Hearing Aids - Answered Prayer

After an initial back and forth on hearing aids for Anna, it was determined that she would in fact benefit from hearing aids. This did not bother me until I realized that medical insurance does NOT cover hearing aids and they are quite expensive. Anna therefore went without hearing aids for some time. She only has a mild/moderate hearing loss so as long as you are not whispering or are not at some distance from her, she can hear. The aids however would hopefully allow her speech to develop better as they would enable her to pick up sounds more clearly. The added expense, especially combined with everything else, was a challenge and we prayed that God would provide hearing aids for her.
Our pastor wears hearing aids and he mentioned Anna's situation to the woman from whom he receives his aids. She went to her supplier and explained Anna's situation and the supplier agreed to provide Anna with hearing aids FREE OF CHARGE! What an answer to prayer! So now Anna has her hearing aids. Thank you Lord for your provision.

The Wonder of Imagination

I have been reading Anthony Esolen's book Ten Ways to Destroy the Imagination of Your Child. I am only on Method 4, but I am enjoying the book. One reason is that by God's grace I have basically raised my children according to what Esolen says aids the imagination. I like books that justify my choices! For example, when I send the children outside because they are getting on my nerves to play, Esolen says that I am aiding the development of their imaginations. I have always sent my children out often because they get on my nerves often because intuitively I knew that it was good for them to be outside. I even locked the oldest 3 out of the house one time because they did not want to go outside and so kept filtering back in. They stood with their faces plastered against the sliding glass door begging to come back in. I sat on the other side and ignored them. They resigned themselves to the fact that they were stuck outside and then went off to play. When it was dinner time they did not want to come in. They had built this whole little community underneath the trees lining our fence.

Another item of importance for Esolen is developing the memory for as he says "without the library of the memory...the imagination simply does not have much to think about, or to play with". This was a big Aha moment for me when I came to understand this. I was not just having my children memorize random things to fill up their minds, but things with which their minds could make connections. Again, by God's grace, we have always done a lot of memory work to develop these foundations. Ditto on Esolen's other building blocks of the imagination - don't supervise the child all the time, teach them to use machines/tools, and read fairy tales.

I thought at one time, like many people, that all children had imaginations. Maybe it is a part of each person's nature, after all God is certainly imaginative and we are made in His image; but imagination does not flourish naturally. How do I know this? Enter Anna. Anna came to us with an imagination that if it had ever been there had been destroyed. Typical of children who grow up in an orphanage (although certainly not all children) is a lack of imaginative play. When Anna arrived she did very well with structured activities - puzzles, card or board games, coloring (but only in a coloring book), etc., but had not a clue what to do if the other kids were engaged in some sort of imaginative play - dolls, blocks, stuffed animals, outside play etc. This was quite amazing to me that a child would not naturally be able to play imaginatively. Why is it important anyway? Well for one, imagination plays a big part in developing cognitive skills. But more important being able to think creatively and adapt to different situations can greatly impact a child's success in life. So how is Anna doing now? We are making progress. She sat down last night on her own and built a house and an airplane with Lincoln Logs. Not a big deal for most people, but for her a big step. Are most children going to be like Anna? Of course not. But do not take a child's imagination for granted. Go, find a child, and fan the flames of their imagination! (Or at least get them off the computer and send them outside.) Oh, and read the book - I think you will find it worthwhile.

Anna Learns to Ride a Bike!

Eric took some time off work after the holidays as he ended up working quite a bit over them. One of his goals during this time was to get Anna to ride her bike without training wheels. Fortunately this was the week before the huge snow storm hit. Anna's physical therapist really wanted her to ride without training wheels, but I was highly doubtful that she could do it - she is still so weak physically and her balance is not good (this is what the bike riding will hopefully help to correct). Eric worked with her each day with the training wheels (took her to a big empty parking lot near our house) and then the last day he had at home he was able to take the training wheels off and she could ride around the parking lot. She cannot start or stop her bike. This however turns out to be a good thing. Once Eric gets her going she has to ride until he stops her -which is much longer than she would choose for herself! Maybe one of these days we will see some muscle on her legs.

World Magazine Story

Back in the fall, World Magazine did a story on the Rosenows and their ministry, The Shepherd's Crook. This is the adoption ministry where we found out about Anna. World wanted to do some follow-up stories about some of the families that had adopted through the Shepherd's Crook and so we were asked to submit our story. This we did and got a nice thank-you, but no indication that they would be using it. I figured they were using another family's story as we never heard back. But then on Monday we get an email that they were going to use ours! And then a phone call saying, "Can we send a photographer to your house today or tomorrow?" This "today" happened to be the day that I was taking down Christmas decorations - so there were boxes all over the house and decorations in various stages of being put up. It was also the day I was trying to get all my school stuff ready to start back on Tuesday so there was also school stuff everywhere. And of course laundry - which is always everywhere. We went into frenzied cleaning mode and by Tuesday had the house at least somewhat presentable. The photographer came out and took somewhere between 500-600 pictures! He took pictures in the girls' bedroom, in the schoolroom, in the family room, outside and in the kitchen (notice there were not many areas in the house that we could skip cleaning!) We had to put food on the table and pretend we were eating dinner at 3:00 in the afternoon. It was an interesting experience. I don't know what issue the story will be in and I don't know if we will just be a little blip of a paragraph, but the kids all think it is pretty cool that we will be in print. I will reserve my judgment on the coolness of it all until I see what they actually put in!

So Thankful for....

...friends who can do hair!

Show and Tell

Eric teaches Radiological Anatomy at Georgia Tech in the fall and he thought it would be neat to make a 3D image for his class of Anna's spine (pre-surgery). So he made the little movie above where you can watch her spine rotate around. He also made some images such as the one below

Before and After....

I want to publish a before and after picture to show you just how dramatic a change the surgery brought.


Isn't that amazing! Thank you Lord!

Anna is Home

I'm sorry for the lack of updates - it was a very hard juggling act with Anna in the hospital and life continuing at home with everyone else. But Anna came home last night. She is still in quite a bit of pain and doesn't move around well at all. Her muscles have greatly weakened; for example, she cannot hold her head up well at all due to the effects of the traction on her neck muscles. The two things she needs to do - eat and walk - she doesn't want to do, so most everything gets turned into some sort of fight. Some of the nurses, although they provided great care, were very easily manipulated by her into giving her what she wanted, so we are also dealing with quite a bit of attitude. Challenges abound....sigh.

We appreciate continued prayer for her recovery and now that we are all home hopefully I will be able to update more often.

Surgery Moved Up!

Anna was scheduled to spend 4 weeks in traction (originally 6 weeks but reduced) and then undergo surgery. From the x-rays they recently took she has made tremendous progress and her doctor is now planning to do her spinal fusion this Wednesday after only 2 1/2 weeks in traction (2 1/2 rather long weeks I might add). We are praising God for this unexpected turn of events and ask your prayers for a successful surgery Wednesday.

Traction Day 5

After the first couple of days they were able to put Anna in a chair during the day as opposed to laying in bed all day. This greatly helped her attitude as she is able to wheel herself out and about the area outside her room and we are able to wheel her all over the hospital and out into the garden. The amazing thing is that you can already tell a difference in her spine. Her doctor is more than pleased and says she is definitely ahead of schedule.

Traction Day 2

Katie spent the afternoon with Anna today. When she first arrived Anna wanted nothing to do with her (which is how she was with Eric and me yesterday), but by the end of the time Katie had Anna smiling and laughing - at least a little.

Things on the home front were a little rough today. Amy was scheduled to have her wisdom teeth removed. We had a nice early appointment. In my mind I thought we could go, be home by the time the kids were finishing breakfast, and I could make it to the hospital in the afternoon. But we were rear-ended on the highway in route to her appointment (I was driving Amy's car). We sat by the side of the highway for close to an hour waiting (the police officer was directed to an accident that occurred later than ours by mistake) and then we had all the paperwork to deal with. We are both fine physically for which we are thankful and her car is not damaged (the other one was). The oral surgeon worked us in later and so we went ahead with the surgery as Amy returns to school next week and this needed to be done before that. So our nice early appointment turned into an almost all day affair. Then later in the afternoon, I took Molly to ballet - in the van this time - and once home the van began spewing radiator fluid all over the driveway. So off that went to the shop. If I wasn't reading The Rare Jewel of Christian Contentment I could have quite the pity party today, but the book is way too convicting for that. So on to tomorrow and what the Lord has in store for that day.

PS. Amy is doing well after the surgery - we had somewhat of a rough time this afternoon, but she is doing well now. Praying for a speedy recovery.....

Traction Day 1

One mad, sad, hurt, scared little girl.....

Beach Life

Anna has adapted well to the beach. She wants to do everything including kayaking in the ocean. I was a little worried about sending her out as it can be fairly easy to tip in the waves going in or out. I didn't think she would handle capsizing well. However Amy the expert kayaker managed to get her in and out without incidence. We won't talk about how Amy the expert kayaker and her sister managed to sink one of the kayaks going out (we did recover the boat). Unfortunately Matthew was in that kayak and was rather traumatized, but he seems to have recovered.

Good News

We had some good news today on the medical front with Anna. We knew when we adopted her that she had a history of untreated ear infections and so had some hearing loss. We of course didn't realize quite how bad her ears were until she got here. There are perforations on both of her ear drums which the doctor could not even get a good look at for all the gunk in her ears. She had years and years of gunk in her ears and who knows what was growing in there. So she has had some pretty aggressive (translate expensive) treatments for her ears. The plan was for her to be fitted with hearing aids while she was in the hospital doing her traction thing. Today we went in for a re-check and the doctor was amazed - all of the gunk was cleared out of her ears!! So they re-tested her hearing and she is actually in the normal range now (okay so its the bottom, the way bottom, of the normal range but...). This means that she will not have to get hearing aids. Praise the Lord!!!! She still has the holes and we are praying (we would love for you to pray along with us) that they will close on their own. If they do not, she will have to have surgery. One of her perforations is so odd the doctor commented she had never seen anything like it. I am getting used to that phrase when it comes to Anna. But we are thanking the Lord for his mercy today in clearing out her ears and the fact that she will not have to have hearing aids.

Happenings and Transition

We had a busy week last week. Scott, Amy and Katie were home from camp on a mid-summer break, so the house was bustling again with activity. I enjoyed having them all home - they have been greatly missed.

We started off the week celebrating the 4th of July. We were pleased to have two fireworks showings - one from a neighbor who spent a fortune on some really nice fireworks and had the 3 families in the cul-de-sac out to enjoy. Then the following evening we went to my parents and watched fireworks from their neighborhood club. Anna and Grace did NOT like the fireworks at all. Grace was clutched around my neck so tightly I could barely breath, but since her head was buried into my neck my face at least pointed upward so I could view the show.

Monday evening we had Scott's girlfriend Becca's parents over for dinner. They just returned from 25 years on the mission field in Africa - first in Kenya and then in South Africa. We had a lovely time with them and enjoyed learning about some of their work in Africa.

Scott was able to finally have an MRI this week. He has been having back trouble for some time now (from football). The MRI showed 2 herniated discs and an older stress fracture. There isn't much to be done, but at least he now knows what is wrong. Incidentally Becca has a stress fracture on her hip and is on crutches. They make quite the crippled couple at the moment.

Katie got her driver's license this week. Hmmm.......................................

I finally entered the world of Facebook. Katie set up an account for me. I am so behind the curve, but hopefully I'll figure it out.

Anna has been home two months now. I think overall things are going well. She seems to have all the routines down and is generally happy and good natured. The Lord has been growing us all through the process. I find that I that I can be harder on her than on the other children. I am used to their sinfulness and so somehow hers stands out more. My expectations are maybe too high in some areas and our transition would be smoother if I can just learn to lower those. Last week she began sighing and rolling her eyes when I asked her to do something. "How dare this child react like this" strummed through my head. But I didn't have to look far to see where she is learning these things from. She studies everything to try and fit it and well....she was fitting in. So opportunities for training are abounding - not just for her, but for all of us. God is gracious though and we are all learning.

The Body of Christ

I met this woman - once - in a church. She learned of our adoption and said she would love to come over and do Anna's hair. Being woefully inadequate on hair issues (I can't even do my bio girls' hair, much less this huge mass of textured hair that Anna has), this was a huge blessing to me. She spent 4 hours at my house today - 3 of those braiding. Did you catch that - 3 hours of braiding hair????? On one person!!! And to top it off, she said she would be back when it was time to re-braid. What a blessing it is to be a part of the body of Christ.

...so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another. Having gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, let us use them.....
Romans 12: 5-6

Re-cap in Pictures - Addis Street Scenes

Here are just some random pictures from around Addis.

Eucalyptus Scaffolding seen all around town

View from back of guest house

Donkeys carrying eucalyptus branches down mountain

Weaver at Leprosy Hospital

This boy was outside the Leprosy Hospital and was very intrigued by our group.
Eric asked the women he was with if he could take a picture.

Historic Church in Addis - note the light bulbs!

Medical clinic, clothing store and goats!

A New Nephew

Eric has an identical twin brother who unfortunately lives in Oregon 3000 miles away. When we told them that we were pursuing the adoption of Anna they had some news of their own. They had also just begun the process of adoption from, of all places, Ethiopia (neither one of us had previously mentioned this to the other). I would say it is a weird twin thing, but it is much bigger than that.

So they had their court date today and now are the proud parents of this little boy - Kenenisa David Elder. We have a new nephew, the kids have a new cousin, Anna has an Ethiopian cousin, and Kenenisa has a forever family. God is good.

Re-cap in Pictures - Gotha Day

They look a little ragged, but they were working off two red-eyes in a row!

Update

Anna has been home almost two weeks now. I would have liked to update sooner, but it has been a zoo around here - really! Scott has been home, which always adds another ring to the circus here, Eric's parents came out from Oregon for a visit (planned long before the timing of the adoption), we had several doctor appointments for Anna, dentist appointments for all the kids, Eric was sick for several days, and the older kids were getting ready to leave for camp this summer. Scott, Amy, and Katie are all working at Camp Westminster for the summer. I was quite sad to see them go - they left on Wednesday and will be gone until the end of July (although the girls will be home for some of the weekends).

Overall I think things are going well. Welcoming an older child into the home was much harder than I anticipated. I knew it would be hard, but there were several days where I questioned what we had done. It didn't have to do with Anna being some very difficult child - it really is more my own sin nature and wanting to have my comfortable life back. This process has highlighted some very ugly areas in my own heart. Certainly Anna does bring difficulties, but my issues are much bigger.

Anna seems to be a very happy child. Her excitement when she makes some sort of connection is infectious. We have several of the Signing Time videos and she loves to watch them. She has made much more progress with the sign language than the actual spoken language, but at least we are learning to communicate in some sort of fashion. She enjoys puzzles and card games, is fascinated by the phone, and loves to watch food being prepared. She has some definite opinions and can be quite stubborn in certain areas (ie. food) so that has been challenging at times.

Medically we are in the midst of gathering information. The orthopedic we saw said that he can fix her, and he also commented that we saved her life bringing her over when we did. Her curve is so bad she is shrinking. We are waiting to get an MRI and a CAT scan and then he will make the decision on surgery. He said that something needs to be done sooner rather than later and commented that we were going to become great friends. Inside I was thinking I don't need any more friends, especially in the medical field, but I am so very thankful for the medical care that we do have here and fact that there is hope for Anna. Of course ultimately that comes from the Lord and we continue to look to him as we tread this new path.