Chinese Moon Festival

Today in China many people celebrated the Moon Festival.  Lia had the wonderful opportunity to also celebrate a few of the same traditions with a few of her Chinese "sisters,"  Allie, Jaden and Amelia.  They had a great time making papers lanterns, watching Kai Lan's Moon Festival, eating traditional Chinese Moon Cakes and dressing up in their pretty dresses.

The countdown - ZERO days!

Sisters have the best hands to hold!

 Today is the day for which we have been counting down and we are now on ZERO days left - that is days left til she can really have fun again.  It was exactly six weeks ago today that our little Lia spent 9.5 hours in the operating room having her heart repaired through the Fontan surgery for tricuspid atresia, hypoplastic right heart syndrome.  This was her second surgery, with the first, the Glenn, done at 18 months old in China without a mommy or daddy by her side.  We are so glad we were able to love her through this surgery every step of the way.

This time the doctors had to get through quite a bit of scar tissue before even beginning her surgery.  She spent four days in PICU and nine days on the cardiac wing in recovery.  Her little heart was on the heart/lung bypass maching for 158 minutes and she lost a large amount of blood during surgery.

Today, though, only six weeks later,  she is so excited that she gets to swing and slide and ride her bike beginning tomorrow.  Everyday, for the past week we have counted down the days and today was ZERO!  YEA!  God is good and He is a miracle working God! 

Tonight, though, she really gave me a scare and I ask that you please pray that everything is ok.  I will be calling the doctor in the morning to hopefully get some answers.  This past Saturday night, Lia began crying with a terrible headache,  out of the blue while we were driving.  We got her some motrin and it went away pretty quickly.  I assumed it was just allergies since she seemed to be a little stuffy and was outside much of the day.  She has been fine since then until today.  This morning shc woke up at 4 am and just didn't feel well.  I gave her tylenol and she was fine all day.  She went to school and played all day without any problems.  Tonight, while bathing her, she began screaming with a terrible headache again.  I  called the hospital to ask if there was something that I needed to be aware of.  The nurse didn't know of anything, told me to give her motrin and to bring her in if it didn't stop within an hour.  I was prepared to head to the hospital tonight, but she fell asleep and is sleeping soundly now.  This is not anything that we were warned of and after all she has been through,  it breaks my heart to watch her holding her little head and crying in such pain.

Please join us in praying that everything is ok and she can enjoy really playing tomorrow and celebrating a wonderful recovery with many of the things she loves!

 

Just a few pictures I have taken the past week with my school camera, 

since my other is still out of commission.  I just love these, 

but didn't get to post them 

since I had misplaced my card reader.  

First Sunday back to Sunday School to play with her friend, Allie

In awe of the fireworks we saw on Saturday.

Mommy's sunglasses are better for this Eagle fan!

Need some advice

Can someone please tell me what happened to the alignment on my most recent post?  I can NOT figure out how to change the way it appeared.  I did not do anything different.  Thanks!

Refrigerator

If God had a refrigerator, your picture would be on
it. If He had a wallet, Your photo would be in it. He 
sends you flowers every spring and a sunrise every
morning.  Whenever you want to talk, He'll listen.
He could live anywhere in the universe, and He chose 
your heart. What about the Christmas gift He sent you 

in Bethlehem; not to mention that Friday at Calvary.

Face it, He's crazy about

 you!

What a joy it is to know that He is 

crazy about me! 

I watched the joy in Lia's face tonight  as I asked her if we could 

hang her picture on the refrigerator.  You see, I wonder how many times 

she has ever had someone think she was special enough to hang her artwork

 for all to see.  Can you imagine what it  would be like to live in a home with about 

90 other children all clamoring for attention? 

Unfortunately, many children will never experience the joy of pulling 

that new piece of scotch tape and taping that picture in just the perfect place, 

making certain that it had enough pieces of tape so it wouldn't fall.  

Just last week I was looking on the Love Without Boundaries 

 website at the picture of a precious little girl that was Lia's playmate 

just a few months ago. 

"Rochelle" is still sitting and waiting for a family, hoping that 

someday she too will get to put her picture somewhere special. 

Wondering if she will ever get adopted, because, you see, she has a 

special need.  As I looked intently at her picture, I noticed the sweet 

little girl in the background and the sad look upon her face. 

It only took a second for me to realize that sad little girl in the background

 is now the one that I kiss to sleep every night and tell her how beautiful her 

pictures are everyday.  How I wish I could have held her then and been there to

 comfort her, but God's timing is perfect and May 31, 2010 was the date He had 

planned for our lives to meet. 

What a difference it makes to know you are special!  Please join me 

in praying for little "Rochelle" and maybe even ask God if she could be 

your little girl. 

From the sounds of her profile, I bet she has some beautiful artwork

to decorate your refrigerator!

Tissue alert

I heard the song, "Temporary Home,"  this morning on my way to work and decided to watch the video tonight.  Since tears were already fresh on my eyes from my previous conversation with Lia,  I knew it would be even more of a tear jerker.  It seems that every night as I put her to bed she reveals just a little more of herself and the thoughts that are circulating through her head.   She talks non-stop until she falls asleep trying her hardest to tell us many different stories.  Tonight we had to discuss the fact that she has a FOREVER HOME and even if she acts "bad" she will always have our home.  She informed me that "bad girls go China" and "good girls go home."    Someday we will visit her homeland again, but for now I am so glad God allowed that to be her temporary home on her journey to our family.  Our lives are so much richer since God poured out His love through our  little brown eyed girl.   It broke my heart to wonder what she has been told in her few short years and how many other little boys and girls think that they don't have a mommy or daddy just because they aren't good enough.  My confidence comes from the fact that I know this is just our TEMPORARY HOME, and if we know Him we are just passing through on our way to our Forever home.

(Don't forget to scroll to the bottom of the page and turn off the music so you can listen to this beautiful song.)

 

First Day of School

Ready to go to school

Lia with her new Pre-K teacher, Mrs. Hinson

Today was the long awaited day!   It was finally here and Lia was ready to go to school.  She had her purple dress, new shoes, a princess backpack and best of all her big sister and daddy to take her to school.  I hated not being there for her excitement, but I got the next best thing.  She is surrounded by my dear friends who love her already and sent me messages throughout the morning.  I got a photo and a text proving how well she was doing and then when school was over David brought her to see me during my lunch so she could tell me all about it.  She got to play babies, cook(pretend), eat, color and play.  What more could a four year old ask for?  Not only did she get to experience school for the first time, she also got to experience her first football game cheering on the Eagles.  She was, however, rather disappointed when the Eagle mascot left and she didn't get to see it in time.  I have no doubt she will have many more opportunities, but not getting to see it tonight, was a little too heart breaking.  We just never know from day to day what may upset her, but we do know that she has plenty of people to love on her to help make it all better.

Having a great time with many new friends

Tomorrow is the BIG DAY....

but I can NOT wait until then to tell you all what happened today!  After a day that did not start off too well, it took a whole new turn and ended perfectly!  We had originally seen a cardiologist who was wonderful prior to Lia's surgery, but while she was in PICU another pediatric cardiologist came to visit us.  We chose to continue seeing this cardiologist for follow-up because he also spoke Mandarin and was able to really speak to Lia and comfort her.  We were told we would have to go to his other office that was much further for us so that we could be seen quickly and then we could go to his other office.  When we got there today, he wasn't even there due to a conflict in his schedule.  After much discussion with the nurse and dr. on call we were sent to his hospital office where he was today.  Dr. Sui had a wonderful converstaion with Lia in her native language, apologized profusely for the confusion and spent a great deal of time with us explaining every detail of Lia's health including the huge strides that medicine has come in the past few years.  The best part came after the technician finished the echocardiogram.  Dr. Sui gently closed the door, placed one hand on Lia, who was in her daddy's arms, the other on me and began to pray the MOST amazing prayer you can imagine.  He didn't just pray for her physical healing, but for her spiritual and emotional healing as well.  After his beautiful prayer was complete I told her she could ask him to answer the question she was longing to hear the answer to.  She asked if she could go to school and he said yes.  She is overjoyed!  Her eyes lit up and she wanted to tell everyone she spoke to that tomorrow she would get to go to school.  We went to lunch and of course celebrated with ice cream and then went shopping so she could pick out her new outfit for school.  It didn't take long for this girly, girl to decide that purple and pink are her favorite colors.  So tomorrow, she will celebrate her successful one month open heart surgery anniversary, with the gift she has been longing for  - SCHOOL!  To God be the glory!

Ezekiel 36:26 says, "I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit in you; I will remove from you your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh. And I will put my Spirit in you..."

This is exactly what He is doing in our little angel as she continually reminds us of His mighty power in her life both physically and spiritually.

We will never know what all Lia went through prior to May 31, 2010. However, there is one thing we know beyond the shadow of a doubt: we are here for her forever through the good times and the not so good as we all adjust to the many changes.

Thanks to the generosity of wonderful friends and family she is outfitted like a true Princess so even when she pouts she sure is cute!
Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

Perfect weather for a walk!

Sent on the Sprint® Now Network from my BlackBerry®

(Un)Adopted

 What does it mean to be (un)adopted?

To be (un)adopted means that I am lonely, even in an orphanage filled with children. To be (un)adopted means I have no future, even though I am pretty sure I will get out of bed tomorrow, next week, or next month. To be (un)adopted means I am left behind, as I see dozens of families coming to get the other children. Does my life matter to anyone?  (an excerpt taken from Lifelines website today. PLEASE click on the link and read the rest.) 

This very thought was made even more real to me today as Lia and I were driving and passed an apartment complex which obviously reminded her of her orphanage in China.  She pointed and excitedly said, "My friend!"  She was insistent that her friend was there.  She told me that her friend "went bye bye."  When I asked if she went with her mommy and daddy, thinking that maybe she had been adopted, she said, "No mommy daddy."  Tears stung my eyes as I saw the hurt in hers.  I felt so priveleged that God had given us the opportunity to give her a gift that countless children all over the world will never know. 

I don't know what she was thinking about her friend, but I do know that she knows exactly what it means to get to go home to a mommy and daddy and be loved with an unconditional love.  Something many of her other friends are still waiting for. 

Today, her physical heart is healing beautifully, thanks to the amazing work of Dr. Tam and his wonderful team. However,  it is moments such as these that show that her emotional heart is still grieving.

He is an amazingly brilliant AND loving doctor! Love this photo!

As she has gained more language recently, she has begun talking about her home in China. Her prayers bring a tear to my eyes most nights as she prays for her friends that don't have a mommy and daddy while we read, I Love You Like Crazy Cakes and talk about how we will always love her and never leave her.

A couple of blogs really caught my attention today that I hope you will take the opportunity to click on and read.  One was a post at Building the Blocks and one at Where Learning Flows.  Each of these blogs show such a heart for the orphans of the world and a desire to live out His commandments in James 1:27.  I know that we are not all called to adopt, but we are all called to pray and love and care.  Won't you pray for the least of these today?  After all, if you remember, you were also adopted:

...he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ,

in accordance with his pleasure and will—Ephesians 1:5

One last pose before my camera got broken.
This is what happens when sisters play!