Luke was never suppose to walk...or live

This is our 9 yr old son, Luke. He was adopted from Ukraine in Oct. 2004. I have shared about all of his medical needs before... He was born with no palate and a bilateral cleft lip, he has a heart condition and has had one open heart surgery 3 weeks after we brought him home- he had a hole in his heart ( vsd) and his aortic valve was prolapsed thru it - this was repaired but has been leaking moderately and he needs to eventually have his aortic valve replaced. His r leg was folded like an accordian to the middle of his back and his l leg was webbed and his l foot was clubbed. He also had a myloceal in his spine... all of these have been repaired or are on going... he was one of our children who if we had not adopted him would not have lived. We went to 5 diff. orthopedic surgeons and 4 of them all recommended for us to amputate his r leg. We did not have a peace about doing this and so sought out a 5th opinion... we were sent to Dr. Standard at Sinai Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland- the Rubin Institute for Advanced Orthopedics. We were so glad we did this because as you can see Luke not only did not have his leg amputated but he walks, he runs and he plays football and even soccer... It was a lot for him to overcome and after 17 hrs of surgery to release and straighten his leg and it was put into an external fixator which he had on for almost a yr and he had his l leg done as well... with lots of therapy and hard work he was walking a yr earlier than expected at age 6 and he is alive.

These were taken today when our surgeon, Dr. Standard and his wife Ashley and their 3 children came for a visit along with our mutal friend, Barbara.