Peterson Ponderings: October 2012

Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Joy-Filled

After being home about three weeks, we scheduled Joy's heart catheterization for October 10. The sooner the better when it comes to heart issues, even though we knew the language barrier would make the whole experience just a bit scarier for her because we could not explain what was happening.

The hospital was so good to us. We let every single person know about Joy's newly adopted status and lack of English and they promptly accommodated us as much as possible. Once we got into her room, I stayed on the bed with her all the way into the cath lab and got to put the mask on her until she fell asleep. Of course I had to endure all the jokes about who they were going to operate on and I even got my own mask to show Joy that it wouldn't be scary!

We were rolled up to the waiting room of the cath lab on the 8th floor. What a view, huh? I'm pretty sure Joy took this picture because I wouldn't have thought to take such a cute picture of our feet AND the beautiful view out the window. Clever girl! She held it together until close to the end when the anesthesiologist was having us sign THE paper which you try not to read too closely. We swallowed hard, sent prayers straight up, and I made Bob sign. Yep, I did, and always do.

As soon as the procedure was over, we begged the anesthesiologist to let us into the PACU before Joy woke up so that she wouldn't be scared and get over anxious. (Last year, Joshua was screaming his head off by the time we got there). We were brought in the minute she arrived and in fact we were obviously in the nurse's way while they were getting her hooked up and adjusted in her little cubicle. We got a wonderful experienced nurse who figured out a way to get me back up on the bed before Joy woke up. Several hours later, she was looking more like herself and never freaked out at any point. It was the best that it could be.

What happened? Well, the good doctor was able to insert two lines to measure the pressures in her heart and at the same time put a temporary plug in the hole to kind of see what would happen. That went well and they proceeded to put this occluder permanently into her heart. Isn't that utterly amazing? It is wire mesh and we had to watch for some signs that blood was getting through but the doctor said the heart would eventually clot over it on both sides and grow tissue so that the blood flow would never see the device as it passed by. So far Joy has had no problems. The whole procedure from start to finish was about three hours.

After a few hours in recovery, we moved back to her regular room and she had to lie flat on her back for 5 hours. But you can bet as soon as we were allowed to get up, we did.

We toured the floor in the little red wagon. Funny girl. This is what you get when you give your kid the camera.

By nighttime, Joy was pooped. They decided to keep her on a low dose of oxygen to support her lungs and added a medication that we will be giving her every six hours to try to help her lungs heal from the unchecked pulmonary hypertension that has developed over the last six years due to her heart defect. She still has PH but the occluder has significantly reduced the pressure which we hope will slow or even stop the resulting lung damage. We are hopeful that this current therapy regimen may add decades of symptom free life for Joy and that seems so worth it!

Saturday morning we woke up to a beautiful day. Bob had gone back to the Ronald McDonald house for a good sleep while I pretty much stayed up all night trying to get Joy comfortable as she was coughing a lot.

Our cardiologist came and did an echo to make sure the device was going to stay put and gave us the ok to go home. Just like that!

Sort of. We had to wait quite awhile to get our instructions, 3 days of meds, and lots of information. Every time the resident or nurse brought something or discussed an issue, we all thought of more questions and off they would go to find the answers. Therefore, I found many a picture like this on my camera, a very useful tool for keeping a child busy while you wait.

We've been home a week now and are adjusting to the oxygen regime. It's a bit of a lifestyle change and we are slowly figuring it all out. We let the kids know that it would only be a big deal if we made it that way. They have been incredibly helpful and caring of their sister. Joy is the best trooper and carries on without discouragement as far as we can tell.

She truly is a joy to behold!

Monday, October 22, 2012

Pictures of the Week 8/19-25

Basking at the Beach

232 / 365

Enjoying the warmer water flowing into the frigid ocean.

Last Day of Eight

233 / 365

Tomorrow we get to celebrate his first birthday in America!

Birthday Boy

234 / 365

He celebrated nine with an angel food cake!

Ukulele Croon

235 / 365

Grandpa spearheaded a sing a long with his ukulele.

Brings back fond memories of my childhood.

On Top of the Horse

236 / 365

My littlest man looks like a jockey in the making.

Cell Project

237 / 365

We call it pantry school.

Raid the closet for whatever you can find to make a model of a cell.

Nine is Fine

238 / 365

Must take photo when all children are in the same state.

In the parking lot of Chinese food!

Sunday, October 21, 2012

More Joy

Guess who had a birthday? Poor Joshua has to wait a whole year and 10 birthdays before he got to celebrate. Joy, on the other hand, was first up after she got home. Although it was super fun to plan a night to make her feel special, I was a little sad because she didn't really understand what was happening or what all the fuss was about.

Because Joy wasn't up to picking out her own cake this year, we used the power of go*gle to inspire some creativity. We landed at the zoo and had a ball making these cupcakes.

Oh happy day. She sure enjoyed the attention. When she gets overwhelmed, Joy tends to get super silly and crazy loud. She is our par-tee girl!

Our prototypes included a giraffe, an elephant, a tiger, and a monkey.

There were two of us creating and after getting over the initial hump, we branched out and I don't think there were two of anything exactly the same. The giraffes stretched with pretzel necks and horns.

The monkeys had vanilla wafers, peanut ears, and jelly bean eyes.

The tigers roared with marshmallow noses and almond ears.

My personal favorite was the elephant boasting a licorice trunk.

Not exactly sure...

You want me to do what?

Oh honey, don't cry. Trust me, this is a good thing!

Leftover cupcakes and frosting resulted in fantastic designs.

My partner and the resulting mess we made!

The three wisemen combed their rooms for odds and ends and wrapped their little hearts out trying to make their new sister's birthday as special as possible.

Didn't take Miss Joy long to figure our how to unwrap and enjoy.

Now, we work on "Thank you!"

Dear Joy, Your birth-day will never go unacknowledged, ever again!

I hope your day was special because you certainly are!

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Joy, Joy, Joy

This is when you know...

it's meant to be!

We enjoyed another fair! The balloon guy didn't want to give her one because he thought she was under three. Mama Bear made sure she got her balloon!

There has been way too much of this! Several times, her veins blew out resulting in more than one stick.

One very brave girl!

I usually bring one big kid with me to all the doctor's appointments. It has given them time to feel special and get to know Joy better. Nothing like a few hours in the car to get a sense of someone's personality!

If Joy, doesn't know where I am, a sad face appears. I haven't been to the bathroom by myself in five weeks as she keeps good track of my comings and goings.

An upper respiratory infection meant that Joy met the nebulizer. Interestingly, she took to it like a fish to water! We are pretty sure she has had nebs before so another piece of the puzzle is put into place. We will keep a close eye on her to determine if she has asthma, or maybe colds affect her more severely because of her decreased lung function? It's a mystery.

Speaking of fish, here is her own fish face. Joy will try anything and that goes a long way when every single thing in your life is new.

She laughs a lot and flashes her smile even more. She lights up a room!

Oh, the peer pressure around here...

Joy is settling in magnificently. I cannot believe it has only been a month home from China. On the days when I am feeling discouraged (and there ARE those), I have to remind myself that it's not a race but a journey. I stand in awe of how well Joy has integrated into our family life, how well the kids have all accepted her as their own, how family and special friends have enveloped her with love.

Joshua has become a wonderful big brother to his new sister. He has accompanied Joy to most of her medical appointments doing a great job of introducing her to all of his doctors. I couldn't resist taking a picture of the two of them power napping in the back seat. I had to hold the camera up (ahem, yes, while I was driving) and hope for the best. As soon as we stop, they instantly wake up.

I look back at them and feel grateful beyond what I ever imagined.

Must be pure Joy!

Sunday, October 7, 2012

A Funny Thing Happened At The Fair OR Adoption - There's A Whole Other Family Out There

As I posted last week, we went to the big state fair to demonstrate the kid's eco-bots. The 4-H building, alongside the pulling ring, had one tiny entrance. Honestly, if I hadn't asked directions, I might not have found it.

As we were demonstrating and hanging around, several people walked in and browsed the displays. One particular couple came back around several times and finally, the husband said, "Kloey?" Her head snapped up and she immediately looked at me. Thankfully I was sitting only a few feet away and was able to intervene. I acknowledged that it was "Kloey" and wondered who in the world these people were.

The reality of older child adoption is that there are whole other families (and extended family) out in the world who are part of our children's stories. Some of those parts are not so good but quite frankly, some of the parts are not so bad.

One thing we learned while being a foster family is that each child leaves an impact not only on our family but on all of our friends, our church, and our extended family. In the same way, we respect the birth families of our children and their own extended circle of people who touched the lives of our children.

I'm guessing you really want to know who it was, don't you?

Turns out that this couple from several states away were vacationing and happened to come to the fair as they were passing through. The fact that they even thought to enter the 4-H building assured me that this meeting was divinely designed.

The man was the brother of the girl's step-grandmother. It's complicated but the point is that this woman had given them ballet lessons at her house and dearly loved on the girls while they were living with their grandparents. They said they often asked about Kloey and Cora and wondered how they were doing.

I easily accepted their place in the girls' lives thanks to the years we have spent working with birth families and we exchanged e-mails to re-establish contact with the grandparents, something that had lapsed over the last few years for no particular reason.

We got a picture and the girls got a hug. Cora took it in stride and I think Kloey was a little freaked out but managed to hold it together. Another experience providing an opening for dialogue to discuss where they are at in accepting their own stories (history).

The moral of this story is:

Be ready for anything and thankful for everything.