3 years

It is hard to believe but yesterday was our 3 year anniversary or as Kristi calls it referral-a-versary of getting the call for Abby Grace. 3 years ago yesterday we saw the scared little face for the first time and immediately fell totally in love. It is amazing to look back on those pictures and look at pictures from recently and even recognize her as the same little scared girl living on the other side of the world without the love of a family.
Then: waiting on us to come bring her home



2010 thriving with the love of her family:





We LOVE you baby girl to the moon and back!! We are so thankful to HIM for blessing our lives by bringing us you as our daughter and little sister.

Sunday Snapshot

Abby Grace and her daddy!!

Fabulous Friday!!

We had a great first day home. Sean did not disturb us until 10 when it was time to head to pick V up from church camp with her friend Morgan. She was so excited and surprised when I met her at the church. She was expecting us to still be in Charleston, I think she underestimated her little sister. V and I ran to Wally World to do some fat free shopping so Abby could have something to eat. We were delighted to find some yummy things to eat: cheese slices, yogurt, sour cream (she loves to eat it by the spoonful) some cottage cheese and lots of fresh fruits and veggies. I found myself looking a labels in a new way. I am one of those yep looks good let's get it shoppers. I never look at labels but WOW we really need to pay attention to the amount of fat we have been eating. I am looking at this 6 week no fat thing as a chance for us all to get a little more healthier. I was just cooking some dinner (tacos) and Jacob came in and said "Yuck...fat free tacos." We had a little discussion that aside from the cheese and sour cream everything was the same as "fat-in tacos." Boy was that a relief to him.
Abby has bounded back amazingly well. Today we stopped off at Nana and Papa's and she showed them her zipper.(code for incision)She was so proud of it. While I shopped on-line for V's textbooks she ate some of Papa's pickles. She may not be related to him by blood but the do share an amazing love of pickles. Once we got home she played outside in the yard with Owen and ran up and down the driveway a few times. I kept telling her to slow down but she had a freedom about her like never before. Not one did she say she was tired or appear out of breath. She just amazes me. My walking, talking miracle girl :)

Wheels!!!!

Abby Grace slept until after 10 this morning just before rounds happened. She was still wiping the sleep from her eyes when the team came bouncing into our room. After a bit of listening and looking they announced that tubes were coming out and we were going home TODAY!! Woohoo :) :)
So tubes came out around 11, had our x-ray and echo and we were cleared to leave. We made our way over to the pharmacy where we waited for almost an hour for her meds which Bryna had tubed over 2 hours earlier.

Nurses Note: We had Bryna when we were here for Ab's first heart surgery and let me just say she is fantastic. She is so sweet and calming with Ab. She is having a baby boy in September and she is going to be an incredible mom :D She won't be here when we are back down here in December for a few days when we have dental surgery but we were so happy she was here this time. All of the nurses here are super. They truly have a heart for what they do. Caroline, Tara, Lindsey, Rachel, Ms. Sandra, Mrs. Mary and all the other nurses were just wonderful :) Funny story...the other day I ran down stairs to grab a sandwich and left Ab up in the room eating her noodles. I returned to hear her carrying on a conversation with one of the nurses at the station in the remote. I told her if you need anything just press the button, well apparently she just needed to talk :)

Anyway, we went to the playroom to return the menagerie is toys we had borrowed and for Ab to have one last date with the doll house. Then we returned to the room for one more meal of noodles, ketchup and hotdogs. Bet she won't touch another hotdog for weeks. Now we sit playing Cooties, watching Enchanted (for the 10th time) waiting for our wheels to arrive to take us home. It is going to be so great to sleep in our own beds tonight and just be back with our family.




We don't have many limitations right now just a few not so great ones:
No swimming for 2 weeks in the pool. (lake, ocean, stream 12 weeks)
No soaking in the tub for 2 weeks.
No bouncing on the trampoline for 6 weeks.
No school for 6 weeks.
* And the kicker and worst one of all.. No fat diet til September 9!!!
That last one will be the hardest one to deal with. Luckily we can do some pasta. She is actually allowed 10g of fat a day but I guess Chick-fil-a and McD's are out for a while :( I was looking at options and really it should not be too hard to do but just have to start reading labels on stuff.

I will post an update in a few days. Thanks to everyone who has been praying for Abby Grace and offering encouragement and support!

Wordless Wednesday (Our humble abode)