It's Wigilia Today

In Poland our families have started celebrating Christmas Eve, called Wigilia. This post is dedicated to them and our friends from Poland! :)


This is how we celebrated Christmas in 2007 with our families...(the last time we actually spent Christmas together..)

Dzien Dobry wszystkim w Polsce!!
Z okazji nadchodzacych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia, skladamy Wam Kochani, wszystkiego najlepszego, duzo zdrowia, pokoju oraz samych powodow do usmiechu.



And to all - Merry Christmas!!

Art, Asia and Abi..


P.S. Abi is 5 months today!!

The Post Office

8.19pm

Last night we got less sleep than any nights before since we came back from the hospital. No, Abi did not confuse day and night which we've heard happens a lot after staying in hospital. She is very active and happy during the day, but keeps snacking during the night. She gets no rest, we get no rest.

I know, it's just a season and we will get there one day when she sleeps through the night.

We had to go to the post office this afternoon. I had to go to the office behind the main area and I took Abi with me. When I was talking to one of the stuff I mentioned Abi's recent surgery and that she's a real miracle baby for whom God has been working miracles last 2 weeks. He looked at me and asked to tell him more. When I was telling him about the hundreds and hundreds of people praying for her when she was going through a 9 hour surgery exactly 2 weeks ago and what God did for her there, and how all the doctors were surprised, he stopped me and said: "I got chills! Please wait a moment." And he went around the corner and called one of his co-workers. When she came he pointed at Abi and said: 'She's a miracle baby! Hear this story!' and he asked me to tell her what I told him. When I was telling her about the wonderful things God was doing and the confirmations he was giving us during that time, she stopped me with tears in hear eyes and asked to wait a moment. (seriously!). She called another lady from her office, pointed out at Abi, called her a miracle baby and asked me to tell the testimony again. By the time I was leaving the guy was very touched, shaking my hand like his best friend's and the two ladies had tears in their eyes. Actually the last one was crying.

When we left the post office and got home, I got a call from them that we left our driver licenses there and I had to go back to pick them up. I took Abi with me so Asia could get some time off and focus on other things and went to the post office. Once I got there, it was packed with people so I got in line to the window where one of the ladies I met before was with another customer. When she saw me, she waved at me to come closer and said: 'We've been all talking about you and your little miracle girl ever since you left' and then turned to the client and started telling her Abi's story. In the meantime the other employee spotted me from the other corner of the post office and started waving to me with a huge smile on his face.

I can't wait to see what God has in store for Abi and her life. This will be so much fun to watch!

Thank you all who prayed us through this difficult time and who joined us on this journey.

Art

1st follow-up visit

7:32pm


Our first post-op visit with Dr. Greene went very smooth, except the fact that Abi didn't let the nurse take the blood pressure. 
Abi weighs 11.05lb. She was 10.6lb last Wednesday, so finally she's gaining as she should.
Abi's doctor was extremely, as he said it "tickled", to see how well she's doing, and after reviewing the x-ray pictures, performing new echo and EKG, he was thrilled to see the results. 
Everything looked perfect. We were able to see the blood-flow in Abi's "new" heart and the baffle that was created by the surgeon (Dr. Kirshbom). Dr. Greene was so thrilled with the entire process, the change of plans, the team in Atlanta and Abigail's extremely fast recovery. He himself called it a miracle and said, quote, "people say there are no miracles, but there are; they just don't look hard enough. Abigail's one of them!". He said that he spoke with Abi's surgeon couple times and they both could not believe how wonderful she's doing. He said that many, many kids with less complicated defects and after much simpler, routine surgeries often end up with some kind of complications and the fact that she has no complications and was discharged one week from this big surgery is unbelievable.
Our cardiologist attended a conference in Charleston, SC, where he met some of the surgeons and cardiologist from Atlanta Heart Center. He said the surgeons were talking about Abi's case. Seems like it was not only one from very few double switch surgeries performed in Atlanta but most probably very first one on such a young child. He said if she continues with this progress her case will definitely make a huge impact on the future of this procedure.


Our little Abi is famous now!! :)


After leaving the doctor's office and a very quick stop at work (I'm sorry I couldn't say hello to everyone) to take care of some paperwork, we came back home to spend rather uneventful day. ..

Thank you for your continuous prayers as God is revealing his powerful and amazing ways!!!!


Good night,


J. 

banana, bottle and x-ray...

7:45pm
Abi's sound asleep. We are after the night routine, that is getting better and better every day, namely less fussing before going to bed. Sometimes, I think she reminds herself: " hey, I haven't cried all day, that's my last chance today'.. In other words, she is such a content baby. She cried only 2 times today, both times when she was super hungry and I was super slow, preparing all the ingredients for supper: milk with rice cereal and a banana.. It was a feast this afternoon. 
We LOVE banana!!!!!!!
As I get to spend more time with her and much less working, actually not working at all...I've become a first witness of her many very "firsts". It's so exciting to watch her grow so fast. Since her mended heart doesn't beat like she's run a marathon anymore, the changes are even more noticeable, because she has strength to focus on other activities... 


For example, today, she started raising her hands as I approach her and tell her to "come to mommy". I don't pick her up until I say that and wait for her response and sometimes I lift her hands, so she knows what to do when she wants to be picked up.... She's such a fast learner!!


Also, for the first time she held her bottle and drank from it!!! 

I still am unsure whether it was a planned action, but it looked like it was intentional.. and she looked a.d.o.r.a.b.l.e.!!


Tomorrow, our first follow-up visit with the cardiologist. We are bringing the chest x-rays we did today for him to review. It was quite a ride with the radiology technicians today. They asked us back 3 times to take pictures, after we continued to dress and undress Abi and headed to the  registration area to wait for the pictures... 3 times!!! Unbelievable! And every time, we had to unstrap and take Abi from the car seat, undress her and put her on the uncomfortable, hard table in 2 different positions, dress her back up, put in the car seat and leave the radiology room. 
So yes, Abi was mad! I need to correct my previous statement about how many times she cried today... add three more :)
At the third time, I requested to stay in the room and wait for the technicians to come back to let us know if the pictures were clear... third time lucky..., so Merry Christmas and 1,5hours later we were done. Oh, and the x-ray pictures take 3 seconds for those who may wonder.
With a hint of sarcasm and a spice of humor... I'm saying: "better those pictures are really goood!!"


Have a blessed night,


J.

Good Days Rough Nights

7.28pm

Today was a good day after second rough night. Last night Abi was up every 1.5-2 hours to eat. Yes, definitally snacking. She does pretty well during the day staying on 3 hour shedule, but for some reason evenings, after the bath are very difficult and nights are pretty exhausting. We haven't figured this out yet. Before the hospital our evening routines were so sweet and she slept through the night waking up once maybe twice, but it has changed since we came back home.

Now she's sleeping again after screening bloody murder and we couldn't figure out what was wrong. We ended up giving her some infant Tylenol in case it was pain related.

We'll see what this night will bring.

And on Tuesday cardiologist follow up visit. Before this visit we have to get her x-Ray done. So tomorrow we will need to find a place near home where we can take care of it.

Have a good night everybody!

Art


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

2 weeks ago...

10:00 pm
It's been almost two weeks since we said our goodbyes to grandma at the Charlotte airport...

and the Atlanta roller-coaster....

J.

First laugh!!

12:45pm

I can't believe Abi finally laughed out loud for the very first time today!
I barked while showing her a doggie she recevied from the Lab nurses in the hospital last week and she found it extremely funny. What an awesome sound!
The same day we left the hospital she started cooing like never before, like she wanted to say something or burst out laughing...

A week before Christmas and I have already received my gifts.. Have you?

Blessings,

J.