Shen Carves a Pumpkin

We carved our pumpkins this evening. Both boys were very excited about this but Kai preferred to just watch. Shen on the other hand was more than willing to dig right in! Here’s the finished products...

Kai and Mimi

Last Sunday we met Mimi and her family at the park. We all visited together then took all the kids (our two and Mimi and her two older sisters) for a walk through the woods along Whatcom creek. I got a lot of great pictures of all the kids, but these ones of Kai and Mimi are my favorites. While we were on our walk they announced that they were going to get married. Then Mimi told Kai he had to buy her a big shiny ring!

Fun Day At Seattle Children's Hospital

My new work schedule is taking some getting used to, but I’m finally getting around to posting a blog entry this week. We had a really great day on Sunday. We drove down to Seattle Children’s Hospital for an Open House for families of children with limb differences. Not too surprisingly, Kai and Shen’s Grandma (Scott’s mom) wanted to come too. She has a history of accompanying the boy’s cousin Devon to Children’s Hospital many, many times, so if any of her grandkids are headed down there she feels compelled to accompany them so she knows exactly what’s going on. We were a little more surprised, though quite pleased, when Cousin Devon decided at the last minute that he wanted to come with us too! I think it was a great experience for the boys. They love any outing, but they really did seem to be looking forward to meeting other children with hands like theirs.

Tina and I were hoping there would be info on prosthetics and other resources for people with one hand, and there actually was a fair amount of info there. The majority of people we met were like us, parents of young children trying to figure out what lies ahead. But there were a number of very kind adults with limb differences who were their to share their experiences and information. I talked with a really nice guy who was with a golf association for people with limb differences. He had a very cool prosthetic for holding a golf club. We talked about Kai’s options, as he won’t be able to use a prosthetic. He assured me that one-handed golfing is quite doable.

After we had been there about a half hour or so, a young man arrived in a wheelchair who had quite extreme limb deformities. He had hands, but no arms, and his legs were twisted up under his body so that he could not stand on them. Kai and Shen reacted the way you might expect young children to when first seeing someone like this, they stared a bit and kept their distance. But then this young man got down out of his wheelchair and began tossing balls around and playing with the little kids. Within a few minutes all the kids were playing with him. There was a young girl about 12 years old or so (who turned out to be adopted from China) who had no arms whatsoever. She quickly joined in the games and was throwing and catching the balls as well. It was pretty amazing to see how she did this. Before long Shen was actually wrestling with the boy who had come in the wheelchair.

Then after a bit one of the organizers of the event got everyone’s attention and introduced this young man to us. His name is Gabe and he is a freshman at the University of Washington. He has been a regular at Children’s since he was born and was there on Sunday with his parents to talk about the foundation they were starting. He talked about his experiences growing up. It was really great to hear him speak, his confidence and ease were impressive for any young man of 18, but to see someone with such profound physical challenges talk about playing baseball and basketball and the drums as if it were nothing special was quite inspirational. It was also great seeing Kai and Shen have the opportunity to meet someone with extreme physical differences and get to be very comfortable with them. We got to visit with his parents quite a bit too, and before we left I asked Gabe if I could take his picture with the boys. He was very happy to oblige...

Here is a link to the website for his foundation:

www.gabeshope.org

. There are a bunch of great photos and videos of him you can see there, and you can read about the work his family is doing to help others.

Pumpkin Patch

Tina and the boys made it back home on Tuesday from her dad’s house. He is doing okay there for now. Tina’s sister Peggy is staying with him for the time being, which is a good thing. It’s been a bit of a crazy week here at home as I have been adapting to my new work schedule, but I had today off so we packed up the boys and drove south to check out a different pumpkin farm from the one we’ve gone to for the last three years. It was a little bit of a road trip, but it was a beautiful day and the boys had a really good time looking for pumpkins.

I Miss Tina and the Boys

It’s been a long quiet week here at home. Last Saturday Tina’s dad suffered a small stroke. He is doing okay and the lingering affects seem to be mostly loss of strength in his arm and leg on one side. He was able to go home from the hospital the next day which is pretty amazing when you consider that he is 90. Len lives on his own in a big house on the other side of the state. Tina’s brother and his family are just down the street from him and have been responsible for looking after Len for some time now, but Tina really wanted to be able to help out while her father is recovering. So after a lot of thought she packed up Kai and Shen and made the 350 mile drive across the state. Normally I would have gone too, but as my first day of work at a new job was Monday, that wasn’t an option. They drove over on Tuesday. The original plan was that they’d be home today, but as we all know, plans are subject to change.

Her father Len is pretty amazing. Here’s a guy who is 90 years old, he is sharp as a tack, still lives on his own, drives, even has a girlfriend - not your typical 90 year old. Still, a stroke, even a small one, is a serious setback. Living on his own, at least for right now, isn’t an option for him. The three days Tina had over there before the weekend weren’t enough time to put a care plan for Len in place by Monday, so Tina and the boys are going to stay there a bit longer. We’re now sort of playing it by ear and waiting to see what comes together before she heads back home. Hopefully they’ll be back before the end of the week.

Here are a couple pictures I took of Len when he was over for a visit in June. He was telling a story when I took these. I love this guy.