Down On The Farm.

One of the many things that I love about Lily's riding school is that it is a huge farm and you can go there anytime and go anywhere. At first I wasn't comfortable walking around but now....huh, we wander into every crevice scoping out wild life.

If I watch Lily ride she doesn't do as well as when I leave her alone. I think she feels pressured to do really well and ends up messing up. Since I don't want her to fall off, Rosie and I meander through the stables and I can watch her through the stalls with out her knowing about it.

As soon as Rosie sees Lily mount her horse she points in the direction that she wants to go. It is always done in the same order, first these stables and then those across the paddock and then back to the front and then off to see the puppies. After that we sit on the grass, away from Lily and watch her ride. Once Lily is done Rosie always takes her to see the puppies.

Rosie is somewhat shy of all animals but she loves the puppies. So much so that we contemplated getting one of them....but thankfully we came to our senses!

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This particular puppy is my favourite. She is the runt of the litter and just so tiny. Here Rosie is giving her a kiss.

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Spying on Lily from a distance. She is the one in the black riding hat.

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The owner of the farm, who is now quite old, absolutely loves kids and he built a tree house for all the kids that ride there. You can't see it in the photo as it is off to the side but you have to climb up this Banyan tree to get into it. He always comes over to us when we are there and talks to Rosie and gives her his business card, which she promptly eats?? It is now a routine and I find it so funny. Once he leaves I force the card away from her.


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Lily getting some puppy love.

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I really have no idea why I took this video but I think it is so sweet how Rosie races over to Lily and Milena so that she can play with the big kids. Her little legs are going so fast that it looks like it is playing in fast forward. Note the goat at the beginning. He literally followed us everywhere for 2 hours and stopped occasionally to eat Rosie's shoe or the back of my pants.

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No One Was Hurt In The Making Of This Video

Well, she wasn't hurt that much! She kept doing the same thing over and over again. In the end I moved her back on to the slide cos she just kept getting bashed in the head. Silly goose.


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Done, Fineto, Finee

We have just returned from Miami Childrens Hospital where Rosie had her post operative check up. She endured another chest x-ray, and another EKG and then we met with the big man himself, Dr. Zakheim. After a quick glimpse at her films and a quick look at the EKG he examined her himself and declared her perfectly healthy. Even her right ventricle is now back to normal size...in just 2 weeks. No more heart murmur, no more PDA. He then said something that has left us grinning like two Cheshire cats. He said, I don't ever need to see her again!"

Rosie is all done with the cardiac care unit at Childrens. It feels so good to write this. We knew before we bought her home that this was going to happen but never in our wildest dreams did we think that within 8 months of coming home that she would be finished with it all. It is 11 months since we saw her face for the first time and fell in love with her, it is eleven months since we first saw Dr. Zakheim and learnt all about her condition and realised that it was something minor and something we could deal with, it is eleven months since we let down our guard and allowed ourselves to love this little girl with every fibre of our being.

To Dr. Zakky, we thank you for being there from the get go. We told you today how much it meant to us to have you explain the patent ductus artieriosus so thoroughly to us. You made our dream of Rosie come true.

To Dr. Zahn. How lucky we are to have you on our team. You are not only an incredible surgeon but a caring and wonderful man. Your nurses are just like you and how much we thank you and them for that.

To Dr. Magrell. How did we get so lucky. Thank you for listening to us and taking the time that you took to reassure Rosie before you made her fall asleep.

To Dr. Sussmane. Thank you so much Jeff for recommending Zakky to us. You were right all along, it was a non issue.

The CCAA considered Rosie to be "un-adoptable" in the regular program because of her heart. We found her by chance and knew she was ours and that we would eat fire and jump off cliffs to be able to bring her home where she belonged and fix her wonky little heart.

We succeeded.

And to Rosie it was just another day. She has no clue what happened and what she has been through. She whinged a little bit at the exams today but did not scream, fight or generally work herself in to a frenzy. She did however MARCH out of the doors to the hospital saying, Bye-bye."

Qi QI you are such a brave little soul and we all love you so much. You won't remember any of this but it has made you a fighter and all of it will help to shape you into the person you will oneday become.

This truly marks the end of a chapter.

Pumpkins Galore

Yesterday morning I was suddenly hit by a lightening bolt and realised that, right now, we needed to take the kidlets to the pumkin patch. It had to be right now. I ran them upstairs and changed them into some seasonal looking clothes and off we dashed. Lily was quite upset that she didn't have any "fall colour" dresses and ended up wearing trousers which does not a happy Lily make.

I love pumpkin patches. I had never been to one ever until Lily came home and I just love them and I always take way too many photos so you are about to get bored to tears.


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Rosie has found some that are her size

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Lily decided that Rosie ought to carry 3 not 2.

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Lily finds a peculiar shaped one.

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So sweet together

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Enougth photos already Mama....this is getting B-O-R-I-N-G

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The Pumpkin family

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It is a good thing I was so energetic yesterday cos we never would have made it there today. We were all very lazy and when Rosie went down for her nap we all followed suit. We stayed in the house loving the fact that we had nowhere to go and no schedule to follow. I finally got out of my jammies at 5.30 this evening so that we could go to the ice cream shop. We did rearrange the furniture, yet again, in the toy room and our bedroom and cleaned out our closets so the day wasn't completely wasted.

We Made It.

This morning we all got up and got on our bikes and rode Lily to school. She was a bundle of energy, nerves and excitement.

Our usual morning routine involves one of us getting up and taking Lily to school, usually me, and the other one stays home with Rosie and moves at a more humane pace for that time of day. Today of course we were all up and bustling about. I was feeding the kidlets and Jacob was checking tyre pressure and finding bike helmets etc. Finally it was time to leave and we headed out. Rosie has her own little seat and it can go on either of our bikes but this morning Jacob put her on mine. He took the lead and I must say he looked very dashing wearing Lily's pink and brown Osh Kosh messenger bag over his shoulder, Lily followed him and I took the rear with Rosie. Those that know me will understand why I was bringing up the rear of this convoy and not leading....I do not do mornings.

Once we got to the main street, the equivalent of a dual carriageway, Jacob waited for the light to change rode into the middle stuck his hand in the air to stop traffic and waved us through. All I could think of was the children's book, Make Way For Ducklings. Once we got very close to the school, traffic was awful and nobody was about to let us cross the road so once again Daddy Duck rode into the middle, narrowly avoiding being run over, stuck his arm in the air and waved us through. At this point the convoy was longer than before as we had picked up some other families. Lily was doing really well and had managed to avoid all parked cars but when her teacher drove by and started beeping and shouting hello out of her window she nearly fell off.

This afternoon was a different story as I was alone for the pick up and part of me really wanted it to pour with rain so I could go in the car but it didn't and I didn't. Rosie and I rode to school and I took a cold drink for all of us and a snack for them and once she was dismissed we sat down under a tree and had our refreshments. It was actually a play for time because by the time we were done nearly everyone had gone and we were able to ride without many cars. It was nearly 90 degrees today so we stopped one more time under a tree on the way home so that Lily could have some more water.

Her school isn't far ( just over a mile) and we have biked much further distances but not usually in 90 degrees and not on a main rode. I just hope tomorrow when I have to go and pick her up that Rose doesn't have a fit because we aren't on the bike.

She was really chuffed that she got to do this and as far as I could tell only one other classmate did it.

Lots of Yipping.

My goodness this week has flown by so of course I have lots of yipping to do.

The first thing on my mind is this whole contaminated milk, formula scandal that is coming out of China. We received word from Half The Sky that Rosie's orphanage used the tainted formula. My initial gut reaction was, she has been out of their for 7 months but then the story unfolded a little more and it turns out that this problem has been going on for 2 years. My initial reaction to this was, she is healthy. The adoption websites and boards have been a glow with this scandal, and rightfully so as it is a tragedy and the people behind this need to be punished however I felt that Rosie was OK and she had enough going on with the heart procedure that she just didn't need any other tests being done at the same time. As I spoke to various other adoptive parents I found that some felt the same why I did whilst others were panic stricken and were heading to their Dr.'s offices to get renal ultrasounds done. I called our pediatrician and we had a very, very long chat about it all. We are opting to do nothing yet. She wants to wait and see what the American College of Pediatrics has to say about it and what they feel, if anything, should be done to the children who may have been exposed. She assured me that all an ultrasound will do is show any kidney stones and even if they are there they won't do anything about them anyway. It doesn't show kidney function and that is what we need to find out. She feels that since Rosie is skyrocketing (yeah, pretty funny that she used those words, they made me laugh too) in her growth, her development is right on target, she ran a kazillion tests on her when she first came home, she has had 2 negative urinalysis done and she is totally A-symptomatic, that nothing is wrong with her at all. I trust this woman 100% and with Rosie she always airs on the side of caution and as a result of this we are confident that we have made the right decision. If something appears that she finds alarming we will jump into action. This is a personal decision that we are making I don't blame others for checking deeper into this and I don't expect to be judged for our decision either. Andie, if you are reading this your favourite sweeties have been put on the tainted list! White Rabbit sweets are tainted so considering you ate a bag while you were here you need to decide whether to hop on over to radiology and give yourself a little ole' ultra sound! Ann if you are reading this: oops sorry but she will be fine!

Yesterday hubby found out that his best friend was dead. It was very unexpected and a rather grim situation and due to the circumstances Lily overheard a phone conversation between Jacob and a detective so we told her that Daddy's best friend had gone to heaven and that Daddy was very sad. She said she was very sorry and took off into her toy room. Later on she appeared with a note for Jacob that read:
I am using her spelling as she did it all herself.

Dad.
I now all the good times you had. Now it is the end of them but look at the brit side or don't think about it. It's the onle way to forget.
Love Lily.

She is 6 people, 6! This child has the soul of a much older person. She is so incredibly sweet and kind. I know she is my daughter and I am meant to feel this way but honestly I do not know too many kids that would even think of something like this let alone write it down. She is just so special and profound.
Jacob, I am so sorry sweetheart. I truly hate to see you hurt, it breaks my heart.

Part 2 of my blog book is finally at the publishers. Considering this was a Mothers Day gift, it's about time. I really don't mind waiting because the finished product is so wonderful but now that I know it is so close I want it in my sticky little mitts. It has been promised my Halloween.

Last year Lily received in the mail 2 pre-approved applications for Amex and her AARP card. I just shredded them but last Saturday she received another AARP card and since she loves to get mail I let her open it. She is thrilled, absolutely thrilled to have a real card with her name on it. For my foreign followers AARP is the American Association for Retired Persons. Once you hit 50 you receive this little ditty in your mail about once a month unless you politely tell them to take a hike!
When you watch this video look in the bottom right hand corner and notice Rosie trying so hard to get in on the action. She can clearly be heard saying, Cheese!


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Aren't these the most gorgeous coloured Roses you have ever seen? This arrangement was waiting for me when I got home from work on Thursday. The card read, "To two very relieved parents". Yes they definitely came to the right house. Thank you so much Jeanne and Daddy. Even though I am quite sure that Daddy had no clue about them.

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On Sunday we went to the Dragon Boat Festival. We go each year and always have fun but this year the weather was our enemy and we only got to see one race before the sky fell down.
Here we are watching the race perched on the rocks. Lily was loving it and having a great time.

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Rosie, on the other hand, not so much!

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Tomorrow is National Walk Your Child To School Day. You can walk, bike, skateboard or scooter. We are going to ride our bikes there. Lily is really giddy about it. I am a little bit nervous as it will be during rush hour and we have to cross one really busy street (Sunset) but she has been doing really well so I have to give her a chance. I think we are going to make it a family affair so I am hoping that the old, safety in numbers, cliche will hold true!

Egads, this is a long post so if you are still reading you deserve a medal. Talking of medals, Andie recieved one for her work in Iraq. She was in the local paper with her photo and everything. I would post a copy of it here but I know she would hate it. She deserved it and she will deserve another one in a few more months. Lily thinks having Andie in the paper is amazing she thinks she is famous. She squealed when she saw it.

I promise to make the next post a lot shorter.

All Better

Rosie woke up this morning at her usual ghastly hour and was full of beans. She was chatty and bouncy and just completely happy and carefree. We were sitting on the couch drinking coffee and she said, "ouch" and looked at her hand very accusingly. I kissed it better and asked her if she had an owie. She lifted her hand up again so that I could kiss it. It is the hand that had her line in it so I think it must be a bit sore. I have seen her kiss it herself a few times today as well. She climbed the stairs a few times to day but I carried her up as well so as not to strain her leg but as of tomorrow ALL restrictions are gone. When I gave her a shower tonight I noticed that the insertion site was a tiny bit red but nothing alarming so we will wait and see. Tomorrow she can have a bath and she will be so happy cos she loves her bath.

The only evidence that anything was done is her bruise and even that is 50% better already. It is amazing what circulation can do for a body. Possibly the most amazing change in her is that she is not sweating all the time. When she would wake up from a nap her head would be drenched but today it was dry, bone dry.

We have to go back on the 13th for her post op EKG and chest X-ray. This time I cannot wait, I want to see all the changes is her and see the doctors beam with pride as they examine their perfect work.

Her insertion site.


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Rosie isn't the only China Baby having some "heart work" done this week, my blogger friends little girl went back for her check up and also received a gold star. This little angel is the one who inspired Jacob and I to broaden our horizons and she is the reason that we found Rosie. "M" we are so happy that you little heart is getting so strong. Hope you feel better and that nasty flu is gone soon. Mama, we hope you feel better too.

On a funny note:
Rosie has been asking me all day to pee on the toilet so of course I oblige and pick her up and put her on the loo. Each time she would fidget around trying to get me to take off her diaper but I never did as I knew she wouldn't actually do anything other than take 10 feet of loo roll and stuff it in the loo. Tonight before her shower she asked again so i whipped off her dipe' and sat her down. She made the "psss" sound and wiped and then cheered. She really is a hoot.

The princess on the throne.


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This next story is a bit tasteless so some of you might want to exit here but it is funny and it had Lily and I roaring with laughter.

Tonight for desert I gave the girls fudgesicles. Lily was busy eating hers and Rosie was licking hers also. Rosie then picked up her napkin and wiped her face, (she does this all the time) and when she saw the brown stuff all over it she looked alarmed and said "eeeewwwww" and without a moments hesitation whipped the napkin down to her bottom (she was clothed) and started wiping and then looked and said, "eeeewww" again. I think she really thought it was poop. She would not eat another bite.

So as you can see, life is back to the normal nonsense. We took a 48 hour detour but that is literally all it was, a detour.

The Day That Changed A Life

Before I begin this post I need to explain ,why all the details. This is my journal for the girls and I want to capture as much of yesterday as I can so that Rose will know what happened since she won't remember any of it.

Rosie looking around and summing the place up. Ignorance is bliss!


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Checking in that direction too.


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Checking over there


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YO! Is that a white coat that I see?


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Rosie and I left the house early, very early, and headed to the hospital. After we were registered we were sent to pre-op registration where we waited for Jacob. He had driven Lily to school and zoomed to get to us before Rosie went to sleep. He literally arrived just as they were calling her name. So we all walked together into the pre-op area. This part was wonderful as they had loads of toys and things for the kiddies to play with. Rosie and her new found friend, Will, were having a blast but then Will fell asleep very suddenly and Rosie took note NOT to drink what he was drinking.

Hey, I like this place but what happened to Will?


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We got her changed into her little gown and they took her vitals etc. We were so shocked because she didn't cry. If you know Rosie you know that this is huge news. The nurses took their time and talked with her and made everything fun and she loved it. Loved it that is until she got the same drink that Will got and she wasn't going for it. This is also where we met with the anesthesiologist and the surgeon and their respective nurses. Everything was explained, we signed the papers and felt so fortunate to have this team on our side.

Why did you make me drink that stuff. I am NOT happy about it.


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Repeat: NOT happy about it.


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Whoa Mama, I just saw a pink elephant and it is funny, really funny. In fact I just cannot stop laughing. Mama, why are you all blurred? Is Will having this much fun?

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I am feeling very woozy Daddy and I can't see straight anymore but it is fine...I am loving it.


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She laughed and giggled the whole way to the cath lab and then she was so whacked that she couldn't even speak. It was so great because she was clueless. The sedative that they used causes mild amnesia so she truly cannot remember what happened. (Somedays I think Jacob must put some in my coffee)


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We were with her right up until the second she fell asleep. She didn't even care when they put the mask over her face. Our Dr.'s were really wonderful. We kissed her goodbye, and I got a little teary eyed and then we were escorted out of the operating room. We went to the cardiac waiting area and the nurses rang us to see how we were and to to tell us that Rosie was fine. It seemed like 10 minutes later that the surgeon and the nurse appeared to tell us that we were needed down in recovery as she had just woken up and was furious. They also explained that everything went well and she was fine. She needed two coils and not one to plug up the hole. We were warned that she might be really mad when she came too but we were not expecting her to be that mad. We ran with the surgeon into recovery and I could hear a child screaming but I knew it wasn't Rose cos the voice was too deep. Wrong! It was Rose and she was hoarse. She had every wire and tube imaginable attached to her and she was flailing her arms around. A nurse was trying to give her a pacifier which was making her worse. They listened to us before they took her away and I was happy to hear them calling her Qi Qi. The nurses told me that I had to hold her leg straight and still and they were moving her to my arms to see if that would help. At that point the doctor administered Demerrol and she went right back to sleep. The second time she came to she was fine. A little stoned but OK.

One strong little girl with a very healthy heart...and lungs!


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I don't think she knew we were there at this point


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Minutes after she came too Jacob had to run and get Lily. Here we are much later all together again.


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This is the balloon dressing that they used to keep pressure on the wound. It is an amazing device and makes it so much easier to handle little ones after something like this.

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I was really happy that the wires, IV's etc didn't seem to bother her. She accepted that they were there and dealt with it.


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Later in the evening when Daddy and Lily had gone home she perked up so I gave her some snacks and sat her down to watch Elmo.


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She was exhausted by about 7 so we called it a night. Her heart monitor was on the fritz and beeped every 3 minutes so I had to get up and turn it to silent but 3 minutes later it would beep again. She woke again around 2.30 so I played with her for a while until the nurse said she couldn't be in the chair with me for safety reasons and had to get back in her crib. She went right back to sleep and I watched more t.v and waited for the nurses hourly visit. I didn't sleep at all. Not cos I was worried, because honestly I wasn't but because of the bloody shrieking shrew of a monitor!

She woke up for the day at 5 something and immediately looked at her purple taped hand and announced, "off'', ditto with the blood pressure cuff, the oxygen-monitor and the chest stickies. I explained that she had to keep them onand she repeated "off". This time it was an observation as she had removed the oxygen monitor from her thumb. I tried so hard to get it back on but I couldn't cos she was fighting. At this point I figured that she was obviously fine so I tossed it over the crib side. By now the heart monitor is having a real fit and shrieking in a whole new tone.

She was her normal self from the moment she woke up and she ate a great breakfast and we waited for the nurses to free her of her machines and give us our eviction notice.


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She was anxious to explore so we hit the hallways


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Jacob showed up around 9.30 and we were out of the room getting her post-op echo done. He and Lily, (Lily had no school today because it is a teachers work day) came to the room and couldn't believe that Rose was fast asleep. Jacob asked if they had drugged her and was surprised to hear that she was calm and enjoying it and just fell asleep. After that we headed back up stairs and waited forever to get evicted. We spent so many hours in the toy room and walking the halls. The orders finally came and we said our thank you's and left.

Rosie has no restrictions but cannot be submerged in water for 3 days and cannot get too crazy. But she was silly all morning and the nurses kept saying it was fine. She went right to sleep when we got home and woke up cranky....very, very, cranky and stayed that way until bedtime. She is exhausted.

Rosie was a trooper. She amazed us with her behaviour and won the hearts of all she met. Lily was a champ and took it all in her stride. We spent alot of time explaining all the details to Lily in a 6 year old format and it helped her. She did great.
We cannot say enough positive things about Miami Childrens. My only question is this: Everything there is geared for kids, everything. So why when you order room service (that is what it is, they cook to order there and you eat when you want!) do they serve food to tiny kids, and they have all there stats in the computer cos it comes with a print out attached to it, do they use full size utensils?

Below are 2 photos of Rosies heart.
Before Shot
In this photo you can see what looks like a stem and then to the left is what looks like a leaf on the stem. The stem is the pulmonary artery and the leaf is blood. Blood that shouldn't there. It is leaking back into the ventricle.
This is the before shot.


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After Shot
in this photo you can see the "stem" but it doesn't have a leaf attached. You can clearly see where the leaf has been pinched off. Those are the 2 coils that were inserted and they have clogged up the vessel and what you see here is a perfectly healthy heart.


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Our baby has a healthy heart. A normal heart and will never need to have anymore procedures done to her heart. She is 100% mended. Rosie is fine....we are so happy to have this behind us. We want to shout from the rooftops that Rosie is OKAY. All she has to show, outwardly, for her troubles are one band aid where the IV line went in and on small band aid on the catheter site in her groin and an enormous bruise from the catheter being inserted.

It was a day that truly changed a life. More than one in fact.