“An invisible red thread connects those who

are destined to meet, regardless of time,

place, or circumstance. The thread may

stretch or tangle, but will never break.”

An ancient Chinese belief


Our family made the decision to adopt in June 2009. We pursued a special needs adoption, and we were blessed with a referral of the most beautiful girl on May 21, 2010. We originally started this website to fundraise for our adoption expenses by selling tutus and hair bows. Our fundraising efforts coupled with a grant from Lifesong for Orphans were a tremendous financial blessing. We traveled to China in late October 2010 to meet our daughter. Now, Emma Grace is home... forever.




Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Eric Ludy - Depraved Indifference



Oh my goodness, this is powerful.... and so true.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Good-bye Cleft Lip!

Emma Grace had surgery yesterday on her lip. It went very well and we are home resting and recovering. We got to the hospital at 6:00 am and they had her back in surgery at about 7:45. The ENT put tubes in her ears first, which took about 10 minutes. He came out to talk to us and said that her ears were a mess. They were full of fluid and she had a chronic infection in both ears. He said that she had every right to be a cranky girl, but the funny thing is, she is NOT cranky at all! That makes me a little sad because she has lived with chronic pain for so long that she doesn't know any different. To her, that was normal. He said this is a problem that will not go away, so we need to stay on top of these ears! He put short term tubes in to get her through her surgeries (until the palate is repaired.) Once the palate is repaired, the fluid problem should get better and then we can decide whether or not to do long term tubes or another set of short term tubes. Short term fall out in about 8 months and the long term stay in for 1-2 years. However, when the long term falls out you have a greater risk of perforating the ear drum. YIKES.... hopefully the short term will do the trick.

Dr. Chariker was her plastic surgeon and we are so pleased with the work he did on her. It took him about an hour and a half. He lined up her lips perfectly and did not leave too much fatty tissue. He also straightened her nose (it went off the right) and made her left nostril (it was flat) match her right nostril. We are so impressed with the detail he took in lining up her face. I really believe that when this heals, you won't be able to tell she had a cleft lip. He said we will re-evaluate in one year to see if she needs a "clean-up" surgery. I guess he wants the wound to fully heal and her face to grow into it a little bit. We decided to push her palate surgery back until the end of March. We just can't handle that recovery process when we are both working full time. In March I am off for a week for spring break. Overall, Emma has handled the surgery well. She cried a lot (by a lot, I mean non-stop) in the hospital and I thought our chances for going home would be slim. But, I knew that she just hated the hospital and wanted to get out of there. We pleaded our case to the nurse and they let us go home! She slept 10 hours through the night and woke up happy. She had a bottle and ate breakfast- and I am sure she would NOT have been that comfortable in the hospital. I am ready for this wound to heal up- I am super paranoid that the stitches are going to come loose or something is going to happen. Every time she bumps her face I want to cry. The stress in thinking we are going to mess up this surgery is too much for me! She has to sleep with splints on her arm so she doesn't pick her face or suck her thumb. That has been the hardest part. We are supposed to keep them on during the day but I just can't do it. I let her play and crawl around and I just watch her. Our next biggest issue is Timmy the bulldozer. I am so afraid he is going to get hold of that lip and not let go. Here are some before and after pictures.

Surprisingly happy before surgery! She hates hospitals and doctors.
Before they took her back
Right when we got her after surgery. I am so thankful she has a mommy and a daddy to comfort her.
Here is the after picture. You can see that the top lip is lined up perfectly. This isn't the best picture of her nose, but you can see the stitches he put in her left side so that her nostril has the same dimple as the other one. I am excited to see what this will look like when it heals!

We really doubted ourselves about waiting on the surgery when we went to China to pick up Emma Grace. We saw a lot of repaired lips and they all looked pretty good. I thought maybe we were just being selfish. But, after seeing what an amazing job the doctor did and having this type of care we feel so good about our decision! The recovery hasn't been horrible, but it hasn't been fun either. To think of her going through that alone is so sad. I am thankful that we stuck with our gut instinct and waited... and I am thankful that the good people at PHF listened to us and respected our decision!

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

HOME AT LAST!


We are back- and alive and well!!!! I didn't post anything about our travel plans- I wanted to keep them as quiet as possible. But, now we are home and loving life with our new family of 6. You can read about our travels at this link:

http://www.journeytome.com/journal_view.cfm?journalid=3105

We did an entry for every day of our travels. It was quite an adventure. I would love to adopt again, and I think we will one day.... but I need some time to recover from the trip (and let my TWO babies grow up a little bit!)

I am attaching a picture of our Emma from the famous red couch. We love her and we feel that she is the perfect match for our family. We know that we have a difficult road ahead, but she is worth every bit of it. I will continue to use this blog to update about Emma and our post adoption story!

Emma had her first appointment with the plastic surgeon today. He wasn't at all surprised by the way Emma looked... just another standard surgery for him. They are actually going to repair her lip and nose (it is a little crooked) on the day after Thanksgiving. Next is her palate... and they are doing that on January 18. I wanted to wait and do the palate next summer, but he felt it was pretty important to do it now. He said she needs to learn how to start using her palate muscles, talking, etc. So, we will do what is best for her. We need to make an ENT appointment because she will probably need tubes and we will have to make a cardiologist appointment. Her heart was repaired in China, but her chest has a bone sticking out of it and we are a little concerned. Regardless, we love her just the way she is and we will do whatever we need to do to make sure she lives a healthy, happy life!