September 17, 2008 to September 29, 2008 – Wild swings (the good)

History was made today as stocks fell off a precipice amidst the seemingly unending turmoil surrounding our beaten-down financial market.  Not since trading resumed on the stock market after the tragic events of September 11, 2001 have we seen such a huge single day point loss on the Dow Jones Industrial Average.  The 777.68 point drop came down quick and furious as investors panicked on the news that the House of Representatives had rejected the $700 Billion bailout plan aimed at reviving our banks diseased with malignant mortgage debt.  News headlines and analysis now circle around how this will impact us ordinary citizens on Main Street, as the frozen credit markets will certainly affect consumer spending and small business owners dependent on the ability to borrow.

As I think about the violent gyrations on Wall Street, I look back to the past two weeks here in the Owyang home and feel quite motion-sick from our own roller coaster ride.  Despite the wild swings in our lives, mood and overall outlook, I am at peace tonight in my home office and, even more so, am thankful for the opportunity to be able to gather my recent memories and place them into this web journal that I seem to set on the back burner so often these days.  I will begin with the good news and areas where we give our thanks to God for his provision, and perhaps will continue tomorrow with a posting on where we are struggling.

After Jenn-Jen’s trip with Daria to the Easter Seals feeding clinic session, we came back with a diagnosis that gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD (http://www.medicinenet.com/gerd_in_infants_and_children/article.htm) is the responsible party to all of our woes surrounding Daria’s difficulty in feeding.  GERD has been a problem with Daria since we brought her home, and to combat this, we had been providing her with twice-daily doses of Zantac (Ranitidine) to help suppress her stomach acid.  Just as we were about to give up and pray that Daria outgrows her reflux soon, we went to the Sutter Memorial Hospital Special Care Nursery Reunion (more later) on September 20th and happened to meet up with the parents of twins who had been in the hospital when our girls were there.  We shared stories about the challenges of raising preemie twins and, as I explained to her about Daria’s increasingly difficult feedings and reflux, we learned that her daughter had gone through a similar bout with GERD.  She recommended that we ask our pediatrician to switch Daria from Zantac to Prevacid (Lansoprazole) (http://www.drugs.com/prevacid.html), and shared how this helped her daughter be able to feed again without the pain of acid reflux.  The very next business day we called our pediatrician and he lined us up with a two-month supply of samples of Prevacid.  Since we made the switch, I am seeing less resistance from Daria during feeding time and she has not spit up for the last three days.  We pray this positive trend continues and are hopeful that Daria will learn to associate feeding time with happiness instead of the burn of stomach acid.

Katelynn’s weekly home sessions with her physical therapist is paying off dividends.  While it seems that we are so time-challenged to be able to do all of the therapeutic exercises to help Katelynn stretch, we are pleased to hear from the therapist that she sees significant improvements in our daughter’s physical development.  Jenn-Jen and I still completely understand that this is not definitive evidence that Katelynn will be able to lead a life without physical disability, but we continue to pray and keep our faith that our Lord will strengthen our precious Katelynn each and every day.  Nonetheless, I am witnessing much more coordination when Katelynn uses her hands and feet.  She is bringing her hands midline and reaching for objects more than ever before.  The most promising development is that Katelynn is almost at the point of being able to flip herself from a prone position to being supine, or on her back!  To me, this is quite fantastic in light of my mental and emotional preparation for the potential of physical limitations for Katelynn in the future.

Now, speaking of flipping over, Jenn-Jen and I are thrilled to report that Daria learned how to turn herself over on September 24^th, which happens to be the same date the physical therapist came to work with Katelynn.  In fact, it was not long after the therapist said that Katelynn was learning how to flip herself over when Jenn-Jen and I noticed Daria giving it a try for herself.  We moved Daria to the center of her portable crib and watched as she slowly, but surely transition into the supine position.  It was nothing short of breathtaking!  Jenn-Jen and I joke about how Daria might just have a little bit of competitive spirit in her.

Big brother Adam is continuing to thrive and is enjoying kindergarten more than ever.  We wrapped up a chaotic last week where both the morning and afternoon classes were combined in order to allot time for the first set of parent-teacher conferences.  Jenn-Jen and I have been very curious to hear from Adam’s teacher about our son’s progress, especially because of the joy we see in Adam’s spirit whenever he talks about school.  When I went over Adam’s assessment with his teacher, I was pleased to learn that Adam was excelling and showing a genuine enjoyment of learning.  The results from first page of the assessment did not surprise me, as the expectations in kindergarten are actually not particularly rigorous.  It was not until we reached the second page when we reviewed the results of the Slosson Oral Reading Test (SORT), which is a short, word-recognition test used to assess the reading grade level of the test taker.  Each list of twenty words is progressively more difficult, and mastery requires seven words be correctly read.  Adam surprised with his ability, as he is reading at a solid mid-year third grade level.  In fact, the scoring sheet shows that he was able to reach list 5 (fifth grade) and correctly read six out of the twenty words.  In addition to the SORT, I learned that Adam read error-free at the rate of one hundred words per minute with expression, and correctly answered all but one of the reading comprehension questions.   Adam’s teacher recommended that we consider having Adam take the Gifted and Talented Education (GATE) test at the first available opportunity, which will not be until the end of the first grade.  Should Adam be qualified, it will mean that we may need to enroll him at a different school, but that is still too far down the road for us to even ponder at this time.  I am just very proud of Adam and hope that, as his parents, we are mindful to be consistent and continual in feeding his intellectual hunger. 

I mentioned earlier that we had the opportunity to attend the Special Care Nursery reunion at our hospital on September 20^th.  It was a great event and much larger than we had anticipated.  With the weather being just about perfect, we were able to stay the whole time and had a blast catching up with the nurses and social workers who had been taking care of Katelynn and Daria for the duration of their three and a half month stay.  A number of families whom we became acquainted with were also in attendance, and it was amazing to see how big their babies were now.  Then again, many were saying the same of our precious angels.  The event was very kid-friendly, and Adam loved the various games and even had a chance to hold a rabbit on his lap for the very first time.

Through the reunion, one of the charge nurses conveyed a message to another family who had been in the hospital for some time with their baby daughter.  I was surprised to get a call from Nick, the father, this past Wednesday, and spent some time catching up on everything that has happened since we last met.  The timing was impeccable, as Nick and his wife, Shelly were going to have their daughter baptized on Saturday.  He invited us to come celebrate with his family, but because of the colds spreading through our house, we were unsure if we would be able to attend.  Saturday morning came along and all seemed fine, so we decided to go and were very glad we did.  Nick and Shelly’s daughter is doing wonderfully and perhaps the best part of the experience was to see the parents with smiles on their faces.  During the long and grueling amount of time spent at the hospital in the Special Care Nursery, smiles and laughter come few and far between, so being able to share the mutual joy that we have our children home where they belong is priceless.  Not many can fully relate to what Jenn-Jen and I have gone through between January and May, but Nick and Shelly sure can.

Well, the last couple of weeks sure have been tumultuous, but I really wanted to focus on all the good that has happened since my last update.  As I alluded to earlier, there are still plenty of challenges we are facing, but I am going to save that for my next post.  All in all, life has been good and God has been faithful.  I look at my beautiful family and am thankful beyond words.