So, my sincerest apologies for those of you who were following our blog who are not on FaceBook because we just kind of left you hanging since we arrived in China. Internet connection issues and other technology issues left me unable to edit my blog after that first time while in China and once we got back, well...needless to say, we've been busy adjusting to our new normal. I was able to post on FB, though, so that's where I did all my updates and have updated a few times via FB, short and sweet posts, since being home. Well, we have been home for two months today and we are finally coming up for air...at least for a second. I figured I might do a blog post with an update or two.
So life has been a little hectic. Overall we are all adjusting well. There have certainly been some challenges, but we are making it and things are better each day. We've seen many medial professionals in the past two months- from the dentist and pediatrician to a cardiologist and ophthalmologist. We discovered early on that Zach had a cataract on his left eye and was severely near-sighted in his right eye (I'm talking -10.5 prescription, which is crazy blind; I mean, I'm a -5.5 and can hardly see without my glasses), so the poor boy was basically not able to see. We have since had cataract surgery to remove the cataract (at which time a cataract was discovered on his right eye, too, but since it's not visually significant the eye doc recommends just monitoring it). We had a follow up visit two weeks ago and things were looking promising, but they won't be able to know for sure what his vision is until his next visit which is in two weeks. At that time we will get a prescription for glasses for him. We are pretty certain, based on our own, very non-medical eye tests (that is, cover your right eye and tell me how many fingers we are holding up) that he can see. Because we have no way of knowing how long the cataract has been there, there was a good chance that Zach would still not be able to see out of that eye even after the surgery because apparently the nerve that carries the signal from the eye to the brain dies when it's not used for a long time. This does not seem to be the case, as we feel very hopeful that is, in fact, able to see from his left eye! This is a huge praise to God!!
Other than this, he is a very healthy boy. We do still have a hearing test coming up to check his hearing and a sleep study that we have chosen to postpone till the summer.
Zach started school after the holidays and LOVES it. He is in fifth grade and is being well taken care of by the special education teacher at the school. We are still in the evaluation and IEP development process with the school so that we can determine the most appropriate plan for his education. I start back to work, officially seeing kids this week, too. We shall see how that goes!
We have gained so many insights into how God's hand is at work in Zach's life and how He is working through all of this. I've also gained insight as to how Satan is still trying to sabotage God's beautiful plan. I have so many blog post topics that I've started in my journal about the things we are learning that need to come to life, but I've just not had time. I do plan on sharing these insights in the near future. Please stay tuned! And please continue to keep us in your prayers because we are still in the trenches and working things out. But we have come so far from where we were two months ago and know that things are going to continue improving. Thanks for your support and prayers!!
