Memories of our trip

Brad is doing great, far better than I thought he would be doing at this point, thank you for praying and thank you God for healing! So, we are off to San Francisco for the day and then a long drive home tomorrow. I will try to post some pics of our trip when we get back home.

I just spoke with Brad's doctor, everything went really well and he is in the recovery room. We should be able to see him in just a little bit, thanks for praying! Please continue to pray for the recipient and quick healing for Brad.

Oakland

Today we left Bakersfield to go to Oakland for Brad's bone marrow donation tomorrow. We decided to check out the Oakland Zoo when we got here because lately Mia has been very into animals. Our first stop was the elephants and it was so awesome because 1 of them was real close and so Mia got a great look, she thought they were great and wanted to go touch them, but didn't understand why we wouldn't let her. After that we went and saw the giraffes and again, some of them were so close, it was neat. She liked the giraffes too. But of all the animals we saw at the zoo, her favorite were the meerkats followed by a close second with some chimpanzees. The meerkats made her giggle uncontrollably, there were quite a few and they were pretty cute. Meerkats, go figure. We had a good time and then we drove to our hotel which is right next door to UCBerkeley. I think it's interesting that we are going to the hospital tomorrow, but it's not for Mia, I started thinking I have to give her her medicine at a particular time and then I said no I don't, it's Brad who can't eat anything in the morning. Will you pray that everything goes well and that he recovers quickly from the donation. And pray that the person who is receiving the marrow, that everything will go well there and that they will be healed completely. I will keep you posted about Brad tomorrow.

First Day Of School

Mia had a great first day of school. We got there at 8:30 and she played with the toys while I filled out paperwork. After all the kids arrived (there were 7 total, including Mia), we sat in a circle and did music time. We then split into groups and did different activities at different times, one of those was finger painting and that was alot of fun for Mia. After that the physical therapists worked with the kids individually, Mia practiced walking and standing. After that was snack time and then time to say goodbye. We had a fun time! On an interesting note, Mia is the only girl in her class! It will make her tough playing with the boys. :)

When we got home, Mia slept better for her nap than in a long time.

I <3 My Daddy

Dearest Daddy,

I love you so much! I know that you and Mommy don't normally write blogs about yourself, that's why I'm writing this one. Sometimes it isn't all about me, although it usually is...sometimes it's about you or Mommy or both of you. This time it's about you. I just wanted to share with everyone what great thing you are doing this week in Oakland.

My Daddy is going to be a bone marrow donor! Isn't that awesome! This will be the second time he's done it, the first time was 3 years ago (Mommy told me about it since I was just a twinkle in their eye at that time...) I'm really proud of my Daddy and can't wait to get big and strong so I can maybe be a donor someday. You see, years ago, there was a little girl in our town who had Leukemia and Daddy got tested to see if he was a match, he wasn't, but they put his name and information on the registry. 3 years ago they called him and now just this summer they called again. This time the only thing we know is that he is donating for someone who also has Leukemia. He told me it's real easy to get on the donor registry, anyone can do it, it doesn't hurt a bit. They send you a packet and you swab the inside of your mouth and send it back, that's it! I could even do that, probably without crying. So, I think it would be great if everyone that was able signed up and got on the list, wouldn't that be such a cool way to help someone in need!

They are going to put my Daddy out on Thursday, but I told him that he can be brave just like I am brave every time it happens to me, if I can do it anyone can! And then they'll draw some bone marrow out of his hip. He might be sore for a few days, but that's it and then he's done!

So, like I said, I think everyone should join the registry, here's the link!

Will you pray for my Daddy? Will you pray that God keeps him safe and that his bone marrow will save this person's life. Will you pray for this person also, that they would be healed with Daddy's bone marrow, but more importantly, that they would know Jesus too.

Now I have to tuck it in, I have a big day of school tomorrow...first day of school, first day of school! I'm so excited, I'll let you know how it goes. Thanks for always praying for me too, God is sooooooo good!

I love you Daddy,
Mia

Today Mia got her first pimple. I think it's strange and she probably doesn't appreciate me telling the whole world. :). Oh well, she probably won't like it when I share her baby pictures when she gets older also.

Today Mia also stood up in front of the fridge for the first time, that's a bit scary for us because she doesn't get out of standing too well and we definitely don't want any falls on the tile floor, that could be bad. :(

The transition to the hip brace has been going so so, last night not so well, so pray that she would adjust to it quickly. And keep praying for speech, I so miss the "mamas".

Last night Mia seemed to tolerate the hip brace just fine, she slept fairly ok in it, she was really tired though since we had such a busy day, so we'll see how she does tonight. Stretching is still going well, she does fuss a bit more with the size 8 dilator, so that tells us that it will become a little more difficult as we progress, but overall she's doing fine with it. Please continue to pray for more speech and sounds and that she would continue to build more leg strength and balance needed for walking.

Fun Times

Today Mia's friend Anna Claire was celebrating her first birthday. We got to stop by and see the birthday girl and that was alot of fun. Mia and Anna Claire are actually developmentally similar (with gross motor skills) because Anna Claire is pulling to stand and so is Mia. Anyway, here are the two cuties.

Then we went to Daddy's work picnic and got to see everyone there. We got to have ice cream, you can't go wrong with ice cream and then Mia and Daddy played in the water nearby.

Tonight Mia is wearing her hip brace for the first time. She was super tired when we got home and so she didn't complain, pray that she sleeps well in it and that she doesn't have to wear it for a long time.

Glasses!

Mia got fitted for glasses today. We went to Dr. Suter's office and I was pleased with the selection. There were several glasses that fit Mia's face well. My major concern is the bridge of her nose since it is wider and flatter than most, but we found a pair that fit well. They are actually flexible plastic and I chose them because they are so lightweight that I think that will be good for Mia. They come in lots of different colors and I chose a neutral peachy color. They should be in next week sometime.

Tomorrow we get fitted for a hip brace, pray for an easy transition there!

LA Again

We were off to LA again this morning to visit her intestinal doctor and see what the next step is in stretching. He was pleased with how everything looked, so we are moving up to a number 8 (8mm). We will be doing this for another 2 weeks and then we'll see him again. After that we were off to our next visit with her helmet place and they made a few minor adjustments. There was the thought that maybe on her next visit we would be done wearing the helmet, we're going to give her another month or so to see if there is anymore major growth...but probably we are nearing the end of our helmet days. I did mention that she's getting glasses and they said that they can cut slivers inside her helmet to fit the frames and it's not a problem to wear glasses and the helmet at the same time. Tomorrow we have an appointment to look at some options for frames for Mia. But, I am happy to say, we don't have to go back to LA for 2 weeks!!! I am super excited about that, so hopefully nothing else develops that causes us to change those plans.

Eye appointment Results

So Nana and Mommy and Mia went to Children's Hospital Los Angeles for another Mia eye exam. They said she has a slight astigmatism and that she uses her right eye more than her left, this is because her right eye needs less correction than the left. Both eyes are nearsighted and so they are recommending glasses. They think this will help train the left eye to be used more since it will see clearly. Right now we are trying to figure out where to get glasses for Mia, we were given some LA recommendations, but would prefer to find something locally, pray that she would adjust to wearing glasses!!

PS. Here is Mia giggling very cute in the car for Mommy!

Third times a charm, we hope...

So, we were very excited to try the nursery again, I purposefully didn't feed Mia right before church to make sure her tummy wasn't too full. We got there, I played with her a bit and then I left for church. I literally just sat down and they paged me! Yup, she threw up again! This time though they knew she wasn't sick, so we are thinking that she just gets nervous without me there and throws up. It's a new environment and new people and there is no one familiar to her. So, I changed her and then stayed in the nursery with her for the rest of the service and they thought I should do that a few more times until she gets more comfortable. Poor little sweet pea!

I'm excited to go to therapy tomorrow and show off Mia's new skill of pulling to stand, just in the last two days she has gotten very good at it! And for those of you praying for speech, she has started to make real soft noises again. No mamas or babas yet, but we are pleased that some noise is coming out. Will you please continue to pray for that, thanks!

She can pull to stand! Praise God! She just did it 3 times without my help, it's a big struggle, but she can do it! On that note, we hope you have a happy weekend!!!

One More Thing

We went to LA today to see an orthopaedic surgeon because Mia walks and stands on the inside of her feet. She has been doing this for awhile and her physical therapist has always told us that as she builds muscle strength in her legs and ankles, she won't do this anymore. Well, since there are so many other things going on with Mia, we thought it would be good just to get an expert to look at her feet and make sure she's ok. We saw him today and he checked her out and confirmed what our physical therapist has been telling us, she doesn't need braces on her feet...but...yup, one more thing...he was concerned about her hips and after getting an xray told us she needs a hip brace. The good news is she only has to sleep in it, the bad news is she has to sleep in it. Apparently, they are not comfortable and kids don't particularily like them. :( So, your hip is a ball and joint, her ball isn't fitting properly into the joint, it's slipping slightly out of it and that's because her muscles are weak there. The chances of this correcting on its own are 85%. With her wearing the hip brace it gets moved up to 98%. So, we will do this for 3-4 months and then recheck to see her progress. Pray for an easy transition to sleeping in this brace and pray for more leg strength.

I asked him what kind of shoes are better for her, structured or soft, and he said the best shoe is no shoe. They have done studies and found no benefit to either type of shoe, he said they are strictly cosmetic and you should only wear them if necessary. In fact, they've studied kids from Africa who have grown up never wearing a shoe at all and their feet are better formed and have less problems then ours. Interesting huh?!

On a side note, Mia has stopped talking altogether, she no longer says mama or baba, so will you please pray that we would get those sounds back. Thanks!

The Nursery

So, we finally decided we are ready to put Mia in the nursery at church. We don't have any surgeries for awhile and we are done with the exams under anesthesia, so it seems like she is ready to be around kids, she might get sick occassionally, but that's what happens when little kids are together.

So, we went to first service and stopped in to the "crawlers" group. Technically Mia is too old for the crawlers, but developmentally she's not ready for the "toddler" group since they are walking. The staff was ok with that, so we settled her in and then left. She was very happy to be playing in the nursery, they have cool toys and lots of barnyard animals, she loves the animals. They gave us a pager and said they would beep us if they had any problems. I was slightly teary eyed as we left because this is a big step for me, the mommy, I'm sure it's not such a big deal for Mia. Brad reassured me it was gonna be ok and off to church we went. I'd say we had been there only 10 minutes or so when our pager buzzed us, and off I went to find out what was wrong with my baby. Was she scared? Hurt? What could it be? Well not at all what I was expecting, she had just thrown up all over herself and on the floor, the nursery staff was frantic, does she have the flu? I tried to reassure them that she wasn't anywhere near sick when I dropped her off, but I'm not sure why she threw up. I felt horrible! Our first nursery experience! I guess it's one for the baby book. So, we will try again next week. :)

***update*** so, Mia is definitely not sick, she's been fine all day long, the only thing I can think of is that we fed her just before church and maybe her tummy was just a little too full. :(

Mia is doing very well with me stretching her. Right now it is pretty simple and not too painful for her because we are on a tiny number, but that's good because I want her to get used to it and be comfortable with me stretching her. So, I'm encouraged that it should go smoothly for the next couple of months. Thank you for praying!

We are on our way home from LA. Everything went great at our doctor visit and we now get to start stretching Mia. Her surgeon wants to ease her into it, so we will stay on the same size for about 2 weeks. If this is too much information, then just ignore, but the tool is a given diameter, we are starting at 7mm, and every time we go up, it will be by 1mm. The goal is to get her to about 13mm, and you usually go up 1mm each week, but he's taking it a bit slower with her. So, it should take us a couple of months to get there. You can actually feel her muscles working a bit when you insert the tool, so that is a good sign, pray that she learns how to control those muscles.

Yesterday at therapy, Mia pulled to stand all by herself 1 time! Praise God, how awesome is that. Her therapist was so impressed with how much improvement there was over the last 4 days. Keep praying for more leg strength. It's so neat to see her progress and how she keeps doing better and better.