Children's Hospital

What a difference a few days makes. Just being on the other side of jet-lag has made life much more manageable. It took one full week. We have also had a lot of great progress with Mia and between Mia and Chloe. Thank you so much for all of the prayers, support and encouragement. It means the world.

This past Friday was a FULL day of appointments and evaluations at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Milwaukee for Mia. Steve took the day off from work and the original plan was that he would join us. My friend, Christy, would watch the other 3 at home. After being away from them for so long, and seeing that Mia's medical needs looked less severe than we had anticipated, Steve decided it would be really nice to just stay home and have some special time with Caleb, Luke and Chloe. I agreed. I asked Christy if she would be interested in joining me for the Milwaukee trip so that I would have an extra set of hands, ears and a companion for the adventure. She said absolutely and made all kinds of arrangements for her girls and her 5 day club to make it happen. Thank you Derek, Kristy, Amy and Megan for helping Christy so that she could help ME. What a gift. It was quite a day and I could NEVER have done it without her. She was such a blessing to me. Thank you, Christy, a million times over.

We left about 7 am and headed down. Within about 45 minutes, Mia was clearly not happy about being strapped in the backseat alone, so Christy took over the driving and I hopped in back. I had been so consumed with having all of her medical records, insurance things and snacks for the trip that I packed NOTHING for Mia to do on the 3 hour drive. We did a lot of drawing of letters and rainbows (which, after being in Beijing, I was sure she had NEVER seen in her life) on a notepad for the next hour. My sister, Kathy, came to the rescue when we made a hyperspeed potty stop at her place for Mia (2 hours into the drive). We called Kathy a few minutes from her exit and when we arrived she had a huge bag ready for us filled with crayons, coloring books, magnet boards, books, toys, a play doctor's kit and gum. We were literally there for 3 minutes, but it made a world of difference! She's unbelievable. Thank you Kathy!

We had appointments with the International Adoption (IA) Clinic, Pediatric Neurology and epilepsy team, Lab and an EEG. At the IA Clinic, we had a lot of discussion time about Mia's progress and development. In a nutshell, we learned that she is right on track developmentally - cognitively, and with gross and fine motor skills. She is also healthy with all of her growth. These were things that Steve and I were already pretty confident of from our own assessments during our time with her in China, but it was wonderful to have confirmed. She is doing so well. Praise the Lord. We LOVED the team at the clinic. They were very affirming of all that we were doing to promote attachment (which Christy was perfectly putting into practice), but that is for another post. They also stated that they would not be surprised if Mia did not have epilepsy at all. It would not be the first time that they had seen that come from China. [Shock]

Then we headed to neuro and got the run down. They were also great. Because our records from China were old (2008), incomplete, vague and questionably valid, it was time for us to start getting a legitimate medical history on Mia. It was determined that we should wean Mia from her medication to see if she actually has any need for them. They also wanted to do an EEG. We were given a lot of information about seizures and how to handle them, etc. Fortunately (or unfortunately) that is something I have recently experienced when an acquaintance had a grand mal seizure while I was out with a group of friends. I am grateful to feel prepared should Mia have an issue, but I am certainly praying that she will not.

Then it was on to the EEG. We were told that Mia would have 20 leads glued to her head and that they would need her to sleep for a 20 minute portion of the test. I had no idea how this was going to go. I had no idea if she would kick or fight or cry hysterically. I also had no idea how I would get her to sleep in the middle of the day in a doctor's office. I still do not know why I am surprised when God shows up in miraculous ways. But HE DID.
All glory to Him.

The technician proceeded to "sand" Mia's scalp and glue all 20 leads to her head. She turned on The Little Mermaid for Mia to watch and gave her this fun blinking toy and pinwheel for her to play with in order to keep her distracted. Mia did well. She was clearly a little anxious and had a nervous laugh during much of the prep. After the leads were on, the technician told us that she would wrap her head in gauze and then we would need Mia to sleep. I wondered how in the world that was going to happen - didn't she realize that sleep falls into the category of things you cannot make a kid do. And if I did not have two other witnesses no one would believe this...

just minutes later, as the tech wrapped Mia's head,
with her sitting up,
watching a movie,
getting her picture taken and
playing with two silly toys,

Mia's head started to bob.
Mia started falling ASLEEP!

The tech placed the last piece of tape on the gauze and I literally laid her down already asleep.

Glory to God.

Why should I doubt the CREATOR of the Heavens and Earth?
He is SO GOOD.
He is still working miracles every day in our lives.
May we not miss them and never fail to give Him the glory.
This day and this journey as a whole has been so bathed in prayer, by so many, and I am so grateful.

I'm still in awe.

We got the full 20 minutes of sleep EEG and I had to wake Mia for the remainder of the test. She woke after some gentle coaxing and we finished up. We headed to the lab where we miraculously got a stool sample (another story not fit for the blog) and waited. Mia was a real trooper for the blood draw. It was only one poke, but probably 15 viles of blood. I held her on my lap and she just let out a short whimper as the needle went in and another when it was removed. She sat silently and motionless while the endless viles were collected.

And then we were done. It was almost 6 pm when we started our trek home. We stopped at a store or two, but it was POURING rain and didn't make for ideal shopping weather. It didn't make for ideal driving weather either, but we took it slowly. As we continued to drive and look for a place for dinner, the rain began to let up.

And then it came.

A full and gorgeous RAINBOW appeared in the blue sky.

Mia's FIRST rainbow.

Thank you Lord.

Christy and I were doing everything we could to get Mia to see it. We pointed and motioned. We shouted excitedly over & over. We drew pictures and pointed some more.

And then,
SHE SAW IT.
And with a huge grin, she said, "RAINBOW!"

We stopped the car, got out and reveled at it.

What a perfect end to the day. That is My God.

Thank you Lord for Your promises.

And God said, "This is the sign of the covenant I am making between Me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between Me and the earth. Genesis 9:12-13










Please pray for us this week as we wean Mia from her medications. Pray that she will not have difficulty as it leaves her system. Pray that she will have complete healing of her seizures. And please pray, that if Mia does begin to have seizures, that we can respond with peace and move forward medically with complete trust and in the strength of our Lord. We thank you for your faithful prayers.