Now & Then-Two Months Later

Home 2 months!
Home 1 month!

Gotcha Day in China

Maverys Appointment is Scheduled

So if I don't get REAL hair, I will make my own.
What are you looking at, you are the one WITH hair!

Ah yes, long hair feels so lovely!

I spoke with St Louis Childrens Hospital today and we have Maverys heart catheterization scheduled. It will be on Monday January 5th. We are to arrive at 7am and the procedure will begin at 8:30. I was told to prepare to be there for an overnight stay. Ugh. We will spend the day there on the 2nd for pre testing. More xrays, ultrasounds, etc. They said it will take awhile because they do not have good records of her previous surgery.

The good thing, we get a chinese translator. I am not sure how helpful it will be, but we, and the hospital, think it can not hurt to try. It is a service they provide there, so they suggested we use it. To bad they don't offer free parents spa services once they take your children away from you, I most certainly would take advantage of that! Or could they just drug me when they drug Mavery and wake me up with her? That would work to.

I am honestly at a loss for words today. I know, shocking. I just don't like the words overnight stay. It is supposed to be no big deal. No big deal is going in early and being home by lunchtime. Sigh...

Hair-larious!

The hair is coming in slowly but surely. Not fast enough for Mavery that is for sure. She still brings me bows every day and I try to get them in there. It is going to be THICK there is no doubt, thicker than most of the girls in this house. Not the boy though, he has some hair. So tonight after bath we had fun playing with it. She thought it was hilarious, and was running around to all her siblings pointing at it and cracking up! Hopefully I did not start something because I really do not care for this look in my Christmas photos! hehe!

The adorable stocking is from my friend Kathy, isn't it great? She sent it to Mavery along with some other things and I just love it! My print that is for sure and I LOVE anything monogrammed. I am thinking I need to have them made for all the kids, each with a different animal print. I think a monkey print for a certain someone! So fun, thanks Kathy. Mavery thinks it is pretty cool to and when she realizes what happens inside of it this month, I know she will be even more excited than she is with it for a sock!

I prayed for this Child

and the Lordhas granted

what I asked of Him....

So now we give her

back to the Lord

All of her days, we will give her to the Lord..

1 Samuel 1 :27-28

Thank you for all your prayers and sweet notes about Mavery. They have done MY heart good. I feel better about it all, and know that God is holding her in the palm of His hand. He created Mavery AND her heart, He breathed her first heartbeat into her. The fact that we even have her here with us is a miracle. I rest in that, she is here, she is mine and she is going to be fine, this is not a big deal. No word on dates yet, I am actually hoping we can wait till after the holidays now.

My oh so talented brother in law once again worked his magic and did these amazing photos. I asked him to make me some Christmas & Adoption cards, he is very creative. I have lots more to post, will add those to our family blog soon.

Maverys Heart

We did not get the news we had expected today at Maverys first appointment with the heart doctor. She is ok, she will be ok, just not what we expected.

Everything was fine when we got there. She let the nurse listen to her heart and then the doctor was able to listen. He explained to us exactly what Tetralogy of Fallot is, and he told us what could happen with leaky valves etc.. He said he thought it sounded very good and so we were encouraged before we even had the tests done.

We went to a room to have the echocardiogram done (ultrasound of the heart) and Mavery did great. They had her sitting on me which I think helped a ton. Mark fed her snacks, the lady gave her bubbles, and she was fine till almost the end. Which should have been an indicator. The doctor told us 10 minutes. 20 minutes later she said she would quit but he might want more pictures. After the echo they did an EKG. Which did involve a little bit of pinning her down while they stuck stickers all over her little body, but at least it was very quick. The doctor came in and said he wanted us to come back to the room to explain things. Hmmm..

So we went back to our room and he starts talking and Mavery decided she has to potty which means she automatically pulls her pants down in the middle of the room so you are forced to take her even though you know she is just bored and does not need to go. He kept talking and when I came in the room I could tell by Marks face it was not just a "yep, it sounds great" report. Dr Goel started explaining to me that there are 2 things wrong. Which immediately made my heart drop. And he is so sweet and must have realized that those words did not go well with me because he immediately said "she is going to be fine, everything is going to be ok, you do not need to worry about this." He went on to explain what is wrong and bear with me as I try to explain this, because if you can remember, I am NOT into some details and while I tried intently to listen and understand, I was having a hard time getting past the 2 things wrong part still.

If you would like to know what exactly Tetralogy of Fallot is, click here. I thought this site had a good explanation. He said her repair was good, and that sometimes even with a good repair there are things wrong afterwards. But he said that typically this would have been caught right away with follow up. So we assume she did not receive follow up after her surgery. What he told us is that her left pulmonary artery is narrow. Typically this would be widened in surgery for the blood flow. Sometimes the doctors leave it in hopes that it will enlarge on its own. We of course have no idea why they did it or what their thinking was. But it now needs to be enlarged because it is putting pressure on the heart and could keep the lung on that side from developing correctly as she grows. He is 90% sure that the stress is caused from the pulmonary artery being to narrow. The other 10% chance is that there is an obstruction between the pulmonary artery and the right ventricle from the TOF repair. He will not be able to know this unless we do a Heart Catheritization to enlarge the ventricle. If the Heart Cath works, then we know it was just that the artery needed enlarged and we are done. If it does not work, then we will have to talk about heart surgery to remove the obstruction. We did not talk details about a surgery, he was not letting me go down that road yet and he said he feels pretty sure that we will not have to worry about it. We talked about the heart cath a little bit and I think it will be done with in the next month. He will consult with a team of doctors and then we will set a date. He also said they will do some lung test to check her levels before and after but he lost me there. He said the heart cath will be one day, she will be sedated, and it will be done at Childrens Hospital.

As for the bump, he said that is purely cosmetic as we assumed. He said that when they close up the chest, if the bones are not put together well, they will do that. Sometimes it will get worse, sometimes it will get better as they grow. There is nothing to be done till she is done growing(because her bones must be done growing), then she can make a decision if she wants it fixed. If she would need surgery now, they would fix it then.

This was our first time to meet this doctor. We were given his name from our friends who also adopted a daughter with TOF. He really was wonderful, took so much time explaining things. Told me NOT to go home and get on the Internet, if I was worried or confused to just call him and he would talk to me and explain things. We were both impressed with him. He was calming, which we needed. He told us how beautiful and smart Mavery was, which was very sweet. He said "I can see she is very smart, very good brain. That is good, I can't fix her brain, but I will fix her heart!". He told us she is healthy and to treat her like any child, no restrictions, nothing to worry about. He said we would not see any symptoms for these problems she has, till she is about 10, then we would see her winded and tired because of the affect on her lungs.

So, all that technical stuff aside... To say we were shocked is an understatement. You know we expected to walk in there and hear she is fine and be on our way. Neither of us ever expected any different. Which is silly I suppose. And I think that is the thing with heart babies. From the outside, you would never know anything is wrong with them. So my emotions have been all over the place today. The thought of putting her under scares me to death. The fear of something going wrong during the procedure. The what if's, whys.... But I am trying not to dwell on any of those. I am trying to rest in the verse in Psalms, 147:3 HE HEALS the broken hearted. I know that Mavery is going to be fine. I really trust that God is going to take care of her. We know that this procedure is very common and even if it came to heart surgery, she will be ok. It is just the mommy part of me that knows she has already been through enough in her 3 little years. I want to protect her, I want to keep her tears away. I do not want her to have to go through any of this. And yet then I think, at least this way I can hold her and comfort her. Who would have done that in China? As he talked about her heart today and I pictured that first surgery, my heart broke all over again. Who cared for her after that? Did a nanny that she knew stay with her, or was she sent alone to the hospital. It is to hard for me to visit those thoughts. So in many ways I am thankful that this problem was found now I suppose. Still hard though.

We ask for your prayers as we prepare for the heart cath. Our prayer of course is that this will fix it and we will not have to think of surgery at all. I will let you know when it is scheduled. Thank you for thinking of us.

Maverys Heart Appointment

On Tuesday at 11:00 Mavery will visit the heart doctor for the first time. I expect that we will get a good report, but I do appreciate your prayers. I am concerned for her going through the tests as I know it will be hard since I am not able to explain things to her that they will be doing. I have been warned that they will expect her to lay still or she might need to be sedated which worries me. Thanks for thinking of us and I will update after it is over. Working on the birthday party post and Thanksgiving pictures on our family blog!

**Adorable shirt made by my sweet friend Robin at Red Thread Stitches. Isn't that fun? I just love it. Click here to see her stuff! And Renee, do you recognize the bow in her hair? Yes, it is Lilys that you left here, had to throw it in after she lost the first bow that day! I promise to get it back to you! ;0)

Thankful for Mavery

Sage was standing in the spot Mavery wanted to stand in. She knows how to throw a good temper tantrum that is for sure. Little does she know, I have made it through 4 other kids tantrums and I can ignore them for long periods of time with out batting an eye. She HATES it if I ignore her! ;0)

She enjoyed ice cream at Sage's birthday dinner! Thank goodness for bleach!

I walked into my bathroom one day to find her and Sage "playing" makeup. Look closely.
See her "pretty" makeup. Mavery and Sage are having LOTS of fun together now!

We started pulling out the Christmas Decorations and we showed her Santa and said HoHoHo and she ran up to him laughing saying HoHo over and over so I have a feeling she "knew" of Santa. Think we will get her on his lap?

Life is good here. Mavery is changing every day and my heart just smiles with how quickly she has blossomed since coming home. Sometimes I feel like she has just been here forever and when I tell someone she has just been home a month, I pause to do the math to make sure that is correct!

We had a Thanksgiving dinner at our church recently and Mavery LOVED her first taste of turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy! We know she will enjoy turkey day.

We went for haircuts last night. ALL of us, fun times. As soon as we got in and a lady was sitting in the chair getting a cut Mavery grabbed her own hair and started screaming & crying NO!!! It was funny and sad all at the same time. I KNOW she wants hair so badly and I hate that they shaved her head because it obviously was not a good time for her. It is growing & it is thick so I know it is going to be beautiful once it is grown out. By the end of the evening when we had ALL had our hair cut, she was calmer, so hopefully when we do have to trim hers, she will be more comfortable.

The sweetest thing EVER is that now she goes to bed so easy even for me. When I lay her down she lays on her back and sticks her hands behind her bed ( I have to get a picture) and puckers up her lips for a kiss. Then as I walk out she blows kisses and screams over and over, LUV U!

Tonight we had a Thanksgiving Eve dinner (more on my family blog) and we all went around the table to pray and say thanks and when it came to her she yells out THANK YOU and then Mark walks her through the prayer and I thought I was going to lose it. To hear her little voice, repeating her father, as they prayed to our Father, oh my heart...

I am thankful this year that Mavery is home, in our arms, at our table, forever. Last Thanksgiving was hard. VERY hard. I had seen her, I felt she was mine, but she was not. Mark and I were not in a happy place trying to figure things out. I was consumed with thoughts of her and so many unanswered questions. But now here she is, our family feels so complete right now and I am so excited to see the holidays through her eyes!