is a video of what he has been up to (this is his favorite thing to do with Papa).....