Mariela's Second Surgery

Mariela is going in the hospital tomorrow for three days. She is getting a g-button put in her belly for permanent easy feeding. She has been very diffucult to bottle feed and now she is getting older and needs more than just formula and she is unable to eat solids due to her constant tongue thrusting that's caused by her mental retardation and her cleft pallet that hides food so it can't go down her throat. I put food in her mouth and think it's gone down but minutes later every drop comes out because she is unable to figure out how to get it to the back of her throat due to her mental retardation and the many places it gets stuck due to the top of her mouth being wide open. Okay, I feel like maybe I just repeated myself but It's complicated because we are dealing with several different reasons why feeding is so difficult... Anyways, life is good otherwise. Brett is going to be home with all our other children. He has big plans to stay very busy with them. He wants to go do something really fun on Saturday. He will be spending the nights up at the hospital and I will be spending the days up there with Mariela and Eathyn. She gets out of the hospital on Sunday. We are keeping our hearts wide open and are praying to know the will of the Lord for this little girl. There is a family member in South Carolina who wants to adopt Mariela. The state refuses to look at that as a option, especially with pending surgeries. She has a surgery scheduled January 23rd and one on March 5th and then she will be all done until she is quite a bit older. Her lip is looking beautiful!!! She will probably never get her palet repaired. I've learned that the palet of our mouth is for speaking. Her prognosis is she will never speak. And with the type of birth defect she has she will never even eat with her mouth. It takes the front lobe of the brain to figure out how to get the food from the front of the mouth to go down the throat. So, that is one less series of surgeries she will probably never have to undergo. I will be taking Mariela to the hospital at 6:30 a.m. tomorrow morning, she goes in for surgery at 8a.m. and they will most likely not let us see her until later in the afternoon. So, after she goes in for surgery I will be coming back home to take Rachel to the doctor for an antibiotic. Austin came down with strep throat the week of Marielas first surgery in December and then the rest of us proceded to get it. I got it so bad I ended up on an I.V. and now just yesterday he was diagnosed with it again and Rachel now has a sore throat and swollen glands. Also, Austin is on a steroid for a poison Ivey outbreak that has swelled his face up so severely. He looked like a completely different person. UGGGG!!!! Eathyn has is first real cold that makes it almost impossible to sleep. It's amazing how crazy life can be and at the same time it can still be so enjoyable. I guess the secret is to work together as a family and to make the most of every situation life dishes out to us. Our kids have been so helpful and involved with this life changing experience of bringing this sweet little daughter of our Father in Heaven into our home. Okay, I'm exhausted and heading to bed. Goodnite to ya'll...!!! Please forgive my typos i'm exhausted!!!!