It's Been Awhile

Wow I think this is the longest break I've ever taken from blogging! I got so far behind I felt overwhelmed! But I'm going to try to get back into it.  We have had two birthdays and a baptism, so lots to catch up on! 

 

Just some random pics this post- here is my awesome colorer!  I LOVE that he loves to color, because his big brother Cooper HATES to color.  Jackson is really into it and does this cute little thing with his tongue when he colors. :)

 

 He colors very elaborately and uses tons of different colors- love it!

 We have turned Claire into a TV addict as well-but only to Mickey Mouse.  It sure helps when I need to make dinner or take a shower! :)

 Just a cutie pie!

 Cooper has been obsessively practicing climbing the wall-he loves to climb to the top.

 More smiley Claire.  Things are going so well with her.  It just feels totally natural with her now, just like with the boys.  It's amazing.  She is so comfortable with us too and has even stayed with Grandma and my sister a few times with no problems!  We need to try it at night-still haven't done that yet.  Ryan and I are needing  date night! :)

 Her little "cheese."  Love it!

Seeing Friends

Look at this cutie pie!!  This was a few weeks ago. 

 She was having fun playing with her tea set-she loves to play tea!

 We made a tent one morning.  Here are the boys!!  Yes, they're still here. :)  They just aren't around me as much as my little model Claire is.  So she gets a lot more photos taken of her!

 In her first tent!

 and here's a (not so great) picture of Jackson in the tent!

 We were finally able to get together with our friends we met in China!  It took the girls a little while to become reacquainted, but they became fast friends and actually shared toys a bit.

 Here are the moms.

 Here are the dads.

 We got the girls in pjs before they left and they had fun jumping around in the crib a bit.

 What sweet girls.  I hope we can stay good friends with them, it'll be nice for Claire to have a friend from China like her!

How She's Doing

We are now almost three weeks post surgery-it's gone so fast! 

 

Here she is the day after her surgery.

 

 Then a few days later ( on mine and my sisters' birthday dinner at Cheesecake factory! :))

 Then a day later...

 a few days after that...

 and this was taken 2 weeks and a day post surgery.  (LOVE her smile in this one! )

 She has progressively gotten less swollen, although her upper lip is still a bit swollen.

 The scar is barely noticeable!!!  It is just amazing what her surgeon did.  We loved him!

 She didn't smile for a few days, and then after that it was just a little smile with mostly her bottom lip.  I'm sure her lip felt so weird to her at first!

 Now she's giving us much bigger smiles, I think she's getting used to her new lip!

 We had a few nights that she woke up quite a few times-Ryan and I took turns sleeping in her room for about a week post surgery.  But she gradually got back to normal.  Her hardest part I think was the recovery from her nose-it got very clogged and it was our job to try to keep it clean.  But she had just had surgery on it so I didn't want to be rough or anything!  Stressful! Luckily now it's pretty close to normal, still a bit more healing to do but it's MUCH better than where we were almost 3 weeks ago.

 She has just recently started giving kisses with her new lips again!  She loved to give kisses before her surgery but post surgery she'd give us her cheek when we'd ask for a kiss.  I'm so glad she's feeling more comfortable using these cute little lips!

Her surgery went so smoothly, it was truly an answer to all of our prayers.    Her next surgery won't have to be until she's around 8-to correct her gum line, thank goodness!!!We are so grateful and can't wait to just get into a normal routine with our girl!!

Claire's Surgery

I can't believe it's already been 2 weeks since Claire's surgery!  I wanted th o finally post pictures from it because she already looks so different from these photos.

 

Oh it makes my heart hurt seeing this smile, I miss this smile! 

 

She has a beautiful smile now too, but I will always love this smile.

We got to the hospital with plenty of time to spare, so we spent some time playing before the surgery.

We were trying to keep her mind off the fact that she couldn't have anything to eat or drink!

Look at this precious face!

Oops, these are out of order.  We went to play in the play area before she had to get her gown on. 

She was so brave, had no problems  with any of the pre-surgery procedures!  She is just so brave.

Ok so here she is post surgery!  It was AMAZING how good she did.  The surgeon was just wonderful, we just loved him.  He (and the nurses of course!) took such good care of her.  When he came to get us in the waiting room he told us that the second they took the mask off of her, her eyes popped open!  So he said the anesthesiologist (who is a mom of four boys) carried her to the recovery room and was enjoying rocking her :).  I have to say, for a minute right when I saw her in recovery, I didn't even recognize her!  It was unbelievable how different she looked. 

 She is normally SO active and doesn't really enjoy being rocked or just sitting and relaxing, so it was a little piece of heaven for me to hold her in recovery.  She slept on me for close to 3 hours!!  We just rocked and rocked.  When she woke up she didn't have any problems-never cried or anything.  Just was thirsty and hungry!  The primary reason we had to stay at the hospital all day is that the surgeon likes to have his patients hooked up to IVs all day long because lots of times they won't drink anything the day after surgery.  Well, the second she was fully awake she gulped down an entire sippy cup, then wanted more!  She also went through all the baby food and snacks and brought, and we had to order her something from the cafeteria.  Like I said, she's a rock star!

 We had a few hours once she woke up of just waiting around to be cleared to go home, so we took her on a few walks around the hospital floor. 

 The photos are a little graphic, sorry if it's a little too much to see-she looked a lot better than I thought she would actually!  I was preparing myself for a lot more blood.

 A close up of our girl!

 

 

One last look at her beautiful smile.  Good thing we think her new smile is beautiful too! :)

She's a ROCK STAR!!!

Look at our little miss!  She is the bravest kid I know!  Yesterday went amazingly well.  I'll do a more detailed post later but I wanted to post these pics and tell you all thank you SO much for your prayers!  They definitely worked.  Today she was running around acting pretty much like normal, just so amazing.  You can tell her whole body's a little swollen and her upper lip is really swollen, and that will go away I think pretty soon.  Doesn't she look wonderful? 

 

We are so thankful for this little miracle! 

Tomorrow...

this little girl is going to have her life changed.  She is having her cleft lip repaired! 

 

It is very bitter-sweet for Ryan and me.  We know that this is a great opportunity for her and is something that she needs to help her communication (and socially when she's older I'm sure!)  But we love love LOVE her smile and are SO sad that it is going to change so much tomorrow.  Honestly it's hard to wrap our brains around it.  When I actually think about it my heart sinks, so I'm trying not to think about it. 

 We're just praying that everything goes smoothly tomorrow, and in the meantime we'll try to get every last smile we can out of this girl!  We love her so much!!!

 

Prayers would be very much appreciated tomorrow-her surgery is scheduled to start at 9:30a.m.  Thank you!!!