grace led in life

Homecoming - Zeke meeting Isla for the first time

Her physical body has been strengthening more each day - when she was first in our arms, she was sitting fairly stable and just starting to "scoot" to reach toys, and now she is "scooting" (crawling Isla style) everywhere (literally), pulling herself up on her knees, and just in the last couple of days she is trying to pull herself to standing! In China, Isla would not eat or drink the first few days she was with us - scared of all the change, but  now she is not afraid to tell us she is hungry with the cutest "whine" and is taking her bottles and eating her baby food like a champ! She loves her food!
Isla was around 16 lbs. in China, and now she is 19! - those cheeks are gettin' chubby! yay!
Bonding has been a beautiful thing to watch. It is something that takes time - there is no timeline of when full trust and security is built, it is a journey of attachment.
She is incredibly brave in taking in all things new into her life. Sights, sounds, etc...all of it is new and causes so much processing. For her to be reaching for us in comfort with the huge change is truly incredible. We are so grateful for each day with this little joy.
Zeke and Isla are forming a special bond. Again, an incredible thing to witness!

Christmas 2017 - Isla's first Christmas - Zeke home 3 years

God intended for them to be brother and sister. Isla surely thinks Zeke is hilarious and often scoots closer to him wherever he goes. Zeke loves to "teach" things to Isla and he LOVES that she laughs when he is silly! He is very protective of his sister - such a good big brother already!
They both are recognizing attention, from Mom and Dad, is shared - so when one has the attention, soon the other is right in the mix ;)
Justin was able to have off the week between Christmas and the New Year which was a huge blessing for our family and a huge step in bonding. A time to "be still" and enjoy quality time together.


While our past 5+ weeks here have been mostly at home...much of it has also been at doctor appointments for our precious girl.


Cautious and concerned - "we are here again, Mom and Dad!?"

We have not shared much about Isla's medical needs...we wanted to take time to just "be still" with our girl, pray, and gain more info into what she was facing.
We are so thankful for all we are learning and the fact that God brought us to live 20 minutes from one of the top Children's hospitals for Isla's medical needs.
We are wanting to share a bit of Isla's journey with you and greatly ask for your prayers.

Isla's medical journey, here at home, started a couple of days after arriving home from China. We started out at our IAC (International Adoption Clinic - we had been consulting with them from the time we received Isla's file) here at the University of Washington, and soon after, starting seeing many teams of doctors at Seattle Children's Hospital.
Many appointments have happened and many more to come...
Background: When we first saw our sweet girl's "file" this past summer, we knew she had vertebral needs but no official diagnosis or specific detail of her needs - we consulted with a few doctors and gained as much info/wisdom as we could to understand her possible needs, but regardless of her needs - we knew she was our daughter.
(There is a beautiful story about that...but that is for another time)
We consulted with doctors, during Isla's adoption process, to best prepare for our precious girl so when we would arrive home, we could get her the best help for her needs. Of course, like with all medical needs and often with international adoption, you will not know the severity of a need until you are home. Since arriving home and attending all these appointments, Isla has had many tests and been under anesthesia for a CT scan and MRI. Through this, we are able to know exactly what our girl is facing and what the journey is ahead for her.

Sweet girl - so many tests

There is so much info, but we are trying to keep it condensed to share here.
Isla's thoracic vertebrae needs are severe and complex.
Much of her thoracic vertebrae are deformed and fused and some are missing.
Almost all of her ribs are fused in her back and due to that, her lungs are half the size they should be.
Because of her ribs being fused, it is not allowing her ribcage to grow, which is why her lungs are half the size they should be.
We have been told by the doctors that Isla's needs are potentially fatal.
This news has been heartbreaking to hear and hard to try to process. It is hard to not get stuck in fear for our girl's life. We strive to think of God's "big picture" for her life...we pray and praise the Lord for all He has done in Isla's adoption journey...and trust Him with her future.
We have been blessed to see so many great doctors at Seattle Children's so far, and they quickly have gotten an appointment for Isla to see the head doctor of the complex spine team and pulmonary (lung) team...this appointment will be coming up on Monday.
We have been seeing a great doctor from the spine team, but she said with Isla's needs, she needs to be seen by this specific doctor that specializes with complex/severe needs. We are blessed these doctors could see Isla as fast as they have been/are.
We still will be learning so much in the appointments ahead...
Our reason for sharing this is to ask for prayer for our girl.
Please pray and please tell others to pray!

Isla sweetie - Isla's name means "devoted to God"