Hangin' With the Stars

We were out in DC this weekend and ran into some famous people.

Here's me and Johnny.  He was trying to look intimidating for the picture, but he was actually quite glad to see me.

Tabitha had a nice conversation with Julia Roberts.

Jesse got a few pointers from Tiger.

Will didn't have time to talk, but he did pose for a quick picture for us.

This one was a re-enact ment.  Obviously we didn't really go to the moon.

OK, OK. We didn't really meet any of these people. (Did I fool anyone though? Even for a second or two?) Michael (my brother) is working in DC this month, so we went to see him Saturday, and he took us to the wax museum. It was really amazing! They all looked so real! It was almost creepy!

Here are a few more pictures from our travels back in time.

Very fun time.  I'd highly recommend it!  It's a rare museum that actually lets you photograph anything, let alone touch everything!  Lots of fun.  =)

We've Been Matched!!!

Monday night we did in fact get a referral from our agency!  And today we officially accepted it!!  We can't post any identifying information yet, but I CAN say that she's a cutie!!  God sure answered our prayers this week..

Our prayer that we'd be able to schedule Tabitha's surgery before the adoption:  The scheduler is trying to get us there in June, or possibly July!  That's a lot better than we were expecting and made it much easier to accept this referral!

Our prayer for guidance on the referral decision:  We both feel at peace accepting this referral.  Even though we have some unanswered questions, it looks like everything is OK with her.  And we are very excited!

We can post her picture as soon as we get our pre-approval (hopefully within the next week or two).  Check back here soon!

Log In Date!

Our dossier is officially logged in to China's Center for Adoption Affairs!  Our log in date (LID) is February 18, 2011.  A new list of waiting children comes out on Monday!

If there's a child our agency thinks fits our requests they will let us know, and we will have 72 hours to decide.  If we are matched with a child from this list travel could be as soon as August!  But we don't know when Tabitha's big surgery is going to be, and it sounds like it could be late summer/early fall.  So now we're wondering if we should even accept a match from this list or wait until the next one.  We would definitely prefer to have Tabitha's surgery finished before we go to China for our new daughter.

It seems impossible, but if we could get Tabitha's surgery dates on Monday it would make the decision a lot easier!  Please pray with us for great wisdom in all of this.  Thanks!

Final Day

We're going home today!  As I type this Heath and Ethan are lugging all the suitcases to the van.  :)

We were supposed to have our final appointment today, but Dr. Levitt was going to be out of town so he met with us yesterday, and we are done!  We've had a good time here, but it'll be so good to get home!

Yesterday we went to the zoo and then to an indoor waterpark, where the kids had a blast!  We did manage to make this trip a vacation with some hospital visits thrown in.  It turned out to be a lot of fun for all of us.

So, here's the medical summary for Tabitha: 

The surgeons in China repaired the colorectal side of things (though not perfectly), but didn't do anything for the gynecology and urology problems.  The good news according to Dr. Alam the urologist is that since they did nothing he's starting fresh and doesn't have to undo anything.  The bad news is that she still needs extensive surgery.  She also has kidney reflux and mild kidney disease which (if I understand correctly) cannot be reversed but shouldn't get any worse if we're very careful with her bladder/kidneys.

Right now she'll be taking one new medication for her bladder, along with the antibiotic she's been taking, to keep bladder and kidneys as healthy as possible.  We'll continue cathing every 4 hours (with a slightly bigger catheter which will make it a little bit quicker procedure), and we need to keep track of a week's worth of urine amounts to make sure that the timing of cathing is correct.  She had protein in her urine, so they want us to see a local nephrologist right away.  I'm not sure what to expect there. 

We'll be giving her an enema every day to clear out her bowels.  This is a big pain, BUT she has been totally clean in between which means she can now wear underwear and no more diapers!!!  Hallelujah!!!!

As soon as it can be scheduled, Tabitha will have her major surgery to reposition the anus to line up with the right muscles, fix her prolapse, probably fix the scar on her belly, and move/create her necessary female parts.  (They're all in there, just not connected with the outside.)  This surgery will require anywhere from 4-10 days in the hospital and probably 2 weeks total time in Cincinnati.  She may have to have a colostomy for a couple months afterwards, but they won't know that until they actually do the surgery.  If she does have one, it will be closed at her next surgery.  If not, she can't eat for 10 days after surgery, being fed only by IV.  I think either option is horrible, so I'm not even sure what to hope for!  After this surgery, it MAY be possible for her to have bowel control and eventually be potty trained, but we won't know that until later.

After that's all healed, and probably several months later, she'll have her urology surgery, which (again...hopefully I'm understanding this correctly) includes fixing the ureters so that she won't have kidney reflux anymore and will save her kidneys from further damage.  Even after the surgery she will almost definitely never be able to urinate normally and will always need a catheter. 

At some point she may need a valve or two put into her belly for easier cathing and administering of enemas, if they will be lifelong needs.  We'll have to wait and see on that.

Wow.  That's a lot.  Right now I feel pretty calm, but sometimes I start freaking out about all of it.  It's certainly more than we would've signed up for had we known...but I can see God providing the grace we need to get through it all, and I know He's teaching us so much in the process. 

Thank you so much to all of you who have been praying for our family these couple weeks (and always).  We have felt God's blessing in so many of the details of this time here, and we really appreciate all the support from friends and family.   

Thanks again!  And now please pray for the REALLY scary part . . . . the drive home!  ;-)

Good Day, Not So Good News

Today was a really fun day.  We took Tabitha for her x-ray first thing (clean again...no changes for the enema).  Then we went to the Children's Museum.  (Kelly B....remember going there when the boys were toddlers?!)  The kids loved it!  It was really a lot of fun!  So much so that we came back again after our afternoon appointment at the hospital!  Now we're back at the hotel, just had dinner, and then the boys will go swimming while poor Tab has to do her enema.  The boys and I are going to try to sneak out so she doesn't feel left out.  (Oops....she just saw Ethan in his swimsuit....guess that's not going to work.)

So, the day was great.  The not so great part was the news the urologist had for us.  After reviewing all her tests, it shows that she has Grade 1 kidney disease.  Grade 4 is the worst, so at least hers is the least serious.  He said it should be fine, as long as we're really careful about her cathing and all.  She has kidney reflux, which we knew, but we didn't know she had kidney damage.  In order to prevent further damage she needs to have surgery to fix the problems.

Unfortunately they can't do all the surgeries at once.  So first thing will be the colorectal/gynecological repairs.  That will be done as soon as they can schedule us, which they're thinking won't be until after this summer.  Then 8-12 months later will probably be when Dr. Alam does the urological repairs.  He said she will never be able to urinate normally.  We weren't expecting that she could, but that's kind of disheartening to hear him say no chance.  Today's news wasn't what we wanted to hear, but at least there is a plan, and we know she's in good hands and getting the best care in the world.

Tomorrow we don't have any appointments except the daily x-ray, and Friday we have our final meeting with the doctors.  Then we head for home, hopefully with a surgery date scheduled.  So, it appears we'll be seeing plenty more of the grand city of Cincinnati.

Which isn't entirely bad.  It's only 7 hours from home, an hour from our beloved alma mater, and the very city where we got engaged!  A couple nights ago Heath and I drove out to the park where he proposed 11 years ago.  It hasn't changed a bit!

So, not all good news but at least it was an enjoyable day.  :)

Last Leg of the Journey

This morning Tabitha had her daily x-ray, her urodynamics test, and her cystogram.  These two tests are basically to check the bladder function.  It went really well, mostly because she's used to using a catheter.  I guess it's a lot harder for kids who aren't used to being cathed!  Tomorrow we'll meet with the urologist to go over the results and see what he thinks about what needs to be done.  After that, we'll be able to have a full picture of all that needs to be done and make a plan for future surgery. 

My mom and the boys left today after we got back from the hospital.  :(   They've got a long drive back to Omaha today!  It was SO great having their help here, and I'm very thankful they were able to come. 

We moved into our smaller hotel room now.  It's great, except that it's all one room so when Tabitha takes her nap or the kids go to bed, we all have to keep it ultra quiet!  But this has been a really nice place to stay.  We're on the waiting list for the Ronald McDonald House now, but I know the kids will miss the pool if we move!

It's supposed to be 60 degrees the next couple days!  So maybe we'll get to do some outside stuff before we go.

Well, that's it for today's update.  Thank you everyone who's been following along and praying for us.  We appreciate it!

Monday update

Not much to report since my last post . . .

The enemas are going fine, and she's only had one accident since we started. Heath took her for her x-ray this morning, so that will show if she's really cleaning out all the way or not.  She also had some blood work this morning and a renal ultasound, which took about an hour.  Believe it or not, she cooperated for all of that!

Meanwhile, the rest of us went to the Museum of Natural History and Science.  We got to see some bats up close and also walk through an underground (man-made) cave.  It was pretty cool!

Heath's going to take the boys to EnterTrainment Junction now, while Tab takes her nap.  So it's a pretty easy day!