The month of birthdays and a medical update

Hello Friends and Update Readers!!

The "month of birthdays" is now complete!!!  With Molly's birthday near the end of February, we have now finished our string of birthdays that follows closely behind Christmas.  Whew!!  We made it ... again!

This girl is 17!!!  Can you believe it??  Where has the time gone ... since adopting this little gem it just slips away so quickly!!!

For Molly's birthday breakfast, she chose breakfast burritos ... YUM ... good choice, Molly!! 

 (and "good sport" for allowing me to take her photo so early in the morning, bed-hair and all!)

The burritos were even served with fresh slices of avocado, sour cream, and salsa!

Then she wanted to go to Chicago's Chinatown for Dim Sum and Thai Rolled Ice-Cream.  She's very particular ... yes, she is!

The weather was slightly warmer than what we've been experiencing this winter but, instead, it was raining.  And why not?  We've already had the polar vortex, the heavy snow, the three inches of ice, dangerous -45F wind chills, ... I mean, what's a little rain compared to all that?

With the recent celebration of Chinese New Year, there were lanterns and decorations all around.

We ordered all our favorites ... okay, we ended up ordering a little too much food, but that's okay, ... Rees and Jonah ate all of it later. 

The birthday girl was pleased ... and, of course, rocked her chopsticks!

These are tea leaves stuffed with sticky rice and spices ... Rees LOVED these!!

And for dessert ... 

Thai-Rolled Ice-Cream!  

The decorations were pretty and we quickly took a couple photos before scurrying back to our vehicle to head home.  

Then in other birthday dessert news ...

Cheesecake assortment with a mound of whipped cream.  Kids' birthdays are everyone's birthdays!!

That same weekend as Molly's birthday, Jonah and Rees were part of the AWANA Grand Prix event held at church!  They each drew out their cars (basically little blocks of wood transformed into a car), designed and decorated them and then entered them into a series of races with other kids little blocks of wood. 

They were mesmerized as this was their first time participating in something like this.  They were so excited and took every moment super seriously!  

All of the races are monitored, assigned, and scored via a computerized system so it was a little hard to know what was happening ...

... but, Jonah was ending up first in many of his races so we knew and he knew that must be good.
He was so serious and his face was getting redder and redder and he looked so concerned and hopeful ... I mean ... if any kid needed it more, you know??

In the end, Jonah won two trophies!

He took 3rd place for his "design" and he took 2nd place for "speed".

He was quite pleased!!!

Rees earned a participation award and he was pretty pleased as well!

Plus, he was proud for his brother.

And speaking of our boy, Rees, ... well, he never ceases to be extra special and full of special circumstances.  

Our trio of younger dumplings had their 3-month follow-up with the Orthodontist and Brynn looks great and is doing great ...despite not wearing her elastics hardly at all over the last three months ... go figure!

Jonah remains a handsome little challenge in that "things" are going to need to be done with him and for him but we don't quite when and what yet.  He has several perplexing issues regarding his cleft and his lower jaw and his teeth but we are still waiting for the ortho to make contact with the surgeon.  Oh. What. Fun. It. Is.

If you recall, Rees was referred to the orthodontist because of his frenulum, that little flappy piece of skin between the underside of his upper lip and his gums.  Additionally, Rees has an underbite; when he smiles or bites together, his lower teeth cover his upper teeth.  However, the item of new concern is that Rees still hasn't lost any of his upper teeth.  He seemed pretty delayed when he only lost the lower front teeth within the last year; if you remember, he just turned nine.  So, they decided to take an additional x-ray that would provide a closer look at his front teeth.

I don't expect that most of you will be able to determine the exact problem(s) in the x-ray but, fortunately, I'm able to tell you.  Rees has a mid-line cleft (amongst other things) and it is essentially between the upper front teeth.  

(Rees tried to demonstrate in such a way that you can see the space between his upper teeth)

The adult teeth that are behind/above the baby teeth are, from what I'm told, essentially not viable.  It appears that the one on the left is decaying and the one on the right has virtually no root - and both seem to be attached to very little or NO bone.  This is because they are situated where the cleft is and where the cleft is, well, ... THERE. IS. A. CLEFT.  --  wide open space, and no bone. There needs to be bone in order for teeth to be rooted and viable.  

So, the way I currently understand it, this is a problem and likely needs to be addressed in the near future with a bone graft.  

What needs to happen is that the orthodontist needs to consult with the surgeon.  Both our boys need to be discussed and a plan needs to be made.  This has been a problem over the last six months because, well, the surgeon we chose isn't in Wisconsin ... and that seems to be a "bone of contention" that is proving to be a "battle of the wills" ... in the nicest way possible, of course.  Our side might be weakening just a bit as we start to ponder if using a surgeon so far away is really the thing to do but at the same time, it is important to us that a doctor looks at "the whole picture" with both of these boys, for now and their future.   

Tough stuff, people.  So, if you're the sort, maybe pray we receive answers and guidance from our Great God because He knows best anyway.

Hope to update soon ...