Time for some healing

So here's our little guy. We have miraculously gotten three surgeons lined up for his surgery next Thursday, August 27th. Already we are so thankful to our plastic surgeon who is working on our behalf to get it all coordinated...we have heard wonderful things about Dr. Kelly at Vanderbilt, and we feel so blessed that he is taking Owen's case. Our little guy has three procedures, all lined up for that day, the idea being to get it all done with only one anesthesia necessary, and hey, when you're down, you're down, get it over with.

1) Repair cleft palate--Owen's is "pretty wide, but we do it all the time", in Dr. Kelly's words. God bless this man!

2) Circumcision (I'm really sorry, sweet boy) plus possible mild hypospadias repair. Won't know the extent until they "get in there". Dr. Brock will do this; met with him last month...he was very nice and felt it wasn't anything major, but did need to be done now.

3) Tubes inserted in Owen's ears--meeting with Dr. Wooten for the first time this Thursday. Our pediatrician feels this is going to be essential to keep Owen's ears clear; he's been fighting infections off and on since we got home, and we were told to expect this with a cleft palate baby even before accepting his referral.

SO, here's the situation. Owen has had a cold for several weeks...just finished a round of antibiotics...he's developed a very wheezy chest condition (too soon to call it asthma, but could be) and we've been to the doctor 3 times in the last week. Today he's got a new antibiotic, something new for the nebulizer which we purchased last week (Mr. Obama, I like my health insurance and WANT TO KEEP IT), and if he doesn't get well, he won't be able to have his surgery next week. We would appreciate your prayers for our sweet boy...he needs to have this done...the surgeries (with the exception of #3) are not really urgent in terms of having to reschedule, but I have taken off the first 9 weeks of school and this is the time we need to do this. In "the bigger picture" this is just such a small blip on the radar screen of life, and God knows all of these details...it's all under control, just not MY control. I sure do hope we can do this as planned, or work it all out somehow!

Now to something much more urgent. Friends and family, I urge you to go to my Blog List on the sidebar and click on the link to Georgia Mei. This sweet baby girl does not have the luxury of time and a mama with silly little things like wanting to just stick to her schedule. She needs to be covered in prayer for upcoming heart surgery this Friday. On August 14th, Georgia Mei became a US citizen when her mom, Shannon Miller and Georgia's two grandmas landed in America after bringing her home from China (those few words encompass an amazing story). Shannon and her husband Doug's story will amaze and inspire you. The way we know the Millers is through traveling with them in the same America World travel group to China in 2005 to bring home our beautiful daughters from Jingdezhen, Jiangxi Province, China. We literally received our girls back to back, juggling cameras as we tried to capture each others' "gotcha" moments. We have been in touch over the last four years, much more so since we both began pursuing our special needs adoptions early this year. Please lift them up in prayer this week as they are exhausted beyond belief, and have a different kind of exhaustion coming up as Georgia goes through open heart surgery. She's a beautiful little girl brought home to an amazing, loving family, and you will be blessed just looking at her sweet face and reading this inspiring story.