Home Sweet Home

I am sorry I haven't posted since being home. And "Thank You" to Makenna who posted the few posts while we were in China. I couldn't access my blog so I just gave her bits and pieces of information and she put it together for me.


We got home later afternoon on the 30th and it took a good 4 days to get over jet lag. It was an exhausting flight home, which I did not sleep at all and he slept maybe 5 hours on the 2 flights combined, poor guy. I think finally Asher is adjusted to the time difference. Up until last night he was waking up at night and sometimes staying up for 4 hours at 2 AM! But Jay had off until yesterday, so I did sleep in with him and tried to nap each day. But now we are trying to find a new normal and I am trying to take just one step at a time and not think about all that I really have to accomplish in my day and add an adorable toddler on top of it all.


He is one happy and fun little guy. Everyone in our home wants to be and play with him, but I am trying to hold them back just a bit as he still needs to bond with Jay and me. I think with all our children and some of them being adult children, he is getting a little confused as to who his parents are, but we will get there.

We also went to the peditrican yesterday. They tried to take some blood to get over 20 tests done on him. They poked him 2 times and were only able to get about 3/4 of what they needed as his veins wouldn't give anymore. We go back tomorrow to try to get the rest. 3 of us held him and kept him from kicking and squirming. For a 23 pound boy he is sure strong!! He put my hip totally out from the way I held him during the blood draw. Of course, my back has been yelling at me on and off from our flight home anyway, this was just the last straw. Good news, I go to the chiropractor tonight, so hopefully I can walk without pain soon.

We need to get a clean stool sample to make sure there isn't any parasites in his body. This is going to be one challenging task as he wears diapers and it can't touch urine or the diaper. The details as to our attempt at doing it are a little too much information that most of you probably don't want to hear, but just trust me it is interesting. So if you think about how to pray for us, it would be that this test would work without much more difficulty.

He also got a TB test which will get read tomorrow, but so far it looks okay. Then he is supposed to see the Cleft Doctor next Tuesday. We are still trying to get our insurance coverage updated for the referral to be approved, so more prayers for that would be appreciated as well. Even though we gave them all they needed, he still isn't showing up in their computer system. It should be easy to fix, but each day we wait we lose another day for the referral process. If I have to reschedule this appointment it will likely be middle of January or early February due to the holidays and a busy doctor's schedule.

We also have an appointment for an evaluation for the state covered therapies. This is not until January 10th, again because of the holidays. But they could approve him for speech, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy and a Dietician up until age 3, which would be free for us. Then when he turns 3 we will use private therapy as needed, through our medical insurance. We have great medical insurance due to being in the military, but the co-pays do add up so anything is helpful at this point. Plus the therapy would all be In-Home Therapy, which to me as a great benefit at this point. We already go to Speech, OT and PT for a couple of our other children a couple times a week.

Asher is doing great! He is a sweet baby. I feel so blessed to have him in my life, in our family. I am still processing the truth that he is ours. When I was filling out paperwork at the pediatrician for him yesterday they wanted family medical history. I almost answered all the questions as if he was my flesh and blood. I already think of him that way. My prayer is continued that his heart would be healed from the abandonment and trauma that has been in his short life already, and that he would come to truly feel I am his Mama and Jay, his Daddy.

Look at that that smile.
"Asher" means joy, happy. I think his new name suits him well!