Our Journey To Charlie & Levi...

After 17yrs of marriage and "8" amazing children, God has continued to keep the fire for adoption burning in our hearts. Crazy?... Maybe?!?! But....Doesn't God call all of us to do CRAZY things for him? Isn't that what it means to Live for Christ? To make a difference ONE orphan at a time. So after months of praying that this little guy would find a forever family, he FINALLY has!! OUR FAMILY!! Join us as we pray, cry, fill out mounds of paperwork & fundraise to bring our son home. We give God all the glory for choosing to adopt us & for giving us the opportunity to Choose Charlie...And because we could not get Zhora(Levi) off our minds and God obviously placed him in our hearts... We're bringing him home too!!

Saturday, September 18, 2010

Where's Dada??

Not sure what the boys think about Sid being gone, but Charlie seems a little grumpy. Levi is still just his curious, in his own little world self. Ha! They are doing GREAT! Although over the past couple of days I have noticed an interesting strawberry like texture all over Levi's tongue (that was not there before) & his tonsils are completely touching. I had noticed they were already quite large. Looks an awful lot like the strep I have seen in my house, but it is all over his tongue? It is difficult to ask them about it when there is a language barrier. If it gets any worse I may have our facilitator call and ask them if the orphanage doctor will check him. He didn't feel warm & acted like he felt well. Who knows? Just don't want a sick kid on the airplane. I am working on learning some more sign language. I am finding that it gets Charlie's attention and he will repeat them. It may be very valuable in overcoming the language barrier. Even though his speech is extremely delayed He always makes an attempt to repeat me. He will verbally repeat Please, again, more, Mama, Levi(which sounds more like Vivi) And he will sign more. Now Levi has No interest in signing. Mama is the only word I have heard him try to say other than his HI! that he says all the time:) It's probably not really Hi, but I like to think it is:) Levi is like carrying a sack of potatoes. He is very limp & his muscle tone is very poor (especially his trunk) He absolutely LOVES for you to spin around in circles which I do often. It's my new weight loss plan. Ha! They BOTH have SO much potential. I can't wait to get them home with the rest of the kids so they can see what a family is really like and feel how much love they will be showered with. I am sure it will be overwhelming. Meeting the Lewis' as they continue their journey & the Westbrook's as they begin their journey. So nice to have other adopting families to share our struggles & triumphs with:) Please continue to lift us up in prayer....Both our children and Sid at home and the boys and mama here in Ukraine. The days are very long, but I am resting in God and being still so that I might hear Him more. Blessings to everyone:)

"I Will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you" John 14:18

4 comments:

  1. I think the sign language is a really key for Charlie and I'll bet once you are home...you will see a huge explosion in his sign language as well as verbally. Remember, with Levi...he's still very young to have speech even in his native language. My Daniel (who turned 5 in June) would be considered pretty verbal for a child with Ds...and his speech really took off between 3 and 4 years. So with Levi, if his speech is minimal now...once you get him home and surround him with English...he may take off speaking English in no time. I know with my Daniel, his receptive language far exceeded his expressive language for a long time. I'll bet once you are home and surround both boys with English, they will start understanding you sooner than later....even if it's hard for them to verbally express themselves. Also (and you may have already done this)..you may want to create some picture boards for the boys to point to express themselves. We used to have one for Danny that represented the morning routine. A picture of breakfast foods, a toothbrush, facecloth, clothes, backpack, schoolbus etc. You have my email, if you want to chat more...just send me a note. Can't wait till you are HOME!!!!! Lots of love, hang in there....we are praying!!

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  2. Hi-I'm Karien Prinsloo from Pretoria South Africa. I "got to know Levi" when Lisa, Daniels mommy was advocating for him. My mom was a nursing sister, and talked often of the strawberry like texture of the tongue_ I think it can accompany a throat infection, and is called Scarlet fever-she says it often looks as if the skin on the hands peel and is highly contagious. Another reason for the strawberry tongue, can be a deficiency of Vit A. I love to follow your story. Blessings for you for the week-end, which might get lonely without your husband.

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  3. Great pics. My kids were getting strep a few times a year. Oh how I loathed it. The signs my children exhibited first were sore throat, and throwing up prior to having a fever.

    Hopefully he doesn't have it. I did a google search too and the findings were the same as Karien.

    Def of Vitamin A or scarlet fever.

    Good luck

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  4. Beautiful pictures! Praying for that boy!!

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