Silent Tears

I've never written a book review before, but this morning I posted a review on Amazon's website for Silent Tears: A Journey of Hope in A Chinese Orphanage. When I came home from work yesterday, the book was with the mail. As soon as I put my daughters to bed, I tore into it. At 1:30am, my husband wondered why our light was still on. I couldn't stop reading. My own silent tears flowed down my cheeks all night long. Kay Bratt is an amazing writer. This is a must read for parents adopting from China. I now have a much better understanding on some of the behavior that Josie displayed when she first came to our family. I'm so proud to be her mother. She is an amazingly resilient child and we are so blessed to have had the opportunity to adopt her.

Happy 3 Months since Surgery

It’s been three months since Josie’s open-heart surgery for Tetralogy of Fallot. The change is amazing. No more blue toes, blue fingers and blue lips. No more squatting to relieve the pressure on her heart. No more flushed cheeks or heavy sweating. No more excessive breathing or panting during physical activity.

Watching her go through surgery only three weeks after we were home from China was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. She was a frightened little girl who didn’t understand what was going on and there was very little anyone could do to reassure her. Our family can’t thank the expertise of the Mott Children’s Hospital enough. We now have a happy healthy two year old that is catching up on all the physical limitations she experienced the first twenty months of her life.

Happy three months, Josie!