Big change for Joshua!!

We are thrilled that Joshua successfully transferred from the oscillating ventilator (which uses high pressure) to a conventional ventilator yesterday, and he has been doing well with it today. He is down to 45% oxygen setting and it is set at 20 breaths/minute and he is breathing above that on his own.  They had to move him to another room (I'm glad I was  not there for that!) and he did fine with it. Even tolerated a sponge bath tonight though didn't like it. He got is urinary catheter out too and they've reduced his meds (no more paralytic and less sedation) so he can move a little and have bowel movements.  We praise God for the progress Joshua has made in the past week...he continues to surprise us all and we know that God continues to give him grace in this trial.


How you can pray:  Joshua is easily agitated when the nurses are working with him, and even the stimulation of being talked to or his hand held can at times cause him to start moving his limbs and head ...which cause his heart rate and respirations to increase a lot. The good news is that his oxygen saturation is not plummeting badly like a week or so ago. Please pray that he will be able to be comfortable and calm so his body can heal and strengthen.  Also, he may need to get a CT scan this week to see how is lungs are doing...that would be a huge ordeal since he'd have to go to another floor and would require him to be "bagged" and hand ventilated during it....I don't want to even think about that....please pray for the doctor to have continued wisdom and that God would continue to bless this special boy with safety and healing of his lungs which have damage from being on the high pressure vent.  Also that he will be able to wean off of this vent and recover fully. 


Thanks so much!

Vent change went well! :)

Joshuas switch to the regular vent went well...praise God. He was taking breaths on his own above the setting too. He was a little agitated with them messing with him but I think he's doing well now. So relieved Keep praying that Joshua does well as they slowly adjust things to wean him and that his lungs will heal from damage. Thanks again.

May be big changes for Joshua today...please pray!
Update from my husband....
Joshua had a good night and is doing well today....he is currently sating at 97%. MD is dropping his vent pressure to 14, and in a couple hours rechecking blood gases and may drop to 13 at that point, and if he continues to do well they may move him to conventional ventilator this afternoon! She will be monitoring him closely, but all things look pretty good right now.

Please keep him in prayer...especially that the doctor will have wisdom, that if they switch him to the conventional ventilator that he will do well with the transfer and this big change, and that he will kept calm (not too wakeful) with the whole process. And please pray us to have peace too john at the hospital with him and me here at home with the kids (my parents are back home).

Wear blue for Joshua!

A relative of ours is hosting this event again TOMORROW and each Tuesday while Joshua fights for his life in the Pediatric ICU. We are thankful he is still with us and will be wearing blue tomorrow if you want to join us They are working on lowering his air pressures and keeping him calmer...uneventful day so far which was nice as John actually came home for a little family time (just a few hours but we'll take it). Please pray Joshua's lungs heal, that he is kept calm, and that he adapts well to lower pressures on oscillating vent so he can transfer to regular ventilator soon. Thanks again

https://www.facebook.com/events/681612335193901/

Rollercoaster

Last night our sweet boy threw us another curveball...he developed a pneumothorax gain, this time on his right side of his lungs. They had to call the doctor in to put in a chest tube. Immediately his oxygen sats went up to 99  after haven dropped to 80. The doctor thought it might have been a blessing in disguise as a follow up X-ray showed his lung now fully inflated and no longer fluid around it. So thankful.

Early afternoon today he threw another pneumo on his right side....now 3 chest tubes...two in the right and one on the left. Again his sats went right up afterwards.  Thankful he tolerated it and it helped. So hard to see him needing more tubes and interventions.  

Last Friday we prepared to say goodbye....twice before I'd rushed in here not knowing if I'd get to see him again. Each time he has held on. Last Friday though we had the dreaded talk with the doctors preparing us for what could lie ahead. They'd nearly exhausted what they could do with technology but had a few changes they could make. Either he would respond, or he would continue to decline...and eventually go into heart and organ failure.  We were thankful for the tremendous effort expended on saving our son. I was thankful there was a glimmer of hope still...if he responded.

Yet That night I wept before The Lord. So aware of my helplessness and his vulnerability. I wanted my son back, to see him renewed and made whole again, for the prayers of so many to be answered for his physical healing. Yet I also knew Joshua was in the hands of God, who is loving, merciful, all-powerful, all-knowing and good, and that His ways are far above mine.  I went to bed (because my dear husband told me I needed to :) exhausted and spent, not knowing what the night would bring.  And he rallied! In fact he amazed the doctors I think.  His sats were pretty good even when he had the first pneumothorax....they couldn't believe he was at 91 with only one lung. 

 They also couldn't believe that his skin on his back looked good despite the fact that he has laid on it for 3 weeks, as he's not been able to be flipped like they usually do. Miracle.

Then last night we once again rode this roller coaster ride. We are weary.  The kids miss their daddy who has kept vigil here. The hardest part of having lots of kids is when one gets hospitalized and  I need to be home with the others (john can work here while he watches over his care with his medical awareness).  I've been in here a few times now overnights when he's been critical....I'm grateful that I've been able to be here but it's very hard on the kids who need me emotionally too.  

As I sit here at his bed I see 3 tubes draining stuff out of my son. Despite being on sedatives and paralytics Joshua has been moving his arms and head today...  Especially if you hold his hand or talk to him.  It does my heart good to see it even for a moment. He really needs to be CALM and still, so I've been trying to not stimulate him even though I want to hold his hand.

The pneumothoraxes are being caused by the high pressure of the oscillating ventilator (he had to switch from the regular ventilator--where he could help with the breaths--to this high pressure one that vibrates the lungs to move th oxygen around, because his oxygen sats were too low. The goal now is to wean him down in the percentage of oxygen being delivered by the vent and lower the pressures. If they don't he will keep incurring damage to his lungs.  So far he is doing okay...holding in the low 90s for his Sats on 65 percent oxygen and pressure lowered to 25.

We again do not know what the night will bring. Yet we pray to the One who knows and who loves our boy far more than we ever could. The One who sustained him in the orphanage, who rescued and set him in our family, and who has put on so many hearts around the country (and even others) to intercede for this one boy who has infinite value.  Thank you for listening and for praying!

Update

A little Joshua update (from John):
After a great day yesterday, a little reality check about just how sick our little man is...

The MD showed me his x-ray this AM, and while there is some improvement in his right lower lobe, he has multiple small pockets of air that appear about the size of a nail head. These are areas that are at risk for also leaking (developing new pneumothoraces), and the MD... is watching him closely.
Joshua had to go back up on his O2 slightly early today, but is now back to 60%, so this is as low as we can go without weaning down on the vent settings, which is good. He has spent most of the day with O2 hovering 92-94%, at times getting above 95% briefly. He has also struggled some with high BP and HR due to agitation, which may be due to sedative and paralytic med changes. The MD also warned that one of the drug combos he is on may cause nightmares, so he is trying to guard against that as much as possible to help Joshua stay calm.

The chest tube still is pulling alot of fluid and air, so the pneumothorax still needs to heal. Once pressure comes down on the vent, it will have a better chance.

Thanks all for continued prayers.

Wear blue for Joshua!

Today is "Wear blue for Joshua" day! We are wearing blue for him and praying for him.
If you are wearing blue today, please send us a picture at childrenpreciousinhissight@gmail.com :) Thanks for praying for Joshua!

Joshua sporting his blue boot..go Joshua!!

Sean singing "Blues Clues" for Joshua :)

Joshua's sisters are sending their love!

Update

Sorry..thought John had posted...Joshua had a good day! They continued to wean him off nitric oxide...he is down from 30 to 3 as of recently and doing well with it. He continues to get rid of fluids but not as quickly. His X-ray shows improvement but pneumothorax still resolving. The doctor wants to get him off paralytic so he moves just a little to get rid of fluid and the plan tonight is to sta...rt slowly weaning to less percentage of oxygen 5 degrees at a time. Tonight our little prince has 3 nurses to himself as he is the only patient in PICU so far. Please pray that Joshua handles the oxygen weaning and cming off paralytic well, that he will not develop any secondary infections , for his heart to be strong and lungs to heal fully. I came back home today to be with the kids as my mom needed to go home...glad to be here with the other 8 but I'm missing being with my sick boy (John is there). Appreciate so much your prayers. Don't forget to wear blue tomorrow for Joshua (event being held by our second cousin)! When she told us about it, we didn't even know if he'd be alive on the 21st....now he has made a turn around and we have hope. Praise God!

Joshua had a good night!

Joshua had a good night, except we got some excitement (ha ha) last night. Apparently every Sunday night at 10:00 and again at 10:30, the hospital checks its generator system and for a brief second or 2, the power is cut. This means that Joshua's oscillator was turned off. Unless someone is right there to turn it back on, it stays off. Fortunately, the nurse was right there and was able to tur...n it back on at 10:00. The MD was calling frantically whomever she could reach in admin to tell them they were supposed to forego that test because they had an oscillator running.
At 10:28, a respiratory therapist showed up to be with the nurse in the redy, waiting with baited breath along with both Traci and I, 10:30 rolled around, and nothing. We began to breathe easier. The respiratory therapist was just getting ready to leave Joshua's side at 10:35 when "pop" the power was off. She had the oscillator running within 2 seconds. His oxygen never dropped below 95%- thank God!
Besides that little piece of drama, Joshua remains just plugging away at coming down on nitric oxide, draining fluid off him. The challenge now is to keep him from getting too dry- he can get dehydrated even though he has too much fluid in his tissues still. His BP is down around more normal limits, so they will watch this carefully to make sure he does not go too low.
Traci will go home today, and at least she can leave on a good note. It is supposed to snow here tomorrow, so looks like she may have to wait a couple days before coming back.
Praise God for continued progress!

Sunday morning update

Joshua did well over the night....they even started weaning him off the nitric oxide and his oxygen was at 97 when I came in here. He was such a good boy that John and I both got a little sleep. Sleeping on an extra floor in the PICU has its drawbacks (like hearing the alarms go off and I got worried when I saw one of the nurses moving very quickly) but we've been thankful to have a bed nearby for... sure He has drained a lot of stuff out of the chest tube...400 initially and I think another 300 since. I'm wondering if they will move the vent to the other side today as he's been in this position for longer than usual since he was so sensitive to any position change those few days. So, we've been given hope again. Praise be to God!

A good update!

Here is another update...his oxygen is a lot better! yeah! :) Please keep praying!
Haylee

"

Unbelievable, but Joshua is running 99-100% O2 sats right now! He is experiencing high BP, which I am not excited about, but he is peeing off alot of fluid, so hopefully the fluid overload he is in will subside and this will come down.
The recent x-ray taken a little while after getting the chest tube showed that his left lung had greatly expanded, so we are happy to see him respond so positively....
Talking with the doctor earlier, she shared there is still hope, and even though it is slim, she and her partner at the PICU could not expect such a positive turn around.
We anticipate he will have a good night, but here are the continued prayer requests:
1) He is still on high vent pressures, which means that he could develop a right pneumothorax.
2) His heart will stay strong- it has really had to work hard.
3) He continues to get more fluid off him and his kidneys stay strong.
4) Peace for the Adamson household- gradparents having to deal with children that are worn out emotionally and so not always being little angels : ).
5) Continued strength for Haylee and Naomi, who are really stepping up to assist like little mommys.
6) Traci Adamson to get over her cold that has been lingering.
7) Me to get more sleep so I don't crash physically.

Blessings to all of you,

John"

Pray for Joshua

Here are 2 updates from facebook this morning...

"Okay friends, I know you are praying as Joshua had a good night...reaching up to 93 and he survived a brief emergency....oscillating ventilator turned OFF briefly...they think from build up of water but they fixed it and restarted it ...he only dropped down to 80 and recovered quickly though not quite as high (miracle!) John and i are so glad we were not in the room when that happened...got a litt...le more sleep as he had awesome nurse Gynette who has worked with him alot and promised to get us if he declined. He has been at 90 the past 2 hours and HR and BP look good. His bloodwork looked a little improved. He is really needing to lose fluid as he is very edematous. Will see what Doctor says about chest X-ray...Please pray for Dr. B and his nurses Amanda and Christina today, and for healing of his lungs and body and continued improvement. Thank you all!"

"Hi all,
Joshua has developed a pneumothorax (literally "air in the chest"), because his left lung has a leak, and the lung is completely collapsed. However, his O2 sats remain at 91%, so the MD would like to insert a chest tube, which will drain off air and allow his lung to inflate again. Like any procedure, there is risk inherent, so we pray for him to tolerate it well, and it to make a differ...ence.

He remains very swollen throughout his body. His BP is also high and he is easily agitated with people messing with him, so we pray that he will feel no pain with the insertion of the chest tube.

Traci Adamson and I remain here with him. We are thankful for Traci's Mom, who has been sacrificing being up in MD to remain with the kids."

He is getting the tube inserted right now...please keep praying for him!

The Sweetest Face

The more I spend time with our Joshua, the more I'm convinced that this is the sweetest, most beautiful face. I have studied it and studied it. It is so pure, innocent, and peaceful.

Look at this sweet foot...and his hands that we love so much. They are my constant companions.

When he is himself (not sick or sedated) his hands were never still ...actually his whole body was always moving...so it is very hard to see him so still from the sedation. And he loves to vocalize...he is just too quiet now. What I wouldn't give to see those brilliant blue eyes and hear is silly laugh.

 I am missing my kids at home terribly...I came in here again a couple days ago when Joshua was going down on his stats. After talking to the doctor we decided I need to stick around as if he declines he could go quickly as his lungs are stiff. Despite feeling homesick and wanting to be there emotionally and physically for my other 8 children, I am thankful to be here to spend some time with Joshua. Rubbing his feet, holding his hand and his head, talking to him, praying over him, helping the nurses when I can.

Occasionally, he shows signs of waking up. They have to give him more sedative/pain medicine when this happens as it adversely affects his vitals and he could fight against the oscillating ventilator (as he starts to feel how strange it feels). But in those brief moments when he moves his eyebrows, starts moving his tongue and lips and moves his hands, it blesses me to "see" him move...like last night when the nurse cleaned him with a warm washcloth.

When my children came to see their brother yesterday, Joshua was responding to the loving he was getting (not sure if it was the loving touches, their talking to him, or both but it blessed me through my tears to see it. So glad God gave them the courage to come and love on him. It is not easy to see their happy, petite brother still and very swollen. Yesterday especially they knew how very critical he is so even my joyful little girls were somber. They know that if the Lord should choose to take him, that Joshua will be in Paradise with Him and in perfect peace. Still it is hard to imagine and we hope and pray. We are grateful for the prayers and love extended to us on Joshua's behalf.

                                                           Joshua with all his friends    

(I mean you can't go from being in a house with 8 brothers and sisters to having a hospital bed all alone!)

Update on Joshua...

Hi guys! Here is an update about Joshua...please keep praying!!


"Joshua had a good night. This morning his says had gotten to 95 at 5 am. He tolerated a sponge bath though was grimacing...raising his eyebrows and moving his mouth and arm as the nurse and I did it. A treasured moment when I got to see him in there since he's so sedated. His sats came down when he was repositioned and was coming back up. When X-ray came and slid the board under him he started going down on o2 quickly....down in 60s...they adjusted and its come up some (78 now) but hasnt recovered. Appreciate your prayers right now for this dear child."


love,
Haylee

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Update on Joshua

Please please keep praying for Joshua!
He is very sick...his oxygen levels have been going down to the 70's and 80's, then going back up to the 90's...he is one little sick boy. The xray showed that his lungs are getting stiff.
Here is an update this morning from my mom at the hospital:


"Joshuas hanging in there....his oxygen is at 95!
The Dr met with us and showed us on xray that his lungs appear to be stiffening which is not good (that combined with the swelling of his trunk) makes it harder for air to circulate.She is trying an antifungal in addition to the antibiotics. He is at risk of cardiac failure if his oxygen level plummets which would happen quickly...but so far his heart and kidneys have been okay. Pray God does the fighting for him and heals him before he wears out. Also for grace for our Kids who are foing the affects of daddy and mommy being gone and concern for their brother."

Love,
Haylee

The dinosaur in this picture was sent by a 5 year-old named Ethan who is praying for him :) 

Joshua's story part 2

Joshua outside

Joshua smiling :)

In my previous post (Part I of Joshua's story) I shared about how God lead us to adopt our precious boy as well shared what Joshua was like so that people who are so faithfully praying for him could "know" him a little bit.  Since adopting him in 2010, we have been forever changed.  Back then, we thought we were adopting him for his sake-to rescue him, to give him the love of a family, to provide for his medical needs etc.  We are realizing that it was even more so for US. Joshua is a truly a GIFT.

                                                         Joshua's cute little smile!

God has taught us so much about His love for each of us through Joshua. Before we adopted our son Sean, I'd heard a sermon about how selfish "love" usually is--we tend to love people that do things for us and make us happy.  That is not God's kind of love. After we adopted Joshua my husband had the opportunity to share with believers we met in Ukraine about how much we are all like Joshua before God...completely helpless in our humanity and sin, and dependent upon Christ for life and salvation. We are all "disabled"  before God's throne if you think about it. Joshua can't  he "do" anything to help or love us in ways we are used to being loved.  God loves us despite our inability to do anything for him...He loves us despite our sinfulness with an unconditional love. He gives us grace, by offering us forgiveness and salvation that we could never earn...simply by putting our faith in His son Jesus who died for us.

                                              Naomi with Joshua, and Haylee with Lily on the slide



Through Joshua and our other adopted kids, God has shown me just how far I fall short of His love...and how much I need HIM to truly love. There have been times when I'd feel weary. Times when I couldn't settle him down in the middle of the night and I'd feel overwhelmed and doubt. There were times when I haven't been as patient as I should. When I cried out to God and sought His strength and forgiveness.  God uses our challenges to refine us...and to show us we need to rely on HIM to truly love unconditionally like Him and that we can do all things through Christ who strenghens us.

                                        Sean showing concern for his little brother :)

When I look back, I wish so much I'd spent more time holding and just loving on Joshua and not been so busy with daily life with our 9 kids (did I mention we've had water (well)  problems, other health crisis' in our family, laundry machine problems, etc??.. all distracting from just being a mom at times)   Despite all his care needs, Joshua is in many ways the easiest child we have--he is calm and happy most of time, content to look around and sleep.  Aside from being a little picky regarding food (he only likes it if its sweet :)  and at times a challenge to feed, most of the time he has enjoyed feedings. Unlike most kids, he can not really disobey or talk back either! :) He gets so excited over simple things--the wind blowing on his face, the beautiful bright sky, getting a kiss, being held, and hearing his family sing.  Sometimes I wonder...does God let him "see" things we can not?    Joshua brings out the good in people who meet him as well. Though he has never said a "word" (though is very vocal!) he shows us love in his own way every day. God gives him great peace and joy that blesses each of us.

                                                       Aidan helping feed Joshua
Joshua's hospitalization has shown me very clearly how fiercely we love this special boy...God has given us such a deep love for him that I never expected when we met him that first day in Ukraine. I thank God that He gave us the faith to bring Him home.  I would give anything to hear his loud squeal, to see his silly grin and giggle, to look into his beautiful blue eyes. I pray that we get those opportunities again. My daughter said the other night through her tears, "people who don't want to bring home severely disabled orphans don't know what they are missing."

                                                            Naomi and Joshua

                                                                  Outside
                                         

This was all very unexpected for us. When we had Joshua seen by a geneticist, we found out he has a rare condition where he is missing part of his 14th chromosome. We were told that he won't live a full life span and can die unexpectedly. He'd also told us not to expect progress, but since we'd seen some changes in him I didn't worry too much about the other things. When Joshua is not feeling well he has trouble with eating but usually in a day or so he gets back in the groove and does well. Before coming into the hospital he started not eating much and had a low fever and some white designs on his tongue (they said it was dehydration)  so we took him in thinking maybe he had a candida issue or virus... that's when they diagnosed his bowel obstruction and at first he was just sleeping away. When the NG tube was inserted (since they stopped feedings by mouth to let the obstruction clear) Joshua had a really hard time..He started producing tons of mucous and breathing issues with his stridor pattern which led to the intubation. He had the flu. And because he's swallowed alot of mucous it upset his stomach and he vomited ...which we think led to the aspiration pneumonia :( and then sepsis (infection in his blood that spreads throughout the body).

                                               In the beginning of his hospital stay

                                                        Sleeping at the hospital

Joshua and Daddy

Joshua is one sick little boy. We have thought that we were losing him a few times now and then he rallies again and his stats improve. He is a little fighter that is for sure. My husband summarized it well when he said that living between HOPE and DESPAIR is a really hard place to be. We cling to God and the truths of His Word... that Joshua is fearfully and wonderfully made (just as he is) , that he was made for a special purpose, that our help comes from Him who is an ever present help in trouble and that our times are ultimately in His hands.  We pray with all our hearts that it would be His will for Joshua to recover fully and continue to bless us and many others. Until then we give Him thanks for Joshua and each improvement he makes.  This is the hardest experience of our lives and we  know we couldn't endure apart from God and all of you...we  feel the prayers of so many people sustaining him and us. I've thought often about how amazing it is that so many people (even in other countries) are praying on behalf of this little boy that once lay in a bare crib in an orphanage. How awesome is our God! THANK YOU each for the prayers, help and encouragement.  My daughter Haylee added these pictures to my post so you can "see" Joshua too.
Love, the Adamson family

                                                                Poor baby :(

                                                      Elsie with Joshua on her 7th birthday
                                         

                                          Haylee being concerned for her brother


 "For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death. But that was to make us rely not on ourselves but on God who raises the dead. He delivered us from such a deadly peril, and he will deliver us. On him we have set our hope that he will deliver us again. You also must help us by prayer, so that many will give thanks on our behalf for the blessing granted us through the prayers of many." (2 Corinthians 1:8a-11)

                                              

Joshua's Story part 1

                                               In the Ukraine

We are so blessed that so many people are praying for our dear son Joshua. I wanted to share a little of his story so that those who do not know him will have that blessing too of "knowing" him. Please forgive the lack of format (I haven't been able to figure out that since blogger changed and doesn't keep my spacing etc) and if there are typos or parts don't make sense, that is likely because its 4 am (taking my turn with him while my husband gets to finally rest)!

                                                     Naomi and Joshua

His story actually starts with a little boy named Sean who friends of ours in SD adopted. He'd been in their foster care and was profoundly disabled--having seizures every few minutes and not interactive. This couple was asked if they'd adopt him and they said YES. John and I were so amazed and touched by God's love in them. A few months later we saw them and we saw such a remarkable change in Sean (not having seizures, giggling when his daddy tickled him) that God got our attention. Since becoming a christian, John had long had an interest in adopting a child as God adopted us into His family through faith in Christ. We started to look into special needs adoptions...and a friend told us about how her brother's family were adopting 2 girls with Down Syndrome through an organization called Reeces Rainbow (www.reecesrainbow.com) We began following their adoption story on their blog, as well as other adopting families and learned about this great ministry, that seeks to connect orphans with Down Syndrome and other disabilities in orphanages around the world with forever families. We learned about the plight of these special orphans, who are routinely abandoned at the hospital and if not adopted by age 4, are placed in adult institutions and often do not make it due to conditions there.

                                                            Joshua and Naomi on gotcha day at the orphanage!


We saw the faces of so many precious children..waiting. We could not beieve it and we grieved (every single one of us in our family) and we prayed. We knew needed to something and we realized that we had so much that they didn't have...LOVE, a family, health care, good nutrition. At the time we were living in a small 3 bedroom home in Rapid City but we knew that there was room for another one in our home and in our hearts.

                                                  Joshua at Christmas (2013)

So we prayed alot and God put on our heart to adopt a little boy named Slava on RR who has Downs Syndrome. It actually was our children who set their hearts on him. I was overwhelmed by so many (how can you choose?) but my son said, "I like them all but thats the one we need to get") We adopted Slava(3 years old) in May-June 2009 and named him Sean, after our friend's Sean. Before we left, we found out about a little 2 year-old girl named Lacie with Downs and we prepared to adopt her too, but when we got there she was not legally available yet. We were sad because we never thought we'd not get to go back--it was so expensive and so very challenging to be across the world from some of our children, but we kept praying for her and 6 months later had decided we needed to go back for her. While adopting Sean we saw a little boy in a stroller who seemed to have a mild neurological condition--and we asked about him as I just felt a burden for him too. When we decided to adopt Lacie, we kept asking about him but they kept showing us a picture of a different boy "Taras" with the same name (our Joshua now) who was more profoundly disabled. Finally they figured out who I was talking about and he had a different name...he was already being adopted. By this time, God had gotten our attention and we started to consider...could we adopt Taras too? Taras had a diagnosis (which we found out wasn't accurate) of abnormality of the 18th chromosome, agenesis of the corpus callosum (the part of brain connecting the two hemispheres didn't develop), microcephaly and history of seizures. He was said to be able to feed himself and understood what was spoken to him, but in the pictures he was always laying on his back so we knew he was very developmentally delayed.

                                                 Joshua looking

After much prayer we decided to seek to adopt him and leave it in the Lord's hands...He could certainly close that door. While we had no money for this adoption, in addition to our many attempts to fundraise God lead a family in Iowa we didn't know to put on a fundraiser concert to benefit a RR family, and we were chosen! Incredibly, this family raised over 22,000 dollars which paid the majority of our adoption cost. THis encouraged our faith that this was God's will for us to adopt him, as well as others things that happened in our adoption.

                                                               "I'm thinking"

When we arrived in Ukraine and met Joshua, we realized that the information we'd received was not accurate. He could not talk, could not feed himself (had to be bottle fed), he couldn't sit up (had not trunk control at all), and we didn't know what he could understand. He was profoundly impaired and much like an infant cognitively and bigger than the pictures as he was older. Honestly, we were a bit overwhelmed...could we handle a child that is dependant for all care? We had to make a decision to accept or decline his referral within a couple days, so we spent time with him and we prayed and we cried and we prayed and cried some more. Ultimately, we knew that we could not leave him there. His fate was certain...even then they were preparing him for the institution transfer by introducing puree banana on a spoon. Our translator told us that they don't do bottles at the institution and he'd be laid out on a mat on the floor there--there was no way he would get adequate nutrition and we knew from our therapy experience that he would aspirate and die. We thought of the verse, "whatever you do for the least of these brothers of mine, you do for me" and it was clear...we needed to bring him home. Our children back at home kept praying and posting messages on our blog, "please bring our brother home! God will help us!" We had shared with them realisticaly the lifelong challenges there would be and they remained resolute...this little boy laying in his bare crib most the day who was seen as discardable was their brother whom they loved. God had miraculously provided the money to bring him home as well....

                                                      Sweet boy!

So we said YES and started the journey of adopting him. Joshua ("Taras") and Lily ("Lacie") came home in August 2010. (You can read the whole adoption story on previous blog posts)
One thing that I had wondered about alot when we had been struggling a little with whether we could adopt Joshua was how I'd have a relationship with a child who didn't seem to respond to us or interact. I will never forget a couple months after we adopted him going in to check on him in the middle of the night (Joshua likes to "party" then) and suddenly he looked right at me and smiled...he focused on and "saw" me! It was awesome! This was a blessing to me to realize that we would have a relationship with him and not just take care of him. He would continue to show changes...like he would follow me with his eyes when I'd walk around the kitchen and when we'd hold him he would get very excited...and vocalize loudly! He also started rolling both directions, started having bowel movements some on his own (vs. suppository), and was able to eat some pureed foods by spoon on good days. Joshua loves to go outside and look around. He loves riding in the car especially with the windows down so he feels the air, and he loves music and to hear us singing at home or at church...he often will start squealing loudly at this time.

                                              Looking around outside..one of his favorite things to do!


Joshua needs alot of care. He is dependant on others to feed him, bathe him, clothe him, and position him. He is always wetting his diaper and clothes. It is messy to feed him (lots of laundry) He takes medicine for seziures. He has difficulty with regulating himself and can fluctuate from crying to laughing, and often he can't be consoled. He has a "stridor" breathing pattern when he gets really upset which is scary (loud inhalation and exhalation) though most of the time is very calm. It has not been easy... trying to get him to feed has been challenging sometimes, having to wake up often in the middle of the night to try to settle him down becaue he's having a good old time squealing and laughing or is crying, taking him to many doctor appointments, etc. People often do not understand why we adopted this special boy or sometimes they give us too much credit for doing it. I know that this was truly a God thing--GOd showed us his need and gave us the heart to bring him into our home. We can take no credit for what God did. He has so lavishly loved us through the sacrifice of His son Jesus Christ that we may know Him and have eternal life...how could we NOT serve Him in this way?

                                                Joshua at the hospital

This is the end of post 1...we will post the 2nd post in the next couple days!

Please pray for Joshua!!

Hi all, Joshua has been in the hospital for several days now and is in the PICU. He is very sick with pneumonia, flu, and sepsis. Please please pray for him!! Joshua is on a oscillating ventilator and oxygen, ivs, etc. He is one sick little boy :( Joshua is our angel boy..we are so blessed to have him as a brother and son! We are so glad we adopted him. We love you Joshua...get better soon! Love, Haylee for the Adamsons

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas from the Adamsons: John, Traci, Haylee, Naomi, Jonah, Annabelle, Sean, Joshua, Elsie, Lily and Aidan