New old Flor pictures

I received an email tonight from a lady who knew Flor before she lived at Amor del Nino. She's sending me a disk of pictures and video of Flor from when she was a baby. She emailed me a preview:

How excited am I? I only have a handful of pictures of her from those years and I cherish them. They are my greatest treasure! I can't wait to see the rest!

post surgery week

We walked into the hospital at 7:30am and Flor ran into the arms of her abuelo! She loves him so much!! She played with Stephanie for an hour and then they called us back. Once back in pre-op, she began to get a little nervous and started crying for her abuelo. The sweet nurse said that he could come back and so she sat in his lap and cried her little heart out. She kept telling me, "I'm trying to stop, moma." Bless her heart. I told her it was ok to cry sometimes and she just cried on my shoulder. Then God sent an angel named Atasha to come visit her. She brought in a puzzle and colors for Flor. She knew just what to say to her and made her feel better almost instantly. When it was time for us to say goodbye, we walked as far as we could and got our hugs and kisses. She walked back with Atasha like a little princess, even holding the corner of her gown up so it wouldn't drag the floor. That was 9:00am.

I heard from the nurse at 9:40am saying that Dr. Grant had just started surgery and that Flor had done great. They updated me every hour until Dr. Grant finally came out about 12:15pm. He said she had made him work harder than he expected, meaning there was lots of scar tissue to work through and he also found a hole behind the hard pallet that he got my permission to fix while she was already under. Daddy and I got to go back into recovery by 1 as we waited for a private room. She was knocked out the entire time.

When she did finally wake up, I got my kisses and she asked for Chris, who was on his way up with Jami and Stephanie. She did not complain of any pain whatsoever, she didn't even flinch when she noticed the "straw" in her hand. She slept on and off for most of the afternoon. Daddy, Jami, and Stephanie left before 3 to try and get home before the roads got bad since it was sleeting in Huntsville. Chris stayed with us in the hospital, but left by 5am to get to work by 9. That was nice since I was able to go to the cafeteria to eat and take a little break.

Flor ate a little dinner, but lost it all only an hour or so later. Zofran took care of the nausea after that. She was up and down all night going to the bathroom, or trying to at least. We didn't sleep much and waiting anxiously all morning for word on when we could go home. But the morning came and went. Flor got upset several times because she just wanted to go home. After barely eating her lunch, she napped for about 1 1/2 hours... no, I didn't eat all day! Finally, about 2:30pm, the nurse came in and told us we could go!

The drive home was uneventful besides a little nausea at first. She slept from Gardendale until we exited off of I-565 and we were welcomed by her aunts, Connie and Stephanie and their families. You wouldn't have guessed she had just had surgery because she was almost bouncing off the walls! But as soon as they left she became whiney and crashed! We slept for almost 11 hours that night!

Since the surgery, Flor has been doing extremely well compared to what I was expecting. She's still been very whiney and sensitive about everything, crying more than usual, and has a few minor personaloty changes, but I'm expecting that to get back to normal when she starts feeling better. She has only a few minor complaints a day about her mouth bothering her and she's having some trouble with constipation, but we're working through that.

All in all she is doing extremely well. Thank you all so much for your prayers!!

Pre-op

Before a trip, do you pray for safety? If you do, do you expect a trip without any serious problems? I have to say that I think I was one of those people who thought that if I prayed for safety on trip, that there would be no problems. Today I was taught a new lesson.

Flor and I set out at 6am for a 9am appointment (we were asked to be there 30 minutes before and I like to allow for traffic, construction, etc). 30 minutes into our journey, I heard a strange sound coming from the front driver's side tire. I decide better to be safe than sorry, so I slowed down and put on my hazards. Once I got into the emergency lane and slowed down a little more, out of no where my front tires locked up and I came to a sudden stop. So hard that my back end fishtailed a little bit. It scared me to death, but once I got a clear thought I got out to check the tires fulling expecting a flat. Nope. Tires looked great. The car was still running, so I hop back in and put it in drive... nothing. Well, not nothing, but definitely no movement. No movement from those little round things that tend to move your car forwards and backwards.

After my immediete panic, I start making phone calls and because of what he could understand despite the babbling through my tears, he started heading my way. He was an hour away. So Flor played in the back seat for an hour, not a care in the world except that her mommy was crying. She told me she would fix the car for me so that I would be happy... all together now... "aaaaaaww!!"

Daddy and Jami brought me her car and a trailer attached to his truck. They pull up, we pray again, we throw our junk into her car, and we're off! Since I had left so early, we only arrived 30 minutes late to our appointment, which seems to be no big deal at all to anyone else but me in that hospital. We were called back about an hour later and saw a few nurses and the audiologist. I was asked 4 different times if she had any allergies or was on any medication. Then we saw Dr. Grant at about noon and headed to anesthesia for our last stop of the day! I signed in at 12:40 in anesthesia and left at 1:40 after being told I didn't have to do this step since I spoke to someone there over the phone earlier this week. UGH!!!

So, we were starving and extremely tired, so we swing by a fast food restaurant that Flor calls "Pollo Campero" and checked into the hotel at 3:15... against my will we had to get back out once again to find some antibacterial soap for her bath that I didn't know I had to have. We ordered pizza in, I know... such a healthy day of eating. But we are finally in and in our jammies.

Here she is all antibacaterialized...

We have to be at the hospital at 7:30am and it will last about 1 1/2 hours. She'll be in recovery for another hour, then we'll get to go back with her in a private room where we'll stay the night. We should be heading home on Saturday. I'm praying the weather doesn't hinder anyone from coming or going home, including us. I'm also praying that Flor will be as comfortable as possible following the surgery and that she starts eating and drinking by herself quickly.

So, lesson learned. My pray was to get us here safely and on time. My first thought on the side of the road was "uh, hello?!?", my immediete second thought was "wait a minute, maybe this is keeping me safe. maybe getting here safely AND on time couldn't be done in my car." He knew he had to completely lock up my tires if He was gonna get the point across! But he did.

Flor's about to go to bed, but not before she got her surprise!! I brought a styrofoam bowl, a plastic fork, and cornflakes!!! I've never heard a higher pitched "WHAT!!?!". She was so excited! I had to pay $3.90 for a glass of room service milk, but the look on her face was worth it!

Yes, she is kissing her cornflakes!

Here's what I'm going to do:

So, when I think about it, I'm going to post random things that Flor says now so I don't forget how she "used to talk" after her surgery. It's an exciting thing, but I have to admit I will miss her sweet little errors.

• "I was hockin birst" = I was talking first

I'm also going to video her as much as possible these next two weeks. I think it will be amazing to go back a year from now to see how much her speech has improved!!

Merry Christmas

Well, our first Christmas as a family has come and gone. It was much more than I could have asked for. Flor is the joy of my life. I thank God for her everyday. To be able to live through her eyes, full of wonder and learning and love. She is a precious gift and I couldn't have asked for anything more, yet God still gave me the gift of eternal life.

So, first of all, this week marked our one year anniversary of being released from PGN. Basically, Flor's been officially mine for a year!! Can you believe it?!? I remember the day last year, which was the 17th, receiving a call from my dear friend Melissa letting me know that we were OUT!! I, of course, bawled my eyes out! It was a huge weight off my shoulders. There was still a long wait ahead of us, but to know I had a daughter was an amazing feeling!

So, here we are a year later. Today we went to the children's hospital in Birmingham to meet her "cleft team", which consists of a speech therapist, an audiologist, an ENT, a genetics doctor, and a plastic surgeon. We saw the speech therapist first. She did several tests which showed her which sounds Flor was missing or replacing with other sounds. Like saying "nog" instead of "dog". Flor did so well, and loved it! Then she checked her "nasality", which proved to us how sound and air was coming out through her nose. She basically failed that test with flying colors. But that's alright, that's why we were there. The audiologist said her hearing was great, which is a blessing... no more excuses when she "can't hear me" now. :)

The genetics doctor said that a lot of cleft pallets are part of a bigger problem, like a syndrome or deformaty. He said Flor's looked isolated, which is good. With no family history, he was limited to what he could tell us. But the less the better, because if he had to tell us more that would mean there was a problem somewhere. :)

The only traumatic part of the day was when the ENT stuck bubble gum scented numbing liquid on a cotton ball up her nose. He looked at her throat through a tiny light camera that he stuck up her nose. Not fun for Flor, but she was very brave. And by brave, I mean she screamed her head off, but who wouldn't? That basically confirmed what we thought, that her pallet is too short. There's normally a muscle that runs across the back of the pallet in front of the "hangy ball thing". With cleft pallets that muscle usually grows up each side of the cleft. When they repaired her pallet, they didn't repair that muscle, so he basically saw no movement in her pallet when she spoke certain sounds. He did say the tonsils were almost compensating and closing the back of her throat somewhat. But we have scheduled surgery for them to repair that muscle on January 29th. He said that could improve her speech by 80-85%, which is amazing. She'll continue speech therapy and over the next year we'll evaluate her improvement. After that, if we didn't see significant improvement that we could further discuss other options, which are typically more invasive and risky surgeries, involving bone grafts and air passages.

So, please remember Flor in your prayers as we approach this surgery the end of January. She'll stay one night at the hospital and be on a 4 week soft food diet. Pray that she that her pain is minimal after surgery and during recovery.

Finally...

Be in prayer for Flor Thursday. We are going to see the pediatric plastic surgeon in Birmingham. I'm praying for wisdom for Dr. Grant and peace over Flor and I.

I'm planning for Flor's birthday party this weekend. She will be 5 years old and is so excited!! I, on the other hand, am a little sad because I can't believe she is so BIG!! But I'm so happy for her. I am trying to keep it small, but with my family that's a little impossible. I've got it down to 50 people... is that too many? Of course, no one has RSVP'd yet, except my grandma who said she may or may not come. :) Oh wait... I just thought of two more I had forgotten to add to the invite... make that 52. :-/ It is going to be F. U. N.

Then with Christmas the next week... oh my goodness... she is not going to know what to do with herself. Can you imagine being able to remember your first Christmas?!? Well, you know, its not her first, but it'll definitely be different than what she remembers. She's asked for a gee-you-eye-tee-aye-are... SHHHHHHH, don't tell her, but she's getting it!! :) I can't wait!!!!

Photo contest!!!

Go vote for Flor!!!

#3!!!

Thanksgiving with my sweetie

I put up the Christmas tree while Flor was napping today. When I woke her up I told her there was a surprise for her. When we came downstairs, I turned her around and her eyes got so big and she was speechless!! After a minute she whispered, "Wow.... amazing!"

I wish I could have captured that face on camera.

Then she very proudly helped me put the ornaments on the tree. (I think I am more excited about Christmas this year than she is!!)

cleft team UNITE!

I finally got the referal today from Birmingham. Flor has an appointment with the children's plastic surgeon on December 17th. They've said her pallet is too short and her pediatrician, ENT, and dentist have all mentioned bone grafts, which scares this mommy's heart. Thankfully, her Father in Heaven guides the surgeons hands and hearts and HE is in control. That is my only sanity when I think about it. I'm excited and anxious; looking forward to it and dreading it... all at the same time.

I'll update afterwards.