Skin Graft: It Took!!!

And the good news just keeps rolling in!!  This morning, after having a fit in her daddy's arms, Keziah snored like a baby for about 1/2 an hour, the time needed to remove the drain and gauze from her. And the result? A very nice looking skin graft! Dr. Zuker was very pleased with how it looks and so are we. Now remember, when you look at the pictures, it is still a little raw looking, but over time, the incisions will heal up and the scars will fade. But we are so thankful for how it looks today. Often when dealing with skin grafts, the grafted part is a different colour, and even texture, than the skin surrounding it. However with her skin grafts, the skin colour pretty well matches with the rest!! We are thrilled! So here are some pictures. Again, just a reminder to you faint-hearted. There is blood and stuff so, well, don't look too close :o)

Here is a picture of the drain behind her ear. We are happy to say "good riddance" to that thing!!

In this picture you can see where the birthmark is still on: down her ear, a bit behind her ear and all on the side of her head.

Good bye to the icky looking gauze!!

And heelllloooo skin!!

She thought her toe looked pretty cool!

After 2 freezies and an apple juice, she was all ready to go home!

And here she is tonight:

I don't know about you but I find it very hard sometimes to see if there really is a difference. I mean, I know there's a difference, but I forget where the birthmark was and how big it was. I question "Was there any on her forehead to begin with? How far down her cheek was it again?" And then I look at old pictures of her and realize, wow. There sure is a difference.

So, in a nutshell of the past months, Keziah has gone from this

to this (note not only the expanders but her milk moustache that she is so proud of!):

and finally to this:

Now that is what you call a transformation!! Amazing. We praise our heavenly Father for watching over us every step of the way. He gave strength when needed, wisdom that was sought, solutions to help through some of the conflicts and encouragement to keep on going. He used many of you as well and this was shown in so many different ways, from meals to babysitting Lincoln, to cards, calls, emails, gifts, and prayers. We look forward to being able to return the favour by now having more time to help others in need.

A big part of Keziah's journey in the removal of her freckle is now behind us. We have a follow-up appointment in September. From there we will see what we do with what's left in her eyebrow. We aren't sure what to do, whether to just leave it or do more skin grafts. The other option is also to wait a few years. Medical technology advances at a fast pace and who knows, maybe in a few years there will be a new procedure.

At this time we would like to thank ALL of you for taking this journey with us.  Although we did not respond to too many comments individually, we read each and every one of them and loved them. Your love and support through the comments helped us a lot.

I have enjoyed writing this blog. I have found it quite therapeutic. As for continuing, I am not too sure. I will definitely update the blog as the healing continues, but I am still debating whether to write about our life or not. You see, I find that blogs can be very decieving. I can put up whatever I want and it can give to you the impression that things are all honkey-doorie here. For the most part, that is true. We do have fun as a family. But like any other family, we have our good days and our "not so good" days. We have days that to obey our God and to do His Will is "easy" (not on our own but only with the help of His Spirit), but there are plenty of days where disobedience and selfishness takes root and prospers.

We all know the situation where you are yelling at your spouse and/or kids and the phone rings and what do you do? You answer it all sweet and nicely like nothing was happening. Or, we've all (I'm sure) experienced the crazy Sunday morning rush: get dressed, hair done nicely, eat breakfast, find the Sunday shoes, the Bible and Psalm Book, money and oh yeah, don't forget the candies, all the while being impatient and snarky to those around us, only to walk in to church all nice and orderly and sit in the bench like you have everything under control and "all together". Yeah, I don't want my blog to be like that. I don't want it to be false. (honestly though, you don't really think I yell at my family do you??! :o)

But what's holding me from giving up the blog-writing completely is that I feel we have a lot to share and if somehow we can help someone else through our blog, we find it could be worthwhile. We've also met some people along the way and who have taught us a lot. And we love to learn and are always eager to learn more. We have journeyed a few roads and are still walking them. We have and are still walking the path of infertility (no, don't be fooled. Adoption does not take away infertility.). We've walked the road of adoption. Twice. And actually, we continue to walk this road as Keziah (and in a few years, Lincoln) becomes more aware of what being adopted means. We've also had and are still walking (but nearing the end) of the road of medicine. And through all these roads, we are also walking the path as God's children. As much as we tend to stray, He will not let go of us. He claimed us, thankfully. And it is He that has made the roadmap of our life, giving us the tools necessary to follow Him and to one day, meet Him when He either decides to call us home or when Jesus comes back again. And that is how we find life so liberating.