Happy Birthday Miss Morgan!

What a challenging 6 years we have had with Morgan.  Soooo many things have happened in a short amount of time.  Looking back over these years we can now clearly see how God is working through Morgan.  Morgan has taught us so many things that she didn't even know she was doing.  It is amazing to see how God did his work through a child! 
Morgan's whole family has learned never to take anything for granted.  We have learned that CHOP is full of families dealing with severe heart break every single day.  We don't understand the suffering that happens to small children along with their parents.  It is the place every single parent should have to visit.  So many people take things for granted.  When a baby is born and they do all those tests to your newborn that  you don't even know they are doing.  All that stuff is taken for granted til the sky falls. 
Morgan has finally had  her first birthday party with kids.  She and 8 friends had a party at Sweet and Sassy.  They had soo much fun!  That will be the first and last kids party for quite a few years.  The prices for having a kids party are ridiculous!  The girls had fun getting their hair done and nails and makeup.  They then got to dress up and use the runway for some fashion show time. Morgan was in her glory.  Her face was just priceless.  That same day we had our family party too.  Rylee and Morgan had to share the limelight for that one.  Didn't bother either one of them  one little bit to share the day.  That is good cause they will be doing that shared party for many many years.  Just so they each have their own birthday cake.
We also had yearly check ups this week.  Morgan grew 1 1/2 " and about 2lbs since last year.  She is a tiny little thing and they are watching her closely.  She is 34 3/4 lbs.  They will test her thyroid just to be safe.  She has such a tiny set of parents that is probably those genes that  are working in her again.
Next Wednesday Morgan has to go back to CHOP for a mapping.  It has been a long time and we are noticing some things that are leading us to her needing a mapping.  She just doesn't seem to be as sharp as she usually is.  We now can see why they say you  have to keep a CI kid one step ahead of the class all the time cause they can fall behind so fast you won't even notice it.  That seems to be happening.  We didn't know if what we were witnessing was a 6 year old selective hearing or just the end of a long school year. I will  post next week to update on this mapping.  Also, next week she goes back to the urologist at CHOP for her kidney stone issue.  Hopefully this hasn't moved and is still just sitting there being a good little stone.
After the morning appointment at CHOP she has a 1:30 appt with the eye dr.  The teacher has noticed Morgan's sight is not as sharp from a distance.  Nothing was noted at her check up last night though.  Hope all this turns out good too!
Until next week, Happy Birthday Morgan and Rylee!!!!

What a wonderful day we had at CHOP

Today was Morgan's 6 week post op appt at CHOP.  Morgan's ear healed up nicely and we are now going to have a final appt in August prior to the September surgery to fix the ear that has the hole in it.  The hole is there from when the tube fell out and it didn't close up like it should have. 

Today was extra special.  Morgan had 3 dozen sand buckets ready to donate to CHOP's short stay unit.  She poured her little heart into this project.  She always would say, "oh these little kids are going to be so excited when they see their present when they wake up".  Each bucket was filled according to age.  She filled baby buckets with puffs, sippy cups, baby food a baby book and the famous Woofi.  The toddler buckets had things such as oreos, pretzels, juice boxes, water, books, crayons, coloring books, and Woofi.  Some of the buckets also had a special book called, Have you filled a bucket today?.  The publisher of this book actually donated them.  Not only did Morgan learn what " paying it forward"  meant but adults did as well doing this project.  So many wonderful people helped her out.  There was a church group that filled 4 of them as a service project.  Many wonderful people gave monetary donations as well as things to fill the buckets.  Morgan could not have filled this many buckets without all the help she received. 

Morgan had the honor of giving out two buckets personally.  They were both little boys that will be getting cochlear implants this year.  Both of these little guys loved Woofi from the moment they saw him.  We wish Rocco and Beckett only the best in the upcoming journey.  Lots of therapy and love and before we know it they will both be following Morgan's footsteps and enjoying mainstream school.  All the hard work of the learning to listen will be just a memory. 

After CHOP we enjoyed a nice celebration lunch at Olive Garden.  What a great day! 

Sand buckets are everywhere!

We are having such a fun time filling these sand buckets. We have had so many people excited for us that they have been donating money and time and other items to put in our buckets. We have had two newspapers do stories on this. How exciting to have really cool stuff in the news today when the world is in so much turmoil. Here is the article from the Town and Country this past Wednesday. We are so proud of Morgan and who she is becoming one day at a time. This coming Sunday Morgan will have her first violin recital. She is a bit anxious but who wouldn't be. She will be playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Hot Cross buns. http://www.phillyburbs.com/blogs/news_columnists/phil_gianficaro/the-greatest-sound/article_f1375014-e5a1-5628-a145-d36c5323e596.html

Exciting things are happening!

The sand bucket project is in full swing! We are so excited for Morgan. Tuesday Morgan was given two cash donations from friends. On Tuesday Morgan also received material things for her buckets from her daytime caregiver. Wednesday we got a letter from the publisher of the book and they are DONATING the books for the buckets. These books are so meaningful. Every child needs to have this book! Today a company in Quakertown donated $100.00. We also have been in contact with Woofi the missionary puppy organization. For every Woofi that is purchased they will also donate a Woofi for Morgan's buckets. This is also not just a regular stuffed puppy. It is helping someone else. So two children will be helped with the purchase of one puppy! Doors just keep opening, The Lord our God is so incredibly WONDERFUL!

Paying it Foward!

This past Friday Morgan had the first of two surgeries. She was getting the tube removed from her left ear and a patch put on the hole. As she is getting older these pre surgery days are not as easy. She had lots of tears on Thursday night. We were trying to make it as light of a deal as possible but that seemed to backfire a little bit. I think she thought we were blowing something off that was very important to her. She was in better spirits Friday morning on her way to CHOP. Uncle Jamie went along with us. Ben's new job does not permit any real time off yet. The longest part was prepping and waking up afterwards. She slept for the better part of the day. Wide awake by the evening though so we had time to go get the Phillies Jersey she asked for. A little gift for being such a big girl. Well deserved. CHOP gave Morgan this cute little bucket for Easter. All the kids in the short stay unit received them on Friday. They were actually made by Merck though. Well, this sparked Morgan up so much that she is now going full steam ahead to have 12 buckets ready to donate to CHOP when she goes back in 6 weeks. She knows what a good feeling she got from someone else doing something nice. It is going to be a fun six weeks getting these buckets ready. She spent her Easter money that her Grandpop Frank gave her on some books for the buckets. She has chosen the book called, "How Full Is Your Bucket, For Kids" Very good choice I might add. Those books are around 10.00 each so this will be a bit difficult for her without some help. On Sunday she was an Angel in the Easter program for her Sunday School. She recited the Easter Bible Verses. It took a couple weeks of practicing to memorize them, but she got it!