lady in a white dress (dude looks like a lady)

my lady was in a white dress today, but she is such a dude!! kept lifting up her dress, shame shame. It would look alot cuter without those stupid arm restrains, sorry honey, 3 more weeks to go.

Happy Halloween

Shaun went to preschool today, though he is sick, and had fun fun fun. he ate carmel apples at school and lots of junk food. He came home and had a halloween party with his buddy ronak and his family, went trick or treating, ate more candy....

Zaina had a great first halloween with her forever family!!!

We had a HUGE dracula on our front porch that scared the heck out of Shaun and Ronak but made Zaina giggle!! woosie boys, strong chick!!

almost 1/2 way recovery-not sure what to think

well, we have become accustomed to the thought that her pink top lip will have to be redone in the spring/summer 09, but we are praying the white skin above the top lip doesnt open. so far so good, but it is scary. not out of danger zone for 3 1/2 more weeks.

2 week post-op Appointment-not great

Well, we had our 2 week post op follow up, and not great. Her lip is totally opened up again, just like when she first went into the ER. The ER stitches weren't meant to be permanent, just to either buy the rest of her stitches time to heal, or to maybe get us lucky in closing up the site. Neither happened. The new concern is if the area above the lip (the skin colored "prolabium") stays in tack, or if the momentum of the stitches in the lip coming undone goes up into that area and then into the nose as well.
That area looks ok so far, but if we can get thru this week, we have an appointment with the surgeon on next Monday (21 days post op) to remove the plastic stents in Zaina's nose. I imagine if the stitches were coming undone, they couldnt do that, so if we can pray stitches stay intact above the lip area thru this week and no more accidents, we should be ok, I think.
She will need a lip revision surgey which we hope happens in January with her palate surgery, or later in the spring to refix/touch up the top lip. Please pray for her to have no more issues.

6 more weeks of worry

we dont know if the new lip stitches will take. hopefully she doesnt have anymore headbanging accidents. the lip looks puffy. i cant help but think, what if it doesnt stay together.

She's BACK.....

the cutie is back!!! look out world!!! you can't hold her down!!!
she looks good as new. hope the stitches help the lip bind together.
check out her new hairband

Re-do in ER of lip, hope it stays

ok, after much probing and pushing, the surgeons agreed to let us bring Zaina to the Emergency Room to look at her lip that we claimed "was coming apart". They didn't believe us. Well, when they saw her they said "oh, wow, it is coming undone, we need to restitch it now". So 6 hours later in the ER (1 hour surgery time) they restitched her lip. THey said it was to hold it in place FOR NOW (what does that mean) but that it SHOULD TAKE (God I hope so).

We are home now, and thank God they agreed to see us at the ER, thank God the surgeons were on call, thank God they were willing to do her lip, thank God it is done. We pray to God that the stitches help the lip Re-form back together.

Here's some pics to show how it looked BEFORE we had them redo the lip area.

terrible accident

well, bad day. mike was cleaning zaina's wounds, like the dr. told us to do 5 times a day, and when he sat her up to hold her, she head bunted his colar bone with her face, her lip, and it split open, 2 stitches (we think) came undone, blood shot everywhere, and now it looks like a butterfuly wound on the fat of her upper lip. we called the surgeon, she told us how to stop the blood and clean it, she didn't want us to come in b/c she said it will swell up tomorrow, there's nothing dr's can do NOW, but we have a dr's appt on monday for post-op, and they will evaluate on monday if/when they can or should redo the 1 to 2 stitches can come open.
Please all readers, pray for her, this is a minor set back, but it has rocked our foundation, again!!
God help this little girl. Hope she doesnt hate us for probing her poor face so much. she was flapping around her head, and boom, hit daddy's colar bone. he felt so aweful, but truth be told, it could have happened to any adult handeling her.
Hopefully it isn't unfixable. Hope the rest of her stitches dont get irritated now.

Day 9 after surgery - dr. surprise check up

well, she is getting even better, but there is slight bleeding at her tooth area and at her lip tip so we went to the dr.'s and they looked at it, and trimmed her stitches down (were too large) and said it looked ok, and they thought her nose stints would be in for 2 more weeks (we thought only 1 more week, but either is fine).

otherwise the smiles and jumping is back. the 5 large bottles of formula are back, the desire for food is back, but we are holding off on food, other than a little rice, b/c we dont want to disrupt her lip/gum repair process.

in these pics, the kids LOVE their Uncle Dale and Aunty Chan. Uncle Dale was like no other that Zaina had ever seen before, not very china man looking at all.

Shaun's first day of pre-school

This was my baby Shaun's first day at pre-school. He is a big boy now. He loved it, made friends, ate, hung with his buddy Ronak, but won't poop in the potty yet!!! Crap!! Gotta get on that dude.

1 week post-surgery, smiles are back

doing good. her smiles are back, her cooky laugh is back, reserved but back, she jumps like a baby maniac in her walker/jumper. her stitches are healing nicely. Can't wait til next Monday when we see the surgeon for the post-operative appointment to have the plastic nose stent removed.

Day 5 after surgery, better

getting better, no vomit, no major problems, slow to eat still, but better. stitches are starting to dissolve too.

Day 3 after surgery, vomit-ville

well, she has vomited 4 times sincew 2am. we think it is b/c of the pain meds and antibiotics ripping up her gut. she also has a cough that is instigating her stomache upchuck reflex. otherwise she is in good spirits and looking cutie-pie.

her nose is healing very well. her lip is puffy, but we think that is normal so soon post surgery

slow recovery, 2nd day post-surgery

well, we are home now (I THINK PREMATURELY) and she is having 1/2 the quantity of bottled milk she usually does, but I hope that will change with time. she is groggy, but more attentive. we have her on pain syrup to help her, so she is sleeping alot. Her lip looks great, but alittle puffy.

Last nite, some how, like Hoodeney, she busted out of her arm restrains. I hope she didnt touch her face. It was only for maybe a few minutes, we think, because she cried for 2 minutes, then stopped, which was weird, so we went to her, and she was out of her arm restrains standing in her crib waiting for us. Dont think she touched her face yet, but who knows.

the new zaina, day after surgery

check out that nose, how cute. nice lips. she has to wear a nose stent for a few weeks and arm restraints called no-no's for 6 weeks, and the stitches will dissolve.

best and worst day of my life

well, zaina's surgery was a huge success. she looks amazing (pictures later today) BUT she had either (a) post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from whatever she experienced in china or when in june in hunan they did her unsuccessful lip repair and she was hospitalized for 1 month, or (b) a post reaction to coming off of the anesthesia (happens to a small percentage of kids) or (c) a reaction to the LARGE doses of morphine she received to calm her pain because she went nuts. she flalled like a fish out of water, she seemed like the exorcist baby all nite!! eyes rolling in the back of her head, thrashing her head and her body, she didn't sleep and cried and flapped around for 14 hours straight, with 1 hour nap in between.

update, this morning, she is finally of of her horse amounts of IV pain meds, and IV liquids, she is on T3 liquid and finally started some apple juice and alittle formula, she finally has slept 2 hours straight and is asleep after her juice again now for 30 minutes and counting...she hates her arm restraints, but is getting a little more used to them, she flalles less, but she is starting to look like her self alittle bit again.

yestereday morning was the best day of my life, my baby had a successful facial reconstructive surgery, she looks awesome, BUT last nite was the worst nite of my life so far, my baby was possessed with hallucinations, pain, anger, frustration, and PTSD and/or reactions to meds...

Hopefully we will go home tomorrow, I will post pics later today or tomorrow of the new Zaina.

I am now worried about in 3 months when we have her palate surgery done in january, she may go thru this shit all over again... hopefully not so badly.

Before the surgery in her gown

here is zaina before the surgery, in her gown and on her happy drugs. stay tune for the after shots. surgery in 4 1/2 hours long.....

Day before surgery for lip and nose

very nervous and excited. zaina will be in the hospital for 1 nite, 2 days for her lip, nose surgery. we are hopeful, and so is the dr., but we will see how it turns out.
will post before and after pics tomorrow

spoiled with love

zaina gets so much attention from all her grandparents and great grandparents!! Shaun is showing her how to work it already.

zaina STILL celebrating shaun's bday

apparently zaina cant get enough partying in. she is still celebrating shaun's bday!!!

surgery in3 days

zaina's surgery is in 3 days. cant wait.
will post before and after pics soon. her eating has slowed down, bummer. hopefully surgery helps

starbucks rules the world!! really!!!

just thinking, how sweet was that first starbucks that i had when i got home. these simple things we miss when we are removed from our normal daily luxuries of life

Home Sweet Home

we are home!!! finally!!! never leaving my country again!!! Family came to the airport to receive us, and it felt great!!!

Then I saw her face, now i'm a believer

Then I saw her face, now I'm a believer, without a trace of doubt in my mind,
I'm in love, I'm a believer, I couldn't leave her if I tried.

what a cutie!!!

GOTCHA DAY

here's our gotcha day. we had traveled from portland to changsha, hunan for almost 27 hours and received Zaina the SAME DAY 5 hours after we landed. shaun was pooped so he slept thru it.