We are back home. Mikayla had her surgery Wednesday morning and by evening she was walking the halls. The doctor saw her and was surprised, but she was doing well enough to be released the next day. She is SO tough in so many ways.

The surgery went well, the doctor did not see any reason though for the “jetting” of the CSF, there was no partial blockage but he did see some scar tissue that may have been causing some issues so he continued with the ETV procedure. At this point we have no idea if it will work or not but have another MRI scheduled in 7 weeks, which should tell us if it was successful or not.

Thank you for all the prayers and thoughts, I have felt your prayers being answered.

Well, there is a slight change of plans, for the better. We had a CINE MRI done yesterday, which is like a cinema-graphic type MRI and shows the flow of CSF (Cerebral Spinal Fluid). This was suggested to me as a side note by the Dr here at Duke when I first had him review Mikayla’s MRI. I was told it would be OK to get it but that he would be VERY surprised if it would show any thing different (2 doctors told me this). I went ahead and pushed for it, and it did change things. It shows that there is flow (which they expected) but that it is “jetting” out of the ventricle (think of putting your thumb over the end of a hose). This does indicate that there is potentially some sort of blockage in the 3rd ventricle and the Dr offered us an ETV (Endoscopic Third Ventriculostomy). Essentially, they poke a hole in the bottom of the Third Ventricle to give teh CSF another way to drain. This is not guaranteed to work and she may end up with a shunt during surgery anyway, but it is a positive possibility.

God does answer prayers, I have been praying that Mikayla wouldn’t need a shunt and that the Dr’s would have the wisdom to deal with Mikayla since her case is so “gray”, and so far He has answered both prayers. Please continue to keep us in your prayers tonight friends, they are working. If all goes well and it is in His will, Mikayla will not need a shunt tomorrow.

We got here today. Tomorrow Mikayla will have a CINE MRI which should show definitively if there is CSF flowing from the third to the fourth ventricle. After that we meet with the neurosurgeon on Tuesday and if we decide to proceed she will have her surgery on Wednesday morning.
Please keep us in prayer, there are going to be tough decisions to make and we could us His guidance.

Mikayla has recently been diagnosed with Hydrocephalus. She had a seizure about 5 weeks ago and when they did the MRI they found that her ventricles were severly enlarged and that she was probably born with this condition. The first doctor we went to suggested we wait 3 months and then measure her head to see if it has grown, possibly doing an Endoscopic Third Ventriculostimy, even though he did not see any blockages. From all the reading I have done, I know that an ETV typically is not done for communicative (non-blockage) Hydrocephalus, so I began to get second opinions. I contacted UVA and Duke University and they both allowed me to send her MRI to them and they reviewed them very quickly. Both doctors talked to me and suggested that we get her shunted and that we do it quickly. I am waiting for one more opinion but at this point it looks like she will have shunt surgery in 9 more days. Left untreated, Hydrocephalus can cause lots of neurological issues (balance issue, developmental delays, schizophrenia), seizures, and up to death.

My intention was not to post to this blog anymore, as Mikayla’s life is now her life and should be private, for her to share her life story with those that she choses. However, in my own research, I have felt blessed by the websites/blogs I have found that people have shared their experiences and picturesof Hydrocephalus, and I wanted to do the same for those that may come after me. Also, this will be a place I can update family and friends quickly as to how Mikayla is doing.

Please keep our family in your prayers.

I have put together a video/slideshow of our journey to Bring Mikayla Home. It is her movie and I hope you enjoy watching it.

***This blog has been a blessing to myself, I hope our daughter, and I have been told has been a strength to others.  am seriously considering stopping posting (or cutting way back) here, however I will leave the blog up for others to read as time goes on. Up until now this story has been MY side of a story on a journey to get to our daughter. Now that she is in our life, my side of the story is very much HER story and I don’t feel it is fair to have her life publicly exposed without her knowing or being at an age to consent. I will continue to privately blog for her, a way to diary her life for her. There is a possibility that I could change my mind and continue to post here but for now I am going to write with the mindset that this is it.

Wow, a long chapter of my life has been closed and a brand new chapter, maybe a whole new book, has begun. What an amazing experience it has been and will continue to be.

This chapter has been filled with lots of hard times, frustrating times, times that really tried my faith, and really tested a lot of who I was. Since the beginning I have been very emotionally wrapped up in this adoption and wanted our daughter more then anything. This was suppose to be a process of 8-10 months and it turned to be a few days short of 3 years. To those still waiting, please know that the wait is worth it and the pain does get less quickly although it does not go completely away. There is the pain that our daughter had to sit in a orphanage for 22 months while we were waiting for her and that pain will hurt for a very long time. I do not want to be cliché but I do want to encourage you to know that even though the wait is hard, maybe the hardest time you have ever faced, when that sweet child is placed in your arms the pain does fade.

I don’t even know where to begin this post. Let’s start at the most recent and go backwards. Mikayla is simply amazing and our first days home have been nothing short of joy and happiness. It is such an exciting time to wake up and see her smile as we pick her up, or play with her, or feed her. I am exhausted by nap time and have to take a nap myself to recharge, and then start over again for the afternoon. I will say by the end of the day I am looking forward to bed time, but I am forward even more to her waking up the next morning. I can’t believe that I will be any less excited as time goes on but I know it will happen as we get into our routines. You know the old saying, “the worst day fishing is better then the best day working”? I hope that I continue to feel that “the worst day parenting is better then the best day not having a child around”, I can’t imagine that part will ever go away. Not that I was unhappy before Mikayla, but I don’t think I could ever be less happy. I hope that makes sense, what I am trying to say is that Mikayla has brought so much joy to my life that even as time goes on and things aren’t so “new”, times are tough, and the days are dark, I believe I will still be a very happy man.

Mikayla gets up about 7 or 8 in the morning and first thing you see from her is the biggest smile. We carry her to our bed and she wants to start playing right away, of course we still are trying to wake up so we try to lay her down with us- yeah right! That is one thing she really does not like is to be laid down, even if you stay right with her or hold her she does not like it. After a little while of messing around in bed and watching some cartoons we get up for some breakfast (***I have to be fair and make a side note here, the second day I made it to the watching cartoons step but never made it out of bed until 11am- oops guess I needed my rest ) Her eating has gotten a little less and more picky now but she seems to like fruit an awful lot and bread like biscuits, rolls, french toast and she LOVES apple juice. She gets the cutest look on her face when she takes a drink of juice, it is sort of like a lip smack with a big refreshing smile. We then turn on TV and watch some of the kids shows like Elmo, or the more educational young children shows like Baby Einstein or Sesame Street. She loves to be entertained and held through the day. She does seem to becoming more of a daddy’s girl  since we have been home, so while I do cherish that, we are trying to encourage her to spend more time with MA. After some TV it is about lunch time so she will usually eat more fruit (a great friend left us a bunch of  food and fruit while we were gone) and maybe some chicken salad (we had some good chicken salad to given to us too), and after lunch it is a few more minutes of TV and then nap time (this has become a good part of the day as sometimes I take a nap too, I’ll have to check with the boss and see if I can keep doing that when I get back to work). The last couple days after nap time we have gone to the park, which she seems to really enjoy getting out and I think it quickly wears her out. She enjoys walking around and today we put her on the swings, slides, and spinny things- she had a blast. Then the rest is pretty routine- dinner, bath, and then bed.

Bedtime is a pretty special time for me. It usually doesn’t last long until she is asleep but I will take her into her bedroom and turn the lights real low while I feed her a bottle. Mikayla is my only child and will likely be my only child so I am cherishing the time that the Lord has given me to bond and experience the joy of having a little child in my arms falling asleep. It really warms my heart to spend this time with her and I know it will not last long. Every second of this time is as precious as a bar of gold and I would not trade it for anything.

Here are a couple pictures from our first few days at home, my next post will be about our experience in China.

We made it home safely on Friday evening! What an AMAZING trip it was (and exhausting too).  I promise to all the blog readers to put up a nice post in the next few days about being home, the trip, our daughter. Right now we are really taking time to just adjust to being home, the time difference, being a family, and getting Mikayla adjusted (we haven’t even unpacked yet, the kitchen has become the new “closet” with suitcases half unpacked everywhere, lol). Mikayla is doing very well with the adjustment so far and we are doing OK.

I want to send a couple very special thank you’s:

First, to Mike and Val- THANK YOU!!! We literally could not have made this trip without your support and watching things around here. I know that the “chore” turned into more than it was suppose to when the weather got cold and we are very grateful. Thank you for all the stuff when we got home, the gifts, the notes, the food. You guys have gone far above and beyond. And we were able to stay home all weekend thanks to your efforts!

To Dave and Susan- Thank you for the plane food on our depature and the home food when we came home. It was nice to not have to worry about finding something to eat or cook when we got home from the airport. The chicken salad was delicious and Mikayla loved it too (much better then the package chicken salad we tried to give her in Cincinnati ) The gifts and extra thoughts you have given us have been fantastic. You have been amongst our biggest supporters and have been great friends. We look forward to years of friendship as our daughters grow up together.

To all those who showed up at the airport to see us home- WOW, how exciting it was to see you when we got off the plane. I figured some people would be there but I could not have anticipated how exciting and energizing it would be to have a crowd of people cheering for us as we came through the airport. An amazing experience and once in a lifetime. It took us a couple hours to come off the excitiment of the evening.

Thank you again to all those who have commented and emailed while we have been gone. I have read EVERY comment and email and I do apologize for not returning emails but it has been crazy. It was so nice to read the comments from home while in China.

OK, got a few things to do before Mikayla gets up from her nap so I need to go.

Ahh, our journey of “Bringing Mikayla Home” is coming to an end and a new journey is getting ready to begin. We leave our hotel at 9:30 am on Thursday (that is 8:30pm on Wednesday for those back home) and begin the long trip home. This has been the journey of a lifetime, and if I live to a hundred I will never have a trip like it again, even if I come back to China. I am so thankful and humbled by the gift that has been given to us. I want to sit down when I get home and have some time and wrap up my thoughts and put up some more pictures. Thank you to EVERYONE who has posted comments and sent us emails, it has been great to read them and know that we have the support of our friends and family at home, and even people who we have never actually met.

Today was a day for shopping mainly, tomorrow is our swearing in ceremony at the US Consulate. I was going to go to the zoo with Mikayla while Starla packed but it will make the day too long. I think we all need to rest up tomorrow because the following 48 hours are going to be very rough on all of us. Please keep us in your prayers for safe travel, patience, rest on the plane so we can visit with family in CA, and just God’s grace to be on us for this trip home. We have really enjoyed some parts of China and others have been an “experience”, maybe I can write more later. We are going to be glad to get home though.

Wow, the days and time just slip away so quick. We arrived in Guangzhou on Saturday and had a pleasant flight. We don’t have free internet in the room (and I am not going to pay $15 a day for the hour or so I use it) so I have run down to Starbucks while she is sleeping, so this will be a fairly short post. It was Mikayla’s first airplane ride and she did wonderful. She didn’t care too much for being cramped up but other than that she did fine. I keep thinking of all the firsts she is experiencing with us (first plane, first time in a crowded airport, first time on a big bus, first time in a Walmart and McDonalds), just so many firsts and she takes them all like a trooper. She hardly fusses and when she does it is a pretty short fuss. It is nice to come to the White Swan hotel and see all the families that have adopted, some of our CCAI group that went to another province is here too so it was a nice little reunion because we last saw them in Hong Kong before we got the babies. It is cloudy here in Guangzhou, we thought the sun was going to shine today but it didn’t, we haven’t seen sunshine in over a week, literally.

Yesterday we filled out an hour and a half of paperwork for the US Consulate that our guide will take to the Consulate on our behalf tomorrow morning. Then yesterday evening we ate at the Cow and Bridge Thai restaurant, it was OK, not great. Today a bunch of people are having a few stomach problems though (us included) so I wonder if it was the food. Not bad enough to be considered “sick”, just “rumbling”. We also had the famous Red Couch photo, which of course meant a shopping trip before hand and then we also stopped on the way back from dinner. Stuff is so cheap here, like we got two traditional Chinese outfits for like $5, it is so cheap that it feels bad to bargain but it is fun too anyway. Starla got 5 Yuan off of a couple things which is like 85 cents or something.

Today we had our medical examination and Mikayla did wonderful and passed with flying colors. She is such a healthy baby. I do hear something in her chest from time to time and when she lays down (and she snores) I am wondering if she is a bit asthmatic. We will have to ask our doctor when we get home. This afternoon we are going to a Buddhist Temple, the Chen House (not sure what that is yet), and then a crafts place for… more shopping.

Sorry for the rambling nature of this post, just wanted to get the thoughts out there and throw up some pictures (I am behind on organizing them too), it really is crazy how quick life can get ahead of you when you have a child. Honestly, what is happening is when we put her down for a nap or for bed, since we are all in the same room and have to make it dark and quiet, we are falling asleep too. Which means I am going to be cranky later because I missed my nap so I could post to the internet So far the naps are my favorite part of parenthood, oh and the smiling laughing baby we have too.

Things we know about Mikayla: She does NOT like hats or hair bows, she does not like to lay down (even right after waking up if you try to lay her down she has a fit) and only lays down quietly when you are changing her, she does like to eat just about everything, she like headstands, she does like attention from other people but after a couple minutes does start looking for ma or da. She seems to be attaching to both of us but is a daddy’s girl, because of Starla’s knee she is not able to carry her much so I do most the carrying. She likes to look at herself in the mirror. Everybody just loves her so much because they all say how cute she is, and we must agree.

Our pictures from the first McDonalds visit have been emailed to me (thank you so much Lynn) and I just wanted to post Mikayla’s first McDonalds, the first of many many many many more. We got her a Happy meal that came with a little character that talks, in Chinese. We have NO idea what it is saying but it is a keepsake for sure.

She is napping now, it is time to start packing soon, we leave here tomorrow afternoon and have no idea how I am going to fit everything in our luggage. It will be a challenge for sure. I haven’t mentioned how small she is either. She is 23 months but she is fitting into her 12 month clothes, we figured maybe 18 month clothes when we were packing but glad we were prepared. She is a tiny little bean for sure and only weighs in at about 22 pounds. She didn’t really eat much for breakfast today, normally she eats anything and everything that is put in front of her. Overall I think she is adjusting well still but I think some of the happiness we saw all the time when we first got her was a protective mechanism. It is still wonderful to see what she has underneath, it is still a happy baby but one with some “spice”

We also received a bunch of official paperwork today such as her Chinese birth certificate, adoption paperwork, abandonment paperwork. Also a very unexpected report from Half The Sky that is in Chinese and we will have to have it translated, but when we opened it on the first page is a 4×6 color photograph of her when she was brought to the orphanage, still in her finding clothes. It was so very surprising and Starla and I almost both started crying in the room with everyone else. What an amazing gift.