Day 100!

Hard to believe that one week ago today that Abby was having her heart surgery.  Amazing the recovery that she has made.

Even more hard to believe is that 100 days ago, Jennifer and I got to meet Abby for the 1st time.  What an amazing journey where God has continued to prove Himself faithful over and over again.

Is this the path that we would have chosen?  No.  Is it the path that Christ had for us?  Yes.  Again, we see Jeremiah 29:11 play itself out.

If you have a chance today, read Ephesians 1-2.  It is an amazing two chapters dealing with how God adopted us and we can have peace through Him (and Him alone).

God adopted us before the beginning of the world.  We did nothing to earn His love and yet He chose us.  It has been incredible to see how that has played itself out with our adoption of Abby.  She did nothing to earn our love yet we love her-through her hugs and kisses, screaming fits, poopy diapers, adjustment issues and when she cries out "mommy" in the middle of the night.  And think, this is just the 1st 100 days!

On top of that, Paul writes that we can have peace in Christ.  This adoption has been beyond difficult.  Without question, it is the hardest thing we have ever walked through as individuals and as a married couple.  Yet during its darkest moments, Jennifer and I could still find peace in Christ.

Thank you Lord for loving us, adopting us and giving us peace and a future in You!

We Are Home in Frisco!

Praise the Lord!  Abby was released from the hospital yesterday (for some reason we couldn't update our blog) which was a day early.  In a couple of weeks we take her in for a check up with her cardiologist.  She was sent home with one prescription to help with all of her fluids she received via an IV.  Can you believe that is it?

Hard to believe that 5 days ago she had her chest cracked open and her heart operated on.  It is amazing how fast a two year old heals.  It is also amazing the medical abilities to fix a hole in her heart.  Without the operation, it is doubtful Abby would have made it out of her teenage years.  Thank you Dr. Mendeloff at Medical City Dallas.

Again, to God be the glory!

Thank you for your faithful prayers, support and friendship.  Abby came into our lives nearly 100 days ago.  What a crazy and unexpected ride with crushing depths.  Jennifer and I are beyond ready to really start our family without the specter of heart surgery always lurking on the horizon.

We are out of isolation but still need to be careful the next couple of weeks while Abby is healing.  We are ready to return to church, our incredible Bible Fellowship class and in general, rejoin the human race!

Room Change (Again)

Our new room is 615D at Medical City.

Why?

I guess we just couldn't settle being in one room for very long.  Or could it be that the new room actually had a hospital comfortable reclining chair vs the couch with wooden slats running through the middle of it?

Even though we are trying to uphold Phil 4:11-13 by being content, the hospital comfy recliner won our hearts over.  We truly hope our next move is back to the casa on Stuttgart in Frisco.

"We're Movin' On Up"

Sometime today Abby will be promoted to the sixth floor.  In theory, we are supposed to be in 604D.  We shall see!

What this really means is that Abby has been released from PICU and is ready for a regular room.  We are waiting for the room to be cleared so we can move in today.  Hopefully we will be there for 48 hours at most.

Please keep praying for Abby, her healing, her adjustment and bonding to her parents.  Please pray for strength and patience for her parents.  We are all PAST ready to start building our family.

Continued Good News

Today has been another good day so far for Abby.  The hospital staff has already removed her chest tubes and nearly all of her IVs.  So she is progressing along according to schedule.

We are probably in PICU for another 24 hours before we will move to a regular children's room.  We then expect to be released on Monday.

Thank you for your prayers and concern.

Abby is Nicely Progressing and a New View

This morning has been a good morning for Abby.  A couple of tubes have been removed, she is allowed water and is having Cheerios again.  Hopefully she can have her favorite beverage later today-milk!

Also we have now moved rooms.  We are in room 558 in Building A at Medical City.  Same floor, same unit but a different view from the window.  We will most likely keep moving around as Abby continues to progress.

Thank you for the prayers!  They are working.

Room Update

Abby has been assigned to her PICU room here.  However, we are asking for no visits until Friday afternoon (see previous post on visitation and the PICU rules).  Abby's is in room 563 in Building A at Medical City.  She will most likely be there for the duration of her stay.

We continue to get great reports from the doctors and nurses.  She is responding well to the surgery and her medicines.  The doctors are even impressed that she seems to be pushing for the next step on the road to healing.

Please be in continued prayer for us.  Tomorrow, during the day, it is promised to be rugged.  Some of the tubes are to be removed, while still semi-drugged combined with limited movement.  For a 40 year old that is fluent in English-that sounds tough.  For a two year old that is new to the US, it promises to be very challenging.  However, not to challenging for the Lord!

Visitation

Several people have kindly offered to visit Abby while she is recovering in the hospital.  In advance, thanks!

We think, as of now, that we should be able to accept visitors after 12p on Friday.  We will most likely be here through Sunday and maybe as late as Monday.

She will be in Pediatric ICU (PICU) on the 5th Floor in Building D at Medical City Dallas.  We don't have a room number yet.  When we know more, we will pass it along.

With Abby being in PICU, there are a few rules for visitation.

• We can only have a couple of people in the room at a time.
• No one 12 and under (if you have a kid 12 or under, you can still visit but not bring your child into the room)
• No visitation between 6a-7a and then again from 6p-7p.

Again, thank you for the touching outpouring of love, support, kind words and most importantly the prayers.

Abby Out of Surgery!

Abby is now out of successful surgery and is recovering. They patched the primary hole which was in the lower part of her heart with a patch about the size of a quarter.  They were able to stitch together a small hole in the top chambers of her heart.  Jennifer and I should be able to see Abby about 12:30p.

We are so thankful for the rash of good news!

Thankfully the Surgery Has Begun

Jennifer and I are excited that Abby's surgery has begun.  The nurse has just updated us that things are going well.  We will post more when we know more.

Green Lights Given Today in Advance of Surgery Tomorrow

Thankfully the doctors are continuing to give Abby green lights for her heart surgery in the morning.  Jennifer and I continue to see this as more answered prayers.

It amazes us that the nurse can take blood from Abby and she just looks on as this is something interesting. I think I was feeling sympathy woozy for her!

The surgery is scheduled to begin in the morning (June 2) at 7:45a and be done by noon.  The doctors think she will be in Pediatric ICU (PICU) for several days and then a couple of days in a regular hospital room.  We are hopeful that we will be dismissed Sunday or Monday.

As the big day draws near, we continue to covet your prayers.  We also appreciate the many kind emails, calls and texts.  We expect the next several days to be crazy so we will continue to use this blog to communicate.

Again, thank you for your faithful prayers and encouraging words of support.