Scary Times and Happy Endings

Friday:

Well it has been a roller coaster 10 days. Many of these details I posted about on Facebook, but I decided to write it all out so that I could reflect on God's goodness. If you enjoy details continue reading, if not then the important thing is that Jaelynn is doing great and should be going home soon.

 Jaelynn was admitted to St. Joseph's Children's Hospital in Tampa last Wednesday for a two part (anterior and posterior) surgery for severe scoliosis. The first surgery on Wednesday went great. She did fine with anesthesia and the doctor was able to accomplish what he hoped for that day. A chest x-ray that afternoon after surgery showed that she had developed a pneumothorax (the collection of air in the space around the lungs. This buildup of air puts pressure on the lung, so it cannot expand as much as it normally does when you take a breath). It was most likely caused by the placement of the central line that was placed during surgery. The plan was to keep an eye on it and if it didn't resolve itself they would treat it on Friday when she was scheduled for the second part of scoliosis surgery. On Thursday night Jaelynn's heart rate kept increasing. It went as high as the 180's (normal for her age is like 100-135). She did not have a fever which can often cause an increase. Another measurement that was off for Jaelynn was her CVP (central venous pressure) which as I understand it is a direct measurement of the blood pressure in the right atrium and vena cava. This was measured through the central line that was placed Jaelynn's jugular. The number that we wanted to see is between 3-9, Jaelynn's numbers began to rise with her heart rate and got as high as the 40's. These numbers all pointed to overhydration and heart failure.

Friday morning arrived and several doctors were in and out of the room deciding whether or not it was safe for her to have surgery. They consulted with a cardiologist who ordered an echocardiogram. No one had to say a word we could tell by the the expression on the faces in the room that something was very wrong. The right side of Jaelynn's heart was not functioning and she was experiencing heart failure. We now wondered how long this had been going on, because she has never had any symptoms of any heart or lung issues. The doctors knew after seeing this echo that surgery would not happen that day. The cardiologist ordered all fluids to be stopped and she was put on lasix to help reduce the fluids in her body. A repeat of the echo that afternoon showed slight improvement and the echo the next morning showed even more improvement, but the cardiologist wanted to determine if this was an acute event or something that had been going on in Jaelynn's body and we just didn't know it. The surgeon placed a chest tube at her bedside and that resolved the pneumothorax and the cardiolgist decided to do a heart cath on Monday morning. If the results were good then the back surgery could be performed right after that. Praise The Lord, the results of the cath were good and her heart seems to be okay. The cardiologist feels like this was an acute event due to a combination of the pneumothorax and being overhydrated and she said that the heart was recovering well. We had a follow up echo today and will find out if her heart has fully recovered from everything soon. 

She was taken from the cath lab to the OR and the doctor made his first incision at noon and finished just before 5 PM. Needless to say Monday was a very long day and a day I do not wish to repeat. 

Since the second surgery Jaelynn's heart rate and fluid balance has been a little tricky, but it seems to be controlled well now. She spiked a fever of 103 during the night last night, but a little Tylenol helped with that. 

Today Jaelynn was moved from the ICU to a regular room. The room is much more comfortable and it has a bathroom I can use, YAY. Now again this afternoon she spiked a fever of 104. Someone will be in shortly to check it again, and I'm praying it has come down. You'd never know she had a fever by the way she is acting, she has been very pleasant all day. I think she is excited about the possibility of going home soon since she has met all the milestones the doctor set for her. She's been sitting up in bed and the chair in the room. For short periods she has even sat in her wheelchair, which is a little bit more painful. She is also eating well.

Looking back on the events of the last 10 days, I am very thankful for so many things. I am thankful that the doctor in the ICU consulted with a cardiologist and that the cardiologist ordered and echocardiogram of Jaelynn's heart. Had she gone into surgery on Friday when she was experiencing heart failure, the results would be very different than they are now. Needless to say the technician that performed the test as well as the doctors are very thankful too. I am thankful that through every rough spot the doctors here have been wonderful and have explained things to us so well. We've had great nurses, a special shout out to Ashley who went above and beyond being a great nurse. She stayed with Jaelynn during the process of getting her second chest tube when Jaelynn was so scared and promised to protect Jaelynn with her life since David and I had to leave the room. I'm thankful for the results of the surgery. Though Jaelynn's spine curvature is not perfect, it is so much better than before which will help her in so many ways. I'm thankful for the doctors and nurses that we were able to share our adoption story with, it was evident that Jaelynn touched their heart.  I'm thankful for everyone that prayed for Jaelynn and our family over the last 11 days, we felt them all.

Saturday update:

Woo Hoo, the doctor decided to let Jaelynn come home today. We stopped by my parents house but we've been home now for a few hours and it feels great! We got the results of the latest echo and it showed just a small amount of pleural fluid. We will have a repeat echo in a few days and will also follow up with the spine doctor.

Below is a picture of Jaelynn with Dr Riggs who is one of the doctors in the ICU that treated Jaelynn. The one in the surgeons cap is the general surgeon who assisted the spine surgeon in the first surgery and who placed the chest tubes. We'll post more pictures of the staff that were an important part of Jaelynn's care later.

 

Big Stuff

There have been several changes in our family, and though most are exciting, it has also been bitter sweet. 

Katie moved back to Clearwater in July because of a job opportunity and also for school. After completing a year of full time studies through her colleges online program, she is back as a second semester junior as a classroom student. She lives with my parents and commutes about twenty minutes to school. It was great having her living at home when Jaeynn came home. She was a great help and Jaelynn got to bond with the whole family. I miss her but I'm also excited as I see The Lord work in her life.

Matthew spent the summer working as a camp counselor at Camp Grace in North Carolina and he just started his fresh,an year at Clearwater Christian College. This is his second week and he seems to be enjoying it. Both Katie and Matt have a Bible professor that they really like. This professor also taught David almost 30 years ago. He has made such an impact on many students.

My Abby started middle school last week. I don't know how this is possible, it seems like just yesterday we were anticipating her arrival. She is enjoying spreading her wings and becoming more responsible and independent. I'm not sure how I'm feeling about it though. Abby has taken on the role as big sister and is doing a fantastic job. Jaelynn loves playing with Abby and Abby enjoys taking care of Jaelynn.

One year ago today we received our Letter of Approval from China to adopt Jaelynn. Anyone who has adopted from China knows what a big deal this is. It is China's approval to adopt a specific child and typically from this point things start moving rather quickly. One year later Jaelynn has been part of our family for nine months and we couldn't imagine life without her. She had surgery for a tethered cord three weeks ago (spinal cord surgery) and recovery was a little bit tough, but she is doing much better now and was able to start kindergarten last week and she is loving it. Today was her last day for about six weeks because she will be having surgery for scoliosis tomorrow and on Friday. Typically scoliosis surgery is performed when children are a little older but because of the severity of her case doctors felt it should be taken care of now to protect her heart and lungs and because they were afraid if we waited they may not be able to help her later. So tomorrow they will work from her front side to make some corrections and on Friday from her back. This is quite a big surgery. I was told by a nurse anesthetist yesterday that besides cardiac surgeries this is the biggest surgery they perform at this hospital. She will be in ICU until at least Monday. Please pray for our brave girl and that her recovery will go smoothly.

Having grown children brings varying emotions. It is bittersweet to think back at how quickly time has gone by but also exciting when you see your young adult children making good decisions and living a life that seeks Christ first. My favorite job I have been entrusted with is being a wife to David and being a mommy to Katie, Matt, Abby, and Jaelynn. Those of you with little ones savor every day with your gifts, you will not regret it and they will not forget it.

Happy Referral Day!

It was one year ago today that I received a phone call and then an email that our family had been waiting on for nine months. I had been home from work for about an hour  when the phone rang. Caller ID showed it was a call from Colorado. My heart jumped.... Could this actually be the call we had been waiting so long for? It was indeed our adoption agency with the news that they had finally received the file on Dang Yue Lin aka Jaelynn. We were told to check our email and review the information and make a decision as to whether we wanted proceed with the adoption within 48 hours. We responded by the end of the day and sent our Letter of Intent to our agency. 

It's been fun to reminisce on the last year and to reflect on everything that has happened. All the worry over when we would receive our LOA (letter of acceptance) from China,  and when other paperwork would make its way to the proper desk, and then waiting on our TA (travel approval) caused us to really rely on God and His timing. I was constantly figuring timeline scenarios in my head. If these papers are dropped off today then that can be picked up on this day and we could have travel approval by this day and we could be in China by this day. I thought I had all the scenarios planned out, but God had the timing all figured out and it was much better than anything I could have planned myself. 

Jaelynn has been home a little over seven months now and continues to do very well in spite of some physical challenges. She is scheduled for surgery with her neurosurgeon on August 5 for a tethered cord repair and then she is scheduled for scoliosis/ back surgery on Aug 28 and 30.  We are thankful  that these surgeries are not considered life threatening, however they are very complex and there are risks involved. Please pray for the doctors and the medical team that will be working with Jaelynn. Pray for Jaelynn, she is a trooper, but is very scared. Pray for our family. We know these surgeries are necessary but we are anxious and ready to get them behind us.

Happy referral day Jaelynn, we are so thankful God chose us to be your family. We love you!

Family - A Gift

One of the hard things with adoption is making sure your other children feel connected and loved even though so much attention is being placed on the new member of the family. This is even difficult with older children. You still want to communicate love and appreciation for all of your children. 

Last Thursday was the last day of school so I made a lunch date with Abby, our eleven year old. I left Jaelynn with Katie and Abby picked the restaurant. We ran a few errands and then had a nice lunch together. 

Thursday evening David and I drove Matthew to Orlando to pick his girlfriend from the airport. Her flight was scheduled to arrive at 7:28, but because of a missed connecting flight and bad weather her flight did not arrive until about mid night. Ordinarily this would seem like an inconvenience, but it was actually some sweet time spent with our son Matthew who is now in North Carolina working at a Christian Camp for the summer and then when he returns he will be leaving for college within a couple of weeks. We talked about his senior year, the camp ministry he will be involved in, his girlfriend, church and his future. We also enjoyed spending time with Matt and his girlfriend on Saturday when we drove them to North Carolina to camp. Thank you Katie for taking care of Jaelynn so that your Dad and I could make the quick trip to NC and back.

On Wednesday we took the three girls to Adventure Island Water Park. Abby has been wanting to go there and Jaelynn was excited to go swimming in the lazy river. We had a great day and are hoping to make it back there before the end of the Summer. 

Today was an exhausting day. Jaelynn had an appointment with a spine/ scoliosis doctor. Her appointment was at 8:40 and we were there until after 2 PM, but I think we got a lot of answers. She had several x rays and a Cat Scan. This doctor is now going to talk to her neurosurgeon and I hope to hear from him next week so that we can put together a plan for treating her issues. Her case is very complicated (what every parent loves to hear), but we felt confident with this doctor and will continue to trust The Lord to go before us every step of the way. As we left today the doctor thanked us for the challenge. 

At one point today as the doctor was examining Jaelynn and looking at her test results, he was just baffled by what he saw. I felt a sense of panic and then I read some lyrics to a song that Chris Tomlin sings and that a little friend of ours has been singing the last couple of days:

 I know Who goes before me

I know Who stands behind

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side

The One who reigns forever

He is a Friend of mine

The God of angel armies

Is always by my side

So thankful for the one who goes ahead of us every step of this journey.

On difficult days when Jaelynn is not being the sweet little girl that you see in all of the pictures, I have to remind myself of all that God has done and is doing through this little girl. The thought of her not being in our family or not having a family at all immediately eliminates any frustrations I might feel. As God continues to write Jelynn's story I feel privileged and humbled to be part of it. 

Thank you to all of you who have prayed for Jaelynn and or the rest of our family. We appreciate everyone of you! We will keep you all posted on what the next steps will be.

Exciting Times!

Today has been a significant day in the life of our family. First of all our son, Matt, graduated from High School with highest honors, summa cum laude. He was chosen to be the commencement   speaker and did an awesome job! After graduation we celebrated with an open house/ party. We are so proud of the young man Matt has become and are excited to see how God uses him in the future. He will be home for another week and then he will head to North Carolina where he will work once again at Camp Grace as a counselor. He will get home the first part of August and then soon after start his new adventure at Clearwater Christian College. We will be saying goodbye to both Katie and Matt as Katie will be heading back to Clearwater Christian also. 

Katie completed this year of college at home through taking a full time load of classes via the Internet and driving to Clearwater a few times every semester for classes. At this point she is still on track to graduate a semester early in December 2014. 

Abby will complete fifth grade this week and it will be off to junior high for her. I can't believe she is old enough already! 

Another significant milestone in our family is that Jaelynn has been home exactly six months today. It seems like yesterday we were waiting for her file from China. She continues to be a perfect fit as an Altman and she is looking forward to starting kindergarten in the fall. We see a spine specialist as well as her neurosurgeon this month and will decide when she should have surgery on her spine. Not many details on this yet, but would appreciate prayers as we make decisions. 

Now to back track a week... Last week we were given the opportunity to go to Nashville for the 10th anniversary of Show Hope. Show Hope is the organization that provided life saving care for Jaelynn while she was still in China and they also provided our family with a grant to help with the cost of our adoption. We had such a sweet time, reuniting children that were once  orphans. It was so neat to see children that once played together in an orphanage in China playing together in America with their families looking on. A former pre school teacher and doctors who cared for the children in China were there also. It was also a great time meeting friends that I have only talked to on the phone, Facebook, and email. A weekend filled with some precious memories.

We are still amazed as we look back over the last two years and see how God has worked in the life of our family. Thank you to all of you who have played a part in our journey. A year ago it did not seem like we would ever be at this point. God is Good, and God is Faithful!

An Altman Update

It is hard to believe that 4months have gone by since we arrived home from China with our daughter, Jaelynn. It's is hard to believe that she hasn't always been here. She seems to blend in so well with all of the family.
Last month Jaelynn had surgery on her feet. One of the purposes of the surgery was to correct her feet so that she will be able to wear shoes, something she has never been able to do. We are so excited to go shoe shopping! Another purpose for the surgery was to possibly get her up on her feet. Since she has no feeling in her right leg it means getting her up on her left leg. We are not sure yet if this will happen, but we are taking things one step at a time and praying. Though she will never be able to walk like you or I, we have been encouraged to hear the doctors talk about the possibility of her using some type of walker and leg braces to walk with. We will know more about whether or not this will happen as time goes on and as she continues to recover from surgery. Please pray for her as she will be getting both casts removed in two weeks.
Jaelynn continues to LOVE Sunday School and is learning stories and songs and making friends. She loves to have her nails polished and wear dresses, especially pink ones. She likes to eat cheese grits, pizza, spaghetti, and ramon noodles and enjoys drawing and writing her letters as well as play with dolls and barbies. She likes Disney Junior, all the Disney princesses and Taylor Swift's Red CD. She is looking forward to starting kindergarten in the fall, we even visited her school to show her around. I really like kindergarten in our city. It is a separate school from the elementary schools, so she will be with all small children her first year of school.
Show Hope will be celebrating their 10th Anniversary in May with a big picnic and concert in Nashville. We really wanted to go and meet the many people who have been such an encouragement to us throughout our adoption, but had decided that financially it was not feasible for our family to make the trip. However, God miraculously provided and we will be going to celebrate. We are so excited about meeting so many adoption friends and for Jaelynn to get to see her best friend from Maria's Big House of Hope. It will be so sweet to see those two together again. There will also be others there that she spent time with in China. A special thank you to those of you who helped put this trip together for our family, you have no idea how much it means! Thank you for being such a blessing in our lives.
It's hard to believe we are entering the final weeks of the 2012/2013 school year and that our son Matthew will be graduating from high school. Such mixed emotions as he prepares for the future. Matt will once again be working at Camp Grace in North Carolina this summer as a media specialist and counselor. He has been accepted at Clearwater Christian college for the fall semester. He is still praying about what the Lord wants him to major in. We are so proud of him and his desire to serve God and others and for the hard work he has put into his school work. He will be graduating at the top of his class (number 32 out of approximately 340 students).
Abby is finishing up her fifth grade year and will begin middle school next year and I don't want to talk about it!She is growing up way to fast but she is still a little girl. She is enjoying the role as big sister to Jaelynn and she is finishing her final year in Awana at church and is working toward her Timothy award.
Katie is finishing her sophmore year at Clearwater Christian College. She did her sophmore year on then internet at home so that she could be home for Jaelynn's homecoming, but she will be back in Clearwater in the fall. If her schedule works out the way she is planning she may be finished with her senior year in about a year and a half.
We would appreciate prayers in the coming months as Jaelynn continues to have medical tests and treatments.

Three Months Home!

We have been home with Jaelynn now for three months. It's hard to believe that all of the months of anticipation are finally over and we are trying to settle into a routine as a family of six. Jaelynn is doing marvelous and continues to amaze us. She is funny, smart, stubborn, sensitive and so much more.

We took Jaelynn to The Magic Kingdom as a late Christmas gift and she loved it. She is in love with the Disney princesses and is collecting as many of the dolls as she can. She knows just the people to ask to buy these things for her too. She has decided that her daddy and I can buy her Belle and her nanny and papa will buy her Cinderella and Tiana. 

She loves to go with her siblings to the park and see the turtles in the pond and to swing. She has started to stay in Sunday School without me and is loving it and I am actually enjoying it too. She is learning and enjoying singing with the other children songs about God and how He loves her.

A couple of weeks ago we were able to attend the "Empowered to Connect" conference with Dr Karyn Purvis. So much valuable information and a great time with other adoptive parents. We were also able to meet several of the staff from Show Hope. So many of these people had prayed specifically for our little girl.  

We are in the midst of seeing several specialist and scheduling surgeries to help Jaelynn with some of her challenges. She is scheduled for surgery next week on both feet, ankles, and one hamstring. This surgery should make it possible for her to wear shoes (probably with braces). She has requested a pair of light up shoes! She will be in casts for several weeks, which should be interesting. Following this surgery we will meet again with a neurologist and a spine doctor and will likely have some surgeries in the future for other issues. 

Having three children prior to Jaelynn who are totally healthy has made this process of evaluations and hearing what the doctors say harder than I imagined. It has been a whole new level of stress that I knew would come, but on many days it leaves me feeling inadequate and relying more and more on The Lord for strength. Please pray for our family as we tread these new waters and that we would be able to provide Jaelynn with everything she needs. 

We are as certain as ever that God chose Jaelynn to be our daughter and are honored to fill that role. As most know doing what God calls us to do is not always easy. Though the last couple of months have been full of joy, excitement, and love there have also been many times of worry, anxiety, and fear over everything from Jaelynn's  health needs, to wondering if we are parenting our adopted daughter "the right way", to finances, BUT God is good and continues to be faithful in everything.  Thank you to everyone who has and continues to encourage and pray for us along the way. God used the prayers of people like you to bring this incredible little girl to her forever family!