Our Smiley Girl

This is one of my favorite pictures of Lia Kate so far. She smiles all the time, but rarely smiles for the camera. I have to get an action shot to catch a smile ... but boy does a smile light up her face?!

I am working on a long Lia Kate update ... hope to have it up soon!

Welcome Home

One of the really special things we've been able to do lately is welcome home friends who are coming home from China with their newly adopted child. Just this past Friday, my friend Kelley came home with her daughter Virginia Grace.


Lia Kate and Virginia Grace checking each other out.


Love that these two are the same age ... I'm sure they'll share a special friendship over the years!



And here we are welcoming home Fisher and his family back in February ...



Waiting for Fisher to arrive ... here is Hamilton, also from China, giving Lia Kate a hug. Fisher and Hamilton are 3-years-old and they both go to our church. It is so sweet to see these two little boys with Lia Kate! In fact, all three of them will be baptized together at our church on May 23.

Virginia Grace Day!

My friend, Kelley, and her husband finally met their beautiful little girl in China last night! Kelley and I were matched with Lia Kate and Grace back in October ... so she has waited a long time to finally meet her. I cannot wait for our girls to get to know each other! What a sweet friendship they will have?! Just wanted to share this precious little face with you and document this big day for Lia Kate's blog book. You can read more about Virginia Grace here.

Headed Home ... Again

Lia Kate's surgeon just rounded and he told us we could go home today ... again. She has not leaked anymore CSF since the resuture last night (yay!), so we are hoping that this did the trick and there won't be anymore complications. If we see more leaking, we'll have to come back. But, according to the docs, if it was going to leak again it should have by now. He told us not to worry about what is going on under the incision ... "no leaking, no worries." Assuming all goes well at home, we will see him again at an office visit in a couple of weeks.

On a fun sidenote, we just had a long conversation in the hallway with a family and their 16-month-old baby girl from China! They just brought her home in February. Fun to see two little precious Chinese girls together.

Anyway, we're headed home ... again!

Back in the Hospital

Well, Lia Kate has been readmitted to the hospital. I took her dressing off this morning as instructed and, for the first time, got a look at her incision. A few hours later, I noticed some clear fluid leaking from the top of the incision. I knew that it could be cerebrospinal fluid (CSF), but it was just a little, tiny touch of it, and I was hoping it was just the clear serous fluid that can seep from wounds. An hour later, there was more. I called the surgeon's office and they told us to go to the ER.

We saw one of the neurosurgeons in the ER and he determined that it was, indeed, CSF. He put a couple of more tight stitches where the fluid was leaking in hopes that it creates a pressure and makes the dural sac (which houses the CSF) close. If it still leaks after that, they'll probably do an MRI to see if they can see what is going on. And then they would probably do another surgery -- to open the wound and reclose the dural sac to prevent leaking. The doc we saw today said that spinal fluid leaks post-operatively in 10 to 20% of these surgeries.

Lia Kate is acting fine ... as if she hasn't missed a beat. She is active, playing, talking and generally just being the sweet, happy girl that she usually is. We are staying overnight for observation. We'll see what the docs say tomorrow when they round.

One of the complications that can happen with a CSF leak is that if fluid can get out, bacteria can get in. So, she is more at risk for meningitis. There are more risks, but we won't go there unless things get worse. The good thing is that the leak is a small leak. Hoping the problem resolves itself and we are home before long. Thanks again for your concern, prayers and encouragement.

We Got Our Walking Papers!

Here is Lia Kate with the surgeon. He just came in and told us we could go home today! Lia Kate is scowling in the picture ... little did she know what great news we just heard. Heading home sometime today.

Doing Well Today

Lia Kate had a great night here at the hospital. She and I both got more sleep than I thought we would. I was able to get her to sleep in the crib (at home she sleeps in our bed) and even though she was woken up many times in the night for meds and vital checks, she went back to sleep every time. Didn't even whimper. I think part of the reason is that I didn't get up each time so she didn't know I was there. If she had seen me, she would have started crying and it would have been hard to get her back down. I'm glad she chose to sleep because we both needed it! The lab folks came by at 5:30 a.m. to draw blood. They always, always have to stick her at least twice b/c her veins are hard to get. It is hard to watch. Needless to say, that woke her up and we have been up and going since. The neurosurgery resident rounded early and told me that Lia Kate looks great, is doing everything she should be doing neurologically, and all she needs to do is drink more fluids. They finally took her off IV fluids to encourage her to drink more. Still waiting for the main doc to round and see what he says about discharge. I'm guessing we'll be here at least another night. The main reason is that they want to make sure no cerebrospinal fluid is leaking from the incision. The nurses say she looks too good to stay another night but we'll see what the surgeon says.

One interesting thing about her surgery that I didn't mention yesterday is that the doc said he will see 200 open myelomeningoceles for every 1 cervical meningocele. That means her case falls somewhere in the .5% chance range for occurrence. For some reason, our family is really good at hitting the one percents (my placental abruption, Britton's good outcome after anoxic birth injury, etc.) Lia Kate is falling right in line. I believe the doc said he'll only see a handful of these in his career. And her case presented differently than a typical cervical meningocele. Anyway, we are glad it's behind us and glad the doctor has given her such an excellent prognosis. We feel very blessed over this outcome.

Happy girl this morning! She is smiling, laughing, talking, eating, and drinking. They took her off IV fluids and disconnected her pulse ox, so she is mobile. She's been walking around and playing all morning.

Danny found a new way to dispose of a dirty diaper in a pinch -- stick it in a hospital glove and tie it up!