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)

July Update

Hi All!  If you are still occasionally checking this blog, please forgive me for taking sooo long to finally write an update.  Life has been very hectic here at the Krol household as you can imagine!  Little Catherine is doing GREAT!  She is such a ball of energy and so much fun!  Her sweet smiles and mischievous glances warm our hearts daily.  She is learning more words every day and I am constantly amazed at how much she understands, even though she is not talking a whole lot yet.  She is able to say all her brothers' names and loves to echo me, especially when I am calling one of them!  Feeding her can be somewhat of a challenge as she seems to have lost the voracious appetite she had while we were in China.  Peanut butter and jelly and milk and cereal, two of our mainstays, are NOT her favorites.  She does love our macaroni and cheese, though, which is a very good thing! 

Broccoli a la mode!  (we will resort to bribery to get her to eat her veggies :)

It is so hard to believe August is here...summer is almost over and in some ways, I feel like it has just begun.  After spending most of June in China, July just whizzed by in a blur of swim practices and meets and doctor's appointments and now it is August and school is looming on the horizon.  The boys all had a wonderful summer season at the pool.  Peter and Patrick led their age groups in achieving points for the team, both placing consistently in Breaststroke and Butterfly.  Christopher also had a lot of fun and took plenty of time off his freestyle and backstroke.  Catherine Fujuan was amazingly good through it all as she spent some LONG hours at meets and practices.  It so encouraged me to see her joy at catching sight of one of her brothers (especially Christopher); she would point and giggle excitedly.  It is different having a little girl.  Some of my preconceived ideas have been shattered!  For example, girls are NOT quieter or calmer or less likely to get into things (at least ours, anyway!)  They DO, however, love their bows and dresses and baby dolls, which is so much fun for Mommy!

Our little Bullfrog
(That is the name of the kids' summer swim team)

Enjoying a story read by her big brother

We were able to see an orthopedic surgeon at Johns Hopkins Hospital last month and feel so blessed that we live not 20 minutes away from such a world-renown hospital.  Dr. Sponseller, the chief of Peds. Orthopedics, gave us the news that our precious daughter will need back surgery probably within the next 6 months to place a rod in her back.  It is called a "grow rod" and will need to be lengthened surgically as she grows (possibly every 6 months to a year).  Not exactly what we wanted to hear,  but not too surprising. The awesome part is that her doctor is the leading expert in this technique!  (God is so good!)  She has an MRI scheduled for the 17th of August which she will have to be put to sleep for.  Then the 19th we will return to hear the results and discuss surgery dates/details.  Please pray for these appointments that God would protect her and make His will very clear to us.  Our family has been so overwhelmed by the hand of God in our lives throughout this journey, and we know He will continue to carry us through.  And we are so grateful for the encouragement and support of all our family and friends...you are all a huge blessing!  I will definitely try to be better about updating you all more frequently on all the happenings here :)

The whole gang!

PS  I will post new pictures as soon as my IT guy (Peter, of course!) is available to help me :)

PPS  Finally got those pictures done courtesy of "Computer Geek" (aka Peter)

Home at Last!

      We are HOME!!!!  It feels so good to be here after 18 days in another country, I can't begin to tell you!  We arrived home very late Wednesday night after 30 some hours of traveling.  Christopher's comment as the plane touched down said it all:  "Mommy, welcome to the USA!"  All the kids did amazingly well.  I am so blown away by how great all my kids did this entire trip!  By the time we got everyone to bed it was around 2:30 am Thursday morning.  Needless to say we are all still in recovery mode but slowly getting back to EST.  The kids have jumped right back into swim practice and birthday parties and I know are thrilled to be back.

      The last couple days in China were busy with getting Catherine Fujuan's Visa, taking our oath with the US Consulate, and doing some last minute souveneir shopping.  We traveled as a group to the Consulate and met beforehand to take pictures of all the adopted kids on the famous Red Sofas at the White Swan.  It was so fun to see all the kiddos dressed up in their Chinese finery for the picture. 
Since we've been home we have had our first appointment with our pediatrician.  She was thrilled with Catherine's social skills and bright affect!  After just a couple days home she has picked up so many English words and seems so happy to be here,  playing and exploring.  At breakfast the other day she took my empty plate to the dishwasher and put it in; a trick my other children haven't mastered yet :)
     Our major concern is the very apparent spinal defect and there is concern that she has more spinal cord involvement than we realized.  We have been able to get an appointment within 10 days to see a pediatric orthopedic surgeon at Hopkins.  Please pray for her (and us and the doctors) as we work to figure out her problems and the best ways to treat her.
      We are so amazed at the way God has blessed our family with this precous little one.  We will keep you all updated with her progress and our family happenings.  Thank you again for all your support and encouragement and prayers!  To God be all the Glory...

Go to our PicasaWeb to see more photos!

Sunday…Day 14 in China

Well, last night we had a wonderful dinner at a restaurant named “Lucy’s”. The food is quite American (with Chinese too if you want) and they had AWESOME steamed veggies. My crew really chowed down on the broccoli! This morning we visited the Folk Art Museum which was very interesting. The embroidery especially amazed me. Afterwards, we came back to the Hotel and discovered the famous White Swan Playroom. What a fun place! Lots of ride-on and push toys as well as beach balls and mostly wide open SPACE to run around. I think Patrick and Christopher enjoyed it as much as Fu Juan! After living in hotel rooms for two weeks, they had so much fun throwing balls and running around! Sorry that we have not blogged as consistently this last week. It is much more expensive to get internet in the room here in Goungzhou and we have just been so busy! Stan and I basically fall into bed at night with the kids around 9:30 and we all sleep pretty soundly until almost 7am. A HUGE answer to prayer!

On To Guangzhou

The last couple of days in Beijing have been a nice change from the fast pace we’ve been keeping up. Day before yesterday, we had a much needed day off. We had a leisurely breakfast, lounged around the hotel room and spent some time swimming in the pool. Actually, the younger guys have managed to get a swim in every day as I have a work out in their tiny gym which has been nice. Fu Juan was able to take a long nap and have a bit more of a normal day. Then yesterday, we visited the Summer Palace, where the Emperors and their families spent the summers. This was probably my favorite field trip so far! The air there seemed cleaner and cooler with a breeze blowing off the lake surrounded by beautiful weeping willow trees. Fu Juan actually consented to ride in her stroller the whole time which was a nice break for my arms. (Although, it has been wonderful carrying my sweet girl around!) Dinner these past couple of nights have been interesting. One night we took taxis to a restaurant Stan had found on the internet before we left home that was supposed to have healthier fare. It was very good, especially the broccoli. Last night we walked to a Chinese place right down the street from the hotel. After much miscommunication, our dinner finally came but I could not bring myself to let the kids eat the chicken dish we had ordered that looked VERY undercooked. We wound up walking back to the hotel and eating there AGAIN. LOTS of rice and bread! Whenever we go anywhere, heads continue to turn and I think it is wearing on the boys. Seems every time I turn around one or more of them is having their pictures taken. It’s like being celebrities!!

Today we are off to GZH…hooray!!!!! We all wish we could head home but in just 5 more days that’s what we’ll be doing! We are anxious to catch back up with the rest of our travel group and meet their new little ones. Now that we are seasoned travelers, the 3 hour plane ride seems like nothing! Our little Fu Juan is weathering it well without her usual motion sickness, thank you, Lord!

(Continuation…) We made it to the White Swan Hotel. WOW!!! This place is incredible: An indoor water fall with a huge goldfish pond and lots of flowers and greenery everywhere. This is a very nice change from the grayness of Beijing. Despite the beautiful surroundings, we all are having a hard time. We just want to be home now after two weeks away! Part of the problem is that as nice as it is to be in different surroundings, we had really gotten used to Beijing and knew where things were (sort of!). Last night when we got in kind of late, we had no idea where to eat or where to find water. We managed with granola bars and snacks in the room. I think my guys may never want to eat another granola bar again after this trip. It has been great, however, to reconncect with our travel group. It was so fun seeing everyone at Breakfast this morning with their new little ones. Today we had the medical exam which was fast and easy. Then we worked on paperwork. Tomorrow we go as a group to see a folk art museum and then Monday we have our appointment at the consulate in the afternoon. We are getting there step by step! Thank you for your continued prayers and thoughts; it is truly sustaining food for our spirits!