ANSWERED PRAYERS!

I am so thrilled to be writing this. Emery isn't out of surgery yet, and the next 72 hours are critical for recovery, but the surgery is complete. I just met with the rock star surgeon who performed a complete repair of Emery's pulmonary system and heart. He said that her lifetime prognosis depends on her pulmonary pressure being low right now, and it could not be any better. Her sats are the same as a healthy heart person. He was hoping to use three collateral vessels to help reroute the blood and tie into the pulmonary artery and was able to use 5. So the surgery went even better than expected, and was faster than anticipated as well.

I am so grateful for the prayers that have been offered to preserve Emery's health and especially for the surgery today. I can't wait to see her in about half hour even though she will probably be sedated for a day or so. I am so grateful for the power of prayer and for a God who hears us cry unto Him.



YAY'!!!!!!!!

Pre-Op

Travel yesterday went well, two flights, one shuttle ride and a clean hotel, not much more you could ask for. Emery's highlight was the pizza at SEATAC.

THis morning we got to the hospital at 6:30 and have finished the chest x-ray, blood work, lab work, echocardiogram, and will still have an EKG and meetings with the surgery team. Emery is doing great, she doesn't like bloodwork but was brave and stayed calm. She got an angel beanie baby bear for being so good during a very long in depth echo so she is a happy camper right now.

Lucile Packard Children's hospital has a really cool feature on their website. www.lpch.org. You can send a greeting card email and they will print it out and deliver it to Emery's room. Her name is Emery Min Mattson. I think surgery starts at 6:30 tomorrow morning and will be all day. thank you for your prayers, we feel and appreciate them.

10 Days

We are counting down.  10 days until we leave.  It takes us about a day to get to California and then pre op the next day and then the surgery on the 8th, Wednesday.  If you are praying specific prayers, her head surgeon is Dr. Hanley:) 

Emery is currently super excited and the guys are treating it like a vacation from all things girly and getting to have dad around for a couple weeks, so I guess I am the only one not expecting to have a complete blast;)  Emery just knows all of the things that she is currently not able/not allowed to do and can't wait to live life without restrictions so even though there is a bit of a rocky path to get there she has been looking forward to it since China, as have we. 

We will be in the CVICU for a few days then will be transfered to a regular room.  Leaving for home just depends on how Emery recovers.

And Emery has been with us 6 months, half a year, she is, according to her, Chinese- AMERICAN!

January

January has been spent in the snow:)  Emery made a snowman and snow angels and loves to eat the snow, we have had to limit that since she will try to pick it up from any surface...the parking lot at Walmart...no, a random car...no, freshly fallen in the yard, ok.  She is dying to play outside for a long time and being the protective mom I am(just over two weeks until surgery!!)  I limit it so she doesn't catch a cold.  She is so excited to get her heart fixed, since she is having a harder and harder time keeping up with her brothers and running and jumping which she loves to do.  Her surgery is scheduled for February 8th.  I will post before then, but would appreciate any and all prayers that could be sent heavenward for her.  I am excited to be done dealing with insurance, travel coordination, doctor coordination, monitoring her health, etc. even though, honestly Seattle Children's couldn't do much more to make all of this go more smoothly. 

Year's End

Christmas at our house was a little crazy, a bit chaotic, and tons of fun.  On Christmas Eve one of my sons made puppets to use to illustrate reading the Christmas story.  Emery was VERY concerned about getting to sleep so that Santa would be able to come. For the one non-believer kid in our family it was a bit more difficult to get to bed with the others:)    Christmas morning was a blast.  Emery opened one present and savored it.  She looked at it, examined it.  Exclaimed over it.  It was a new doll.  So we paused all of the present opening to encourage the boys to not just move on to the next gift after a quick 'Thanks'.  After a couple more presents Emery was asking, " 'nother present, please?"  Ah, well it was a nice thought at the beginning.

We went to Christmas morning church and left a bit of glitter on the pew from Emery's Christmas dress(we got it off!)  Who knew little girls dresses with sparkles shed?  Somehow, we didn't take any pictures of everyone in church clothes, so we will be restaging that event:)!

While there was plenty of hustle and bustle, baking and making, wrapping and buying, singing and reading and watching Christmas movies,  I was struck by the fact that last year we had barely started the process to adopt Emery.  We made Christmas ornaments for her so that she would have some this year to put on the tree, and she did.  And I was struck by the fact that I could not have necessarily predicted this exact path, and it is one so much greater than one I might have thought I would choose.  It has been a great and crazy year.  I am looking forward to a year that is maybe a little bit less crazy but just as great!

And my focus even more this year is going to be about something I was reading in John.  When it talks about how Christ is the vine and that we are the branch and the branch can't produce fruit on its own.  Well the closer the branch is to the vine the stronger it is and the more it can carry.  I feel like my plate has gotten pretty heavy and full so obviously I need to be moving a little bit closer to the source of my strength in order to carry it a bit easier!  So that is my continued, carry-over goal for 2012.

May God bless you and yours this year.  Thank you for your help and prayers for our family in 2011.  We have been so very blessed.

:)

FEBRUARY 8TH!!!!


Need I say more?




Heart surgery is scheduled:) 

Life As We Know It

First, the good news.  Have I mentioned that I really loves Seattle Children's?  I really do.  They are fantastic in so many ways.  I called yesterday ti check on where we were at since it has been a month since Emery's second cardiac cath.  I KNOW they will call me when they hear an update, but still it has been a month, so I called just because it felt like at least I was doing something.  I talked to the resident who has gone above and beyond for us.  Seriously a FANTASTIC doctor. We went over a few things that had been going on with Emery's health and pretty much ended with no new news but the hope and expectation to hear within the week.  Then last night he called me with an update.  Stanford has a surgery plan for Emery, has officially accepted her to be put on their schedule and we are FINALLY moving forward, although still waiting for a surgery date.  We should know the date within a week.  Our next contact should be with Stanford's surgery schedulers and there are no new tests or retests that need to be done before the surgery.  YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!  He called right when he heard the news.  How incredibly nice:)


Emery is having so much fun waiting for Christmas.  She doesn't quite understand that we have to wait.  Every day has the potential of being Christmas for her, which is kind of funny.  She also knows that it is Jesus's birthday and is convinced that Jesus is coming to our house so that we can sing Happy Birthday to Him.   She got a stocking and thought we needed to two for Santa's two feet that must be sooo biiiigg.  Complete with hand gestures.  She loves the advent calendar, although I don't know that it is because there is a countdown or because she gets a piece of candy every day, probably the latter.

We are making big steps in attachment.  My husband is out of town and she really misses him, that is a good thing.  We countdown to when he will be back and she understands that.

I am still not her favorite person, I might never be, and I am OK with that.  Some of my sons would definitely prefer my husband to me(I don't blame them!) but we are so much better than where we were.  I look back and am amazed at the progress that has been made.  She will let me help her, and looks to me for help now.  She doesn't try to go with every other woman or man available.   I can now say no and it is ok with her.  It is nice to be moving away from the media entertainment phase. There are still things to work through and time to spend and places to improve but we are on the right path I think.  Last week she told us that she wanted her China family, her sisters and ayis and not us.  I hurt for her.  To me, that is a normal thing, one I have been waiting for.  I don't think it was truly a rejection of our family but a expression of grief for the loss that she has had, and she is finally able to verbalize some of the things that there are to grieve for.  So we are back to the crying at night for a variety of reasons, that are all completely understandable to me at this point and she lets us hold her and comfort her and it is so much easier to work through than when we held her like a rigid board or rubbed her back while she sat up perfectly straight and cried quietly.

We are grateful for this season of the year, and this season of our lives.  We feel so very, very blessed.