Aiden

Aiden has been with us now since June 17, 2008. When we first brought him into our family we had 2 fairly good size concerns. The first was his special need – we didn’t exactly know what it is and how it may affect him throughout his life. He had physical symptoms – a fairly good size mass on his elbow and several mole-like objects all over his body. We had a range of opinions on what they could be symptomatic of – but nothing concrete. The other concern was his age. He is seven. He did not speak English. He spoke a local dialect of Mandarin. We knew communication would be a challenge. But we also knew that God had called him into our family and that these challenges could be overcome by His grace.

To address the first concern Aiden has had a series of appointments at the Dayton Children’s Medical Center. He has met with orthopedics, dermatology and genetics. He has had a couple of MRIs. Based on these appointments we are fairly confident that what he has is called Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome. We’ll let you Google that to find out more – but it does not appear to be too serious. We’ve learned that surgery is probably not a good option to remove the growth on his elbow, however there may be some laser procedures that could reduce it, but for now he may just have to live with it. He is being referred to the Hemangioma and Vascular Malformation Center at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center to learn more about what could be done. One exciting moment occurred when he had a large cyst removed from the top of his head that has probably bugged him for years. It had a propensity for bleeding. The excitement he felt when it was finally gone is hard to put into words – but we could tell that he was glad to see it gone.

The second concern, the language barrier, has been a joy to watch him and us overcome. We had to learn a few Chinese words at first to help him through some spots – like to be quiet (he can be very loud), to use the bathroom, to eat, and so on. He got along great with his new siblings for the most part. He didn’t take too well to discipline. But we all survived.

Aiden was within a few weeks of completing first grade in China when we adopted him. Because we knew he would have challenges with English and reading we decided to put him into first grade at the beginning of the school year here. He was only less than 2 months home when school started so his English was not that great. We felt a bit sorry for his teacher knowing that she would have to deal with the language issue as well. Well Aiden is still struggling a bit with his reading, although greatly improved. But now his English is very passable and most people cannot believe he has only been speaking English for 7 months. We have been amazed on how much communication has become a non-issue.

Aiden is an excitable, outgoing kid. He makes friends easily. He loves to play and watch TV. He’s smart. We are blessed to have him in our family.