One month out of the orphanage

Sergei has been out of the orphanage for one month now. He has gained 50% of his weight! He was about 17 pounds and now weighs 25 pounds! He has gone from a newborn diaper to almost size 3 diaper. He cannot hold his head up yet or sit or use his hands purposefully but he is still very underweight. He will start therapy soon! His vision is not good and he is not verbal but his hearing is fine. We are praying for healing for this sweet boy! He does not sleep well so I am really tired but that will come too. He has an MRI this week and a check up with GI and neurosurgery. We will find out on Friday if there will be court for Crosby. If so it will be Brian off for his third trip! It will be wonderful to have both boys home! I will update when I can!! Thank you for all the support!

A New Shunt

Sergei needs to have a new shunt put in so I am waiting at the hospital right now. Surgery will probably take 2 hours. He wasn't allowed to eat after midnight and this is difficult since he is so thin already. He ate about 9 pm but then he was so tired that he didn't eat again. Surgery was supposed to be at 10:30 but the the child ahead must of been having some difficulty so they did not get him until 12:40. I am adding the hours that have gone by since his last feeding. Yet he never cried even though I knew and could tell he wanted food. His little lips were moving and he was biting his bottom lip pretty hard. I know he has a 100 angels by his side. He has survived the unthinkable...neglect and almost to the point of starvation so I know he gave up a long time ago crying out for food or comfort. If I think about his past too long I become very sad that I wasn't able to help him earlier. I will update as soon as I can after surgery.

Admitted to the hospital

On Wednesday we went right to Childrens Hospital. The doctor took one look at Sergei's starved thin, frail body and told us that he was going to admit him. The biggest concern was refeeding syndrome, which can be fatal. As we increase calories into his tiny body, they will check his blood every 8 hours to monitor lots of different things that can go haywire once the body starts to get nutrition after starvation. So far his blood work has been great!! His poor tiny arms have so many bruises now after several days of multiple blood draws. We have a team of many doctors checking on  all his medical needs. His vision is quite damaged due to his shunt not working at some point in his life. His hearing seems good. He will have to have surgery to put in a new shunt. The doctors are giving it a few days so we can get his body condition in a little bit better shape. The physical therapists were very excited about his range of motion. We will be excited to get started but we have to wait until he is in better shape. Sergei has to save as many calories as possible right now. After just 2 weeks out of the orphanage, Sergei had gained 5 pounds!! He was below 20 pounds at the orphanage. So sad that other children are stuck in Crimea and now funding is not getting to the orphanages or the children. Plus kids like Sergei are starving to death and now cannot be adopted. We thank Jesus for getting our son out and will continue to pray for all the other children.

In the meantime, we are still waiting for news on court for Crosby! We know God has that plan already in place. Now we just have to wait. We are thankful that Crosby is in a place where he is fed but still needs a family to give him all those things that just don't happen at orphanages. Thanks for prayers and support!

Welcome Home

Finally on Friday a passport was in hand! Now we needed a stamp on the passport and we would have to wait until Monday, March 31st. The stamp was given and they made it on time to the embassy for all the final paperwork. At 4 am Tuesday, April 1st they would head for the airplane for their flight home! The flight was long but Sergei did really good.

We seemed to wait forever for Brian, Natalie and Sergei to get off the plane!! Oh my tears of joy!! I had the chance to see them on FaceTime but this was unbelievable to finally hold my new son! Of course by this time, he was quite grumpy and showed me just how loud he could yell. But my heart was so happy! He was so much smaller and thinner than what he looked like in the pictures.