Happy Birthday M!

Our little guy is 1 today!  Hap-Hap-Happy Birthday Matiyas!

It's Gone!

This past Tuesday, we travelled back to Iowa City for our follow up appointment for M.  It started with an MRI and then off to the neurosurgery clinic.  Those feelings of angst crept back into my mind thinking of what could possibly come of the appointment, but God is awesome.
I would equate it with the feeling (as we have all done it) of walking into the wrong room where you know absolutely no one and they just stare at you in silence as to ask, 'what are you doing here'.  That is exactly how I felt when the neurosurgeon came into our room where we sat with Matiyas.  He asked a few questions, of which Laura could explain much better than I, and only stopped short of asking the actual question as to why we came in today.  Instead he led us through questions that got us to the point of him learning that Matiyas had an MRI while in Ethiopia that showed a subdural.  As he looked for the images from that MRI in their system, he found that it was never uploaded from our first visit.  He then proceeded to inform us of his confusion as in looking at our previous and current MRIs, that the only thing he saw was a completely normal scan... on both!
There is no subdural, there is no pressure.  In a month from Ethiopia to Iowa, OUR SON WAS HEALED!  PRAISE GOD!!!

Some updated pics...

I Believe in Miracles

Today started kind of unusual.  Laura and I packed bag after bag; one for Matiyas, one for us, even one with food.  I had a laptop to do work and she had packed her Kindle to read.  I felt like we were packing for a trip, all the while knowing this may be one of the scariest things I could ever face.  We didn't talk about it as I don't think either of us wanted to grasp the nature of the situation.  Finally, not knowing how long we would be gone we said goodbye to Yiah and pulled out on our way to Iowa City.
I know I fought back tears many times on that drive, trying not to think about the fact that my son needs brain surgery.  If I had kept my mind on it for any amount of time, I would have been unable to see the road.  I never imagined facing this with someone in my family.  Honestly, I was terrified.
We arrived to Iowa City and checked in to the Emergency Room at University Hospital.  After a while, we were taken back to our room where for a few hours we had different staff and levels of personnel come in,  visit with us and ask questions. One nurse prepped Matiyas for an IV and one of the doctors took a head circumference which strangely was 47 cm, down from 50 cm just a few days ago.  We finally arrived at the point that the neurosurgeon ordered another MRI.

When they came to take us for the MRI, we had agreed that I would go in with Matiyas.  He was asleep when I lad him on the table in front of the machine, but that didn't last long as the technician began strapping him in and stabilizing him.  The first minute of the scan, Matiyas wasn't sure whether to cry or be lost in wonder at this thing around him and noises it was making.  Once he made up his mind to cry, it was the longest 3 or 4 minutes of my life.  He looked at me with his eyes and just cried, and all I could do was try to comfort him.  I found myself laying on the table reaching in as far as my arms would reach.  When he finally came out, I scooped him up as fast as I could and he calmed right down.  I couldn't say the same for myself.  We were taken back to our room, and left with, "someone will come see you when we have the results."
So we waited.  After about an hour or so, one of the residents knocked and entered our room.
I go back to all the prayers; from our church, from our adoption group, from our friends, from our family, from people we hardly know, from the lips of my 4 year old son, and some of my own.  I won't lie to you, because I admit I sometimes question the power of prayer and ask, does God listen, does He answer?  My faith has been tested.  But I am here to tell you today that God is mighty, God is powerful, and He overflows with love and mercy.  And He IS still performing miracles.  I know because one of them is lying asleep in his bed, in our home, just down the hall from me right now instead of in a hospital.

The resident entered the room and informed us that preliminary results of the MRI showed that the size of the hematoma had shrunk and it appeared that it was resolving itself.  We were being discharged.  We would have a follow up appointment with the neurosurgeon in 4-6 weeks, but that no further action was necessary at this time.

Today I finally understood the line in the Casting Crowns song Praise You In This Storm that says, "But you are who you are, no matter where I am."  I always thought it meant, no matter where you go; Eldridge, Iowa City, Addis Ababa... He was always there.  While that is true, what it means to me is no matter where I am in my relationship with Him, He is still God, He is still my Father, He still loves me.  Today, in my fear, in my doubt, in my failures, HE said, I love you anyway and gave us a miracle.  What an awesome, awesome, awesome God.

"Give thanks to the Lord, call on His name, make known among the nations what He has done.  Sing to Him, sing praise to Him, tell of all His wondrous acts.  Glory in His holy name, let the hearts of those who seek the Lord rejoice... Remember the wonders He has done, His MIRACLES." Psalm 105:1-5

Home to Iowa City in 14 hours

Well, they made it home with minor hiccups.   Got to our house around 7:30 pm and got him to bed.  He did quite well despite the time change only waking up twice.  This morning, he woke up a little early so we took advantage and got to Iowa  City where we are now.  Will try to update whenever we know more.  Thank you all so much for your support and prayers.

Heading home!

We are getting ready to head to the airport in a couple hours. We are excited to come home...not so excited for the plane ride. : ) it's two 9 hour flights with a 3.5  hour layover in Frankfurt. The first flight would be during the night for Matiyas so we are hoping he sleeps. Please continue to pray for us as we travel home. Thought we would post a few more pics. Matiyas is doing well..we even got him to laugh today.

Shopping day

Today we went shopping for Matiyas and bought 18 different gifts for him. We will give him one traditional Ethiopian gift annually until he is 18. Matiyas seems to be warming up to us. He is talking a lot more and I am getting him to smile at me. He slept great last night..woke up only once and did really good today while shopping and out and about the city. We were able to pick up his visa today so we have everything we need now and can head home tomorrow!

Embassy day

We had our embassy appointment today and everything went well. We then brought matiyas with us to the guest house. He took many small cat naps and had one hour of fussiness but this evening he was very content. He is sleeping well now. He seems much stronger than when we were here a month ago and much more alert. I have feeling that he will be easily distracted by his big brother when it comes to meal time.

This is how mommy dressed me.

And this is how the nannies at the transition house dressed me. I changed as soon as possible!

We arrived!

Deana and I made it safely to ethiopia!no problems with flights and we have all our luggage. Plan for tomorrow is to go to transition home and pick up matiyas and then go to our embassy appointment. After embassy we will go back to the transition home and give our donations and we can love love on some of the kids.

You all should be impressed that we figured out this blog...with pictures even :)

On Their Way...

I dropped Laura and Deana off this afternoon at O'Hare, and they are on a flight heading for Frankfurt.  We are now officially only getting closer to Matiyas!  The next post you see will hopefully be from the two of them in Addis!

Cleared Embassy and Off!

We received an email this morning at about 6 am our time, stating that we have cleared Embassy!!!  It also informed us that our interview date is Monday the 9th at 9 am.  So needless to say, we are in a whirlwind right now, but tickets have been purchased and Laura takes off tomorrow afternoon with her friend Deana!  She will be (hopefully) keeping us posted here on the blog and I will be at home with Yiah and preparing to take over when she returns on Thursday.  And while our heads are spinning, I am certain of one thing...MATIYAS IS COMING HOME!!!!

Thank you for your support

Expedite Update

Wanted to mention that we received a little more word on our expedition process with the Embassy. We were told that our paperwork would be submitted on Aug 28th. From everything we can gather, that seems like it is the absolute shortest time period possible for that to happen. Should that be the case, we would most likely have our embassy appointment the following week and be able to leave Ethiopia with our little guy for home by Sept 6th at the latest. Praise God!

Last Day with Matiyas

Well... not much to say. Today was the day we have been dreading. Lots of fear and anxiety over the next few weeks. Got a great goodbye full of smiles from little Matiyas when I left.

Quick update on Yiah, he seems to be doing much better. Had a rough morning but seemed to turn a corner after lunch. He again told us that God touched him and healed him and I believe it! Thank you all for your prayers for him.
We will be taking off tomorrow morning at 10:00 am (2:00 am Central time) and hopefully will be arriving in Chicago Monday morning around 9:00 am. We hope to see everyone soon to share our gratitude for your continued support and prayers.

Pray for Yiah

So our little traveling man got sick last night. He woke us up around 3:40 this morning and had thrown up and did again a couple of times after that. Now this morning he is suffering with Diarrhea. We prayed over him this morning and he asked, "Will God touch me and heal me?" I asked him if he believed that He would, to which he replied yes. We hope so, poor little guy. We covet your prayers for him as well as we leave tomorrow morning.

Day with Matiyas

After not having much time with Matiyas yesterday with visiting KVI and shopping, we spent pretty much the entire day with him today, except for lunch. We think that he is getting to where he recognizes both mommy and daddy. It was nice to spend time with him, feed him, and give him a bottle... even have him sleep just laying on us. He got lots of love and kisses today as we try to fill all the orders from home! We have heard him trying to talk a little more and we have been working on him standing up and he seems to really enjoy it! And what helps is Yiah has made friends with some of the other kids at the orphanage and plays with them a lot. There is one boy who plays with him and hugs him everyday, but would never let us take a picture of him with Yiah. Today he came up to us and asked to have a photo with Yedidiya! Unfortunately, I can't share that one with you. But for those of you bored with my writings and ramblings, here you go, the real reason you get on the blog!

What a great big brother!

You knew it was only a matter of time!

On another note, we are truly getting to enjoy the rainy season here. It is impossible to put into words. Today, we were trapped at our lunch destination for 30 minutes do to torrential rain, and HAIL!

KVI Orphanage

We were able to make a side trip this morning to Kingdom Vision International Orphanage. This is significant because 1) that is where Yedidiya stayed for a month before coming to AWAA and 2) the students of North Scott had donated clothing for that orphanage two years ago. Today (finally) we were able to deliver 2 packed suitcases full of clothes for the kids of the orphanage! It was an exciting experience and made me very proud of our students at North Scott.

Expedite

Wanted to say thank you to all of you that have been praying... We just received an email from our family coordinator that our medical expedite is already underway. As daunting as it seems, it looks like we may be able to travel back to Ethiopia for our Embassy appointment in 2-3 weeks and bring him home! We really want the time to get him to the US to be as quick as possible and hope we can arrange all the appointments we need before then. Once he is back, we hope that the surgery to remove/drain the hematoma from his brain will take place almost immediately.

It's official!

We passed court. He is our son!  Introducing Matiyas Schwartz!

We are scared to death but felt God calling us to step out in faith. We now face trying to expedite his US paperwork so that we can get him home and the treatment he needs.

Quick Update

We finally got internet back and things are about where we left off.  We are still confused and full of questions, fears, and doubts.  We really don't know much more than that our son needs brain surgery.  For me, that is something I never thought I would have to deal with. The scariest part is what that means for him down the road, and we wonder if we are the right family to meet his needs.  As we are trying and struggling with all of this, our court date got moved up to tomorrow afternoon, so please be in prayer that we will seek God's plan and stay in his will moving forward. I figure this will be a long, sleepless night.  We will try to update you tomorrow.  Love you all.

Day 2

Today's schedule looks a lot like yesterdays.  We will be spending the day at the Transition home and eating out.  We hope to meet with the Nurse and Doctor today but they don't have that on our itinerary until Wednesday.  Tonight we eat at a traditional Ethiopian restaurant.

What a day...

We made it to Ethiopia with no issues, and got to meet our son.  The last 48 hours have been crazy traveling, as the 3 of us have slept anywhere from 5 to 10 hours (as good as you can sleep on a plane).  We did manage to get away for a few hours and saw part of downtown Frankfurt.
Yiah has been a real trooper.  He crashed today mid afternoon and is already out for the night right now (as is Laura), but you couldn't ask for anything more from a 4 year old.  After all that travel with little to no sleep we thought we could sleep at our hotel for a few hours, until lunch.  But from the time we got to our hotel this morning, we had about 45 minutes to get cleaned up, eat and we were off to the transition home.
There we got to meet our little guy and hold him for the first time.  We spent a good 2 1/2 hours there this morning, and after eating lunch, spent another 2 in afternoon.  I will say his hair is crazy and he is a chunk!  Yiah was a great big brother reading to him and holding him, everything we new he would be.  He also was a hit with the kids at the transition home and he ran and played with all of them in the yard.
While we were there we were able to speak with the nurse a little about his condition.  She actually approached us because she remembered Yedidiya from his time there.  She didn't have too detailed of information for us, but we do know that they have heard back from the neurosurgeon.  All she really knew was that he had his MRI and he needs surgery.   The surgery is not to put in a shunt however, as we had expected.   She also informed us that we would meet with the lead nurse about it in more detail tomorrow.  We don't know what the surgery is or any short/long term affects of his condition.  We do know, that after spending the day with him, that he is not meeting many milestones and lacking skills that a child his age should have.
The time we had with him was blessed, but we left today with more questions than answers.  As for me, I am just going to admit that I am scared and am filled with doubts.  My biggest is if I am strong enough.  I am uncertain of what this journey will bring and what God's will and purpose for us, and for our family is.  It has been a difficult day with many emotions.  I just pray we will know more tomorrow and God's plan will be clear.

And We're Off

Well, here we are... The story so far is not the way we would have written it, but we are trusting that God has a beautiful ending in mind for our special little guy.  Our minds and faiths have been spinning for the past week as we had received news of a medical condition that our son is dealing with.  With communication between countries knowing what is going on and trying to get him treatment has proved difficult.  But we are trying to trust.  I read a story last night about Lazarus and his sisters, stating how Jesus could have come when they asked and healed Lazarus, avoiding his death.  But he didn't.  He didn't because He was ready to reveal himself at a new, deeper level to his sister's.  Deeper than they had known him before.  We are struggling with this.  My prayer is that is where God is for our little one.  We covet your prayers and support as we leave on this journey, and will try to post as often as possible while in Addis.  Thank you all for your love through this.

~Aaron and Laura