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August Update
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

     There has been a lot of progress since we came home and it's hard to think that it has actually been nearly two months!  We definitely feel like we are settling in and there is an emerging routine to most things.  Levi is sleeping much, much better too! 

 

His first trip to Michigan City was a quickie but it was so good for Cindy's family to be able to meet everyone.  It all really still seems pretty foggy that we have already been to China and are back!  But we are back, Levi is home and time is moving forward with the plans for Levi's repair of his lip.
   
 
Trip to our favorite orthodontist - Grandpa! Levi's licker dogs-Darcy & Sophie
   
 
Everyone was able to sleep through the night after we realized that he sleeps better with his dad in the room rather than his mom.  Even though Cindy was questioning whether or not that was accurate or if little Levi's dad just slept through his crying . . . . the great thing is that everyone is sleeping now.  Our hope is that after his upcoming surgery & recovery, we will no longer need to be in the room at night.
   
 

Grandma--Cindy's mom is came down for the surgery on Levi's cleft lip which will be a tremendous help.  We had very reassuring consultations with Dr. Argenta regarding Levi's treatment plan.  Everything we have heard about Dr. Argenta is very good and feel like God certainly has placed us in his path for Levi.

Waiting for the Surgery with Grandma
   
  The preop visit for Levi went off without a hitch and it also is hard to think that we are only 15 minutes from Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center-Brenners Children's Hospital.  We arrived at the hospital before dawn and the following 30 hours were at the hospital.  We all went up there and Levi of course was in his typical pleasant disposition and had no clue.  Not sure if he picked up on our anxiety, but it seemed he did not.
   
 

Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center Brenners Children's Hospital
   
 
The waiting time seemed like a long time!  But then they came for him.  He went right with them without a tear just as if he knew the plan all along.  We watched as he disappeared behind the big doors and the busyness in the surgical center.  We walked back to the waiting room.  How ironic.  We really are sitting in a waiting room.  So many times as we went through the adoption journey we felt time and time again that we were in a waiting room.  Waiting on appointments, waiting on letters, waiting on approvals, waiting on fingerprints, waiting on DHL, waiting on time, waiting, waiting and waiting.
   
 
Waiting a little bit longer Just Hanging out
   
 
Here we were sitting in an actual waiting room. Waiting.  We were prepared.  This time the 90 minutes of surgery went by quickly.  We were thrilled when we were allowed to go back and see him after surgery--astonished at how he looked.  We had become so accustomed to the cleft, we now found ourselves getting used to the look of the surgery.  Levi was beautiful before the surgery and he was after the surgery.  But now his lip is closed and he can begin once again in just a short 6 weeks after coming to the US another chapter for his life.
   
 

 

On our way home
   
 

The quick points of the surgery to always remember are:

  • Morphine did not seem to make Levi sleep!

  • We took turns "sleeping with him in his hospital bed

  • His easy adjustment to his arm restraints--shocking how easy that was

  • He ate well

  • No nausea from the drugs

  • Knowing that as difficult as this is--he is learning to depend on us even more

  • The hospital staff were wonderful and helpful

  • Amazing--a children's hospital with no rocking chair in the room!

  • Wanda & Jaime brought us a wonderful dinner to the room that night--real luxury

  • Family came up and Kyleigh brought Levi a Clifford balloon

  • The drugs seemed to keep Levi quiet more than sleep--he enjoyed being held

  • We packed up and headed home around 9 the day after surgery

  • Our concern was his rubbing his face on the bed

  • The steri strip under his nose and the stitches look quite bloody--having to get used to that.

THE most amazing thing.  Levi sleeps with his mouth closed.  Breathing thorough his nose even with those stints in his nose.  He can close his mouth for the very first time.  And sleep.
   
 

 

Plum tuckered out