Gratitude

Everyone is asleep so I finally get to blog...  I wanted to include a letter that I had written to update folks by email and express my gratitude and joy.  Sorry if some of this is a repeat. ...[Stan]

Our many thanks to all of the folks who have helped us and continue to help an pray for us. Catherine Fujuan has been with us since June 2nd and doing just fantastic. Her personality blends so well with our family that it is hard to believe that there was a time that she was not with us. It has only been (almost) 4 months. That is in itself a milestone as at age 3 and a half, this is the longest that she has ever had a family. I think she loves us too. She is always so full of joy, is playful, loves clothes and dolls, and has an incredible sense of humor. Some folks talk of how lucky this little girl is that we adopted her but she brings us so much joy that it is we who are truly blessed to have her in our lives.

Catherine’s physical development has also been amazing. When we first received Catherine, she would walk short distances and wanted to be carried. I don’t think she did much walking in the orphanage as the bottoms of her feet were tender like a baby’s feet. She couldn’t go up the one step from our sunken family-room at first. Now she goes up and down complete flights of stairs, runs, climbs and gymnastics class. She seems to really enjoy her new found strength and abilities. It is hard to believe that she even needs surgery.

We adopted Catherine knowing she had a diagnosis of congenital scoliosis, some vertebral deformities and spina bifida. We are well prepared to provide her with all the necessary treatments. She is under the care of some of the finest doctors (probably in the world) at Johns Hopkins. On September 30th, Catherine will go in for spinal surgery. She has a tethered spinal cord and, what the doctor described as, a “bony bar” in one of her lower vertebrae that divides the spinal cord. Sometime later, she will likely need orthopedic surgery.

To see her, it is hard to believe that Catherine has all this going on. She runs and plays and, for the most part, seems to show no symptoms of any problem. On occasion however, and possibly more frequent now, she complains of a pain in her lower back. We do know that if it is left untreated she will have major problems later. How many more children are over there with similar health problems that will debilitate unless treated? We are thankful for the opportunity and the resources to help this child, our daughter.

I am completely awestruck at the way God provides and cleared all the obsticles for adopting Catherine, the China travel and now with the way He continues to place people in our lives who are willing to help and people who are exactly the people we need. He has provided us with people to translate, notaries, friends, family, top medical experts, people in the medical know and folks who pray.  The list goes on...

Our many thanks and may God bless all who have and are helping us now. Please keep praying for Catherine, for us and for the doctors.

Blessings
Stan and Christina

Slideshow

Peter has been working hard this week creating a slide show of our China adventure to bring home our beautiful little one!  He added music, and it brings tears to my eyes evry time I watch it.  We want to share this with all of you too.  Thank you for all your support, encouragement and prayers!

Click here to watch it in HD and download a higher quality version.

September Update... Baptism and Surgery

Once again the days have flown by, and I can't believe it has been since July that I posted last!  We are back in the thick of homeschooling and LOTS of swim  practices, all while trying to sandwich in multiple  doctor/dentist/orthodontist appointments and learning how to do all this with our new, lovely three year old along!!  Whew!  It makes me tired just reading what I've written :)  God is SO GOOD, though, and He alone is sustaining us during this BUSY time.

First the latest happy news:  Catherine Fujuan Krol, child of the Covenant, was baptized on Sunday September 12th.  What a joyous, emotional celebration!  ALL my immediate family made it up here from Roanoke, VA (my Mom, brother Scott, sisters Susan and Cynthia, and their spouses),  Stan's parents and two aunts were able to make it as well.  The service was amazing...it was so wonderful to officially welcome her into the family of God, even as we know His hand has been upon her forever.  I sang the little song I have sung for all my boys at their baptisms,  "Jesus, Let Us Come to Know You" (changing the "us" to "her"), and I was able to make it through without tears until the very end (thank you Holy Spirit for holding me up so everyone could hear the words and pray the prayer with me!)  THEN, of course, I broke down but they were tears of sheer joy as I KNOW she is loved by her Father in heaven so much more than I am capable and He has plans for her (and our family's) good (Romans 8:28).  We had a wonderful visit with family and friends that day and, of course, little Catherine was the star of the show!

Our other big news is that Catherine Fujuan is scheduled for a laminectomy with release of a tethered spinal cord on this Thursday, September 30th at 8:45am.  In laymen's terms, she has a wedge-shaped piece of vertebrae (fused in her lumbar region) that has split the cord into two pieces and the bottom of her cord is stuck, as well.  They will remove some bone and where it has split the spinal cord, the cord wil be repaired and then released.  I have probably done a poor job explaining the procedure, so any of you medical types reading this, forgive me.  She will be at Johns Hopkins Hospital (her surgeon is Dr. George Jallo, the head of Pediatric Neurosurgery) for about 5 days.  Please pray for us during this challenging time.  My Mom is coming back from Roanoke to stay with us and Stan will be off work for the duration of her hospital stay which are both huge blessings!!  I will try to post updates next week as they happen...stay tuned and thank you in advance for all your prayers!

One final note!  There are SO MANY wonderful things happening here that I have not taken the time to relate!  I wish that I had time to tell you every single one!!!!  But mostly, I want to end this update by saying that I feel I am the most blessed mother in the world :)  It is hard to imagine our life before Catherine Fujuan anymore, she has become that much an integral  part of this family!  God has blessed us beyond our wildest imaginings with the daughter of our dreams.  And each of my boys have taken on the new role of "big brother" with so much joy and enthusiam that my love, respect and admiration has grown for each of them exponentially.  I have always known what wonderful children I have, but God has truly been revealing more and more of their servant's hearts to me.  Finally, I just want to share that if any of you have ever felt a tug at your heart to adopt, PLEASE pray about it and seek God's will for your family.  There are SO MANY children out there who need loving homes.  Maybe your child is out there waiting for you! 

"...thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumphal procession in Christ and through us spreads everywhere the fragrance of the knowledge of him.  For we are to God the aroma of Christ...the fragrance of life." (2Corinthians 2:14-16)