Well I have been waiting for awhile to post, a little overdo as I have been "processing" a lot of info lately and lucky for you all I am finally doing this update when I am in a particularly cheery mood and have had a great couple of weeks. You see its summer, Craig was blessed with a summer school job that provides much needed finances but also makes him excitedly more accessible. We have had several fun swims in my moms pool (who is the lovely photographer of these darling pictures) and yesterday was Fathers day and today is my husbands birthday and the weather is so hot that I am enjoying doing computer stuff in the basement rather than freezing down here for a change. Sophie is down to 4 meals a day and still sleeping through the night (which is liberating for me) and last night even slept in Graces room instead of our room. Things are going well for our family. I had been so hoping to tell you that we had already had the balloons out at this point but it turned out that the surgeon was pleased with the progression and has scheduled removal surgery for Fri Aug 14th. We were hoping to have that behind us for the summer and we were also hoping for this process to be a lot faster. In fact we have more than doubled his original estimate of the time frame and he gives no reason or explanation for the discrepency which is very frustrating. I also try not to get into comparisons with other surgeons who do 6 week expansion of these balloons by injecting a lot more once a week. I have been giving all these frustrating feelings to God have been surprised at different ways, people and circumstances he is using to lift me up. Even as we speak, I am listening to a series of sermons by the great Chuck Swindoll called "Special Words for Special People" that he has done for several weeks about dealing with children with birth defects and as I stumbled upon these messages I have been rescued from sorrow and felt loved and understood so many times in recent days in a way I haven't experienced since little Sophies birth. God is good and he is caring for my heart and ministering to me. I had been a little apprehensive about asking Dr. Mann about my question of the use of dermabrasion and he took it well and explained that Sophies mole was so pale in the front it was worth a try due to how much easier it is than the balloons. I posted some pics to show not only how big the balloons are getting but you can see on the right side of her stomach opposite the balloon how pale the area he has done the dermabrasion on. She is so happy and thriving and you really would not know all the difficulties she has faced and will continue to face, she is rolling front to back and back to front, she is almost independent at sitting and she even said "dada" yesterday for Fathers day! Seeing how happy she is despite all THIS I know that God is caring for us on a daily basis and we are making the right decision for our daughter. Thank you all for your continued love and prayers, they are helping so please keep them coming.
Front view: Shows the lightened dermabraded right side (her right)
Side view: Also dermabraded still pink spot on upper back left (her left)
Aerial view: I always giggle that it looks like she is trying to grow a second head! I am amazed that she was able to learn to roll over, its like working against a speed bump! God bless and have a great week, Amanda
