We are still here...

Yes, we are still here. After Rae's surgery, we went on vacation.  It was a much needed time away for the family.  We were able to have fun and recharge our batteries.

After we got home, it was time for my ankle surgery.  I hope to give some updates on the girls.  We are busy getting school ready to start next week. I will try to get some vacation pictures up soon. Enjoy your Labor Day weekend.

Click on this banner and vote - it will help us get our story to more people.

"Sunny" Needs a Family

This is my first time advocating for a child who is in need of a forever family, and she is special to our family. She was the bed mate of our daughter Rae, and maybe the sister of her friend that now lives in Akron. "Sunny" is a 12 year old girl with post op cleft lip/palate. She will need a lip revision, speech and possible bone graft. "Sunny" and Rae actually were given the same birth date.  Desiree and I would love it if a family close to us would choose to adopt her. 

Our family would love to have her, but we are not able to adopt her at this time.  With her being 12 years old, she is closer to being no longer available to be adopted.

 

 

 

She loves to dance and dress  up. She also helped Joshua and her foster sister Rae. She would save food for Joshua to make sure he had enough.

She is currently in 4th grade and would benefit from a loving family very much.

Feel free to share this please, lets find this precious girl a forever family. Her file is currently with Great Wall, but they are willing to transfer. If would like more information please let me know, and I can put you in touch with the right people.  Every child needs a family.

Strabismus Repair Day

Today was surgery day for Rae. She had her eyes fixed and her nose cauterized. At some point in time in her life, likely resulting from her stroke, her eyes started drifting or what is called strabismus.  It is not always noticeable to most, but it is worse when she is tired or crying.  We were not sure if we should get it repaired, but after consulting an pediatric ophthalmologist we went ahead with the surgery.  Without repair she would likely lose some of her side vision and her depth perception.  It is a fairly simple procedure done as an outpatient procedure.

This morning we headed out bright and early before 5 am for her surgery at Children's.  She did great and actually did not need any meds to calm her down.  Most of the time she has to go to hospital she get to play on the iPad or my phone.  She thought she was going to get to do the same today, but she was sad when she found out there would be no computer this time. She didn't remember much from the last time she had surgery, which was good.  We did find out she was sad and cried when she went into surgery.  It was funny when I asked her what she wanted to take - her blanket, pillow, and panda all got to go with us this morning, and they also went into surgery with her. It did make my day when I walked into PACU that she wanted her mommy and was calling for me.

Rae came thru both of her procedures just fine.  Having her IVIG  infusion last week helped get her counts up, which would cut down on any extra oozing, and it definitely helped today.  The ENT was able to cauterized several vessels in her nose, and he said we should see a very marked difference. This will be a nice break from having nose bleeds that could send us to the ER.  Her eye procedure went well too.  Her eyes are red right now and has double vision.  They are bothering her, especially right after she came out to recovery. We are having to stay close to her because if she has to move around she is still a little dizzy.  It is funny because she is wanting to do it herself, so she scoots or crawls around.  The part she is not liking are the eye drops - she was not happy with mom!

Thank you to everyone who has been praying.  We are very grateful. 

My Foot

My left foot for many years has been a source and pain and frustration. Several years ago when we still lived in Alabama, I had surgery on it to clean it out and fix a fracture I had no idea about. The surgery seemed to have worked, but a few weeks after it we had a house fire and I was back on my foot working hard to clean out and help repair our partial burnt home.

The pain started coming back. I would get cortisone shots, and I just started living with the pain. I ran a half marathon with this ankle. I didn't have much pain while training, so I thought maybe it was good. Well, in the past few years the pain has returned and with a vengeance. It would hurt standing on it a long time, shopping, and when I would clean my house. It would be hard to walk the next day, but I just lived with it.

A couple of weeks ago, I decided I had had enough. Sadly, it took meeting our insurance deductible for me to finally go to the doctor. After my first visit he scheduled an MRI because of what he saw in the X-ray. The X-ray showed there was an extra bone, and I was hoping that was all that was wrong. This past Monday I got the results of the test, and oh my goodness. My ankle is a mess, and it seems my only option is surgery. If surgery is not bad enough, the recovery is going to be a little trying. My foot will likely be in a cast for 6-8 weeks, and then I can absolutely put no weight on my foot during that time. YIKES!! Noel has already informed me that he will be mean to me if I do not follow the doctors orders. We are both tired of the pain, and I want to be able to clean house and be pain free the next day.

 Just pray this will work this time, and recovery will go quickly and I that will come out with a brand new ankle. Pray my girls will be able to handle mom being a little incapacitated for a little while. They are sad they will still have to do school.

Red, White, & Boom

Happy 4th Everyone!! As we celebrate our country's freedom, I am reminded of how thankful we are for our freedoms. To me, the most important is our freedom to worship.  Last night we went to Columbus to watch Red, White, and Boom.  We went over early to find a great spot.  Rae was not sure of what was going to happen.  We tried to explain, but fireworks are just something you have to see.  While, she may have seen them before, this time was special.  Emily was not with us this year, because she was away at camp.  We missed her.  Downtown Columbus was a little crazy, but we felt like we found the perfect spot on top of a parking garage.  While we would have liked to be on the river, the crowds were probably insane.  The parking garage we found turned out to be perfect.  We sat the girls on top of our car, and they were able to see an amazing fireworks show.  Rae loved all the colors, and she could not take her eyes off them.  I almost teared up during some of the songs (esp. God Bless the USA), just thinking about our freedom and the freedom that Rae now has.  She has no idea what freedom means is right now, but one we pray she will be thankful for it in the future. 

Be thankful for the freedoms we have in our country.  Be thankful for those fighting for us to keep our freedoms. Be active and take a stand to insure our freedoms in the future.

New Info

School has finally wound down for our two oldest girls, but we are still working with Rae on learning to read.  Rae's English is doing great, but now we are ready (at least we are) to move on to reading.  She does enjoy us occasionally us reading to her, but we ready to unlock the door and open her up to the world of reading. To our knowledge she did not go to school in China.  She told us that they did not teach her to read because of her eyes.  We are trying to tell her and reassure her that she can read and learn.  Her life in China seemed to revolve around playing on the computer ALOT, and cleaning and/or working.  She begged me to let her mop, but I just wanted her to be a kid and play.  We have put her on a hiatus from the computer and playing on our phones.  She is learning to play, and we are working on her playing imaginatively and some alone play.

Rae's health is doing well.  She has had no seizures, but her platelet counts still fluctuate. We were hoping to get 8 weeks of good numbers with IVIG, but to no avail.  We did get a month, so we have had another treatment. We do hope this treatment will continue to work, but if is does not, she will likely have her spleen removed.  We just wait and see with every CBC test.

We had our follow-up visit with her neurologist.  We really like Dr. Jones and had a really good talk with her for over an HOUR.  She gave us the name of what is the underlying cause of her seizure - Mesial Temporal Sclerosis. Normally, you would have more seizures with this and would likely lead to having that part of your brain removed.  We are not sure if this is in our future, but it is something we are now aware of if her seizures increase.  This is also the likely cause of her strabismus.  She will be having surgery in July to have this corrected, and also to have her nose cauterized to cut down on her nosebleeds. 

Our summer will hopefully be a little low key.  Hannah and Emily will be going to their respective church camps as well as tennis camp.  I have started taking tennis lessons so I can "catch-up to their level" as my hubby said.  We also hope to get in a great deal  of pool time, and to get Rae in some swimming lessons.  We are hoping we will be able to go to the beach at the end of the summer. 

backyard water slide

beautiful butterfly

11 years ago...

It is hard to believe my baby turned eleven years old yesterday.  She becoming a young lady.  It just seems like yesterday she was just a little girl who loved Tinkerbell, and now she loves painting her nails and getting pedicures like her mama.

Happy Birthday Emily!