Kerwin Running

I wanted to put up a video of Kerwin running with some kids at the UK baseball game. I have written about how well he was walking before the casts were on but I hadn't uploaded any video. Those of you who saw Kerwin in the orphanage will be amazed at his progress. And this is just his walking. I will have to put up some other video of him telling a story. He's signing so much now.

(I have no idea why this posted the video twice but it took forever to upload so I'm not messing with it.)

Doing better

I just read the previous post and it sounded like I was despairing. I guess I was a little. Well I just wanted to update everyone to thank you for the prayers and let you know that Kerwin is doing much better now with his casts. He is walking more normally now (albeit slower than before). His spirits are back up and he is more like his old self again.

Quick Update

Just a quick update on Kerwin's procedure. The day went great. He did wonderfully, the procedure went well and we were done by lunch time. While he was recovering a UK basketball player (Ramone Harris) came through the hospital and signed his cast.

Now we are dealing with the casts. Kerwin HATES them and wants them off and we have six more weeks. He is more sedentary and is crawling a lot. He walks really slowly when he actually walks. Most of the time he "bunny hops" with his walker rather than actually walking. I think it's just really hard for him to drag those casts around. I know he feel heavier when we pick him up. But he just isn't his old self and it is breaking our hearts. It would be better too if we could say we are 100% sure that this is what we should have done and it's definitely going to be worth it in the end but now I'm not even sure of that. Please, we would really appreciate your prayers for us in this time.

Another first

Okay this one is a weird one. Tonight was the first time in 11 months of being together that I cut Kerwin's toe nails. Due to his previous situation of no shoes, lots on concrete and lots of dragging the tops of his feet along the gravel and concrete, he had really stunted the growth of his toe nails and just had stubby little filed off nails. However, since he's been home, I have begun to notice growth. Tonight as I was putting his leg braces on for bed I realized that they (the nails) were very long and desperately needed cut. Hence, another first.

On a slightly more important note. Kerwin goes in for his Botox leg procedure tomorrow at Shriner's Hospital. He is very excited about it. I think we may have overplayed the coolness of the casts and underplayed the inconvenience of them a bit too much. I hope he is not disappointed when he realized what a pain they are going to be. I'll update more tomorrow after the procedure is over and we get home.

Also my grandma is coming in tomorrow from Pennsylvania. I am very excited about her staying with us for a few days.

More to come...

Our brush with celebrity

On my brother-in-law's blog (tylerinla.blogspot.com) he keeps a running list of celebrities he brushes shoulders with while living in LA. Typically this is not an issue for us but while touring the Warner Brother's lot while on vacation, I did happen to see two stars who I am very familiar with. One is John Stamos of Full House and more recent, ER fame. I and my mother-in-law are huge ER fans so this was a BIG DEAL! He was extremely nice and immediately came over to shake Kerwin's hand and to talk with him. He asked if we wanted to take a picture and he didn't really have to twist our arm too much before we agreed. Then after that excitement who should drive by but Kelsey Grammer of Cheers and Frasier. He was shooting a WWII movie on the lot and i was definitely not given permission to take pictures of him. There are very particular about what you can and cannot take photos of at the Warner Brothers lot. They actually lock you camera up while you are riding the little cart so you can't take pictures of anything unauthorized. That's why Mike's dad had to go sprinting back to the cart to retrieve the cameras so we could get the picture with Stamos. Anyway, the WB tour was great, I recommend it. Our guide was Tanya from Australia. She was cute and fun. Oh, and I we also toured this museum on site that has a whole floor dedicated to Harry Potter. It had lots of props from the movies. I'm a fan of the books so that was fun for me.

Pictures from WB...

This is were the monkey "Marcel" on Friends shoots his movie with Jean Claude VanDamme

This is the barber shop from Adam Sandler's upcoming movie. The premise sounds ridiculous like all of his movie's I guess. I'm actally a bit of a fan.

Us and John.

Us on the Friends couch.

This is Luke's diner from Gilmore Girls, another one of my all time favorites. FYI - When this picture was taken, Kelsey Grammer had just driven by dressed as Patton. Ha!

More pictures from Cali

Santa Monica Pier

Playing "Chicken" with the waves

Kerwin being Kerwin

Driving the cars at Disney...very serious business

The obligatory Mickey picture

More Disney...

Success at Last!

I tried for a long time to get vacation pictures and video up but it just wasn't working with our computer. So I got frustrated and just stopped trying altogether. But Mike assured me that things were working better now. And it appears he is right. This is a video of Kerwin on the kiddie roller coaster at Disney. I think it speaks for itself. The rest of the day was a blast as well. Uncle Tyler got to come with us and everyone had a great time. Kerwin was so well behaved. I was reminded of this as I watched a 10 year old through the biggest tantrum I have ever seen in the middle of the park. The child just laid down on the sidewalk and cried and screamed and kicked. Anyway, Kerwin walked around the entire park all day long and didn't get tired till it was just about time to go. We also got to go to the front of the line because Kerwin was on his walker. All the Disney folks were so nice. I give them major props. It was almost magical. I have to admit I got a little sentimental as I stood there in the dark, holding my son, in Disneyland, with Tinkerbell and fireworks flying over out heads, Cinderella' castle in front of us, piped Disney music in my ears, and the narrator talking about how are dreams come true. I don't know about dreams, but our God is Truth! I am still amazed on a near daily basis how He has brought our family together. He is good all the time!