Update on John's surgery...

Thank you so much for your prayers for John and us.  His surgery went well yesterday – to repair his cleft, the surgeon cut his gums round the upper teeth.  He then stitched three layers – the sinus layer, muscle layer, and then the palate itself.  As you can imagine, he is in great pain.   Therefore he regularly cries/screams , sleeps, or wants to be distracted by a DVD.  Although he hasn’t smiled once, even when a dog visited, we think he feels loved and cared for by us. 

As we predicted, he really hates the arm constraints.  They have caused their own frustration and anger.   

He has “eaten” an Instance Breakfast shake (most of it) as his first meal today.   Taking the appropriate amount of liquids will help to send us home sooner…but due to the pain, John has avoided most of our attempts to get him to drink. 

We have great hope that the worst of the pain is over by today and that his smile will return soon. 

Please pray that he will drink more (this is his only way to get nourishment), for decreased pain, and for the ability to manage the arm splints.   

We are ever so grateful for your prayers and support,

Laurie  and Ron

John's Big sugery...

John with friend Ben

Although many of you know about John’s cleft repair tomorrow, July 27^th, we wanted to send out an official word with details and specific prayer requests.  John is going into surgery at Denver Children’s hospital at 12:30 pm MST on Wed.  His surgeon is Dr. Allen.  He is getting his cleft repaired, tubes in his ears, and an abscessed tooth extracted.  It is estimated that the surgery time will be three hours. 

He will stay 2-3 nights in the hospital before being released to return home.  He will wear arm constraints for at least two weeks, which prevent his elbow from bending so that he can’t put anything into his mouth that would damage the tissue that needs to heal.  He will be fed only liquids during this time by us through a syringe.  

Issues that make the constraints feel almost “cruel” are 1) John, like ALL the cleft palate kids we saw in China often has two fingers in his mouth for comfort – both waking and sleeping.  2) we have taught John to communicate using sign language and he will not be able to “talk” to us with his hands 3) due to his needing to gain weight, feeding only liquids through a syringe means that weight loss is very probable.

In addition, although John’s urology surgery last month was ultimately successful, he did have complications.  These complications caused him to be in great pain for a number of hours.  Since that time, we have seen some forms of regression in John’s behavior.  He shows that he lost trust in us due to the “trauma” of his surgery.  This is very normal of an adopted child but also is sad for us. 

Please pray as God leads you to do regarding the above concerns.  As you can see we need prayer not only for the surgery itself but for the weeks that follow. 

Ps. 46 has meant a great deal to me as I have prepared for John’s surgery.   After studying the Hebrew meanings, I rewrote the Psalm in a way that helped me absorb its meaning. The verses in the Italics are the ones that I re-wrote. 

Vs. 1 True God, you are the person I flee to,

A well-proven help in anguish, distress, affliction. 

Vs. 2 Therefore we will not dread or be terrified through the ground or whole world change,

Though Pikes Peak disappear from our horizon,

Vs. 3 Though the CO sun cease to warm our days

Though the mountains become unstable and shake. 

⁴There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God,
   the holy habitation of the Most High.
⁵ God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved;
   God will help her when morning dawns.
⁶ The nations rage, the kingdoms totter;
   he utters his voice, the earth melts.

Vs. 7 The existing One who is Lord over all creation is with us;

The covenant God who keeps His promises even when we don’t surrender to Him is our rock affording shelter and security.

⁸ Come, behold the works of the LORD,
   how he has brought desolations on the earth.
⁹ He makes wars cease to the end of the earth;
   he breaks the bow and shatters the spear;
    he burns the chariots with fire.

Vs. 10  Throw down, relax, abandon striving and consider, acknowledge  & understand that I am God.

I will be lifted up for I am eminent in power and glory among even non-Hebrew nations.

I will be lifted up for I am eminent in power and glory among the WHOLE EARTH.

Vs. 11 The one TRUE God over the WHOLE creation is with us;

The covenant God of an unruly patriarch of our faith is our trustworthy and faithful defense.  

We'll keep you posted..,

Laurie

Turkey trip ...part 3

After our day off of sight seeing, we packed to travel home.  John enjoyed "helping" us pack or unpack, depending on how you look at the situation.

Although John does not have words yet, he often communicates that he will "do it myself", after all he is two!  I have been tempted to teach him this phrase in sign language but haven't had the courage to do so just yet. 

As was already mentioned, the Turkish people love children so John got to enjoy pretending that he was driving us to the airport.   I thought it was sure nice of him to check that we were safely  in the back seat of the van...smile! 

 

 Our trip back to the US is a story within itself.  Our return flight was 13 hours covering 8 time zones.  When we arrived in Chicago, John slipped and fell flat on his forehead while we were in line at US Customs in O’Hare airport.   He had such a big bump on his forehead and since we were still in line,  we agreed to have the Paramedics take a look at him.  When they came, they advised us to take him to the ER.  So we rode in their vehicle with the lights on to a hospital nearby.    John was seen by a Chinese doctor who was born in Guangzhou, China.  He was happy to meet John.  After a short examination, he wanted to see John walk.  When I put John down, he ran right over to his stroller and tired to turn it around.  The Dr. laughed and said…"I can see that your problem is not that your son is in my ER now, but it is going to be keeping him out of ER’s in the future.”   (John moves very fast…many people comment on this).   The Dr. released him without too much concern.  He instructed us to wake him up every two hours throughout the night, not give him any pain medication, and only feed him clear broth,  Jello or crackers.  

Fortunately,  we were able return to the airport in time to make our flight to Denver.  But finding clear broth or Jello in the airport was impossible.  We settled for a form of crackers (Cheeto’s) and boarded the flight.  Not 10 min. into the flight, John began to cry at the top of his lungs.  And he didn’t stop until we had reached Denver.  I will never know for sure what put him over the edge as it is very rare for him to have a public “melt-down” but there were at least five legitimate reasons to be out of sorts that I could think of.   

Overall, we were grateful for our time together in Turkey.  We know lots of people prayed for a safe and fruitful trip and we had both.  

Turkey trip...part 2

     Now before moving on, I must continue John's adventure to Turkey:

This is classic for John...he is trying to escape our hotel room with my shoes on his feet.  My shoes made a loud "clunk" on the marble floor and echoed through the narrow building. 

Slow and deliberate concentration has he makes his way to the marble stair case.

He must be thinking..."ah, victory at last, not sure where my parents are but it looks like I'm going to get away with this".

John had a great time with Mommy's friends

Our family was able to stay one extra day to see sights in Istanbul.  We toured the Basilica Cistern, an underground structure that held water and was built in 532 AD.   My disconnect with the ancient nature of the cistern happened as we exited the structure and saw the following advertisement for refreshments: 

And speaking of culture, no overseas trip is complete without a visit to the "neighborhood Starbucks!"  A little comfort of "home" on a cooler day in Istanbul. 

We did not have time to visit the famous Blue Mosque, but were fascinated by the "Hagia Sophia, which is a former Orthodox patriarchal basilica, later a mosque, and now a museum in Istanbul. From the date of its dedication in 360 until 1453, it served as the cathedral of Constantinople. The building was a mosque from 1453 until 1931, when it was secularized. It was opened as a museum in 1935 (from Wikipedia)".    This feat of architecture was the largest single enclosed space for 1,000 years.

Barely preserved is this beautiful mosaic of Jesus, his mother Mary and John the Baptist.