Maui

We took all of our children and then some (Lilly, Lizzy's BFF and Minghui our exchange student) to Maui for the Thanksgiving Break.  We, of course, had an amazing time.  Maddie and Mia just had so much fun in the sun and on the beach.  Here are some pics of my beauties enjoying Maui....

Aloha!

Qualities

With having grown children it is very easy to articulate their qualities and personality.  They have grown up and I have helped guide them through various seasons in life until they have forged who they are.  With Maddie, I see some amazing qualities about her in just 6 years of life.

Maddie has been faced with some challenges over the past 18 months.  She has had to step off her throne and share the spotlight with Mia, which she struggled with but has come to embrace her little sister and become a great big sister.  I have seen her face her fears head on - starting soccer and being apprehensive about it and realizing that she has a gift and turned into the star of the field!  In school, she has struggled this year in Kindergarten.  Her teacher confirmed some of our fears, she has some dyslexia tendencies and started falling behind.  Maddie is tenacious and determined to overcome!  She works hard - harder than any child in her class at mastering her lessons.  She never fails to do her homework and pushes me daily to help her.  She will go over and over her lessons, never tiring.  She inspires me!  She inspires me to never quit because something is hard, inspires me to be a better mom, a better person!  I know that she has a lot to overcome but I know that she can do it!  I love her - my tenacious, strong willed, determined, bright and beautiful little girl!

Check up's

In November, Maddie and Mia both had check up's at Texas Childrens Hospital in Houston with the entire craniofacial team of physicians.  My dad came with me to try and help me wrangle both kids through parking, waiting and getting examined.  The day proved to be just as challenging as I thought it would be and was glad he came to help - 4 adult hands were just not enough to handle my 2 little chicklets.

Mia's check up went very well.  The doctors raved over how beautiful her lip closure was and they were in awe that it was actually performed in China.  Her palate is beautifully healed and functioning appropriately - yeah!  Her vocabulary is expanding and her speech is coming along beautifully.  I think she will still need some speech therapy but she has come along way.  She will have a full speech evaluation in March.  The tubes in her ears look great too!

I expected that Maddie's check up be as routine as Mia's.  Wrong.  Unexpectedly, the physician (who had not seen her before, as her physician that followed her from the time she came home passed away from cancer), was immediately concerned about her lip and nose.  He felt that they needed to be surgically corrected soon, as her face is pulled to one side as she is growing AND her nose has many issues - it was not reconstructed correctly initially.  But it got worse.  Her palate was not corrected properly either and the muscles aren't functioning correctly and may need to be redone.  Whoa!  Not at all what I expected to hear.  Maddie has had several obstacles to overcome here lately at school and this is just adding to the list.  I have been so burdened for her recently and pray daily that GOD gives me the tools to be a good enough as a mother to help her overcome.

Once I got over the emotional side of my baby having to have surgery, the practical planning side of me kicked in.  If we are going to do the lip and nose surgery we need to have a plan and schedule it for the end of school so that she doesn't miss any critical material that she needs to move on to 1st grade.  We will go for a surgical evaluation on January 6th.  Hopefully we can put a plan of action together.  As for the palate surgery, we will wait until March and see how she fairs in the Speech Evaluation.