A doctor to help

Again, I am in awe at how helpful you all have been. I know you are concerned about Dennis and the medical care available to him once he is here. Don't worry, I think he will be in good hands once he is home. I have been in contact with a pediatric plastic surgeon here in our area and he has been very helpful so far. He is willing to squeeze Dennis into his busy schedule as soon as he gets back from doing mission work in North Korea. How awesome is that? The fact that I have found a doctor that emailed me back the very same day to answer my millions of questions and he does mission work is just awesome in my book. Plus, he is extremely optimistic yet realistic about what Dennis will need to have done.

He knows that regardless of whether or not Dennis could be helped, we will love him no matter what, but this doctor is pretty certain that he can improve Dennis' quality of life.....which is all that John and I want for him. The doctor is concerned that the damaged eye is still connected to Dennis' brain and wants to remove it first thing. Later he will replace it with a glass eye. We are assuming that Dennis' left eye is perfectly fine. Secondly, he wants to see if there is cranial damage or if the damage is mainly superficial. He knows that there is some damage done to Dennis' mouth because his teeth are growing upward but that doesn't necessarily mean that the rest of his skull was punctured. Some of you have asked what to pray for specifically, and I would love for you guys to pray that his facial bone has not been damaged.

Naturally, his surgeries will be less invasive if there is no cranial damage, and so of course I hope that his scarring is only skin deep. I know that the less damage there is, the less pain he will have to go through with surgeries to correct it. We are very happy that we found out about Dennis while he is still so young. Not only can he get the love and attention that every child deserves all the sooner, but he can have corrected, the further damage done just through growing. There is evidence that his nose is beginning to pull to one side, but since he is still so young it is safe to assume that this can be fully corrected and his face will not become deformed.

Besides just wanting to wrap my arms around him and love him as my son, I am so happy to think that with us adopting him he will now have the opportunity to get the medical attention he needs to improve his life.... The way he sees, the way he feels, the way he eats, the way people look at him, and just the way that he lives his life. He will finally have the chance to live the life that all of my other children live. Nothing more, nothing less.