The last few months

We finally did go to the neurologist at the end of March to have them tell us more about Andrew's hydrocephalus. We headed down to Atlanta with him and had x-rays and a CT scan done. Andrew was quite the trooper. Immediately after, we went over to the neurologist's office for a consultation. He really didn't give us any new information. He did, however, confirm that Andrew has the mildest form of hydrocephalus. The shunt and all were in place (not quite where he would put it, but each neurologist has their ideal). We will need to lengthen the tubing that drains the extra spinal fluid from his brain. He has some extra tubing in his abdominal cavity, but not enough to get him into adulthood. So, in the next 2 -3 years Andrew will have to have surgery for that. The doctor said he likes to just replace the tubing so it won't become calcified. This means they will make a small incision at the base of his neck where the valve for the shunt is and another one near his bellybutton in order to take out the old tubing and replace it with a new one. This is a simple procedure, considering what more could be needed, and we are grateful this is all that will need to be done.


We never did write anything about Andrew's size. He came home a few months after he turned 4 wearing size 4 clothes. He was 30 lbs and 39 1/2" tall. As of March (6 months home) he only weighed 32 lbs. and was 41 1/2" tall. He has, however, started to wear size 5 tops. We cannot get him to grow any quicker.


We have had 2 post placements so far. Our caseworker, Cathy at An Open Door is amazing. She asks questions, but it's not intimidating at all. We give her the photos required and any other documents needed. I think we get talking so much she ends up being here longer than she is supposed to. She's been with us since we made the switch to Open Door and has been an encouragement along the way. We love having her come and do the visits because she was such a part of the process of bringing Andrew home and now she gets to see the end result of her working with us. Don't know if we mentioned it already, but she went out of her way to meet us at the airport for Andrew's homecoming. We had not met prior because their office is several hours away and we had done our home study with another agency. It meant so much to us for her to be there and show her support.

We received about 15 pages of documents in Bulgarian from the orphanage the day we took Andrew out. We have been wanting to translate them even though we knew it would mostly be the same information we already had. Finally we had some money and found a woman who lives in the states now (but lived in Bulgaria most of her life) who was willing to translate them for a reasonable fee. As we expected, most of the information was more of what we already knew; however, one document listed some of Andrew's firsts. Just this document alone was worth the money we spent. We now know when he first rolled over from his back to his tummy and when he first rolled over from his tummy to his back. We also know when he first sat up assisted and not assisted and when he first walked assisted and not assisted. What a treasure!!


Another fun little piece of information we found out was his blood type. Things seem to be in neat little packages for us. The girls and I have the same blood type and Aaron and Tobin have the same blood type. We joked about how Andrew will probably have the same blood type as the boys and sure enough he does. Not a big deal to most people, but significant to us and apparently God figured it was too. It's just so crazy to see how God totally knew who our son was and didn't leave out even the simplest of details to make him feel more a part.


It took over 6 months, but we have finally adjusted to being parents of 5 kids. Things are running a lot smoother now and we are more able to enjoy time with all of our kids.


Andrew has been home for 8 months now and is doing so well. As soon as we can figure out how to upload videos we will post some.