Meeting Esias for the first time in Addis Ababa on June 6, 2009.
Esias Tesfaye has been with us for SIX months now! Little by little, we have learned each other and become parent and child. I am realizing now that the first few months were sort of a honeymoon period- where he was very happy and rarely got upset. Now, we have a kid with a whole range of emotions and feels free to use them when he wants! Though this makes my job harder, I realize that this is healthy and it means he is trusting us enough to be himself. That's a good thing! All these hospitalizations have challenged our bonding, as well as having to withhold things like bottles and food, but I have faith that God is in control and that Esias knows we are loving him even if he doesn't understand everything we do.
I can't believe that there was a time when he wasn't in our lives. I vaguely remember the heartache that accompanied every failed court attempt, every call with bad news. It's like the 9-month long nausea that I had with the girls: as soon as they are in your arms, you don't even remember feeling horrid for that long.
So, here is how far he's come physically:
June 6, 2009- Esias was barely able to keep his head up, he could push up on his elbows and scoot, drank a bottle, woke in the night to eat, weighed 14 lbs, didn't cry or laugh, barely had one tooth poking through
December 6, 2009- Esias is WALKING, sitting, standing, crawling, pushing toys around, bending over to pick up toys, putting things in a container, taking things out of a container. He babbles mmm, guh, buh, ma, puh, kih, uses sign language, eats solid foods, laughs at silly things, backs into our laps to have a book read to him, hands us toys, takes all of his clothes out of his drawers, takes one nap a day, sleeps all night in his crib, knows how to take his feeding tube out of the adapter when he wakes up in the morning (so his milk will go all over his crib!), raids the tupperware cupboard, helps me get his arms in his sleeves, lays still for a diaper change (mostly), and loves the Ellen Degeneres show, oh and has EIGHT teeth that he likes to use for biting. Ouch. Four rounds of anesthesia, two surgeries, two swallow studies, too many chest x-rays to count... five hospital stays in six months! Baby boy, you've been through the wringer!
Esias' first birthday celebrated just 17 days after coming to live with us.
July, 2009 - roadtriping to meet the extended family
Loving bathtime in August- this is the month he had surgery to repair part of his obstructed airway.
Playing with dolls in September...
Daddy and E-man in October
During the dreaded NG tube phase in November!
New G-tube dude, waking up from his nap in his comfy crib.
We are so blessed to have this precious child as ours. He is amazing, resilient, energetic, beautiful, strong, and of course, a genius. I love you Esias!
