Mina and Miracles.

Before I even attempt to write this post, if you are a mother -- go and wrap your arms around your child(ren). 
Hug them. 
Kiss them. 
Tell them how much you love them. 
Thank God for their life.

I do not want to over-dramatize the series of events that took place starting Thursday evening, but I want to have it accurately recorded. Because it needs to be preserved as a reminder of God's love, mercy, protection, and miraculous hand. 

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My sister and her sweet baby boy drove to our house Thursday morning to spend the day and night with us.
The day was perfect. We swam, celebrated Melanie's upcoming birthday with some cupcakes by the pool, and decided to just hang-out in our screened-in porch while we waited for Daniel to get home with a pizza for dinner.

In a split second, in the middle of talking and playing, Mina lost her balance and leaned up against the screen. It was loose and not able to support her. She fell 10 feet backwards onto the asphalt driveway below. 

The gut-wrenching irony of it all was that the porch was supposed to have been re-screened with railings added earlier the week before. The contractor got behind on another job, so it was pushed back to a later date. 

I cannot begin to describe the absolute horror of thinking your child has died.

I'm not sure I'll ever get over the trauma of that emotion.

This is where the nightmare begins and where God started pouring out miracles.

Daniel got home a minute after the accident -- Melanie was on the phone telling him what happened while I held Mina.

She said (through wailing and moaning) that her head hurt.

Minutes later she couldn't remember anything.

Not what hurt, not what happened, not even her name.

We rushed her to the hospital while my sister stayed home with Aubrey.

The ER was empty, which meant we were taken back immediately.

Mina was fighting off the nurses and doctors trying to assess her status, when all of a sudden she reached up to the side of her head saying, "Owwww!!" That's when I noticed blood coming out of her left ear.

The nurses and doctors went into high-gear. 

Neck brace, sedation medication, and immediate scans of her head and spine.

I was terrified before, now I was completely panic-stricken.

While she was being scanned, Daniel and I wrapped our arms around each other and prayed through sobs.

Once the scans were done, I went with Mina while Daniel stayed back to see the images.

It was so quiet in the room.
After praying over her, I started singing any song I could think of with the name "Jesus" in it. 

Daniel came back into the room. 

I wanted him to say everything was going to be okay.

But by the look on his face, I knew he couldn't do that.

As he started saying things like large skull fracture and contusion, I felt the room start spinning.

Another doctor walked in and asked us which Children's Hospital we preferred: Louisville or Nashville. 
The helicopter was going to be here 4 minutes.

In the meantime Mina started to come out of sedation.

The nurses tried to get an IV in her tiny veins 5 times before they were successful.

They gave her morphine (pain), zophran (prevent nausea/vomiting), and anti-seizure medication.

She fell asleep as the air med team came in, and I was informed that I wouldn't be allowed to go with her.
I tried everything I could think of to convince them to let me on that helicopter.

They let me ride the elevator all the way to the rooftop, and the last thing the air med lady said to me was, "I will be praying for her the entire flight."

The elevator doors closed, and I collapsed on the floor crying and begging God to protect her.

During all this time, Melanie had been packing all our bags and Daniel had driven home to pick up Aubrey and all our things. 

Someone (I think it was a nurse) walked me out of the hospital where I saw our car waiting. 

I looked in the back and saw Mina's carseat. 
Empty.

I lost it.

We prayed the entire way to Nashville.

Finally, after the longest drive of our lives, I had my sweet girl in my arms where she went from screaming to fast asleep within seconds.

They told us this night was going to be critical.

Words like bleeding on the brain, breathing tubes, seizures, facial paralysis were being said as possibilities I needed to be ready for. I kept her in my arms all night and prayed and whispered words of love and encouragement. 

This entire time, countless people were praying.

Angels and prayer warriors fighting for her while she rested.

Early the next morning, we were transferred to another room in PICU. Mina was already showing positive signs of improvement. She had to get neuro evaluations every hour for 24 hours. She was so tired, and kept getting woken up by doctors and nurses.

By early morning she was begging for her milk and saying she was hungry.
She hadn't been allowed anything to eat or drink since they weren't sure yet if they were going to have to rush her to surgery.

She was sitting up, talking, singing, and playing with her new toys.

All the doctors and nurses were blown away.
We were thanking God.

Instead of a second day in the PICU, all the teams: neuro surgery, ENT, trauma could not find a reason to keep her there. She passed a speech evaluation with flying colors, and we were told she would be moved to a step-down room that evening.

In the meantime, one of my dearest friends  from childhood (who now lives in Nashville) had just had a baby two days before. She delivered her precious baby boy at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital. Her sister (who saw my urgent post for prayer on Instagram) told her about Mina at the same time Mina was being helicoptered there. A short while later, my friend heard the helicopter -- she started praying for Mina that very minute. How amazing is that?! Our sweet girl had someone praying for her everywhere she was even when we could not be with her. Praise God!!!

The prayers kept coming, and Mina continued to recover...

The next morning she continued to improve.

She even walked down the hall with Daniel and Aubrey to get some ice cream -- singing the whole way!

It wasn't too much later, and we received her discharge papers!

AMAZING.

We were sent home with prescription ear drops, follow-up appointment dates, and things to be on the look-out for over the next couple of weeks. In true Mina fashion, she kept one balloon (out of the MANY she received) and had the nurse pass the rest out to all the other children on her hall. Seriously -- this girl's heart is made of pure gold.

We thank God for His amazing, miraculous work on Mina's behalf.

We are beyond grateful for all your prayers.

To my sister, my parents, and Daniel's mom who all dropped everything to be our rock during the darkest moments of our lives -- we could not have gotten through this without them. They made endless phone calls, texts, and updates to friends and family. Walked the hospital over a hundred times with Aubrey and took the best care of her while we tended to Mina.

We are all still healing from the trauma of it all.

Just the other day, I was cleaning out our hospital bags in the laundry room when I pulled out the dress Mina was wearing the day of the accident. I wasn't there at Vanderbilt when they cut it off her to avoid further injury once she arrived. 
It's the only dress she has with a ladybug on it.
I stared at the jagged scissor cuts, the blood stain on the strap from her ear. 
It was too much for me to take in...I bawled right there in the pile of dirty clothes.

Also, I feel the need to mention a few other things.

This is a picture of the porch to give you an idea of its height:

The day of the accident I wasn't sure I could ever go back to our house.

Then I decided if I did go back, I wanted to have that porch burned to the ground.

It wasn't too long after that thought I could feel God speaking to my heart. 

He was the Ruler of our home, not the horror of that accident.

If He can restore all of mankind, He can certainly restore our home and our hearts.

Daniel had our contractor send guys over IMMEDIATELY to re-screen and add safety railings to the porch. 

While this whole nightmare will forever be etched in our minds, we will focus on rejoicing and praising Him.

Fear no longer rules in this space, GOD does.

Please continue to keep our sweet Mina in your prayers.

We are unsure if her hearing is 100 percent in her left ear, and we are still keeping things very low key around here for awhile. We give thanks for her life. 
Her precious, miraculous life.

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This song has been in my head since we left Nashville...

"Let Everything That Has Breath"

Let everything that,

Everything that

Everything that

Has breath praise the Lord

Let everything that,

Everything that

Everything that

Has breath praise the Lord

Praise You in the morning

Praise You in the evening

Praise You when I'm young

And when I'm old

Praise You when I'm laughing

Praise You when I'm grieving

Praise You every

Season of the soul

If we could see

How much You're worth

Your power,

Your might,

Your endless love

Then surely we would

Never cease to praise

Praise You in the heavens

Join with the angels

Praising You forever and a day

Praise You on the earth now

Joining with creation

Calling all the nations to Your praise

If they could see

How much You're worth

Your power,

Your might,

Your endless love

Then surely they would

Never cease to praise

I will worship,

I will worship

I will worship

You with every breath

I will worship,

I will worship

I will worship

You with every breath

Our Little Diamond in the Rough

When we first saw "Sissy" on our agency's waiting children's list over eight months ago, Daniel said "Well, she's going to get snatched up fast!" to which I responded, "Yeah, I know. That's going to be one lucky family..."

I can just imagine God chuckling knowing WE would be that lucky family.

As time unfolded and we began to witness God's ultimate plan come to light, we started to refer to "Sissy"/Mina as "our little diamond in the rough".

There was something about her, something we couldn't explain...
She, honestly, seemed too good to be true.

Mina's file was on the "Special Focus" list.
This classification is often considered the bottom rung of children waiting for a family.
These are the children that have gone 60 days or more without any agency locking in the child's file.
Generally it's because the child has multiple special needs or a more severe special need.

The crazy thing is that almost all baby girls (less than 24 months old), regardless of their special need, are adopted quickly because most families seem to have this "I want a baby girl from China" mentality. (Not that I'm saying that's a bad thing...just saying...) At the time we saw Mina's file, she was only 10 1/2 months old. This is basically newborn status in the international adoption world.

Mina had two "special needs" listed on her file.
One scary word and another special need that I had never seen or heard a child having.
It didn't matter to us, and her special needs were things we felt our family was very suited to handle -- especially with Daniel's easy access to radiologic imaging.

The most recent medical information we had on Mina was when she was 7 months old, and we never received a single medical update while we waited to bring her home at 18 months old. In other words her file was almost an entire year old with no new information on her health status.

As the time drew near for us to travel, I mentioned to Daniel that we should guard our hearts for what might be awaiting us in China -- medically speaking. I had recently heard from several adoptive families that their child's special needs were far greater than what they were led to believe. With us not having ANY medical updates, I was wondering just how bad things might be. Not that anything would have changed my heart for our daughter, but I was getting anxious about the thought of trying to get her in to see certain specialists and managing all the necessary appointments once we were back home (and then again when we move to Cleveland for a year in June). What was daily life going to look like if she had additional special needs that we were not anticipating?

This is one of the many moments in the process of adoption where you take that leap of faith trusting that God is in complete control and that He has a plan.

The moment Mina was placed in my arms, I had this overwhelming peace flood my heart.
This little one was our daughter.
A wave of indescribable love washed over me.
She was wailing/kicking/dirty/boogery -- come to think of it, that's exactly how I would describe the first time Aubrey was placed in my arms! The only thing missing with Mina was the cutting of the umbilical cord.

The first week we were home, Daniel said, "So, do you wanna bring Mina into the hospital today?"
"Why?" I asked a bit confused.
"Uh, to see what's going on inside her body...?"
"Oh yeah!" I had totally forgotten this child had a medical condition to evaluate!

As we walked into the hospital I told Mina, "It doesn't matter what happens or what we find or anything...we love you, and nothing will ever change that!" She didn't understand a word I said, but I felt the need to say it anyway.

Well, do you know what we found?
An absolutely, 100% perfectly normal baby girl.
The special need that was listed on her file was nowhere to be found.

We went to the pediatrician that same week.
Do you know what we found?
A 21 pound (26th percentile), 31 inch (20th percentile), 47 cm head circumferenced (66th percentile) absolutely, 100% perfectly normal baby girl.

We scheduled blood work to check other things and to see if there were any hidden illnesses.
I bet you can guess what we found...
Yep, an absolutely, 100% perfectly normal baby girl.

She will need some additional vaccines now that she's living in the US, but nothing major.

When we started this journey, we felt called to adopt a "special needs" child.
Remember, I even wrote a whole post all about our "special" calling?!
Little Daisy was the face of our adoption until we met our Mina.
We filled out the medical checklist and listed over 70 moderate to severe special needs we felt God had given us a peace about.
We read tons of books.
Watched countless online seminars.
Talked with multiple special needs adoptive parents.
After everything, here we are with our little Mina bug who has no true "special" need other than needing to be in our family!
What an unexpected blessing
Thank you, Lord, for our daughter.

Our treasure.

Our diamond in the rough.

Monday was not fun.

Monday went down as one of my least favorite days...


Yes, that would be our little Aubrey conked out on a hospital stretcher with an IV and wrist guard.
Just looking at that picture breaks my heart all over again.

Let me fill you in...
Sunday Aubrey started intermittently saying her tummy hurt.
Like most moms, I suggested she try going to the potty.
Nope, that didn't help.
Then all Sunday night, she kept waking up saying her tummy hurt.
She was crying by the wee hours of the morning and was very uncomfortable.
We asked her where exactly it hurt, and she pointed to her belly-button.
Daniel examined her, and we both started thinking appendicitis.
We were ready to all go to the hospital with Daniel to ultrasound her appendix by 7 a.m., and then she fell asleep in her bed.
Sharp abdominal pains woke her up again, and she leaned over the side of the bed and threw up.
She said she felt better after that.
Then she said she was hungry.
I fixed her a waffle (her request) and after one bite, it all came back up.
Again, her belly seemed to feel better afterward so we started thinking maybe it was just a stomach bug.
Daniel went to work, and Aubrey and I assumed our positions on the couch for a low key/sick day.
It wasn't long before she was crumpled up in pain again. Writhing on the floor.
Mama, my belly huuuuuurts.


We pulled into the OU Medical Center parking lot 30 minutes later, and poor little Aubrey was growing more miserable by the minute.
Daniel looked at me and said, "I'm wondering if she has an intussusception."
"The thing that makes you come in to the hospital when you're on-call?"
"Yeah..."
"The same thing you say is horrible for any child to have to go through?"
"Yeah..."

 

Less than five minutes later, Daniel and an ultrasound tech began searching for the problem.

After looking at the appendix, which didn't raise any red flags, Daniel said, "WAIT. Go back, what was that..."

And there it was...a 3 cm intussusception (when part of the intestine slides into another part of the intestine. This "telescoping" often blocks the intestine, preventing food or fluid from passing through.)

Daniel walked us over to the main pediatric radiologist and had him personally scan her and confirm what he saw.

Yep. Intussusception.
By this point, we went to the Children's ER to have her admitted into the hospital while Daniel and his colleagues worked lightning fast to get Aubrey set up for the procedure.

 

The ER nurse we were assigned to just happened to be a member of our church, we even did a Bible study together awhile back. This was probably a good thing, because when her first attempt to get the IV in Aubrey's vein didn't go well, I might have been tempted to body-slam her to the floor. The second attempt was successful. (thankfully, and lucky for her...)
I'm pretty sure I will have recurring nightmares of Aubrey's screams from that horrendous experience. Not to mention I abhor needles...and needles being driven into my 4 year old's veins? I about lost it.

After the IV trauma was over, we were whisked to the fluoro room where the techs and radiologist would soon insert a large tube into Aubrey's rectum, then proceed to fill it with air to get her bowel/intestine to straighten back out. It's often called an air enema. I call it child torture.

 

Daniel "suited" up (lead apron to protect from radiation) and took care of the paperwork side. Having done countless of these procedures, he was on-hand to be a second set of radiology eyes to make sure everything went smoothly.

The radiologists watched on a screen as the air entered the bowel/intestine and then confirmed when the blockage was "fixed". There is always a risk of a perforation of the bowel during this procedure. In that case, the patient would instantly be taken to surgery.

By the way, Aubrey was fully awake during the entire thing. It was so traumatic that we think she has literally blocked it from her mind. Days later she still doesn't even mention it, only the IV part. Poor baby...

Thankfully, the procedure fixed the problem. To be on the safe side, the hospital likes to keep the patient overnight to monitor and to make sure there isn't a relapse. So after this horrendous event, we waited for our permanent room in the Children's ER. 

 

And a few short minutes later, we were ushered to room 9110 on the Children's surgical floor.

  

Aubrey received so many calls, personal "Get Well Soon" videos from her friends, and little surprise gifts/deliveries...she couldn't help but smile...

Daniel was on-call that night, and seeing as there was only one putrid green recliner in Aubrey's room, I sent him home to get some sleep. Besides, there was no way on earth I was leaving my munchkin's bedside.

I'm pretty sure I slept all of 20 minutes that night. Aubrey (thank the Lord) slept extremely well despite random machine alarms going off, blood pressure / IV checks every two hours and having an IV/wrist guard, three monitors strapped to her chest connected to machines and one taped to her finger.

I prayed for her all night long.

Prayed for all the other little ones who were sleeping (or trying to sleep) in the hospital.

Prayed for all the mamas and daddies who have had their hearts torn out watching their babies in pain.

Children's hospitals are definitely one of the saddest places on the face of the planet, despite their brightly colored walls / silly decorations / and up-beat nurses.

When Aubrey woke up, she was able to eat (it had been almost 40 hours since she had eaten or drank anything) and had her IV fluids stopped. She started acting like her old self (read: bossy) within no time, and we knew our girl was back! :) She was discharged and made a mad dash to the elevators!

 

Before we left, we went and personally thanked the techs and doctors who took such good care of our munchkin. They were all so thrilled to see how much better she looked. 

I took Aubrey to the Children's Hospital 6th floor rooftop playground before driving home.

We were definitely two girls in dire need of a bath and fresh clothes by this point!

The morning all this happened, I emailed myself a section from my devotional. Something told me I was going to need this reminder...

Try to stay conscious of Me as you go step by step through this day.

My Presence with you is both a promise and a protection. 

My final statement just before I ascended into heaven was: 

Surely I am with you always. 

That promise was for all of My followers, without exception.

God was definitely with us every step of the way.

In the bad moments, in the saddest moments, in the rejoicing moments, in the moments of relief.

Surely He is with us always.

Sunday Snapshot

(Our Sunday night routine: Dinner with Daddy-o at the hospital cafeteria.)

The Long Road Down Residency

As I mentioned in the last post, Daniel has been working a lot.
This past weekend alone, he worked 30 hours.

With such crazy hours, Aubrey would not have been able to see Daniel at all. Since that's totally unacceptable for the munchkin, we stopped by to say "Hello!" and eat dinner in the hospital cafeteria with him over the weekend.

Little Miss Aubrey informed me (several times) that I could leave. She wanted a daddy date, and I was obviously intruding. The two of them shared (in Aubrey's words) chicken arms and onion bracelets (aka: chicken fingers and onion rings), that girl cracks me up.

By the way, don't you just love the super healthy food served in most hospitals? Ha.

After dinner, Daniel took us to the reading room where he works.
It's complicated stuff, this radiology residency business...

"Mom, why are you still here? I said you could leave..."

Actually, we BOTH needed to go...

this is one busy guy!

But he's a gentleman, first and foremost,

and he walked his lovely date(s) back to the car.

He even gave us both a smoochie goodnight.

Sorry, no photo for that one.

;)
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Just a few more days and we get to whisk Daniel away on a little family vacation.

To his most favorite place: the mountains of Colorado!

I'm a beach girl (personally) and high altitudes don't exactly welcome me with open arms. I started taking medication this morning to help prep my body, and the meds alone are already making me sick.

Pray for me.

Please.

Visiting Dr. Dad

Daniel's work schedule has been a bit insane lately. 

So Aubrey and I decided to visit him at work today. 

{He's on a pediatric rotation this month, so it seemed less intrusive than other rotations.}

Looking at this picture sure makes me thankful for a husband who loves his job, a daughter who loves her daddy, and that we go to hospitals as visitors and not as patients.

Friday Funsies

Is there anything more precious than a brand new baby?

Well, two big brothers in scrubs welcoming their baby brother
is pretty darling...

And the initial introduction into the brotherhood?
Beyond adorable.

Embracing life as a family of five...
Truly a beautiful thing.

So sleep sweetly, baby boy...

You already have the most loving parents...

And two brothers who can't wait for you to join them in all their mischief...

*******
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother’s womb.
I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made...

Psalm 139:13,14

*******
Happy Friday!
&
Congratulations to the Laws Family!

Friday Funsies

At least twice a day Aubrey will say, "Let's go see Daddy at work! Pome [Come] on, Mommy!"

So, the other day, we did just that...

And I don't know who loved it more: him or Aubrey. :)

Daniel took her all around the radiology department,
which Little Miss Nosy didn't mind one bit!

When the time came to say "bye-bye", Aubrey did NOT want to leave. The picture above is of her pointing and saying, "Go back in!"

Daniel walked us back to the car, and Aubrey blew kisses out the window to him a full mile down the road. It was the cutest/sweetest thing ever. As we were halfway home, Aubrey (out-of-nowhere) said, "Mommy, I love Daddy. He's so cute." Haha!

*******

Happy Friday!

Friday Funsies

Some days I could swear Daniel somehow cloned a miniature, female version of himself.

Seriously.
*******

Happy Friday!

The "Real" Sunday Snapshot

The picture posted on Sunday Snapshot was taken earlier in the weekend.

This picture is a camera-phone snapshot actually taken on Sunday.

This is poor, little Aubrey at OU Medical Center getting an ultrasound of her hips.

Earlier in the weekend, our little girl woke up with a fever. Then -- what seemed out of nowhere -- she started limping, then completely unable to walk.

After some Ibuprofen and a 3 hour nap, she woke up still unable to walk or even stand. Daniel made some phone calls, and before I knew it we were in the car on our way to the hospital.

It wasn't until I called my mom when we were en route that it all really hit me. It's strange how the minute you have to articulate what's going on, your emotions really start to surface. I could barely utter "Aubrey can't walk..." when I just broke down on the phone.

Daniel said a prayer for Aubrey and us as a family before we got out of the car. I'm certain that's how I managed to get through the ultrasound and consultation with Aubrey screaming her lungs out.

One of my favorite verses is Psalm 121:1,2 --

I lift my eyes up to the hills, where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord, the Maker of heaven and earth.

Several moments I had to literally lift my eyes to get help from Above -- and to keep in the tears.

Well, after a normal looking ultrasound and consultation with the Pediatric ER Attending, the diagnosis was Transient Synovitis, or more scarily called Toxic Synovitis. In layman's terms it basically means that the virus had settled into Aubrey's hip. It generally lasts 4.5 to 7 days. Some cases have been known to last for 2 weeks.

Believe it or not, this was actually a "good" diagnosis. It could have been a lot worse.

When we got home from the hospital, Aubrey was exhausted and didn't want to eat anything. We thought she might enjoy a bath (something she normally loves), but instead of fun splish splashies, it was filled with sad pitiful tears. We put her to bed an hour earlier than normal and just prayed over her.

When she woke up this morning, she was still a little out of sorts. We prayed for her as a family, and then Daniel had to leave for work. After she ate a tiny bit for breakfast, I sat her down to see if she would even want to try to walk. She held my hands and took some sad, little wobbly steps. We sat down and just played with puzzles and books. She would start to get up, but then sit back down.

Then she stood up. Took a few solo steps and sat back down. I was so excited. Yesterday she couldn't stand up without crying in pain. This was amazing progress in my eyes.

Then...she stood up and took some more steps.

Then...she stood up and did her little tap dance routine!

I started crying and said, "Thank you, Jesus!" and then Aubrey started saying "Desus!" over and over again, which make me cry even harder!

Thirty minutes later I captured this little clip on video:

She has been walking (or should I say "sprinting"?!) around the house ever since.

Praise the Lord from Whom all blessings flow!

I also just have to share the scripture verse in my devotional this morning:

Whatever you ask for in prayer, believe. (Mark 11:24)

Here was the first sentence in the commentary:

When you are confronted with a matter that requires immediate prayer, pray until you believe God -- until with wholehearted sincerity you can thank Him for the answer.

The last bit was incredible:

You will never learn faith in comfortable surroundings. God gives us His promises in a quiet hour, seals our covenants with great and gracious words, and then steps back, waiting to see how much we believe. ...
...This is the time to look up through the storm, and among the trembling, frightened sailors declare, "I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me." (Acts 27:25)

Daily Devotional in Streams in the Desert by L.B. Cowman (Thanks, Jen for recommending it & Thanks, Mom/Dad for the Christmas gift!)

*******
Also, a very heartfelt "Thank you!" to all of you reading this who prayed for Aubrey. It was through your prayers that this little girl is back to her happy self again. I was planning on sending out a email to many of you to ask for your prayers, but the "first response prayer team" hit the ground running so fast Aubrey was better before I could even write it! If you think of it, please still lift her up!