Someone reminded me today that I have not blogged at all about our experience here in Cincinnati. It was easier to just put status updates on facebook for our other children and my co-workers to read so I never got around to blogging. I took some cute pics (but forgot the cord to download) and I do have a lot to share, but for now we are still working on getting home. But I promise to update when we get back.
Short version-- We arrived 2 weeks ago Sat and Lily was admitted to the hospital Monday morning for prep- Tuesday was surgery and then the waiting began. Finally last Friday (what they consider Day 10) we were allowed to leave the hospital provided we stayed in the local area. We see the surgeon in the morning to have the catheter removed and then we can head home- either quickly if there are no problems or after a few hours if there are concerns-- either with or without a cath-- but we can't wait to get home!
We did get to meet Ren's parents and we will have to update you all on that. Ren is the little boy we met in China asking to go home with his friend- Xiaowan (Lily). He is so handsome and sweet and has grown so much since coming to live with his family here in Ohio. We are excited to be able to see them again when we come back to Cincinnati for follow up.
We have been so blessed during our time here to reconnect with our friends at Mariemont Church (we met them in August when Lily was here for testing). The Pastor and his family have been so kind to open their home to us. When Lily was in the hospital we stayed right across the street at the Ronald McDonald House (AMAZING PLACE!) but before and after we have been at the Pastor's home enjoying their INCREDIBLE hospitality. God has such an amazing way of putting people in our lives at just the right time to encourage us. Pastor Denis and his wife Marianne are such great representatives of christian love and we are so thankful for their friendship.
So please pray that tomorrow goes well and we can get home quickly. Please pray for Lily's continued healing. She is still having pain and moving a little slower. Please pray that the surgery will be a complete success and that she will enjoy all that life has for her.
Thanks for following along on our journey!
Glenda
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Friday, August 14, 2009
Planning for Surgery
Looks like we will be haeding back to Cincinnati the end of Oct/ early Nov. for Lily to have surgey. Thanks to everyone for your prayers and support. I will try to post some updated pics soon. The girls are growing so fast and they are so much fun! Lily is so protective of Kylee and they both talk about "My family." They are such a gift and I cannot imagine my life without them!
Thursday, August 6, 2009
Lily is recovering
We talked with the surgical team and then they took us back to see Lily and she still had her eyes closed but she was screaming and fighting the nurse. I was able to hold her and they gave her something to calm her down and she settled down. It is hard to see her so upset and we are convinced that she has had some very bad experiences in the past with medical staff, but the team at CCH was wonderful and helped a lot. We are letting her rest at the hotel and watch cartoons until we go back for 2 tests this afternoon and then Friday we have one final XRay and then meet with the doctors. again and make plans for surgery and follow up care in the coming months.
I am not sure how much I am comfortable sharing here, but the short answer is that there were several possible scenarios and overall ours was good news. As far as the surgery in China- it saved her life but did not do much else good for Lily so she will definitely have to have surgery. The prognosis is very good for a full recovery and the goal is to have her potty trained by next year's start of school. She will need two teams in surgery to address different aspects so we have to check all the various schedules to find a time that will work with our schedules hopefully soon enough to give Lily time to recover from surgery and begin the potty-training work. We will know alot more tomorrow about that-but he did say that they are booking a few months out now so we have time to catch our breath and I can focus on the new school year and getting everything going well before returning.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. I wanted to share something cool that happened. Yesterday we had the afternoon off for fun at the museum and then we realized that it was Wed. pm and looked to see if there might be a worship service somewhere. Most places I called did not have anything- or had classes- We were hoping for a kind fo "First Wed" but one of the big churches here does "last Wed" so I had all but given up. I read about an interesting church online and loved the Pastor's page and testimony so I called and left a message at the church to ask about Wed pm but did not expect anyone would call back in late afternoon...but they did and we went. The Pastor's son has been interning at the church and led in a really sweet time of worship. It was so refreshing and Lily was skirmy but we go through it and we were so glad to be able to worship. It is always so amazing to us that no matter where we go we can find believers who become family right away. The Pastor has lived in Japan and China and was so great to talk to. They invited us to stay with them when we return and one of the members invited us to dinner this evening. Everyone was so welcoming and kind. They prayed for Lily and for us all. God is so good! What a blessing to have such a warm welcome in Cincinnati! We also met someone from Charleston, SC at the hotel. Please pray for her husband who is here for cancer treatment.
Thanks again for the prayers and support. We miss you all and we are ready to come home soon!
I am not sure how much I am comfortable sharing here, but the short answer is that there were several possible scenarios and overall ours was good news. As far as the surgery in China- it saved her life but did not do much else good for Lily so she will definitely have to have surgery. The prognosis is very good for a full recovery and the goal is to have her potty trained by next year's start of school. She will need two teams in surgery to address different aspects so we have to check all the various schedules to find a time that will work with our schedules hopefully soon enough to give Lily time to recover from surgery and begin the potty-training work. We will know alot more tomorrow about that-but he did say that they are booking a few months out now so we have time to catch our breath and I can focus on the new school year and getting everything going well before returning.
Thank you all for your prayers and support. I wanted to share something cool that happened. Yesterday we had the afternoon off for fun at the museum and then we realized that it was Wed. pm and looked to see if there might be a worship service somewhere. Most places I called did not have anything- or had classes- We were hoping for a kind fo "First Wed" but one of the big churches here does "last Wed" so I had all but given up. I read about an interesting church online and loved the Pastor's page and testimony so I called and left a message at the church to ask about Wed pm but did not expect anyone would call back in late afternoon...but they did and we went. The Pastor's son has been interning at the church and led in a really sweet time of worship. It was so refreshing and Lily was skirmy but we go through it and we were so glad to be able to worship. It is always so amazing to us that no matter where we go we can find believers who become family right away. The Pastor has lived in Japan and China and was so great to talk to. They invited us to stay with them when we return and one of the members invited us to dinner this evening. Everyone was so welcoming and kind. They prayed for Lily and for us all. God is so good! What a blessing to have such a warm welcome in Cincinnati! We also met someone from Charleston, SC at the hotel. Please pray for her husband who is here for cancer treatment.
Thanks again for the prayers and support. We miss you all and we are ready to come home soon!
Waiting...
We got up early this morning to come for Day Surgery. Lily did very well- just a little anxious but they let us give her some meds to calm her before going back and then we stayed with her while they put the mask on and she did very well and went right out. We are waiting for the doctors to come out and let us know what is going on....We just got paged,,gotta run..
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
We are in Cincinnati
We finally arrived in Cincinnati about 2am Tuesday morning (after working all day and then driving). Lily was a great traveler- only cried a few times about wanting to get out of the carseat. Tues morning was a little tough getting up early and trying to find our way to the clinic. I had mapquested the main campus but when they sent the updated itinerary 5 minutes before we left town, I did not see that the campus was changed to their Liberty campus and although there was a "map" it was not oriented to where we were staying and we had no idea. We had a GPS so we headed out thinking we would be fine- picture this- it is raining and miserable on top of it all-- and the location is not in GPS so I went by things we read online and eventually arrived (only 5 minutes late--but with too much stress!) At one point we were trapped in a fast lane and could not take the exit we wanted and had to go a few miles to get out and then turn around, but in the end, we made it and the place was very nice.
It was a tough procedure for Lily but the child life specialist was amazing. They had a Dora DVD and lights and toys to distract her. At first she seemed like she was going to be fine, but as soon as we laid her on the table, she started crying and resisting. It was not fun but she did deal better than she could have. It was hard to watch her cry, but they got the procedure done as quick as possible. After that we were all pretty wore out- Lily fell asleep as soon as we got into the car so we just grabbed something to eat and went back to our hotel to rest. It continued to rain all day but we did venture out in the evening to get some exercise walking around the mall (a block away) and we brought back a cheesecake factory dessert- yummy. We like the hotel the hospital helped set up for us- it is a suite with a full kitchen and hot breakfast. The pool is small and outside and it is kind of chilly to us so we have not tried it out.
This morning we had the ultrasound and tried to prepare Lily as best we could. It was pretty simple but she still cried and had a tough time but she was consolable. We know that she has two kidneys and a uterus, but we have to wait for the doctors to give all the info. Then we were free for the rest of the day so we went to see the guest services and they gave us a welcome pack and free tickets to the Cincinnati Museum. So we went and toured the dinosaur exhibits and went through a cave and an iceberg and played with lots of fun things and went into the Children's museum to play for a while. Lily had a lot of fun and kept Dad on his toes. I wish I had brought the camera. Now Dad and Lily are sound asleep which is why I can type without "help" from Lily.
Lily has done well but she keeps asking for Kylee. It is nice to see how close they are. Lily is so protective of "my sister." Lily is handling this all better than I had imagined. She is very resilient and I think she is enjoying the one on one time with mom and dad.
Tomorrow we will be going very early in the morning for the day surgery to evaluate all that Lily will need to have done. Then the afternoon will have two extensive tests. On Friday we do a final XRay and meet the doctor to discuss all the findings. Please keep us in your prayers as we finish the testing this week. I will update when we can.
It was a tough procedure for Lily but the child life specialist was amazing. They had a Dora DVD and lights and toys to distract her. At first she seemed like she was going to be fine, but as soon as we laid her on the table, she started crying and resisting. It was not fun but she did deal better than she could have. It was hard to watch her cry, but they got the procedure done as quick as possible. After that we were all pretty wore out- Lily fell asleep as soon as we got into the car so we just grabbed something to eat and went back to our hotel to rest. It continued to rain all day but we did venture out in the evening to get some exercise walking around the mall (a block away) and we brought back a cheesecake factory dessert- yummy. We like the hotel the hospital helped set up for us- it is a suite with a full kitchen and hot breakfast. The pool is small and outside and it is kind of chilly to us so we have not tried it out.
This morning we had the ultrasound and tried to prepare Lily as best we could. It was pretty simple but she still cried and had a tough time but she was consolable. We know that she has two kidneys and a uterus, but we have to wait for the doctors to give all the info. Then we were free for the rest of the day so we went to see the guest services and they gave us a welcome pack and free tickets to the Cincinnati Museum. So we went and toured the dinosaur exhibits and went through a cave and an iceberg and played with lots of fun things and went into the Children's museum to play for a while. Lily had a lot of fun and kept Dad on his toes. I wish I had brought the camera. Now Dad and Lily are sound asleep which is why I can type without "help" from Lily.
Lily has done well but she keeps asking for Kylee. It is nice to see how close they are. Lily is so protective of "my sister." Lily is handling this all better than I had imagined. She is very resilient and I think she is enjoying the one on one time with mom and dad.
Tomorrow we will be going very early in the morning for the day surgery to evaluate all that Lily will need to have done. Then the afternoon will have two extensive tests. On Friday we do a final XRay and meet the doctor to discuss all the findings. Please keep us in your prayers as we finish the testing this week. I will update when we can.
Friday, July 24, 2009
Old Pics from March 2009- Kylee in Wedding
I realized I never posted these pics and they are so cute so here goes....
Friday, July 17, 2009
The Fourth, Family and Fishing
The girls had a blast celebrating the 4th of July in Pennsylvania. We went to the Simmons Family Reunion at the Simmons Family Farm. Bo grew up on the farm and has such fond memories of his life there living right beside his grandparents.
The older kids loved riding quads and motorcycles all over the farm and they fit in some volleyball and games. Most of all Kylee and Lily loved the fishing! My Dad has trained them well in that. Uncle Ed helped Lily catch some fish and he was amazed at how she would hold the fish and then go get another worm to get back to fishing. Kylee loves to fish too and had fun with Dad...but she is not interested in touching fish or worms!
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