25%

No, that’s not how much I saved by switching to Geico =)

It’s hard to believe but we’ve been home exactly 3 months…25% of a year. So much has changed and every now and then we look at “old” photos and observe how quickly the kids are growing.

We recently did a birth search (email me if you want her details…I highly recommend her) and found that the weights we were given at the orphanage were not their birth weights but the ones of when they registered them at the first orphanage. Isabella was born at 2kg (4.4lbs) and Isaac was a whopping 400g (14.1oz). No, that’s not a mistake! This week we had the cardiology visit and got a call to confirm the weight I wrote down as they thought it was a mistake. Anyway, Isabella was born first at home and Isaac was born on the ambulance en route to the hospital. Isabella spent 5 days in the hospital, 15 days with her birth mom and aunt, and was then sent to an orphanage. Isaac spent 2 months in maternity hospital (oxygen chamber) and then went straight to the orphanage. He was never in his birth mom’s arms. The kids were then probably moved to the Nikopol orphanage at 5 months old.

Their family (aunts and birth father) want to keep in touch and we’ll try to send them updates. The family story is quite sad and you could easily say it was torn apart due to heavy alcohol abuse. It’s very unfortunate and we hope the kids were not too severely effected and can lead an independent life.

On the health front, the cardiologist cleared Isaac and saw nothing abnormal in his EKG, with his murmur within functional limits. Isabella’s murmur is barely audible, however he saw something minor in the EKG which he wants to confirm in a year (he was comparing to 4 year old and 5 year old benchmarks and since she falls in between, he couldn’t confirm with certainty so he wants to make absolutely sure). So Isaac is now cleared for sedation and can have his MRI on the 15th October and surgery to correct his cryptorchidism on the 20th of October. We now need to schedule speech and development evaluations.

Isaac’s medicine dosage was increased and it seems to have kept seizures at bay for the time being. We’re now almost a month since the latest event. Over the last couple of months he was having a fit on 3 week intervals, so this adjustment seems to be helping. Since the last hospital measurements (39 days), Isaac gained another 0.66lbs and grew 0.94” in height. Isabella gained the same weight (can’t say we’re not feeding them equally!) and grew 0.51” in height.

We had a blast at South Padre Island. The kids were introduced to a lot of new things such as riding a boat and watching dolphins, climbing into a lighthouse, tumbling in the surf, gulping nasty salty water and visiting a museum. Their appetite tripled around the coast and they finally got some color. Oh, and I forgot pirates…..aaaarrrgggh!!