Here we are in January 2012...

many changes have taken place and life is starting to settle down. We completed our move from Louisiana to Texas on January 30th, 2011. With the adoption of our beautiful little girl complete on December 19, 2011 we were free to complete our move to Texas and finally be done with living out of 2 households. Dave is enjoying his job, and I am enjoying not having to have a job at this point in time.

Emily has just started back with school (at home) through the school system here in Texas. She was supposed to start last week but her teacher was out sick and couldn't be here. The change that has taken place so far in this school system is that they have moved her from one 40 minute session per week up to two 1 hour sessions per week for now. At the end of February we will have a meeting to see where she is at and possibly move her up to 4 hours a week. She enjoyed her classes (2 separate 1 hour classes today) emmensely. Her teacher feels just from the original evaluation and today's classes that she is a very smart child and will do well increasing hours.

We have made a couple of small changes in her medical life. She has a new pediatrician here in Rockwall who seems to be a very nice guy. The office is very clean with very nice staff. He will mainly be on board for childhood illnesses and immunization updates and such. We have also added a Pediatric Gastroenterologist in the mix at Dr Boykins suggestion just to have here for any immediate emergencies with pancreatitis. He will follow her labs every two weeks for her liver functions and Lipase and Amylace levels but otherwise just be there in case of need. We will continue with Dr. Boykin being her main medical contact and Dr Fontenot following her labs for her TPN and Fluids regimen. National Pharmacy is also continuing on for TPN and Fluids and all neccessary supplies connected to those things. We are hoping to not have to make any changes in any of that for as long as we can help it. We did add a new nursing service to handle labs every 2 weeks and at some point will also make a change to their DME for pull ups to be provided. Right this very minute (knock on wood) Emily is doing very well and staying stable with all her medical issues. We head back to Shreveport to see Dr Boykin on February 10th.

So at this point we are just hangin' out in Rockwall, TX trying to adjust to the new surroundings and learn our way around. Lots of shopping at our fingertips but we haven't been out much to check it out. Maybe someday soon. Till next update...

Theresa

An amazing Christmas surprise for Em and Kylie...

Santa came to town. The Iron Warriors Motorcycle Club made a special motorcycle Santa run for the girls to bring presents. Typically the club donates to somewhere like Shriners but this year chose individual children to play Santa for. Emily of course has short gut and is TPN dependent and Kylie has the same diagnosis. On Dec 17th, Santa rode his Harley along Whitney Dr Bossier City, LA accompanied by 10 other Harley's carrying all Santa's very special elves. Emily didn't even wait for Santa to get off his bike before she was running to him. And once standing and as he walked toward the house, Em was close on his heals yelling "Pick me, pick me", a line she learned from Polar Express. We had a sea of people there to greet Santa and his Elves and had the best time. Santa brought Em an iPod touch and barbies and a hat and scarf while Kylie received a baby of her dreams and all the trimmings to go with it and a hat and scarf. It was a great day for two very special little girls and we enjoyed watching them have such a great time. Thank you Santa and the Iron Warriors.

It's finally over...

the adoption is complete and Emily Grace is officially our daughter. She decided a while back that the adoption we were telling her about was going to be her wedding. She asked on Sunday if she could have flowers for the wedding so we bought her some roses. When the judge told her that we were all married she got very excited. It's hard to believe that the adoption is final. Nothing changes but everything has changed. We are so happy to have this precious child in our lives and our family. Our next project is to get our little family moved to TX. (by the end of the year). Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.

It's getting closer...

We signed the paperwork at our attorney's office on Friday and the petition for adoption was filed with the court that same day. It looks like the week before Christmas will be when the adoption is finalized. Emily says that we are getting married (the three of us). She is excited about the adoption but just as excited, I think, to wear her pretty new dress that day.

Amongst all that we have to finish packing up the house and get moved and this house cleaned by the end of the year. Sounds simple enough but throw in the fact that one of us lives in Texas during the week and the other works 12 hour shifts and time gets a little tighter. And we also have Emily's social schedule. She has 2 Christmas party's to attend and a special presentation planned for here at home.

Today she received a special friend sent from the North Pole via Grandma and YaYa and Aunt Lynn and Uncle Jeff. Dave the Elf (on a shelf) has moved in for the holiday season to keep an eye on Emily for Santa.

So for now we wait (impatiently) for the adoption to be finalized so we can move to Texas and start the next chapter of our life together. Will update again after the completion of the adoption.

Theresa

2 hospital visits in a week...

not the record we we going for. This time the dreaded line infection that everyone told us would come finally made it's way around to Em. Almost a full 22 months with us and no line infection. On Saturday October 29th we took Em into the ER running a temp of 103. She was shivering and lethargic. She was admitted to PICU around 2:30am on Sunday morning and by that afternoon we knew that it was a line infection. We have been told since day one that it would happen but felt blessed that it just hadn't...until now. We started second guessing ourselves and our protocol. Emily's Dr doesn't want us to change a thing. He said we should celebrate the 22 month success that we enjoyed and continue in our vigilant care of Emily and the care of her line. Still the question weighs on our minds of what went wrong, could something have been missed or done differently?

While inpatient she was finally able to meet and spend some time with Kylie, another short gut kid. They trick or treated in the PICU hallways and once moved to the Peds floor, were able to get together in the playroom. Emily was discharged on Thursday November 3rd from the hospital. We continued her IV antibiotic treatment at home thru Sunday. She is doing great now (other than the diaper rash from the antibiotics).

We found out today, that all our paperwork was mailed to our adoption attorney yesterday. Next step....filing the petition for adoption with the courts and getting a date set for the adoption. So hopefully this can be done sometime in December and we can spend Christmas in the house in Texas. Until next time...

Theresa

It's been a busy week...

Emily started on Sunday being much more quiet than normal. We had a small birthday party for Vinny (our oldest grandson). We took him to lunch then home. On our way to Target Emily started vomiting extreme amounts 4 times one right after the other. We came straight home and bathed her and she seemed better. Later in the evening she had several dirty diapers that appeared to contain blood. In the morning the same thing but worse as far as her diaper. We took her to Dr Boykin and she was admitted overnight for testing. All tests that were done came back normal. She was discharged on Tuesday and received her flu shot at that time. On Wednesday she ran a low grade temp and I assumed it was from the flu shot. She woke up Thursday morning with a temp over 100. No big deal, gave her some motrin and within 2 1/2 hours her temp was up to 103. The Dr's seem to think it is still flu shot symptoms. While the temp concerned me (she's a kid with a central line after all), the main concern was her constant complaint of headache. Tonight her temp is down and I am so hoping it stays that way.

Still nothing on the adoption. I guess we'll end up paying another 2 months of two house payments and utilities and hope all is settled before Christmas. That will be it for this time. Hope to have a court date with the next post.

So much to happen...

yet nothing going on. We are still waiting on a date for Emily's adoption to be completed. We are making small attempts on moving things over to our new house in Texas. We can't completely move until the adoption is final. Spending money on two households is getting old really fast.
Emily's health has been doing very well. We hear once in a while that her belly hurts but nothing has been out of control and doesn't last long. Labs are still stable and weight is increasing as it should be. The Doctors are happy with where she's at medically.
We have been enjoying some of the cooler weather and taking Em to the park every once in a while. She has recently decided that she no longer needs naps, but that's not working out to well for her since she starts looking and acting drug out by mid week.
We have had to start buying clothing again since all of last years things are long gone. Em is in size 5 overall sometime into 6's for shirts or dresses. Into 8 1/2 to 9 shoes.
I will update again when we get a date for the adoption, we are so looking forward for that day.