Working on Fears

Tonite Youngest Brother had to take out the table cloth and shake it
over the porch railing. He always comes back in panting in "mock?"
fear.....saying "It's black"
He will do the same thing if he goes upstairs at night time.

I asked him what he is afraid of...what is out there?

He said "I don't know"

I asked if he wants to go to the mailbox and get the mail? We have a
long driveway...he said "NO!"

I told him I have walked out there in the dark....it's OK

He told me he would pay me $5 to walk out there....He even brought down
the money.

I told him to put away his money and come and walk with me...

He brought his flashlight, but didn't use it....I think knowing that
Little Sister was brave enough to come too gave him added incentive....

We made it out to the end and thankfully nothing rustled in the trees.

I don't mind that he is a bit worried about the dark...but where we live
we do have to face some darkness...we are not in the city...

Maybe I didn't handle it correctly....guess we will find out.

Another Day Off School

Well we had the 5th day off school and I knew we needed to have something to do...I saw a pack of gingerbread houses at Wa*mart and it had FIVE houses in one box

Just the thing I needed...I do have 6 kids, but didn't think the 19 y.o. really would want to help.

First I had to carefully cut apart the cookie pieces...only broke one

Each of the houses was different. That posed a bit of a problem since of course at least 2 people wanted the same house...so we drew numbers and I think everyone was happy. Assembling the 5 houses was my job...well except for the 15 y.o., he built his own house
Then the fun began....sticky stuff all around

 Oh and we dug out the stale candy canes from last year    shhh! I'm sure chewy candy canes never hurt anyone

My penguin loving boy managed to fashion a penguin out of candy

After we were finished it was very necessary to wash the floor.

Tonite Youngest Brother read a good part of "The Cat in the Hat Comes Back"  I think he understood most of the words!

Happy Thanksgiving

Well we survived our first major holiday....
met some relatives for the first time.....

Family is very laid back...no Aunt Agatha's to give big smooches or anything.

He Skyped with a friend who is living in Shanghai was good to hear him talking away in Chinese...but wait! I heard a lot of English phrases sprinkled in his conversation...the other day I mentioned "forgetting your Chinese" and he informed me  "me no forget!"

This evening the youngest three were outside using up the sidewalk chalk before it snows.... and I found the above pictures...
for those of you that can't read Chinese....it says " I love mama and daddy"

On Thanksgiving we got an e-mail from Youngest Brother's  Dr saying "we have reached a consensus and it would be best if you come in so we can discuss it"  
Not sure what their advice will be....but I have a gut feeling...
It is time to do something his prostheses are getting too small and he complains every time he puts them on. I'm looking forward to the appt but dreading it at the same time.
So Mon AM I will call and get the quickest appt for our and their schedule.

Explaining myself

Since we are home, Youngest Brother pretty much goes everywhere with me
especially during the day.
At first when we went to my regular stores the clerks would smile and
simply be friendly.
But some of the clerks knew us well enough to know we had been gone and
I guess they couldn't think of anything else to ask...
I honestly don't think anyone was being malicious, just thoughtless.

At first, I knew that he didn't understand the question, but now that he
has enough English, he does understand.
Poor kid dutifully says "good" and everyone grins and is happy.
While I want to scream..."why should he like it here?"
Don't get me wrong...I'm glad he seems to be settling in just fine but
really!!??

Sorry, just needed to vent

Why?

Why would you ask a newly adopted, newly arrived to the US, 10 year old
boy....

Do you like it here?

Welcome Joseph

Tonite my SIL stopped by with a cake from DQ.
You should have seen the look on Joseph's face when he saw the
translation for "welcome".
When he found out the cake was made of ice cream....he almost decided
not to eat the "pig" we had been cooking all day. (he was really looking
forward to the pork BBQ sandwiches)

After a huge slice of cake I needed to take a pic of the blue face. He
told us they don't make cake like that in Chi*a.

Today when I was chopping up the pork I was muttering "ouch" when the
piece I was holding got too hot.
He started searching in the closet for some gloves for me to wear to
protect my hands....when he failed to find some. He pulled out the
leftover flannel from his shirt and proceeded to design some for me....
If we ever finish them I will need to share. I didn't have the heart to
explain that flannel will not work to great.

Tomorrow evening I have a date with DH! We asked Big Brother and
girlfriend to come and babysit. (Bribery works wonders)
And we are going to .....drumroll!!!

S*m's Club! Ah well, you take what you can get.

Mountain Pies

“Life is like a strange, unpopular restaurant, filled with odd waiters who bring you things you never asked for and don't always like”- supposedly by Lemony Snicket I think that is what Youngest Brother thinks sometimes... Tonite we took advantage of the beautiful, but short day and cooked over the fire. Our mountain pies have- store-bought bread, ground beef, spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese. When the pie is finished it is like a toasted sandwich. The dessert ones consist of store bought bread, 4 marshmallow halves, chocolate chips and peanut butter. Youngest Brother never had them...but managed to consume 4....three with meat and one with the sweet stuff...plus pomegranates and ice cream. The evening ended with us playing M*nopoly Deal....new for us....I won... the game is a bit confusing yet, so it is not a game for the younger ones to play by themselves....a decision that did not bring joy to some of them.... Ah well, I'm a mean mom, what can I say? I think everything got smoothed out, but things were a bit wrinkly around here for a bit.

No Solutions and a Lot of Questions

The trip to Shriner's went well. On the 1-1/4 hour drive I was not sure what Youngest Brother was thinking, he was not talking or singing with the CD. I didn't know if I should again mention that we are only looking at his hand and feet today. But part of me was worried  that his  translation of looking  and the Dr's translation of looking would be two different things.
Of course he didn't think he was hungry when we left the house at 11 but when we arrived at the hospital at 12:10 he was suddenly very hungry! He was not all that impressed with my snacks...but we did survive.

Anyway we got x-rays. His feet and hands were poked and prodded...

Yes! his feet are ticklish!
Yes! all the bones are still in there!
Yes! his whole thumb is inside there!
Yes! he has his fingers in there too...up to the first joint!

Basically the doctors were very cautious about giving us too much hope for reconstruction of the feet, there are so many things to go wrong. BUT they took medical photos and are sending them out to other doctors and said they should have a good idea of the possibilities... next week
The one doctor told us that the first options that come to mind are amputation or reconstruction.

Problems--amputation is so final and we know that dealing with 2 prothetics for life will not be easy...do-able but not easy....plus, what if they come up with new therapy for nerves etc 5 yrs down the road?
Reconstruction--removing the scarring and putting the feet into walking position would leave a very large area to be covered by plastic surgery.  There is another treatment of slowly stretching everything...nerves, muscles and tendons, but there are a lot of unknowns with that...and we would hate to put him through months...years of treatment and still end up with prosthetics.

His hand looks like the easiest treatment...but for now I am praying that some wise advice will be forth coming and we can see this boy running and jumping someday

We also saw the prosthetic people and they re-enforced the part of his prosthetic that was breaking and had many ideas for improving his prosthetics if we take that route. He also stands very crooked when he stands upright and they can improve that too.

We tried to explain things as we went along, but were not sure how much he was really understanding. When we got home, the other kids were asking what we found out... I started explaining and Little Brother put his foot up on a chair and made a slicing motion along his leg and motioned that we could put his foot right back into place.....I PRAY you are right,  young man.

So if you think about it this week, pray that the right Dr will see the information and have advice for our doctors.

Prayers for Tomorrow

Thursday afternoon we get an opinion on the possibilities for Youngest
Brother's feet and hand.
We will be visiting Shriner's in the afternoon...hopefully they can help
us out with the prosthetic that is breaking too.
Tonite when I told Youngest Brother that the doctor will be looking at
his hand too. He said "no look" I said "yes, they will look at your hand
too."
He said " no...and made cutting motions over his hand"
I assured him that they are just looking tomorrow...but hmmm, wonder
what is going on in his mind...is he happy to just leave things the way
they are....what has he been told about surgery? Or is he making his own
assumptions?

I guess that is something else to start praying about.

Wow! What a Weekend!

Guess I should just say "what an evening"
Last night we went to hear a small choir from a certain country...the
children were all orphans and they had a Message to tell in a language
only one of our family could understand.
(maybe I'm being over-cautious, but I do not want to jeopardize their work)
He cried during the first song- Amazing Grace and I was sitting there
wondering if we made a mistake to come to the church. Was he homesick
for familiar faces or was it the message?
He sang along with the songs that were native and mostly entertaining,
but cried during the ones with a Message.
The little girls kept asking "Why are you crying mommy and why is he
crying ?"

If tears are healing, we are getting there.

Today we visited the 4th grade class at school (hopefully his class one
day). Anyway, the teacher had them write things for which they were
thankful, on pumpkins. Today, they were to write a person they were
thankful for.
I tried to explain to Youngest Brother what they were doing...he
listened while each student told the class what they had
written....sister....grandparents....friends
Then I knew he "got it" when he leaned over to me and said "Daddies
and mammas"

Thankful

I'm trying to be thankful.
I should be thankful that I noticed, today, that the food in the big chest freezer was not quite as frozen as usual.
I should be thankful that we found a chest freezer without searching all afternoon. When your food is thawing in the freezer you don't have a lot of time to comparison shop.
I am thankful that the agency awarded a grant after we were home (though I was hoping to put that toward the loan)
I am thankful that the problem the van is having "might" be covered under warranty. I really want to take a picture when that odometer hits 222,222.
I am thankful that two of my kids are playing Mon*poly and haven't been fighting...yet.
I am hoping those goofy test results come back on Mon morning and aren't anything to worry about. (surely blood in the stools can't be THAT bad)
I am thankful that tonite is "fall backward" and we get an extra hour of sleep... I need to get to bed before 11.

Thank You for the Shirt Mama.

I have been working on a few manners Youngest Son came with "Thank you"
and "Sorry".
I was very impressed, he uses them often, but the word "please"
apparently was not in the English classes.
Somehow it just...goes against the grain when someone sits down at the
breakfast table while I am whirling around making sure things happen in
time...and some one loudly demands "water!"
So last week I told him "Mama no hear 'WATER'. Mama hears 'water, please
mama'"
He got the point and actually caught himself and corrected his request
this morning.

Anyway, about the shirt, we saw some delightfully soft flannel at a nice
price the other day. I asked if I shall make a shirt for him... the
answer was "yes". It took a week or so, but here are the results.
Don't look too closely, it has been awhile since I made a shirt, but he
wore it last evening and came down this AM wearing it (don't think he
slept in it) At lunch he said "Thank you for the shirt mama"

Of course dear...I had to restrain myself from rushing out the door and
buying more fabric...actually that would give me an excuse to go fabric
shopping again.