It's Finally Here - Cincinnati Trip

I don't know why it's taken me so long to post, maybe I just didn't want to say anything again until it was definite, or we were just busy, but that's always the case for everybody, isn't it?

Faith's surgery is happening this week, it was delayed from last week to this week because the ENT surgeon who is doing her tonsillectomy was not available on the 18th, so everything moved out a week.  So, we fly out tomorrow, into Dayton OH, the hospitall shuttle will pick us up and take us to the Ronald McDonald House which we got into for both before and after the hospital stay.

Surgery is Wednesday where they will do the jaw distraction and a tonsillectomy & adenoidectomy. Then she will be in the hospital for 2 nights and then we go back to the Ronald McDonald House for about 4 days and fly home on Monday, 4/29.

Faith is mostly excited about it and a little nervous at the same time.  I will see if we can get some tickets to do something fun on Tuesday, before the big day, maybe the zoo or maybe another Cincinnati Reds baseball game.

I will plan to post some "before" pictures tomorrow/Tuesday if I can.

The one thing I've been pretty bummed about since it was rescheduled is that Faith's last surgery is now on her last day of school, which means she will miss everything from now until school is out.  So, her last day of school was this past Wednesday - we took her out a week before the surgery so we could keep her healthy.

Her class held a little party for her and she brought home about a dozen beautiful cards wishing her well.  It was super sweet.  She loved them all, but especially the card from a boy in her Deaf Hard of Hearing class who she says is her boyfriend!!  I won't say his name here since I'm not sure if he knows he's her boyfriend!!

Last weekend we were in Branson Missouri for Fred's niece's wedding, which was so beautiful and a great little family reunion for all the Kargoll's.  Everyone was there and it was a really nice time.  Faith especially enjoyed getting swung all around by her cousin Ian who is a gymnist and coach and loved picking her up and throwing her around!! It was actually the first time they had met  as Ian lives in Alaska and we haven't seen him in many years!!

Lauren brought Carly (now 3yrs old) and Dana and Aaron brought baby Hallie and Ryan came as well, so we had a total of 10 in our traveling group!  We had so much fun, plus two slightly scary pool incidents.  The first one was with little Carly who is taking swimming lessons now and is quite comfortable in the water, but not tall enough to stand in the 3 foot section, so she was mostly playing on the stairs and then started holding on to the edge of the pool and walking around the edge of the 3 ft section.  I had been playing with her in the pool and then I left her on the stairs (about 5 feet from where Lauren was sitting outside the pool) and I took Faith for a ride into the 5ft end of the pool.  So, next thing I saw was Carly kinda floating on her back in a bit of a sitting position, but actually sinking just a couple feet away from the stairs.  There was no way I could get over to her quickly especially with Faith in my arms, but luckily both Lauren and Fred jumped up and Fred jumped in quick and grabbed her before she really went under.  She was just staring at Fred with these big eyes and just starting to get scared.  She was fine and all was well.  The next day though, I let Anthony and Faith go swimming again, but I didn't get in.  Faith is tall enough now to stand in the 3 ft end with the water just up to her armpits so it's fine for her trach.  But she decided to play with a litttle blow-up float and was trying to sit on it.  I told her she had to stay by the stairs and hold onto the railing because of course the float would pop out from under her and she could fall under water.  Becasue of her trach this could immediately drown her since  the water could just flow right into her lungs.  And then it happened.  She got a foot or so away from the stairs (basically the same exact spot where Carly started sinking) where she was playing with Anthony and the float when she went under.  I jumped up and ran to the edge of the pool yelling for Anthony to grab her which he did without any hesitation and then I was able to lift her out of the pool.  Amazingly, it appeared that she didn't have any water.  I really can't explain how no water went down her trach tube, it doesn't make any sense to me, I thought for sure she would need to go to the hospital but she was perfectly fine.  Justt coughed a couple drops out of her trach! Anthony was so fast in grabbing her and lifting her up, he was a hero!  Grandma and Grandpa were sitting with me at the pool when it happened and they told him how proud they were of him and he was so modest about it -- he said, "I'm a cub scout almost a boy scout and that is just what we do."  How cool.  I told his den leader about it and he suggested we write a story about it and submit it to the Boy's Life magazine, so I need to help him do that.

Well, as usual, when I finally find time to write, it turns into a book!!  We have to run to the store  now to finish getting ready for our trip, so I have to sign off now.

Love you all,
Robin