My daughter...

What can I say, I love her and hope that God blesses me with her presence for a LONG time!!! She has been an American citizen for three years today. I have been her mommy for three years and five days!! Thank you God!!

Kristina was born with a life ending disease called Cystic Fibrosis. I was told yesterday that the life expectancy is thirty seven years. If that was cut and dried for every person with CF then I would have thirty more years with her. My mom reminded me yesterday that I (we, daddy and me) dedicated her life back to God. She is his, and he alone knows when she will join him in heaven. I cried because the thought of losing her just breaks my heart... No, she is not dying..just sick, as happens with a lot of people with CF. Now on to what happened yesterday.

Yesterday was Kristina's annual CF check-up. So off we went...mommy, Kristina and Jovan. Daddy has always gone before..but we are trying to save his vacation days for when we go and get our new son. That was a big mistake! (more on that in a little bit) Did I mention we were traveling during rush hour traffic and the drive was almost seventy miles away? (I thought it was only fifty..and the extra twenty is Uff DA!!) This mommy does NOT drive in rush hour traffic into the big city. It has been almost four years since I used to drive it every day. ICK I think I did okay..but man do people push you even in the right lane, so I did speed so I did not get run over...I had no choice, there was no place for me to go. That did not make this mommy happy!! No accidents did I cause or get into any! Thank you God!!

Our trip was successful and we arrived at 7:42 am. Forgot to tell you that the kids had to get up at five-thirty..actually just Kristina as she had to do some of her CF treatments, and Jovan got up because of the noise. The first place we had to go was to get x-rays of her lungs. Easy! The next place we went was for lab. A blood draw, oh no!! Kristina has small wiggly veins. And lots of scar tissue. So getting blood is a huge deal!! Let's just say after two sticks and "digging" at both sites mommy said ALL DONE!! Not one drop of blood was collected. After that trauma we went to have her do a breathing test. After that then we saw the doctor. We love him!!! And the doctor from her birth country knows her American doctor. How wonderful is God? Giving God the glory for even the details I would never had thought. Anyway...we talked, he listened, then he checked out my daughter. She has lots of mucus and an inflamed nose. It was hard to hear that she is sick...I know, I know that this may happen from time to time...and people have said you know what you were getting into when you adopted her. Which I think is a horrible thing to say!!! God gave me my daughter and she has a disease that we fight EVERY day!!

Anyway, after seeing the doctor we saw "the CF team". Which first was the social worker. (I know her from when I worked in the same office) So it was great to see her..and she had some ideas for me. Then the dietitian came in and talked about calories and weight gain. She is always eating!! That is the best thing...and because of her CF she can eat a ton. There is not such a thing as an overweight person living with CF. After that came the geneticist came in and really it was not needed because she is not biologically mine. So we talked about when she gets older and a few questions I had. Respiratory therapist came in next. (oh, we were in one room and everyone came to us! Best thing in the world!!") He told me about recent studies and changes that he suggested for Kristina's routine. Lots of information...oh my!!

Last person came in was the coordinator...I had to sign a release and that kind of stuff. Then we were DONE!!! Four and a half hours later we were DONE!!! The kids reached their limit of time being good and quiet and so was I!! :) And this mommy had so much info floating in my head I just wanted to lay done and cry. If Dan would have been there he could have heard ALL of the info first hand and maybe heard things that I missed. But I think I did a good job. :) So it would have been great for him to come...maybe next year? :) YES!!!

We were FREE!!! There were new medications that Kristina needed so off we went to Target to get those. Have I ever told you all that I LOVE Target? :) And the pharmacy staff is AWESOME!!! So, I did a little shopping and picked up her meds. Got those and went HOME!!

I made supper and the kids played until it was time for Kristina's treatment. After that was done, it was bedtime!!! Yea!! I fell asleep on the couch for a little while. I got up at 4:30am, so I was dead tired!! Got up and did a few household things and finally went to bed. Kids are resting now as they are still tired! Better now go and get a few more things done.