Merry Chirstmas

Merry Christmas everyone. Hope you had a wonderful and safe holiday.

Mariska was pretty excited for Santa to come to our house this year. We got home really late Christmas eve so I told her I'd leave milk and cookies out so she could go to sleep. She woke up at 6:30am running into our room yelling "he came HE came!!" Her little face was priceless. She was delighted Santa left a note with the empty cookie plate. She loved her toy puppy and her Tangled dress, We hurried and opened all our gifts before heading out to church at 9!  Sam's big gift was an tablet, Mariska was her Udraw tablet for the Wii.  Mine *Melynda* was a sweet camera and Kamiah gave her little sing-a-ma-jig doll a ton of smiles. We all couldn't be happier.

Having little kids on Christmas morning is AWESOME!

We also got another huge Christmas gift. We Signed the counter offer on a house! Yet We'll be done with Apartment life by February!!! A yard for the girls to play and no more smoke coming into our bedroom windows.

 I was contacted a few months ago and asked if we would share Mariska's story in a book. Its been pretty neat to have a chance to do something like that for her to see. Its just a short 1000 words, I"ll post again when it comes out. =)  It was hard opening my self up and going back to all the days and months in the hospital, felt like it took Sam and I forever to really get it done. Every time I sat down to write I was hit by how much gratitude we have to our Heavenly Father for letting her stay with us.

We keep thinking about her donors family, We pray for them, to make the holidays a little less empty and to keep peace in their hearts.

Here's a few Pictures, We're going to turn the blog into a book soon. I've noticed the pages with tons and tons of pictures are my favorite so this one is going to be picture heavy. 

Christmas morning

missed a few, Mariska Christmas afternoon

Our Tree, don't think you can see it. We have a one red heart for Mariska's old and new heart

At my parents for a later Christmas

I can just see it... "she got what I wanted" ha good thing its just I'm hungry

Halloween? is almost here

I posted most of Mariska's pictures on my facebook page. Dont think I'll ever get them posted onto here. Feel free to look at them if you want.

A little update.   *its a bit out of order thrid time trying to write this*
 
Misky had a clinic visit today. Just the normal labs, echo and check up. Her heart Looks and sounds perfectly normal.   Mariska Has been throwing up once a day, I've been hoping its just her prograf which will make you sick if its to high. Which it is. 17 Her normal range is 10-14. So playing with that again. She has lost a bit of weight. 11.95kg. Before her ER visit she was 13.3kg. Not so good.   We're playing with a few other tummy meds to see which will work better for her and putting asprin on hold.
 Her white blood count keeps dropping, which can be caused by two of her meds. which is a little scary seeing now thats all she has to protect her self from germs.
 She had a little to much fun in the echo today. One of her medical staffs *forgot his title whoops* did her echo. She was singing the whole time. Ha shes silly. He told her he'd look for some candy to give to her when he was done. Forgot and came back she looks at him and says "trick or treat" must have bribed someone cause came back with a yummy likely to be someones personal stash of chocolate bars. Silly girl.

Shes doing awesome other then the throwing up once between 3-6pm for a few days. Her glucose was a bit low but think all the candy she had today fixed that issue.

Dr. E is a little worried about doing IVIG again with Mariska. Shes A blood type and there has been some issues with the ivig having A antibodies. = liver kidney and other organ failure of things go bad!!  She'd turn yellow and be one sick kid. So after her cath on the 5th we will see if its worth doing.   If we did do them we have been setting things up with home health care to do them at home. Really hoping she doesnt need the last two.   She had a really bad migraine with the last two and maybe even 3 treatments which is on the list of a reaction so we'll see.

Starting to become angry with the people in the lab where she has her blood drawn... Tired of them blowing me off when I ask for IV team. blah. Guess I'll just have to be a mom there and just be forward.

Heres some pre Halloween pictures. We're planning to trick or treat at the hospital tomorrow, but heres the ones from today. =D

In clinic today they added to the system as Mariska "Strawberry Shortcake" Anderson. I love it. I didnt know this until the end. I was wondering Why so many kept poking there heads in to see her costume. =)

Mariska "Srawberry Shortcake" Anderson

Going to have family pictures done. Woohoo!!

Pictures. =)

Welcome to Misky's bubble.

Ready for a ride!

Her Piggy breakfast.

Her Poster!

Just starting her painting. Thanks Kids Crew.

Today. Playing with Daddy.

This is what I get for saying Misky give mommy a smile. hehe

Sounds like her Cath will happen around 11. Just takes a few hours. They have to go in from her leg, becuase she had some repairs done to the vains in her neck.

Her weight has been all over. checked in at 12.2. Onces we got to the floor she was 11.7. Few days she was 12.1.  She should be packing on some weight with all the food she's been eating =)

Oxygen Stats, and picture heavy.

Lost track of the days after 4Happy Birthday Sam. He had his party in the rainbow cafe. Misky and I had cake later. haha they bought him a "I am Sam" bag. Just in case he forgets who hes is. ;)

Day 4First time Daddy got to hold our baby after surgery.bad pic, making her get up and walk. She wasnt to happy about it,Pfew the reward was to ride in the wagon around. Playing with puppies in her bed. After her last chest tube came out. She wanted to walk. Think she just wanted the rest of Sams donut, hehe.Feeling up to playing. Her with all her babies. =) Dr. K wishes he had that many toys as a kids. Misky was pretty excited to see her "Meko" Being spoiled Playing with HaileyAfter all the failed pokes. Warming up her hands and feet with hot packs. She didnt want to take the one off her hand cause it would get cold. Being silly taking pictures.

Last night we winged her all the way off of Oxygen.! She no longer has a leash. Might miss that thing, always came in handy when I went to see which room she ended up stopping to play. Her O2 stats stay around 99. Such a beautiful number.

After Mariska got the middle and last chest tube out not even 20mins later she said " I want to walk" That thing made it hard for her to do anything really normal like taking a deep breath.

Misky was pretty happy most of today, until she wanted to take a nap and it was time for vitals. She made me laugh all of yesterday and today. Everyone who'd come into the room and not hurt her she would say "Thank you"

This morning wasnt the best. Forgot to add I only want the IV team to pull her blood, so philbotimist came in to draw some labs... they have never ever! been able to get her vains or get lucky fishing around in her arms for them. So he thought he found a vain poke.. nothing, then starts the fishing.. nothing... goes to the other arm does the same thing, I had to tell him he has to stop or I'll loose it. good thing dinner was hours ago. blah. Then IV team came in and put a new IV in her foot.

Later the iv in her hand blew out and had to be removed, so we got lucky she had the one in her foot. =) yay.

The Surgeon's team is passing her to the cards. Which means shes stable enough to not need to be under Dr. Kaza's direct care. Awesome. He'll still check on her but shes not as high on the list =)

The new doctors that are following her now came by. Asked some questions for their records. Like did we know before she was born and all that good stuff. Dr. Laura said something that really peeked my interest. She said she was reading Mariska's charts and saw her donor heart said it is possibly has CMV but isnt for sure. She was going to check and make such which is it.  If the heart does test positive for cmv she'll stay on IV antibiotics for 2 weeks -so just one more to go- crazy now my mind keeps playing with the idea of going home sooner pfft. silly me. only time will tell.

They are talking about doing a PICC line (IV from the middle of her arm to the top of her heart) if we're planning to be here longer then 6 days she'll have it done. It will save her arm from needing pokes every morning and the about every other day new IV line.

Everyone here keeps saying shes a really smart two year old, and understands a lot of whats happening to her. Shes started eating pretty well, now we need to work on getting her to take her meds by mouth better. Some of them are just plan nasty. She'll learn she has to take them, Pray its sooner then later with us.

Its nice seeing her so colorful, and my heart is filled with gratitude towards the donor family. Because they gave their child's heart my daughter will live a healthier live. Words can not express how we feel. We keep them in our prayers daily.