8 months tomorrow!! (seems like she has always been here though)

Well the month of August has been pretty uneventful for the Vogel family, with the exception of the septic backing up and the water pressure tank spraying water all over the basement!  The boys have been enjoying their last days of freedom from school fishing, riding dirt bikes, and swimming.  They have also been getting into some trouble and doing some wild things, such as riding a wagon down a steep hill towards the road = 0!  The other night they rigged a saucer sled to a bicycle. They worked super hard on it, geared up with helmets and knee pads and rode the sled down the driveway!  It was not only creative, but hysterical to watch!

And Miss Mia is doing so well.  She is sooooo excited to go to pre-school in a few weeks.  She tells us that she is excited to make new friends and will share her toys.  Her English continues to progress.  We are going to have her evaluated by a speech therapist to make sure that their is nothing that we or they could work on with her.  Matt's favorite thing to say to her is "Ni hao" (which means hello in Chinese)  Mia cracks up every time and corrects our pronunciation.  It is so cute!  She is growing like a weed and continues to have a great appetite.  She has gotten so big before our eyes and she is simply beautiful.  She has adjusted better than we could have ever expected and it is really like she has always been here.  As far as her health goes, she continues to do well and plays like a healthy child right now.  I take her back to the cardiologist in mid-September, when I anticipate that they will be scheduling her for her next heart Catherization.  She loves us and we love her.  She talks about going back to China to visit, but does not want to live there. She wants us all to go to China with her... she is so smart!

Mia this spring

Mia yesterday

The last surprise for the month is that on July 20th we got a new puppy!  Jack the Saint Bernard!  We were planning to wait until Spring for a new puppy, but it was so lonely in the house without a dog around.  He is a puppy in many ways, but very laid back.  He is also doing really well with potty training!  It has been nice to train a dog with the boys home... they actually help to take him out!

I will keep everyone posted with updates about our family... thanks for caring and reading!

7 months with Mia!!!

Tuesday marks 7 months with our little miss Mia!  She has had several firsts over the past month. 

She celebrated her first father's day with Matt and the kids made him a "#1 dad" trophy!

She is a fish and loves swimming.  She started using water wings this week and loves them.  She swims for hours at a time.  She also experienced a trip and face plant :(  She sacrificed her baby's safety for her face when she tripped!  That is the injury under her nose...

Mia also saw her first fireworks and loved them as well.  On the 4th we shot fireworks at our house and the only thing she didn't like was the firecrackers.  The following weekend we saw professional fireworks and she loved them.  She kept saying "beautiful"!!  Speaking of her language, she is picking up English so quickly and is really smart!  She has counting to 10 down, but she is still struggling with colors.  She will be attending pre-school in the fall, so that should help her to further develop her language.

We also had our first photo shoot and we finally got her 4 year old picture done.  She's a ham!

Finally I wanted to say sorry about my last doom and gloom post.  I know this will sound strange, but I had this overwhelming sense of dread that weekend, and I assumed it was because of Mia's medical condition.  It turns out that the following monday, our dog George was diagnosed with cancer.  We just put him to sleep this past Monday.... it was really hard on the boys, especially Logan.  We miss him.

Stay tuned for more adventures of the Vogels!!

The best possible life....

When we wound up admitted to Children's Pittsburgh 1 1/2 days and they did her first heart catherization, the Catherization team of doctors came to us and said "there is nothing we can do for her... at this point you just have to give her the best possible life that you can."  That moment and that phrase has stuck with me.  Is it even possible to cram "the best possible life" into 16 to 26 years?   Will she be healthy enough to dance at her prom, experience her first kiss, fall in love, have her own children and care for them like she does for her babies?   What exactly is the "best possible life" anyway.  Sure it includes love and hugs and kisses, which she gets plenty of, but what else.  We all know that material objects make people happy, but really happy?  I don't know what would be the best possible thing in her life, mostly because I don't even know if she will be able to experience it before she's 30.  Adoption is quite a different experience than having the boys and having carried them for 9 months.  We had time to get to know them and love them even before they were born.  And when they arrived, it was beautiful.  Adoption is beautiful too.  As Mia changes and grows we do too, with her.  I fall more in love with her every day that passes... we all do.  I think too that I have so much time with our boys, to screw up and figure it out, and eventually settle on our relationship when they are adults.  But with her I always feel I need to get everything right.  Like a screw up on my part is part of her life wasted.  So I guess I have come full circle again.  How do I ensure that she has the "best possible" in the years that she is with us?  I guess it's just love, that's the best we can give her. 

Tomorrow marks 6 months with Mia!

It's hard and easy to believe that Mia has been with us for 6 months now.  She has changed so much in the past 6 months.  Mia's english is coming around at amazing speed and she communicates in sentences with us now.  When it Mia was upset in the past she would shut down and refuse to speak (which was frustrating for all of us), but now she'll tell us what's wrong, and is always quick to tattle on her brothers!

Mia loves to swim and be outside.  She likes to draw and color.  She is counting to 10 consistently now and knows about 1/2 of her primary colors.  The most important thing about Mia is that she is so happy... 99% of the time, and this is no exaggeration.  She plays, laughs, runs, and is very snuggly.  Every day when she gets dressed she says "I'm a pretty princess!" She definitely is the princess in this house.  When she hasn't annoyed them, Jacob and Logan spoil her, play with her, and carry her around.  But the one she has completely wrapped around her finger is her daddy!  In Matt's eyes Mia can do no wrong, and he admits that he has trouble disciplining her... it's actually really cute.  The boys have been out of school for 2 weeks now and this is their daily routine.... ride, swim, ride, swim, etc...  They are having a nice summer and I'm glad to have them home.  Matt and I continue to work opposite shifts to care for the kids.

Mia and I went to the cardiologist on Thursday for a follow up.  Mia is doing well at this time, but her body will need another surgery before the year is up.  Her first surgery shunted an artificial tube from her right ventricle to her pulmonary artery.  Since her pulmonary artery to the right lung is blocked, it was under high amounts of pressure.  Now, all of her vessels could be under that pressure and the ventricle heals.  And the question is will it heal, and are the other larger vessels that her body created to compensate growing or scarred, useful or useless.  The uncertainty of her medical health is unnerving, and her unknown life expectancy is just as saddening.  I find myself at times looking at her and welling up with tears.  I know that she has a better life than she did in the orphanage and that Matt and I are working to give her the best life that she can possibly have.  I force myself to believe that she will have a long and prosperous life, and will continue to shock and amaze her medical team. 

Almost 4 months with Mia!

Mia continues to do well post-surgery.  She had her follow up appointment with her cardiologist, Dr. Yaya, as Mia calls him on Thursday.  She continues to amaze everyone with her strength, but he was very clear that we are not done with her medical interventions.  This is just the first step and he said she may need another surgery next year.  When they went in for the surgery the surgeon found that she has collateral vessels (or vessels that her body created to pick up more oxygen from her lungs) that are larger than her pulmonary artery.  So the next step may be to move those arteries to be direct links from her Right Ventricle to her lung, but we shall see.  He wanted us to know that she is not out of the woods yet, she has a very complex heart and will require many more surgeries.  But for now they are going to leave her alone.  The doctor told me he just wants her to play and be a normal kid and we don't see him again until July and at that time we will most likely schedule another heart catherization.  This will give her vessels time to grow and they will have a better idea of how her vessels are responding the the surgery she just had.  We know that the surgery is successful at this time, because she is so pink and does not loose her breath as easily.  The boys are really happy too because she can play with them.   When she came home from the hospital Jacob asked me if she was going to live a long time now... he is a very sensitive boy and I think that loosing another sibling would be very difficult for him as well and Matt and I.  Both boys were so happy to see that she looked and felt better. 

The boys have restarted dirt bike riding and so far only one collision that resulted in Jacob being run over by his brother, but Jacob was OK.  They will start racing soon as well.  The boys love to be outside, and are typically outside from the time they get home, until it gets dark.  Mia also LOVES to be outside.  I can do yard work for hours and she is content playing with toys outside or simply exploring the property.  We think that she must not have been allowed outside for long periods of time at the orphanage.  When we take her outside, she will tantrum when we bring her inside, even if we had been outside for 4 hours or more.

It truly amazes all of us how far she has come in 4 months. 
This is the little girl we got at the orphanage...

And this is our girl now...

From this....

To this!

She not only looks different, but her personality is really starting to come out.  The orphanage staff reported that she was quiet.  She is not quiet... she is actually quite loud.  And did I happen to mention that she is quite stubborn!  Matt and I are already seeing that we will really have our hands full with her during the teenage years.  She will roll her eyes when we tell her something she is not happy with!!  She is also a real girly-girl, who loves shoes and dresses. She is  intelligent and is picking up the language faster than we ever could have imagined.  She loves to look at and have books read to her.  Her favorite TV shows are Kai-Lan, Little Bill, Olivia, Wonder Pets, and Dora.  We were trying to keep Dora away from her, only because we did not want to confuse her more with different language, but she is obsessed with her and loves the show.  Here are some of the things that Mia says to use daily...

"What's dat?"
"Whatcha doin?"
"Beena" or Banana
I love that Mia calls beds "nappy time"
"Can I help you please"- which really means that she wants help
"I want this one"   "I NEED this one" - we hear that a lot
"This is mine" or "this is meyaya's"
When we get dressed in the morning and we are all done she says "Mia pretty"  and if anyone else gets dressed they become pretty too... daddy, jacob, and logan included
When she plays with her dolls she says to them "It's OK baby.. Mama help you"
Her consistent way of counting right now "1, 2, 3, 6, 4, 7"  and then she days "I did it!"
After she completes an activity she says "TADA!!"
"Oh cap" which means oh crap... that is my fault  I say that a lot
There is some stiff competition when the boys are in school with Mia and George.  If George comes over for pets she will tell him "No George!  That's MY mama"
Mia loves to name all the members of her family and "gammie" is always on the list.


We are all very excited to celebrate Mia's first Easter with her.  Our family has become quite chaotic, but it is a really fun chaos!

March was a busy month!

Well the month started off first with a big 4th birthday party for Mia!  She had such a great time!  Lots of present and a celebration with family was lots of fun for her and us.  For the first week after her party, she would come to me daily and say "Happy birthday?"  and she still occasionally asks me.   So we are pretty sure that she enjoyed herself.

The next weekend we were able to celebrate Matt's cousin's wedding.  It was a lot of fun and it was wonderful to see his cousin so happy and in love and he married a wonderful woman.  Mia had so much fun being carried all around by her cousin Tess and also spent a great deal of time on Tony, or yeye's, lap.  The boys enjoyed playing on the golf greens finding golf balls and tees.  Mia did poop out quickly by the end of the night and was quite blue in color.  The dress didn't help much, but she did look cute.

Two weeks later was surgery.  She had open heart on the 29th of March and was discharged April 1st.  The surgeon and her cardioloist told us that this quick of a recovery is amazing and they expected her to be in for at least 14 days... not 4.  Since she has been home she has been quite comfortable and her spirits have really lifted.  She is still sore, but her pain is managed by alternating tylenol and motrin.  How crazy is that?  The best part about this whole ordeal is Mia does not get out of breath anymore.  She runs around the house and can walk long distances without any problems.  And she looks so much better.  She is pink.  Look at the pics below at the changes....

Finger's before surgery

Fingers after surgery

Mia before surgery

Mia after surgery

We find her pinkness amazing!  The next steps are to let her heal for a good 6 months... YEA a summer with no medical procedures... and then a heart catherization to see how she is progressing and if their is more they can do for her.  Thank you for everyone who supported us through this surgery.

Birthday, Wedding, and then Surgery

Well we went to see the cardiologist on Tuesday for her to be checked over from her last Catherization.  She has healed very well from this procedure.  He then told me that he would be discussing her case with the entire team on Wednesday evening and that he would call Monday to let us know the outcome and the game plan for her heart due to scheduled vacation days.  Well we were totally shocked to hear from him that evening.  So the game plan for her is to shunt a vessel, made of gortex from her right ventricle to her right lung.  Sounds simple right?  But in reality it is risky and the phrases "she will be very sick and it could take months for her to recover"  The main problem is that the pressure in that chamber is twice what her entire body pressure is, which puts her at risk for atrithmia's and a heart attack.  The surgeons are prepared for this and while she will not need to be on a heart-lung machine during the operation, she will most likely need to be on one after the surgery to allow her body to adjust to the pressure.  It will also allow her lung to adjust to a normal amount of blood flow.  Her right lung has not seen normal blood flow ever, so when blood is pumped in there her body will react in a way to fight that flow.  So it is a really risky surgery in a nutshell, but it totally outweighs the reality for us of only having her around for 20 years.  Also they are hoping that with normal blood flow to that lung that the pulmonary artery will grow and that they can continue to stent it larger and larger.  They have done this before which puts us at ease, but I thought I was going to throw up after I got off the phone and Matt said his chest hurt.

Before this all occurs we have a birthday party coming up for Mia!!  I am so excited to have her first and 4th birthday party!  And then the next weekend we will have a wedding for Matt's cousin!  So she will have some really fun weekends before she has a rough surgery.

Other than that things here have been pretty status quo here... 

Jacob's favorite past time to get through the winter months is to play hoops in the kitchen

Logan continues to pass the time with video games and oreos

And Mia continues to crack us up everyday!  We especially enjoy when she tells us what's up in Chinese and uses her hands to do it!

Stay tuned for an update about Mia's 4th birthday!!!!