JSQ's Adoption Blog

It has been so long since I updated the blog that I thought I would do a post with some pictures from December 2008.

Several of our close family members have birthdays in December, and while we don't get to celebrate in person with all of them, we do get to celebrate with the ones that are local. Cousin Lily turned 2 this year and we had a super fun family Elmo birthday party. The next week, we celebrated Gramma and Aunt Heather's birthdays.

Stylish Violet. She put this little number together all by herself.

My company had our second annual holiday cubicle decorating contest. Pictured left to right in the first photo you see me, David, Karen and Sue. We share a quad of cubes, and we decided to go together on our decorating plan this year. Sue and I built the cable stay bridge with the silver columns, and David and Karen went with the red arch bridge. The finishing touch was the addition of Quentin's trains to the structures. We won the grand prize! If anyone knows of a good way to split a nice little Sony cybershot, let me know.

Heather and I took the kids to see Santa on the weekend before Christmas. I think Quentin is letting Santa know exactly which dinosaur he wants in the first picture. Quentin and Lily did great, but Violet wanted nothing to do with the whole thing. I had to bribe her with a cookie to get her to sit on Santa's lap, after she had gone into a full meltdown. Notice the very red, sad face. Ah, memories.

OK, maybe they are not the best ornaments in your eyes, but in mine they are!! These are ornaments the kids made at school for us. The one Quentin made has his school picture on one side (looking way too grown up) and a self portrait he drew on the other side (isn't it awesome!). Violet's is made of a pinecone she painted pink (and is VERY proud of) with her school picture attached at the top. I love them!

Proudly holding up their ornaments for the camera....

Violet's progress since the last time we were at Arkansas Children's Hospital was amazing. Throughout pre-op, this was about as upset as she ever appeared:

Even when she had to get her finger pricked for a blood test, she never cried. And then, of course, they brought the happy juice. These pictures don't do her justice, but Violet is a funny drunk. I'm sure we were supposed to be nervous during pre-op, but we spent most of our time laughing. Watching drunk Violet try to blow bubbles was absolutely hilarious. I think she was convinced Mommy wasn't holding the bottle of bubbles still.

After surgery was a little more difficult than last time, but that was mainly because she actually woke up like she was supposed to this time. Even so, she was a tough little girl and took everything pretty much in stride.

Today, she's bouncing around like her normal self. Now if anyone could tell us how to make her sleep on her back without getting any unnecessary DHS attention, that would be great. I think we should skip it and use a football helmet, but Shannon isn't going for it.

Thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers. We sincerely appreciate it.

We'll post some profile comparisons as soon as the swelling on her lip and nose go down a bit.

Violet did great today! She was released a little before 6 tonight, and then she enjoyed dinner before we got on the road. We are driving home and both kids are asleep in the car after watching a movie. Vi seems to be doing really well. She got some shiny new ear tubes, along with a lengthened columella and a bit of a lip revision. Thank you for all of the prayers you sent up for Violet today. We are so thankful for our friends and family!!!

Dr. Buckmiller said things went fine. We're now waiting to go to recovery to see her.

Violet is in surgery now. She's been a brave little trooper today. There was no crying until she had to leave Mommy.

Violet's surgery is scheduled for 1:10 pm this afternoon. The Doctor will be lengthening her columella (part of the nose). She will also cut out her lip scars and attempt to align them better. It's supposed to be an outpatient surgery, but given how late it is in the day, we suspect we will have to stay the night. The surgery should last about an hour and a half. Recovery will be at least 2 hours but most likely more.