Put That One Behind Us!

 Hard to believe all this trauma and drama was just starting a week ago. Goodness Im glad to have this week behind us!

Week Ago Thursday - CT scan to look for source of pain

After drinking the horrible contrast liquid, the CT scan showed that the appendix looked "unremarkable". 

Turns out, it was indeed "remarkable".

Sunday night in the Emergency Room

 After four days in pain, we took her to the ER.  A 2:00am ultrasound.  We were told the appendix looked fine and we could go home and follow up with our pediatrician if the pain didn't subside.  

Does this face look like there is "nothing wrong" to you?

Monday night - admitting to hospital

 Our wonderful Ped referred us to a GI specialist who got us in with a Peds surgeon who immediately diagnosed appendicitis and sent us directly to the hospital.  The Child-Life folks were WONDERFUL with Abi. She was SO upset when we were admitted and told she would need surgery the next morning. They came in promptly with a Build-A-Bear and a colorful pillowcase so her bed wouldn't look so stark and scary!

Tuesday Morning - All prepped for surgery

 Chad arrived home from 3 weeks in India just in time to kiss Abi and send her off into surgery. 

Of course, "Angel" got a matching surgery cap.

Tuesday Afternoon - thanks morphine for a great nap

Wednesday - first lap around the unit 

 Who looks more miserable?  Daddy who is jet lagged after 36 hours of travel, or Abi?

Friday - Homeward Bound

After fighting an infection and fever, Abi was finally released to come home Friday.   Uncle Adam and Aunt Kerry are responsible for those balloons that about lifted her out of her wheelchair!  She's very fatigued, but gaining strength and starting to eat a little more every day.

Saturday - doesn't take much to wear her out

She rested all weekend and laid low.  We tried to send her back to school today (Monday) but it proved too much for her. After 2 hours, her teacher sent her to the nurse because she was pale and in pain.  We brought her home where she crashed and napped.  We will have to work back up to a full school day a little bit at a time.  She has a new Madeline doll (thanks Aunt Di!!) who has a matching "appendectomy" scar and some photographs her surgeon gave her of her appendix (ewwww!) that she'd love to show off!  She still doesn't have much of an appetite and requires meds to control pain.  But we're taking baby steps! So proud of sissy for being so brave. Goodness we miss her smile!  We'll follow up Thursday to check her stitches and get steri-strips removed.  

A little better every day!

On a lighter note, I took Britain for an ice-cream date on Saturday.  (she was having a hard time with mom gone for a week!) Now THIS is how you make an ice cream cone!!

Gigi got to tag along and this picture absolutely makes me laugh!  

What a face!!

One Day Closer to Home

We are biding our time another day here at the Children's Hospital. The plan was to discharge us this morning, but Abi spiked a fever last night. They drew labs which are showing inflamation and an elevated white blood cell count. Her body is fighting infection...we're just not sure what.

She's been out on broad spectrum antibiotics to treat the possibilities:
1) an infection or abscess resulting from the surgery.
2) developing pneumonia from secretions in her lungs that are not working out since she's been so sedentary.

So we've worked hard trying to get her a bit more mobile today. She got up for a shower today and even made a lap around the floor without her IV pole for support. The respiratory therapist is working to strengthen her lung capacity. Her spirits have been up today and she's been a bit more talkative, although she still tires easily. Oh, and she ate today!! As in, one bite of pancake, 3 potato chips, orwnge juice and a mini Reeses peanut butter cup.
But, that's progress!

Her fever peeked again after a nap this afternoon, but is normal now. So.....we watch and wait. Hopefully with a good nights sleep we'll get good reads on her blood tomorrow and can be on our way home. Kids are really missing big sissy!

As much as I long to have our family reunited after nearly a month apart (C was in India for 3 weeks up until her surgery), this has had its sweet moments. I depend on Abi a lot. She's so mature and responsible. Capable and helpful! Its been sweet to have time to love on my girl and give her one-on-one care without anyone else clamouring for attention. Grateful for those caring for my other children so I can be here for her and give her the attention she needs.

I hope to be updating from the comfort of my own desk tomorrow.

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

Thanks for all your prayers for our family these past few days. It's been very taxing for everybody, but God has given us such a grace through dear family and friends who have cared for our other children, brought meals, visited and prayed for Abi.

Surgery yesterday went as expected. The pathology report actually just came back a couple moments ago confirming what was supected = Acute Appendicitis
(so we're glad they took out something that "needed" to be removed:)

We weren't really prepared for the intensity of pain she would deal with post-op. We were so optimistic about appendix pain being removed, but didn't anticipate trading the pain for another. She has had a much harder time than we expected. It's so unusual for our normally sweet, smily, talkative, gracious, kind daughter to be so irritable and short. She will only give nurses nods and one-word-answers. They all keep asking if she's a really quiet child.
Um.....NO!!
We miss her smile!
C keeps telling me that she's acting exactly like I do when I'm in labor....impossible to help. Ha!!

She had a hard time last night. We thought we were going to be discharged this morning, but they wanted her eating and walking a little first. Daddy was here today to help give her the gentle "push" she needed and took her on a lap around the children's wing this morning. She protested, but reluctantly tried. She's slow and shuffling and bent over like a scoliosis patient. It doesn't take much to completely wear her out. We're having a hard time getting her to drink and she has only eaten a chicken nugget and 3 bites of ice cream since surgery. So, they decided to keep her another night on IV fluids to gain strength and rest and heal. Hopefully tomorrow....

C stayed with her so I could pick Britain and Tristan up from school (hadnt seen them since Sunday). Brought all the kiddos to visit Abi this afternoon. Tristan has been so sweet and concerned about his sister and said "Mom, I think I'm gonna have to stay close to her when she comes back to school to make sure she's ok".
Best brother ever!
He was pretty bummed tho when he saw all the wii games in the kids corner of the hospital and all the ice cream and Popsicles in the fridge that Abi isn't even enjoying.
"What a waste" he said!

Just settled down with her watching Soul Surfer, and she asked me to paint her toenails with the new polish Izzy brought to give her today....so that's a good sign.
A very good sign.
Getting my girly-girl back!

Urgent prayer for Abi

Ever since Wednesday, Abi has had recurring severe pain in her lower right abdomen. Thuursday she was sent home from school. We went to pediatrician who sent us for a full work up at the medical park. CT scan showed nothing abnormal. Although bloodwork came back normal, symptoms have continued to ebb an flow.
By Saturday night, her sleep was pretty disturbed too and we we're having trouble controlling pain. At the urging of our wonderful pediatrician (and concerned grandparents) we spent the night in the ER Sunday night.
Ultrasounds of ovaries and appendix were inconclusive and the only certainty we got was that 3 hours of sleep is NOT enough!
(yawn)
At this point, Abi has eaten nothing but a little yogurt and a bagel since Wednesday and the girl doesn't have an ounce of body fat on her anyway! Getting worried!
We were referred to a pediatric GI specialist today who referred us to a pediatric surgeon. It took the surgeon no more than 2 minutes of probing on her super tender belly to admit her immediately to the hospital and schedule an appendectomy for first thing in the morning.

She's trying really hard to be brave but was super upset and scared about surgery when she found out. The staff here is being wonderful to her! Please pray courage and peace for her tomorrow. And security for our other children who are being shuffled around. And special grace for grandparents and friends caring for them!
We can already see Gods provisional hand all over the timing of this tho. C has been in India for 3 weeks and arrived home just tonight so Abi girl is really glad her daddy is back for this. Please keep our fractured family in prayer!

Oh The Places You'll Go...

"Why fit in when you were born to stand out?" ~Dr. Seuss

In honor of Dr. Seuss' Birthday, the kids had a whole week of "themed" apparel they were allowed to wear to school every day.

Pajama day.

Stripes Day.

Whacky Feet Day

.....Look who won 1st place in the whole school?  Funny thing is, we called them "Thing 1" and "Thing 2" in utero when we didn't know if we were having boys or girls.  They came home beaming that they were getting their picture in the yearbook for the funniest feet!

And Britain was pretty pumped about her Cindy Lou Who "do" for Crazy Hair Day!

A half-day this week seemed like a great time to see The Lorax with friends.  We had gift certificates to see it at the Columbiana Grande (aka, the nice theatre in town:)  We rarely go to movies.  And when we do take this gang, its usually to the Dollar Theater.  But, Id forgotten what a treat it was to be in  a "clean" theatre with seats that aren't broken and screens that don't cut out in the middle of the movie:)

And, we found that "liking" Grand Regal Cinema on Facebook gives you weekly discounts on tickets and concessions.

A huge treat and super fun outing!

They thought they were super cool dudes rockin' the 3D glasses.  (look at Evie below:)  This was the first 3D movie we'd ever seen together.  It was adorable...during the first 30 minutes of the movie, I just watched the little kids who were trying to reach out and "touch" the images coming towards them!

I was feeling pretty great about getting through a movie with 8 kids and no spills, accidents or missing children.  

Success!

That was a great day.

 That was yesterday.

Today, however, was not so great!  We spent it at the hospital exploring the possibility of appendicitis with Abi.  7 hours and many expensive tests and procedures later, we know its not appendicitis.  Now if we can just figure out what it is before the weekend!  She has pretty acute pain in her lower right abdomen.  Been a rough day.   

Here's to more fantastic, fun, magical, nonsense-filled, imaginative, mixed-up, silly, wonder-full days of childhood ahead.  

Thank you Dr. Seuss for the memories!

9 Months

Growing, growing, growing!!

My lil' protégé also loves Nikon:)

 Three-quarters of a year.  Oh my!!

Your nine month birthday post is late.  Not because I forgot, but because your momma is O-C-D!  I was waiting on this cute shirt to arrive to take your birth-month pictures in.  

I know.  I know.  Im ridiculous!  But playing "dress up" with my little doll never gets old.
And honestly, it is because all of the sudden, nothing fits you!  You seem so big to me.  Its like you grew up overnight and all your 6 month clothes can't be snapped shut.  Its hard to find 9 month sizes and 12 months are just too big on you.
I still can't figure it out....you're my newborn baby girl that I just brought home from the hospital.....like....yesterday.

You are so. much. fun!

Everyone who meets you comments on how easy-going and pleasant you are.  What a delight you are to our family.  The kids are always sad to kiss you goodbye in the morning and you are the first thing they play with when they get home from school.  You are finally on a bit of a schedule with a morning nap in your crib and an afternoon nap on in the carpool line.

Your nighttime sleeping however has digresses.  You've gone from waking up once at night to waking every couple hours...crying...and unable to go back to sleep sometimes.  As much as I love our one-on-one 2-4:00am playtime, your momma is tired!

And I think I know the culprit....

You're getting teeth!!

You cut your first one chewing on a silver spoon at a tea party celebrating Grandmoni's birthday.  Pretty sure that classifies you as the high-maintenace "born with a silver spoon in your mouth" kinda girl.  You now have both your bottom teeth and one of your top teeth just came through yesterday.  The other one is bulging and looks painful. 

Consequently, everything is a teether toy to you....

.....keys, iron legs of the barstools, mama's jewelry, spoons and.....leaves....

You're a pro at standing and are mastering the "monkey crawl".  Hands and feet on the ground....cute tushie up in the air.

We have a little routine....I prompt you to say "ma-ma".  You smile real big and reply "da-da".  

It sends the kids into hysterics.

I fail to see the humor.

Daddy of course is eating it up.

Little stinker!

But you do have a new trick that we're all very proud of.  You do "Patty-cake" and get rounds of applause from the whole family!!  

You're so full of your self!

We pretty much adore everything about you.  

Your one single curl behind your right ear.

Your stunning blue eyes.

Your arms that reach for us.

Your buddha-belly that loves to be ticked.

Your chunky-monkey thighs.

Your kissable toes.

You spent your first night away from mommy this week.  I was attending a birth and you stayed with Grandma and kept her and Miss Diane and Miss Kim up all night.  We've got to work on this sleeping thing!

How can such a little cherub be so much t-r-o-u-b-l-e!

Happy 9 month birthday little darling!

hugs and kisses

Recap and Rant

Recapping our weekend....nothing more fun than family visiting.  Love being close enough to those dearest to us that they can pop in for the day.  We enjoyed visits with Aunties.....

Uncles.....

Grandparents....

And cousins....

Gigi girl turned 9 months on friday (that post coming soon)....

And Tristan busied himself this weekend with his "Dangerous Book For Boys" projects...

He built a skate ramp

Carved arrows

Constructed a bow

and caught a big one!

He was so proud of this whopper!

All in all, a great weekend.  But already Monday morning is off to a rough start...

Evie needed some routine bloodwork drawn for one of the specialists she sees.  You would think with the literally hundreds of sticks that she's had, that we'd have a pretty good game-face when it comes to needles, but Evie still gets pretty worked up whenever anyone comes at her with gloved hands.  Bribery and promises of milkshakes did little to calm her hysterics when the tech unwrapped the needle and started poking looking for a vein.  After sticking her and prodding around ineffectively, she withdrew the needle and said she'd try again on the other arm.
Evie at this point is streaming tears.
The tech trying to be compassionate decided to "wait a few minutes" before trying again.
In actuality, the anticipation is way worse than the stick, so Evie sat shaking and whimpering for 20 minutes!! until the tech came back.
At this point, she explained to me that they didn't have the right vials to draw the blood the doctor needed.

um....are you kidding me?!!!

Its hard enough having your child endure pokes and prods for their own good, but unnecessary ones just broke my heart for her!

So we returned again a few days later for another dramatic encounter.  Tourniquet.  Needle.  3 large vials of blood. Pink bandage.  Blood stain on dress.  Tears.  Lollipop.  And a promise that we won't have to do this for a long time!

The call from the lab 48 hours later about brought out the worst in this momma-bear!

Apologetically they informed me that the courier had mistakenly put Evie's specimen on ice instead of keeping it at room temperature and that we would have to come back a 3rd time for yet another blood draw!!  One of the sweet technicians, Crystal, who has been doing Evies draws for years said that she would personally oversee the repeat procedure when we came back in.  She was so sweet and apologetic that I couldn't be mad at her.....but trying to explain to Evie that we had to go again was hard.

Sweet Crystal was all set up for us today.  Butterfly tattoos.  Silly bands.  Purple jewel ring and a $5 Chick fil A Gift Card after the blood draw.  So we're crossing our fingers that this one gets processed right.

And lunch at CFA (Evie's mostest-favoritest place:) is almost worth 3 sticks.

.....almost.....

Make A Wish

~ A dream is a wish your HEART makes ~ 

She's been through more trauma in her short life than most of us ever will, but those harrowing first days fade to the background when you see the bouncy, bubbly full-of-life sweet-heart that she is today.  There are still the occasional blood draws and ECHO's and talks of what future procedures may be needed, but there are many, MANY care-free days that her "condition" is overshadowed by the pink bows and mop of curls that bound through our life and make our hearts skip a beat!

Which is perhaps why I found myself sitting in the car at the bottom of my driveway crying my eyes out the day I received this letter....

I was in utter shock.  The words "Your child's doctor has found Evangeline to be medically eligible to have a wish granted" jumped out at me.  It was a reality check. A reminder that we were in a club I really didn't want Evie to be in.  We've had lots of heart kiddo friends who have had wishes granted, but somehow I classified Evie as "over the worst".  The familiar fears and questions began to percolate as I mopped my mascara stained face with kleenexes and looked at Evie sleeping in her carseat in the rear-view-mirror.  The letter sent me into a tailspin.  I called my sister in tears.  I talked to my mom.  I scheduled a meeting with Evies doctor to talk about what qualified her as eligible.  

One of my dearest heart-mom friends talked me through it reminding me of what our girls have endured that has brought them to where they are today.  You need look no further than their horrific post-surgery pictures to know they are qualified "Wish Kids".

"Pray about it and if its right, than relax and enjoy every minute of Evie being treated like a princess". 

Within less than 24 hours, I had a call from our Wish facilitator.  I told her I was completely overwhelmed and needed some time to process.  She graciously told us to call her any time when we decided we were ready.  I explained my reservations because Evie is doing so well right now.  She clarified that MAW is no longer just for "terminal" kids, but that any child who is facing a life-threatening disease or illness qualifies.  Because of Evies complex defect which will be followed all her life, she has been approved.  

Its been overwhelming really.  All that any parent of a sick kid wants is for their child to be well....with every fiber of my being, I wish we'd never face another anesthesia or blood transfusion or overnight in the hospital or intubation.  I wish we could erase the scars and memories.  But God is about redeeming all things and we know Evie's little life is on a path that He has prepared for her - come what may.

  It was several weeks before I was ready to call our wish-granter back and plan a meeting.  Completely humbled and overwhelmed, we are choosing to receive with joy this incredible gift and embrace the experiences, relationships and opportunities this gift has lavished on our girl.

Evie made her wish this weekend over tea and cupcakes on a rainy Sunday afternoon with sweet Miss Dana who took her time as Evie shared her Princess books and talked about her favorite restaurant; Chick-fil-A. :)

 She was so cute during the interview which asked her favorite movie...favorite color, etc.  She kept looking out for her big brother..."My favorite music is High School Musical, but Tristan no like it."  

She's been dreaming big getting ready for this day.  Daddy helped her print off some of her ideas and she's been sleeping with pictures of African Safari animals, hula dancers and pink playhouses under her pillow.  When it came time to make her wish, she took a deep breath.....

"I wish to go on a Disney c'wuse with a waterside and see da pwincesses". 

 (Ever since she saw a You Tube video of the Disney Aqua Duck, she was sold!)  

The facilitator asked her for a back-up wish (just in case) and she smiled and said, 

"A swimming pool wif a hot tub".

....so we'll see.... 

It could be some time before details come together, but we are already excited about this new community and precious relationships that are being forged in the MAW family.  What an amazing organization!

"When you wish upon a star your dreams come true"

Four years ago today, our wish was coming true....we were bringing our miracle girl home from the hospital after her life-saving surgery.  Every day since then has been an answer to prayer and we give the glory to the Lord for her life that has been sustained and the gift that she is each and every day. 

What an absolute joy and delight to now see her wishes and dreams coming true!