Ryan's Room & More ;)

Ryan was adopted from Bulgaria in October 2015. At the age of seven he only weighed nine pounds, and was 26 inches long. Looking back on the first pictures we took of him, I can't even begin to understand how he survived. He was all bones, his joints would pop and crack when we tried to dress him. He was starved for so long that his body couldn't process food, he was admitted to the hospital for weeks and diagnosed with refeeding syndrome, a syndrome that was discovered after the holocaust, when concentration camp survivors were liberated, and began dying because the sudden availability of food shocked their system and killed them. This is what our son had, hearing his time in the orphanage being compared to the suffering experienced in concentration camps was not easy to process. Ryan was given a feeding tube, and after a lot of bumps in the road, he began to grow.

Fast forward to today, Ryan is currently 19 pounds, and 31 inches long. He has doubled his weight and grown 5 inches in less than a year! He is attending school, has a wheelchair to help with mobility, and is learning to communicate via adaptive equipment. He is a strong, capable little boy who brings a smile to the face of everyone who knows him!

Because of Ryan's extensive list of special needs, most of them life altering, he qualified for a wish from Make-A-Wish. We asked to have our carport converted into a sensory room for him, because he is too medically fragile for a trip, and he really wouldn't understand what was going on if we picked a wish for him to meet a celebrity, or a superhero, etc. This would have been the best possible wish for him, something he could use for years and something that could be a learning tool for him as well. Unfortunately, Make-A-Wish isn't allowed to grant wishes that include construction, so we had to think outside the box a little, and with the help of an amazing wish granter we settled on a shopping trip that would allow Ryan to get all the equipment and furniture and things for his sensory room, the only catch is that we have to build the room ourselves, and when you have two kids with special needs and tons of medical bills, you just don't have thousands of dollars available for construction projects.

I love to make crafts so we are planning to have a craft sale/auction to raise some funds for Ryan's room. It is a big undertaking but so worth it to provide him with a space where he can reach his full potential. Thank you so much for reading, and we covet your prayers while we try to make this expansion happen!

After seeing the progress that Ryan has made, and getting him to a much more stable place medically, we have decided to open ourselves up to the possibility of adopting again. Please pray for us to have wisdom and discernment to make the right decision for our family. ❤️