Surgery and Home

I am so sorry for the time it took me to get around to posting this!  I found it easy and convenient in the hospital to post updates on facebook and sort of let blogging slide.  As most of you know Catherine had surgery Friday June 7th at Johns Hopkins to lengthen the rod in her rib cage which is supposed to spread her thoracic cavity to accomodate her lung growth.  It was a LONG day as we didn't have to arrive until 11 am (nothing to eat or drink after midnight the night before, of course!) and they didn;t take her to surgery until 2:30 pm that afternoon!  Ugghhh!  She was in great spirits despite being very hungry and thirsty, joking with the nurses and doctors and giving lots of toothless grins!  Surgery went well, although it was a bit more involved than we had originally thought it would be; they installed a second rod to stabilize the first as well as cut through several ribs which had re-fused.  By 6:30 pm she was in recovery and asking for juice, looking much more herself than I remember after her first two surgeries.  What a blessing!  Over the next 24 hours, we were able to wean her from the morphine pump and get her on oral codeine so she could actually go home.  Another HUGE blessing that she only had to spend one night in the hospital!  She has been home several days now, and despite some rough moments, she has done extremely well for the most part!  We cannot thank our friends and family enough for all their prayers and positive thoughts which have been sent our way!

Adoption Slideshow

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Happy Third Gotcha' Day!

Wow!  It has been a year since I posted....my how time flies!  Catherine is celebrating her third year home with us, and our family continues to be blessed by our little China princess with the sweet (now toothless!) grin!  Where do I begin to describe her joyful zest for life and her love for family that fills our home?  She is constantly telling all of us how much she loves us and dancing around the house in anything pink, sparkly, or frilly that she can find!  Recently she has lost several teeth giving her a very cute gap-toothed grin.  Her favorite activities include dancing, singing, coloring and drawing, as well as keeping all of us in line...most especially her big brothers!  We affectionately call her "mini-mommy" or "micro-mommy" as she is so good at micro-managing the affairs of the household :)  Today has been a wonderful day of playing games and reading stories (she actually read to me which is very fun) and taking a nature walk together.  Tonight we plan to have her favorite meal (rice congee) and then take a walk to the nearby yogurt shop for dessert.

On another note, Catherine has her yearly "tune-up" to lengthen the rod in her rib cage at Johns Hopkins Hospital this Friday.  We covet your prayers for a safe, successful operation!  This one should be a short stay in comparison to the last two, probably only a night or two in the hospital.  Stay tuned to the blog for updates!

Finally, some wonderful Krol family news:  we are adopting again!  Our newest daughter, Lu Rui Yuan is 4 years old and waiting for us in China.  If all goes well we should travel to China late July/early August to bring her home.  I will be posting more about our new sweetie VERY soon!  Catherine (and all her brothers) are looking forward to her homecoming!

God has blessed us so, so richly!

Home today!!!

Catherine is coming home today!!!  Woo Hoo!  The resilliency of kids never ceases to amaze me :)  Today she has done much better and been able to eat a little so she can get off the morphine pump and transition to oral pain meds.  She also got up and walked a little bit out in the hall.  What a trooper she has been!  This morning Dr. Sponseller came by and said as long as we feel comfortable caring for her at home, she is good to go.  She was actually very chatty with him this morning about her new puppy waiting at home...it was SO good to hear her happy voice and see her smile!!  After he left the nurse told us that Catherine must be "super special" ...she had never heard him talk so much; he usually leaves most of the questions/talking to his residents.  I think he has a heart for Catherine as he has an adopted daughter himself!  Catherine is not as excited as we thought she would be to come home...thinking she is a bit worries as she has felt so bad and continues to feel pretty yucky at times.  Thank you SO much for all your prayers!  Please keep them coming as we try to manage her care at home! 

(From my devotional reading this morning:  "I will trust in God and not be afraid.  The Lord God is my strength and my song..."  (Isaiah 12:2)

Hospital Day 3

So Good to See a Smile!

Good Morning!  Today is day 3 of our stay and we are wishing to be home, but Catherine isn't ready yet.  She is not really experiencing anything way out of the ordinary for the extent of surgery she had (cutting ribs as well as vertebrae, putting in the VEPTR) according to her doctor, but it is hard to see my sweet girl in so much suffering.  She is in some pain as well as feeling lots of nausea and vomiting pretty much every time she tries to move.  It is quite a conundrum because the morphine she is receiving through her IV can help control the pain but causes the nausea!  We are trying to make sure she gets Tylenol regularly to take the edge off so she doesn't need quite as much morphine.  Her hematocrit is low as well and they need to start giving her iron (she is borderline in need of a transfusion) which can also be hard on the stomach.  And to top it off, she is NOT eating and has absolutely no desire to eat.   She gets VERY irritated with me when I try to encourage her by asking will she eat this or that with resounding "No!"s.  Yesterday I saw a few smiles; however, it has been quite a while since I have seen one...really missing those :(  Hoping she perks up some today...if she does we will be headed home tomorrow!  Woo Hoo!  Please  pray that her pain will get under control and her tummy will feel better so she can eat.  On the plus side this new Children's Center at Hopkins is beautiful!  We feel extremely blessed to have such a wonderful surgeon and lots of nice caregivers.  All the rooms here are private now (even our PICU room was) with big windows and lots of open space.  There is lots of walking coming in and out with the bridges from the parking garage and just how spread out thins place is, so we have been getting our exercise.  On the home-front, the other kids and puppy are doing well.  Stan and I are tired but hanging in...God is giving us what we need moment by moment!

Funny Catherine Quote after waking up from surgery:  "I don't feel the best!"  and yesterday: "I want to get out of this bed!"  Hoping she feels up to doing this soon!

Surgery went well...hanging at the hospital

Prepping for Surgery

Catherine's surgery went VERY well yesterday!  Thanks everyone for your prayers!  She was in surgery about 4 and a half hours and is now recovering in the PICU.  Her surgeon stated that she "she already looks straighter" to him.  Praise God!  Complared to her last surgery, she is doing wonderfully!  She has had some pain and vomiting post-op but her color looks good and she has been able to move aroubd just a bit in bed, drink some fluids, and this morning she even ate a few bites of cracker.  Her brothers were able to come see her last night for a short time and this morning she had some big smiles for both Stan and I.  I can't tell you what joy it brings to my hear to see her smiling!  Later today she will move to a regular unit in the Children's Center and as soon as we get her really eating, she can work her way out of this place, maybe as soon as tomorrow or Monday!  Please continue to keep us in your prayers as she jumps the hurdle of getting up and out of bed :)

Seond Gotcha' Day

Wow!  I can hardly believe it has been a year since my last post!  For anyone following along, I'm so sorry I fell off the bandwagon!  I can be pretty time-consuming talking care of 4 kids (including homeschooling), running a house, and trying to keep enough food in the pantry for all my growing kiddos (especially my 14 year-old son who has totally morphed into a teenager :)  I won't try to catch you up on everything that happened in the last year other then to say that every day brought so many joys and blessings from the Lord as well as challenges and opportunities to grow, for Mom just as much as the kids!  This past weekend we were blessed to attend Peter's middle school graduation and then the following day (Saturday, June 2nd) celebrate the day we "got" our precious proncess, Catherine, in China.  My mother, sister Susan and her husband David, came up from Roanoke to join in the fun!  It was a wonderful weekend catching up and reminiscing.  This past year Catherine has grown so much and at five years old she is a little girl and no longer a baby.   She finished up 4 year old preschool and will be starting Kindergarten at "The Krol Academy" along with Patrick and Christopher in the fall.  Some of her favorite things to do currently are to draw and write, play with her dolls, and dance and sing.  She keeps us highly entertained with stories about her friend "Polly", singing little ditties, and writing us all love notes and leaving them around the house for us to find!  One of my greatest joys is when she gives me a BIG hug (often asking to hug Stan and I together or including her brothers as well) and says, "I love my WHOLE FAMILY!"  I think the best way to tell you about her year is simply to post some pictures that can tell the story much better than I can! 

Thank you God for the gift of our "Whole Family"!  They are each so precious!

Please keep Catherine (and all of us) in your prayers as she is headed for another surgery this Friday June 8th at Johns Hopkins Hospital.  She is having a VEPTER (Vertical Expanding Prosthetic Titanium Rib) placed in her ribcage to help open it up and hopefully straighten up her spine as well.  The procedure will take about 4-5 hours and she will be in the hospital for 3-5 days.  Once placed, this rod will have to be lengthened yearly (ugghhh!) but hopefully the hospital and recovery time will be much less.  Please pray for a safe, successful surgery as well as a quick recovery.  Also, keep Stan and I in your prayers as we switch off being with Catherine and taking care of the boys at home.  Now that Peter is 14 and the others 10 and 8, we anticipate them being able to help us keep things going somewhat :)  We also have a new puppy that needs constant supervision, so it will be a BUSY time!!!  We will try to update the blog frequently to keep everyone informed of her progress.