Prayer and Praises

I haven't posted as much as I had hoped, but trying to get back into the swing of things has proven even more difficult this time around....maybe it has something to do with the fact that this time we have a child already at home and can't just sleep whenever we want...or at all for that matter. Zoya was up throwing up last night about every hour and I haven't been feeling so hot myself. I haven't even unpacked from the first trip yet and I'm going to have to start packing for round number 2 very soon. My house looks like a tornado came through.  I've done about 400 loads of laundry though! And snuggled Zoya quite a bit! I am not yet feeling like myself after returning (who is myself anyways at this point?) I think at this point I'm delirious. I'm weary. I'm run down. I need prayers for energy, strength, and peace. I am human. I am nothing without God. I'm trying to regain my peace about everything. It's been a long road friends, from losing Laina to facing the reality that Mila's life is so fragile. Trying not to let my mind go there.

I've been emailing doctors trying to coordinate Mila's medical care upon her entrance to the US. We are working with a couple FABULOUS doctors in Pittsburgh who have spent a lot of their own time trying to figure out what will be best for Mila and coordinating multiple appointments. After having the records translated we have learned that Mila is already in heart failure (being somewhat controlled by 3 medications at this point). We didn't know this. We also learned she spent half of her 7 months of life in intensive care from a severe case of pneumonia. Yah remember how they said she's never had pneumonia? Hmmm. We've learned the possibility of some other health conditions as well.  We've learned that she will definitely need immediate medical care upon returning home. We are hoping to arrive home approximately Saturday, November 19th. The doctors have arranged back to back appointments for Mila on Tuesday. If upon landing she seems to be in distress, or was in any distress during the flights we will obviously take her right away to be admitted. The one good thing we found out is that a couple of the cardiologists said that Mila likely would not benefit from oxygen on the plane and actually that the slightly lower oxygen concentration at the high altitude may actually be helpful for her to decrease the extra blood flow to her lungs.

I am thrilled that I will have a travel buddy for the second trip. It's no secret I wasn't excited about going alone and bringing home a medically fragile baby with nobody to bounce my stresses of or keep me calm. And it's really no secret Shawn was worried sick about us but there was no way for him to return for the second trip. God had it figured out already. When we were in the Philly airport waiting to catch our last flight home, we ran into a friend of ours who was returning from a mission trip to Havana. We shared our first trip with him and told him about Mila's medical needs. Mike is a recently retired firefighter who just happens to have nothing going on next week! Seriously?! He and his wife both said they felt this was the right thing to do. I mean how many of you know someone who would just drop life here for a week (or more maybe) and offer to go to Eastern Europe to help us get home!? We are truly blessed! Praising God for this!

Thanks for your continued thoughts and prayers. Please pray your hearts out for our sweet jelly bean!