“Sadly we’ve spent the last day since arriving in the hospital with Joey. The doctors at the Children’s Hospital said that it was a miracle that he made it home alive and that his case of malnutrition, dehydration, and physical abuse was horrendous. And this is five days after he last saw that evil group of caretakers at his orphanage. Even now, he has bruises all over him, what appears to be cigar burn scar, many scars and knots on his skull.
Between the existing malnutrition and dehydration state he was in when we got him Monday, his stomach had shrunk to the point that he can only consume about 5-10 small bites of food and a few ounces of liquid at a time- and immediately is besieged by stomach cramps and diarrhea. The runny nose, shakes, muscles jerks and aching body causing him to cry nearly all the flight home and for the past several days is part of the detox, which is almost over. But that complicated it and made him not want food either or liquid. He was in bad shape when we finally cleared Customs Thursday afternoon, but by Friday morning when we woke up (after him being awake every 20-30 minutes all night moaning and crying), we knew he was in bad shape.
He has now been rehydrated but his electrolytes are considered “unstable”. We have been discharged from the Children’s Hospital and have returned to our town for daily check-in with the ped and instructions to return immediately to the Children’s Hospital if at any point he slows urinating or refuses to consume 4 oz of pedialyte an hour. He has been put “on watch” for refeeding syndrome and we are carefully monitoring all intake- at this point, he is on nearly fluids only until they can get him stabilized. We are probably looking at inpatient care to re-introduce a normal diet, although they are willing, for the sake of minimizing his trauma (because last night clearly triggered PTSD for him and the medical staff was extremely compassionate for him as he flipped out), to let us continue this process at home right now as long as he remains stable.
Please pray. For Joey, yes definitely. For Emma and Anna and Jake, who spent all day yesterday in a stroller in the ER room with us as well.
But I need you to pray for Everett. Hard. Because he was in worse condition than my Joey- and every sign that the doctors told us last night was indications that Joey was nearing DEATH- the jerky, unstable walk, the pitching forward like a drunk, the confusion and limited speech, the apparent withdrawal- those were all signs of the high levels of electrolyte instability in his body due to starvation and dehydration. Everett had all of those- even worse than Joey at times. I am absolutely terrified for him- and yes, please continue to give to the Enskat FSP-they need to get over there asap to get him, but more importantly, I need you all PRAY PRAY PRAY- that he survives until they can.
We had no idea that Joey was this bad off. We knew he was malnourished- and suspected he was drugged- but did not realize he was dying.
And if you are going to U***** to adopt a child- PLEASE- take individual serving packets of Pedialyte powder and Gatorade powder. They sell them in Target. We are so thankful we did.
Please, pray for Everett- Joey is here, safe, with a medical team alert to his every change in status. Everett is in hell on earth- and I am scared.”
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Just a sweet little boy in the hands of extreme abuse |

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wow!! so so sad.. i will be praying for those little boys and spread the word!!
What happened to Everett? The family’s blog is restricted.
Last I heard he was doing great!!