Updates

KATE-THE-GREAT

Good news continues in our little corner of the world. The results of Kate's 48-hour EEG indicate that she is seizure-free. When I asked the neurologist about taking her off the seizure med. she is on (Lamictal), she told me that one of the side effects they have been finding for it is that it helps kids "on the spectrum" (aka, autism spectrum) to improve eye-contact and increase verbalization. We have noticed this in Kate, as has the neurologist. Kate is definitely having a language explosion -- albeit a very garbled one. It's okay -- the attempt to communicate is most important.

We've realized that Kate's language issue is a combination of speech apraxia and autism. Very difficult to overcome, but who likes things the easy way...? We are working very hard with sign language and some other tools to help Kate express her feelings -- especially when she is frustrated. More on this later, but we can already see how these tools can change all of our lives. :-)

ANXIOUSLY AWAITING ADDISON

We are still waiting on our "Letter of Seeking Confirmation" from China, what we call LOA -- Letter of Acceptance. That means that China has put the red seal on the match, and then we wait for Travel Approval, and then we go get our son.

Our dossier was logged-in on January 15th. Several people with late January log-in dates just got their LOA's, so we are starting to feel hopeful about next week. Each adoption agency has a different paperwork rep. in China, and we apparently have a slightly "slower" rep. Please say a prayer that our LOA will be here soon.

We want to get our boy home!

~With love from The Lucky Ones