all about judah!

It's been a really, really long time since I've posted an update about Judah...sorry!!!  It's not that there isn't anything to tell...because there is!  But life with two toddlers is simply busy.  And blogging just doesn't make it to the top-few things I try to accomplish during my 1-2 hours of daily peace-and-quite.

So, Judah...

He's doing amazing!!  I like to call him my sweetness.  He's so laid back, and loves to cuddle and giggle -- and he is totally a mommy's boy! He is still playing catch-up -- but he makes progress every day!  We like to joke that he's a marathoner, NOT a sprinter (like his older brother)!  When he came to us in December, he knew nothing!  Literally!  Could not sit up, hold his bottle, feed himself...you name it!  He was a 14-month old new born.  But he's now doing all those things!  He started crawling in April, and he should be walking by the end of the summer. 

They (the professionals) say that for every month that a child is institutionalized, it will take as many subsequent months for them to catch up.  So we're looking at Feb 2012 as our goal for Judah to have mastered his age-appropriate skills (well, minus speech).

His cleft lip repair has healed nicely -- though it will be several more months before the scar tissue is gone.  We are now totally used to his new mouth!  It's hard to remember his precious, super-wide pre-repair mouth, so I'm glad we took tons of pics before his first surgery.

His palate surgery is scheduled for this Wednesday (Lord willing).  Our surgeon, Dr. John Grant (who is AMAZING) said there is a 90% chance that this will be the only palate repair Judah will need!  DEAR FRIENDS- will you please pray with us that this is the case -- that God will heal Judah with this surgery!  We don't ask for healing for selfish reasons, but that God would be glorified!  Judah will still need a gum line bone graft when his adult teeth come in, but that's several years down the road.

Once Judah recovers from his palate surgery, we'll start to hit speech therapy pretty hard!  He's so ready ready to talk (and sing)!  And he already tries to repeat much of what we say!  Some of his words -- mama, amen, I love you -- are actually a little intelligible.

sweetest little face! his little heart is open-wide!

first game of chase with big brother!