We made it to Philly!

All smiles at 4am!

At the airport!

Zeke is such a trooper!

Bye-bye Seattle

trying to smile through a hard day

We call this the "get your energy out - hallway" :) Quiet place to run around at Philly airport while we wait for luggage!

Our flight day yesterday was not a ride in the park...
We boarded our flight in Seattle bright and early and ended up sitting on the tarmac for over 2 hours before getting to take off. Maintenance needed to work on a light that was malfunctioning.
Isla was very upset getting on the plane and kept repeating "Please...all done!" over and over....for the 8 hours we were on the plane. We were able to distract her here and there for some happy moments, but she was aware of the situation and not a fan. Poor girl was quite scared. Needless to say, we were VERY thankful to get to Philadelphia and get settled into our hotel.
We had the huge blessing of having a friend pick us up at the airport and drive us to our hotel.
We cannot say enough how grateful we were for this! We are speechless at the kindness of 3 different adoptive Mama's and their families that have gone out of their way to help us out in our trips here. We are so grateful for your help these last 3 trips, Taylor Fam, Campbell Fam, and White Fam! ❤

At the hotel...ready for rest!

While sleep was a bit rough last night, we woke up bright and early today, feeling refreshed for Isla's pre-op, x-rays, and consult with her surgeon/team.

💙💜

super-hero of a brother!

VEPTR strong!

It was so great to get to talk with Isla's team.
For surgery this week, Isla's doctor is still doing what was planned - to expand her two VETPRs.
This will be Isla's first expansion. There is still a lot to learn about Isla's body and how she will react/grow after each surgery - how her VEPTRs handle the expansions.
We were able to talk through Dr. Anari's thoughts about next surgery and what the future MAY look like. We say MAY, because there are still a lot of unknowns with Isla's complex condition.
We will take things one step at a time and do all we can for Isla.
This surgery should still only require 1-2 nights in the hospital. She will have two incisions for the team to get to the VEPTRs and expand them. Dr. Anari will be expanding the Vertical Expandable Prosthetic Titanium Ribs by unlocking Isla's rods and expanding them "one notch" to increase the vertical pressure that will continue to slowly open up her ribcage allowing for more room for her lungs to try to grow. Like they other surgeries she has had, we will be watching closely for any infection during recovery. We are so thankful Isla has not faced an infection in her past two surgeries, but they say you need to plan on it happening at some point. It is really difficult to live so far away from CHOP, but we know they will work to get Isla to CHOP if an infection would arise.

We are so grateful for Dr. Anari, Isla's nurse, Nicole and the whole team for their kindness and professionalism. Isla can be very timid with people, but she warmed up to them today.  Dr. Anari shared his glasses with Isla and asked if she would like to sign her consent for surgery, which she was ALL about 😁😎

Isla and her surgeon, Dr. Anari We are so thankful for him!

We love so many people on Isla's team...this is one of Isla's nurses, Nicole.  So thankful for her!

Isla LOVED signing consent for surgery!

Tomorrow morning we head back to CHOP for Isla to see her Pulmonary doctor.
This will just be a consult and we will talk more about her going through the pulmonary function testing for our next trip out here. We are so thankful Isla has been breathing fairly well. We have seen some change as she becomes more active. She can run out of breath a little easier, yet she is doing well.

Isla's surgery is Friday Feb. 22. She is listed as first patient for the day...so we will be up before dawn to get her to CHOP and prepped for surgery.

Please continue to pray-

• for continued health/to stay healthy for and through surgery/recovery. 
• for Isla's heart and mind through all the difficulty of going through another surgery
• pray for Zeke - he is such a trooper and desires to be a helper for Isla. We know he is nervous for her. 
• for Justin and I to have endurance and wisdom in making decisions. 
• for a GREAT flight home! :)