I meant to share an update on Sawyer for a few weeks now, and time just kept getting away from me! He’s been home with us for over eight months now. It feels like he’s been part of our family for a lot longer than that.
He had surgery in June to fix his cleft lip, and last Wednesday he had surgery to repair his cleft palate. It required a night at the hospital and was more extensive than the lip surgery. The surgeon also took out some scar tissue from his lip that was a result of having an infection after his lip surgery. (these photos were taken a few months ago)
Sawyer is such a trooper and did really well after the surgery. He seems to take everything in stride and is so resilient. The first few days were a bit rough, but after just a few days, he is almost back to normal. He will be on a soft food diet for three weeks, which will be challenging. Our little guy LOVES food and doesn’t love that he can’t eat what the rest of us eat.
Sawyer’s attachment and bonding with us has been going really well, even more so since we moved into a new house. I especially notice lately that when he is with us in a large group of people, he gets nervous and wants to be held by us and stays close by. This is a great sign that he recognizes us as his primary caregivers and his protectors. Coming from an orphanage with many caretakers, this is a big deal.
We love our funny, feisty little man so much! He is very affectionate, and has a big love for learning and trying new things. I am so proud of the many obstacles he has overcome since he became part of our family. He is simply an amazing kid!
One of the struggles we are still dealing with is his issues with food. He can get very anxious if he’s afraid he won’t get enough to eat, and so meal times can be stressful. I just got the book Love Me, Feed Me which was recommended by our social worker, and I’m hoping we can implement some strategies from the book that will help.
Another struggle is with his speech. Because of his cleft palate, he wasn’t able to articulate many words, but now that his palate is fixed, he will hopefully start talking more. He will likely need speech therapy to help him with this. Even though he can’t talk much, he is an excellent communicator and get’s his requests (demands!) across very clearly!
Overall, Sawyer has adapted to our family and home a lot better than we anticipated. We have had many challenging times and sometimes don’t see the fruit of our hard work for a long time, but we are committed to putting in the time and effort to give him everything he needs to be a healthy, well-adjusted little boy.
