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..

Our referral of Heidy

On October 19, 2005, we see this very cute little chubby faced girl, eating a cooking on Precious.org. Her name is Heidy. She is a little over 18 months old, born April 10, 2004, which is Mark's moms birthday. Her name is German and Mark is full blooded German. She has congenital subluxation of the left hip, which is similar to a hip condition Mark had as a child. She was with our agency already, too!! Here is her referral picture...

Isn't she sweet?? I love the chubby cheeks!!


I called Sue, because I had emailed and didn't get an answer yet, I am not patient a lot of the time!! She sent me more pictures and her medical information. She had a lot of inquiries about her, but Sue told us we would have first chance because we were clients already. I told Mark since he wanted to adopt from Taiwan that taking Heidy would be totally his decision. We decided we would pray about it and think about it over the weekend. We tried to tell Sue we wanted the weekend to pray about it, but the office was closed, so if Heidy was taken by someone else on Monday morning that would be it. But later that Friday night we got an email from Sue that she talked to Heidy's attorney and that she would let us have until Monday to decide and lower her price some because Heidy is considered special needs, because of her hip. God is in control!! On Monday morning, Mark said tell Sue we want Heidy. So I did and we started the paperchase!!!

Here are a few more of her pics we were sent.

We all totally fell in love with this little girl!!