It's been a while

We've kind of had a slow news months since Christmas. Kerwin is back in school and Mike and I are back to work. Kerwin transitioned back to school really well. He has been to see the audiologist for a check up and everything is going fine. He is making good progress with his legs. He has been wearing his braces every night and several hours during the day. You can really tell a difference in the tone of his legs. He goes to the eye doctor this week to get the mandatory Kindergarten screening. We don't have any concerns about his vision so I have been pushing this appointment back to allow for some of the other more pressing ones. Kerwin had an MRI of the brain last Friday. We have not heard from the doctor yet to get the results. I honestly keep forgetting to call and bug her about it. But the MRI was mainly precautionary just to make sure that there isn't anything going on that we don't know about. Also, the neurologist thought that she may be able to tell us the cause of Kerwin's CP based on what she sees with the MRI. We went to Cincinnati Children's Hospital for the MRI. They really are wonderful. We had a nice experience. Kerwin's nurse was a friend of my mother-in-law who was along with us. And then, we got to see Gail, a friend who goes to Northwest Haiti Christian Mission often and works at Cincinnati Children's. She knew Kerwin from when he was still in the orphanage and sometimes Gail and I will transport gifts into Haiti for each other.

Some highlight from the last few weeks:
-Kerwin's first sledding experience
-Mike's first skiing trip this winter
-I have a new (additional) job coming up in February. I will be working 4-5 days a week now but all while Kerwin is in school. I still get to put him on the bus in the morning and pick him up every afternoon.
-Kerwin went to an LCA basketball game with his Daddy
-Kerwin got his first professional haircut (it's very cute)
-Kerwin is being much more interactive in Sunday School now; he is raising his hand to answer questions and loves playing with the other kids. His teachers say is he doing better in school as well.
-Kerwin can say pretty many sounds with lots of help and cues. Some of his best words are bye-bye, up, mama, dada, and Bobo (character in a book)
-We had an ARC meeting at school and Kerwin is getting PT, OT, Speech, and one-on-one reading help
-Mike and I start ASL classes again on January 28th
-We are going to have a deaf tutor come to our house to help us with reading to Kerwin using ASL
-I am very happy with my job working as a preschool speech therapist. The job has been a huge blessing
-Mike spoke in LCA's chapel about our adoption experience. Kerwin went up on stage with him and stole the show
-Our friends the Swenzels finally have their son Jamesy home with them. They had been in the process of adopting from Haiti for about 3 years.
-Mike's grandmother turned 85 yesterday and we had a party for her at my in-law's house
-Kerwin's Grandma Sweigard had a birthday and she can now order cheap meals at Bob Evans (congrats mom!)
-Kerwin went to see two movies at the theater: Mr. Magorium's Wonder Emporium and The Game Plan. The Game Plan went over much better than the first. Lots more football and physical comedy.
-I went to see Wicked in Cincinnati. Loved it!
-Kerwin's Uncle Tyler moved to LA to finish his college career with a semester of film school. It's sad for him to be so far away but we are looking forward to him becoming a famous film director and we like checking him out on his blog: www.tylerinla.blogspot.com (shameless plug)

I'm sure there's more but we'll wrap it up for now. More coming in February: Kerwin's birthday party, Haiti Reunion with Barb and other adoptive families, the next treatment step for his legs...

Until next time