"So, how are the babies doing?"

An innocent question with no easy answer!! More often than not it's like, hmm....."Well, you know, they are really......cute."

The past couple of weeks:

Benito: still needs a hearing aid for one ear. He is not very near passing the much-hoped-for milestone of sitting alone by 12 months. Now, "supposedly" his walking will be severely delayed (all four limbs and his trunk are affected by cerebral palsy).

Esteban: needs hearing aids for both ears. Great news from his most recent CT scan: the fluid left on his brain will drain alone, so he doesn't need brain surgery! His hip x-ray also came back normal.

Victoria: currently receiving some intense physical therapy to try to relax her curved, stiff legs. She's 3 months old today and the orthopedist had hoped for more improvement by now. Our physical therapist and psychologist have told me a couple of times now that Victoria does not respond to visual stimuli, maybe not auditory either. :-( Tomorrow morning I have an appointment with her to see about that...

Jose: needs surgery on his umbilical hernia (imagine a giant "marshmallow" sitting on the stomach of a 9 pound baby). He is still on calcium and still trembles a lot, and now has anemia too. At least with the formula we changed him to, he seems to be eating/growing better. In a month we'll see if we need to do anything about his bowed out legs. (He was born with syphilis.)

Jose, Carla, Benito, Ericka, me: battled persistent conjunctivitis for a couple weeks (PTL we're all clear now!)

Erick, Ericka, Katarine: running skin abscesses, "non-contagious" (yeah, right)

Luz Clarita: abdominal sonogram came back normal but needs a special internal exam now

Benito: exam under anesthesia once

Esteban: exam under anesthesia twice

A. M.: got sick for the first time since starting the ARV drugs. Happily, she was only down a few hours before her doctor prescribed medicine, and she's up and running again (and I do mean running!)

Camila: has started speech therapy twice a week

Brandon: taking a break from speech therapy (it's his 3rd birthday today!)

Victoria, Jose, Benito, Belinda: twisted legs, abnormal hip x-rays, bowed legs, etc. I want a second opinion from another orthopedic specialist...when I have time to make the appointment and take 3 of those babies with me at once!

Marcus, Victoria: got immunizations (we have monthly visits to the Baby Home for those, but M & V live at CDA III)

Speaking of CDA III, they've had 2 or 3 viruses in a row run through their house and seem to be in another. Some say it's "that time of year" (as well as with the skin/eye infections due to all the wind and dryness), but you'd be hard pressed to find a time of year in Cochabamba where there's not SOMETHING bad health-wise due to the weather. (Must be all that "perfect, spring-like weather" we have here--HA!)


Other than that, all is just peachy and the kids are doing great! =)

And this is just the health area, not to mention legal and social. We've been very busy in those areas the past couple of weeks too, mainly due to the newest set of kids and upcoming adoptions. Oh, and that meanwhile, Bolivia was often tearing apart at the seams.

Never a dull moment!


PS--See new picture at the bottom of the blog. =)