Today's Post Is Brought to You By the Letter S

Surgery
Soccer
Schooling
Squirmy Seven-Month Olds
Scared Sons

What do these have in common? They are the cause of my current state of sleep deprivation...

My sister had her surgery to take out her LVAD early yesterday morning. From all reports, she is doing well and has already been able to get up and walk. This is such wonderful news. I am really looking forward to seeing her tonight. Last night, when I saw her she was still pretty groggy and sedated. It will be nice to see her with fewer tubes, not to mention without a heart pump. Thank you all for all the prayers you have offered on her behalf. I was able to see her before the surgery, but you know it is early when you try to stop at a coffee shop on the way to the hospital and they are all closed. It might be too late for coffee, but it should never, ever, be too early :)

Soccer season has also officially begun. This coincides with the reinstatement of Mom's taxi service. It also means early dinner preparations, no evening chores (my laundry is mounting), and poor dad is left with almost all bedtime duties.

School is also in full-swing here. I am getting better at managing little ones while keeping the older ones focused. It is a daily battle and some days are better than others, but the important thing is that progress is being made. Now, throwing in the housework is probably going to throw a wrench in the whole thing (have I mentioned how out of control the laundry is getting?).

My squirmy seven month old is getting teeth and becoming a real Mommy's boy. All this I could handle since he is about the cutest thing this side of the Mississippi. The trouble is he wants to nurse all-night-long. The new teeth make this especially uncomfortable for me.

As if one kid keeping me up half the night weren't enough, Joseph has decided to fill the other half of the night. He seems to be looking for reassurance someone will come if he calls. For the last two weeks, he has woken up somewhere in the wee hours of the morning and if we don't run quickly, he pulls Juju into the mix.

So please Letter S, bring me some sound sleeping soon :)

Miracles

You'll note from the time stamp on this post that I am up much too late. It has been a very emotional day for me. I started about this time yesterday and have only gotten minimal sleep so please bear with me if I ramble or don't make sense.

I spent the day with my sister and family as her surgery time got pushed back further and further. After she was finally taken to the pre-op room, I left to come home and tuck my little ones into bed. Shortly after that I got a phone call from my youngest sister. She told me they had decided not to do the transplant-- my heart fell. All that for nothing?

It turns out this was the very best news. They decided not to do the transplant because when they were able to get a good look at her heart doing what they call a TEE (an intense echo cardiogram) they found that her heart was functioning rather well. The doctors think that because the LVAD has been doing the work for the damaged heart, it has had time to heal itself. They now think there is a good chance that given a little more time her heart may heal enough that she would be able to have the LVAD removed. Essentially, they felt her heart was too healthy to transplant. There are no guarantees, but they felt that her chances of healing were pretty good. Praise be to God.

She was sedated, but no incisions were made. The last update I heard, they were waiting for her to wake up so they could share the good news. Thank you all for your prayers. We are so blessed.

I am also up late tonight because this is the best time to see little Joseph in action. They are 13 hours ahead of us so I have to be up at odd hours if I want to Skype and see the little guy awake. He is coming out of his shell today and seems to be more active and noisy. He especially likes a little truck his aunt DD sent him and laughs when he sees it. Unfortunately, dh has grown a little weary of the noises it makes. Apparently he hit the button non-stop for about 45 minutes yesterday as they were trying to make their way through the registrar's office. He also has followed Juju's footsteps and cries whenever dh is not in sight, even for the few minutes dh showers. I remember how trying those mornings were.

I will get to my Gotcha Day post, hopefully tomorrow, after some much needed sleep. I will try to post lots of pictures. Thank you again for all your prayers.

Gotcha Day and a New Heart

I was working on a post of pictures to show you of Gotcha Day. I appreciate all the prayers and well wishes. I spent quite sometime on Skype with dh, Joseph, and Banana. I couldn't bear to turn it off. I wish I were holding my little boy. Unfortunately, there was not enough time to finish the post. In the midst of editing pictures, I was interrupted.

The call came and my sister is going to have her heart transplant today. I am going to be with her at the hospital, so the Gotcha Day post will have to wait. Please pray for Missy, pray for my family, pray for the donor and family as well.

Whew, what a day!

The Morning After

Yesterday morning I thought I would be spending today looking at fancy new washing machines. Instead of sugar plums and fairies I had visions of 26 pairs of jeans or 32 towels per load. Alas, dh spent his day yesterday looking on the Internet for how to repair the machine. Darn that Internet. He actually found a You Tube video that demonstrated in detail how to pull the machine apart and fix the problem.

Less than $20 in parts and an hour or so worth of work and this morning I am back in business. My laundry pile is diminishing little load by little load. My handy husband saved us quite a bit of money. He also cleaned out the laundry room/closet while he was working, and since he had made such a mess, he mopped the floor. All while I went to coffee with a good friend. With all that, I'm okay with waiting for a new machine.

On a more serious note, please keep my family in your prayers. My sister had the last of her transplant tests yesterday and all went well. It seems that she will be moved to the top of the list next week and could be called in anytime thereafter for a transplant. Also, we learned this week that Joseph was moved from his wonderful foster home (1 caregiver for every 2 children) back to his orphanage (1 caregiver for every 15 children) sometime in November. The foster home is the only home he has really known. He was sent there because his orphanage was not equipped to handle his cleft palette and lip. While he has had the lip repaired, he still has a bilateral cleft palette and I am worried this will cause additional problems with an already difficult move. I am sure this transition is scary for a 20 month old little boy.

Wound Ever So Tightly

I was telling a dear friend the other day that I feel a little like a guitar string that just keeps getting tightened, and tightened, and tightened. I am wondering when I might just go plink and break in two. So far I am hanging in there, although I'm really hoping the tightening will subside soon.

Despite the rough start to my sister's last week, she ended on some good notes (pun intended). Her recovery from LVAD surgery has gone really well. She still has a long road, especially with a transplant looming. Right now we are all just so thankful this surgery has gone as well as it could.

Our first week of school could have gone better. My poor children had to deal with a mother who was dragged kicking and screaming from an all too short summer in which only a quarter of the "To-Do List" was finished. To add to that, this mom is riddled with anxiety about how she will pull off the second semester of school with two new little ones. Her response to the anxiety is to push, push, push for a really successful fall semester. If the first week is an indication, we are in some real trouble.

Not only is this mom suffering from these emotional woes, she is hormonal. Seventeen weeks pregnant hormonal. You know, the tired of looking so fat, constant headache, can't get comfortable, overtired, and still suffering from morning sickness hormonal. To add to those physical woes, she has an ear infection in her right ear that is now making its way to the left ear.

The guitar string continues to tighten...

On top of these, this silly mom was trying to be super-cool, fun mom and signed her two oldest girls up for fall soccer. Banana is at her first practice right now. Monday and Wednesday evenings now include scarfing down dinner (a dinner I am hard pressed to find time to cook) and heading off to practice. Bear's coach called tonight and her practices are on Tuesday and Thursday evenings. So now we get to scarf dinner (assuming I actually make dinner) every weeknight for the next eight weeks. What was I thinking?


I must have been thinking how cute these girls are in their soccer gear :)

From my Inbox This Morning

Congratulations! Your dossier has been delivered to the China Center of Adoption Affairs.

Now we wait... hopefully only a few more months.

In other news, Missy's surgery went well, but she is in for a long recovery. The next two to three days are especially important. Please keep those prayers coming.

We are on day 3 of our new school year. My expectation is just to survive this year, there is so much going on that I don't anticipate it will be one of our better years. So far days one and two reflect that. I already need some motivation-- even with my low expectations.

Missy

My sister has had a few really rough days. She was tentatively scheduled to have a Ventricular Assisted Device implanted later this week. However, this morning the doctors decided she needed the surgery today because of the rough days (and nights) she has had.

She is in surgery now. It is a long procedure-- open heart. Please pray for her.

Updates

Last week's busy-ness continues...

My sister's appointment did not go well. They found no improvement in her heart function. The plan was to give the medications 3-6 months and then evaluate where she was. Since there was no improvement, the doctor said it was time to make an appointment to be evaluated for a heart transplant. This was really hard news for my family as it means her condition is really not good.

Missy then had a bad spell late Friday night and was taken back to the hospital where they decided she should be transferred to another local hospital to have the transplant evaluation done ASAP. She is there this morning undergoing a barrage of tests. The thought is that she will be on the list very soon. All of this has happened so quickly and I know she is worried and any prayers would be appreciated.

My mom is home from the hospital, but still not feeling well. She has a significant fever and is still pretty tired. She hopes to hear from her doctors sometime this morning. I know it is also incredibly difficult for her to be unable to be with my sister right now.

I am throwing myself into my work (always been my coping strategy) and trying to finish the mounds and mounds of camping laundry, drying out the tent, and dealing with four over-tired and cranky girls. We enjoyed camping (well most of us enjoyed it, let's just say this isn't dh's idea of fun), and I hope to post pictures later this week. I haven't unearthed the camera from the mounds of gear to unpack.

I also hope to start school next week so this is my last week to prepare my house for the craziness to start up again. I am hoping for a productive week as we are no where near ready at this point. If that wasn't enough, we also have a few snags in our adoption paperwork to clear up. It is going to be another crazy week...

Almost forgot the good news. My appointment on Thursday went well. I had seen this little one's heart beat many times, but had yet to hear it. That wonderful sound... Thursday there was no difficulty finding it. I even felt a swift kick (at this stage a good bump) when the doctor first listened with the doppler.

Complications...

My sister has had too many of them lately. Please keep her in your prayers. This weekend they found a clot in her heart and this morning she was told she has had some tachycardia. She has been in the hospital almost a week and is tired, nauseous, and in some pain.

Another sister is having baby number 6 this week. He is currently breech and we are all hoping he will turn and she will avoid a c-section.

I did have a nice Mother's Day. Dh took me out for Chinese and Starbucks. I also got a good dose of Sudoku. The girls made nice cards for me and little Juliana even found my pencil and left me some artwork on the wall.

Weekend Outings

You will notice that there is a glaring absence from this post... There are no pictures, none, not a single picture. After a busy, fun-filled weekend, we didn't snap one, single picture.

On Friday we had a Homeschoolers For Life fundraiser at an indoor pool. My older girls had gone to a birthday party at this pool a year or so ago and have been begging to go back. The pool has fountains and a lazy river and fun water slides. It was Juliana's first time in a bathing suit. Before we left, I came into the house to get the camera. I walked out with my sunglasses, wallet, and an extra towel. I did not grab the camera.

It ended up not being such a bad thing that I forgot the camera. Juliana was terrified from the minute we walked into the pool. I have never seen her as afraid as she was. The look on her face was just panic. She cried, she threw up, then she just went into a quiet shock until she finally fell asleep on my shoulder. I don't know if it was the noise of the water and the kids, or the fact that she wasn't bundled, or just the complete change in surroundings, but she was scared. Her quietness and body language reminded me of how she acted in China. I realize even more now just how frightened she was at the time. I am amazed at how much she has changed since then. I am thankful for how well she is adjusting, I also know to be a little more prepared when heading into new situations.

Saturday, after Mass and a rosary at the abortion mill, we were able to go with my sister Melissa on her first outing in two weeks. We decided to head to the local science museum. My dad pushed her in her wheelchair part of the time, but she was also able to walk quite a bit. It was nice to be out with her doing normal things. Again, it would be nice to have a snapshot of her with all my girls but I didn't think to bring the camera... I really need to get better about that. Missy did really well in the museum, I think better than me. I had worn silly dress shoes because of Mass in the morning, and by the end of the day my feet were killing me.

Please continue to pray for her. The doctors have told her that they will consider it successful to get her heart pumping at 30%, which is still in heart failure. They want to double her medications, but cannot do so at the time because of her low blood pressure. She did not have a heart attack and there is no blockage, which means that they really don't know what has caused her heart to weaken.

I am resolving to be better about taking the camera with me. That doesn't mean it will happen, but I am going to try harder...