Medical report

We got an email back from the doctor in Guatemala who has been taking care of Eliana!
We had emailed him a list of questions and he answered each and every one. Sad that I have to be so astonished at this, but remember that so far we have had VERY little information. He seems very nice. The one problem: we don't speak Spanish, really. We were able to do a hack job, enough to understand most of it. We've also had several other people offer to help translate (don't want to miss anything!), but haven't gotten those back, yet.
One thing I am concerned about is that Eliana is not gaining weight like she should.The doctor says she has reflux, so I don't know if that's what's keeping her from gaining, or if it's because of her heart condition plus a respiratory infection... hard to tell. I'm just worried about her getting enough to eat so she can grow and develop and GET WELL and COME HOME. Ok, maybe eating won't directly lead to her coming home, but those are some of the things I am worrying about. Imagine that.
Anyway, now that the doctor was kind enough to repond to our questions we have another list ready to send him! The doctor's name is Guillermo. He goes by Willy.

Isn't she lovely....

Alias.

Word cloud

I saw this on a few other blogs - you enter your website and it creates this "word cloud." It's kind of cool for some reason.

Another week gone by

Nothing new, really.
Well, that's not true. We did get a stuffed giraffe from Matt's Mom and dad last night. The giraffe is almost as tall as me! True, that's not that tall, and true, giraffes are supposed to be tall, but come on... it's a stuffed animal that I see eye to eye with! We love it! Thanks Nin!
Otherwise, nothing new. As in: no news about the baby. But that's kind of OK. Not that I wouldn't prefer to have detailed updates of the baby every 3 minutes, or so, but at least I am not freaking out about it at this point. We are looking forward to soon hearing that she was released from the hospital. We are also anxiously awaiting the medical report from the doctor that we are supposed to be getting. Did I mention that they actually gave us the doctor's email address? Not that we've heard back from him... but we are hoping he will answer the questions in the supposed medical report we are supposedly getting this week. Because he did not actually respond to us, yet, he will be getting another list of questions tommorrow. See what procrastination gets you, doc?
We were hoping to be able to go down to Guatemala for a visit soon, but the agency won't allow it. We have to wait until the DNA test comes back a match before we can see the baby.
I am now planning to busy myself by gathering some items for a care package for Eliana that the agency will deliver to her. We're planning to send some clothes, a book of family pictures with captions in both Spanish and English, and an audio cassette with our voices recorded reading stories and (Matt) singing songs to the baby. Matt actually wrote a song for the baby that is super sweet. For 2 weeks now I couldn't listen to it without it making me cry. Now it makes me feel happy, anxious, and proud. I'm not sure what else we'll try to cram into a shoebox sized package.... the giraffe definitely won't fit.....

Hip, Hip...........

Hooray! We got good news today!
After nearly 2 weeks of trying to get some info, we received (via email) the report from Eliana's echocardiogram. Yes, it was in Spanish, but our amazing detective skills helped us decipher what the doctor had to say.
The gist of it is that Eliana has 2 holes in her heart. This makes normal cardiac operations not as efficient as they should be. They are currently treating her with medication and it is possible that with a little more time the holes may shrink and/or close up. It is also possible that she may need to have heart surgery at some point if they do not close and continue to cause problems. If this becomes necessary, we are hoping it won't be til after she is home, in Wheeling, where we can take care of her and get her the best care.
The specific diagnoses given are patent ductus arteriosus and a permeable foramen ovale.
We are feeling good about this. Not that these are inconsequential or without the possibility of complications.... but last week we were being given some pretty bad possible scenarios. There were a few days where we were seriously wondering if we would ever get to bring Eliana home. Now we feel confident that we will. Things might just be a little different than we first envisioned.
Although she's still in the hospital, we are hoping she'll be released any day now. The next step will be getting our butts on a plane to go meet our daughter for the first time! It's so strange to miss someone you've never met.

Some good news for a change

Eliana is doing better!!!!!!!!!
We talked to the adoption agency today. After no news yesterday and not even a cursory email today, we called the agency this afternoon. They actually called one of their employees in Guatemala while we were on the phone, asked our questions, and even got some answers!
All the info they could give was unofficial and should be received with a little caution as we still do not have the doctor's report. However, they said she is doing better (hooray!), should be released from the hospital this week (hooray!), and that her condition is "not as complicated as originally thought" (hooray!). Hooray!
They couldn't really give a diagnosis or anything without the doctors report, but whatever the problem is sounds much less scary at this point than it did 1 week ago. They say we won't receive a written report from the doctor until next week; they will forward it to us as soon as they get it.
Matt and I both feel so much better this evening. There were times over the past 12 days when we were truly preparing ourselves for the worst scenarios. Thank God for good news!

No news weekend

We went to mass today. The homily was mostly about remembering that God is Lord and that we need to let him do his job and quit freaking out about things. As usual, Fr. Kevin speaks directly to us through the sermon as though it was meant just for us. Although this is not the easiest message for me to follow through on, I have been working on this very thing this past week. When life is the hardest is when it's the most difficult to remember that God takes care of things and all of our stressing out and trying to control things won't help at all. And it won't work anyway. He's still God. We're still idiot humans. Better to let him be in charge.
Even before the homily I was feeling much more peaceful today at church than I have yet since Eliana got sick. I have been so anxious, with a constant litany of 'what are we going to do? what are we going to do?' going through my brain for a week. At mass today I wasn't thinking that, and I felt like God was telling me to relax, that things would work out OK.
Not that I won't still worry, pray like crazy and probably cry everyday until Eliana comes home...
Matt's having a harder time today. I think it's the anticipation of the week starting again and the fight to learn some information. It's as though he and I take turns feeling confident/good versus crummy/bummed out. Thank goodness. We couldn't stand ourselves if we were both freaking out all the time. I guess that's what it means to be married, right?
Keep up all the beautiful prayers everyone has been offering us.
Add a special prayer for our friends Suzy, Tim and Camille, too.

A little update is better than nothing

Well, I'd like to post more details.... if only I had more details.
The agency has been better yesterday and today about more frequent communication and answering some questions. The problem is: they don't really have any answers!
To backtrack: We were told a week ago today that Eliana was in the hospital. Initially they thought that she had a heart murmur but something made them think that it was actually some sort of heart condition that might need surgery. I didn't want to post anything, or really even tell anyone, because we didn't know anything. It was so vague.
No news over the weekend.
Monday and Tuesday still no news.
Wed we started being more vocal to the agency that we needed more frequent and more informative information. It was killing us to just sit around and wait... and then hear nothing. Since then they have contacted us much more often, but somehow, they still don't know much.
We got a few messages yesterday that included a couple different possible diagnoses. The doctor wouldn't say for sure, but it wasn't looking good.
Then, very late last night we got a message that Eliana has been moved from the NICU to intermediate care. She is doing some better. This both gives me hope and enrages me. Thank God she is out of the NICU and hopefully doing better. But why can't we get some actual information?
The hospital is just today getting around to doing an echocardiogram ( a test that in the US would have been done in the first 24 hours). We hope to get some more info from the attorney soon. She is the only one that the hospital communicates with. Her English is not great (and I don't think she's medically inclined) so what that info will translate to us is questionable.
With the weekend here, I am doubtful of any news coming for a few days. The agency says they will call if they hear anything. We'll see.
I am hopeful. Much more today than yesterday. I am also angry. and sad.

Keep it up!

Keep praying!
We got a message late last night that Eliana has been moved from intensive care to intermediate care, that she is doing better.
We should get more info today - will post more details after work.

Prayer call

Sorry to not have posted in so long. I kept thinking I'd wait until we had more information before I put a post up about this mess, but who knows when we will get new info.
Eliana is in the hospital.
I have very very little information. She's in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU)at some hospital in Guatemala being treated by some doctor for some problem. That's it. The phone call I got said that they initially thought she had a heart murmur that she would grow out of but that they now think that it is something more serious requiring surgery.
What? When? Diagnosis? Prognosis? who knows?
The director of our agency is actually in Guatemala City now and tried to see Eliana yesterday but the hospital wouldn't let her because she's not family. This seems more than a little ridiculous given the fact that her family gave up rights to see her/raise her. But, anyway, apparently the hospital will communicate with our attorney. She is waiting for some test results to come back and then will (hopefully) pass on the news.
We have been one big nervous wreck for the past few days, just waiting and praying and praying and waiting for some good news. My frustration level with the agency reached its peak today when I felt they were a little low on consideration and compassion in our direction, but we have since spoken with them and I feel better.
Hey, while you're on your knees, don't forget Matt's brother, Michael. He had to have another surprise surgery yesterday. He's doing really well and hoping to come home either tomorrow or Fri.
Thanks for the kind thoughts and prayers. That's all we can do right now, so please keep them coming.

10 days and counting....

since we got the referral of our sweet baby, Eliana.
There's little news, really. Our dossier is in Guatemala being registered in the Foreign Affairs office. Does this mean it's being translated?
Our checking account has been billed for the DNA test.... the test has not been done, yet.
The grandmothers have started shopping: more and more pink is arriving in the house.
Matt is taking up scrapbooking. heehee
We're actually doing well. No freaking out yet. We're trying to get some stuff done around the house, work on the nursery, plan the visit trip, tra la la....

Eliana is 1 month old today!

Lucky for her, she probably couldn't hear me singing 'Happy Birthday' to her. I did take every opportunity to talk about her today, telling everyone that it is her 1 month birthday and here, look at her picture, isn't she sweet? I guess really the birthday part is the only thing different about today because we have been showing off her beautiful face since we got the pictures on Friday!
FYI: After we decided on her name, I was looking 'Eliana' up on some name origin websites. Without knowing it we had chosen a name that means "My God has answered." Isn't that beautiful and so appropriate? I am thrilled.
We got a message from the agency today that our papers are in Guatemala being translated. Hooray!
What a crazy week or so this has been. Not only have we had the super-excitement over Eliana we have also had a good bit of worry over Michael, Matt's brother. He was in the hospital for a week and had brain surgery to remove a tumor that had surprised us all. Fortunately he is home, now, and feeling better everyday. Please keep him in any prayers you might be sending our way. You know, all month long we kept waiting and waiting for a referral.... On Friday (the day after Mike's surgery) we couldn't help but think that God had waited to send Eliana our way until that time to lift our spirits and spread some joy.
What a sweet little baby she is. Better scroll down and have another look at her....

We Got Baby!

HOOOORAYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Yesterday at 9am the adoption agency called and asked if we were "ready for a baby?" Are you kidding?!?!


















She was born on June 5th (Happy Birthday Jodi and Stephanie!) and weighed 5lbs7oz.
Her name will be Eliana Grace Smith. She is so sweet and tiny, we just want to squeeze her!
We already sent in our acceptance letter on Friday and sent away the paperwork to give the attorney in Guatemala the POA to act on our behalf for all the court stuff in Guat. Let's get this thing moving! The POA letter had to be notarized (done), then authenticated by the Sec of State (sent) and then legalized by the Guat embassy in DC. Once that is complete our dossier will all be sent to Guatemala for translation. The next step, then, is for a DNA test to be done with the birthmother and Eliana. This is a US requirement before they will preapprove an adoption. After the DNA test comes back a match we will be able to go down and visit! We can hardly wait!