Where has the year gone?

Wow, this month flew by with lots of snow left behind. Where do I begin?

The months in reveiw...

• The kids entertained us at the Church's Christmas Program on the 5th.  Theysang a song with their Sunday School class and Michial participated in the puppet show (Michiael joined the puppeteers this fall and enjoys it).  They all did a wonderful job.
• Angel experienced lots of snow and sledding for the first time (check out her big grin below).  On Dec 8th & 9th we experienced a "blizzard", had about 18 inches of snow dumped on us. The worst in 30-years they say.  It was very windy and cold; therefore, the kids missed 2 days of school. We had drifts in our yard that were 3 to 5 feet deep. 
• Angel has been with us for over 9 months now!
• Angel celebrated her first Christmas and loved all the presents. What kid doesn't? I'm sure she doesn't really comprehend it all, just knows she made out well.  She sure loves Santa though!
• We spent several days in Indiana over Christmas visiting lots of family.  They were all so glad to see us and especially see or meet Angel.  She did great, warmed up to everyone quickly.  What an outgoing little girl, loves to be the center of attention, most of the time.

Logan took Angel on her first ride on a sled, this was down one of the drifts on the side of our house (told you we got a lot of snow....

Here's the result!!!!!

Our Christmas at home, we celebrate early since we travel over the holiday.

Each year, every family member gets an ornament, this ornament represents something about the individual.  This year, we gave Angel a flashy 2009 ornament, representing her first Christmas and union with our family.

Only 3 days left to this year, I can hardly believe it.  We will be enjoying these last few days as a family, as Jason has 2 more days off of work. 

I'll upload more pictures soon, I need to get all the Christmas photos we took while in Indiana off the camera yet.

God Bless

Updates to go along with pictures..

It's been almost 4 weeks since I've posted, guess we've been busy.


Things are going well with Angel, we have been massaging the scars, not always 6 times a day but we try. This process is still a battle, most of the time - occasionally we can entertain her for part of or the whole time. We now listen to 5 nursery rhymes while we do the massaging, this is to help her become accustom to knowing that when the songs are over, we are ready to say our ABC's and then we are finished. I'm not sure it is serving it's purpose but hopefully someday soon she will figure that out.

Some of you may be aware that November is National Adoption month. Last weekend, our county held an Adoption Day Celebration down at the Courthouse. On this day they complete many domestic adoption court hearing and do Citizenship ceremonies for those who were adopted internationally over the past year. This was the 8th year, if I recall correctly, that they have done this. We were invited, about a month ago, to participate in one of the Citizenship Ceremonies taking place, what a special time. There were about 12 children in the group we were with and they called each one up, one by one, to be presented with their Citizenship certificate (which most already had, it was just a special ceremony) and to have a picture taken with the judge. It was so neat to see so many families in our community that have adopted children from half way around the world.

Our first Thanksgiving with Angel was special, we had dinner with our good friends, who are Angel's Godparents, and their three boys on Thursday evening. We all shared what we are thankful for - for most the kids and adults it was family and friends - I added our sweet addition to the family.   When I think back to a year ago, we had known of little Fu Ru Tian only a few weeks and had just submitted our Letter of Intent to adopt her.  Wait to find out if we would be approved. Oh the anticipation and love we had for her already. This year we get to hold her in our arms and feel blessed that God chose her as a gift to us.

This reminds me that I found a quote in Reader's Digest, while at the doctor's office on Friday, that I believe is so true:

You don't choose your family. They are God's gift to you, as you are to them.
~ Desmond Tutu from God Has a Dream: A Vision of Hope for Our Time

We were blessed to have a few family members come from Indiana to visit us this weekend, it was great to see them and for Angel to meet her Great-Grandma and Great-Grandpa D for the first time! Special memories - love them!

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, the Christmas Tree and decorations went up today. I don't think Angel knows what is going on but she feeds off the excitement of her brothers and sister. It was so fun to watch the kids put the tree together and go through the ornaments. I got some great photos of them, see below.

Angel and I went to the mall last week and while there happen to see Santa. I thought at first Angel would be scared, as she usually hates mascots but I pointed Santa out and he looked up and waved; therefore, so did we. Then she was like "hi, Santa" repeatedly so we went to sit on his lap and she didn't seem to mind. Got a great picture of Santa reading to her, so very cute.

We also had family photos taken this week, we were way overdue. It has been 4 years since we have had a family photo taken. A friend of ours took them, I can't wait to see them. He sent us a preview of one yesterday, oh they are going to be good! I imagine choosing won't be easy.

That about wraps up the past week ~ blessings to you all! I'm thankful for all the prayers you have said for Angel over the past year, we are very blessed to have so many prayer "warriors" out there. Thank you!

Updates - it's been a while...

Well, I guess I will just post the pictures for now. I had written a rather large blog post up and somehow managed to lose it so I will have to rewrite it later.

Angel for her Citizenship ceremony

Great Grandma & Grandpa D - just met them on Friday!

The girls with Papaw & Kim

Showing off the ornaments we got them last year that say "Big Brother" (Ge Ge), "Big Sister" (Jie Jie), and "Little Sister" (Mei Mei) in Chinese letters

My First Christmas - Look at my tree

Kid's Halloween costumes - Angel - duck, Kailey - Sharpey (High School Musical), Michiael - Indiana Jones & Logan - Mut (Indiana Jone's Son)

Quack, quack

This is how fully she can open her eyes now. The right is pretty much back to normal, the left still needs a little work. She will likely need a little more skin removed from the eye & nose juncture.

Update from the doc this week is that we need to massage more, concentrating on the area to the left of her nose where it has built up a bit. The right side seems to be healing well but the left side by her nose and an area near her chin both have a ridge to them. Therefore, we must massage more often throughout the day - Angel is not a fan of it at all. We are trying to do our best to do 6 sessions of about 5 minutes each. I have alarms set on my cell phone and Outlook calendar to help remind me. We are massaging about every other hour during the day. Between that and trying to potty train, I feel like we don't get a whole lot else done.

I also asked the doc what procedures he foresees for next year because we are getting ready to reinstate our health insurance and what to be sure to be prepared for what is to come. He is going to put together an outline of the procedures he expects will need to be done and send it to us. Some will depend on the scaring. I'm eager to see what we face in the coming year. I knew we would face several surgeries, guess I didn't realize that there was the possibility of all the "little" procedure that would need to be done to get things "just right". It's all for the best, just hard put her through so many. Thankfully she is such a trooper!

Looking much better...

Overall she is looking great, as you will see in the final picture. I still think she will need a little more work on the left eye before she will be able to fully open it but it is better than it was. We will see what the doctor says.

It's snowing....playing with foam popcorn.

Practicing fine motor skills with "momey" or money.

You can see both my eyes now!!!

What's next?

I asked Angel's surgeon yesterday, during the post-op overview, so what is the next step? At this point, he wants her to fully heal; therefore, he does not plan to do another surgery till after the new year. There is one exception to this, that is if yesterday's surgery still doesn't allow her to fully open her eyelids.

I pray that once all the swelling goes down she will be able to.

For now we are to massage some of the scars from the last surgery for 30 minutes total, preferably 5 minutes, 6 times a day. I am lacking already today, I've only done it once. This is going to be tough to stick to. Getting her to sit still that long won't be easy either. Better set a timer to do it every 2 hours. Between massaging and potty training we'll have a timer going off here all the time.

3rd Surgery - How it went

Another successful surgery done. Our trip to Chicago on Sunday went well, Angel did great for not having anyone in the back to help entertain her.

Monday morning we arrived at the hospital right on time 7:45am! I was worried as to how she would react this time since it had only been 5 weeks since the last surgery but she surprised me again, not once did she throw a fit. We walked into the pre-op (which was also the room we were in post op) room, same one as last time and she didn't even hesitate. She didn't even get upset about nurses this time, she was totally cooperative. She knew exactly what to do - I was amazed. Even after surgery she cooperated.

I am saddened to think that surgery is becoming the "norm" for her so she just goes along with it.

Surgery started about an hour and a half late again this time but was only about an hour long. Recovery time was much shorter this time too, about 40 minutes, it's been an hour and a half to two hours the last two times. She came out of it wonderfully. So at 1pm we were moved back to the outpatient room for another hour of observation. Well that one hour turned into two and a half hours. They didn't come check on her much. We were released at about 3:30pm, after I finally asked when we could go. Then we were on the road to home, arriving at about 10pm. Ange slept most of the way.

She is her usual self today, you wouldn't even know she had surgery yesterday. She isn't as swollen as I had expected her to be either. I'm so glad she was able to see, even right after surgery.

Here she is coloring while we wait.

Post surgery, while we wait to be released. She ate two applesauce, a NutriGrain bar and drank a cup of apple juice. The girl was hungry and thirsty.

One day post op

Thank you again for all your prayers, she has a wonderful group of people lifting her up!

Blessings!

Surgery on Monday at 9:20am

Just got the call that we need to be at the hospital at 7:45 am on Monday. Please pray for the procedure to go well and for safe, smooth travels.

Have a great weekend!

Pictures Only

Pre-Op Physical Complete

We made a trip to the peds office this morning for another pre-op physical, I that is the only reason we have gone the last three times since her 2 year check up in May! Usually she gets very upset anytime we go but we managed to get through it with just two minor outbursts. The first one occurred when we stepped into the office. She started to whine and I told her all was OK, the doctor was just going to say hi and look at her ears, nose and mouth. Whew. The next occurred as soon as we stepped into the examination room with the nurse. This time she whiny- cried for about 2 minutes and again we explained that they were just going to look at her and that was that. She was fine the rest of the visit. In fact she was pointing at the utensil they use to look in the ears and mouth, kinda telling him in her own way that he needed to use it. She's a smart little cookie. She was sure to remind them that she needed some stickers too.

Other than that she is looking great, healing well. I know, I know, you all want to see pictures. I will get some taken, uploaded and posted soon.

4 more days till she and I venture to Chicago, again.

Blessings!

October 19th

We were just informed that Angel's next procedure, which will be out patient (so no over night hospital stay this time, YAY), will take place on the 19th. They will thin out the skin around her right eye and narrow the nose bridge.

Wearing Kailey's Recital costume from a year ago.

See both eyes?

Kailey debuting what she learned so far at dance. They were the half time show for one of the little Rams football games today. Brrrrrr, it was cold.

An even better look at my eyes and look how great I'm healing!!!!

See my pony tail/fountain? Isn't it cute! She left it in most of the day, we've never made it out of the house with one in till today and she loved showing it off!!! Cheese!


As you can see from all of the above pictures, Angel is still utilizing that right eye. When I ask her to look at me for a picture, I get the side of her face and not a full on view. Praying that all works out here soon.

Both eyes are open...

As of Tuesday, the swelling is down in the left eye -enough that you can see her eye but we are unsure as to how much she is using it. After observing her we have noticed that the left eye turns in towards her nose a lot and she continues to favor the right eye. Therefore, she is still turning her head to the side a bit like the right eye is all she is looking from. I took her to visit with the eye doctor today but because her eyes are still a bit swollen she said we should wait to do a full eye exam. If it is a lazy eye she said it's not anything that needs to be addressed immediately. Once the swelling goes down from the surgery she faces in a few week and she can fully open her eye, we will go for a full exam and see what, if anything, needs to be done.

Please continue to pray that this isn't another hurdle she/we will need to face.

Looking good!

No major changes since the last update - Angel can still only see out of her right eye but I think we will see that beautiful left eye soon. The swelling everywhere is down and the incisions are healing well. I just sent off an e-mail to Dr. B with the weekly picture updates, I look forward to seeing his reply.

Two weeks have passed already, putting us that much closer to the additional surgery to remove the excess skin where the eye and nose meet on the right side. Hope to have a date for that soon.

Now that she can see, with one eye at least, we put her back in her big girl bed on Friday night - I think we all finally got a good nights sleep! I was afraid she might throw a fit about not sleeping with me but she didn't.

I guess we do have a little "major" news, we have been continuing down the potty training trail and I think with her not seeing for 8 days she became a little more acquainted with the need to urinate and now has been peeing more when we set her on the potty!!! She has also been telling us, on occasion, that she needs to use the potty too!!! YAY! So again, the fact that she couldn't see benefited us in another way.

Do you think I eat enough?

The incision in her hair line starts straight up from her left eye and goes down, around and behind her ear lobe. If you recall, when she had the expander in that area, her lobe stretched down as well. Therefore, the lobe was separated and put back into place. This was probably the area that caused her the most discomfort and that she will still say ouch to when we apply the antibiotic ointment.

Look at that beautiful eye. Doesn't the laugh line incision look great!!!

Close up of the forehead and nose incisions. Her forehead incisions separated a bit, just as the Doctor predicted they might, but are mostly healed.

And here is my smiley face, as usual! Those laugh lines amaze me, they are going to blend so well once fully healed.

She can see!!!

So I've tried to lift her lid to get her to see without much luck and she has tried really hard to open her eyes but tonight Jason did it and we saw her right eye for the first time in over a week!!! Then it didn't take her long to figure out how to pull the top lid up on her own so she could see and she had such a huge grin on her face when she saw us. After doing it a couple times she must have pushed enough fluid out of the lid because now she can open it enough on her own to peek out and see what she is doing. She is so happy about this, as are we! It's a whole new world. What an achievement!!!

Hoping the swelling doesn't return over night and we are back to square one.

All drains are gone, eyes still too swollen

We were able to get Angel's final drain pulled yesterday, after quite a struggle with her. This one seemed to be discomforting to her when messed with. It was located behind her left ear so was a little difficult to get to as well. With Daddy holding her as tight as he could and big Brother holding the flash light, I did my best to be quick in finding the stitch and getting it clipped. I was so afraid I was going to snip skin with her moving so much but we managed to just get the stitch - wow that had my nerves in an uproar. We are now done with the sock hat now, YAY!
She was also able to take her first bath last night since Sunday and can you say yuck. She had so much dried blood in her hair and on her scalp - I still don't think I got it all out. She enjoyed playing in the water a bit though.

The swelling in her eyes is still too much for her to open then yet. We have tried applying ice packs but she won't do it while she is awake so we have been doing it the last day or so once she is asleep for about 10 minutes. It seems to help but the swelling returns and it hasn't been enough help for her to be able to open her eyes.

Despite it all, she is coping amazingly well. She has gotten brave enough that she is now walking around the house a bit on her own. She has learned to walk slow and put her hands out to feel for familiar things to guide her - she is very determined that this will not hold her back. Her strength and continued happiness during all this is mind blowing - I would be so frustrated by now. Not saying she doesn't get frustrated at times but its just for a bit that she will be fuss out of boredom and then she moves on.

Angel is still sleeping great at night. She has been sleeping with me since we've returned from Chicago and if she wakes at night she will feel for me before getting agitated. If she feels me then she just goes back to sleep, it's very cute. It's going on a week now of us sleeping together, hope she doesn't get too used to it, I think Daddy would like his spot back at some point in time.

4-Days after surgery

5-Days after surgery

Don't you love the outfit and hair!

Not sure if you can tell on this picture or not but she does have a pointed pucker on her forehead at the top of the incision - I'm guessing they will have to redo this area at some point.

Today! 6-Days post surgery

We serve an amazing GOD!

One drain out, two to go

Angel is doing well. The swelling around her eyes is going down a little more each day, hoping she will be able to see out of her right eye in the next day or two, I think her left eye will take a little longer. I'll update with some photos tomorrow so you can see the day to day progress.

She is coping very well with not being able to see and has not complained again about her eyes. She does get bored pretty quickly with things, so this morning we visited a good friend, J, who teaches preK out of her home a few days a week. J has lots of sensory activities. We spent about 2 hours over there. Angel got to play in J's sensory table that had little beads in it. She loved picking them up with her hands and dropping them, scooping them into a small bowl then dumping them, and finding the little various things hidden among them. Angel was not a big fan of finding the worm or spider - was cute to see her drop them as soon as you told her what she had. We also tossed around a balloon that had some small beads in it so Angel could hear where it was. She uses her sense of hearing very well. Angel also got to finger paint for the first time, I'm not sure if she liked painting as much as she just liked curling her hands to make the paint squish between her fingers. We had many great experiences this morning.

Prior to going over to J's house, we had to run to an auto body shop for an estimate. I neglected to mention in post about our Chicago journey that the friend who traveled with us got skimmed by another car on her way to pick us up from the hospital. It was not her fault, those Chicago drivers are just in too much of a hurry sometimes. Anyway, no major damage and no one was injured but my SUV does have some nice scratches and scuffs on the back, passenger side of the car. So we have to drop it off on Monday for repair in exchange for a rental for a few days. The gal who did the estimate was very kind and said she would advocate that I need a van or SUV as a rental. that a common car would not work with the 4 children I have to tote around.

Thanks for the continued prayers and support, we are very blessed.

Surgery - BIG Success

Surgery went well on Monday, though much longer than we had anticipated. The operating room was running behind schedule so we had to wait an extra hour. Finally at 10:45am she was wheeled back for surgery. Dr. B said it would take at least 3 hours. Four hours later, a hospital volunteer checked in on them and was told they expected it to be another 30 minutes. That 30 minutes turned into over an hour. Finally, at about 4pm, over 5 hours later, the doctor came to visit with us and explain how things went.

Due to the 3 expanders, which is something newer he tried, it took much longer than he originally anticipated. All the skin had to be laid into place before it could all be stitched. He is extremely pleased with how it all went. They were able to get about 95% of the Nevus removed. All that is left is the small portion just under her left eye, the very tip of her nose (which is a very light spot) and bit in her left eye brow. Amazing.

She is quite swollen, including her eyes which are swollen shut and will be for another 2 days or so. She is dealing with it quite well, overall. She threw one little fit on Monday evening, saying eyes, eyes and I did my best to tell her right now she needed to keep the closed but she would be able to open them again. Entertainer her isn't easy, nothing keeps her attention for long - I pray the swelling subsides soon. She is a trooper though.

So where do we go from here? Well due to the way they had to bring the forehead skin down and twist it (had to keep it connected in the corner of her eye and nose for blood flow) down for the nose, she has an extra skin fold or two over her right eye. Therefore, we will have to go back to Chicago in 3-4 weeks for an out patient surgery where they will remove the extra fold and put her eyebrow back in its proper place. This time will allow the skin placed on her nose to grow it's own blood supply. I was told this procedure would take about 90 minutes or so. We will hopefully know that date later this week.

After that, she will be allowed to heal till around the first of the year. They will then take a graft of skin from behind one of her ears and graft it to the area under her left eye. Not sure what else is planed, was a lot to comprehend in one day.

There were a few things that I didn't quite expect but there were a lot of unknowns going into it. I hadn't anticipated all of the eye swelling, though it makes sense. I was also not expecting that we would have to return in a few weeks for another procedure. So I know we will have more swelling then but at least it will only be one eye.

Well here are pictures of how she looks, it's quite amazing when you look at the before pictures.

Angel & mom after recovery

Angel all propped up with pillows, resting.

This was her cue that she wanted another bite of applesauce.

After we got home yesterday evening.