The View from Today

After a long hiatus, here I am writing again. It's good to be back.
So what might you find in a home that is now one year and three months down the pike from an international adoption?

Here's a snapshot of our home at the moment. Maxim is holding his own and gaining in every way. He has gone from 31 pounds when we brought him home in January 2009, to 40 pounds today. He continues twice weekly physical therapy sessions to build up strength, endurance and flexibility. He has learned how to ride a trike and we are anxiously awaiting the arrival of his walker. He has been working really hard with the one available at therapy and the order is taking a really long time to get through all the insurance hoops. Having said that, I feel so blessed that we are where we are. Michigan has a very generous state insurance for kids with disabilities up to at least age 17, depending on the severity of their condition. Whatever our primary insurance does not cover completely, the state insurance takes care of. It is, I believe, one example of a good use of taxes. It saves many families from having to choose whether or not to provide a special needs child with what they really need or not. At the same time, the state does not want to waste the money so they take a long time to evaluate orders so only real needs are tackled.
Anyway, we are in the wait for Maxim's wheels. He is also making good progress in his schooling now. The day before yesterday, he read to me for the first time. He is very good at word searches, I Spy, and Where's Waldo? type things. I'm excited, as well, that he is getting up and crawling in a good pattern, when walking is not an option. I know that patterning is very important, even for a child who can't get on his feet at all, because it's intricately connected to how we process all kinds of information. For example, it has been proven that children who don't learn the proper patterns of movement for crawling have greater difficulty with reading later in life.

Cyan continues to grow too. She is eighteen and still finding her way with CP as part of the picture. We are experimenting with making videos of her worship dance for YouTube. I can't find much in the way of special needs dancers out there, but I know that it's an inspiration to watch Cyan. It's one of the times she feels most free and it touches others to see how physical limitations don't have to hold us back from praising the Father. As Cyan enters adulthood, I find myself second guessing myself a lot regarding choices we've made for her education and care over the years. I know all parents second guess themselves along the way, but maybe we parents of special needs kids are worse about it. I can only say, it crosses my mind more often in the last few months that maybe we didn't make all the best choices for Cyan, so what is best now? To her advantage now, I am more focused these days on not only looking at the options available for her, but also (and more importantly) asking the Heavenly Father for wisdom and actually expecting Him to lead us. He really is faithful to direct us beautifully when we acknowledge Him in everything we do. That's what He promised He would do. One of Cyan's favorite things to do besides dancing, is making videos. She bought a Flip video camera a couple of months ago, after looking for a long time for something easy for her to use with only one easily functional hand. I recommend this camera highly. Anyone can use it with one hand and the flip-out drive makes is extremely simple to load video on your computer. She has really enjoyed it.

Brina is on the mad dash to finish up this school year which has been very full for her. She has blossomed in her fiddling, her braces are a thing of the past, and braved debate class, even though she never would have chosen it. It's been a good way to stretch her, as she is definitely the most shy of all our kids. She is also finishing up College Plus Prep, which is a great Christian organization which coaches high school students to CLEP out of as many college course as possible so they can get their degrees sooner and at a lower cost. At this point, Brina is not sure she wants to actually go away to college, but this allows her to further her education at that level in the mean time.

Joel continues to thoroughly enjoy the trumpet. The concert band is in will be participating in will be at State Festival at the end of the month, as will Symphony Orchestra where Brina plays violin. Their Spring concerts are on back to back evenings next week. Too bad Daniel has to be in Germany for a show, so he'll miss it this time. Joel bought a camera too and is clicking away at anything and everything. His camera also impresses me, as Cyan's did. It takes both video and still shots; especially good for arranging panoramas and a terrific zoom. Joel is also doing College Plus and is now the tallest individual in our household. Daniel was especially bummed to find this out right before his travels. Seems such a short time ago (no pun intended) that we were peering down at all our children. Oh well, such is life.

We are all excitedly anticipating the year ahead. God has opened the door wide for us to buy a ten-acre parcel of land about thirty minutes south of our present home, with a vision to grow good food, raise some animals, bond even more thoroughly as a family, and stay completely open to any way God wants to bless others through the place too. We close on the land May 12.

Daniel has more international travel ahead after Germany. Canada in May and Israel in June, as it stands right now. The teens and I are looking into an opportunity to serve in Haiti while Daniel is away in Israel. Maxim will most likely spend that time at Grandpa and Grandma's house, as he loves being there (anticipating a ride or two on the tractor) and the sights and sounds of Haiti at the moment would be too much for him to process yet. It may be for us too, but God has been impressing on us that it is important for us to see what others experience from day to day so we can learn from them, help them and also more fully appreciate all that we have.

The icing on the cake, as far as travels, will be seeing my oldest niece, Naomi, walk down the aisle out in Washington State on August 8.

Wow, what a year this will be!

So you see, life post-adoption is about much more than adjustment and surgery recovery and such. That is just one important thread in the giant fabric of our family and all that God is doing in it and through it.