1 - 2 - 3, they are gone!!!!

That would be the drains we are referring to. We removed one drain yesterday and then the other two today. Yes, I played nurse and did it. At this point I'm in a "you do what you gotta do" mode. It was a little nerve racking finding the right place to cut the stick that held them to her but somehow the good Lord above guided my unsteady hand and I clipped the right spots. Angel was not a happy camper through this process, and we took breaks between because I just couldn't do them consecutively and I don't think she could have either. I can't event imagine how she would have reacted if we would have taken her to the pediatrician or waited till Thursday's appointment to get it done. Angel does not have a good reaction to nurses and doctors, who knows what kind of fit she would have thrown there. It's hard to hold her head right now because of the balloons and being afraid of hurting her.

The last drain we removed, late this afternoon, went to her chin/neck area and we discovered it hasn't been working. When we pulled it out quite a bit of fluid came out too. When looking at the tubing it appeared as though it must have gotten a kink in it somewhere along the way. So we will see how much fluid comes out tonight when she lays on it, we packed her with gauze on that side this evening just in case. The nurses said as long as the fluid comes out, they didn't really care if it was via the drain tubes or just through the access holes they had to make for the lines.

We are so glad to be done with those things, for now. We will deal with them again after each surgery. Here are pictures of our precious girl without all the bandages. Right now she looks like she just has some really chubby cheeks and chin and then a bump on her head.

Currently her balloons contain the following, which was done at surgery time to fill up the space made:

The 250cc balloons in her forehead and chin/neck area contain 30 cc each
The 70 cc balloon in her right cheek contains 10 cc

She's still a little cutie pie!!!

We will head back to Chicago on Wednesday for our appointment Thursday morning with Dr. Bauer's nurses and learn how to properly do the injections first hand. So watch for updated photos later this week as we will document her progress after each injection.

I hope we continue to get a smile like the above one each time we update.

Please pray that she continues to heal well and that she copes well with the injections on Thursday.

Many Blessings!

Happy girl today...

Surgery went well, she's coming out of her shell...

We made it back to Iowa from Chicago yesterday evening after a much too long car ride. Between traffic/construction and weather it took us about 7 hours. I pray it doesn't take us that long every time because that will get old really fast.

Angel's surgery went as planned and over all she did well. Coming off the anesthesia she was very disoriented, confused and very fussy, this lasted most the day. They had me suit up and join her in the recovery room because she was fighting them and that was a little tough. She did the same with me too, trying to kick off the IV line in her foot. It was obvious she was in pain so the gave her a dose of morphine and when she still wasn't doing better after about 15 minutes or so they gave her another which finally seemed to calm her down and she slept for about an hour. Then it was time to move her to the pediatric/kid's korner to a room of our own. She continued to be quite fussy and dosed off an on for the next several hour. Jason and the kid's left around 4:30pm for the night so it was just she and I from then till morning. We managed pretty well, she wanted me to hold her at times but most the time she preferred to lay in her bed. Finally about midnight she finally said "mama" to get my attention and then chatted with me for a bit - so I knew the anesthesia had finally worked it's way out of her system and our little girl was back. Overall she slept pretty well through the night, she'd sleep for an hour or two and then wake up a little fussy, the nurse would give her meds and check on her, she'd watch TV for a bit and then go back to sleep.

Here's our baby before surgery...

Here she is after surgery...

We were finally released to leave the hospital at around 11am yesterday . We then headed to the pharmacy to have her antibiotic filled for the trip, grabbed some lunch and hit the road for a much longer journey than we had expected. Angel, Michiael (our 10 year old son) and I will head back to Chicago next Wednesday for an appointment on Thursday where the nurses will show me how to inject Angel's 3 ports with saline to begin inflating the expanders. After that we shouldn't have to go back to Chicago till Angel's tissue replacement surgery in September.

Thank you all for your continued prayers, we have what seems like a long journey ahead of us over the next 18 months or so.

Blessings!

Angel's Surgery Details

Angel is scheduled for the tissue expander placement surgery at 10:10am on Monday morning, we have to be there at 8:45am. The surgery should take about an hour and a half. She will have 3 tissue expanders placed - a 250 cc in her forehead, another 250 cc balloon in her left jaw line and a 70 cc placed in her right cheek. She will stay for observation the remainder of the day and night and should be released Tuesday morning which is when we will head back to Iowa.

Please keep her in your prayers for a smooth procedure and recovery.

Blessings, Tracy

It's been 3 months...

can you believe it? I sure can't, it seems like she's been ours forever already. Angel has grown and learned so much in just 3 months. She has grown an inch and put on 3 pounds, doesn't suprise me with the way she eats. She is beginning to try and repeat more words, we still have to prompt her most the time but she is trying.

So our next journey is the tissue expansion inplant surgery. We are preparing for this and our visit to Indiana so we can introduce her to most of the family. Jason has been working on a video and I just finished up her Lifebook. We can't wait for the family to meet her, they are just going to love her.

We will leave early Thursday morning to make the 5+ hour drive to Chicago for Angel's appointments that afternoon. That evening we are hoping to meet up with some friends of ours who also recently adopted a little boy from Russia, so we are excited to see them and meet their little one. And since we haven't taken the kids to Chicago before, Friday morning we plan to head to the Museum of Science and Industry and explore till early afternoon, about the time Angel is ready for a nap. We will then finish the drive to Indiana for the remainder of the weekend.

Please pray for our safe travels and that Angel's surgery goes well.

I will try to update everyone next week on how surgery went and with post surgery photos.

Blessings to you all!

Surgery in 2 weeks...

My it has been a while since I have blogged. Life has been very busy with end of school concerts, baseball, softball, and oh yeah, Mono. Somewhere along the way we picked up Mono and evidently have passed it around. I don't recommend it, especially as an adult, that's for sure. At this point I'm glad the kids have it now when it lasts several days rather than when they are older and the symptoms last 2-4 weeks.

School is out and we are working on getting into a new routine. That was a bit difficult to do last week because I am Committee Chair for our local Relay For Life event that took place this past Saturday and was finalizing details. With that behind us, hopefully we can get into a routine.

Anyway, from the title you see we finally have confirmation that Angel will be going in for her first tissue expansion surgery on Monday, June 22nd in Chicago. Therefore, we will be heading to Chicago mid-next week to receive our injection training from the nurses and to meet with Dr. Bauer on the 18th. We are going to enjoy the trip a little and take all the kids to a museum or something on Friday morning before we head to Indiana for the weekend so our family can finally meet Angel. Jason and I will return to Chicago on Sunday evening for Angel's surgery on Monday. Jason's dad will then bring the kids to Chicago on Monday after surgery. Angel will be spending one night there and we will get to return home on Tuesday the 23rd. Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers during this time. I pray she is fully over her mono symptoms by then and we don't have to delay this process.

Blessings!