Joy

This time last year my heart was aching. We were so hopeful that we would travel to China before the end of the year but it just wasn't His plan. I tried to put on a happy face, but all I really wanted was to hold my little girl who was still on the other side of the world.

It's different this year. She's here...I can hold her, kiss her, listen to her laugh. It's almost been a year now that she has been a part of our family and now we are getting to celebrate the birth of our Saviour with our daughter. What an amazing gift that was given to us and what a wonderful gift she is to our family.

Merry Christmas to you all!

The Princess is in her own bed...

Little Ms. Princess decided that she was ready to sleep in her own bed for the first time Saturday night after a fun time "Trunk or Treating". She has been talking about it for several weeks and we decided she was finally ready. This was a a big step for her (and for me :) And she has done great!!

I do wish, however, that the whole daylight savings time thing could be explained to her so that she would go back to sleeping in until around 8:00 am. She's up a little earlier now that she's in her own room, it's a little brighter in there which I think also helps her to wake up earlier. So since she's been waking up earlier she has been falling asleep in the car most days while we're on the way to pick up one of her brother's from school. On Tuesday of this week she actually fell asleep on the way to pick up the brother that goes to school for half day...so this was around 11:15 in the morning! I guess this will always be a part of our life, but I actually started to get a little concerned and wondered about why she was falling asleep during the day so much now. Could it be heart related? I kept a close eye on her while she slept and for the rest of that day, but her energy level was completely normal after she woke up from her nap and her breathing was fine. So I eventually just chalked it up to our extra busy weekend and her getting up earlier than normal. I did mention this to my husband though and he assured me that he would have been concerned as well (so it makes me think I'm not just over-reacting :) I wonder if little things like this will always make me think of her heart. Probably so. This is our life...and I'll rejoice in every healthy day we have!

Cardiologist checkup

YouYou and I went to B'ham yesterday for her 6 month post open heart surgery checkup (it's actually been 7 months but that is what happens when mommy forgets to call to get an appointment until the month we are supposed to be seen :)

Dr. Romp was very pleased with how she is growing. She now weighs 24.6 pounds (that was with clothes on though). That's a gain of around 4 pounds since surgery! She also measured 36 inches tall, which means she has grown a little more than 2 inches since we brought her home! Oh yeah...she's getting big :)


YouYou did great with all of the procedures/tests. She had a chest x-ray, an EKG, an Echocardiogram, and they took her blood pressure and pulse ox (which by the way was a perfect score of 100!!) As always, the Echocardiogram took a little while, but YouYou mostly sat still the whole time :) I always get a little anxious during this part of the checkup because Dr. Romp gets this serious look on his face as he tries to interpret what he is seeing on the monitor even though her ventricles are reversed. He said that this echo looks to be the same as the echo that was done prior to the heart cath in June...the pressures are about the same, the ventricles seem to be pumping strongly and he still sees (and hears) some small VSD's. But this is all good news really! We know her heart will never be perfect (at least not here on Earth) but she is really doing well. He also took her off of one of her medicines and he reduced another one. So for now, she will continue to be on 2 medications that she takes twice a day. And...as long as no problems arise we don't have another checkup for 6 months!! Yippee!!!

Here are a few pictures from our day. This first one was taken in the waiting room...



Watching the nurse blow bubbles during the EKG...



Reading a book while we wait to see the doctor...



YouYou and our favorite cardiologist Dr. Romp (well, he's the only cardiologist we've ever had but he's still our favorite :)!



This was taken as we left the Dr.'s office. I told YouYou to stand in front of the light pole and smile for me. She decided it would be better to dance...


She is holding our appointment reminder card and her two stickers...


Now she's getting a little sassy with her hand on her hip...


Hmmm...what is this on my finger?


Okay, now she's through taking pictures and this is what she does when she has had enough. She just refuses to look at the camera...such a little stinker.!

A little girl who loves the beach...

This time last year we were here at this same beach, wondering, waiting, hoping, and praying for our daughter who was on the other side of the world. Now she is here with us! And let me tell you...she loves the beach!

She's chunky...

"She's so tiny"

"She's sooooo little"

I can't tell you how many times people (usually strangers) say these things to us about YouYou. And it's even worse when they follow the comment by asking how old she is...their jaws usually drop when we say she just turned 3 years old.

You know what I have been saying to people the past month or so? Here are my exact words...

"Actually, no. THIS is chunky"

And I say this with a smile on my face and joy in my heart.

I knew YouYou was gaining weight. I could see it in her face, in the little muscles that have appeared on her arms and legs, and in the crease that she has which defines a little bottom that used to not be there :) This is exactly what the Dr.'s want her to be doing. If she is gaining weight and growing it is a good sign that her heart is functioning well. So imagine how excited I was today when it was confirmed that SHE IS GAINING WEIGHT!!! We had a 3 year "well checkup" with her pediatrician and guess how much she weighs????

TWENTY THREE POUNDS AND TWO OUNCES!!!!!!

That means she has gained a little more than FIVE pounds since the beginning of February (which was when she was first seen and weighed by our pediatrician). She has also grown almost an inch taller! WooHoo!!!

So if you are around us much you might just hear us saying to our little one..."Girl you chunky" :)

One year ago...

One year ago today our lives were forever changed when we saw this face for the first time...



We knew she was the one God intended for our family, in fact Aaron knew before he even saw her picture. We spent that day praying and talking to doctors and then the next morning we sent in our Letter of Intent to request that China allow us to adopt this little one that we already loved.

We give thanks to you O Lord for this good and precious gift.

Happy Independence Day!!!

The Birthday Girl

My favorite birthday picture...

Happy Birthday YouYou!!!

Dear YouYou,

Today we celebrated your 3rd birthday! It was such a special day because it was your first birthday with us. You had 27 family members there to celebrate with you! We ate, swam, opened presents, made snowcones, blew bubbles, and broke a pinata. I think your favorite part was when we sang Happy Birthday to you...you sang right along with us and then blew out your candles like a pro.

I love you my sweet girl...and I'm so happy that God allowed us to be a family.

Your mommy

*Pictures to come later when I can find the cord to upload them to my computer :)

Better than expected!!!!!!

She's done and we're back in the regular room now! Are you sitting down? Maybe you should actually get down on your knees and praise the Lord with us...the Dr.'s said things look even better than they expected!!!! THE PRESSURES IN HER LUNGS ARE NORMAL AND THE RESIDUAL VSD'S ARE NOT SIGNIFICANT (they blood flow of the VSD's are only 1.3 and normal is 1.0...her's were probably a 3.0 before surgery)! PRAISE THE LORD!!! I'm going to go feed my baby and I'll update more later...

It's been about an hour...

They came for her at 9:30 and we walked beside her as the nurse wheeled her on the bed (she wanted to go for a "ride"). She started to cry once we stopped at the door that we could no longer go through...we told her we would see her in a few minutes and through her tears she kept saying "Nuh uh", which is what she often says now when she doesn't want to do something. I just hope they put her to sleep quickly so she didn't have to cry for long. We got some breakfast and we are back in the room now just waiting for the phone call that everything is over.

We've arrived

It's only 6:45 am but it feels like it should be lunch time (we've been up since 3). We arrived here on time, we've been admitted and we're now in our room (502) waiting. YouYou slept the whole way here but she woke up while we were being admitted and the first thing she wanted to do was eat. She pointed to the plate of brownies I brought for the nurses and said "Ma wan dat", which means "Me want that". Then she found the refrigerator in our room and pointed to the ice crystals and then pointed to her mouth, which meant she wanted to eat the ice. Let's just hope they take her back soon because I'm not sure how long she'll stay happy without food or drink. I think the floor here is familiar to her, she seems to know her way around (Neesie is taking her for a walk now). I'll update again once they take her back.

Heart cath tomorrow

Tomorrow morning we'll be leaving our house around 4:00 am to drive to UAB for YouYou's heart cath. We'll be taking the laptop with us and will update this blog during the day. If everything goes smoothly we will be coming home late tomorrow night, but we have to be prepared to spend the night just in case. Thank you in advance for your prayers.

A Great Checkup!

We had a very good appointment with YouYou's cardiologist yesterday. In fact it was the first time I have left his office feeling better about things than when we went in (and that has nothing to do with Dr. Romp's personality or anything, it's everything to do with the seriousness of her condition)! Not only had YouYou gained a pound and a half, the Dr. said that her right ventricle was pumping SO MUCH better than he had ever seen it pump, her left ventricle looked good also, her valves seemed to be leaking less (which means the medicine she is on is working), her liver and heart were no longer enlarged, AND HE ONLY SAW TWO VSD'S (holes in her heart)!!!! I'm praising God for this good report!!! We are still scheduled to have a heart cath on June 11 but Dr. Romp said he expects that the cath will confirm what he thinks he is seeing in the echo...which is basically that her heart is functioning well right now. I think if she did not already have some damage to her lungs from the pulmonary hypertension he would not even worry about us having the heart cath. But he is trying to protect her lungs from further damage and the only way to be certain that she does not need any further surgeries right now is to get the kind of information that the cath will provide.

Thank you Father for your work of healing in YouYou's heart.

YouYou has wanted to get her hair cut since she saw her big brother get his cut a few weeks ago. I'm letting her bangs grow out so it was time to trim the ends of hers a bit - and she couldn't have been happier. She kept saying "YouYou geh hair-ee cut", which means YouYou is getting a hair cut :)

We'll be going to B'ham on Tuesday for an appointment with the cardiologist. I'll update once we get home. Happy Memorial Day!

Nachos

This is what I do while my brothers play t-ball...

100 Days

You You has officially been in our family now for 100 days!! I took this picture of her today. Isn't she a little cutie patootie?!!

FYI...we had to reschedule her heart cath procedure because we had a conflict. The new date is June 11 and because we are putting it off a few more weeks we will be visiting her cardiologist on May 26th for a post op visit. Thank you all for your prayers!

Flexibility

I think she is looking pretty good for six weeks post open heart surgery...

Cardiologist check-up

YouYou's first check-up with the cardiologist was on Monday of this week. I'm so thankful that she is such a good car rider since we will be making so many trips to B'ham :) She did great and was not scared at all, but she was a little more "active" during the echo (kind of like an ultrasound) than she was the first time we visited Dr. Romp (this was the time she laid still for at least 20 minutes).

Overall Dr. Romp was very pleased with how YouYou is recovering. Her incision is healing well and her appetite has increased. There are 2 areas of concern at this point though, the leakiness in the mitral and tricuspid valves and the small VSD's (holes) that have appeared since surgery. I have been told it is not highly uncommon for these holes to appear around the patch in VSD's as large as hers, but I still don't like it :( She is on medication that in time will hopefully help decrease the leakiness in the valves, and the Dr. said he "might" be seeing some small improvement since her last echo (but he wants to see more). The not so good part is that because of her type of transposition the Dr.'s cannot really tell the size of the holes through an echo. So...we are scheduled for another heart cath on May 21st (to determine whether or not they see a need for YouYou to undergo another sugery). I asked Dr. Romp if I should just try to get used to the idea of frequent heart cath's in our future, and he said we shouldn't be needing to do them every few months but it is something she will have done more than other children because of her uniquely formed heart.

What does this mean?? Well, this means I'm asking God for a miracle. I'm asking and believing that if it is His will that these holes will either be tee-tiny non problematic holes or that they will be gone entirely! I know God can do this, and I also know that He might choose not to...regardless though I will pray and I will trust Him. Will you join me?

Pictures...scroll down to see a happy YouYou

In CICU, one day after surgery...

Taken Saturday, 4 days after surgery...

The swelling was really bad at this point...


Could she be any more pitiful? She loved this bunny though...

Trying to have fun in the halls...

Me, YouYou, and Libby, taken on Wednesday right before we left for the first time...

Roz, and Ruth...2 of the sweet nurses who took care of YouYou on the floor...

Taken on Saturday of our second visit. YouYou was starting to look and feel better after they got rid of all that extra fluid. She chowed down on some noodles and chicken right after you left Bert, Tina and Sophie! Notice the shoulder..she insisted on wearing her gown like that that evening.

Yummy, yummy...

Messy but happy YouYou...

YouYou giving mommy some back pounding therapy...

Taken yesterday afternoon...at HOME!!! Connie, she loves the crown and sunglasses...thank you!

Kissy lips...

Taken at bedtime tonight...she was so happy today.

Sitting in her big girl bed, which she does not sleep in yet. Thank you for praying for me!!!!!