Tomorrow is David's Surgery Day!!!

Can I get a WOOT WOOT! up in here!!!

We are packed.

We are not coughing.

We are ready.

We have been talking about surgery all week.

   From inside our shiny new bubble wrap, of course...

It is sorta freaky how much David understands about what is going to happen.

He will tell us how we will get up early when it is still dark, then Mama will take him to the hospital and Baba will take care of Josh and Sammy. And then he will put on the hospital pajamas. And then he will put the mask on his face. And then he demonstrates breathing deeply and falling asleep. And then he says when he wakes up, doc will be done fixing his mouth and it is over! And then he says Mama will stay with him all the time, and we will sleep for one night at the hospital (oh man I hope it is only one~insert a prayer here), and when doctor says we can go home then we go home! He knows he has to drink before we go home, and he tells me all the choices he will have at the hospital. He says he can have apple juice, or popsicles, or applesauce, or Jell-O. And he says he wants to ride around the hallways at the hospital in the wagon just like Sammy did. He tells me he won't be able to walk (Sammy couldn't stand up right away because his IV was in his foot). And he says he will be able to talk better and drink from a straw and blow a horn after his surgery.

Freaky, eh?

We'll see if he sleeps at all tonight.

Please pray for the doctors to sleep well tonight.
Please pray for God to guide our surgeon's hands tomorrow.
Please pray for David's little body to handle the surgery well and for his palate to be closed during this one surgery.
And pray that his palate stays together after surgery, and that little David heals quickly.

Do we need anything else?

Just prayers. Thanks.

(((hugs))),
chris

People were also bringing babies to Jesus for him to place his hands on them. When the disciples saw this, they rebuked them. But Jesus called the children to him and said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these. Truly I tell you, anyone who will not receive the kingdom of God like a little child will never enter it.”          Luke 18:15-17

Happy Summer Break!

Mwahahaha ~ yes, pun intended!!! Read on...


Here's how our first day of summer went...

We made cookies for breakfast!!! How fun!!!

Hey, they had oatmeal in them so it's practically like a breakfast food, OK?

After breakfast I found this by the cookie jar:

Scorpio the Lego scorpion guarding the cookie jar with a speech balloon note like a comic...

"No wone is alout to eat thees coocies they are myne."

Apparently Scorpio liked the cookies...


And I spent the day helicopter-parenting this one worrying about anything or anyone bumping this one's face:

Isn't he beautiful?
Amazing that he is only one week post-surgery...

We played outside in the afternoon.

Josh and David decided to hit baseballs. Josh missed the baseball and hit his brother in the forehead:

Can you see the big purple bruise over his right eye?

Then I caught Sammy drawing circles on the door of the car:

Sammy's reflection on the scene of the crime.
See the circles?
Is that ANOTHER rock in his hand?!?

Then Mama got a beer (or three), and closed my eyes and drank my beers watched the boys pull each other around in the wagon:

After dinner the boys went to bed... and Baba went to play his softball game.

Then he came home after the game.

Then he drove himself to the emergency room to have his ankle X-rayed.

Because that is a good idea when you slide into second base and your teammates on the bench hear a "CRRRRAAAACK" and then your ankle swells up twice it's normal size:

What you are looking at is a broken fibula. And Jason's two new BFFs in the background. 

The boys (and our old-man cat) taking care of Jason

I mentioned in our last post that we will be living inside a bubble to keep the germs away... We apparently need some bubble wrap around our germ-free bubble...

(((hugs))),
chris




And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God's love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God's love.
                           Romans 8:38

Rescheduled

David's surgery is rescheduled! Yahoo!

He will have his surgery at the end of next week. It will be sort of deja-vu-ish... Same time, same surgeon, same anesthesiologist, same surgical team at the hospital, same place--day surgery center. Except it will be just David and I heading down for surgery so Jason can take care of the other two boys. We think it will be too soon to leave Sammy with someone else for a long period of time, since he will only be two weeks post-op.

So now we pray that David totally gets rid of his cough and stays healthy.

                      (That's deja-vu-ish too, eh?)

If you are looking for us over the next week and a half, we'll be right here in our bubble.

(((hugs))),

chris

And now, just as you accepted Christ Jesus as your Lord, you must continue to follow him. Let your roots grow down into him, and let your lives be built on him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.    Colossians 2:6-7

Recovering

Before this surgery, a friend of mine said she hoped the recovery this time would be better than we expect. I heard her, and thought to myself, "Ya, right. We have been through this before. We know how it goes."

But I guess we never went through a lip repair-only surgery yet.

          It has been a little better. Just goes to show you where me and my bad attitude got me.

It is still really hard to see your kid in so much pain. It has to be unbelievably hard to be the kid. Sammy's whole face swelled up so he couldn't smile (not that he would want to yet) and could hardly open his mouth. He is on a soft diet which is really nice because we can feed him regular food and he can actually get filled up.

             Liquid diets suck, my friends...

So since he can't open his mouth much, we give him his liquids (drinks, soups, smoothies) with a syringe. It hurts to open wide enough even to take a regular cup. We use a tiny baby spoon to feed him soft foods like yogurt and mashed potatoes and mac 'n cheese. Any other spoons are too wide and it hurts him to open up that much. Sammy is our meat-eater ~ I swear the kid could eat meat all day long if we let him. Yesterday we cut up a hot dog and a piece of chicken in tiny little pieces about the size of peas and fed it to him. He was so happy!

So it has been a little better this time around, but we are still dealing with "stuff". Like being helicopter-parent worrying about anything bumping Sammy's face for fear the stitches will split. And if the stitches split, his face splits. Scary stuff. I feel like we are constantly barking at the boys, "Keep that away from Sam's face! Don't swing that around! Sammy get down from there! Be careful! Blahblahblahblah!" And then there is the "stuff" like the short people being super-needy and whiny and demanding. Sammy is understandably super-needy, but David has amped it up in the neediness arena already. We see so many up stretched arms and carry around kids who are 30 pounds, give or take a few... it feels like when we just got back from China all over again. At least my back feels that way :-D  It's that two-fer thing where you can't adequately meet both adopted kids' intense and pervasive needs at the same time. So we opt to tend to Sammy and sometimes David just has to wait a few minutes.

            David's time is a-comin' though. Oh, baby.

And I do think we realistically know what to expect with David's recovery. He will be in lots more pain than Sammy is in now. And it ain't gonna be fun, but it will be so exciting when David can speak even more clearly. We are excited to hear his "new" voice, because we know it will immediately sound so different.

I was praying this morning and I suddenly realized that it is important to keep our eyes on the finish line, and to keep things in perspective. Thank you, Lord. Our goal with the surgeries is to have our kids be able to speak clearly and to have as little visible cleft scars as possible. These cleft surgeries will cause them pain, but it is temporary. It will be beautiful in the long run.

Keeping our eyes on the prize at the finish line,
(((hugs))),
chris


Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good! His faithful love endures forever.
                            ~ Psalm 106:1

We're home

Last night went mostly fine. Sammy threw up a little after dinner, and a bunch right after he had his meds. Great timing, Sam. He was just so upset after the nurses changed shifts and he got a new nurse, and was crying and in pain, and he hated the blood pressure cuff squeezing his leg... so he barfed. Then I asked the nurse to give him the IV morphine, and that knocked him right out kept him very comfortable.

We came home today right around lunchtime.

Sammy is doing well. We are keeping him on the pain meds for now and he doesn't have any pain while he is on the meds. He doesn't need his no-nos all the time (hallelujah!), but we are making him wear them to sleep and to ride in the car. This makes him very grumpy and ticked at us. He is not happy with his diet, but we are finding things he will eat and drink. He is really happy to be home, and to pick on play with his big brothers.

I did not have a deep morphine-induced sleep last night, so today I am very tired. That's all I gots for you today.

Nighty-night.

Peace, out,
(((hugs))),
chris

One down, and we are done for the day

Sammy is done! Yahoo! Surgery went well. His lip looks so different, and he has one of those funky nose splints in like David had last time. I am betting that the nose splint won't stay in as well with this munchkin!

We are in our room, and will probably go home tomorrow morning.

The docs decided that when Sammy came out of anesthesia his cough sounded much worse. And given that David's cough was worse than Sammy's to begin with... Well that would be no good. They explained that D would probably do fine while in surgery, but if D were to develop an infection AFTER surgery there is an increased chance for dehiscence. That means his hard palate could split right open which would be sucky big time. So we will happily, although impatiently, wait a few more weeks.

(((hugs))),
Chris

2-1/2 hours down

Sammy has been in for his scheduled 2-1/2 hours now.

Did I ever mention that our doc takes his time with his patients?

This is a good thing and a-OK with us. You do want a plastic surgeon who is a perfectionist! His PA warned us last time about doc taking his time and don't worry if things take longer than expected. She described our doc as an artist.

Have I mentioned that I love our doc?

We just got an update from the nurse on the phone. Everything is chugging along just fine and Sammy is stable and hasn't had any problems. When I asked about where things were in surgery and time frame, and the nurse asked doc if he knew how much longer, I heard the doc in the background tell the nurse, "No."

So we wait.

I guess they will be in there a while longer.

Poor David is sooooooooooooooooooooooo hungry that he can't even sit still. He is such a trooper, though. He and Jas are on another walk.

Thanks for the prayers.

(((hugs))),
Chris

Surgery day is here!

We arrived at the hospital bright and early at 600am. The boys both still have coughs, so we were praying that the boys could both still have surgery.

Sammy just went back and is in surgery now. He will have his full lip repair done today, so he will look much different the next time we see him! I just kissed him for the last time on those lips.

Our doc is still concerned about doing David's surgery today, since he is having his whole hard palate closed up. The anesthesiologist explained that a cough in the upper area is a concern because when the kids are intubated, the tube passes thru the vocal chords the chords can close off the tube if they are swollen and react to the tube by tensing up or pulsing. That is such a Igotupat430am kinda medical explanation, eh?

So they will probably listen to David's chest again and reevaluate when Sammy is done to decide if David can have his surgery today.

Please pray that it is safe to do D's surgery today.

And please pray that Sammy does great in surgery and that the surgeon's hands are guided by God.

(((hugs))),
Chris