8 x 2

One month ago today we departed on an 8-day journey to Ethiopia to pick up our son. Four days ago we arrived home after another 8-day "journey" with our new son through the most difficult days of our lives. Of course, neither of these journeys will ever be over for us and they will definitely be something that define our family forever. I wouldn't expect to ever experience a month for the rest of my life that would have such dramatic highs and lows. We feel so fortunate to be looking back over the past couple weeks knowing that Taye continues to make amazing strides. Coming back to our house on Thursday kind of felt like a "do-over" of our arrival with him on April 4th. I almost forgot that we had him in our house with us for 11 days before heading to the hospital.

Now that we've begun to digest the situation a bit more, we've been able to reflect a bit on the last couple weeks. Of course, most of our reflection seems to lead us back to April 15th. We've discussed how the timing of everything seemed to lead us to the best possible outcome imaginable on that day. From our decision of when to go to the pediatrician and when to go to ER, to the amazing coordination it took to get Taye the hospital he needed to be immediately. Any one of these things could have gone differently and very bad for us...and it's hard not to dwell on that...but we are grateful beyond words with how everything was handled.

As for Taye right now, he continues to do well. We're obviously a bit paranoid about the large soft spot that now exists on the side of his head, but it doesn't seem to phase him too much. He's been on the ground rolling over and only a few times has it been painful for him. We're getting more comfortable with handling him, but we're very aware when Mikias gets near him because there's that fear that he will fall on him or play too rough. So far so good! There was some concern that he would have anxiety about being upright and would feel off balance because of the brain shift, but he hasn't been bothered at all. What a trooper this kid is! Joanna commented that he is the strongest person she knows...and he's only 7-months old.

It seems now that we're starting to deal with some of the things we were working on a few weeks ago again...getting on a good eating/sleeping schedule, finding ways to comfort and soothe him, etc. There are so many considerations with attachment and bonding that were (obviously) thrown out the window while we were in the hospital, so we've been making an effort in that area too.

This week is extremely busy. We had an appointment with the pediatrician on Saturday. Tomorrow we see the ophthalmologist to re-check areas of concern in his eyes. On Wednesday Taye gets a follow-up CT scan and an MRI (with anesthesia) and then sees the neurosurgeon in the afternoon. I think his stitches will be removed this day too. Then on Thursday begins regular PT and OT appointments...these will start as twice per week and may be increased. Needless to say, Joanna is off from work all this week. Hopefully, we can gauge from all these appointments what our schedule will be and work from there.

I'll work on getting some more pictures of the boys up here so everyone can see how good Taye is doing. We continue to need your prayers as we travel through the recovery process and come to terms with the trauma we experienced. I know that coming so close to losing our little boy has been a drain on us mentally, physically, and emotionally, but every day has been better than the one before. And it's hard not to feel hope and happiness for the future when Taye flashes us one of his big smiles!