One TOUGH 6 year old

My son, yes I am a little bit biased, but MY SON is one of the toughest 6 year olds that I have ever seen. He had is tonsils and adnoids taken out last Wednesday and has done great. He never cried or wimpered one single time before, during or after the surgery. Never was scared or anything even on the trip to the hospital, during the pre-op room and even when they wheeled him down the hall to the OR he was smiling and saying bye Mommy and Daddy see you in a little while. Never cried after in post-op and has been home for 8 days now and not cried or wimpered one bit. Eating ice cream, scrambled eggs and more importantly - I have him drinking 2 Ensure shakes a day as well for vitamins and such. He has only lost 2 pounds when 5-7 is the norm and doing great. One tough son of a gun if you ask me. Just wanted to post

I saw a pick of you and him and he's a fine looking young man to. You and your wife keep up the good work.

[QUOTE=mhall;422228]I saw a pick of you and him and he's a fine looking young man to. You and your wife keep up the good work.[/QUOTE]

Thanks Mark.

For those that don't know HE is an amazing story and I will post it here.

Prabal Balak was found abandoned in a field in Katmandu Nepal on Dec 2, 2003. He was found with another boy about a year older than him by a police officer walking the beat and this field is notorious for kids to be abandoned. Both of them were taken to a local hospital and due to the umbilical cord it was "estimated" that he was born on November 9, 2003 so that is the birth date he was given. Balak, in Nepalese, means Boy and Prabal was just a first name given to him by the Police Officer that found him. Less than a month old and left abandonded. His picture was ran in the local paper for 3 months while he suffered in an orphanage outside of town. I say suffered because there are HUNDREDS of kids in this "place" with very little food and staff. After 3 months he was put up for adoption. We had started out adoption process in 2003 and got our paperwork and all the other stuff done in October of 2003 and waited and waited and waited for the phone call. On March 7, 2004 I got the phone call that we had a referral for a little boy. I immediately left work and went to my wife's work, after stopping and getting flowers and balloons saying "Its a Boy" on it to let her know about the referral. She screamed and cried when I knocked on her door and she turned around and saw me. All we got was an email with literally a postage stamp size picture of a baby with a turbine on his head and his mouth wide open from screaming. We got info about him being found and that was all. We immediately called the Adoption agency and told them YES we wanted the child. I was scheduled for my weight loss surgery on March 22, so I called my surgeon to cancel because we had to be in Nepal on April 1 to pick him up. My surgeon, THE IDIOT THAT HE TURNED OUT TO BE, told me we would move up the surgery to March 9th and I would be able to travel to get our son. I had my surgery, was sent home 4 days later, then back in the hospital for 2 weeks in ICU with blood clots in my lungs and that began all my medical problems. I did not get to travel but My mother in law was our backup and had went thru the same background check, medical checks, financial and every other body cavity thing they do to get you approved to be an adoptive parent, so she and my wife left for Nepal at the end of the month.

They flew from Cincinnati, to LA, to Bangkok Tailand, to Katmandu Nepal. There was another couple that met up with my wife in LA from the same adoption agency that was picking up their son in Nepal as well so they traveled together. My wife and mother in law get to Katmandu and find out that our son is not at the orphanage but staying at the attorney's house in Katmandu. Our son had been in the hospital 2 times that month with pneunomia and since we had already signed stating we wanted him, Nepalese law states that he had to be taken from the orphanage to the hospital for medical care. The latest time was 3 days before my wife got there so they left him at the attorneys house. My wife, mother in law and the other couple got to pickup our son the next day first. Then they went to the orphanage outside of town to pickup the other couples son. There was hundreds of kids in this run down place all very hungry with very little food. They would run up to the 4 of them all holding up their arms wanting to go with them. They found out that 22 kids had died of pneumonia that month in the orphanage because they did not have any referrals signed to be taken so there is no law protecting them so they are left at the orphange to fend for themselves. Our son was lucky in that we had signed the referral. The first night in the hotel, called The Yak and the Yetti, which was the previous ruling families home, and our son had beans and lentl in his bowel movement. 4 months old and they are feeding him table food. Long story short, 22 days in the hotel, because the Nepalese govt kept stalling the paperwork - I think it was just to keep them in the country spending more money, $34,000 out of our own pocket all comes to ONE TOUGH 6 yr old - Joshua Alexander Prabal Lumpkins

The boy that was found with Joshua in the field was adopted by a couple in Columbus Ohio and we did Genetics testing hoping they were brothers but they are not related. Not related by blood but related forever in being abandoned and found together left alone by 2 sets of parents in the same place relatively at the same time.

You have a lot to be proud of he is also quite the athlete.

Elnut hope you are doing well I know you are waiting for December if you repeat your tournament win maybe you will be in that top fifty money winners but even you are not worth 247,000 per day.

That story brought a tear to my eye and really moved me. You and your wife did a wonderful thing Woody, I already respected you but it just got stronger. Awesome story....

[QUOTE=roadrunner;422234]You have a lot to be proud of he is also quite the athlete.

Elnut hope you are doing well I know you are waiting for December if you repeat your tournament win maybe you will be in that top fifty money winners but even you are not worth 247,000 per day.[/QUOTE]

He is a STUD soccer player and hopefully Joshua will be worth $247,000 a day to play soccer. If so, as his AGENT, I will only take a fair part of around 87% and then maybe I can buy me a houseboat and a Ranger to park next to yours at Ky Lake. Money only goes so far because I spent my part of the winnings from the Billy a long time ago, BUT everyday I get to look at the winning plaque and winning envelope the prize money came in mounted proudly on my Smallmouth wall in the living room. It is hung right above a picture of Billy Westmoreland that was taken a couple of weeks before he passed away and was given to me by his brother Bobby, next to a framed copy of the article about me that was on ESPN/Bassmasters website and next to my signed picture of David Hayes taken this past spring holding the 11-15 World Record Smallie. Love to put a second winning plaque on the wall in December and be mentioned with Charlie Knuckles, the pioneer of the FNF and only legal back to back winner of the Billy Westmoreland Tourney (that I know of).

Sounds like you all saved a precious life. Great story Woody.....man Joshua sure got lucky with you two.

Elnut that is a touching story I'm sure you think of all those poor kids that are not lucky enough to find someone like you and your wife. My heart goes out to all those suffering kids. You are right that is ONE TOUGH 6 year old it is also ONE LUCKY 6 year old.

We do not appreciate how lucky we all are here in America.

Steve

Don and Steve, I appreciate you both saying Josh got lucky but I have to disagree, Krista and I are the LUCKY ones in this deal.

I was not there but heard the stories from both Krista and her mom, we have all seen the "Feed the Children" program on TV and Katmadu is very similar in most regards to that and worse in some parts. In Nepal, Cows are sacred, people are starving and Cows roam freely throughout the city of Katmandu but if you kill a Cow you are sentenced to death but if you kill a human it is a $300 fine. The same creek/river that runs thru the city is the drinking water, tub and toilet. They butcher meat on the sidewalk, literally on the sidewalk. There are buckets of water with a ladle in them throughout the city that are community water buckets. They build bricks by hand, half built houses all over the place, they will make gravel by hand - you will see a pile of large stones next to a pile of smaller next to a pile of smaller and so forth. When my wife and her mother got off the plane in Katmandu there was about 50 Nepalese men/boys ranging from preteen age to men in there 70's all wanting to carry their bags to the van. These 2 men carried them and my wife gave them $5 each, to which they both dropped to their knees and started crying. The driver of the van said that $5 was like a months pay to most people in Nepal.

It is sad to think parents could abdandon their precious children in a field to starve and die. Then to think of all those children suffering in the orphanage with no food or medical care. Very sad. Thank the Lord for good people like you and your wife and the other couples that are saving these little children. Joshua is a gift from God thats for sure.

Thanks for sharing the story elnutsmalljaws. Bet he grows up with the same mentality of not complaining, being scared and doing what he has to do without a whimper. Also bet with him seeing what all you have went through helped him be tough with what he was dealing with and will continue to help him the rest of his life.

Take care.

[QUOTE=pontooner;422296]Thanks for sharing the story elnutsmalljaws. Bet he grows up with the same mentality of not complaining, being scared and doing what he has to do without a whimper. Also bet with him seeing what all you have went through helped him be tough with what he was dealing with and will continue to help him the rest of his life.

Take care.[/QUOTE]

One thing that my wife and I have discussed a bunch thru his life is that he rolls with the punches with no problem. From my first major surgery a few days after the referral to today, all he has seen is change in our lives. One minute I am home, the next minute we are on our way to the hospital, he may be at my mother in laws house for the night with me being in the hospital, I may pick him up from school or it may be my wife or his mother or other stuff that has gone along with my illness. He sees me with bandages, iv's, nurses, doctors and hospitals and knows it is a part of his life and ours. Not only has this helped him with this surgery but he has NEVER once thrown a fit in a store or restaurant or even thrown a temper tandrum at home. Just a very easy going laid back tough son of a gun. He gets his hair cut with no problem, he goes to the ear doctor and they dig ear wax out of his ears and no problem, he had to get a throat culture and give blood at the hospital a few months back when he had strep and no problem. The worst part that I have seen these years is when I am in the hospital they put me in isolation due to my staff infections so they don't allow kids under 12 years old to visit me in my room. Sometimes I am able to go out of the isolation wing to see him but only for a short time and other times it could be several days before I get to see him. These are the worst days because he does not fully understand why he can't come with mommy to the hospital daily like she does. We do get to send videos back and forth with the cell phones saying good night or good morning but that is not the same. he is a trooper there is no doubt.