Shout out from Ava!

Ava wants to tell everyone she is feeling much better today. She is lounging with her legs crossed and is very relaxed while watching the Disney Channel. She wants you to know that she slept for a full 8 hours last night and her pain was very well managed. She admits that she even might have cracked a half smile at her Mama and had a great conversation with Daddy on the phone. She also asked where Adam was. She tends to pick one brother's name to ask about but it is meant to ask where they all are. So sweet. They all had a nice visit with her last night and brought her a big dragonfly balloon which she claimed as hers right away. Her preschool teachers have visited with her and brought a beautiful get well card from her class and Aidan made her a card that each of the boys have signed. She is very grateful for all the love and is working hard to get back home and to school.

We are hoping that her intestines wake up and start doing some work so they can take the tube out of her nose. She is really sick of that. We are going to try to walk a bit today to get things moving. This is the point where you actually hope for some bodily functions such as gas to let us know things are working down there. I'm hoping she'll bust out with an "Enune Me" (Excuse Me) anytime now ;-)

I-800 Approval for Yuhe Today!

While my beautiful Ava is recovering things are speeding right along for little Yuhe and we now have I-800 approval approving her to be adopted. Now we need China to approve her and then we wait for travel approval. These next steps are small and will go by fast. With baby girl in the hospital and my house completely turned upside down with a mom and dad switching being there, a remodeling project on hold and the lives of four boys to keep up with. Well, I don't think there will be much time for just waiting. And I may have to find a spare minute to start packing...

Ava Update...

So Ava had a rough night which was to be expected. The pain from intestinal surgery was explained to us by the surgeon as being very intense. They are trying to keep it under control with an epidural and morphine among other things but she is waking up from time to time very upset. She doesn't like the tubes and does her best to tear those out when we aren't on our game. Luckily her nurse was assigned to just her and sat right next to her all night so I did manage to get a few hours of sleep. We will probably be in here for 5-7 days depending on how well her recovery goes. Aaron and I are going to switch on and off staying with her as life with four boys at home goes on.

Dealing with the unexpected...

As I write this I am in the Pediatric ICU with Ava. She had to have emergency surgery on her small intestine. There was a blockage that was causing her extreme pain and 15 cm of her intestine had to be removed. Now she will have a five inch scar that extends from her previous heart surgery scar down 2 inches past her little belly button.  This kid has some serious battle scars to brag about! The blockage part of her intestine will be tested to see why it swelled up and caused such trouble. She continues to awe us in so many ways, like when I told her it was time to go to the hospital at 4am she got right up, got dressed and was waiting by the door with a look that seemed to ask- are you coming or am I driving myself?; that through this all she gave up her little arms willingly- even for the fourth try at an IV after three failed attempts; that she got poked and prodded for 15 hours and still managed to smile at the doctors when they walked in (which incidentally may not have helped in them taking her pain seriously enough....which then may have resulted in an angry, pissed off mama, but I digress); that she demanded her daddy when he wasn't there; and demanded her mommy when I wasn't there; that she could still give love freely even when dealing with the pain; and that through it all she maintained her grace, good nature and humor. She scared the heck out of us today and taught us so much... again. Feeling very lucky here. Now if we get out of here without a nurse kidnapping her we'll be doing great :-)

An update of our girl!

Yuhe is doing wonderful. Oxygen sats are in the 80s and she is overall very healthy. She will be ready for that surgery once she gets home but in the meantime her foster home doesn't report her having any significant issues with her heart right now. She is definitely a mighty, mighty.

I have to find a name for this girl! I have one in mind but Aaron doesn't like it. I love it though! Should I push it? Would it be so wrong just to fill out her paperwork with it and hope he doesn't get too irritated with me? Isn't that one of the benefits of being the one who does ALL of the paperwork? I mean how mad could he be really?  Hmmm...

Anyways here she is- the most beautiful, and apparently the happiest, girl in China! Can't wait to meet her and become her mama! C'mon I-800 approval! This girl has waited long enough for her family!



Straight From China!

This is fancy talk for you are approved!!