It’s hard to believe that we’ve been home with Zeke for one month now. We hit the ground running since we landed in Albuquerque, but all is going well.
Zeke has experienced dogs, horses, chickens (and he’s learning how to cock-a-doodle like the neighbor’s rooster), cats, and various other vermin with mixed levels of success. He has attended his first Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, wandered through a pumpkin patch learning how to select just the right pumpkins, and has spent time outside, running and playing with his brothers and sisters. In essence, Zeke is learning how to be a member of a family.
Learning how to be a member of a family has its ups and downs. In Zeke’s case, most days we’re on the upswing, but then we intersperse those days with occasional backslides. Specifically, we’ve found that Zeke has a problem with two things: Hearing the word, “no,” and being required to make eye contact when someone says his name. We have come to the conclusion that Zeke was never told “no” at the orphanage. Further, if he was called by name, especially if he was misbehaving, he was not required to make eye contact. In fact, he’ll actually turn his back to the person calling his name and ignore them. Thus, comes the challenge.
We work daily with Zeke, encouraging him, correcting him when necessary, training him, and working with the elusive “eye contact.” We wish we could include a video of Zeke experiencing a “making eye contact,” training session, for lack of a better description. It’s the funniest thing to watch. It’s as if his two eyes were attached to strings and they pop up, down and all around – and seem to look everywhere but right into your eyes. It can sometimes take up to an hour before those two little eyes will finally stop and focus on our eyes. We have to say, though, that working through “no” and “eye contact” has resulted in a little boy who seems to grow happier and more confident by the day.
We mentioned, when we were in China, that we spent one day working through tantrums. Well, the word “no” started out resulting in almost a guarantee of a tantrum. Similarly, requiring eye contact would result in tantrums. We’ve gotten to the point where the tantrums are decreasing in frequency, although they still occur every few days, and Zeke is becoming much more relaxed, interacts more spontaneously with all of us, laughs and is involved in everything that’s happening. It’s great to see a young boy begin to open up and experience life as a member of a family.
In addition to our daily life-type activities, Zeke has had several visits with our pediatrician. We’ve found that he has no parasites or worms. We’ve learned, based on blood work, that he has had all of his vaccinations and will need no further ones until he’s four years old. And, unexpectedly, we’ve learned that he has what’s called a Latent Tuberculosis (TB) Infection. This means that Zeke does not have the active disease, so he’s not contagious, however, he has the TB infection somewhere in his body and it must be treated to prevent it from becoming active someday in the future. Thus, he is now taking 3 tsp of a medication called Isoniazid, once a day for 9 months (yes, you read that correctly – 9 months). Zeke has also seen a hand specialist and will have his hand thoroughly evaluated on November 6. We are also scheduling Zeke for a hearing test, since we have some concerns that his hearing might not be where it should be. Other than these things, Zeke is doing great medically and physically he’s a real powerhouse. He’s 2 years 9 months old and weighs 29 pounds. Steve refers to him as the “steamroller” because of his strength. He is one solid, muscular little boy.
As for the family, everyone thoroughly enjoys and loves Zeke and the feeling is clearly mutual. Also, if you ask Hana (5 months older than Zeke) what she thinks about Zeke, she’ll immediately tell you that “Zekey’s my buddy.” That feeling is obviously not one-sided since Zeke often, when waking from his nap, will say, “Where’s Hana?” and then ask if he can go wake her. They are quite a pair. Ed, our 13 year old, probably best summed it up when, while watching their antics one day, said that “whoever decided to call kids this age toddlers was wrong. They should have been called tornadoes.” We think he’s on to something.
Thank you so much for continuing to follow our journey to Ezekiel. We so appreciate your well-wishes and prayers through our long wait, our trip to China, and now home. Our plan is to provide three more updates, taking us through January and Zeke’s 3rd birthday. Again, thank you. Our whole family has been blessed by each and every one of you.
Zeke’s first visit to our pediatrician
Zeke and Hana playing their first duet
The Allen kid’s at the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
