Shane & Staci W.
China 2016
Dear A Child Waits Foundation,
We have been home for 2 weeks from China with our new son Owen and now that things have settled down some we wanted to be sure to send you an update to let you know how things are going, and most importantly, to thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for your hugely generous grant to help us get to where we are today. Looking back at our finances, it's clear that without your grant we would simply not have had the funds needed for the travel expenses to bring our son home. I had originally thought we'd be using a credit card if we had to, but we don't even have enough room on one to have covered that much! We went into this adoption not really knowing where we would find the money, but knowing in our hearts that God would provide and we would find a way to bring our son home. And He did, through your foundation. Thank you just doesn't seem adequate, but thank you, thank you so so much for the part you played in bringing our son home for good!
Speaking of our son, Owen is doing so well! We have a long ways to go, but we see steps in the right direction every day. Owen has quite a few institutional behaviors and it's very obvious that he has never had anyone to count on in the orphanage. He is very independent and until recently seemed pretty comfortable in his own world, not really seeking out our approval or our attention as much as we would have liked. That is starting to change, and he has started to follow us or his siblings around the house, he's started to really melt into our hugs, he's started to climb into our laps and ask for help. All of these things are such a huge step from where we started. It's so amazing to watch this little boy blossom and grow with the love of a family!
Medically, we are starting to figure things out. We have so much to learn yet about hemophilia. Thankfully we have a fantastic Hemophilia Treatment Center that we've been working with, and they've made sure that we had the medication we needed for Owen since day one so that he didn't have to miss any treatments. They've also done a great job educating us and preparing us for all of the ins and outs of this disorder. We were correct in assuming that Owen wasn't receiving enough medication in China, so we're very happy to have him home sooner rather than later to get him on the proper dose to prevent bleeding or trauma. He walks with a slight limp that we think may be due to damage from joint bleeds he had prior to having medication in China. Since he's been home we have taken one trip to the ER when he fell and hit his head, but other than that things have been fairly smooth sailing so far. Since he's on medication regularly we can allow him to live life as normally as possible. He runs around chasing his brother, climbs, wrestles his siblings, plays hard... all the things he wasn't allowed to do before because of the worry of him getting hurt.
Owen is a very active, curious, and headstrong little boy. He fits in so well with our other children and even though it's only been 2 weeks since he's been home, already we can't imagine this silly, stubborn, sweet little boy anywhere but here. We are so blessed to have found him, so blessed to have been able to bring him home, so blessed to have him as our son!!
Thank you!
Sincerely,
The W family
(Shane, Staci, Ella, Noah, Addie, Max, and Owen)
We have been home for 2 weeks from China with our new son Owen and now that things have settled down some we wanted to be sure to send you an update to let you know how things are going, and most importantly, to thank you again from the bottom of our hearts for your hugely generous grant to help us get to where we are today. Looking back at our finances, it's clear that without your grant we would simply not have had the funds needed for the travel expenses to bring our son home. I had originally thought we'd be using a credit card if we had to, but we don't even have enough room on one to have covered that much! We went into this adoption not really knowing where we would find the money, but knowing in our hearts that God would provide and we would find a way to bring our son home. And He did, through your foundation. Thank you just doesn't seem adequate, but thank you, thank you so so much for the part you played in bringing our son home for good!
Speaking of our son, Owen is doing so well! We have a long ways to go, but we see steps in the right direction every day. Owen has quite a few institutional behaviors and it's very obvious that he has never had anyone to count on in the orphanage. He is very independent and until recently seemed pretty comfortable in his own world, not really seeking out our approval or our attention as much as we would have liked. That is starting to change, and he has started to follow us or his siblings around the house, he's started to really melt into our hugs, he's started to climb into our laps and ask for help. All of these things are such a huge step from where we started. It's so amazing to watch this little boy blossom and grow with the love of a family!
Medically, we are starting to figure things out. We have so much to learn yet about hemophilia. Thankfully we have a fantastic Hemophilia Treatment Center that we've been working with, and they've made sure that we had the medication we needed for Owen since day one so that he didn't have to miss any treatments. They've also done a great job educating us and preparing us for all of the ins and outs of this disorder. We were correct in assuming that Owen wasn't receiving enough medication in China, so we're very happy to have him home sooner rather than later to get him on the proper dose to prevent bleeding or trauma. He walks with a slight limp that we think may be due to damage from joint bleeds he had prior to having medication in China. Since he's been home we have taken one trip to the ER when he fell and hit his head, but other than that things have been fairly smooth sailing so far. Since he's on medication regularly we can allow him to live life as normally as possible. He runs around chasing his brother, climbs, wrestles his siblings, plays hard... all the things he wasn't allowed to do before because of the worry of him getting hurt.
Owen is a very active, curious, and headstrong little boy. He fits in so well with our other children and even though it's only been 2 weeks since he's been home, already we can't imagine this silly, stubborn, sweet little boy anywhere but here. We are so blessed to have found him, so blessed to have been able to bring him home, so blessed to have him as our son!!
Thank you!
Sincerely,
The W family
(Shane, Staci, Ella, Noah, Addie, Max, and Owen)
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