Alaina's next visit to the cardiologist will be in 3 years. Did you hear that? 3 years! She will be 10 years old!!! That is great news! The doctor could still hear the "slight swishing" from her repaired VSD.
She weighs 36 pounds and is 46 inches tall. Still have to get her in for her 7 year old well checkup.
Thursday, February 18, 2010
Sunday, February 14, 2010
Surgery and Snowballs
No, I'm not renaming the blog!
Lauren went to the ER on Friday night after coming home early with a stomach ache. She ended up having an appendectomy at CHOA yesterday afternoon. Thankfully, we are home now and she is recovering. She is sore and tired, but feeling a bit better! Doug took her to the ER (it was snowing quite a bit - we ended up with 4 inches) because I was a little hesitant to drive. We went to Gwinnett Med and the dr said he didn't want to operate on a 12 year old, so they sent them to CHOA up in Roswell. Since she already had an IV, they had to travel via ambulance! By the time they went to the other hospital, the roads had iced. Doug said he was pretty nervous as during the drive and that the ambulance was "fish-tailing" as they drove down the interstate! They finally got to a room around 3 AM. Her surgery wasn't until 1 PM on Sat. I made it to the hospital just a little after she went into surgery. Long story, Doug accidentally took my keys with him. So I was home with no keys, icy road, and his car at the first hospital! Thankfully, Randi and Joel came to the rescue and took the other girls so I could go to the hospital with Lauren!
The snow started falling Friday around 2 PM. We ended up with 4 inches! Sara took Alaina and Ally out to play on Firday afternoon. Then again on Sat AM. A and A stayed in the back yard for about 2 hours - playing with the buckets and shovels that are usually reserved for the beach! The trampoline was also great fun in the snow! The girls continued the fun in the snow at the Hills house. Randi said that there wasn't an inch of "untouched" snow in their yard! Lots of snow Mickeys and Minnies and aliens and a few snowmen!
Tonight we joined a few other families to celebrate Chinese New Year at Lins Bistro. We reinacted the red couch and it was just as comical as the real thing!!! Every single one of these little girls is a miracle and has her own special miraculous story!!!
A little more from Alaina...
She told us a little more about her China family. Her older brother was Guong Fon (he was 7) and her older sister was Yan Yen (she was 17 or 18). Her China Grandpa was Fom. She said she doesn't know what her China grandma's real name was because she never called her by her name. She said she was the only one in her family that was had the family name "Wu" and that everyone else in her house had the same last name but she doesn't know their name. If she is right, that likely means that her foster grandpa and grandma had 2 children. One time Alaina snuck into her big sister's room and got into her makeup, but she never found out! Neither did her China grandma!!! She said that her big sister, Yan Yen got mad at her because Alaina would chase her with a bug stick that she found on a plant. Her brother was sometimes a good boy - he got in trouble more than she did!
Lauren went to the ER on Friday night after coming home early with a stomach ache. She ended up having an appendectomy at CHOA yesterday afternoon. Thankfully, we are home now and she is recovering. She is sore and tired, but feeling a bit better! Doug took her to the ER (it was snowing quite a bit - we ended up with 4 inches) because I was a little hesitant to drive. We went to Gwinnett Med and the dr said he didn't want to operate on a 12 year old, so they sent them to CHOA up in Roswell. Since she already had an IV, they had to travel via ambulance! By the time they went to the other hospital, the roads had iced. Doug said he was pretty nervous as during the drive and that the ambulance was "fish-tailing" as they drove down the interstate! They finally got to a room around 3 AM. Her surgery wasn't until 1 PM on Sat. I made it to the hospital just a little after she went into surgery. Long story, Doug accidentally took my keys with him. So I was home with no keys, icy road, and his car at the first hospital! Thankfully, Randi and Joel came to the rescue and took the other girls so I could go to the hospital with Lauren!
The snow started falling Friday around 2 PM. We ended up with 4 inches! Sara took Alaina and Ally out to play on Firday afternoon. Then again on Sat AM. A and A stayed in the back yard for about 2 hours - playing with the buckets and shovels that are usually reserved for the beach! The trampoline was also great fun in the snow! The girls continued the fun in the snow at the Hills house. Randi said that there wasn't an inch of "untouched" snow in their yard! Lots of snow Mickeys and Minnies and aliens and a few snowmen!
Tonight we joined a few other families to celebrate Chinese New Year at Lins Bistro. We reinacted the red couch and it was just as comical as the real thing!!! Every single one of these little girls is a miracle and has her own special miraculous story!!!
A little more from Alaina...
She told us a little more about her China family. Her older brother was Guong Fon (he was 7) and her older sister was Yan Yen (she was 17 or 18). Her China Grandpa was Fom. She said she doesn't know what her China grandma's real name was because she never called her by her name. She said she was the only one in her family that was had the family name "Wu" and that everyone else in her house had the same last name but she doesn't know their name. If she is right, that likely means that her foster grandpa and grandma had 2 children. One time Alaina snuck into her big sister's room and got into her makeup, but she never found out! Neither did her China grandma!!! She said that her big sister, Yan Yen got mad at her because Alaina would chase her with a bug stick that she found on a plant. Her brother was sometimes a good boy - he got in trouble more than she did!
Friday, February 12, 2010
More from Alaina
An interesting advantage of adopting an "older" child is that she can remember many things from her previous "family". Luckily, in Alaina's case, those memories seem to be happy ones! Tonight, she came to me and told me that she didn't like her scar from her heart surgery. She asked me how long she would have it. I told her that she would always have her scar. She replied, "Even when I'm old lady?" (I was expecting that sentence to end with "like you, mommy?", but it didn't!) I said "Yes". She looked a little disappointed. I then told her that if she didn't have that scar that she may not have come to our family. She smiled and said, "So it's good that I have my scar?" Sure is!!!
Tonight as she and Ally were settling into bed, she said she remembers when she went to the hospital for her surgery (now she was talking about her hernia surgery). She said it hurt a lot, her tummy was fat (maybe swollen) and she cried all the time, so her China grandpa took her to the doctor. Her doctor was a "lady doctor and she liked me and sometimes gave me candy and I smiled."
So, before she was 6 year old, Alaina had heart surgery (14 months) and hernia surgery (no record of how old she was when she had this one). I'm just so glad that the one she does remember that she remembers her China Grandpa being with her. He is also the one who borrowed the neighbors car to take her to the hospital when she broke her arm climbing a "rock hill" (I think she is meaning gravel). We will likely never get to thank this family that took care of our "big girl" for almost 5 years. I'm sure that they must have loved her like their own. We are thankful for them. Thankful that they took such good care of our girl until we could come get her.
Many are amazed when I tell them she was almost 6 when we met her -- she is so well adjusted and is learning so quickly! She sat on the sofa tonight with one of her little books and looked at me with a huge toothless grin and said, "Mommy, I did it!" I looked over and said, "What?" She replied, "I read this book in my head without talking out loud!" Cute, huh?
Another little heart girl got her new family this week - a sweet friend of mine who, after waiting over 31 months, switched to the Special Needs Program! I'll let her blog "announce" it first!!! It has been amazing to be a little part of one more child and family finding each other!
Snow here in our little part of the South... Watching Vancouver Olympics!!!
Tonight as she and Ally were settling into bed, she said she remembers when she went to the hospital for her surgery (now she was talking about her hernia surgery). She said it hurt a lot, her tummy was fat (maybe swollen) and she cried all the time, so her China grandpa took her to the doctor. Her doctor was a "lady doctor and she liked me and sometimes gave me candy and I smiled."
So, before she was 6 year old, Alaina had heart surgery (14 months) and hernia surgery (no record of how old she was when she had this one). I'm just so glad that the one she does remember that she remembers her China Grandpa being with her. He is also the one who borrowed the neighbors car to take her to the hospital when she broke her arm climbing a "rock hill" (I think she is meaning gravel). We will likely never get to thank this family that took care of our "big girl" for almost 5 years. I'm sure that they must have loved her like their own. We are thankful for them. Thankful that they took such good care of our girl until we could come get her.
Many are amazed when I tell them she was almost 6 when we met her -- she is so well adjusted and is learning so quickly! She sat on the sofa tonight with one of her little books and looked at me with a huge toothless grin and said, "Mommy, I did it!" I looked over and said, "What?" She replied, "I read this book in my head without talking out loud!" Cute, huh?
Another little heart girl got her new family this week - a sweet friend of mine who, after waiting over 31 months, switched to the Special Needs Program! I'll let her blog "announce" it first!!! It has been amazing to be a little part of one more child and family finding each other!
Snow here in our little part of the South... Watching Vancouver Olympics!!!
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