surgery this week

Robby is scheduled for surgery this Thursday, Nov 1. He will be having two processes done. On his right side he will have an ear canal built to allow sound into his inner ear. Since his left ear is so bad, building a canal on that side would be useless, instead he will have a bone anchored hearing aid implanted (BAHA). Actually what is implanted is the plate that the hearing aid attaches to. We are having this done by Dr. Joseph Roberson at the California Ear Institute in Palo Alto California. You may wonder why so far away (We are in Ohio). Dr. Roberson is world renowned as one of the best in this field. There are few Drs who really know what they are doing and have had experience doing it. Atresia repair (the building of a canal) is a tricky surgery and you really want someone experienced. If you would like to read more about the surgery go to www.atresiarepair.com Other sites of interest would be caear.com and letthemhear.org These sites are all associated with Dr. Roberson and contain good information.
Dan, Becca, Rachael and Robby will all be flying out on Oct. 31. Dan and Rae are coming home on the 4th and Becca and Robby will return on the 7th. Dan just couldn't take anymore time off from his new job since he just started Oct. 15! Robby has to be there for a week after to surgery to allow for the initial post-op visits (two-four). He will then have to see our local ENT for further follow-up. We are planing on posting from CA and will let everyone know how the surgery goes.

updates

Wow, life is crazy with two active preschoolers. I thought I would post an update of some of the latest news.
Robby is doing really well in preschool and loves going. He still does not talk to the other kids or interact with them yet, but he follows the routines and loves to go.
Rachael has quite bitting him, for which Robby is thankful. She still lashes out and smacks him occasionally or pinches his cheek, but no bites. Robby is starting to get back at her and occasionally pushes or smacks her in return.
Robby now has an IEP with Westerville City Schools. He qualifies for special education help in the area of speech/communication....go figure :) He will meet with s/n preschool teacher for 1/2 hour a week and with a speech teacher for 1/2 hour a week. This is good news. It will not only give him extra help now, but he will be in the system when kindergarten starts.
Robby language is amazing; he is putting together 3-4 word sentences and will try to repeat most things when asked. Articulation is a big problem...He often says things that I have no idea what he is saying. Sometimes context helps, other times I never figure it out.
His favorite activity is riding his bike and scooter and just being outdoors.

Our tickets went missing today, and we couldn't find them... still can't. After a frantic two hour search behind book-cases and the refrigerator, and tearing things apart, we called Northwest Airlines, dreading the discussion. I'll cut to the chase and eliminate the tension. Although the tickets we'd received looked like paper tickets, they were just receipts for e-tickets. So, our discussion with Northwest was some of the best news I'd received in awhile. I could have done without that stress, but I'm glad we got the tickets all straightened out, and really glad they're e-tickets.

Remember this post?

Sunday, July 1

Lost tickets

Our tickets went missing today, and we couldn't find them... still can't. After a frantic two hour search behind book-cases and the refrigerator, and tearing things apart, we called Northwest Airlines, dreading the discussion. I'll cut to the chase and eliminate the tension. Although the tickets we'd received looked like paper tickets, they were just receipts for e-tickets. So, our discussion with Northwest was some of the best news I'd received in awhile. I could have done without that stress, but I'm glad we got the tickets all straightened out, and really glad they're e-tickets.

===================================================================

Well our lost 'tickets' finally (!!) surfaced today. Of all the places we looked, and all the things we have done since returning, we found the 'tickets' in a place we use everyday. They were in the bread drawer. Now before you get visions of old moldy bread just sitting in a drawer for three months, let me explain our bread drawer. Not only does it hold our bread, which is a staple in a family of six, it also holds our aprons (which we rarely use). Therein lies the mystery of the tickets. Today a glass of milk got spilled in the drawer (Don't ask, it is just life with two preschoolers). Of course I had to empty everything out, including the aprons which had milk on them. Lo and behold, there was the envelope from the travel agency. How it ever wound up in the bread drawer under a stack of apron, I have no idea.

Preschool

Robby finished his second week of preschool yesterday. He is attending "Praise Express Preschool" at our church. He attends Mon. Tues. and Wen. and absolutely loves it! In fact, last Thursday he was putting on his shoes and said "school". When I told him there was no school that day, he got mad and threw his shoes across the room. Every day when I pick him up he is full of grins. Tuesday he was the 'helper' and was able to bring something to share. I sent in the photo album that we had sent him in China. I thought he might talk about the pictures since he loves the album. Mrs T, his teacher, said he did a great job and named everyone in the pictures. He also did the counting and other helper duties. This is really great since he has not been talking at school. In fact one of the kids asked me on Monday if Robby could talk. I told him Robby didn't talk much because he had only been learning English for two months, while the child had four years to learn English. He said that made sense. Robby doesn't participate much in the circle time activities (books etc), most likely because he doesn't understand what is being said. He does play and do the art etc.

7 and 0

No that is not the score of a game, nor a team's record. Seven and Zero are the results of Robby's CT Scan. The Doctor rates each ear on a scale of 1-10 in order to determine whether or not surgery to open the ear canal is a viable option. He looks at a lot of different factors regarding the formation of the inner ear. Obviously Robby's ears are vastly different. His right ear rates a 7, meaning he is a good candidate for surgery and the canal repair should improve his hearing, possibly to near normal levels. His right ear rated a zero, as the doctor's assistant told us his inner ear on the left is "abysmal": the bones are fused together etc.
What this all means is that Robby will have surgery to open his right ear canal and will have a BAHA hearing aid implanted on his left side. This is a 'bone anchored hearing aid'. As soon as we find a good site that describes the BAHA we will post a link. The nice thing about the BAHA is that even though it is on his left side, because it conducts sound through the bone, it will help the hearing in his right ear as well.
Robby's surgery is scheduled for November 1, 2007 in Palo Alto, California. Dr. Roberson will be performing the surgery. Robby will have the atresia surgery (canal opening) and the BAHA surgery at the same time. We will stay in Palo Alto for a week so Robby can have follow up visits. We will provide more details as we get closer to the date.

CT Scan

Robby had his CT Scan done on Friday. We then sent the images to a surgeon in California who will evaluate them to see if surgery will be beneficial to Robby. This would be a surgery to open up his ear canals. Robby did great for the CT Scan. He laid still enough that we did not have to sedate him; quite an accomplishment for a four year old who has no idea what is going on. I think part of the reason he laid so still was because he was apprehensive and a bit scared. Mom was able to be right beside him the whole time so that helped. We are expecting to hear from the surgeon this week.
Robby also saw the dentist this week...his teeth look great. No problems, unlike Rachael who had two small cavities.

Sibling bonding II

Rachael and Robby are getting along a lot better now... in fact Robby has been bitten just once in the last week! They have reached the point where they will play together without fighting for several minutes. They love to play outside with their tri-cycle, bike and scooter. Sometimes Rachael tries to mother Robby which he does not like....
Well I started that post several days ago and had to stop because the two of them got into a major argument...just as I was writing about them getting along better. :) They are continuing to learn to adjust to each other. Some of the issues we have between them are just sibling issues and have nothing to do with adoption etc. The jealousy on Rachael's part is decreasing as is the aggressive behavior. Robby is starting to assert himself a little bit and has even pushed Rachael a couple of times. Funny how I think it is good that my son is pushing my daughter...usually parents want the kids to play nice, I want my son to fight back. ( at least to a point... it is a fine line we are walking).

More good news (and a "duh")

The "duh" has to do with Robby's hearing evaluation last week. The Mandarin translator did not show up, therefore we couldn't easily communicate the instructions to Robby. He was supposed to drop a block into a pail every time he heard a sound, plus a couple of other things. Anyway the results of the test showed that Robby had a profound hearing loss 0f 80-90 decibels. We know this is not right. The doctor even said it was a bad result because if that was his actual level of loss, he wouldn't be able to speak with the skill he does. So we came away form the audiologist knowing that Robby has an 'undetermined hearing loss'...Duh.

The good news: We got the results of Robby's blood and lab work back. Everything looks great! No abnormal levels, no disease, we don't even have to repeat most of his vaccinations!

We have a CT Scan scheduled for Sept 7th. The results will be sent to Dr. Roberson in California to see if Robby is a candidate to have his ear canals opened. This would increase his ability to hear.

Good News!

We saw more doctors today. Because the kidneys form at the same time as the ears, whenever there is a problem with ear structure the doctors check the kidneys to make sure they are developed properly. Robby had an ultrasound today and then we saw the urologist. Everything is fine with his kidneys. The ultrasound showed no malformations. This is a relief. Our visit with the ENT and audiologist was rescheduled until Tuesday.

All the testing and doctors we have seen so far agree on one thing: we have an adorable healthy little boy.

Dr. visit

Robby had his first appointment with the International Adoption Clinic today. We met with a dietitian, a physical therapist and a pediatrician. The dietitian was pleased with his eating. (He eats a lot of meat and fruit and drinks a ton of milk or yogurt smoothies. He is not very fond of vegies.)

The physical therapist said he was right on target for his age. There were some things she couldn't tell because of his unwillingness. We had a mandarin translator with us, but Robby wouldn't really respond to her, possibly due to shyness around new people.

The pediatrician said he looked like he was in excellent health, although a little skinny. She saw no major health issues.

Then we went downstairs for blood work. They took a ton of blood and will check for a variety of things including whether he needs to repeat any vaccinations. Dan and the translator were also able to get Robby to take a urine test. He must have thought they were nuts getting him to pee in a cup. This weekend we have the unenviable job of collecting two sets of stool samples. I told Dan that was his responsibility. :)

Monday we go back to see a developmental psychologist. Thursday we see the Ear. Nose and Throat Doctor who will do, among other things, a hearing test. Then we see a renal specialist for an ultrasound of his kidneys. Because the ears and the kidneys form at the same time in-utero, when a child has ear problems they always check the kidneys. Robby shows no visible signs of kidney problems, but we need to check to make sure. Later in the month we will have a CT scan of his inner ears and a visit to the eye doctor.

Found our Urumqi hotel on Google Earth

On a whim, I went to maps.google.com tonight, and pulled up Urumqi, to see if I could spot our hotel from the satellite photo. Funny enough, I found it almost instantly. Click here to see where we stayed. To the left is the park we visited a few times (where Rachael and Robby ate dripping ice cream surrounded by locals). Our hotel is the shape of an upside-down Y, with a circle on top, on the bottom left, across the highway from the park.

Small world 2

Two and a half years ago when we had just finished the paperwork for Rachael, I joined a yahoo group for families whose paperwork went to China at about the same time. Having similar log in dates in China would mean we would get our referral at the same time. Through this group we met a family that lives in the Columbus area. We are still in touch with them. Darla has a friend who she knows through another yahoo group. She sent me a message with her friends website. It turns out it is 'Alaska' , the folks we met several times in China! (see the previous post for a further explanation). I now can learn their names and read more about their time in Fuzhou. Is that cool or what?

Party time

Bedtime has been going really smooth the past few nights, no more crying and sleeping through the night. That is, until last night. About 15 minutes after I put the kids to bed, I heard noises and giggles coming from their room (Robby and Rachael have bunk beds and share a room). When I checked on them, they were both up on Robby's bed. I put Rae in her bed and told them to go to sleep. A few minutes later I heard more giggles and the unmistakable sound of children jumping on the bed. Again, back in their own bed with a strict talk. Then a third time. I then went downstairs and was talking to my brother when I heard Rachael going into the kitchen. When I got off the phone, I went up to check on them. They were sitting on Robby's bed licking the icing off of cupcakes! This was an hour and a half after they first went to bed. I guess they were trying to celebrate being home for two weeks. I can see many more late night parties in their future :) They are going to be quite a pair when they can really communicate... there is much orneriness and many adventures looming in the future of the Houser household.

some good news

Thought I would let you know of some of the good things happening.

Bedtime last night was still rough. Robby cried for about 40 minutes, luckily Rachael was able to fall asleep during his crying. They then both slept through the entire night! Yeah.

Secondly, Robby is now on a lot more friendly terms with the cats. He will now pet them, although he still a bit shy of them, it is nothing like last week.

Robby also now can say several English words, although he doesn't use them regularly. They include: Rachael, Kayla, hello, hi and bye. He is making his wants known more and more. For example if he is thirsty, he will take my hand and lead me to the fridge then point to the juice.

Yesterday, while I was giving Rachael her bath, Robby went into his room, got out clothes and got dressed all by himself, including shoes an socks. This is a far cry from the little boy who stood motionless while I dressed him just two weeks ago!

Rachael is now introducing him to the joys of 'The Wiggles' and Sesame Street.

Its a small world

Okay, do you have the Disney song running through your mind?

It is amazing how small a world we sometimes live in. Some examples:

There were two other families from Ohio in our agency travel group: one from South Point and one from near Granville. It turns out that the family from South Point attends the Nazarene Church there. Carolyn is the Mission President for her church, a post I held at our church for the past four years. Since she is in our District, we attend the same yearly mission conference at Grove City each May.
The other family brought their 15 year old daughter. She attends Granville Christian School. This is one of the schools that Kayla's school regularly meets in athletic events so we should have a friendly rivalry going on now.

When we were in Tokyo, we met a family at the airport that was going to China to adopt a little girl from the Fujian Provence. This is the same province Rachael is from. We saw them later at the Great Wall and several times in Guangzhuo. I have no idea what their names were, we called them 'Alaska' because that was where they were from.

While on the Great Wall, we met a lady that is a professor at Ohio University in Athans, about an hour away from us. She and a small group of profs were in Beijing teaching for three weeks. She was kind enough to take a family picture of us.

Also, as we posted earlier, Dan was able to attend a Toastmasters meeting in Beijing.

So far from home, yet so many ties to it.

crying and screaming

But enough about Dan and I.... :) Actually bedtime has become quite interesting the last couple of nights. The kids are currently in their bunk beds screaming and crying...feeding off of each other most likely. Robby is crying for attention; the minute we walk in he shuts up. This child must have been spoiled rotten in China. Rachael is crying because she no longer wants to sleep in her own bed, she wants to sleep with Mom and Dad or Kayla. While we were gone she shared a bed with Kayla or Robby for most of the time. I am worried if I put Robbie and Rachael in the same bed now she would bite or pinch him, so I just sit here and listen to them scream, although it is getting quieter. They must be running out of steam.
Speaking of steam, Dan ran out quite early tonight. He was sound asleep by 8: 30. Today was his first day back at work, if you can call a golf outing with the boss work. It did require him to be up and out of the house by 7:30 and he didn't return until after 6; a long day when you are still fighting jet-lag....and he couldn't even take a power nap at his desk.

sibling bonding

The kids (as Rae and Robby are called) have been doing much better together. One example:
They share some good time at the table eating cheesy potatoes (thanks Beth). Then it is on to fun with stickers and bouncing on the top bunk of their beds. Great times for the two of them. The only bad part of it was that it was happening at 1:30 in the morning! Jet lag does nasty things to your body's sense of schedule. We put them to bed at 9pm or so and they sleep for three hours and wake up thinking they just took a nice long nap. We can't convince them that they need to sleep for six more hours.

Amazingly, Robby has been doing much better than Rachael. He is sleeping much better at night, at least for the most part he does not get up and play like she does. He does have a period of about an hour where he calls out repeatedly and wants someone to touch him...speaking to him doesn't help. He was calling Mama "nie la" (you come) over and over...of course Mama came. Last night he woke up calling out for his Aiya. Aiya means auntie and is what the kids in orphanages call their care givers. Mama was able to comfort him, but it was touching that he wanted his aiya.

One side light, Aiden, 3, was one of the little boys in our travel group. He and Kayla fell in love with each other. He would call her aiya and loved to play games with Kay.

We discovered today that Robby loves pancakes. Some of the 'American' food we give him he just looks at and won't eat. We know he is thinking 'what kind of crazy foods do these barbarians eat?' and this from a kid whose home town eats all kinds of animal parts! However, he stuffed his mouth full of pancakes this morning. A future I-hop fanatic in the making.

Blog updates

Now that we're back home, and are up until 3am dealing with jet-lagged toddlers, we've lots of time to backfill posts with pictures, so please skim back through the past few days if you like photos.

Sleeping on a Jet Plane

Any of you who have ever flown know there is basically one way to sleep in economy class: tilt your seat back a small amount and hope you can sleep sitting up.

If you are smaller in size and lucky enough to have an empty seat next to you, you might even be able to turn on your side a bit. When you are only 32 inches tall, like Rachael, it is a whole different ball game. You can curl up on Mom or Dad or Kayla and you can lay any number of ways.

Rachael thought the plane was a great place to sleep and loved the fact that she got a little pillow and blanket. She even slept through take-off and landings--missing the whole flight from Detroit to Columbus Wednesday. Then again, we all missed the flight and slept. Only Dan was awake for the take-off, and the rest of us were asleep long before.

Care for bugs for dinner?

Amongst all the turtles, frogs, snakes, lobsters, oysters, fish and eels being sold on the wharf in Guangzhou at the seafood market, there were also many vendors that had water bugs and grubs for sale.

For dinner. Play the video to see the wriggling...