A picnic & Taye's new trick

We had an awesome time this past Saturday at a picnic at Kensington for adoptive Ethiopian families. Although we knew most of the people there, we were able to meet a few new people as well. We were undecided about going, but once we saw how well Taye was recovering we knew it wouldn't be a problem. It was a perfect afternoon and it was fun to see all the kids playing together. We're so fortunate to be connected to all these people.


Taye and his new friend Daniel


Mikias with Samson and Zachary


Mikias getting some help from Sofanit in the sack race

I also need to mention how impressive Taye is doing. Within the past couple days he's even got a few new tricks...most significantly sitting himself up. Now his method isn't the same one he's been working on at physical therapy, but it gets the job done. He's also just started clapping his hands together. We're so happy that's he's making these improvements considering where he was a couple months ago. Judging from this video Mikias is also very, very excited.

Home Again

After being transferred to the pediatric floor this morning, we spent most of the day waiting for the neurosurgeon to come and give us the OK to go home. Everyone that came in a saw him said Taye looked great, but we needed the neurosurgeon to officially discharge us. Finally, around 5pm today Taye was discharged and we are now home!! It's hard to believe that just yesterday morning we ate breakfast here...a busy couple of days to be sure.

The rest of the week for us will be good. Joanna has time off work and the best part is no more doctors appointments or therapy appointments to go to for the rest of the week What a treat! Hopefully, this will give us some time to get back on track.


Taye sleeping post-op yesterday...with his big hat


Taye tonight at home showing off his interesting haircut

Moving along nicely

As I'm writing this both Joanna and Taye are taking a morning nap. Last night was a bit restless, probably because Taye slept so much yesterday during the day. He didn't really sleep for a long time in a row last night...just 1 - 1.5 hours at a time. But that's OK because he seems to be doing really well. Yesterday afternoon he started back on his normal eating schedule and has been eating like normal ever since. He also doesn't seem to be in too much pain and has only been on Tylenol recently. I think most of his fussiness so far is just related to all the wires he has to contend with when he wants to move around.

So, it sounds like we'll definitely be leaving the ICU today to either go home or to the regular pediatric floor. We'll have a better idea once the doctor makes rounds today. I'm hoping for home myself just as long as they think his pain is under control and there are no signs of infection.

It's amazing to me that this has seemed so easy for us. Of course compared to April's stay this is much less urgent and, unfortunately, we have a comfort level with it now.

A familiar place

Taye is now in ICU in the exact same room we were in back in April. It's kind of strange being here again, but there's also some comfort in knowing the people here and how everything works.

Taye was pretty fussy when Joanna and I first saw him in recovery. He was extremely hungry and sucked down a lot of water and a little formula. It seems he has some pain, but now he's drugged up so he's sleeping comfortably. We'll definitely have our hands full when he completely wakes up though. When he was awake earlier he was twisting himself in the IV and monitor cables and rolling over all over the place. Not sure what we'll do to contain him, but we'll figure something out.

One of the things the neurosurgeon was talking about earlier was how the skull piece that was reinserted was actually dead bone. Once the skull fuses itself back together after a few months that piece should come back to life...amazing! There's already been talk of us going home tomorrow depending on how well Taye is doing and how well all the systems are working. We'll see.

Surgery complete

The neurosurgeon just came out to let us know that the surgery is done and everything went well. We haven't seen Taye yet...it sounds like he'll been in recovery for a little bit and then we'll head up to ICU. But, everything was successful and the bone was put in place. We're anxious to see him and are so happy that everything has gone smoothly so far.

Let's try this again

After spending a fun weekend in Chicago for Irene's wedding (fun...except for several meltdowns by Mikias), we're now geared up for Taye's 2nd surgery tomorrow morning. I think we're all very anxious to get this over with. It seems like this had been lingering out there forever, so it will be good to get it behind us and to continue to move through the healing process.

It should all happen at 8am tomorrow morning and we're hoping that this time there won't be any delays. I feel so bad that Taye is sleeping so peacefully right completely oblivious to what awaits him in the morning. Please send your prayers his way.

We'll update when we can tomorrow.

Mikias jumping in Chicago

Taye's last mohawk pic before we "evened out" his hair tonight

Taye's new cut...too bad it will only last one day

By the way Taye's teeth hurt...but he has 1 now!