Friday, July 31, 2009

Macella camp, visit with friends, Kirstie camp

Wow has July been busy. Since Marsha is home we have been able to have friends over and the girls have been able to have friends over. They usually have friends on Thursday nights to spend the night since Maria does not have therapy on Fridays. Two of the Thursdays Marsha slept out in the cabin with a bunch of girls. Gary slept inside and took care of Maria. Apparently Gary does not have the power to put her to sleep or she just thinks that dad is just for fun because he could not get her to sleep. She was too busy running around and laughing!

Macella went to Cortland Bible Club Camp from July 12th-July 17th.

Our friends Aaron & Bev & daughter Cari spent the night on the 17th. They were sweet enough to bring chocolate, which is always a plus! They also brought Maria some bubblewrap, which she absolutely loved!

Our friends Bill & Vicki & kids came for lunch on the 19th. They are moving to NC and will be missed.

We spent the weekend of the 24th out at Marsha's parents. We visited Gary's parents on the 25th during the day. Later that evening we were able to spend with friends Pr. Ron & Miriam & their kids. It was a blessing to finally be able to get together with them.

We visited WP church the 26th. Then we went to Grandpa & Grandma Glezen's for a big family picnic. Then we visited Grandpa & Grandma Gordon. Finally we took Kirstie to camp. She was able to go to camp with 3 friends (1 girl, 2 boys). We picked Kirstie up from camp on July 31st.

July pictures below:

Monday, July 27, 2009

Pediatrician, Soc. Sec., Audiologist-hearing aids

July 20th--Maria had another pediatrician appointment. She is not sick, but went for a weight check. She weighs 19.4 pounds and is 33 inches long. Maria continues to eat well, but she certainly has a lot of energy. The doctor suggested giving her extra butter and fattening foods like ice cream. Maria loves the ice cream part of her health plan!

July 27th--Gary took the day off to help me with paperwork for Maria and to take Maria to get her hearing aids. We personally went into the social security office, so that none of Maria's important paperwork from China would be lost in the mail. The line was not that long and the man was very kind. Then he handed back everything, with the exception of my driver's license. He looked very shook up and kept searching the same spots in his desk. Gary and I looked through my purse, the diaper bag, and the floor around us numerous times. The man looked under his desk, in his garbage can, on the floor, and on the copy machine. Meanwhile the line is getting longer and longer in the waiting room and we are getting not so kind looks. Finally we just decide that we should leave and he said that he would pay for a license renewal if he didn't find it. As we were walking out Gary looked through the window and saw my driver's license on the floor by the copy machine. The appointment itself was quite short, the search for my lost license was much longer!

We then went to the court house for readoption paperwork for Maria. We want to register her adoption in NYS. There is a new law that states that we can apply for this without an attorney. Others have done it without a problem, but the lady at Chemung County would not let us do it. She kept insisting that we hire an attorney. Gary told her that the law had changed and asked if he could send the website information to the judge. That made the lady even more upset, as she kept repeating "you need a lawyer." We finally gave up, but we will have to now research the law ourselves and go back with the information for the judge. Hiring a lawyer and paying thousands of dollars for something that should cost us $30 is not what we are going to do.

Finally that afternoon Gary, Macella, & I took Maria to the audiologist (Kirstie was at camp). She screamed uncontrollably while we tried to get the earmolds into her ears. Once we got them in, she pulled them out. She finally got so tired that she fell asleep. That was really an answer to prayer, as Gary and I practiced putting her hearing aids in while she slept. When she woke up she was unhappy, but we signed "no" when she tried to take the hearing aids off and she stopped touching them. The appointment took approximately an hour. Maria did not appear to react to any sound at all today. She did wear the hearing aids until we put her to bed though, so that's a great plus. We have a follow-up appointment August 11th to see if she is hearing anything with the hearing aids on.

Monday, July 13, 2009

ABR test at the Audiologist

Gary, Kirstie, and I took Maria to the audiologist this afternoon (Macella was at camp). Maria's appointment was for an Auditory Brainstem Response (ABR) evaulation. We were supposed to have Maria fall asleep at the office and then have tones played in her ears while electrodes were placed on her. She was not cooperative. We all sat in a dark hot room and tried to put her to sleep. Maria fell asleep, but as soon as the audiologist touched her ears she woke up and started fighting and screaming. At this point, she became even more alert. That meant more time in the dark hot room! She finally fell asleep again and the audiologist did the testing. Since Gary was the final one to be holding Maria, I was able to see the screen while the testing was completed. It became quite obvious that Maria was not responding to any of the tones.

The audiologist explained that Maria did not appear to respond and wondered if we wanted to bring her back for ear molds for hearing aids. She said they could be on for 6 months to a year and if they didn't work then looking into other options, such as a cochlear implant may be an option. As a speech pathologist, I was sure that waiting a year would be much too long. The audiologist agreed and we're going to proceed with hearing aids now and at the SAME time we are going to look into cochlear implant teams.

Since Maria was already hot and upset, we fitted her earmolds while we were at the office. The entire appointment took more than 2 hours. We made an appointment to pick up and try hearing aids on July 27th.

Test results: no response to 90dB click bilaterally. Also no response to 80dB at 500Hz tone bilaterally. This indicates a profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

Rochester Adoption Group---Trip to the Zoo

Sat. the 11th we drove to the Rochester Zoo to meet up with other families in our adoption support group. It began raining before we even made it to the zoo. It continued to rain once we were there. We all decided to start inside a building looking at the otters. It continued to down pour, so it gave us all time to talk with one another. Rain continued, so we made a dash to the pavilion to eat lunch. We are a brave bunch, so we continued on in the rain and visited some more animals. As we were preparing for the time to end the sun came out and it was beautiful. We really did have a nice time.

It was Maria's 1st zoo trip. She reminded us of Macella when she was younger. She was so interested in the fences and the clear plastic/glass walls that she didn't even seem to notice the animals.

Friday, July 10, 2009

Maria's therapies start

Maria started all of her therapies. The schedule we most normally will keep is:
Monday: Occupational Therapy (OT) 8:30-9am
Tuesday: Speech 9-10:30am, OT 2:30-3
Wednesday: Speech 9-10:30am, Physical therapy (PT) 11:30-12
Thursday: Speech 9-10:30am, PT 11:30-12, OT 2:30-3
Friday: Make-up sessions if they are missed Mon.-Thurs.

It makes for a busy day when breakfast, cleaning, and lunch get added in. Macella & Kirstie are doing well with the schedule so far. Maria is trying to decide I think:)

We are so happy with the therapists that we have. The Lord has blessed us indeed!

Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Maria's middle ear surgery

July 7th--Maria's middle ear surgery

We had to be at the hospital at 7:30am. Marsha was so disappointed to have forgotten the camera. Maria looked so cute in her hospital gown. We had to wait approximately
1 1/2 hours for them to take Maria to the "holding" area. She was supposed to ride on a bed, but that did not happen. She was so interested in standing on the bed and playing with the metal posts. It was as if she was "high on energy." When the anesthesiologist asked if Maria had allergies and we told him that we had no idea, he asked where she was from. When we said she was from China he said, "sorry I'm no help, I'm from Korea." The nurses enjoyed Maria and said they would carry her to the operating room.

The surgery was not supposed to last that long, so we hurried to the gift shop to get a healthy breakfast of candy bars, chips, and soda. We went back to the hospital room to wait and eat. Marsha got the call when Maria was waking up and we were told that she was very good. The doctor cleaned a little ear wax out of each ear, but behind the ear drums he saw discoloration different that he normally sees. He pricked a hole to see if it was fluid. He finally had to make the hole a little bigger because instead of being the normal fluid consistency, the "stuff" was more like a glue consistency. While he was in there he put tubes in her ear just in case. He didn't see any infection, but figured why bring her back at a different time if she needs them when he was already there.

Maria was happy to see us, but very groggy. She had to eat and drink a little before we were allowed to leave. She whined some and then fell asleep. We waited and the nurse wanted us to give her a drink which Maria proceeded to shove back at us. I told the nurse that she would probably eat before she would drink, so she brought back a graham cracker. That lifted Maria's spirits!

Now that the middle ear is taken care of, we know that Maria's problem must be with her inner ear. The ABR test at the next audiologist appointment should give us an indication of the amount of her hearing loss.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

July 4th weekend!

Friday July 3rd, Friends and family over for a bonfire and movie outside. Bud & Alicia, the Ayers, Allan & Elizabeth, Stacey, Tim, Joy & Al, and Marsha's mom came (Names starting with Allan spent the night).

Sort of Gordon Family Reunion: Saturday July 4th, Friends and family over all day for lunch, for a fire, and for a movie outside. Standish family, Wasson family, Allan, Missy, & Elizabeth, Stacey, Tim, Joy & Al, Calvin & Elaine, Grandma & Grandpa Gordon, Gary's Dad and Brooke, and Marsha's Mom and Dale were all there at some point during the day.

We had a nice picnic lunch. Macella showed her school presentation about grandpa Gordon. Gary & I shared our pictures and video from China. Joy shared her missions trip pictures. We played our family wiffle ball game. We had to improvise for s'mores. The gas station was out of big marshmallows, there were no packages of chocolate, and graham crackers were more than $4 a box.