On December 19th, we had Mia for 1 year! We went out to dinner that night, for Chinese of course, and celebrated this very special day! It was very interesting because Mia refused to speak Mandarin to the waitresses, though she clearly understood what they were saying. She is completely Americanized, though we will continue to encourage her to embrace her Chinese heritage.
And then came Christmas! What an exciting time for Mia. She could not believe that there was a scary looking man who was so nice to give her presents because she was such a good girl! The boys asked me, and I told them the truth, about Santa, but they were so good about making this so special for their little sister. She got presents Christmas eve, Christmas day, and the day after, so of course on the 27 the first words out of her mouth were "do i get more presents today?" She's a pistol! Then it was Matt's birthday the 29th and it was "Is it my birthday too?" Can you tell she loves presents! But really who doesn't?!?
It was 1 year ago today that Mia had her first heart Catherization. I was extremely jet lagged and Mia was terrified. It was 1 year ago that the Catherization doctor, who we fondly refer to as the "snow bitch" or "ice queen" told me "There is nothing we can do for her. Enjoy the next 8 years with her and try to give her the best life you can". My response, as tears are streaming down my face "I can't do this again... I will not survive loosing another child". Her response "Well I am sorry, but there is nothing we can do." Then our knight in shining armor, Dr. Allada, said "Show her the pictures. We need to do a CT scan to find out for sure." And he has been with us ever since. When I had her in for her follow up, he remembered that we have had her for a year. He is so kind and vested in her care. Our last follow up, he was talking about making plans now for her to live the next 40 or 50 years! Unbelievable.... take that "Ice Queen"!!! And she has never cathed Mia again!