September 23rd, 2016
November 25th, 2016
Hello All! I first want to say I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends. I cannot believe we have been home 5 months today. It seems like much longer. As we are in the holiday season we are reminded how important family is. We are thankful to truly get to enjoy the holidays this season with ALL of our babies in our arms. I did not realize how sad I was through the season last year knowing I was missing one of my babies. I know I have not posted for a long time so I am going to go back to mid-September when I left on last time.
September 23rd, 2016
Grace needed to get out of the house so we decided to go to the mall for Chick-fil-A and to play. She had her 1st meal since surgery and was so excited to eat chicken and fries. She also had a great time running around and playing!
After a very rough few weeks we got our first smile! Grace loves glasses and a friend brought her some over that were just her size!! Thank you Wolfe family!! She loves her glasses!!
Towards the end of September Grace is continuing to heal. She is having less blood everyday and her personality is coming back. Could she be any cuter!!
We had a small setback the end of September. Due to the high-powered antibiotics Grace was on for 14 days she had severe diaper rash (the worst I have ever seen). We went back to the doctor and had a scare that the antibiotic had not worked and that the MRSA was still there due to continued bleeding of her face and the severe diaper rash that she had. We saw the doctor 2 weeks in a row and got negative cultures. We were very relieved to say the least. If we had gotten a positive we would have been headed back to the hospital. Praising Jesus that the cultures were negative.
October 2nd, 2016
We celebrated Claire's 8th birthday! How can she be 8. I am so thankful to be her mom. She has become the best BIG sister. I am so thankful she loves Grace so much and Grace adores her. She is my feisty, energetic, sweet, loving, smart girl! Thankful we got to celebrate our sweet Claire on her birthday. All of the girls painted Leia (our French Bulldog) and had a great time!!
Grace was just happy to be at the party. She smiled, laughed, and ran around the entire time the girls painted!!
October 7th, 2016
Claire officially turned 8! We celebrated by getting her ears pierced and going to dinner!!
October 2016
Grace and her friend Branson playing at the mall. Branson is such a sweet boy and we are thankful to have him and his momma as friends. I know they would agree that adoption Rocks!!
Grace went for her 2 year check up today! We had to push it back due to the recent surgery. She weighed in at a whopping 19.8 pounds and was 32 1/2 inches tall. She was <1% in weight and 10% in height. The funny thing is that everyone thinks she is so small. She is actually 1 1/2 taller than Sydney was at this age, but 2 pounds lighter. It is hard to imagine that Sydney was about the same size as Grace at her age.
October 8th, 2016
Grace watching an OU game! We are definitely starting the brain washing at a young age. Boomer Sooner!!
We are continuing to not get much sleep around the Barnett house. She is still up 7-8 times a night and refusing to nap. We know she needs sleep due to the amount of times she passes out like this in the evenings. Praying God gives her the peace to be able to start sleeping soon!
Grace trying out her new bike!! Thank you Mimi and Mr. Jim for the bike. We love this t-shirt that Lifeline sent us. We will be forever grateful to Lifeline for helping us bring our girl home. If anyone is interested in adoption or looking for an agency we would highly recommend them. They were amazing throughout the entire process including paperwork before, in-country, and after coming home!!
Here is a picture of Grace and her friend Meghan. Meghan's family brought her home the summer before Grace came home. She is 4 years old. I will be forever grateful for her and her momma. She has been a great support since before we left for China. Being able to talk to someone who has been through all of the emotions good and not so good is priceless! Thank you Kelsey and Meghan for going on this journey with us. I know one day they are going to be great friends!!
After everything we have been through with 3 failed surgeries we decided to get a 2nd opinion in Dallas. Although we know it will be tough going back and forth we know we needed to go. The benefit of going to the doctor in Dallas is seeing friends. Thankful for the time we got to spend with our Dallas friends!!
Dallas Arboretum! I have never seen so many BIG pumpkins. I was so excited to get this picture. It is the first really good one I have of all 3 of my girls!! I am one blessed momma!!
We saw the doctor in Dallas and were disappointed to hear that he would have done things very different due to Grace's wide cleft lip and palate. We made a decision to have all remaining surgeries in Dallas. Dr. Ha stated that he would not touch her lip again for 1 year due to all of the trauma it had been through. He stated that if you put sutures in an inflamed area they will not hold and it would be a year for all of the inflammation to be gone. He did however want to go ahead and complete her soft palate (in the back of her mouth) to help with language over the next year. I asked him when and he said next week. We were in a bit of shock as we did not want to do any more surgery until after Christmas, but decided we would move forward because he felt it was urgent. We were concerned with the MRSA, so he called and got us into an infectious disease doctor the same day we saw him so that was great. We came up with a plan and were ready to move forward with surgery in 5 days:).
Upon arriving at this office God showed off big. God would always send me butterflies on hard days during all of the paperwork. I have always referred to Grace as my little butterfly. With 3 girls our favorite colors are pink, purple, and turquoise. When I got to Dr. Ha's office the door was covered in pink, purple, and turquoise butterflies. Then when we got into the room there was a huge picture of butterflies above the exam table. I knew this was God reassuring us this is were we needed to be!
On a side not all in the same 2 weeks as the appointment and surgery we had a hot water heater go out and my car broke down. We firmly believe it was all spiritual warfare. Satan did not want us making it back to Dallas for surgery. It worked out and we made it there despite everything. We know God is in ultimate control and we had to trust him and his timing. Thankful we serve a BIG GOD who can do all things. We were grasping onto this with everything we had during this difficult time.
Before surgery we decided to hit one more pumpkin patch in OKC. Pumpkinville at Myriad Gardens is beautiful this time of year!!
Sisters are the BEST!!
October 26th, 2016
We are in Dallas at Medical City Children's for surgery number 4. If you had told me we were going to have 4 surgeries in 3 months I would have said no way we could handle that, but we are and we will. We hate that she keeps having to go through surgery, but know we have to and will make the best out of it. Look at this sweet baby with no food or drink all morning. Still smiling and full of joy!!
This surgery has been much tougher than the previous ones. We were told the palate would be tougher, but we did not know how tough. Our sweet girl was in so much pain after surgery. We are usually in recovery for about 20 minutes and then off to our room. We were there for 2 hours. The nurse had to go into his next surgery to get permission to give a very high powered medication to calm her down after screaming for an hour. They had to give it twice. It is very heartbreaking to not be able to calm or comfort your baby. Once in the room she spent most of the day sleeping and crying. Lots of morphine. The nurses did a great job keeping her as comfortable as possible. Thankful it is over, but know it is going to be a rough few weeks. The doctor wants her on pureed food for 10 days and in the arm braces at all time for 10 days. Poor baby. Here is a picture of our sweet girl the day after surgery.
As we continue to move forward God is stretching us and teaching us more than he ever could during smooth times. We are reminded daily of our sinful selfs and are thankful God is continuing to grow us each and every day. We are beyond thankful he chose us for this journey even though it has been harder than we could have ever imagined this sweet amazing child is worth it a million times. She continues to amaze us everyday and spread JOY everywhere she goes. She has a spirit that is truly amazing when you think about everything she has been through. We LOVE you Grace Mei!!
