much to share

Gosh, I didn't anticipate my last post eliciting such a response.  Thank you to everyone who emailed, stopped me at church, called, etc.  I can assure you that I am just fine.  :)  I just wanted to be honest that I have moments and struggle too.  And, yes, I even have pity parties.  Wish I didn't, but I do.  Fortunately, they're short lived.

Interestingly, a couple of moms with grown kids told me the thoughts and feelings I described were the same ones they had when their kids were little, but they wouldn't dare speak them for fear of being perceived a bad mom.  Wow.

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This has been a good week, but a full one, too.  So much so that we pulled the plug today.  No Thrive (women's ministry gathering) at church, no school, no preschool.  Just a rainy day, jammies, a pot of chicken & rice soup, chocolate chip cookies and a couple of movies.  Good stuff.  We needed it.

Payton and Avery are having end-of-the-year standardized testing.  Payton's was on Wednesday (four hours!) and Avery's is tomorrow (three hours!).  Gotta see if they learned anything this year!  :)  I say that somewhat tongue in cheek, but since this is our first year homeschooling, it'll be nice to see where they stand.  That's led us to do lots of reviewing over the last week or two.  So far so good from what I can see.

And of course, James had more appointments.    

He did have his OT evaluation on Monday.  Not PT though.  I thought it was both, but alas it was not.  Therefore we have another appointment on the books for that.

I'm learning that things aren't going to happen at the pace I'd like.  Silly me.  I thought that was only the case during the adoption process.  See?  There's that patience thing again.

But, in all fairness, I'm a mama who wants for my child!  No, correction...I need for him.  I need for him to be fitted with a device so he can feed himself, for goodness sakes!  So waiting weeks for this is hard.  Especially when he's doing this:

Here are some shots from the OT evaluation.  James was a huge hit (big surprise).  What was supposed to be an evaluation with one OT quickly became an evaluation with three OTs.  And they were all asking if we could schedule his weekly appointments on the days they work so they can work with him.  This is James.  He just draws people in.  They couldn't have been more amazed by his determination, perseverance and adaptability.

He performed for them just as he always does!  He drew with his feet -- circles no less which they said is a developmental milestone.  Who knew?  He put the cap back on the marker (with his feet).  He turned a CD player off and on and turned the volume up and down.  Little do they know, this is one of his favorite past times at home.  :)

Payton and James have had some good times on our computer's Photo Booth.  Oh my.  Check out this hilarious video.  The boy loves music and gets down!

Yesterday, James and I went to the international adoption clinic at MCV.  It was somewhat fruitful.  The doctor tried to draw blood (clearly he doesn't have a vein in his arm to use).  She tried his foot (twice!), but to no avail.  He's going to have an MRI soon and will be sedated, so they'll get a blood sample then.  Poor baby.

A couple other cool things...

We have a date for Shriner's in Philly.  June 6th.  He'll see an upper extremity doc and a lower extremity doc.  Hopefully we'll have the MRI done before then so we can take it and his xrays with us.  We'll probably make a trip of it and take the kids (and my mom!) and see the Liberty Bell, etc.

The other cool thing is that a friend from church's brother-in-law works for a prosthetics company and heard about James and asked if he could meet him.  He and a colleague who's an upper limb specialist will be in Richmond and we're planning to meet with them on May 9th.  It's so cool to have so many people involved in James' care and who want to give him every opportunity under the sun.  

He deserves it!