Masterpiece

This masterpiece was the first one created by this masterpiece :)

As we approach the one year mark of the day we stepped onto our adoption journey, I sat back and watched this little miracle color his first picture. I remember many times along the way, looking at the little pieces of the picture I could see God creating and feeling so overwhelmed. I had no idea how anything good could come from the struggle. 

I held on to the promise that God would indeed create a masterpiece, even when I had no idea how in those hard moments and seemingly ugly lines that were visible. I had to let go and ask God for the faith to trust Him in all things.

There were many fears and many doubts over the last year. We watched as the masterpiece was drawn before us, line by line. Some looking horribly out of place, some plain ugly, some absolutely beautiful, and others yet that connected them all together, taking our breath away. As we sit on the other side, I think about the beauty that we would have missed had we decided that the picture before us needed to be balled up and thrown away. If we had not allowed God to continue on with His masterpiece, trusting Him to keep His promise to us.

He who started the work is faithful to complete it! I am so thankful that He allowed us to be a part of this. It was not always easy or pretty, but the outcome has brought us so much joy! I have learned that it is often the shadows that create depth in our relationship with Him.

We are so incredibly grateful that the beauty in our masterpiece is recognizable now. Surely not finished, but it's beauty is shining through. 

Medical Update for Josiah

We are going on 5 months home! A lot has happened in that 5 month span. One of the big changes is that we have made our local Children's hospital our home away from home. I had never walked through the doors before our guys came home. We are making up for lost time now! You may remember that Josiah spent much of his time in Ukraine in the hospital with pneumonia after pneumonia. He was hospitalized again shortly after he got home. At that point, we were connected with a whole group of specialists that promised to get to the bottom of his lung issues. We learned quickly many of the things it was NOT:) They did a swallow study shortly after that and found that he was aspirating quite a lot. His liquids were thickened and he has been healthy and growing like crazy. Along this whole time, he has been followed by ENT and audiologists. Both boys have had fluid in their ears with every test and have failed several hearing tests. After allergy meds did not fix the issue, both boys were scheduled to get ear tubes in and have their adenoids out this morning. Our ENT decided to go ahead with a bronchoscope for Josiah, even though he had already had 2 of them done in Ukraine with normal results. He felt since Josiah was already being put to sleep, that it would be a good chance to see for himself what was going on with his airway. Josiah was taken back into surgery and he did great. The surgeon came out to talk to us about an hour later and told us that the bronchoscope had indeed revealed the probable cause of Josiah's aspiration. The cause of the many many pulmonary infections from the very start. He showed us pictures he took during the test. Josiah has what is called a laryngeal cleft. It is a notch in the wall that is supposed to separate the esophagus and the trachea. This opening allows food/fluid to pass into the airway. His is bad enough to need surgical repair. So, after he is healed from today's surgery, in about 4 weeks or so, he will need to go back again. This time it is more intensive than an outpatient procedure. He will need to spend time in the hospital, possibly the ICU. This scares me so much, but I trust our specialist and I want Josiah to be healthy. Even if he were to drink nothing but thickened fluids the rest of his life, he still has reflux that threatens his health. He spits up literally some of everything he swallows. Food and liquid coming back up is as likely to get into his airway and cause damage and infection as it does going down. And so, I will once again trust God to protect this boy that has completely captured my heart in the last 6 months. I am so thankful for the amazing medical care that we have available right here in our own town. I cannot help but to imagine what even a few more months in Ukraine would have done to our Jojo's health. God's timing is indeed perfect.