Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Overjoyed

 
It is with great joy and excitement on this special day
that we would like to announce
that we will soon be a family of seven.
 
We have accepted the referral
of a very special four year old boy from China.
 
Our son Coleman "Cole" Walter Yeatts
will be joining our family
Summer 2013
 
 
Merry Christmas from our family to yours
 
 
 
We can not wait to share pictures as soon as we are allowed, he is adorable :)!!

Tuesday, September 4, 2012

Back to School


 and so it begins......
 
 
 
 



Early mornings


Ethan's first day of middle school



                           Ethan is in 6th grade                      


Come on mom!  Really?  A picture!!


Benjamin is in 8th grade
 
 

 
The girls leaving for the bus





Slow down Lily, we need a picture.....






Hmmmm (this is so typical)











Mia is in 1st grade



Saying goodbye











One more hug












Lily riding the bus for the first time (they go to different schools)







Such a big girl


Lily is in pre K



She may of rode the bus, but I drove to school to make sure she was Ok - she did great :)!!




 

 
 
Yummy first day of school treat (thanks Jamie)
 
 

 

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Celebrating Two Years With Lily

Two years ago today Lily officially became a Yeatts forever!!





At 2 1/2 she weighed 13lbs, she could not sit, or talk and was so blue when we first saw her we just prayed God would help us get her home so we could get her the medical help she needed. 

Despite her fragile state, the joy and privilege we felt at that moment to be her parents is indescribable.  She would be forever loved.  Not only by us, but by her sister and brothers, grandparents, great-grandparent, aunts, uncles, great-aunts, great-uncles, cousins, and friends. She had a family!!

Sealed by our thumb prints and her footprints she was ours!!








She is now 36lbs, walking, smiling, going to school, and a lot less blue!!







Yes she still needs cardiac surgery, yes she still needs her lungs to improve, she she still has developmental delays, but watching lily change over the last 2 years has been like watching God perform a daily miracle in our girls life - and we know He is not done yet!!








Happy Gotcha Day Lily Stella Yeatts - you are loved SO much




Thursday, May 17, 2012

A few details for those who want to know

Sorry I have not had time to post sooner, but things have been a little crazy for us as a family.

I wanted to explain in a little more detail why Lily's open heart surgery was cancelled!!

Our cardiologist called us Friday morning (4 days before her surgery), as soon as I answered and heard his voice I knew something was up, usually his nurse practitioner calls us, unless it is to discuss something important.





As you know the reason Lily has not had surgery so far is because she had severe pulmonary hypertension, you also know the exciting news that it had decreased to a level where her cardiologists felt she could have the surgery and there was a high chance it would work.

As well as the hypertension there is another number they follow called the pulmonary vascular resistance (PVR).  A normal healthy persons PVR is 2 or less.  Lily's initially was 6 (high) and decreased to 3 which was fantastic.

When the team of cardiologists met a few days before her surgery to discuss her case one more time, two of the cardiologists bought up the fact that the PVR was 3 when ideally they would like it closer to 2 to give the surgery more of a chance to be successful and to put Lily at less risk.  Their thought is that Lily is doing so well so why rush into surgery when we can treat her and try and get the PVR down and give her a better chance of a successful surgery.

Of coarse we are in agreement with this, and of coarse it would have been nice to have had this plan a little sooner, but we can't change that, so now we just go from here.

We don't have  an exact plan yet, but she will be put on some other medications to treat the PVR, and then probably reevaluate in 4-6 months from now.

Meanwhile we get to enjoy Lily, I know if she understood what was going on, she would be thrilled to be not having cardiac surgery right now!!

We just wanted to thank you all for your support, kind words and prayers for lily and us, it means more than we can express.



Friday, May 11, 2012

Introducing the newest member of the Yeatts family.....




Ethan's Bearded Dragon





He doesn't have a name yet as we are not sure if he is a boy or a girl, hmmmm






We have only ever had dogs and cats, and I have said, No Way, to mice and rats, but I actually think this guy is kinda cute

and he certainly makes my sweet boy happy



Monday, April 23, 2012

Happy 6th Birthday Mia

She is beautiful inside and out




She is dedicated to complete any task she starts (and just a little stubborn)




She loves her brothers deeply and desires their approval



She loves her sister with everything she has




She is goofy




She loves face painting





She has bought unspeakable joy to our lives.  We love you Mia girl, thank you for showing us how amazing it is to parent a daughter - you have changed our lives forever.  



Monday, April 16, 2012

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Five Years Ago Tonight I Couldn't Sleep

Why?

because our lives were about to change forever

laying in a bed in a hotel in China

watching the minutes go by on the clock

we were overwhelmed with feelings of excitement, nervousness, joy

hours from then we were going to meet our daughter for the first time

the only image we had seen of her was taken when she was a couple of months old




now she was 11 months

so many questions going through our heads....


will she cry when they hand her to us?





will she bond to us?





how long will it take for her to get used to us?





what would our new family look like, how was it all going to work?





how would we feel once her lip was repaired? We loved her cleft, it was such a part of her and her personality, we honestly couldn't imagine her with out it


Mia one week home from China on her first birthday



would the repair go well?





how long would it take to heal?





As the days, weeks, and months went by, life very quickly became normal, yes it was now a new normal, a slightly more crazier normal, but she just fitted right on in. 





She has loved life from day one, she is stubborn, determined, sweet, loving and caring.  She learnt to fight for survival early in life, and those have produced characteristics of determination now.




She tells us frequently how much she loves us, and how happy she is that we are her mommy and daddy, and her family - oh my heart.  We are very open with talking to her about her tummy mommy (birth mom) and our journey to her. She is soon to be six and there are more questions now, how we wish we had more answers.  We have prayed hard that she will always know how much she is loved and never feel any sense of rejection.  We know that as she gets older she will have more specific questions, and we will be right there to help her through that journey.




this girl LOVES her noodles



Six years ago, you changed our lives forever, you became our daughter, you showed us the miracle of adoption, and just like when your brothers were born you showed us a depth of love we had never understood before, you changed the path of our lives forever.

We love you so much Mia, Happy Forever Family Day, we can not imagine for a moment our lives without you, we are so proud and blessed to be your mommy and daddy.


Sunday, February 19, 2012

Lily's Journey to a Stronger Heart - 13 (the Surgeon Said Yes!!!)





So here we go

Lily is going to have cardiac sugery.

Our cardiologist gave all of Lily's information to the cardiac surgeon at CHOP and he said he would recommend surgery, and soon.

He feels with the decrease in her pulmonary hypertension we have a window, and need to take advantage of that.  We don't have a date yet, probably early May.  They want to get out of winter, so to decrease the chance of her getting a cold.

The surgery she is getting is called a Glenn procedure, she will then need a second surgery, the Fontanne, about a year later.

There was a possibility they would do one big surgery, but because she still has hypertension and is considered high risk, it is safer to do two seperate surgeries.

Both surgeries will be open heart, and she will go on bypass.

So how are we feeling about this news???

Of coarse we are thrilled and excited, this is what we have been hoping and praying for, what the medication has been for, what the doctors had said would most likely never happen - so this news could not be more amazing.

 On the flip side, we are nervous, not fearful, just concerned for our precious girl. 

She is doing so amazing, so happy






What we know is that is it is a miracle that we are at this point, and we know that if God has opened this door, then we need to walk through it, trusting him all the way.



What we know is that is it is a miracle that we are at this point, and we know that if God has opened this door, then we need to walk through it, trusting him all the way.


the thought of jeopadizing that is unthinkable.

What we know is that it is a miracle that we are at this point, and we know that if God has opened this door, then we need to walk through it, trusting him all the way.

When we adopted Lily a year and a half a go, we expected to bring her home, and she would get the Glenn, and then the Fontanne, the pulmonary hypertension was not something we were expecting.  When we were told she would very likely never get surgery and maybe only live until her teens or less - we started a journey we had not anticipated when we accepted Lily's referral.

 Had we set out to adopt a child who may not live?   No Way.

Would we have originally excpted her referral if that was stated?  I honestly don't know. 

What we do know is that there was a point after we had accepted Lily's referral that it wouldn't have mattered what news we could have recieved, she was now ours no matter what.  When we recieved updated information on her saying she was delayed, couldn't sit, couldn't talk, we could have changed our minds, but for both Chris and I we knew it didn't matter.  She was our daughter, and there was nathing that was going to stop us from bringing her home. 

Does that mean it has all been eas?  No.

 There have been moments when we have said - man life would be easier if lily could talk, was out of diapers, and was well, but those are just brief moments.  Honestly we have been surprised by what we have found we can handle, and the alternative for her is unthinkable.

 Most of our momnets concerning Lily are filled with joy, love, amazement, and laughter, we feel so honored to have been chosen to be her parents and family.

This year and a half has stretched our family in many ways, we have seen the good, bad and the ugly about ourselves, but that's ok we have all grown, and are better for it. 

We could not imagine our lives without this precious girl








Sunday, January 29, 2012

Enjoying a gorgeous winters day in Williamsburg






Hold on to her Benjamin




Run quickly




She's fast





Now you can't get away