What? No more injections?

Yep, that's what I said. Just got an e-mail for Angel's surgeon and he stated he doesn't think we need to do any more injections, that there is plenty of skin there to do with what he would like to get done!!!! YAY. So no more injections till our next tissue expansion journey. Yippy!!! Now we just wait another 16 and a half days till surgery, let the skin from today's injections stretch and grow!

Now if we can keep her healthy, that would be good too. We have one child with a cold in this house after only one week in school, ugh. Trying to keep him from coughing or breathing on her and using lots of hand sanitizer. Please pray she remains healthy - these crazy up and down temps are no help.

So there won't be any more posts about how much bigger her expanders are getting but I will post a few more pictures between now and then, as I'm sure the forehead skin will relax quite a bit - my concern is it will relax too much between now and then and get in the way of her eyes.

Once again, praise the Lord and blessings to you all!

Here are some random pictures taken throughout this month.

What a ham. This is one of the days we were using a headband to support the weight of her chin/neck balloon because she had a point at the bottom and the pressure of it was making the skin red. So that is what she has on here.

Sweet dreams precious girl!

She discovered that the bowl fit perfectly on her "bump"

Additional injection - 10 down, now 2 to go

We did an extra injection set today and will do the next 2 with only 5 days in between rather than a full week. This is to be sure we get the expanders fully or more than fully expanded to maximize the progress. So here is our precious Angel after today's expansion, smiley as ever!

Our church held a prayer service last night and Angel was included on the blessing list, it was a very moving service. I'm glad I was able to attend. Have a fabulous week and we will update again after injections on Saturday.

9 down, 2 to go

Wow, hard to believe we are almost done with all this - even harder to believe the next step. 3 weeks from today our little girl will have a new look - her Nevus will be mostly gone. I will miss her Nevus mark but her beauty will shine without it as well.

We have exceeded the 200cc mark in her neck now and are 9 cc's shy in her forehead. Her cheek is only 7 cc's shy of the goal so it looks like we should make it. Please pray she continues to stay healthy and that all goes smoothly.

Blessing to you all!

Back to School Today!

The kids went back to school today, my did the summer break go fast. I can't believe Michiael is in 5th grade this year, his last year at the elementary - sniff sniff. They grow up so fast. So here are the scholars...

Michiael, 10, 5th grade

Logan, 8, 3rd grade

Kailey, 6, 1st grade

Being goofy

I hope they have a fabulous year!

8th set of Injections

Here’s how yesterday's injections went:

Forehead – injected 26cc’s totaling 161cc’s
Neck – injected 30 cc’s totaling 177 cc’s
Cheek – injected 9 totaling 53 cc’s

3 more injections to go, if we are able to stay on track, I didn't get the full amount that I had hoped for in her forehead so we will see..

Love that smile, her whole face lights up!

7th Injection

Injection went well last week, only 4 more to go if everything goes as planned. We are 5 and a half weeks away from surgery.

Her forehead is at 135cc's (out of 250cc)
Her neck is at 147 cc's (out of 250cc)
And her cheek is at 44 cc's (out of 70cc)

Her forehead and neck will receive a full 30 cc syringe over the next 4 injections, they will almost double in size. WOW- I'm still in awe of this process and that she still smiles. What a trooper.

I'm not sure if I'll get pictures up for this week's injections because two of our children fought over the camera and broke it. So now we have to buy a new one after only 6 months - ugh. I will have to see if I can get our old one to work long enough to take and upload pics.

It's been 5 months!

5 months ago, on March 16th a scared little girl was placed in my arms and her world turned upside down. Today, you'd think that little girl has been part of our family her whole life. She changed our lives that day and continues to touch lives each and every day. Angel is a strong little girl.

One month from now will come another big change, one I'm torn about. On September 17, Angel will have a good portion of the special birthmark on her face removed. There are several reasons we are doing this, the main one is for her health. I have no doubt she will be as beautiful with out it as she is with it, just hard to imagine her with out it and tough to put her through the surgeries.

Praise the Lord for the gift he has given us, I know he has put her in our care for his reason and she will continue to amaze us.

Blessing to you all!

My how she has grown! She weighed 23.5lbs in China, today she is 5lbs heavier and a few inches taller.

Angel's 6th set of injections...

The 6th set of injections are complete. We still have over half way to go on her head and forehead but we will be injecting quite a bit more in them each time now since there is more room. Her cheek is now over half way and we will continue with only 6-7 cc's being injected into that one, but that's all it needs.

Forehead – injected 22cc’s today – 110 cc total
Neck – injected 20 cc’s today – 122 cc total
Cheek – injected 6 cc’s today – 36 total

Here are some updated photos, she's still our smiley little girl!

We are heading out tomorrow evening to Indiana, my youngest brother is getting married on Sunday and Kailey is the flower girl. She is so very excited!

Have a blessed week/weekend!

Happy Birthday to our friend, MG, on Saturday - hope you have a great time with ALL your family!

The girl's new "big girl" beds!!!!

Isn't it cool! The trundle works great for Angel! What a great Craig's list find!