handsful

On the way out the door, headed to the hospital.  She’s all smiles, but said she was a little nervous.

all gowned up.  Next, the woozy-inducing “pink medicine”

Checking out her arm tag.  I won’t post any pictures (or the video!) of her drug-induced state…suffice it to say that it made her very dizzy and VERY silly.  She said daddy had 3 eyes and mama had 2 mouths!

One hour later, and the surgery was over.  We were thrilled to hear that they were able to do the preferred procedure (sphincter pharyngoplasty) and it went off without any issues.  Yea!!  Here, she’s still quite out of it but waking up more and more.  She didn’t like me taking pictures!

So, I grabbed the camera when she was sleeping :)

Lainey had a few bites of pop-sicle and several sips of drinks.  The surgeon wasn’t too concerned that she take in very much that first day, and she had an IV.  She slept off and on most of the day.  Daddy stayed with Lainey that night, and I drove home around 9pm to stay with the other kids.  My mom was there, too, but I thought I had to take Abbey to her biology class in the morning.  Turns out,  my friend Sandi took care of that for me.  :)  So, I got up the next morning, took care of Dylan, and headed back to the hospital to see her.

And, Lainey was back!  No more grumpiness, in hardly any pain at all, and wanting to be up and about.  She was collecting quite a few stuffed animals at this point. She brought her puppy with her to the hospital, and then she got an elephant in pre-op, a teddy bear from the surgeon, and then another dog from special services.

They asked her what kinds of things she liked to play with, and they brought ALL of this.  Wow.  Later that afternoon, we visited a family on the same hall that we met the day before.  They adopted their little one from China a month ago, and were having her cleft lip repaired.  Such a doll!  And, our new friends are first-time parents, too.  :)

Around 4pm, we got the word that Lainey was being discharged!

On our way out, we had to check out the roof-top playground.  If it wasn’t wet, we would have stayed a while longer.  The view was really amazing!

This was taken yesterday, 2 days post-surgery.  She’s doing so well, only needs pain meds at night (and hardly needs them then, but I’m being cautious), and is very compliant with her liquid diet.  I’m pureeing everything and she’s eating it!

We got back for a follow-up next Friday.  No speech therapy for 6 weeks – she’ll actually be tested again at the hospital prior to beginning again to make sure the surgery was successful in action :)

We’re glad to have this surgery over with…now, we look ahead to Dylan’s.

Lainey girl with her puppy, joined by new friends elephant and teddy.

It’s going on midnight, and I’m TIRED.  Randy has the night shift at the hospital, and I drove home and will return in the morning.  So, this will be a short post about today.

Lainey is fun to watch after she takes the “pink medicine”.  It made her woozy, dizzy, extra-silly, and made her vision go loopy.  According to her, dada had 3 eyes and mama had 2 mouths.  Yes, I took video for proof.

Surgery went perfectly, no hitches, problems, or surprises.  Only took 1 hour.  Praise God.

The surgeon was able to do the procedure that she wanted to (sphincter pharyngoplasty) …meaning, Lainey had enough good muscle to work with and her carotid arteries weren’t in the way.  We’re very thrilled about this!

She’s been sleeping on and off all day, and only complaining about her throat a little bit.  No smiles yet…she’s a bit grumpy about the whole situation.  I think I would be too!  She’s taken some sips of drinks and maybe half a popsicle.  The doctor wasn’t concerned so much with how much she took in today, but we expect that she’ll begin to drink more tomorrow…especially, since that’s the test she’ll have to pass before she can go home.

Baptist hospital rocks!  Everyone has been wonderful, the food in the cafeteria was yummy (frozen yogurt!), and Lainey scored, not one, but TWO stuffed animals.  Her surgeon came by to check on her this afternoon, too.  That should be a given, but that never happened with her other surgeries in FL.

Thanks to all who prayed for her today, we are very thankful!

Our Lainey girl is going in for surgery tomorrow.  #4 in her young life, and it won’t be her last.  Ah, the joys of clefts :)

Tomorrow’s procedure will either be a sphincter pharyngoplasty or pharyngeal flap.  Both basically help to lengthen her soft palate (which, when studied a couple of months ago, is too short) by using existing tissue to make a sort of flap.  The flap will help to close off her nasal cavity for certain sounds, which will allow her to produce sounds that require a build up of air pressure (say a “b”…feel it?) AND will help decrease the nasality in her speech.

We have BIG hopes for this surgery.  Lainey is extremely speech delayed… she has only a small number of consonants which means her speech is mostly vowels.  So, she’s very hard to understand…she still signs quite a bit to help clarify what she’s saying and we still often can’t understand.  She gets frustrated (but, not as much as you’d think) and we get frustrated.  She’s 4 1/2 and her thoughts are becoming more complex.  She wants to be able to TALK to us, beyond the simple day-to-day things.  We so desire that, too.

Our prayer is that this surgery gives her the anatomy that she needs to make big progress in speech therapy.  We’re not naive, thinking she’ll come out of anesthesia with all these brand, new sounds.  We know there is much work to be done.  But, to know that nothing structural is holding her back will be such a blessing!

If you think of her tomorrow (12:30 EST), say a prayer?  Thanks :)

The weather has been really nice this weekend, making us think of spring.  I’m still kinda, sorta wishing for another snow storm but I think I’m going to be disappointed on that front.

We decided to find a park to visit on Saturday.  It was breezy, but a great day to be out.

A little unsure, but Payton makes it all okay.

After that, we couldn’t stop him.

More double-sliding!

Now, I wanna go THAT way, mama.

Ethan spent his time at the climbing wall…or just climbing anything and trying to look cool.

Lainey loved everything, especially the swirly, climby thing.

Oops.

On to the swings.  Something here looks wrong.

Happiness!

More happiness!

Five out of 6 kids on the swings (plus the dog).  Remember, Ethan was climbing stuff.

Wearing her new Lake Norman Volleyball Club hoodie and looking awfully cute.

One way to get off a swing.

Dylan loved climbing the play structures.  Sometimes we’d help put him on them, and sometimes he’d scoot around on the ground. You know how he HATES having his hands get dirty?  Every time he took a “step”, he’d have to stop and wipe the dirt/mulch off his hands.  lol…

Apparently, I was choosing to direct her with her head, rather than hold her hand.  ?

Who’s the mystery person in the middle?  Hmmmm….

We had a great time at the park yesterday.  So much so, that we went to another park after church today and had a picnic with friends.  The littles will probably ask me which park we’re going to tomorrow.

Years, that is…with our sweet Lainey girl!

Taken today, before our dinner out (which I’ll hopefully post tomorrow).  Remember what she looked like 3 years ago today?

Confused little ball of baby fat!  19 months old.  It took her a good 3 days to come out of her shell.  And, she’s never looked back.

Has she been “easy” lately.  Not really.  She loves her new little brother, it’s evident.  But, he’s also cramped her style and position in the family.  She’s working through it.

She’s had 3 surgeries in her young life.  1 in China, and 2 with us.  So far…she has another one next Wednesday.  We have high hopes that it will greatly improve her speech intelligibility.

And, she’s looking forward to the surgery.  Oddly, even when she knows there might be pain involved (we asked her what happens at her surgery and she signed “hurt”), she likes anything medical.  We think she loves the attention heaped on her.

No matter what, Lainey, you’re our baby girl and we love you to bits!  Happy Forever Family day, sweetie pie!

We packed a lot into this one!

Marley’s started early, on Friday.  She was invited by her friend Kylie’s family to go skiing at Beech Mountain for one of their homeschool days.  It’s crazy affordable and you even get a lesson.  She LOVED it.  We weren’t sure she would, since she’s our least adventurous kid with most things.  She said she only fell twice, and hit some pretty big slopes.  Impressive!

I think she definitely looks like a pro!

The rest of us took Friday off school…hey, if Marley could play so could we right?  I got a couple of projects off my to-do list, which was NICE.  Oh, how I love checking things off a list.  I digress.

Saturday, Abbey and Randy got up way too early as usual for volleyball practice.  She has it EVERY Saturday, no breaks.  8am-12pm. She’s usually sore the next day, they work so hard.  It’s good for her, and she’s learning a ton.  Randy helps with coaching, too.  This league is serious about teaching these girls, with the goal of having them make travel teams.

A little while after they returned and we had lunch, and it was time to get ready for our Chinese New Year celebration with the FCC-CLT (Families with Children from China – Charlotte).  We didn’t know a soul, but we all got dressed up in our best silks and went.  Little did we know that most of the adults went casual, very few wore Chinese clothing but most of the kids did.  We didn’t care…if you’re going to celebrate CNY, you should dress up!  I took very few pictures, but there was a photographer there who took a family picture and individuals of Lainey and Dylan.  I’ll try and post those when we get them.

We had a nice Chinese dinner, browsed the tables (and bought an antique rice measure!), made crafts, and watched a wonderful show put on by the kids from Living Hope International (www.livinghopeintl.org).  Please check them out and consider sponsoring an orphan that has aged out of the China adoption program!  We’re going to.

After the show, the children lined up for the Hong Bao distribution…it’s tradition that children receive treats or money in red envelopes on CNY.  This 87 year old Chinese man did the honors.

We left the party a little early, because Abbey had a Valentine’s dance to attend.  Her first real dance.  It was planned by a couple of homeschool moms, and very well attended as we could tell when we dropped her off.  She had a GREAT time, just ask her!  Here she is, after the party.  See the glow on her face?  (or is that sweat?)

Sunday was the usual…church for all, and then 2 friends over to hang out.

Our weekends are usually full, and I guess that’s why they seem to fly by.  One of these days, we’ll have NOTHING planned for the weekend.  Yeah, right.

I sound like every other mother, I’m sure, when I say…WHERE did the time go?  Abbey turned 15 yesterday.  Wow!  I look back at pictures of her and wonder “where is THAT little girl?”  Not that I’d turn the clock back.  Yes, she can be a TEEN sometimes (ha), but I love her to pieces.

This was her actual birthday…we might do a cake this weekend, but her birthday landed on youth night at church which she was THRILLED about (built-in party, seeing your friends, can’t beat it).  On the way home, we stopped to get her a special doughnut.

Backing up to the night before her birthday, she chose a good ‘ole steak dinner for her birthday outing.

Awwww…she’s always been a daddy’s girl.

sisters, fooling around.

brothers being mysterious.

L and D being cute, as usual.

A great b-day dinner, followed by a great…

birthday dessert.  She shared with the rest of us…ain’t she sweet?

Now, back to the birthday night.

Present time! Present time!  Open a present and see what’s inside!  Abbey used to heart Blues Clues.  Abbey’s camera died a while back, so here’s the replacement.

The necklace she hinted about.  A sterling silver key that says “TLW” (true love waits).

A beautiful young lady…with an edgy side.  She’s proud of that last part.

Okay, bear with me as we go back even further to last Sunday…the big game.  Yes, I know we LOST.  I’m over it now and looking forward to next season.  Anyway…  Abbey wanted me to post these pics of her and her best buds who came to “enjoy” the game with us.

We had our own half-time show complete with group dancing.

She had a blast….despite the final score.

The littles love all the big kids in the house…more people to play with (and more buttons on more phones).

Happy 15, Abbey.  At this rate, she’ll turn 16 next week!