Merry Mayhem on Christmas Day!

Time for Christmas!

Its time for the annual Ellison Christmas letter. I know, you’ve been anxiously awaiting it to see how many children we have this year! Once again we won’t disappoint as we have Holiday news to share that our kids keep growing...and so does the number of them!!

On November 18, 2007, Stephen and Stefani celebrated their 12th wedding anniversary. On that very same day, they welcomed home their 13th child. They say that its cheaper by the dozen ( but I am here to tell you that is NOT true) so why not do better and make it a Baker’s Dozen?

We have just had the immense blessing of bringing home Caden who is 7 years old. He was born in China too. As you can see from the picture of him on Daddy’s lap that he has a fabulous smile. We think he is a wonderful addition to our family and we are SO GLAD HE IS HERE!! He and Lan have become quite a team and they truly enjoy each other’s company.

We also welcomed our first grandchild. Little Haydin Hill is a smart and happy boy and so well cared for by his Mama Katie. Auntie Sierra makes sure to take very good care of him too. Haydin will celebrate his first birthday on January 12th.

BRANDON was deployed in the Phillipines for a year and is now back safely. PHEW!! Since 9/11, he has also made it through deployments to Afghanistan, kuwait and Iraq unscathed. We certainly are proud of him and grateful for his sacrifices so we can enjoy our freedom. BRETT works as a mechanic at Nate Wade Subaru in SLC and just bought his first house! He is recovering from a broken tailbone...ouch! SIERRA is a receptionist for home Depot Installing and a very good oldest sister. Did I mention she is such a great big sister?! KATIE works at 1-800-Contacts but spends most of her time being a great mom to Haydin. SHE ROCKS! JUNIOR graduated from high school and is in Honolulu and works as a security guard for University of Hawaii...and likely chasing girls.

MAKAYLA is getting ready to graduate from high school next May and was named November’s Student of the month at school. We hope she chooses to attend Southern Utah State University because we just aren’t ready to have her leave us yet. ShAYNA is in the 9th grade now and really wanting a phone for christmas....Hoping Santa gets a wrong number on that one. She is definitely a talker. TAISHA is in 8th grade and our very much appreciated organizer. We owe our family sanity to her. ROBERT is truly searching for a way to attend clown school. He is always joking and making people laugh...even when he should be doing other things. He is a very kind hearted boy and he keeps us humored. AARON has finally agreed to take piano lessons and expand on his musical talent. We love listening to him practice. He always takes time to make sure people are happy and included.

CADEN just joined our family and he really loves to do art and be one of the kids. He has Osteo-genesis Imperfecta. You might have heard this as Brittle Bone Disease. It doesn’t slow him down but the trampoline is off limits. Next time you see us be sure to give him a hug...just not too hard though! SHAOLAN (LAN) is as girly as a girl can be. She celebrated her 6th birthday with the princesses at Disneyland. Anything pink, purple, or princessy is what she likes. She started kindergarten and LOVES it. She is learning to read and this is so exciting!!!

AMMON is the baby and even though he is four years old, he is still has a lot of baby left in him. He had a really tough start in life and didn’t get to experience much while he waited in China for a family. We knew he had a seizure disorder when we adopted him but since bringing him home last December have learned that he has a golf ball sized cyst in the left side of his brain. He also has a difference in electrical current to that side of the brain which causes his seizures. It also affects his language and he is just now learning how to talk. He gets PLENTY of exposure to hearing people talk at our house so it’s a perfect place for him to be!!

We finally did what we have been wanting to do for years and that is to buy some ATV’s. We bought 5 and like to spend time out riding. We have a trailer and our new ATV’s...now we just need the TIME to be able to enjoy them more. Anybody want to get together and camp this summer??

The kids, except for the 3 “littles”, will be learning to snowboard this winter. How many emergency room visits do you see in our near future?!?!?!? Oh well, the doctors all know us there by name anyway.

We want to wish you and your family a warm and magical holiday season. We thank you for being part of our lives and for cheering us on. We have been blessed so much and we are grateful for that. We hope you are able to count your blessings too. May 2008 be filled with love, friends and family.

All our love,

The Ellisons

Ammon's second opinion scheduled for 1/8/08

I really must take the time to thank you all for your prayers and your
support with Ammon. I also truly appreciated all of you took the time to
share your advice with me about the option of him have a
hemispherectomy. I have spent a great deal of time reading the advice
and reviewing the procedure and talking with our doctors. We have a
consultation scheduled with a second neurologist on 1/8/08 to learn if
he agrees with the option of the hemispherectomy.

The doctors that see him believe that it is very likely that his right
brain has already taken over all or most of the functioning for Ammon's
left brain already. Right now the left brain has the golfball sized
cyst, is underdeveloped and has a different electrical output than the
right brain. It may be that the only thing the left brain is doing for
him now is giving him the seizures. Each time he has a seizure, he risks
damaging the right brain. That is very scary too.

There would be risks with the surgery. He will likely lose fine motor
ability and strength in his right hand and risks losing sight in one
eye. His mood and language may also be permanently affected. But, he has
such little language now...do we risk losing it all?

Not having the surgery also has risks. His mood is changed by the
medications now. This current one makes him very aggressive, like the
first medication did. The continuing seizures can damage his right
brain. He spends nearly half of his life now either having a seizure of
sleeping one off. That is half of his time to be learning. He just gets
further and further behind.

So be thinking of us as we continue to research and consult with medical
professionals and other parents! One of our CHI families got me
immediately in touch with her nephew's mother who has had to make the
same decision for her son. Their results with surgery were amazing. He
has had no more seizures since the surgery 7 years ago.

So that is where we are. You know what I'll be hoping for Christmas,
health for my boy.

Ammon's medications not working

Ammon doesn't have a specific injury site in his brain to causes his seizures. Some people have those and once surgically removed the seizures stop. Ammon appears to have an overall under development of his left brain hemisphere. When his brain developed, something happened to the left side and this something likely also caused the golf ball sized cyst that sits at the bottom of it, just above his left eye. This has also resulted in different electrical outputs of the two hemispheres.

At our last consultation with the neurologist he suggested that we consider having his left hemisphere completely removed. I replied that he must be joking and the doctor said, "No, I'm serious. Children seem to do very well after these surgeries as the brain is plastic and the right side will take over many of the duties the left brain has now." I'm sorry, but I'm just not ready to take this step. How do you make the decision whether to remove half of your child's brain?

So, I would much rather have his own body figure it out through a medical miracle than having to decide to remove his brain. Please pray that his brain can mend itself without removing it. We've also been looking into seizure dogs. Somehow they can sense the electrical change in a person's brain before a seizure starts and get the child down on the ground before it starts so they don't fall. Sometimes this seems to stop the child from going into the seizure too. Right now Ammon needs to always be with someone. He sleeps in a toddler bed next to mine. Last night he had the seizure while he was in the hot tub with Makayla and the younger children. Makayla held him and Lan did her duty and ran out and got me. He always needs someone on watch. Good thing we have so many children who are wonderful about taking turns watching him. If he were in a family with no other siblings, I think it would send the mother to insanity.

Happy 1st Adoption Birthday Ammon!

A year ago tonight, Daddy, Lan and Mommy ate dinner at the rotating restaurant of the Holiday Inn in Hefei, Anhui province. We looked out over the twinkling lights below and imagined what the next 24 hours would bring. We knew the a whole lifetime would change before we were back to eat dinner again. We were going to meet our Ammon the next morning at 9 am at the Civil Affairs building.

On this Sunday Eve of this first adoption anniversary I look back on that Sunday Eve of Adoption Day. Had we known then what we know now, would have moved forward? Would we choose to do it again? Back that night we officially knew that Ammon had seizures and had learned unofficially that Ammon was a little behind in his language. When nobody had requested to review "Gregory" Group 12 and 13's file, and it was due back to the CCAA, our family decided that we would be his family. We had to fight CIS to get approval to bring him home. During the wait we learned that his SWI had no water, little food, no refridgerator, no washer, no safe cribs, no medicine and were able to immobilize the adoption community to dig a well and together literally save children's lives. Then our TA didn't come with the rest of our group and we watched them leave without us. It was a struggle at every step to get him home. How wise God was to make us fight....or we might have turned tail and run. I guess we had to prove that we were committed to this little boy.

At Adoption Day we did not know that he only had 10 words in his vocabulary and only five were recognizable by the Chinese. His favorite word was Da Shi Ya! Basically that meant, "watch out because I'm about to fight". He was absolutely out of control. He was hysterically panicked at being in any closed room, hotel and elevator included. He wouldn't go to bed. He ran from table to table in the restaurants grabbing food off other's plates. He could not stay still...remember how all his pictures have him a "blur" as he was always on the move. He absolutely would tolerate no restraints like a seatbelt. We didn't ever for a moment consider not bringing him home but from the very beginning we had no idea how on earth we would get him on a plane and all survive the flight.

We didn't know then that when we were to arrive in Guangzhou later that week that our guide Connie, who has helped hundreds of children newly adopted by their families, would crown him "the naughtiest boy she had ever seen join a family".

This was before we even knew about the arachnoid cyst on his left cranial fossa. Or that he would have serious blood issues that would require multi-weekly monitoring, that he would be a full two years developmentally below his chronological age, that he would still not be potty trained, that he would still have such little language, that he would have full blown temper tantrums with his first line of defense being head butting whomever tried to help hold him, that he would have so many quirky behaviors that put him on the austistic spectrum, that he would just now be learning how to play with "friends", that we would still be seeing seizures multiple times a week that we still haven't been able to control. That we would be on his third medicine and still no resolution.

Would we do it again? Would we have made a different choice knowing what we know now?

I hope we would have made the same choice. Since we didn't have that choice to make I cannot say for sure what we would have done. But then we wouldn't have known the infectious smile that brings people to love and want to protect him. We wouldn't have known the compassion and experience he was blessed our family with. The other day my high schooler had a peer fall into a seizure. While the class and teacher were frozen with fear she took over and confidently stood watch until he stopped seizing. My children reach out more to the "odd" the children who dance to a completely different song than the rest of the world hears. Ammon has touch us to see joy in the every day. A set of paper clips or clay dough can bring squeals of delight. He reminds us that humans are marvelous beings and that every little achievement should be cheered and savored. He has taught us to laugh....to appreciate the miracle of life and the worth of EVERY soul. He has taught us to love. Not one person gets to enter or depart his presence without a big kiss and hug.

It is with great pride that we share that our son Ammon who will 5 years old in February, is starting to understand language. Not English in specific but language in general. He is now understanding that language has power, that with language he can control his world. He has always been good about imitating language we model, but in just the past few weeks he has started showing spontaneous speech! Here are some examples of what we now hear from him, "I hungry, Yum, Here LanLan, beepbeeps (cars), help, excuse me, thank you, LanLan hit me, mine, stop, bless you, say prayers, ride bike, helmet, where's my shoes?". He was able to make a full sentence when baby Haydin was hear and tried to get into his precious cars. He took his car basket and said, "Mama, Help! Beepbeep up!" as he pointed to the top of the dresser!! And last night I said to LanLan, "I love you!" and he looked at me and said, "No, I love you". He was trying to tell me that I forgot to tell him that I love him too. He know can call of us by our names. That was huge! Every big person was "Ma" but now I have become Mommy. I am the only Mommy. And on his sweet sister Makayla's 19th birthday on Halloween, he called her by her name for the very time. How many other 4 year old can give a gift to their big sister than brings her to tears?

We still fight the seizure demon. He still has them multiple times a week, sometimes multiple times a day. The other day we were out hanging Christmas lights and he was playing in the driveway only 10 feet from us. He went into a seizure and we didn't notice. We didn't know. The pain it brings my heart to look and see him on the ground, alone, fighting the demon in quiet isolation stabs my heart like nothing else. It makes me, his father, all his siblings, his bus aides, and his teachers all extremely protective of him. He had his school picture taken and was so very handsome!! Just 15 minutes later at the snack table he feel into a seizure and I went to the school to bring him home. His little friends were so concerned. They rounded up his backpack and patted his hand. Ammon is teaching them too. He had a seizure in the bath for the first time. He fell forward and even though my husband was right there sitting on the toilet, Ammon swallowed some water. Will we be watching him bathe when he is 30?

I've put new pictures on the blog. Every Adoption Birthday we put the clothes are children came to us back on so we can see how much they have grown. Ammon has grown so much that we can't even get the straps over his shoulders! I've included some pictures of 1 year ago and then of tonight and his school picture. I have to say that his had sewn, multiply patched and darned padded pants and jacket should be included in a cultural museum. They certainly speak volumes of the life that was his while he wore those clothes.

http://ammonsadventures.blogspot.com/

Sometimes I worry myself thinking of all the things he can't do. What it will like for him if he has to live with us his whole life? Then I have to step back and think...well, he loves to help me cook. I'll teach him to cook and he can cook for me when I'm old. That will be a good trade off! But truly, what I want most for my children is that they feel good about themselves, that they know how to give and receive love, and that they are happy. Well, Ammon has this mastered. What more could I dream for?