3 Months

Today marks 3 months since "Gotcha Day" when we first held Michael in our arms at the civil affairs office in Zhengzhou. A quarter of a year, about 90 days. While it is still very easy to remember what life was like before bringing him home, we don't long for that. All 3 of our older kids love to play with Michael, they come up with ideas of fun activities to do as a family that Michael would enjoy. They all don't hesitate to pick him up and comfort him when he is upset.  He truly brings joy to our family each and every day.

We have been working on testing the waters of separation without jumping in too deep. He has hung out with a couple of dear friends for a couple of hours, and with my Mom and Dad a couple of times and has done very well. He did great the first couple of times in the child care area at the gym (Christopher was in the room with him) until this last time where Chris ended up having to hold him for the duration of Kerri's workout -- So Chris got one too.

This Thursday 4/25 is Michael's Cleft Palate surgery. We have be there at 6am, surgery is scheduled for 7:30 and should take about 2 hours. We don't know exactly how long he will stay in the hospital, but we are told to plan on a couple of days. We are not looking forward to putting him through the pain and recovery, but are looking forward to giving him the opportunity to eat normal foods and to be able to say consonants.   He is trying so hard to talk, but is put at an obvious disadvantage with his palate being open. We will post updates as we get through the surgery.

We do ask for prayers for a successful surgery, minimal pain ( this is known to be an incredibly painful procedure), and Speed recovery.   We are anticipating a week or 2 of rough going as he recovers.

He has become enough a part of our regular routine that we no longer have hundreds of pictures each week to sift through to put on the blog :) Kerri did get this awesome video of him ready and willing to show off his vocabulary.

He has been feeling a little off today,  we are not sure if it is teeth, or fighting a bug, or just anticipating having surgery in 4 days.  He woke up after falling asleep tonight,  which he rarely does.  So we put on a show to try to calm him down.   Ended up as a good opportunity to get some good iPhone pictures.  It is hard to tell from the pictures that he is feeling out of sorts :)

-Adam-