Blessings, miracles, and continued prayers needed....

Look out world in my new school bus...the garage worked wonders on a rainy day!

Christmas Day tuckered Matthew out!
Waiting for Santa on the fire truck with Daddy!

Facial expressions say it all...first train set under the tree, first gifts at Baba and Pappap's!

Concentrating on his cars, his baking, and his decorating!

Koziar's Christmas Village!

Our random Christmas picture taken on Thanksgiving!

Running around the house in one of his many sets of Christmas PJ's.....

Dear Friends and Family -

Please accept our apology for not getting back to each and every one of you recently who have reached out to us....we promise we will get back to each and every one of you some time soon!!!

We wanted to share a few of our Christmas miracles with you all.....last year, as most of you know, we were DREAMING of our precious Matthew in China just waiting and waiting for China to grant us permission to travel......we never in a million years knew just how amazing this Christmas season would be with him in our lives. Here is a little sampling of what we got to see and do with Matthew for the very first time:
- We saw his face when he saw his very first decorated Christmas tree in the store, and it was decorated with his all time favorite things - school buses!!!
- We took him to a place called Koziar's Christmas village, and watched him in complete awe of the lights, decorations, train sets - and saw the fear of Santa Claus come into reality!!!
- We watched him decorate his very own 2 foot Christmas tree stringing the lights, and putting every single ornament on by himself!
- We learned how much more fun it was to bake cookies with him sitting on the kitchen table unwrapping Hershey kisses and placing M&M's on the cookies with such amazing concentration!
- We watched him get his first train set to go around our tree, and just watched it go and go for hours!
- We loved hearing him squeal with delight every night we pulled into the driveway and he would see the house all lit up and decorated! - We loved how he "helped" wrapping gifts, and giving them out to the people he loves so very much!
- He had his first real experience with snow, and LOVED his sled ride with his cousins.....
- We enjoyed nightly "book time" with the Nativity sticker set....obviously he doesn't understand everything, but he certainly enjoyed the books.
- On Christmas morning, he was so happy with opening a simple set of matchbox cars and didn't even care about the tons of other gifts there for him! His appreciation for each gift was evident as he wanted every thing opened so he could figure them out and play with them before he moved along to something else!!!
- Did you know that they made remote control school buses for 2 year olds, AND a power wheels school bus that Matthew can drive around??? Talk about one excited little boy!

One of our favorite moments was when he was all dressed up on Christmas day and he fell asleep under the Christmas tree with his cars lined up in front of him and slept for hours.....he missed Christmas dinner, but he was a precious sight. He also wore his processor all day which was very exciting because we really do believe he is starting to hear things......which is another miracle in itself.

We know our last email was very discouraging when we wrote since we hadn't gotten any responses from our visits to CHOP. Well, on November 30th he turned his head in the sound booth and we were beside ourselves with excitement! We then started to notice a real deterioration in Matthew's behavior before we hit rock bottom - Matthew was like a man with an adrenaline rush who could pick up a car! He had that much rage, anger, hostility, etc. Well, we were devastated because of course we couldn't move anywhere with the implant since he was throwing everything in his path. And, this was certainly not normal 2 year old behavior! All of a sudden, it hit me that it could be his medication he was on for his seizure like activity - and sure enough, after being off of it about 2 weeks now, we finally have our sweet, caring, loving Matthew back again! We hadn't slept in weeks and hadn't even realized truly how hard things were at that time!!!!

So, Matthew is doing a lot better. We can now start intense training with his cochlear implant and try to see if we can continue to make progress with the hearing road. We have a long way to go, but we are ready for the long road! Chris is also doing well, he just finished his first online course for his bachelor's and got an A in his ethics class - I am so proud of him!

Unfortunately, through all of this, I was denying the fact that I was not feeling well. Most of you know I have a long history with endometriosis and a bowel resection and hysterectomy related to this.....I had been receiving a medication to keep me in "menopause" for the last few months as a trial to see if I could benefit from having my ovaries out, and the pain from my ovaries went away but I had other terrible side effects from the medication itself. I went to see the GYN surgeon at the beginning of December and we worked on scheduling surgery to get at least the left ovary out. Since I was having bowel issues again related to the ovary pain, the doctor wanted me to undergo a colonoscopy last Monday to see if all was well with the colon before going on. Well......................I had trouble with the bowel prep again like at my hysterectomy and my bowel pretty much shut down. I was so sick Monday morning that my dear friend Heather had to come for me,and Matthew's "adoptive" grandparents came and watched him before I left for my procedure. At the center, the GI doctor still wanted to proceed and I was put to sleep, woken up and asked questions about doing more, and then the next thing I knew I was put in an ambulance and taken over to the hospital for another procedure since I had almost a complete restriction of my bowel at my old bowel resection site. So, the doctor tried to dilate things and got things moving a little, and I was then allowed to go home. I have felt pretty lousy since then.....and have been trying to make the best of things, but it's been hard. I know I am not supposed to be scared, but I am. My last hospital experience was one that should have never happened all related to bowel issues, and I am so tired of being in pain. Poor Chris too, pulling up to me getting taken out of an ambulance!!! My Mom came right away that night and stayed to help me out. I certainly didn't plan for that time off next week - nor do I have much time left at this point...

So, I have spent today trying to prep again for another test tomorrow, a barium enema study, and then we hope to have a plan after that. I see the GYN surgeon after the study. I have been in a tremendous amount of pain tonight, and are ready for this to be over. We need to just pray that everything that is going on can be fixed at the same time, in the most safe and effective way. I NEED to be well to care for Chris and Matthew, and I NEED to be well to have my life back again. It really changes you when you don't feel well, and affects people around you for sure. I need to be in the right hands, and have a plan soon to get things fixed!!!!We have some important things to work on with Matthew's hearing and to continue to enjoy life itself, and start thinking about how we could bring a brother or sister into Matthew's lives!!!! Scary surgeries aren't certainly on the agenda with pain!!!

So, as we certainly are so thankful for all of the gifts of the season including the special times we had with both of our families and extended family, we also continue to ask for prayers - and if there are things going on with you and your families please share them with us so that we may be able to help you in some way as well!

Much love to all,
Melissa, Chris, and Matthew Roslevege