Update on Dr. Visits

Yesterday Meigan had her follow-up with Dr. Stelnicki's office. Her lip is healing well, though the inside gap is a little wide. ( I wonder why?!!) Nothing to worry about at this point. The fun part will be massaging her lip 3x a day, 20 secs. for 6 months. This is to prevent build up of scar tissue and to help flatten out the area above her lip. Twenty seconds doesn't seem like a long time, but when you have your fingers in a 2 yr. old's mouth while she's squirming and refusing to open her mouth, well let's just say, it ain't easy! The alternative is steroid injections so we will just have to learn to endure it!
We go back in March to see how her lip is progressing and to discuss phase 3, the nose.
After that appt., we were off to the pediatrician to pick up a script for lab work that she needs to have done. Not looking forward to that either.
On a good note though, I'm trying to be more diligent with potty training. Yesterday she did pretty well. I keep hoping I won't have to buy any more diapers after this last pack. I'd settle for pull-ups. I've been taking her to the potty alot more hoping it will just click and she'll tell me when she needs to go. Could I be so lucky?

New pics and Pinewood Derby Races!

I was saving this picture to compare to pictures taken later. I don't like it, but it's amazing to see the transformation in only a week!
Here we are a week and 2 days (and 2 accidents) after surgery! Simply amazing!


Logan getting ready for his car to race!
Logan's is the red car on the left!


Yeah! We made it through the week with no more accidents! Meigan is doing well and it is so awesome to see how every morning her new little lip is healing more and shaping up! Anxious to see what her surgeon thinks on Tues.
Today we went to the Cub Scout Pinewood Derby races. Logan's car won 3 times, but not enough to win overall. We enjoy seeing all the cars race.

Not Again!

Just when things were going fine today. We've been careful to watch Meigan, feed her soft foods, do everything we're supposed to for her mouth. Tonight, her and Jenn are playing right in front of me, no less, and crawling around on the floor. Meigan crawled over one of Rocky's chew toys and somehow slipped and hit the floor face first! Up she comes, mouth full of blood again, and this time it really looked like the inside sutures had been split. Needless to say, I broke a cardinal rule and did not keep my composure in front of the kids. Meigan stopped crying because I think she was so surprised to see me cry. I'm holding a bloody towel to her lip, calling Scott who was at Cub Scouts, and my Mom to come watch the kids so we can go to the E.R.. So, off we go to the hospital. We had a very nice Chinese pediatrician who turned out to be friends with Meigan's plastic surgeon. He looked at the inside of Meigan's lip and said sutures are still holding because there would have been more of a gap between the 2 sides. I can't believe I'm saying this but, kudos to North Collier Hosp. who had us in and out in less than 1 hr.! Meigan was fine the whole time. She sang on the way to hospital, I was crying! I did ask the dr. if he could bubble wrap her head, but no luck.
Nine more days until the post-op visit. Heaven help us we make it with no more accidents! At this rate, her swollen lip will take forever to go down!

If I Make It Through the Next 10 Days!

I had my first freek out moment with Meigan this evening that makes me want to keep her in a bubble until her post-op visit on the 30th! I was in one room talking on the phone while the girls were playing out of my sight. All of a sudden I hear crying from Meigan and Jennifer screaming Mom! Needless to say, I get off the phone and met Meigan in the hallway with blood coming from her mouth and Jennifer had blood all over her shirt from comforting her. Jennifer said she ran into the door of the laundry room. All I know is I was in shear panic when I saw her lip bleeding like it was. I gently wiped off what I could to see if she busted open the stitches, but it was so hard to tell since the stitches go from the the bottom of her nose, down through the front of her lip to all the way back up on the inside. I was able to get the bleeding to stop and could tell it came from a spot just on the inside of her lip. More than likely hit by her tooth. Stitches still intact from what I can tell. I know it had to have hurt:( So, if I could keep her in a bubble for the next week, I would!
Ole' Bob the blender is out of the cupboard now and making his magic concoctions for Meigan's soft food diet. Even if her mouth hurts, she still eats, bless her heart.
Once the swelling goes down some I will post a pic or two of her new and improved lip!

We're Home!

Just a short post to let you all know we are back home. We got home tonight since we were not discharged until 5:00 pm. I would vent about that but I'm so tired after a virtually sleepless night in the hospital.
Thank you everyone for your prayers and kind words:) We truly appreciate it!
Meigan is sleeping soundly after a dose of Tylenol 3. Tempting to not take some myself! She really has been a brave little girl going through all this again. Not even a fuss about sleeping with the no-nos.
Looking forward to sleeping without machines beeping tonight!
Night-Night!

Meigan's Surgery

Well, Meigan made it through her surgery alright. They didn't even take her in for surgery until almost 3:00. So, that made a long day for Meigan without eating or drinking anything. She did alright, though, since we weren't around anyone eating or drinking.

We hope to get to come home today. It's so hard to get any rest in the hospital, especially when you're sharing a room. The hard part now will be to keep Meigan from picking at her stitches. She will have to wear her no-no's again for awhile. Her lip is swollen from the surgery, too, so that is bothering her and she keeps wanting to bite on it. Hopefully, in a few days, things will be better and everything will start to get back to normal.

Headed for Hollywood (again)!

Tomorrow afternoon, Scott, Meigan and I will head over to the east coast to have Meigan's lip revision surgery on Thursday morning. I really don't know what is worse, knowing what to expect or not knowing. I now know what I'm up against and it won't be pretty. Liquid diets, me or Scott hand feeding her, arm restraints for 2 + weeks, probably increase in tantrums as well.
Please keep us in your prayers for speedy healing and lots of patience!
My mom will have Logan and Jennifer here so she will be posting how everything is going. We hope to be home Sat. after 2 days in PICU.

Chinese New Year Party

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I really thought I took more pictures than this but this is it! We had a great time at our Agency's Chinese New Year Party. We enjoyed visiting with our Chinese adoption friends, Tracy, and Alison and cutie pie, Mali.We also saw some new faces this year and was surprised to see a couple with their new baby who was in our travel group! They live on the east coast. We hope to see them next week when we are over there for Meigan's surgery.
We ate lots of delicious chinese food, the kids played in the bounce house and slide and we stayed till they kicked us out:)

Jennifer Loses Her First Tooth!

I'm so behind with posting, but I've been meaning to announce this for the last 2 weeks! On Dec. 26th, Jennifer lost her first tooth! Now 3 weeks later, she is about to lose her second one and is anxious for the tooth fairy to make a return visit! With inflation, she's paying pretty well these days!

Kindness of Strangers

I meant to post this the night it happened, but here goes:

It all started with the gift card to Longhorn's Steakhouse that Shruti sent us for Christmas. Scott and I rarely go out to eat, other than fast food on occasion, and since we were down 2 kids we thought we'd go to Longhorn's last Saturday. We sit down in the entryway till our table is ready. While we are waiting, another couple comes in with a small child and sits to wait by us. The mother immediately asks about Meigan and I tell her we adopted her from China 3 months ago etc.. She tells me her and her husband would love to adopt, she's putting it in God's hands when the time is right and where from. We continue to converse until our table is ready.
They ended up right behind us, in fact. Meigan would flash them that sweet smile in between bites. They finished ahead of us and came over to our table to say goodbye and the mother slipped a piece of paper in my hand just saying God bless you and your family and then they left. I opened up the paper and it was a check for $100.00! Scott, the waiter, and I were all floored! Shruti, you sent a couple of angels with that card:) Our deepest thanks goes to that couple for their kindness and generousity.

Happy New Year to Everyone! Here's hoping 2007 is a year of good health, happiness and lots of referrals for my waiting friends!