Before and one week later

We just had Lili's stitches on her cheek removed. The scar is amazingly small! She looks great for one week after surgery. Emily (nurse) and Dr. Buckmiller both said that we will have to wait 3 weeks post surgery to know how it will truly looks and even after that time frame the redness will hopefully go away more on its own. So far so good! The one by her eye still has stitches (they are disolvable) but looks great and the one on her cheek is much flatter than it was prior to surgery (but puffier than it was right after surgery). The doc today said that we will have to be very careful with her cheek.... he said that it will split open very easily...so, one more week of being paranoid.

Now, as a side note and totally off the subject... What in the world are we going to do tonight - we have enjoyed and looked forward to manyTuesday and Wednesday evenings because of American Idol... bummer - anyone else going through American Idol blues??? :)

Lots of pictures posted below of LR trip

Tragedy - thoughts and prayers to the Chapman family

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MLYxtuC0oRk (Steven Curtis Chapman and his family are huge advocates for Chinese adoptions and have helped bring several children home to other families. He is also a Christian songwriter who writes lots of adoption songs - another one of his songs is on the sidebar of my blog and has been a favorite of mine since I found before we got Lili. I'd encourage you to watch the video on you tube -listed above- the song is titled Cinderella - it is beautiful and you will LOVE it and hopefully it will inspire you to enjoy your Cinderella. They tragically lost little Maria on Wednesday.)

Maria Sue Chapman 2003 - 2008 (below is copied from the website)

Photo by Mary Beth ChapmanLast night Maria Sue Chapman, adopted and youngest daughter of Mary Beth & Steven Curtis Chapman, was killed in a tragic accident in the family driveway. She was LifeFlighted to Vanderbilt Children's Hospital but for only reasons God can explain she went home to Him... not back to Franklin as we all so desperately wanted.We are all humbled by the incredible outpouring of love and support at this difficult time. I have watched you, the Chapman friends, overwhelm website servers and jam phone lines with your gracious words and heartfelt prayers. The Chapman family is so grateful. Obviously, we cherish your prayers for all in the Chapman family, and we welcome you passing this along to others to pray and encouraging them to sign up for Steven's e-mail list to receive continuing updates.Mail to PO Box 150156 Nashville, TN 37215.*In lieu of flowers, the Chapmans request any gifts be directed to Shaohannah's Hope .In closing, as many of you know, the song "Cinderella" was written by Steven to help him (and us all) grab a hold of the special moments with those we love we might otherwise rush by. It was inspired by a bath time that Steven tried to "hurry," Maria and her sister Stevey Joy were not exactly cooperating. : ) Let us all be reminded again today what Steven compels us to with the lyric of this special song.Maria, we already miss you so much, and we only take comfort in The Hope that assures us we'll see you again soon.On behalf of the Chapman team and family, Jim Houser (Manager)Your prayers are needed for all in the Chapman family. This is a family who has so generously loved and given to so many. Just hours before this close knit family was celebrating the engagement of the oldest daughter Emily Chapman, and were just hours away from a graduation party marking Caleb Chapman's completion of high school. Now, they are preparing to bury a child who blew out 5 candles on a birthday cake less than 10 days ago. These words are unthinkable to type. And yet we trust in a God who was not surprised by this and because of Jesus I am certain through faith in Him we will see Maria again. - Jim Houser (Manager)

Lili's surgery (long journal entry)

Well, we are home and all is wonderful!
Okay... ton of pictures and they are all out of order. When I have time I will try to organize them. I have also included a picture from last night's talent show at Xavier of Mckenzie and her friend Delany.
We left Sunday after Lili's 2nd birthday (but our 1st birthday celebration). We decided to give Lil her own birthday cake since she missed out on this on her 1st b-day. Meili enjoyed sharing this with Lili and Lili did not seem to mind sharing.
Anyway, we stayed at Greg and Kristi's house Sunday and woke up early Monday morning for our flight. Lili sat on my lap the entire time to Denver and then slept the whole way to Little Rock (from Denver).
We landed in Little Rock at 1:30 and had to be to the consult appt by 1:45 (we were only 5 minutes late :) ). I must say... Scott and I were both amazed by how beautiful Little Rock is - I'm not sure what we were expecting but it is a very green city. Trees everywhere - it is beautiful with really, really nice people.
Lili's 1st appt was with a surgeon. We wanted to see if she still had an umbilical hernia and to see if she needed to have her belly button redone. He told us that he was not sure if she had ever had a hernia and that she did not have one now. He suggested to us to leave her belly button alone and to let her grow into it - we were happy for his honest opinion.
Our next appointment was not until 3:15 so we went to the cafeteria and ate some yummy sweet potato fries...mmm...
We were very impressed with Dr. Buckmiller's office staff. It was so fun to meet Emily, one of the Dr. Buckmiller's nurses who has been so, so helpful during the adoption of Lili. She is definitely one person who was an answer to prayers when we were deciding on Lili's file. She e-mailed me and told me all about hemangiomas and how easy they are to treat - I will always be grateful to Emily and for the role she played in our adoption!!!
We met Dr. Buckmiller and she told us what she would do in the morning and explained what hemangiomas are, what some reasons for multiple hemangioma, and what to expect the next day. After the visit we met Dr. Buckmiller's darling little Anna (wish I had my camera then...) and her husband. Anna and Lili are from the same province in China. Lili had not eaten anything all day (couldn't get her to) and scarfed poor Anna's french fries.
The office staff suggested that we not stay in the hotel we had reservations for because of the area of town it was in and told us where we should look so after the visit we spent an hour or so looking for a better hotel, ate at PF Changs and turned in early.
Surgery day... Lili was not able to have food after midnight for surgery at 11:30. We had to be to the hospital by 9:30. Lili did really well with all of the preop tests. We were amazed when a nurse came to draw blood by pricking her finger and then squeezing the blood into a vile - Lili just sat and watched the blood drip into the vile and did not cry at all. Also, when the nurses would want to look down her throat she opened her mouth and stuck out her tongue - she was a trooper!!! Surgery got moved back an hour and a half so we spent some fun time in the playroom. Emily came into have us sign some papers and brought Lili the cutest little doll. I was sooo embarrassed because Lili was at the end of her rope and tossed the doll when Emily gave it to her... By this point she was getting irritated because she was hungry and it was nap time. (The doll has since become a favorite and she played with it a ton in the hotel room)
At 1:02 the nurse anesthetist (sp?) gave Lili Verset (sp?). They referred to it as goofy juice and told us to expect it to work in 5 minutes... Well, when it hit 5 minutes later Lili laid down and for the next 40 minutes said to me 1 .... 2.... no.... 1..... 2.... no.... with her finger straight at me.... occasionally she would say go... she seemed bugged about something. They took her back for surgery around 2. Scott and I went to lunch and were shocked when we received a page saying to come back about a 1/2 hour after she went in... It panicked me because we thought it would take an hour and 1/2 so we dropped lunch and went running back to the waiting room luckily for the guy to tell us the doctor would be out in 20 minutes to talk to us... whew...
She told us all went well. She took out about 60-70% of the hemangioma on her cheek - she could not take out all or Lili would have had a pucker on her cheek - she took out as much as she could and she took out most of the eye one - both are nice and flat. She has 17 stitches on her cheek that we will have removed in a week and disolvable stitches in her eye. Both look wonderful. Both still have some redness that the doctor thought will go away on their own or we can have them lasered off. Dr. Buckmillers main concern was to take away the fatty tissue and extra skin that would not have gone away on its own.
We went into the recovery room once they had taken the tube out of her throat. Lili was mad and screaming like crazy. They put braces on her arms so she can not bend her arms to prevent her from pulling out the stitches. This made her so mad - she is so independent and she could not even hold her own bottle. We finally got her calmed down after a 1/2 hour or so and then they moved us to another room where she slept for a 1/2 or so. After she woke up they had us dress her and we took her back to the hotel.
It was amazing! Everyone at the hospital were so nice and so caring. We were so impressed with the whole process and the care she received!
We went to the hotel for a while and let her recoop... then, went and picked up the best local bbq...mmmmm..... and of course ended the evening with American Idol ;)
Lili slept the whole night and did not seem to need her pain medication. We did go to the store to buy some Tylenol for the airplane - she did not seem to need the Tylenol with Codeine that she was prescribed.
We spent Wednesday morning driving around the city. We stopped by the Clinton Library - it was beautiful and drove around downtown.
The plane rides were very uneventful- she slept during the long flight and watched Dora on the flight into SLC. I can't believe how easy she was. It was fun to have time to spend just with her - she definitely enjoyed all of our attention!
Glad to be home and will post photos soon!

I am also including some photos of the kids end of the year showcase at school. Davis' class recited a poem from Shel Silversteen (sp), Reese did a tap dance (wow! he can tap!!! I love it!!!) and sang the National Anthem, and Mckenzie's class recited Cassie at the Bat (really long - loved it). It was a wonderful night and we were impressed with the progress all of the students have made!

Happy 40th Birthday Kim!!!

Happy Birthday, Kim!!! Glad it is you celebrating your 40th and not us :) .... too bad we are not too far behind you.

We hope you have a great day! Your a great sister, sister-in-law and aunt... most of all a great friend! Wish you lived closer to us so we could go to dinner with you tonight!

Miss you and Love you!

Happy Birthday Scott and Lili's surgery

Happy Birthday to my handsome yet older husband :) 37, can you believe it!!! WOW!!! I won't go on and on about how wonderful he is... even though I should just to embarrass him, but I love him and am so grateful for all of the many great things he does for me and our kids.

We leave this weekend for Lili's surgery. It will be so odd to not have her hemangiomas on her anymore. I posted this picture of her as a reminder to myself why I am having a difficult time accomplishing anything right now. She is full of it!!! And so is the 3 year old she shadows. I feel like I am always picking up someones shoes and it hit me... 7 pairs/ 14 individual shoes (plus all of the dress up shoes that show up at odd places around the house)... no wonder I can't get anything done... I'm always picking up shoes.

Women's Conference (5/1-5/2)

My mom, Leslie (sister), Heidi (sister in law) and I headed to Provo, Utah for Women's Conference. It was an amazing 2 days! It was nice to be together and be uplifted by many speakers and very inspiring to be with so many (20,000 plus) women from everywhere who all have the same goals and hopes. I'm hoping to get a few pictures from Heidi to post... Anyway, some great classes to rejuvinate our spirits. (Thanks to all who watched my kids and Leslie's so we could spend some great time together - it was much needed)
Thursday night was spectacular. BYU put together service stations where we were able to help put together hygeine, newborn, school kits, make blankets, and many, many other projects. I wish I would have taken note of the number of kits assembled... thousands.
Also, they had a wonderful concert. Hillary Weeks is coming out with a new song titled, "Just let me Cry" It will be out in September - she wrote it for a family who was grieving the lose of their daughter and who stated that there really is not anything that can help other than crying... as you can imagine - the entire colliseum was bawling by the end - it is beautiful.
I did love one quote (well many but will post one) by Sister Beck (who was quoting the YW president)... talking about when parents say about their kids that they are not going to die on that hill... she said, "it is not about hills but holiness"

Happy Birthday, Reese (4/28)

Oh, wouldn't it be fun to be 9 again. Reese was so excited for his birthday and loved opening presents and was surpised and thrilled with everything. He wanted Sweedish Meatballs for dinner and of course his favorite Marble Squares for his cake. His birthday fell on a Monday so we did not have a party because of family night. Nick and his siblings and mom came over for dinner (this had become kind of ritual on Monday or Wednesday evenings when Scott and Chris worked late nights - made the nights go faster and oh... so helpful - the kids love them :) )

Anyway, lots of the pictures show the kids jumping on a rocket. They wanted me to post to the 'cool' shots of them jumping... here you go guys.

I feel so blessed to have Reese in our family. He is such a kind and nice boy. His favorite is history and would watch the history channel all day, if I'd let him. He loves the Civil War. His favorite color is red, favorite temple - Twin Falls, favorite scripture story is Moses parting the Red Sea, his favorite Presidents are: 1st Abraham Lincoln (because of freeing slaves), 2nd George Washington (because he was the 1st), 3rd- James Madison (because of the Constitution) and 4th Thomas Jefferson. Love you, Reese!!!