A New Therapy, A Brief Update, and A Whole Lotta Stress

This may very well go down in history as the most boring blog post ever. It's just occurred to me, though, that I haven't updated in weeks, so I thought I'd sit down really quickly and type out a brief update.

And I know I'm not known for my brevity, but I'll try to keep it brief. I chose to write this during the very hectic 30 minutes before school starts, so I have no choice.

And who chooses to blog during the morning rush?? Clearly, I need to work on tightening a few loose screws.

Okay...

1. I have received some really lovely comments in the past couple of weeks and I am sorry I haven't written back. I'm not trying to be rude. I've just been completely overwhelmed these past few weeks. I really appreciate comments, even though I'm a complete cow when it comes to writing back. I'll try to do better. And Jenna, hi! Nice to meet you. I PROMISE I'll write back. Pinky swear.

2. Noah is doing a new therapy AND diet, which is why we're all so completely tired and overwhelmed. It's a good one, but we are in a long learning curve at the moment. We're riding it out, though.

I'll blog about it all in a later post, but I can tell you it's Neurodevelopmental Therapy through ICAN which stands for the International Christian Association of NeuroDevelopmentalists. There is a practice in North Texas, Little Giant Steps, but we're working with Linda Kane who's out of Utah. She comes to Texas every 4 months for reevals.

We're really excited about it. It's definitely a time commitment and a stressor... it takes about 1 1/2 - 2 hours every day to do all the recommended therapies and exercises.... and it's a lot of pressure because you know the success is riding on your ability to actually do everything that's needed each day... but it's exactly what Noah's needing right now.

The diet is through the No Harm Foundation and it's called The Sensory Based Protocol Diet. You can go to the site, enter your email and download the entire protocol for free. There's also a great yahoogroup for people on the diet and it lists lots of recipes (which has been a lifesaver!).

We are not 100% yet and it'll be ages before we are, but Noah hasn't add any sort of fry or potato chip or soft drink in 10 days and he's now having solid BM's and actually coming to us when he needs to be changed. We're also seeing more eye contact and awareness and vocalizations.

It's based on the premise that many children with autism or ADHD have high levels of manganese in their brains and low levels of iron. No, it hasn't been scientifically proven, but many parents are saying they're seeing lots of progress. And since we only have to be 100% for a month (although many go longer because they start seeing progress), it's worth a try. And from what we've seen so far, it looks promising. And healthy!

We're hoping to slowly phase rice and cereal out of Noah's diet over the next several weeks and go 100% and see what happens. I've been doing it and I lost 5 lbs in the first week. I think it's because I can no longer drive thru McDonald's and order those Caramel Frappes that I've been living off of....

But when I close my eyes, I dream of big greasy cheesburgers.

3. Yes, we are still adopting little N. I know I've been quiet about it. It's been a long process with many more months to come. It's been 6 months since we accepted Little N's referral and we've finally received our US Immigration approval. We completed our paperwork 4 months ago, but things just got approved and our papers have now been sent to Little N's country. It could be anywhere from 5 months (unlikely) to 10 (more likely) to even longer if there are delays (don't wanna think about it).

I know I've been very vague about the whole thing, but there are many anti-adoption people out there in blog land and probably many people who think we're nuts or have our hands full or we're horrible and have no business adopting again.... and well, quite frankly, I don't want any of them to try and sabotage our adoption. I know it sounds completely paranoid, but anyone who's ever adopted has heard of these horror stories. So I have to be a bit cryptic until our papers get processed and approved.

And with that, I have to go. It's a lovely chilly morning in East Texas (yay!), the kids are up and smiling (say what?? whose kids are they??) and a new day of therapy and eating sweet potatoes and kale begins.

Wish us luck!