Celebrating Rachel's Birthday

We had our big party over the weekend, but to celebrate Rachel's actual birthday, her and I went to Disneyland. Unfortunately, Gramma's back has been bad the last two months, so she wasn't able to go with us, so it was just Mommy and Rachel.

We had a fun day. We stopped by City Hall to get her official "Birthday Sticker", and then went in search of Mickey Mouse, one of her favorites. We hit the character jackpot! She was so cute walking up and posing with the characters. The only one she was hesitant about was Goofy, she started to cry when she got up close to him. No wonder though, he's so tall. Wearing her birthday sticker. Looking like such a big girl sitting on this bench, enjoying a churro. With Daisy Duck, a character that is seldomly out and about. One of Rachel's first words has been 'Mickey'.
She was so excited to see him throughout the day. We had a fun time. We're hoping to go back this weekend with Daddy and Hannah to catch a show that is coming to an end.

As for the rest of the birthday day, Gramma and Papa came by to wish the birthday girl a Happy Birthday, and following dinner, she got to play outside with Gracie. Oh, and she got to enjoy a chocolate frosted cupcake, which was a total mess!

Happy Birthday Rachel!

It's hard to believe Rachel is two years old! Where has the last two years gone?

The events of that night two years ago were a whirlwind. My OB came to check me and in a matter of minutes it was determined that it was no longer safe to proceed with a natural delivery, a c-section was needed, and within 2 hours I was wheeled off to the OR. Rachel was born and we were faced with the devasting news of her undetected birth defects. The days following her birth were sorrowful ones, stressful ones, and days filled with many questions.

Here we are two years later. Rachel's lip has been fixed. Her palate repaired. And we're well on our way in Speech Therapy. She's a happy girl. She's a mischevious girl. She's a girl that's brought much joy to our lives and the lives of those around her. This coming year holds no surgeries for her, our current mission is her speech, which improves with each passing week of therapy.

To all our family and friends, thank you for your prayers for her and for all your support for us in the last two years. We are truly Blessed.

Our Fishy is Turning Two!!

That's right, Rachel will be 2 years old on Thursday! Where has the time gone??

Today we celebrated Rachel's birthday with family by having dinner and cake and ice cream. Because of her love for Nemo, I did a Nemo theme.

Rachel had a wonderful afternoon filled with lots of great gifts...lots of clothes for the coming cooler months, which were well needed, as well as a couple of fun things Rachel was excited to get...new sunglasses, a new hat, a backpack, and a doll of her very own. All things that Rachel is very much into these days.

Sporting a pair of her new shades and her new Nemo hat.
"Happy Birthday Dear Rachel"
Enjoing her birthday cake.
Great Grandma with her four Great Granddaughters.It was a great afternoon of visiting with family and celebrating the work that the Lord has done for Rachel.

Thank you to our family for all your thoughts and prayers and outpouring of generousity towards Rachel!!

She Can Hear!!!

Rachel passed her hearing evaluation this morning. One of her tympanic membranes wasn't responding real strong, but her ENT attributed it the fact that ear was caked with wax. LOL.

But she passed and the ENT said he'd see us in February at our yearly craniofacial team appointment!Thank you soooo much for your thoughts and prayers!

Prayers Please

Rachel has her repeat hearing evaluation tomorrow (11:00am), and then a visit with her ENT following the test.

Please keep Rachel in your prayers that she 1) cooperates with what is expected of her and 2) the results are normal.

Rachel failed the hearing evaluation she had in May and was diagnosed with a mild hearing loss. At that time her ENT saw some wax build up in her ears and thought that might have been the reason for her failing, not to mention her age and having not cooperated very well. Thus the reason for retesting.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and prayers!

A Glimpse into our Journey

Last weekend as I was searching You Tube for some videos of an experiment we had seen on TV, I entered "Cleft Lip" into the site search, and much to my suprise I actually found a video.

This video is about Zachary's lip repair, his cleft lip was a different cleft than Rachel's, but a cleft none the less.

This video gives a glimpse of what it was like when Rachel had her lip repaired. We handed our baby off to the scrub nurse, we waited for hours in the waiting room, we were amazed at the work her plastic surgeon had performed, and experieced the "fun at home".

Reading the updates on Rachel's Journey is one thing, but seeing this video will truly give you a feel as to what our journey was like.

Zachary's Lip Repair


Thanks Jen for letting me share this.

Guestbook

One of the things about having a public blog is you never know of all the people who follow and read your blog.

Last week, my parents ran into a friend, and she told my mom she had recently visited Rachel's Journey. I can't tell you how blessed I was, and how much it meant to me to know she had been keeping up with Rachel and how far she has come. I know there are probably others who also follow Rachel on a regular basis that I don't know about.

If you follow Rachel's Journey on a regular basis, and you haven't signed my guestbook, I would LOVE to have you sign it!!!

Followers of Rachel's Journey

Just Thinkin

Playing with Potatoes...

One of the toys Rachel loves to play with every week at Speech Therapy is Mr and Mrs Potato Head. When I brought ours out today for her to play with she was so excited!

Just Another Fun Day at Speech

Using puppets to get Rachel to talk.

Shopping Carts Deemed Unsafe

This morning while I was driving Hannah to school, one of the news pieces was that the American Academy of Pediatrics is recommending parents "consider alternatives to placing children in shopping carts, until carts are redesigned to prevent injury", in the August Issue.

This news blurb made me chuckle as I remembered back to Rachel's encounter with a grocery cart last year. I didn't think about the serious injuries, such as the carts tipping over, children obtaining head injuries and such, as mentioned in the article, until I read why they were deeming shopping carts unsafe, I simply thought about my child getting her leg stuck in the cart, which required the fire department come to her rescue. LOL.

A Trip to Disneyland

Southern California is finally getting a break in the horrid heat we've been having for the last several weeks. Honestly, it's been too hot even for going to Disneyland. :::gasp::: LOL. But today, after dropping Hannah off at school, Rachel and I headed to Disneyland for our first ever Mommy and Rachel trip to Disneyland. Before Rachel came along, Hannah and I had four years together of going to Disneyland together, today, it was Rachel's turn. And boy, did it feel different going just the two of us. LOL. We waited in line to see Snow White and went to visit Mickey Mouse in his house in Toontown. Surprisingly, when it was her turn, Rachel walked right up to them and stood there long enough for them to interact with her and for pictures. LOL. We were there for about 4 hours, which gave us plenty of time to get back to get Hannah from school. It was nice and I'm looking forward to going again soon!