Hard to Believe There was a Day Without Her

Hello all. We hope you are well and growing closer to the Lord each day. We had decided before we started blogging that we would continue until after Abigail's palate surgery. Well, she is well recovered and really doing well. She is trying to say everything with her new "roof" and the word "no" seems to come the easiest recently. She is singing now and it is just so sweet. She has not gained a lot of weight but the doctors are not concerned as she is eating well and is strong.

I could go into hundreds of details, some difficult some just plain wonderful. I will make it brief and say that we can hardly believe she is finally here with us and that her surgery is over (she has a speech evaluation in May). It is so clearly God's will that this sweet, beautiful little girl was placed in our family with God's perfect guidance and timing. He worked out SO MANY details, provided so much financial help in the perfect amounts at the perfect times; placed just the right people in our lives; denied us some things to show us we were off track or that He had different intentions that would just glorify Him more; TRULY INCREDIBLE IS OUR GOD!! We love Abigail with all our hearts.

I will tell you that this little girl has and is still having a bit of a slow, hard time bonding (and very difficult nights with sleeping) but we see wonderful little bits of progress and for me experiencing and seeing her pain just reminds me all the more how many of these children are around the world in need of the love of a family to show them the love of our Savior. It is hard to understand some days why it is so hard for her but we do not know what she has previously experienced and we trust in Jesus to guide and overtake us with His love and He does.

This is all the more reason that I need to focus more on my family and eliminate some of the little things that take up time--a bunch of littles adds up to a lot. So, blogging is on the list of things that must be put aside right now.

We would adopt again in a heartbeat if the Lord so directed. Our trip to China is an amazing mass of images burned into my mind with a wide range of emotions attached. The best part is Abigail is home. We now have many other families to pray for that we were privileged to travel with and they all remain in a very special place in my heart. I hope you will all not hesitate to e-mail us with any prayer requests or just good news!

Well, here are some pictures of what we have been doing (this turned into a grand finale slideshow!). May the Lord bless you all continually as you seek Him and share Him with others.

The Choice of Life

Yes, we have an update but I have felt the Lord place some things on my heart that can only be shared. As a parent who has had the joy of experiencing adding to our family in more than one way I read something that touched me so deeply that I just wept and thanked God for His absolute presence in our lives. I often find myself wondering exactly what made Abigail's mother choose to keep her baby and abandon her when she was unable to care for her while so many choose other sad alternatives that deny life to children. My heart just aches for her and how painful it must have been--but she chose life and we are so thankful. Although I do not know why exactly, I believe whatever the conscious reason for her decision, behind that reason was the remarkable grace of God. I cannot imagine what it was like to not give in to fears and to make such a wise choice in those circumstances. God placed such grace in the heart of that surely scared, distraught but courageous woman. We are so immensely blessed by her decision and our other children the Lord has gifted to us. And to be adopted as sons and daughters by our sovereign God is so much more than we deserve but aren't we more thankful than we could ever properly express?

Because women choose life, other babies are born who can hear the message of those whose mothers chose life; husbands and wives are loved by each other and their children; the truth and the gospel of Jesus Christ is shared; and on the list could go!

Let us give praise to the Lord Jesus Christ on behalf of grateful children, fathers, mothers, husbands, wives, brothers, sisters, ...for the daily blessings which come from the fruit of sorrowing mothers who chose life and for the parents who will continue to give loving families to the lost babies everywhere.

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As for our little blessing, she (and we) has emerged from two weeks of what seemed like torture at times to a little one on the mend, able to eat again and with full use of her arms. The first week appointment showed slow healing and so many people prayed (some even vowed to pray each time they woke up at night) she was so well healed by her second doctor appointment that we do not need to go back for 3 MONTHS! Abigail has had a hard adjustment but we believe we are seeing much change and I think God used the surgery to help that along. There have been times I have wondered why so much has been so hard but to look back the Lord has grown us in areas we didn't have any clue we needed to grow in. As a family we have endured together sleepless nights more often than not and a rather difficult, strong-willed disposition from such a little girl. But we are being shown a beautiful sweetness and the most wonderful giggle ever now that makes our hearts rejoice and we have a better undstanding of patience by this whole process. I sometimes feel weary thinking about and knowing there is much more the Lord has to teach us but I am so thankful we have Him to teach us and that we are not without Him in our lives! What a mighty, merciful God we serve!

We will probably update once a month from now on. It has become clear I need to focus on my family even more with one more to nurture in the ways and admonition of the Lord.

May the Lord bless you all!

As a side note, we are very proud of our Maddie--she has been growing her hair for a very long time with intentions of donating it to "Locks of Love" and she accomplished that even though it had to be real short to do it this time--she easily said yes not knowing how her really thick hair would take this new "do" but we think it is adorable (of course, we are her parents and what else would we think?!)

Thankful to be Home

First we want to thank everyone for your petitions to the Lord on behalf of our family. Abigail's fever is mostly gone, she began swallowing and drinking (due mostly to the Tylenol with codeine) and WE ARE HOME! It is quite a surgery with a couple really rough days afterward but it is all looking up a little each day. We had wonderful nurses and her doctors are great. We had to stay a couple extra days because things progressed slowly the first few days. She was so happy to get all the tubes and things out and off of her (Audrey, your day is soon for that!) She was most happy when her whole family came though and we were all together again.

This experience has provided some amazing bonding time and hopefully now that we are home again will build trust for Abigail.

Arm restraints are highly annoying for her but very necessary so nothing gets to her mouth to disturb the stitches, etc. She also had the growth removed from her nose which was actually a leftover stitch from her previous surgery that just didn't get removed and tissue began to grow around it (it was very sensitive tissue). She is quite upset about not being able to have food so we are not going to eat in front of her until she is off the all liquid diet (two weeks and two weeks arm restraints if all goes well).

I had some wonderful opportunities at the hospital to explain to people why we adopted and to share the gift of adoption to us. The Lord is working among us all the time, we just have to be paying attention!

Well, I am quite tired and will sign of with some pictures.

Mommy (all suited up for anesthesia) and Abigail


Abigail a little silly from pre-surgery meds




Abigail unimpressed with arm restraints




A break from our room


GOING HOME!

Just a little Saturday update

Mike and the kids are heading to Pittsburgh today. They are still not sure if they will be able to find some housing for the night, but are taking some overnight bags just in case.

Abigail is running a fever. A small fever after surgery is normal, but hers is a bit higher and they are trying to figure out what's causing it or where there may be an infection.

Please continue to pray for the family and that Jeunesse can get some rest to be able to deal with what lies ahead.

-Patty Mears

Update after surgery

(Patty Mears updating for Jeunesse)

Little Abigail made it out of surgery just fine. The doctor had originally stated that it would take 3 hours but it was 5 instead.

Last night was very rough. Jeunesse had no idea that there would be large amounts of blood causing Abigail to choke and gag throughout the night. So as Jeunesse sat on her chair beside Abigail the night was very long.

Plus Abigail must have sensed something was happening the night before her surgery because she did not sleep one wink.

Jeunesse has been able to spend ALOT of bonding time with little Abigail, they pretty much read books and she said she was terribly bored as they can not leave the room.

Abigail has been switched from Morphine to Tylenol with codeine. She is allowing Jeunesse to hold and soothe her. She does not like the nurses or doctor coming in and makes that known. She at different times will try and pull out or kick out the IV in her foot.

The tube is out of her nose. Abigail needs to drink before she comes home and she will not do that yet. She is NOT swallowing. At this age that Abigail is, they know they have pain, they know where it's coming from and they do not understand "if you drink we can go home."

The Nageottes are not sure how many more days they will be in Pittsburgh, they do feel the necessity of the family being together this weekend and are checking to see if they can get a Ronald McDonald House nearby so Mike and the kids can come stay and see Abigail too. Please pray that this all works out quickly so they can go today still.

Jeunesse said that she knows alot of people are following this blog and especially friends from their travel group who are still yet to have this surgery with their children that when she gets home she will go into further details about it.

She has also taken lots of pictures that she will post when she gets home and settled.

I will definitely keep you posted if Jeunesse calls again and allows me to update further.

Palate Surgery

Just a note that little Audrey and her family that we asked you all to pray for is having some setbacks and staying in the PICU another couple days with some more aggressive treatments for her lungs. Please lift her up to our Lord for healing.

Tomorrow (Feb. 5th) we will drive to Children's Hospital in Pittsburgh around 6 a.m. to make our arrival time of 9 a.m. Abigail will have surgery around 10:30 a.m. (3 hour surgery) and her surgery will last around 3 hours. It would not be truthful to say we have no worries. There is much involved in her surgery and recovery. They will also be removing a growth inside her nose. Our faith is in the Lord and we trust in His will and may it all be for His glory.

We have seen our little girl that we waited so long for grow closer to us in this past week in little but very significant ways. She runs to us, settles in my arms comfortably and we just have felt another level of trust develop. It is hard sometimes to wonder what she will think about this whole surgery thing and even harder for me to think about after surgery recovery period. As with the other areas of our lives, we have set our hearts upon Him who knows all and is in control of all of this. Abigail is so, so sweet and funny but also very strong-willed and still struggles at night. We will so enjoy the time beyond this to see how the Lord uses her beautiful personality. We love her so and that is something she will know no matter what.

Thank you all for lifting her (and us) up to Him in prayer--it means so much because we know He is listening!

We will update as soon as possible (no laptop so we will do our best!)

Here are a few pictures of the children enjoying a history learning song which Abigail loves to be a part of each day, the tub which she strongly disliked and now thoroughly enjoys and likes to snuggle in her towel afterward.

Pray for Audrey

Audrey is having her open heart surgery today--it was postponed from yesterday. She is such a sweet, loving little girl with a wonderful family that we were blessed to meet in China. Please pray for them all as they trust in the Lord to work out all the details.