And, little Henry (who, by the way, isn't all that little anymore)
This is the most recent update Henry's parents sent to us:
"6 Months old that is!! Hello friends and family. Sorry for the long delay since our last update. Time seems to fly by and the busyness does not relent. We continue to praise God for you and for all He is doing in our lives. He continues to show us what a kind and merciful Father He is and his favor on our family is very obvious. We continue to give our kids to Him, for Him to use for His glory. We know He doesn’t need us to glorify Himself, but we love it that He chooses to use us anyway.
Things continue to improve for our man Henry. Today he is 6 months old! Where did the time go…? He is weighing in at a hefty 9lbs, 5oz and continues to show great growth progress. These days there are the two main areas of opportunity for Henry; his lungs and GI system. This past week we visited specialists in both of these areas both in Fayetteville and in Little Rock.
Starting with his lungs, he is still on his supplemental oxygen and a pair of diuretics to manage the fluid buildup on his lungs. This week his pulmonologist started weaning him off the meds and is heading towards working him off of the oxygen. All we can say is praise God and YIPEE!! Having him tethered to this machine and his monitor is really hard on Nikki as she would love to be wrapping him up in a carrier and doing her mama thing around the house with him close. It is particularly hard to manage An Na’s needs in one room with Henry stuck to a 20’ cord. We are praying that God continues to work miracles on Henry’s lungs (and a heart condition that is related to being on oxygen for so long) and that the weaning process goes well. It will take about a month to clear the meds and we have a follow-up scheduled for April 7th. If all goes well on the 7th, we will start with very short periods of time off oxygen and gradually increase as he tolerates. Please join us in praising God for all He has done with Henry’s lungs and petitioning Him for continued healing and growth.
You may recall that Henry was having a lot of trouble with reflux and vomiting. We are working with a new pediatric gastroenterologist in Little Rock to figure out what is going on. She is awesome and an obvious answer to our prayers. Henry had an upper GI (xray of his digestive tract, basically) the week before last and the radiologist thought it looked normal. However, Henry’s gastro doc actually thinks that his stomach looked like it was more horizontal than it should be, which can cause vomiting. We’re headed back to Little Rock in the next week or so for another upper GI so she can get a better view. In the meantime, a couple of changes (and lots of prayer) have apparently been the miracle cure for his vomiting! He went off of a medication that could have been causing more trouble for his stomach (if it’s indeed rotated) as well as off of his formula fortifier (that adds calories to his breastmilk) because his feedings were becoming totally stressful, due to his apparent strong dislike for formula. Since then, he has hardly vomited at all and his feedings are mostly peaceful and pleasant! Praise God! Please join us in praying for his stomach…that whatever is going on won’t require surgery. Or if it does, that the surgery can wait until after he’s off the oxygen for a while. There are a lot of risks inherent in surgery while he’s on oxygen; risks that we aren’t willing to take, except for emergency situations. We’re also praying that he continues to gain weight at an acceptable pace off of the fortifier. He is so much happier with his bottles now…which, in turn, makes us so much happier, too!
An Na continues to be an awesome big sister to Henry. She loves her baby brother and he responds to her when he needs calming. He seems to know her voice and often stops fussing if she attends to him. She has done really well stuck inside the house during this flu/RSV season and God has preserved her (and all of us) well. She is very healthy. She found her “stride” as a 3 year-old a few months ago, but that seems to have subsided a bit for the time being. We are working hard to listen to her better, and to God, for her needs and wants. With all the attention on Henry, she could easily get lost in the shuffle. Please pray for her heart and for her to know how much God and her Mama and Baba love her. On the 4th of March we celebrated 2 years of being a family with her and she is starting to ask more about her life in China. We have prepared a life book for her to help her understand and suspect that the time is quickly approaching that she will want to understand more. She knows who her foster parents are and we have a sweet picture of them with her in our living room. She was particularly close to her foster grandpa. Please join us in praying for our sweet girl and for protection of her heart in this season of her life.
Thanks for reading this long update. We will try to do a better job of getting them out more often so there isn’t so much to cover. We praise God for you and greatly appreciate your prayers for our family.
In Him,
Steve, Nikki, and His perfect kids" and Henry and An Na's swee tlittle faces:
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