Monday, December 16, 2013

Is there a doctor in the house?

Well, I have a little time tonight and realized it has been quite a while since I've given you all an update about Sarah.  She used to be pretty much the star of the show on this blog.  Well, I am happy to report that she is doing great!  She's had all clear scans for three years now!  Seems almost surreal to even say that.  We praise God for the miracles He did in her life throughout her cancer journey and for her continued good health.

Some things never change about Sarah.  ESPECIALLY not her love for all things hospital-related.  Including all things medical.  And all things related to the human body!  Have you ever known for certain that someone was just born to do something?  Well, my Sarah was put on this earth to go into the medical field.  In some way, shape or form, that is where she is headed. Some kids love trains, cars, dolls, ponies, or princesses.  My kid loves learning about the human body.  Yep.  And that's about it. 

Want proof?  I've got some.

Here is our little nurse.  She normally says she wants to be a nurse instead of a doctor.  Why, you ask?  Because nurses give the pokes, and that's her favorite part.  She actually cried one day in clinic because she was thinking she wasn't going to get her blood drawn.  She loves to watch!
 
 These next pictures are from last year's birthday party.  (She wants the same theme again this year!)  Daddy made her awesome cake...
 
 I had gone to the hospital and taken pictures of her favorite staff members and places there.  She loved these decorations!
 
 I had gotten all her favorite people there to sign her card, and here she is opening some nurse supplies from her favorite nurse, Annie.  She was over-the-moon happy!
 
Does this face say it all?
 
She does her own IVs, folks.
 
Her favorite books are human body books or stories about people going to the doctor.  It's all she ever wants me to read to her.  (No, she can't read them by herself yet.  But she pores over them like she can!)
 
This was taken last summer.  She was getting a test done to measure the acid in her stomach to determine if she had acid reflux.  They put that tube down her nose all the way to her stomach.  She was not put to sleep for that!  She barely even whimpered, and then it was all worth it because she was so happy to wear that thing overnight until the next day.  Crazy!
 
She made this cast, and Daddy made the crutch for her!
 
Here she was making a card for a friend in the hospital.  She was drawing a picture of a cell and labeling all the parts.  And that isn't a necklace around her face.   Of course it's an oxygen tube.
 
She came running to me after she made this proclaiming, "It's a trachea!  I made a trachea, Mom!"
 

Her favorite computer games are virtual surgery sites.  I could not make this up.
 
And this was a cow's heart dissection video.  We all watched it for school this year.  But Sarah is the only one who watched it until the very end and then watched more dissection videos for fun.
 
Here we were making a DNA model.  It was one of her favorite projects, and not just because she got to eat it later. 
 
Who needs dollies when you can dress up your toy skeleton and put it to bed?
 
 Her favorite days of the year are still clinic and hospital days.  She only gets to go twice a year now, and soon it will only be once. How heart-breaking that will be!  She loves to help with whatever they will let her do!
 
Very happy girl...
 
Sarah found some of her favorite cards in our Apples to Apples deck!  (Hospitals and Doctors)
 
Making Christmas cookies...but instead of Santas and Christmas trees, Sarah made a brain.  (And later she made lungs.)
 
You will normally always find her prepared with her doctor or nurse supplies like this.
 


Here she just finished operating and putting a cast on her turtle.  She gave him a bowl in case he felt sick.
 
She is a very good doctor!  Attentive and caring, and extremely knowledgeable!
 
And there you have the evidence.  She is truly one-of-a-kind, isn't she?  And I haven't even told you the half of it.  She is as smart as a whip about this stuff!  She has most of the bones memorized, many muscles, can tell you all about all the different body systems... I have to search through books to teach her things I don't already know, we have covered so much already.  She probably knows more than you do about the human body.  Unless you are a doctor or med student yourself.  And she is 5.
 
Yep.  That is my girl!  Isn't it amazing to think about how God brought her through something like cancer, and used it and her experiences to spark her interest like that?  I just love watching her  and her little mind work.  I can't wait to see how God will use her throughout her life! 
 
 

Sunday, December 15, 2013

We've got mail!!

Oh, yes, we got some mail.  What was it, you ask?  I'll give you three clues..


L,
 
 
O,
 
 
A,
 
 
!!!
 
 
 
That's "Letter Of Acceptance," for anyone who doesn't speak the adoption language.  If you are in the process yourself and wondering, it took just over two months from LID to now.  It felt like it took forever, but our agency said that was actually quick! 
 
Now we are REALLY in the home stretch.  They are telling us their best estimate will be mid-March for travel.  I really hope we will be in China on Corrie's birthday, Feb. 23.
 
I am so excited...I just can't believe it is coming up so soon! 
 
 Corrie and her sweet little friends.  She always looks so happy.  I love her to pieces.