Meeting the Ocean.

Sunday morning before church.  We attended Hatteras Island Christian Fellowship.  They are the church that contributed a large donation towards our adoption.  It was a blessing to be able to thank them in person, and to be able to introduce them to the girls. 

 Headed to the beach in their swim suits.  They were happily signing "swim" when we left the house...we are wondering if they'll be as enthusiastic when they see the water!

 They walked along all by them selves........until the sidewalk ended.  Then you'd have thought they were walking on boulders!  They had no idea how to move their feet, or keep their balance in this strange shifting stuff.  We had to hold their hands and sort of drag them along.  It reminded me of a book from my childhood about a dog that layed on a cold stone floor and when he was finally purchased by his master.....he didn't know how to dig......cause how was he supposed to learn on that cold stone floor.  These little feet are just learning the new experience of walking on surfaces other than pavement and tiles.  By the end of day two they were already doing MUCH better!

I let go of Wren's hand and stepped ahead to take this picture and she just froze!

 She is NOT afraid to try new things, and would probably follow her dad off a cliff if he led her!  He is motioning for Iley to come down too......she on the other hand......said no way that water is the craziest stuff I've ever seen, and I don't want any part of it thank you very much.

 She would wave her little hand at it and shake her head NO.

 So Babba came and picked her up......she protested mightily!  Wren is like WOW, this is interesting water!  It keeps coming back.......COOL.

Look how uptight Iley is!  Wren is having a ball!

 But she decided she kind of liked it after all:)  But still has a death grip on Babba!

Hey!!! Where did the water go???

 There it is!  Chortle Chortle!

 Coming carefully down from the top deck.

The Cool dudes that hang out on the top deck:)  They are having fun, being just old enough to have a feeling of independence......without actually being old enough to go anywhere:) Mom likes that!  They can walk down to the store, and go to the beach alone though....so they are happy.

Sorry about the duplicate pictures!  Blogger wouldn't let me cut them for some reason??  Wren went out in the waves with Troy this afternoon and loved it!  She had on a life jacket and would let go of him and just float, hanging on by a hand, and if a big wave came , Troy would lift her over.  Iley liked staying safely on the beach happily filling a bucket of water with sand........oh well, each to their own as they say:)

OBX Bound

This is on the way........Wren fell asleep.  The boys say it freaks them out to look at her:)  She always sleeps with her eyes open a little.

When we got to the hotel, we realized we had forgot their floaties:(  They are asking "where are they"

Iley had decided she did NOT want her picture taken? so it was just these two.

 Everyone ready  for the day...headed to the Cardiologist.

eating breakfast before Iley's Heart appointment.

Wearing Harrisons hat to keep her hair out of her food!

 Doing a little shopping in T*rget

 On the Plane headed to Raleigh NC.  Then we get a rental car and drive 4 more hours on to the beach.  Notice Iley's cute little ruffled tutu skirt.........all dressed nice to meet Grandma and Grandpa....just notice.........

 Harrison and Wren.......she wasn't scared....I think she was mad cause she wanted to sit somewhere else.  She ended up by her Dad!

 The static on the plane was Crazy!  Wrens hair was stuck to the side most of the way!

 And now notice......the Lack of the cute little tutu. Luckily I had brought a back up....for emergency only!.....She had been acting scared to go to the bathroom cause she was afraid it would hurt. I think we must have got a little soap up there in the bath?  She didn't go when she woke up that morning, so I put a pull up on her and packed 2 pair of undies, and an extra pair of shorts.  I thought surely she'd go eventually.  We sat on the potty NUMEROUS times..with NO luck.  She would squirm, and kick her feet to hold it in...to no avail...she was a MISERABLE mess!.....but when the dam finally broke.......on the airplane.......seat belt light on........there was no option.....but the pullup didn't hold a whole night, and morning worth of back up:(

We thought surely the problem was solved!  But....she was still afraid to go!!  Sooo, MANY more fruitless trips to the bathroom...and another flight.......with seatbelt lights on at the WRONG time........and THIS is how she met Grandpa and Grandma!  So much for wanting them to look cute:(

I guess pride goeth before a fall..........drat!  Good thing she's too little to care if you parade through the airport in your whitie tighties!  Good thing the seats were leather.......although Harrisons book bag underneath didn't fare quite so well:(  He was NOT impressed!LOL

I think they remembered Grandma and Grandpa!  They seemed kind of surprised, but like hey...we've seen these folks before...and went right to them.  I don't think they are used to people that have left their life, coming back into it.  Hopefully this will reinforce the fact that all these people are here to stay.

 Grandpa helping them jump from tile to tile while waiting for Troy to get the rental car.
I dug in the luggage and found this jumper that Iley had worn the day before.  Luckily she's the neat eater!  It was in decent shape.  But I couldn't get to it till we got our suitcases from the baggage claim area.

OLOGISTS

Audiologists......and Cardiologists, appointments.  For those interested in the girls appointments, here is a quick update.

Wren went to the audiologist on Thursday, July 5th.  She saw the audiologist and did a booth test.  they put earphone thingys in her ears to see if or how much sound she can hear at different pitches, and decibles.  When she hears something, she is supposed to push the button in front of her.  When she does this a little animal playing a drum, or dancing or some thing lights up in various boxes around the room.  She cooperated really well, we just weren't sure a few times if she was watching our facial expressions and picking up clues, or if she really heard them.  But they are fairly confident that she heard a few as she was consistent with that level of sound.  They feel fairly sure that she does have an auditory nerve which is GREAT!  That is the nerve that carry's sound from the ear to the brain.  She is definately profoundly deaf.......which we already knew.........but they have to fit her with hearing aids to make sure and rule out if those help her.  They are planning on getting some from a loaner bank so we won't have to pay for them.  YAY!    She is scheduled to get an MRI on August 24th to see what the inside of her ear looks like, and to be certain that she has an auditory nerve.  We will know a lot more after this appointment.  IF she does get an implant, it does NOT mean she will instantly hear and understand.  When they are turned on, it's like a baby hearing for the first time.  She most likely won't be able to determine what sound is what.  She will have to have extensive listening therapy.  They warn us that it's very likely she will never have speach, as the window for auditory is 3 yrs. old.  When that part of the brain is not used, it starts to shut down.  We are praying that she Cand get an implant, and that she WILL be able to hear and speak, but are trusting God for whatever outcome.

Iley saw the cardiologist on Friday July 6th.  She saw Dr. Marius Hubbel in KC.  He's a pediatric cardi.  She had a blood saturation level test, blood pressure checked, an EKG, a sonogram, and an Xray.  Her blood oxygen levels were 90%.  A normal childs is above 96%  He said it was low but not critical.  She has a hole in her atrial septal wall, between the right and left atrium, and a hole in the ventrial septal wall, between the lower chambers.  She also has ebsteins enomaly which is a downward placement of the tricuspid valve.  so blood is leaking back into the right atrium from the lower ventrical............I think:)  Whew!  The doctor said that he had NEVER seen a VSD with ebsteins anomaly.  He's an older fellow and he said he's seen a LOT of hearts in his day but never this combination.  He's going to present it to the heart team, and they are going to come up with an action plan.  She is doing great and he doesn't expect to need to see her for 4 months.  Then he wants to recheck everything.  We are supposed to check her heart rate periodically to make sure it's not over 160-180 at rest on a regular basis.  This seems crazy high!  My heart rate is normally at about 60-65!

 So far so good!  She's worn them since she got them!  She's still holding everything pretty close....but maybe not quite as close??  I'm guessing she needs stronger lenses???

 She looks like a boy!:(

She was trying to help keep the dust out of his eyes.....I'm guessing he's done this to her.  Needless to say....it was a bit hard to see where he was going, and he had to stop.