ALL BETTER NOW!

Elizabeth is all better now ~swelling is gone, pain is gone and she's back to normal.

Praise God!

but things did get worse before they got better.

Thursday evening she was the most swollen ~she just kept crying "my cheek hurts mama. my cheek really hurts!".
Then she brought me the thermometer ~sure enough, she was running a fever too.

We put her to bed with medicine and I got up in the middle of the night to give her more meds.

my poor baby Thursday night.


THANK GOD Friday morning we woke up and Elizabeth bounced into our room.
John and I both noticed her cheek didn't seem as swollen.
She declared "I feel good today ~I don't hurt".


I still gave her pain meds throughout the day, but instead of every 4 hours, I stretched it to 6 hours or so.

this was taken on Sunday -she was completely off pain meds by Sunday!
she was still a bit swollen and still having some trouble eating regular food ~but we were definitely encouraged by her progress.

and this morning -totally back to normal!


now we wait for the bone to grow into the space vacated by the tooth (3-5months) and then we get prepared for a very difficult surgery ~jaw distraction.

A quick synopsis of "jaw distraction" ~metal plates will be placed into her jaw with a type of screwing device. We will have to turn the screw 2 times/day for about 30 days -slowly breaking her jaw. Then we wait for the bone to re-grow ~about 2 months...then the plates are removed and we wait for Elizabeth to fully heal from this set of surgeries.

THEN -on to outer ear reconstruction.

LOTS OF SWELLING & PAIN MANAGEMENT

partly to document and partly to answer questions we're getting, I wanted to post a few pics of Elizabeth from today. she slept through the night (praise God!!)

but.....she woke up really swollen.

and in pain. the doc had said to give pain meds as needed, but I've decided to give her a low dose of the Rx pain meds every 4 hours (as the bottle says) ~she doesn't seem to recognize the pain as pain until it's really bad. We'd rather keep the pain to a minimum so she isn't hating life!

here she is this morning ~you can tell the left jaw and cheek area is swollen, though it's actually making her face look more symmetrical now.

here she is about 30 minutes ago (3:30pm). The swelling is about the same, if not worse.

poor baby. we're keeping ice on it as much as we can.....it's just not helping!

she's up playing W*ii ~so at least she's feeling better. :)

SURGERY DAY IN PICTURES

I had every intention to get these posted last night ~or to at least update and let everyone know Elizabeth was home and doing well ~but time slipped away from me so I'm doing it this morning. :)

getting ready to head into the hospital

all decked out in our hospital pj's!

we had about 75 minutes to kill between checking in and the surgery starting, so the nurses brought Elizabeth a little sticker craft to do......she also got to decorate her "sleepy mask" with stickers AND pick out a flavor to have swabbed on the inside of the mask. Apparently the sleep medicine doesn't smell good, so they let the kids pick out a flavor so they smell the flavor they picked out over the stinky sleepy gas!

kids get to choose to go back to the ER in a car or a wagon. Miss Elizabeth chose the wagon. When it arrived at our door she just hopped right in ~all smiles!

there she goes!

the hospital has a new system -every surgery patient is given a number -with that number, the nurses can update a screen that alllows waiting family to see where the patient is. This screen is telling us Elizabeth is in the OR

Here she is in PACU -recovery. By the time we saw this, the doc had already come out to let us know she had done wonderfully and he was able to get the whole tooth quickly.

our first glimpse- she's trying to hard to smile but she was dopey from the anesthesia AND they had locally numbed the left side of her face too. :)

ready to go!

at home

she's holding the ice bag up to her face with one hand and has the timer in the other.

She doesn't like having ice on her face!

She did pretty well yesterday. We had to give her pain meds a few times, but that is to be expected.

She camped on the couch for most of the afternoon, but by evening time she was up walking around and playing on the computer.

She was tolerating soft foods well -which is a huge blessing. She went to bed a little swollen ~but woke up this morning alot swollen and in pain. :(

We're going to lay low again today, keep ice on her cheek/jaw, and hope to keep her pain under control. Thank you so much to everyone who's been praying for her.

She has at least 6 more surgeries to go ~so we're hoping for a quick recovery on this one!

SURGERY DAY

It's just after 6am and all the kids are still asleep....in just a few minutes I'll go wake everyone up. Elizabeth cannot have anything to eat or drink this morning, so all the kids will just put their clothes on, make their beds and then we head to grandma and grandpa's. The 3 oldest will just eat breakfast there to make it easier on Elizabeth. :) On Saturday, Elizabeth, Becca, and I took a little pre-surgery class and tour. They had a little video explaining the general process of surgery so a kid could understand, showed them what the IV will look like, what the anesthesia mask will look and feel like, etc etc. This hospital has really gone the extra mile in making this as good an experience as possible. The kids get to pick out what flavor they want their "sleepy medicine" to smell like, what mode of transportation they will use to get back to the OR (wagon, little car, or just walk), they get to choose 1 toy (or blankie) to have with them in the OR, etc etc. Since Elizabeth will be on a soft food diet for at least a day, we already ran to the store to get go-gurts, pudding, and jell-o! She went to bed last night declaring "tomorrow is my special day!" I hope she's in as cheerful a spirit in about 5 hours! :) off to wake up 4 sleeping kiddos and get our day underway.

LOTS OF UPDATES

I've just spent 1/2 my Saturday uploading pics and updating the blog. :)

It was LONG overdue and since we finally have a cold blustery winter day down here in the desert, I figured today was a good day for it!

Please scroll down as there are 4 or 5 new posts!


~and ~
I've had a few questions left in the comments (or on my Facebook :) ).

We do not know exactly when Elizabeth's surgeries will begin. We already have a pre-surgical consult with an oral surgeon to extract her molar....but our insurance doesn't cover this specific surgeon. SO, the cranio-facial surgeon's office is trying to find someone else, within our insurance, to do the surgery.

We are hoping her tooth extraction can happen in the next month, as it will take 3-5 months for the bone to grow into the space left by the tooth. Once the bone growth is confirmed, we can schedule her jaw surgery. We are hoping and praying her jaw surgery can happen in September, so that we can get the apparatus completely removed by Christmas!


Also-I was asked how Elizabeth's attachment was going, especially now that Biruk has been home nearly a year.

Thanks for asking. I should probably do a whole post about this....but in short, she is doing really well. There are still (and probably always will be) certain things that trigger her insecurities and she/we has really rough days. But God has given us the grace and strength to get thru those days, not to mention tools via our counselor to help guide Elizabeth back to feeling secure and loved.

We were quite fearful of how adopting Biruk would affect Elizabeth. She did struggle quite a bit right at first, but we think his addition to the family has actually served to help Elizabeth heal. She saw another child come into the family...and lo and behold...she was STILL loved...STILL here....nothing changed. We have seen huge improvements in her in the last year. We can't help but think that the security that came from her place in our family remaining constant even with Biruk's addition served as a catalyst for her marked improvement.

ELIZABETH'S UPCOMING SURGERIES

Yesterday Elizabeth, John and I went to her annual "team of doctors" meeting. We are BEYOND BLESSED to live close to a world renowned neurological institute that "just happens" to have a top notch craniofacial department. We saw Elizabeth's craniofacial surgeon in January just for a check up and she wanted us to see the team one more time before she proceeded with scheduling the sugery.

See -when we accepted Elizabeth's referral, we knew that she would need ear reconstruction and were prepared for hearing loss, etc. The minute they handed Elizabeth to us in China, we realized we were in for much more.....her face is assymetrical and her lower jaw isn't in the correct position.

Technically, Elizabeth is diagnosed with Goldenhar's Syndrome...and with that usually comes all sorts of problems ~kidney and heart for sure. We've seen countless specialists and have had numerous ultrasounds -there is NOTHING wrong with Elizabeth! She has astounded the specialists ~they can't believe NOTHING associated with this syndrome occurred to Elizabeth. All glory to God on that!

Well, we got more great news yesterday at our team meeting. Because her surgeon felt we were nearing the time Elizabeth's jaw would be ready for surgery, they wanted a baseline x-ray. The docs were excited as they showed us the x-ray -Elizabeth has 2 working jaw joints.

We didn't even know that might be a problem! :) They were excited that they woudn't have to reconstruct her left jaw joint -apparently it is VERY common with Elizabeth's condition to NOT have a proper joint. PRAISE GOD she has 1 and it looks good!!

We left our meeting with a 'roadmap' for the rest of this year. First up is a tooth extraction -Elizabeth's 2nd molar is sitting in the exact place the surgeon needs to place the jaw distractor (metal "spacer" placed in the jaw bone with a "key" sticking out thru the skin for me to turn twice a day -slowly breaking the bone-tell me that's not going to be super fun!).

Once the tooth is removed, we wait for bone to grow in the space left by the tooth ~3-5months. Then we call the team's orthodontist who will place teeny buttons/hooks on Elizabeth's teeth...these will serve as anchors for rubber bands that will help align the jaws once the distractor is in place. Think -teenager with braces...only she won't have the braces -just the rubber bands. :)

About a month after the buttons have been placed on her teeth, Elizabeth will have the jaw distractor placed in her jaw. We will probably have to turn it for 1 month...but the metal has to stay in her jaw for another 2 months as the bone regrows.

On one hand, I HATE that my baby has to go thru this surgery...but I know it's necessary....and they have to do this before they can do her ear reconstruction (because it will change her facial structure). I'm also SO very thankful that, by the time Elizabeth has the actual jaw distraction surgery, she will have been home nearly 4 years. God is SO good. With her RAD and PTSD, immediate surgeries could have been horrible for her emotional healing. God knew we would need that time to bond. :)

So today I will call and schedule the tooth extraction...the sooner I do that, the sooner she can heal and we can gear up for the main surgery ~we're aiming for that to happen in the Fall. I want that distractor out before Christmas!

HAPPY 5TH BIRTHDAY ELIZABETH!

it's hard to believe my BABY is 5.

where has the time gone?!

she is growing up to be such a neat little girl ~smart, funny, athletic, caring...I could go on and on. :)

my niece, Janae, wrote a precious poem for Elizabeth's birthday and I wanted to share it here (as well as print it off and frame it!)



Dear Ellie,

Yesterday you seemed 16, though you were but 4;
And today you are 5, though you seem so much more.
When my aunt and my uncle, that’s your mom and dad,
Returned from China, all those with us were glad.
The day you arrived we all thought you were cute,
And now you are 5 and for the Buckeyes you root.
Ellie you’re friendly, you never are shy;
You’ve won our hearts over and there’s good reason why.
Ellie God loves you and by you He’ll stand,
He’ll guide you forever with His tender hand.
Ellie you’re sweet and make us laugh to death,
Happy birthday our darling Elizabeth!


Happy Birthday sweet baby girl.

We love more and more each day ~and we can't imagine life without you!

We love you!

NEW YEAR'S EVE 2010

The week in between Christmas and New Year's was crazy cold down here in the desert!

There was even a smidge of snow down in our major city...so our high country got dumped on!

We decided to head up to our high country (about 3 hours away) on New Year's Eve to play in the snow ~and let Biruk see "frozen" for the first time. :)

he kept seeing snow on the side of the road and kept repeating "I see frozen!"

we hit the same place last year ~it's an off ramp -must be a logging road or something when the weather is warmer. the road is shut off due to the massive amounts of snow so you can climb up the hills and sled down.

problem -roughly 3ft of powder meant kids (and adults) sinking in the snow and climbing became almost impossible!

I think Biruk likes "frozen"!

daddy attempted to forge a path up the hill ~but it was still so tough for the kids!

Elizabeth only lasted about 45 minutes ~the snow gear we had for her didn't fit perfectly and her feet got cold and wet ~so she opted to spend time in the heated Yuk*on.

Biruk followed closely behind....being cold was novel for the first hour ~but then he was ready to warm up!

Becca lasted the longest -her snow gear fit perfectly so she stayed warm and dry the whole time!
here she is eating the snow.

Biruk on one of his last runs down the little hill

by now everyone was in the car but John, Becca and I. :)

more snow eating ~you just gotta know Becca ~she's quirky. :)

look how blue that sky is behind me?! it was a gorgeous day ~but the high was 16 ~BRRRRR

just a cool pic of my handsome hubs

we headed into town for a warm lunch ~and noticed a ton of people across the street sledding on a hill on the local college campus.

before heading back home, we thought we'd at least give it a go and try the sledding here ~the snow was packed down so it was MUCH easier to get around.

we ended up sledding here for over an hour!

daddy and Andrew killed time with a snowball fight.

warm and snuggly and ready to head home!

and since it was New Year's Eve, after dinner we headed out into our cul-de-sac to be festive!

CHRISTMAS DAY 2010

first thing you do is tear into your stockings!

then we got to the presents under the tree. :)
Elizabeth got a baby doll set ~Becca owns most of the babies around here and although she shares, Miss E wanted another doll to call her own. :)

the girls received cross necklaces from John's mom

Biruk is really into Iron*man stuff, although to our knowledge, he's never seen the movie. :)
I was elated when I found him an Iron*man N*erf gun!!!!

a horse set ~she LOVES horses...and playing with them has seemed to be very therapeutic for her.

my boy and his St*ar W*ars addiction :)

Elizabeth picked out a cup/plate set for Becca at the dollar store.

Becca's big gift was a little mommy type baby set up ~bouncy seat, playpen, carrier...whatever a mommy needs, she now has for her babies!

Lucy dog!

do you see what's in between her paws?!
it's the only toy she has really ever played with.

wanna know what it is?
a doll head!

yep -several years ago John popped the head off one of Becca's dolls...somehow Lucy actually started playing with it...she gnaws on it, let's us throw it and play "ball" with it...it's a bit odd ~but hey, she enjoys her doll head. :)

After we finish opening presents at our house and having a bit of breakfast, we head over to my parents' where my sister's family is waiting for us.

then the real mayhem and craziness begins!!!

all the kids gathered 'round waiting for us adults to get cameras ready!

this is SO Joanna!

how adorable is this?!

this might possibly be one of my most favorite pics.

my nephew Joshua looks alot like Andrew and Becca when they were infants ~I think this is such a sweet pic of the 3 of them.

Elizabeth got a scooter from my parents!

Becca got a remote controlled puppy.

Biruk had really wanted a remote control car!

here are the kids opening up their "big" gift.
my parents and John and I are going in together to get the kids a trampoline!
YAY for 1 more way to help the kids get their wiggles out!!!!

after present opening it's outside for the Christmas Day football game!

John trying to intimidate Andrew. :)

once John and Javier (my bro-in-law) were tuckered out ~my dad took over the QB spot

and now as is tradition ~after lunch my sister's kids put on a play.

they practice for weeks. :)

I thought this pic was funny ~all 4 of us parents are manning cameras!

of course for Christmas, they re-enacted the Christmas story

if you can see in the above pic -baby Joshua in his Santa suit is playing baby Jesus....everyone is "worshipping" him. :)

the cousins enlisted our 4 kids as the sheep for the play

here shepherd Janae is trying to herd the sheep. :)

Becca trying to make her long hair into a beard like her cousins' did for the play

take a bow!