Our Picnic with Friends

We went to a friend's house for a Graduation cook out for her daughter. Heidy had a blast! We got to visit with friends and play badminton and Mark got to play washers (not sure what this actually is) . Heidy decided to learn both games......

Hey, this net is a little tall for me, but I will try!

Is this how you do it?



Oh Man, I missed!!!

Andrew, can you play with me??

Ok I hold it up like this??

I think I will hang out with some of the men, they are throwing things.

My papa is getting ready to pitch these things called washers, I am helping him.

Craig and I are watching for a squirrel to come back down, I yelled for him and he didn't listen to me. He just ran away. This was a fun day for me!!!!

Milady's Bridal Shower Weekend

Milady and Chad, her fiance.

Heidy helping open gifts. I think she thought the shower was

for flower girls until she started helping.

Heidy and her biggest sister Milady.

We flew to Florida on Friday to spend the weekend with our oldest daughter Milady, who was having a bridal shower on Saturday night. It was a couples shower. Heidy had lots of fun!! In the airport we let Heidy wear her squeaky shoes her friend brought her from China. I can't tell you how many people there were that said something to me about how cute she was or how cute the shoes were, how we couldn't lose her with those shoes. I saw businessmen that are usually not smiley in airports smile and pilots let her in the cockpit, and people asked where they could get them too!! She loves the sound of the shoes and prances when she wears them so she was showing off a little too!! I have NEVER seen so many smiles in an airport before, and we have been in plenty of them! It was a great weekend, just too short.

Easter Bunny 2007

When Heidy went to see the Easter bunny right before Easter, she wanted NOTHING to do with him. We walked in the mall and got up close to the area where he was and NO WAY!! So a couple of days ago we gathered all of her bunnies and took pictures here with Easter bunnies that don't MOVE and aren't HUGE!!!

Easter 2007

My cousin Destiny and me at Nanaw's and Papaw's with my bunny!!

Here I am Mom!!!

Dancing outside!!

Easter Sunday at my Papaw and Nanaw's house in Kentucky!!

My first post

I am Debbie and we will tell you our journey of the adoption of our daughter Heidy, who is such a joy and precious gift. Also the process of our next adoption. This is Heidy's referral picture.

Springbreak in Florida

We went to visit Milady is Florida over our Sprng Break, to work on wedding things. We had a good week and got a lot of things done!! We also had some fun time!!

Sunbathing Heidy!! Like she need it, NOT!

Skyler and Heidy got to swim, the water was a little cool for me!!

This is her apartment complex in Lakeland. Very pretty and quiet except for...

a few alligators!!! Too close for comfort!!!

OK, Milady that is TOO close!!!

We had a lot of fun and Heidy had a ball swimming in the pool!! Ours is still closed because it is too cold in southern Illinois yet!

Heidy pretty much has fun where ever she goes!! She makes sure of it!!

Snow on Valentine's Day

We got some snow on Valentines Day this year. Wasn't a whole lot but it made Heidy happy!!!! Skyler and Heidy sat out a bowl to collect snow incase it snowed a lot to make snow ice cream.

Look Mommy, some snow to make snow ice cream with!!

After I told her it wasn't enough and it was also yukky because it was the first good snow, she dumped it all out, Skyler wasn't to happy, she wanted to make it anyway. Oh well........

Heidy's surgery and cast

When we accepted Heidy's referral, we knew she had a hip condition. We thought it was Hip displaysia. But we found out when we went to see a specialist here that it was Congenital Hip Displacement. Her left leg was almost 1 1/2 inches away from the hip joint. Surgery was the only way to fix it.

Now, let me tell you if you didn't know this about her you would have never known. She barely had a limp and it was only when she was tired. She was a great swimmer, she loved jumping on the trampoline. It has never stopped her from doing anything. She could stay up with any kid in running and playing!!!

But on October 26, 2006 we had hip surgery in Indianapolis IN at Riley's Children Hospital. They were awesome with her, and the very scared mommy and papa. Her x-ray from the Doctor wouldn't let me show you the before picture. But I took some with my camera, they aren't very good but you can get an idea, it's her left hip but it's on the right in the x-ray pictures. Sorry for the glare.


In the first on you can see how far it is from the hip joint and it's higher in the body too.




In this one you can see how uneven they are and how they will need to adjust the leg and remake the joint.




Here are a few from the hospital....

This is after her dose of her kiddie cocktail as they call it. It made her really loopy and didn't have a care in the world. This is Heidy and her Sissy Skyler.

Post surgery, in recovery. Heidy and one worried mommy and papa too, he took the picture and then went and called a bunch of people to pray for her!! He couldn't stand to see her like that.

Trying to "do something" she was bored and the cute little Aqua doodle things made it easier!! She got bored with the movies because she couldn't hear them well and couldn't concentrate.

Heart monitoring, Her heart rate was faster than they liked, so they tested her and only to find out she needed more pain meds. Good news is, her heart is fine!!!

I have never felt so helpless in all my life. I didn't leave the hospital. Mark and Skyler stayed at a hotel and would come over during the day. Several friends came up from Mt. Carmel, where we live. I thank God for the opportunity to have this little gal in our lives as our baby!! She is precious and all whole now, thanks to medical technology here in the USA and to God for allowing her to be here with us. We got an orange pumpkin cast with a vine, for Fall.

This is on the way home. A special car seat from the hospital and a wheelchair for her to go anywhere in. They said not to keep her home.

This is Mady and Heidy on Halloween. Mady came to visit. We came home on the 29th and of course Heidy couldn't go trick or treating. So they all came to her!!

What a difference a few days can make!! No more pain meds but Tylenol!! She is talking to her Nannaw on the phone.

Resting in her bean bag that we bought for this occasion!!!! This is her 2nd cast, not at pretty as the first, so when we went somewhere, I would put a bow on her ankle to match her hair bow!! The first one got "stinky". Yeah... bad and yukky!!!

Want to play Memory Mommy??? I bet I win!!

Jordan and Heidy racing at church out in the gym. Everyone was so good with her, and helped by taking her out of the wheelchair and playing with her or just holding her.

After the 2nd cast was off we got a brace for her to wear for a month. I warned them she would either get out of it or break it......

She learned to pull up with the brace.

Yep, she broke it and started walking before she was supposed to!! I called and the quickest they could get us in was in 3 days.

This is the xray we took a picture of after her surgery, they recreated her hip joint and then had to cut a little piece of her thigh bone out. That is the plate and screws that you see. The three little dots between her legs are the snaps on her onsie.

The ride home.... A free girl!!!!!!!

The doctor told us that he didn't know if she would take off walking or not, a few kids do, some kids don't for a while, and start the whole process of learning to walk again, ie crawling, pulling up etc., and a few kids need therapy. Boy not our little Missy, when we walked in from the 3 hour car ride home I forgot and just sat her down on her feet and she took off, slowly at first but it didn't take her long!!! At church that very night she was walking all over the place, here she is with Madisyn.

I never want to have to go through that 3 months again, and thank God she is doing well. The only thing we should have to do is have the plate and screws taken out of her leg. I don't know yet how big of a process that will be, a year from the surgery date.

Heidy's Teeth Before and After

Of course, she also had food in her mouth!!

The other thing that we knew when we accepted the referral of Heidy is that her teeth were bad. We weren't for sure how bad it was, but when we got her home we found out it was "baby bottle syndrome" where she was probably put to bd with a bottle of juice, and Guatemalan juice is like nectar., very thick and sugary. We went to a great pediatric dentist. He suggested putting her to sleep and cleaning, capping and sealing her teeth. So it was planned for July 7th.

She is being a little silly, trying to show me her teeth!!

No more teeth showing, I want a kiss!!!

So on July 7th we got up very early and went to Evansville. When we got there, They gave Heidy her "kiddie cocktail" really called Versed. Made her a little loopy, when the Doctor came in she would sort of lay her head over and say Hiiiiiiiiii. She did the same thing to whoever came in. It was sort of funny. The whole procedure probably took 1 1/2 hours. They came to get me for the recovery part and let me hold her when she was waking up. The first time she took a drink from her sippy cup, she pulled it out to look at it like it was different and then put it back in and drank. We left about an hour later and came home. She ate that night and never had a problem at all! Thank God!!

Her new smile!!

another one a few days later..