Red Thread To China 2007

We received the referral of our daughter today. We will name her Mylie Jaide Desta Maxwell. We may delete Jaide, but are just not sure at this point. Desta is her Ethiopian name and it means happy or joy. We are already so in love with her. I keep looking at her referral picture and thinking is she really ours? Happy happy day for us at the Maxwell household.

They let us go home yesterday afternoon and Levi was just a little upset that he didn't get to take it home with him. They needed to do some adjustments and when we went to leave they took it off of him and he snatched it back and said "my leg". We had to explain to him that he would get it back in a week or so after they fixed it. He seemed ok with that. The only problem we saw with it is that the second leg has a tendency to fall off, I don't know if it's because his leg has shrunk or just the design, but the other prosthetist took a look at it and said he would talk to Mr. Dwight when he got back. He is supposed to call us on Monday with the date to come pick the finished product up, sometime at the end of next week. We are so excited because he really wants to walk and getting so very independent.

I guess little man woke up in a not so good mood this morning. He was a little uncooperative with the physical therapist and the prosthetist at the first session. I was hoping that after he ate lunch and had a nap he would be better but no such luck. He didn't want to stand still for them to measure the length of his leg to see if it was a bit longer than it needed to be. They let him wear the leg tonight, but we were to take it off and check every hour and a half or so to check for red marks or places where it was rubbing.
We decided to take him to the mall and try it out. He walked the whole time we were there and did so well. He now wants to do everything himself. He always says I do it, I do it. We have one more session tomorrow at 11am and then we are free to go. They will be calling us Monday with a date to come back for the finished product. The prosthetist said probably the end of next week.

We also thought that since we were in a bigger city we would try some Ethiopian food for dinner. The beef I ordered was wonderful, and there was a type of salsa that tasted like pico de gallo which was very good. But I really didn't care for the injera bread. I think the thing that got me was the spongy texture, that is something that I just can't handle. Levi loved it, and Jerry liked the beef that he got also. It was good, but I don't think that it will be something that we eat often. I will however be getting the injera for the girls if they would like it.

I can't wait to get home so I can get a good nights sleep. This hospital bed is not very comfortable.

Today started out good. We got a phone call at 8am saying that they forgot to tell us that the doctor would be on rounds and we needed to be down in physical therapy at 9am. So we rushed and got ready and were down there on time. He looked at his prosthetic and thought there needed to be some changes made so we had to take him to get re-casted and then at 11am it was back to physical therapy for more walking. He did well but seemed a bit more agitated today when we asked him to walk without the little shopping cart. He wanted to play more today. Yesterday they thought that he may not need to stay the whole 4 days, but I am not sure how this will affect us leaving us early. So as it stands we have 2 days to go. Levi's schedule is all out of wack and it is hard to get him to sleep. Not so fun for us!!

Hey look at our Levi!!! He's walking. They said he did so well today at his 2 sessions. We will be here for another 3 days and he will have 2 sessions on each day. We are going to try to go to the zoo and the aquarium while we are here, I hope Levi likes it. He seems to be doing very well with the whole prothesis thing, he always helps the prosthetist put it on and such. We did think he would walk out of here at the end of the week, but now found out that it will be another 2 weeks until he gets the finished foot. So he will be scooting for a little while longer. We are going to try to find a small walker for a toddlersomewhere to make it easier for him at home. I will post more tomorrow.

Wow only 1 more day to go before we go to the hospital for Levi's prosthesis. I can't wait to see him walking round the hospital on his new camo foot!! We are using the ACU material ( the same as Jerry's uniform )for his leg. We go in at 8am. He has physical therapy at 11am and 3pm for those 4 days and we should be out by Friday evening. And then we won't be able to keep up with him. Well I better get ready for nighty night because I do have to work tomorrow. I will try to post as we progress throughout the week.

These were taken Friday evening before the kids left for the Junior Prom. Marcus' date was Jessica and they looked so cute together!!!

Well they are not the best pictures but I will be recieving copies of all the pictures that the photographer has taken so I can post more later.....enjoy

We had our appointment today for a fitting for Levi's prosthesis. It was so great!!!! We got to see him take his first steps... can you believe it? We are so very proud of him. He was off to a rocky start, not knowing what to do with a foot sticking out in front on that leg but as soon as they gave him a little walker he walked up and down the hall a couple of times. I tried so hard not to cry, but I couldn't help it. I think I even saw a couple tears in his daddy's eyes. I think when they took it off he was a little disappointed that he didn't get to keep it. This is by far one of the happiest days of my life. I can't wait until we go back on the 26th of this month for his physical therapy and he can take it home with us. This is a miracle and I can't thank Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for giving our son the opportunity to just be a normal kid. We will keep everyone posted as he progresses. I will post a picture tomorrow of him standing all by himself, something he has never been able to do before today.

OH NO!!!!! This can't be good news. All abandonment cases from Addis Ababa are not being heard pending an investigation. This is scaring the you know what out of me! I feel like here we go again....just like right after we were LID for China the big slow down occured and adoptions were going at a snails pace and still are. Now this hurdle for all of the waiting families to go through. How many months will this add on to our wait? Will I still be able to bring our daughters home next year? I was hoping to since I will be a stay at home mommy when Jerry deploys. That way I would have time to bond with the girls before having to return to work when Jerry returns home late next year. I don't handle the unknowns to well and tend to worry a little too much about everything. This just tacks one more thing on my list to worry about.

Well we got a call today from Levi's prosthetist to set up his week in the hospital. So I called back and he wanted to set it up for the 26th,thru 29th of this month!! We are so excited that he will take his first steps on those days. We will stay at the hospital for those days and he will have 2 therapy sessions a day and then he will be released on Friday afternoon. I need to charge up the video camera so it will be ready to go. He still has his appointment this friday for the final fitting. We need to find him a good pair of tennis shoes for friday, so I guess I will be shopping tomorrow after work. I hope that all goes well and he will not have any issues with the prosthesis. The tip of his foot is very sensitive so I hope it doesn't hurt when he starts to walk on it. Wish us luck.

Well Levi had his first dentist appointment on Monday. I was kind of dreading it because I didn't know how he was going to react, but it went very smoothly. He has NO cavities!!!!! Can you believe it, after all the stories of bad teeth of some of the other kids I was worried. The only thing is his front teeth are pushed out because he likes to suck his finger. So we are trying to slowly stop him from doing this. Now we just have to get his eyes checked and his new foot and he will be good to go. His next appointment for a fitting is the 15th of May, so we are very excited to see him stand up and maybe take a few steps on a prosthetic foot. Keep your fingers crossed that he gets his in the next few weeks.