An Andrew Update!

I thought I would just write a post all about Andrew. He has been doing so wonderful lately, and I am so grateful for his progress.

Health Issues: Andrew has recovered wonderfully from both of his surgeries. I can't believe what strides he has been making to try to talk since the tubes were put in on Oct. 30th. His speech therapist has been seeing him weekly and she also can't believe his progress. After surgery she said to me that she was starting to think she lost her touch because we haven't seen any improvement with Andrew's speech since summer, but now everyday he is saying new sounds. It's like the kid had so many thoughts trapped into his head, and he couldn't wait to get them all out. We don't understand much that he says but he is really trying to repeat things we are saying. In fact today he decided to act like a two year old and he got upset with me that I was taking to long washing his grapes to eat, and he pointed his finger at me and was waving it up and down and yelled at me! Lets just say the kid got a time out (which he responds well to) and he knew right away that he crossed the line. It's hard to not laugh at him when he is bad! We also will be getting another echo done on his heart in the near future. We don't foresee any problems with that, but they like to keep an eye on his VSD and we are also hoping that the whole will be smaller. I'll give an update on that when we know further.

Eating Habits: This has been a big issue with Andrew lately. He is a very picky eater and I'm not use to this because both of my girls would eat whatever I gave them. Lets just say there has been a few nights when the poor little guy has gone to bed hungry because he refused to eat anything healthy for him. I just talked to the psychologist about this yesterday and she said he is just a picky eater and to just keep doing what I am doing, even if that means sending him to bed hungry. I hope this gets better soon, because meal time sometimes turns into battle time.

Sleeping Habits: Andrew also has had some issues with sleep. The kid won't sleep past 6am for anything. Sometimes he starts getting up around 4:30am. Lately this has caught up with me, and I have been dragging. I have tried everything I can with getting him to sleep longer and nothing has worked. I also talked about this to the psychologist but she said that it sounds like Andrew has a built in alarm clock and nothing I do will change that. They did wake the kids up at 6am in the orphanage, so it amazes me that even though we are in a different time zone that is the time he needs to get up. Andrew has also been restless some nights waking up every 30 min. for the first couple of hours of sleeping and then he wakes up doing it again around 4am. I think this has been due to teething, so I'm hoping this will also go away.

Development: Andrew is still on target for all of his development, aside of his speech. This makes me feel good every time we have him evaluated and he is doing exactly what he is suppose to. Sometimes you would never know he was in an orphanage less then a year ago.

My Thanksgiving Blessings!

I was so excited to spend Thanksgiving this year with my son. We were making our travel arrangements at this time last year knowing we were going to get on a plane in December to go get him. I wanted to make sure that I took time this Thanksgiving to just reflect on what God has done for me, and every time I did I got chills that came over me. First of all I'm thankful that I was raised in a wonderful Christian home. If it wasn't for that, I may not know the Lord like I do today. I'm also thankful for my wonderful husband who shares my values and is my best friend and a wonderful father. I'm thankful for my three loving, healthy children. They are all unique in their own ways and for that it makes life exciting! I'm also thankful that we got our Andrew home so quickly, and that he has overcome all his health issues along with adoption issues. He is doing better then I could have ever imagined and he has become the perfect fit for our family! It's amazing how God has hand chosen our children long before we know them and once they are there with you, you wonder how you could ever of worried about it. Andrew was hand chosen by God and I'm thankful he brought him to us. If there is anyone who is reading this and doesn't have a personal relationship with God, especially those who are going through an adoption, I encourage you to do that. Without God I could of never made it through the challenges in my life, especially through our adoption process. We saw God's handy work in every step of our adoption, and I wouldn't trade that for anything!

We visited my mother and father in law last week, and me and my mom realized that we had similar hats that we both just bought! You have great taste mom!

Me and Andrew got to have a Thanksgiving feast at Megan's school on Tuesday. My mom works at the school so she also joined us for some good fixings.

We had Thanksgiving at my mom and dad's house on Wednesday so that we all wouldn't have to eat turkey twice in one day! What a great meal it was mom!

Andrew is getting the hang of this Thanksgiving thing!

Andrew and Alisha with their cousin Kylee!

We had Thanksgiving at our house this year with Cain's family. Here is a family picture on Andrew's first Thanksgiving!

The Feast!

My three big blessings!

This is how we burn off the thanksgiving fixens!

Fun in the Snow!

Only in Ohio will it be 70 degrees one week and snowing the next week. We never know what is around the corner when it comes to our weather, but it makes it eventful. Andrew has enjoyed the snow. Last year he just screamed when we took him in the snow, so it is fun to see him happy with the fun white stuff coming down. Below is pictures of today. Me and the kids had a blast, aside of Alisha wiping Andrew out on the sled. It's crazy to think that the kids were playing in the leaves last week, and now the leaves are buried under the snow. I can't wait for many more days to play in the snow!

Andrew is bundled and ready to go play in the snow!

Here we are with fall decorations on our porch and snow on the bushes at the same time.

It doesn't take much snow to bury Andrew's legs!

Andrew couldn't quite figure out the snow in his hands!

My three kids!

This sled was impossible to pull!

Me and my guy!!!

I think we got this wrong!

There that's better!

Our attempt at snow angels! Andrew didn't quite get the point of laying in the snow and he would roll right over and get up.

Andrew is doing new things everyday. He has learned how to get on the chair in our family room. I really have to keep an eye on him now because he doesn't tend to sit on the chair, but instead he likes to jump around on it!

Fun Family Time!

Life here at the Stahnke house has been very calm and I like it. Alisha's volleyball season is over, and she is now looking for a job but for now she is home almost every evening and I like it. We are having family dinners every night and Andrew just makes us laugh our butts off.

Andrew had his follow up appointment with the urologist last week, and he said that everything is fine and Andrew has healed nicely from surgery. We also have a follow up with the ENT in two weeks, and they will be doing another hearing test. I pray that his hearing will be better now. We have been still doing speech therapy with Andrew, and we haven't seen much improvement yet. I'm hoping that with the tubes in his ears now that we will see some improvement with his speech. He understands everything I say, and he is learning new signs all the time to help with his communication. We also have Help Me Grow come out every month (this is a free program in Ohio) and they check Andrew's development to make sure that he isn't falling behind in any other area. I suggest this for any other adopted parents out there that have a program like this in there area. The great thing with Help Me Grow is when Andrew's speech was falling behind they were aware of it right away, and they had his speech more thoroughly tested. At that point we qualified for his speech therapy also a free program through the state.

This is a lake that is walking distance from our house!

Fun at the park!

My three kids acting crazy!

Oh, feel the love!

Grandpa will be proud Andrew!

Kim, I finally got batteries in this toy that I got from the kiddie sale, and Andrew loves it!

Alisha's Volleyball Highlights!

Our Alisha's volleyball season is now over, but I waited till the end of the season to post all the pictures. I made the slideshow awhile ago and it only includes her first few games, but it was a great season and she did great! Alisha played for JV and Varsity both this year. It made for a long evening at times. I made a shirt for Andrew that said "Alisha's littlest fan" and one for Megan that said "Alisha's biggest fan". They wore their shirts to most of the games. Andrew did pretty good going to the games, but I fear for next year, because he seems less interested in sitting in his stroller everyday. Alisha's varsity team was only one game away from state, and it was a close game. This was the farthest that any volleyball team has gone in the history of her school, so it was something to be proud of. They will have two banners hanging in the school that my daughter can say she had something to do with. I can't wait to see what next year will bring!

Disclamer: I didn't take all of the pictures in this video. A father to one of the girls on my daughters team has made it a hobby to get great shots of the girls! I'm thankful for all the great pictures that he has captured!

My friend Mary and her girls made it to the Breast Cancer Awarness Volleyball Game.

Our friends Kim and Tim and their son Matthew also came to one of Megan's games. Here is a picture of Andrew with his friend Matthew walking the halls trying to pass time!

We want snacks!

This is after the girls won districts!

One proud little brother!