Better and Better!

After a totally cruddy almost 24 hours, my sweet Henry seems to have turned a corner about 6pm last night...

His breathing improved...

The fever has not come back...

He had a VERY good night's sleep...

And woke up acting much like his normal self!

So we are weaning down his oxygen and letting him eat again...

The plan is to move us to an "observation" room for one more night just to make sure he does not have any "rebound" airway issues...

And if all goes according to plan, we will be "outta here" Friday morning!

Keep praying that happens!

Yep, he did it again...

Henry is SO special...

A dental surgery originally estimated at 2 hours takes 4 1/2 hours...

What looked like an easy recovery and precautionary overnight hospital
stay turned at midnight into fever, vomiting, de-saturating, nasal canula for oxygen, weird high blood sugar results, weird chest x-ray results, and finally morphine so my little guy would stop screaming (from 4-6am)!

The good news is the 102.5 fever finally broke about 9am... The bad news is he is still working too hard to breathe and they are still not sure exactly what caused/is causing Henry's problems...

So we are on way down to the ICU...

Thanks for prayers!

PS His teeth look GORGEOUS :-)

Betcha can't guess what Henry is doing today....?

He is having dental surgery!

Last Tuesday - Aug 21 - we had a follow-up visit at the Lurie Children's dental clinic to get some heavy-duty fluoride on Henry's teeth to get us through his VEPTR procedure (scheduled for mid-September).

But the dentist found an infected tooth and abscess in his the gum above it that needed to be dealt with ASAP.

While Henry is under General Anesthesia.

Blech.

And Yay.

BLECH because you might remember Henry is 1-1 on the anesthesia reaction scoreboard - 1 good experience and 1 bad (that landed us in the PICU for 9 days after a sedated CAT scan on Good Friday).

YAY because I have been trying to get Henry's declining dental situation taken care of for MONTHS, but kept getting "well let's do this procedure first" and "his dental issues are the LEAST of his problems"...

True, but...

infection is a BAD THING when you have such a big surgery like VEPTR rod implant coming up...

And it would kinda affect his whole quality of life should all his teeth rot out of his mouth...

So while dental surgery was not what we were planning for today (it is Tessa's first day of her "speech preschool")...

We are here and ready to go.

Surgery at 12:30.

One Year

                                                                  Late August, 2011

                                                                Late August, 2012

From a one year old laying in a crib...

To a two year old who can roll all over the house, pull open our sliding glass door, shakes his head "NO" when upset, loves french fries....

and who has the love of a mommy and daddy and brothers (3) and sisters (3) and grandparents (3) and aunts (lots!) and uncles (lots!) and cousins (at least 30 and still counting!)

The best year of my life. Hands down.

OLIVER SIGHTING!!!!!

Just yesterday....

the day my Uncle offered a Mass for Oliver and all the other orphans and families of Reece's Rainbow...

I received this AMAZING information from a family adopting a child from Oliver's orphanage!!!!

                ************************************************

• • We saw Oliver today!! Sadly we did not get a photo - sorry  :( He was being strolled for a walk outside by a nanny. The nanny even picked him up and held him for a little bit. He is Beautiful!!!
• • He was lying down and when the nanny picked him up he was flat as a board :( I doubt very much that he can sit -
  • Yes, he was loving life outside!!!!
• • no we did not hear any vocalizing - sorry :( he did seem to be interested in being outdoors - YES!!! Oh Love the matching grant!!! WOO HOO!!!!
    
    ***********************************************
    
    So we now know that Oliver has NOT YET BEEN TRANSFERRED!! Which is huge!
    
    Also that SOMEONE IS NOW GETTING HIM OUT OF HIS CRIB!!!
    Thank you Lord for sending him someone to care for him!
    
    But the urgency remains...
    
    Knowing what I do about the care schedules in orphanages in Oliver's country, this caregiver probably does not work on the weekends....there is a minimal staff on Saturdays and Sundays...so this kind of attention would only happen during the week, and probably not every day...
    
    Also Oliver is already 5...so he is living on BORROWED TIME...he is eligible AT ANY MOMENT for transfer to the institution...where the caregiver to patient ratio is much much lower than at the babyhouse....
    
    We know more now.
    
    He probably cannot sit up. Right now. He probably is non-verbal. Right now.
    
    Same with Henry.
    
    But don't let this scare you.
    
    Click on the video below:
    
    

    
    THAT is the reality of a non-verbal, cannot "sit up or hold his own head up" child...
    
    Not scary at all is it??  Frankly its tons of fun! Hear how excited I sounded as he figured out his dinosaur toy!! See how proud he was of himself!!
    
    Now that we know a little more about the reality of Oliver's life...
    and I have shared the reality of Henry's life...
    
    can YOU do your part to help make Oliver having a family and a future a REALITY??
    
    Pray. Share. Donate. Adopt.
    
    

All Oliver...All the time....

YES! There is more!!!

More pictures of Oliver here:

http://www.orphanreport.blogspot.com/2012/08/hang-on-oliver-new-chance-to-save-him.html

And a new blog by the WONDERFUL family offering his matching grant!!!

http://advocatingforoliver.blogspot.com

PLEASE GO SEE...and share...and donate if you can....

and I will offer an extra incentive!!!

My daughters (ages 13 and 7) make handmade beaded bracelets, many with blown glass bead and semi-precious stones...

some examples are shown below...

If you donate $100 to Oliver's grant fund, email me your PayPal receipt (Dobspc@aol.com) with the main color you would like in the bracelet and the size needed (women's or girl's or you can be exact with the inches around your wrist)....

and I will have my daughters hand-craft a bracelet TO YOUR SPECIFICATIONS and mail it out to you!!!!

Let's get his fund up and rolling and meet that matching grant!!!

My uncle (a Catholic priest) will be saying Mass at 1:30pm Central Time specifically for the intention that God protect Oliver's mind and heart and send him a family...my children and I and several other prayer warriors will be attending...

PLEASE join us in asking our heavenly Father to set this sweet boy into a family!!!

I am in love....

with my handsome husband...

with my 7 wonderful children...

and now with this sweet boy thousands of miles away...

Meet Oliver.

Yes, they dress boys in pink in Henry's country....Here is Henry in pink when we met him....

Oliver is a boy with achondroplasia (dwarfism) and dislocated hips (like Henry) and club feet (like Henry) and his hands even look to have the same limitations that Henry's do (permanently bent at the elbows with crossed fingers)...

and he is 5 YEARS OLD....

his fate is what Henry's fate would have been...

a life abandoned in a crib....fed a bottle twice a day...probably only changed twice a day...

two other mothers adopted other children from his orphanage last year and saw what dire straits he was in (one blog link is HERE) but he was not eligible to be listed for adoption until he turned 5 due to the laws of his country...

This is what the other mother had to say:

My heart broke for her and for all the others that I couldn't help. This little boy is available for adoption on Reecesrainbow. He was in Victoria's room. He has a form of dwarfism. He was never let out of his crib. His postion was never changed. They kept him covered up with a blanket so no one would have to see him.

Covered up so no one has to see him????

I cannot bear it....that sweet boy and those beautiful eyes...hidden...thrown away...

Another family cannot bear it either.

They have generously offered a $2000 matching grant for ALL DONATIONS, no matter how small, added to Oliver's grant fund between today and August 19...

Please...I beg you...click here : http://reecesrainbow.org/32923/oliver

and add something to his fund...

are a momma and daddy out there for him? who see the precious child of God he is?

Who have the COURAGE to go on the adventure of a lifetime and rescue him???

I will be praying....with Henry at my feet...doing all the things little boys should be doing...even if he cannot sit up or hold his own head up...with dislocated hips, feet, and elbows...still non-verbal...

still one of the biggest blessings of my life.

Please someone....let Oliver be that for you...

and you too can be witness to joy!!!