Nutritionist and Echo's

Today was full of appointments, no surprise. I look forward to the day when we only show up once a year to our well child visits. Yea, right!
We were recommended to a nutritionist for both Marcus and Macey. When Dr. Morrow first met the kids she was saddened with their conditions. Marcus more so than Macey. Marcus was underdeveloped and severely malnourished. He only weighed 20 lbs. when we left Ukraine. She said it was a priority to get more calories in them both. Because Marcus was fed only broths and soups, basically a liquid diet he needed to gain and gain quickly. When we rescued him we began feeding him baby food and he reluctantly learned to drink from a bottle. It's all we knew. We began with baby cereal and jars of food, which he still eats today. We have been introducing other foods, pureed in a food processor or finely chopped up for him. My biggest fear is him choking. He wasn't offered many textures in the Big O, as Taylor calls it. We were beginning from scratch. He loves mac-n-cheese, chicken nuggets, dry cheerios and such. We try something new everyday then try it again. Eventually he will want to eat more than just baby food. He is also on Pedisure for his liquids and calories. He has just begun drinking more than 4 oz. in one day. I have to say he is a real trooper. We are patient with him and know we are making some progress. He weighs a whopping 25 pounds as of today. Praise God! The nutritionist says what we are doing is working. Keep it up!
Macey continues to grow and thrive as well. She is a good eater even though she has recently slowed down a bit. She use to eat EVERYTHING we put in front of her. Now she is a little more choosy and doesn't eat the whole portion each time. She doesn't always hug her bowl as she eats, we are working on that. She knows there is more to come and she can eat whenever she's hungry. I wish I could learn to only eat when I'm hungry. :)We eat a lot of meals at our house. Either a meal or snack is always begin served, well about every 2-3 hours. We love mealtime together. It a great time to visit with one another and just watch the new kids be, we kids. They are just adorable!
Both kids had echo's this afternoon. Silly me, I thought we would go in put those sticky pads on them, lay still for a few minutes and be done, NOT. That's called an EKG. We were there for echo's, a little different procedure. I told you this is ALL new to me. Both kids did well, as well as to be expected. Macey was first. She liked being in the room, looking at the picture on the screen, playing with the instruments but wanted NO part of it when it was time to begin. I could hardly get her shirt off. She held her arms straight and stiff beside herself. She would not raise her little arms for nothing. My guess is she hasn't had the best medical experiences in the past. After FINALLY yanking her shirt off I assured her she was safe and I was there for her. She wined the whole time. She would quit long enough to babble as I sang Jesus Loves Me and wipe the jelly off her belly. She didn't care for that gooey stuff much. It seems like they were taking an awfully long time with her, 30 minutes or so. The tech couldn't tell me anything. Macey was glad when this procedure was over for her. Next, Bubba's turn. Marcus was all for it. He wanted to play with the buttons on the machine, the jelly bottle, the cords to the machine, anything he could get his little hands on. His procedure lasted maybe 15 minutes at the most. We did have to hold him down a bit to keep his hands off of the camera she was using to see his heart. All and all they both did very well considering.
I am so glad we have been able to schedule their appointments together, back to back. We are all there together getting things done all at once. It took just as long to park the car, wait for the elevator, sign in and register and wait as it did to have the procedures. I wouldn't want to go back twice, once for each kid. So far so good, we are all hanging in there.
Let me just take a minute to tell you the medical community we have dealt with has been just super fantastic. God has allowed us to share our adoption journey with each person we have come to see. I will spend the rest of my days telling others about the rescue of two lives God has blessed us with. We owe it to the many other left behind. That reminds me...have you thought of a way YOU could support an orphan?
I would love to visit with you about the many ways YOU too can help an orphan find a Forever Family just like Marcus and Macey.
Blessings,
Meghan