Angel's B-day pic

Angel was so excited that it was her turn to have a birthday and loved everyone singing to her.

Love that smile!!!

Happy 3rd Birthday!!!

It's hard to believe we are already celebrating another birthday with her!  Happy 3rd Birthday, Angel!  You continue to touch the lives of so many.  You have grown and learned so much in the past year, what progress you are making!!!

I'm a little behind on posting but wanted to share that I had a wonderful opportunity last week to share our "testimony" on unconditional love in adoption during the Mother's Day sermon at our church.  For anyone who is interested, here is a link to the sermon where  you can listen to it:

Building Blocks of Motherhood Sermon  - select the 5/9/10 sermon.  If you want to hear just my portion, fast forward to about the last fifteen minutes of the sermon.  Listen to the pastor for the little bit before to understand more of the message I was to give.

I've gotten lots of great feedback on it, so glad I could share.  Hopefully, I have planted a seed for others to begin their own adoption journey.

Angel - 6 weeks post op

It has been 6 weeks since the graft surgery and it has healed well.  We are now back to massaging 5-6 times a day. I enjoyed not massaging post surgery, it was a little rough getting back into the routine.

Kids after searcing for Easter eggs

Michiael turned 11 & Kailey 7 on the 8th

It has been a busy month.

Happy Gotcha & Adoption Day to us!!!

One year ago today we met Angel for the first time. Oh how I remember that day, the tears, the fear, the anxiousness, her adaptation and by the end of the day the first smile she gave us. What an emotional roller coaster but worth every minute.

Up, Up and Away...

that is what we were doing one year ago today.  We boarded a plane in Chicago and headed half way around the world, on a mission to bring one very special little girl home.  She would become a party of our family, forever!  It gives me chills just thinking of the journey we took, all orchestrated by our Heavenly Father.  I am still in awe of how everything fell just perfectly into place, what a miracle.

Angel post -surgery

Surgery, once again, went great and went over the estimated time.  We were told the expected it to take no more than 2.5 hours, 4 hours later, the doctor finally came to talk to me.


They got a lot done and the contouring they were able to do to her nose is going to look great once all the swelling goes down.

Here's a run down of what they did - They removed the Nevus from under her left eye, up to her eye lashes (so she has built in eye liner) and replaced it with a skin graft that was taken from behind her right ear. The grafted areas from behind the ear was then tacked together versus replacing it what a skin graft from else where.  It's not as drastic as it sounds, he said the skin should stretch out and her ears really won't look uneven as far as distance from the head, a revision can be done in the future if need be. They contoured the inner eye areas on both side, giving her a narrower nose bridge.  They also removed the thick scarring that occurred around her nostrils and contoured that as well.  It's amazing how much work they have completed since we began with the expanders in June, less than 9 months ago.

As far as our outlook for the next surgery, I was told it will be a while, not sure exactly what that means as far as time but I'm guessing at least 6 months.  She will eventually need a small expander near her nose to remove the spots on the tip of her nose  - meaning at least 2 more surgeries.  But all the scars she has there need to be fully healed.

Here are some photos - again, not for the faint of heart.

Before

Right after surgery

Bandages off

Our happy girl, despite not being able to see, she still gets around. Mom requires that she scoot on her bottom so her feet are out in front of her in case she should encounter anything.

Heading to Chicago tomorrow...

We are off to Chicago tomorrow, Angel is scheduled for surgery at 7:30am on Thursday.  Please keep her in your thoughts and prayers.  They expect surgery to take 2-2.5 hours.  We should be back home Friday evening.

Still can't believe all her Nevus, except for a few tiny left overs here and there that will be taken care of later, will be gone. 

Blessings.

Another month by, lots going on...

I have been meaning to post for weeks but things have been rather crazy busy here.  A lot has gone on since my last post. 


Kailey has lost 2 teeth, that she pulled herself - one of them Super Bowl evening and the other this past Friday.  At least she's symmetrical.

Kailey loves to show off her missing teeth!

Angel had her eye specialist appointment on Feb 2nd and we learned that her right eye has good vision, her left eye is lazy and is a -9.5 prescription; therefore, we had to get glasses for her, pretty pink ones!  We also have to put a patch over her right eye for 2 hours each day to exercise that right eye, in hopes that it will strengthen it up.  I pray it works, we go back in May for a follow-up.

Check out my new pretty pink glasses and fairy eye patch.  I say arg..... I'm a pretty pirate!

She says arg every time we put the patch on.

See how well Logan uses his glasses?  Aren't they cute?

Then two weeks ago, my husband damaged his knee playing basketball.  After spending three and a half hours at the Orthopedics's clinic, we discovered he tore his ACL and both Meniscus in his right knee and will undergo surgery on March 10th.  So due to limited mobility, he was unable to drive during that time - thankfully we have wonderful friends who have assisted me in getting everyone where they need to be.  Jason did begin driving this weekend again but that will only last till surgery, then he is allowed no weight bearing for 6 weeks.

So we have 2 surgeries in the span of a week coming up. Angel and I head to Chicago next week for her skin graft surgery on the 4th and Jason's the following week.  Going to be a crazy time around here.  Thankfully, the kids will finish up basketball at the end of next week.  That should slow things down for a few weeks anyway, till baseball and softball begin.

There's my quick summary of the past month.  Three weeks from tomorrow we will celebrate Angel's one year "Gotcha Day" anniversary - that just amazes me.  One year ago we were on the edge of our seat waiting for our travel approval with 5 more days of waiting to go.

One year ago today...

I received our Referral Acceptance call. Oh what a roller coaster ride that day was.  Earlier in the day, we were notified that we had a new nephew, YAY!!!  That afternoon, I saw the e-mail notification from AWAA stating RA calls had been made.  And we hadn't gotten one.  I was so bummed because I really thought we would have been included.  A bit later my phone rings, and it's AWAA's special ring so my heart began to race.  To hear the news that she was officially ours, that all we had to do was wait for travel approval to go get her, brought me to very happy tears.

What a special day, to have two new members join the family.  I'm tearing up just remembering that day. 

 Thank you God for this special little girl, for making her part of our family, Your masterpiece!!!

Next Surgery & More Doc appts

We were contacted with a few dates today and decided March 4th would work the best, 7 weeks away.  I'm finding it amazing that almost 100% of her nevus will be removed before she's been with us for a year.  Our one year, Forever Family, anniversary is March 16th.  I'm still in awe of our journey.

On another note, Angel & I had eye appointments this morning.  If you recall, back in October, we had a concern about her left eye being a bit "lazy" and I had taken her to the eye doctor.  At the time, Angel was still not able to fully open her eyes so the doctor was not able to do a whole lot because she didn't want to traumatize Angel.  Therefore, doc suggested that we bring Angel back after the additional surgery she had in October that helped her to more fully open the eyes. So that is what we did this morning. 

After doing some testing of her eyes, the eye doc recommends we have a full eye exam completed by a pediatric eye specialist because she has concerns. She said that some of the muscles in Angel's left eye do not appear to be full attached or functioning and thinks her depth perception is likely off (which doesn't surprise me because Angel seems to have hesitations in stepping down off sidewalks and such, though that could just be a developmental delay). She did not give a medical term but after doing some reading I think it is a form of Strabismus. Doc also mentioned she thinks Angel might need a prescription.  An appointment has been set to see the specialist on Feb 2nd. A possible eye surgery was mentioned being needed to correct the matter, if that is what it turns out to be. Just what we need.

Can our girl not catch a break?

Article on Dr. B...

A featured article, through the hospital he now works for, was done on Dr. Bauer and one of his patients.  It really highlights what a truely caring doctor he is ...

http://www.northshore.org/uploadedfiles/publications/Connections.pdf

Next Surgery Date in the works...

Finally heard back from Dr. B on Angel's healing progress and what the next surgery will cover.  Here is what he said: 

"Angel really looks like she is making progress. While the scars still have a ways to go they are definitely settling some. I think the next surgery would be excision of the nevus of the lower eyelid and the inner corner of the eye with a full thickness graft reconstruction, plus release and revision of the scares along either side of the nose and brows to thin out the area around the nose and further allow the eyelid to open on the left. We will probably inject some steroid into the scars that we are not redoing."


He also said we can do the next surgery whenever it works for both our schedules; therefore, I sent an e-mail to his secretary to find a date that will work.  Hopefully, we will have that narrowed down sometime this week.  My guess is it will be sometime next month.
 
I'm not sure I'm ready to go through all this, again, but I am ready to get it all done with.  I am apprehensive each time, as her face changes a little with each surgery.  She is beautiful no matter what, just miss every little part of her that is altered. 
 
I will post when we have a date.
 
Blessings from above!

Officially Potty Training...

Angel's New Years resolution must be to get potty trained because she has gone from having no interest in telling us when she has to go, to only having about one pee accident each of the past 3 days, during the day.  I purchased some Dora undies for her a few months ago, hoping that would motivate her but it didn't work.  I pulled them back out earlier this week and I think they got her attention this time because she really wanted to put them on. Told her we have a little work to do before we do that but I think we are getting closer to trying them.  I am so proud of her!!!  And excited about not having to mess with diapers, other than at night, her bladder isn't ready for holding all night yet.  YAY!!!

More pictures from Christmas...

Christmas Morning (some how the time on my camera was wrong it appears)

All this visiting wears a girl out.

Visiting Great Grandpa C in Indianpolis, he addores Angel!

Angel cheesing this morning!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a reason to celebrate 2009 and has many hopes for a blessed 2010!


We celebrated by hosting a family game night, New Years Eve party at our home with a few families and had a great time.  We ate pizza, appetizers, snacks and played games.  Fun for all!!!

2009 was a wonderful yet challenging year for us but I wouldn't trade it for anything.  We have learned so much about God and his love for us when he joined Angel to our family.  We have learned about unconditional love, which started from just a picture and medical report about her.  A love that has grown by leaps and bounds upon meeting her and going through the many medical procedures with her.  She has also shown us unconditional love, despite all we put her through.  We are thankful this hasn't hindered her attaching to us. 

It has been wonderful to see how Michiael, Logan and Kailey never once hesitated to love her and treat her as part of us.  They are all wonderful with her , a great help in teaching her new things and assisting with day to day activities. They love to show her off, whenever they can.

We go into this year knowing we face a few more surgeries and much more massaging.  Not things we look forward to but know must be done to complete what was started.  Despite all of this, we know some day Angel will be appreciative of all of this. At least those are our hopes and what we are told by others who were born with a facial Nevus. 

I know we will also have many good times this year, with the pool we are installing in the spring and trips we plan to take.  Many memories to be made.

Thank you all to your continue thoughts and prayer as we continue ravel this road as Angel's Forever Family.

A Family is God's Masterpiece

- that is a saying I have come to love!

Wishing you many blessing in 2010!