Catching Up!

I have intended to update before now, but life sure gets in the way of blogging!  A lot has happened since my last post.  Will broke his arm playing in the play room.  He actually dislocated his radial head at the elbow.  As soon as I heard the cry, I just knew what had happened.  We arrived at the Urgent Care office at 3pm where they confirmed it was broken but they would not set it.  Then it was on to Southern Orthopedics where they already had five emergency surgeries.  Then it was on to the ER at Childrens where they had to sedate him to put it back in place.  We finally left at 11:30 pm.  A big thank you to Chip and Christy Colee.  Christy drove me to Childrens while Chip drove to visit good friends in Bham and then picked her up.  Andy was flying home from NY and arrived at Childrens around 10:30.  What a crazy day.  Did I mention Will screamed the first two hours?  Not that I blamed him, I know he was in pain.  It was very frustrating when I was constantly asked to complete paperwork at three different places while he was clearly in agony!  However, at the posting of this blog, he has had the cast off for one week and we are so thankful.  He is learning to use his arm again.

Also, since my last update, Will's new eardrum ruptured due to a full blown ear infection.  Thankfully, it repaired itself but Will's eustachian tubes are not working.  We had scheduled a fitting for a hearing aid but had to cancel due to the infection.  Even after both tympanoplasties, Will's hearing has not improved which points to nerve damage.  He also had circumcision surgery the week of spring break.  Yes, he has been through it and we are praying that this will be his last surgery for a long time!!!

Below is a picture of Will dressed up for the wedding of Q and U that is held in Kindergarten at his school every year.  It is like a real wedding with a singer, preacher and cake and punch afterwards.  The kids even blow bubbles as the happy couple drive off for their honeymoon.  It is really cute.  However, explaining to Will what a wedding was proved to be quite challenging.  He has no experience from which to draw.  He was clueless on what a wedding was and what it meant to be married.  He just knew Andy and I are his mother and daddy but didn't understand the concept of being married.  There have been so many incidents like this.  He wants to know everything but explaining concepts to him can be difficult because he was not exposed to anything outside of his small world in the orphanage for the first seven years of his life.

Lena is doing great at school and is learning rapidly.  Since English is basically her first language (basically non-verbal when she came home), she has no accent.  She loves to play with baby dolls and all of their accessories.  One of her favorite things to do is to pack items in a bag, carry them around, unpack them, play with them, and pack them up again.  I am constantly finding things in bags, purses, etc.  Taking gymnastics has seemed to help her balance.  She is not falling as much and seems more sure footed.  Lena looooves to eat and is talking about snack 10 minutes after breakfast.  She is pretty relentless about asking for food.  However, if she discovers we are having a vegetable for dinner , she immediately starts crying even if it is hours before we will eat.  Then you can just picture the battle we have at dinner!!!

Lena at Chuck E. Cheese

Hope continues to take art class every week and loves it.  She loves school, her teacher and friends.  She also gets excited about going to SS where she sees Mrs. Shan and Mr Rush and Mrs. Twinkle (her SS teachers).  She is also good in helping Will to understand some things, because he is always asking questions!  I love it when she is the one answering instead of me!  Her favorite thing to do is still acting like some kind of animal.  Sometimes, she can get Will or Lena to play animals with her.  We are really having to push her to work on math facts.  She doesn't like to do them because she doesn't know them but doesn't understand that it takes practice, practice.  Hope is also going to tennis clinic at Wynlakes where Beth is helping to teach the younger kids.  Hope has stayed so healthy this year and hasn't missed a day of school!  I am so thankful for this considering how much we have been through with Will.  Hope was sick so much during the first year she was home.  I know I am probably exaggerating but she seemed to be sick more often than well.  We are so thankful that God has given her good health and she has out grown asthma!

Hope at Let's Pretend Hospital

Hope reading to Will and Lena