About Keith

Here's some observations about our son.

He is normal size and weight. I pick him up from time to time, when walking in the streets for instance, or just to hear him laugh. I don't think he got picked up much in the orphanage, not since he could walk for himself. It seems like a new experience for him.

His general eyesight is much worse than I (daddy) thought it would be. He slows down when we come to a different sized patch of pavement or flooring because he can't tell if it's a step down or not. He really hesitates to get on an escalator. We've started saying "step" when there is a change in his path. He also likes to get really close to the TV. anything that interests him must be examined at the tip of his nose. We may be talking legal blindness. But we won't know if it can be corrected until we get to the states.

His brachial plexus injury does not affect him in the least. He can't raise his arm at the shoulder, but the elbow works fine and he has strength and dexterity in his hand, as well as blood flow—if you walk holding that hand it gets just as sweaty as the "good" arm.

He is super sweet, especially to girls and younger kids. Julianna has to bear the brunt of this side of his personality. If she is upset, the normal family routine is for mama to hold her. Now you can add big brother coming over and offering her comfort in chinese. Loud chinese. And offering her a toy, by tapping the object on her body somewhere, preferrably the head. Nana does not respond well. The funny thing is, he isn't getting the picture. He simply does his duty to her whether it makes her cry louder or not. Hey, its worked his whole life up till now.

He is an easy kid to love, he has a heart of gold. Completely unselfish. He hoards food, but that will pass when he figures out that he won't starve with this new family of imbeciles who can't even talk right. He calls me Baba, talks to me constantly in Chinese. The want to attatch is clearly there. He hasn't mourned or grieved his loss yet, I don't know if it will even happen. I retract that, I know it will happen—when is the question. He may not "get it" yet. But, as with Nana, love will be the key. This time around it's Daddy doing the heavy lifting. Boy, is he heavy.