the surgery went well.

For the first time in years, McKynlee's surgery went really well! Just a change of the existing conformer to a bigger one. I think we might f-i-n-a-l-l-y be getting a little bit closer to her eye socket being able & big enough to hold a prosthetic eye. Yay!!! 

 {feelin' sad & grumpy.. knowing what's about to happen}

For the first time, in the longest time... The doctor didn't have to come out half way into the surgery and tell us that a lot of scar tissue had formed, leaving too little space to fit the larger conformer into her eye without cutting out the scar tissue and doing extensive grafting from her mouth to create the space he needed in her lids and often times he even had to keep re-opening the outer corner of her eye too. When he came out, we thought that's what he was coming to tell us and instead he said it went great, the space was there and he didn't have to do anything besides switch out the smaller conformer for a bigger one and restitch it in place. 
I was so happy and excited that I wanted to jump up, throw my arms around the doctor and kiss his face off! haha {in a totally non-romantic way of course} It was like an early Christmas present! We were praying for exactly this and were so thankful when the doctor gave us the good news!
She looked a lot better afterwards since he didn't have to do the grafting, etc. the swelling wasn't nearly as bad. She still wasn't happy when she woke up from the anesthesia {as usual} but she settled down quicker and we were heading back home sooner than we had expected. 

She spent most of the day sleeping... good thing since she'd woke up that morning around 4:30 or 5:00 and turned her music on full blast ready for a party! 
Friday she stayed home from school!! We did her favorite thing to do these days, the beautiful twirly dance to Christmas music and decorated the house since Santa Clause is Comin' to Town!  

Philadelphia & Easter

McKynlee absolutely loves to be thrown in the air and she never gets tired of it. She wears us right out before she ever wants to stop, or I should say is "OK" with stopping and moving onto something diffrent. Her darling smile and excited squeals and giggles are so hard to resist, that we just keep doing it until we feel like we're going to pass out. -Tee hee hee

Yay, we're back!!! It's so good to be home. Don't get me wrong, we really enjoy our trips to Philadelphia, it's such an awesome place to see mainly because of all it's history; but it can be a stressful and anxious trip too, due to the fact that both times we've gone its been for McKynlee to have surgery. It's been the greatest thing though. She had 6 surgeries total last year all within a two and half to three month period before going to Philadelphia for her 7th surgery that was FINALLY a success, and she has done so much better since then developmentally too. The doctor said that he was very pleased with the space that the extender had created and that the big graph that they took from her bottom lip had held up really well from her frist surgery there, back in July. This time they were able to do something new that they've been looking forward to doing with her; but haven't been able to in the past because they just didn't have enough space to work with for it. They used something called a hydrogel implant, when they put it in at surgery it's pretty small and over the next 48 hours it grows 15x's it's size (to full capacity). She was uncomfortable for those first two days following surgery, so we just kept her medicated; but by Sunday she was doing well without any pain reliever and hasn't had any since. She's such a trooper! The doctor says he would like this one to stay in for 3-6 months and then we'll see if it looks like she's ready for a bigger one again. I'm just glad to be back home and on the road to recovery and normal development in other area's. Thanks to everyone who kept us in your thoughts and prayers, we really appreciate it and especially to my parents who did an excellent job watching our other kids while we were away and creating a magical and spiritual experience for them to enjoy on Easter even know we weren't here to celebrate with them. They all just about did a back flip over their Easter baskets, they got to wear their Easter outfits and go to church, watch a good Easter movie about Jesus Christ and the Resurrection and at last.. they ended the day over at Grandma and Grandpa Sosa's for dinner and an Easter Egg Hunt with all the cousins. Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures of their experience because we had the camera with us in Philly. However, I do have some pictures of McKynlee. We were invited to spend Easter with the family of the Counselor for Micropthalmia that I first came in contact with in Philadelphia and helped me get the ball rolling with surgery over there and many other things that are always a work in progress. She is amazing and has offered us so much guidance and helpful information. Anyway, Easter with her family was incredible. It was at her parents house and there were at least 30-40 people all together. There house was beautiful and very inviting. EVERYONE in her family was more than welcoming and willing to share their holiday with complete strangers. They acted as if they'd known us forever. They were a very tight knit family and a lot of fun to be around. The food was soooooo good too!!! I wish I had some of the recipes to bring home and make. They hosted a Easter Egg Hunt for all the little kids and McKynlee found 2 eggs. She loved walking around outside and feeling the wind hit her face and blow through her hair.

I just have to mention too, how very thankful we are to Andres' company for offering to pay for our entire trip to Philadelphia.. plane tickets, rental car, AND hotel. What a blessing and a generousity we will never forget. Thank you... Now all we'll have to take care of is medical bills.