So How is Kellin Doing?

Time for an update!

Kellin is showing more and more independence, more desire to do things for himself. Check this out!

Yes, that is Kellin HOLDING a cracker and taking BITES off of it! Getting Kellin to eat has been such a long journey, and those of you who have followed this blog for awhile know that getting him to touch, hold, chew, and bite food has been an intense, often unpleasant, process. And yet, here he is! Eating a cracker just like any other four-year-old would! Give him a meal of finger foods (as long as they are dry, crunchy foods) and he will feed himself! We still have a ways to go toward getting Kellin to feed himself different textures and getting more proficient with a spoon, but wow, we have come a long way.

Here he is walking down the stairs by himself. He always looks so tiny when he does this because he has to reach UP to hold onto the railing! It's pretty cute, though.

And this one is a picture from just this morning. Kellin is getting pretty comfortable walking around the living room, dining room, and kitchen, so after he finished eating and climbed down from his chair, he walked into the living room. A couple minutes later, I went to check on him and found that he had walked to the window, and when he found a box of blocks in his way, he decided to climb up on it to get a better view. Getting more adventurous and confident all the time!

For those of you who have been asking - no, Kellin is not using any words yet. He continues to use some signs to communicate and he is really babbling a lot more, but no genuine spoken words. This is one area that continues to be very difficult for all of us. Kellin is often an unhappy little boy and without him being able to communicate, it makes him (and us) so frustrated when we just don't know what is wrong. We know that when he came home, he did not use any Chinese words, which we suspect is the result of those two years in a crib, when no one tried to communicate with him. While we still believe that he has the capacity to learn to speak, it gets harder and harder all the time to cope with the fact that has not learned any words yet. We talk and sing to Kellin all the time, and we KNOW he understands so much (he can follow lots of simple directions!) - but he just can't seem to make the connection that he can use words to tell us things. I know that he most likely has to "re-wire" his brain after all that time of neglect in his crib, so I am trying to be patient and to have hope that he will figure this out eventually.


On a different note:

We are working on fundraisers for our Angel Tree child! Rabbit has designed her own thank-you cards and will be selling those to anyone who is interested. She created some amazing and fun designs that would be perfect for sending thank-yous to friends and family after the holidays. I will be posting pictures and details soon! We are willing to send them to people, so if you don't live locally, you can still purchase some.

The other fundraiser we are planning is to sell fudge. We won't be shipping the fudge, so this fundraiser is for local friends and family, and for anyone we may see over the next month.

I will be doing a post within the next few days with details about price and how to order and pay.

Please remember our Angel Tree "baby" - Xander, who continues to wait in an orphanage in China for a forever family. If you feel led to make a donation, you can follow the link below. Remember that a donation of $35 or more gets you an ornament for your Christmas tree! The link will get you to the Angel Tree website, but you will still have to find Xander. The children are organized alphabetically within groups based on how much money has been raised for them (Xander currently has $5 in his account, but we already have more donations here at home waiting to be sent in, which will be added soon) or you can use the CTRL-F function to search for him. Xander is ten years old and has been waiting four long years to be chosen for adoption. He has only a little over three more years before he will "age out" and no longer have a chance.

http://static.reecesrainbow.org/angeltree2015/