Grace is Better

I am happy to say Grace is finally feeling better. Yesterday(Saturday)she finally started acting more like herself. Thank goodness, I was starting to get really worried. She is still very moody but much better. I was really starting to wonder if our sweet little girl would ever be the same.

Tomorrow we go to a new peditrician that was recommended to us by her surgeon. It will be nice to get his opinion on a few things. Hopefully, this peditrician will be a good match with our family. He has 5 kids himself, with another on the way. He, also, attends a local United Methodist Church.

I Didn't Expect It To Be This Hard

We knew Grace would have to surgery as soon as she could once we got home. We were told it is a rather easy surgery. One night stay at the hospital, limited diet per doctors instructions, and No Nos for as long as the doctor deemed necessary. No big deal, right? Wrong! First Grace had the additional trip to the OR and the night in the Pediatric ICU. Now she is refusing to eat and drink. We finally called the Plastic Surgery Doctor on call. He said she shouldn't be in much pain. We thought when she was crying and fussing she was in pain. He said that she is dehydrated. We need to force fluids in her. If it isn't better by tomorrow we have to take her to the hospital and let them hook her to an IV. So you better believe I will be forcing her to take the liquids today. I wonder if we will ever get our happy little girl back. Her main activities are sleeping and crying. I know it will get better and it could be much worse but right now it is hard. It is heartbreaking to see Grace so unhappy all the time. Would this stop us from adopting another little girl with the same need? Probably not. Would we be better prepared? Definitely. We are so thankful to have Grace here and to get her the surgeries and services she needs. She is our daughter and we will do everything it takes to get her what she needs.

Julia's Last PPR

Kristopher and Julia at our hotel in Russia, November 2004.

Leaving the orphanage for the last time,November 27, 2004.

Julia a few weeks ago in a dress my Grandmother made for my niece many years ago.

When you adopt a child part of the agreement is that you will complete Post Placement Reports once you have the child home. For Russia you have to do 4 of them at specific intervals. The last one is done the month that the child has been home 3 years. Your social worker comes to your home and does a report about your child and how she is adapting in her new life. Julia's last one was done last night. Once our social worker has completed it we send it to our agency and they send it to Russia. It goes to the MOE(Ministry of Education) of the region where Julia was adopted. We,also, have to include 12 pictures that we took since the last PPR. The last one was done a year ago so that will be no problem. It is hard to believe it has only been 3 years. It seems Julia has been with us forever. She has changed so much!

We are Home

We have been home since Friday. Grace has been improving everyday. Tonight she is the best she has been. She is almost her old self.

Paige came for the weekend. It was great having her help. We didn't get to go anywhere but it was so nice having her here to talk to and she kept Julia entertained. She, also, made Nicholas a great baseball cake. It almost made up for me not being here for his birthday. The kids all love when she visits. Of course, I do too.

Happy Birthday, Nicholas!

Happy Birthday, Nicholas! Twelve years ago, today, our second son was born. Nicholas is such a great kid. He is truly the All American Kid. He gets along well with everyone and has no problems making friends. Everybody is his friend. He loves being outdoors. Baseball and Golf are his sports of choice.

Poor Nicholas, it will be the birthday he always remembers. He had a birthday dinner Tuesday night at Red Robin just in case we didn't get out of the hospital. Good thing because we didn't. His dinner on the night of his birthday was at Wendys in the hospital. Dallas brought the boys to visit Grace and I took them and Julia to the Wendys for dinner. Dee bought a cake. The kids ate dinner and then we sang Happy Birthday to Nicholas at Wendys. We didn't want to take the cake into Grace's room because she didn't feel good plus she couldn't eat it. Nicholas only had one present to open on his birthday, too. I gave him the choice of me going and buying him some surprises or him going to Target and picking them out himself. I only did this because I didn't have much time when we found out Grace's surgery would be the next day. Nicholas was alittle sad about the situation but he handled it well.

I will post pictures tomorrow.

Check out my Slide Show!

Grace's Surgery

Grace came out of surgery about 5:30 on Wednesday. Dr. Van Aalst reported to us that all had gone well. He even gave me the rotten tooth that he took out of her cleft. I think she deserves something good for the tooth. Around 6:00 they came and got me to go to recover. When I arrived Grace was very upset and the blood coming from her nose and mouth started increasing. They kept suctioning and it kept flowing. The nurses decided it was time to call the doctor on call. Once he arrived he quickly called Dr. Van Aalst and it was decided Grace needed to go back in the Operating Room. The doctors arrived and surgery began again. They believe an artery was clipped causing all the blood and they fixed the problem. An hour later Dr.
Van Aalst was back in the waiting room telling us they had stopped the bleeding and they were going to keep Grace in the PICU for a night to make sure she was O.K.

She did well last night. They are keeping a close watch on her blood due to the blood loss. Her vitals have remained good. Today we were able to move to a regular room. Before she can go home she must be eating and drinking. So far she has only drank 6 ounces. We are praying tomorrow will be the day that she decides to eat and drink more. We are ready to go home.