Update: One More Surgery for Little Bird

Update: We are home with our little bird (1:15 p.m.), and she came through with flying colors! We were out the door this morning at 5:00 a.m. for a 5:45 showtime. Surgery was scheduled for 7:30 and they took her back right on time. The doctor said it would take about three hours, which was much longer than I was expecting. She came out of surgery about 10:40, and woke up from under the anesthesia quickly and very calmly! She wanted water right away, and then of course her chocolate milk that she knew I had brought. The doctor came to talk to us . . . the nurses observed her for about an hour . . . her vitals were great, they moved us back to the floor, did our discharge paperwork and sent us on our way! Thank you Jesus!

She has tiny stitches on the outside of her lip, and many more, I can assume on the inside. Her tiny little nose is just as cute as cute can be! I'll give her a couple of days to heal and then I will post a picture.

Thanks to all of you who offered up prayers for our littlest bird--they were heard, and they were answered! She is snuggled up on the couch right now . . . but I know she will be back to flitting before long!

Blessings from my grateful nest~

Tina, one relieved mama :)

So much blogging to catch up on, but it just isn't happening . . . between winter tummy bugs, continuing to "undo" Christmas (as in un-packing and un-decorating) , and appointments that must be kept, life has been busy . . . and tomorrow morning (Wednesday) Little Bird will have another surgery. This will be her fifth. My tough, strong, brave little bird!

Tomorrow Teddi's plastic surgeon will be doing her lip/nose revision. Basically she will try to "pull-up" the cleft affected side of her nose, and then re-do her lip. (Teddi's lip was done at six months of age in China, and then ten days or so later she tore it open, and it had to be redone.) The surgeon will "take-down" Teddi's lip, as she put it, and then stitch it back together -- stitching mostly from the inside this time, to minimize the scarring. We hope to be home the same day if all goes smoothly and Ted handles the anesthesia as well as she has in the past.

So, it's all cosmetic this time. Which as her mama is kind of a tough call to make, but we feel that in the long run, well no actually even for now, that this is the best choice for Teddi. She is to the point of studying herself in the mirror and asking questions about her nose and lip. We want to do our best to help her feel confident about herself. Of course her inside happiness, is more important than her outside appearance . . . yet in the world we live in, that all ties together, doesn't it? I wish it weren't so, but it is.

I love my little bird's face just the way it is. Part of me has to wonder if I will "miss her" the way she was -- although I don't expect it to be that drastic, it will change the face that I have fallen in love with. The face I now know so well . . . the flat left side of her tiny nose . . . her rosy pink lip scar . . . the sweet face of my silly little bird . . . sigh . . . the tears come. I had no idea all of this was in me. I sat down to write a quick little post and prayer request, for our hopefully quick little surgery tomorrow. Obviously it is deeper than that . . .

I love you little bird. My heart is overwhelmed some days at the thought that God would bring you to us. That He would allow us the privilege of being your family, of me being your mama, for "eva, eva" as you say. A friend and I were talking about Teddi last night, and how far she has come, and how well she has done with us. My friend remarked something along the lines of, "Boy, Teddi really fell into the big vat of Godiv*a chocolate when she found you guys."

I like to think our family was sweet before Teddi, but if we were sweet without her then we must be sweet on a heavenly chocolate level now! :) Oh little bird, you are the icing on our cake-- chocolate of course! We love you precious girl!

Please be in prayer for us tomorrow morning --I'll update as soon as I can, or have my big girl update from Houston.

Blessings from my nest ~

Tina