Life in the Pearl

Dear friends and family,


We have found a new way to share with all our friends and loved ones about what we are up to. We have started a new Vlog (Video Blog) on YouTube called "Life in the Pearl". You can check it out, subscribe to our channel and enjoy watching our family grow. Our user name is 4inthePearl. "Life in the Pearl" is about our lives in the Pearl of the Orient, Hong Kong. So please enjoy!

Holidays~Home~Happiness

Well this is one LATE post but it is more for me then anyone else!! This year Christmas was one I will never ever forget! Each Christmas I will remember this one and pray for the families who have children in the hospital!! All year we were excited for Christmas because this year my parents and brother were coming here!! We had all sorts of things planned but instead we did different and maybe even better things!! Micah was still in the hospital at Christmas and this was an amazing experience! We woke up in the morning and saw that Santa had came and opened presents with Maleah!! Then I rushed to the hospital to tell our new little baby Merry Christmas! James stayed to get Maleah ready and bring her and my parents up later(Maleah still had never seen Micah and we were hoping today we could get her in for a few minutes) As I walked into his room I saw that all the little babies had all sorts of little presents!! They were from different heart groups and fundraisers! The next thing I know there are carolers and 2 Asian Santas!! They came in to the unit where Micah was and he got to take a pic with one!! They sang songs to the babies and played with the toddlers! The most amazing part was these carolers and Santas were the doctors and nurses who had Christmas off!! James showed up shortly after they left and he got sort of permission to bring Maleah in for 5 min! A lot of the nurses were not happy but we did it anyway!! It was such an amazing moment and I think it finally made him feel real to her!! After that she just kept wanting to go back in and to bring him home!! Finally on the 8th of Jan. we were aloud to bring him home! He was 45 days old! That was the most wonderful day! I went that morning to be there when they finally finished his antibiotic and took out his IV!! His med was scheduled to finish around one so that is what James planned on!! We were getting a ride home with the Wades(side note on the Wades: the Wades are an amazing couple who live near the hospital!! Sister Wade is the relief society president and went above and beyond that calling! She took Maleah everyday so I could be with Micah and if she couldn't take her she found someone that could! She would pick her up and drop her off! We would not have been able to make it without them and we will forever be grateful) James and Maleah got there just as they took out his IV and I was able to change his close! As Maleah sat in the hall with James she was shaking she was so excited! She told James she was cold because that was the best she could describe the way she felt!! I brought out Micah and she lit up! We had her sit down and as I laid him in her lap her eyes filled with tears!! She was so over whelmed with joy she could not help but cry! She would not take her eyes off him and she smiled at him he looked up at her and you could feel the Spirit so strong!! We knew she had been waiting for this just as he had! We brought him home, had dinner with our wonderful friends and enjoyed the day!! That night we got them ready for bed and sat on the couch together! We all just sat there in silence and soaked in the moment! We were finally all together!! Life is great now!! Micah is off all medication and has been cleared to get vaccinations! He gained back all the weight he lost and is one chunky boy!! Maleah still loves him so much and loves to hold play and kiss him!! They are the best of friends!! I will try to keep up better on this blog because I think it is a good journal!! I am so glad families are eternal!

Our little miracle Micah

Merry Christmas

Pure Joy

FHE!! Families are forever

We love Daddies days off

There is not a happier person

Learning to Trust

This is our little Micah now!! The first pic we have with no tubes on his face and only one IV in his hand!:)

The day after surgery

The day before surgery

3days old

After a rough first day a life

So lets start at the beginning..... on the 22 of Nov. I go into the hospital after taking my in-laws for a walk on the pier and thinking my water broke! I arrive at the hospital and it has indeed sprung a leak, but no dilation. So I am told if I haven't gone into labor by morning they will start me! I spend the night in the hospital, a place I hate to be! in the morning around 11 I am started on "The Drip" no one wants this because it is horrible, but my baby will for sure be there soon so I deal with each contraction as they come! James is finally aloud in to see me at 5:30pm and not a minute earlier (very strict visiting hours in fact only 2! A nurse comes and asks if I can feel the lovely contractions I am having (the lady in the bed moans and cries through each one, I prefer silent tolerance) I tell her I do and they decide to move me down to labor and delivery ( I must be at least 5cm I think) WRONG...I am about a 2 barely even open and it is now 7:30 and I have been on the PIT for over 8 hours! But as they give me the options for pain management I realize that if I want James in the room I cant have any drugs! I tell the nurse I want to use the mental pain management technique she told me she would go get a midwife and I almost yelled at her that i don't want a midwife i want my husband! She looks at me and then reluctantly agrees! James is aloud in for 20 minutes before another nurse kicks him out! It is now nearly 9 and I am still at a 2! SO i fight through contractions till 1:00 am and then after 13 hours on this drip and 28 hours of no food i cant do it anymore! I tell the nurse to check me and if i am not close i need an epidural. SO they check me and i am maybe 3cm the nurse says! I lose mental pain management and tell her I want the epidural NOW! She agrees and gets the lady to give it to me as they are getting me ready for it I start to feel funny! The lady says I must hold still but I can't my body wont! I tell her I don't want it till I know what is wrong and then a nurse asks if I feel like I want to push? That is how I feel but she had just said i was only a 3 so she checks again and I am now 7 and the baby is on his way( this means no epidural) so i call James and tell him to get here FAST! The three nurses then tell me I need to relax and they all leave the room! What a great idea! I call James and he talks me through a few more contraction so I don't push but finally I cant help it I push weather I want to or not! He tells me to yell and that he is almost there! I yell help as a nurse walks past my door she comes in crosses my legs and tells me to relax till she can get help! I try to relax but there is nothing I can do he just came out! Micah James was born at 1:37 am on Nov 24th and weighed 4.25kg the nurse was there to catch him and James arrived seconds later when I asked if he was here and they told me his was in the hall! I nearly lost it because I knew they weren't letting him in! SO he was allowed in and we loved our little boy! This is where things went a different direction then what we thought...........He was born very blue and after 2 hours was still blue but nursed and was breathing well so they tell me some babies just take longer to get color and that he will be brought to me shortly and we are both moved to different floors(me to recovery and him to pediatrics) the next thing I remember is a nurse coming in and telling me she needs blood for my baby and that he has been moved to ICU and someone will be there shortly to take me to him!! I call James and ask what is going on he says he will tell me when I get here but that Micah has something wrong with his heart! We end up finding our that he has transpositions of the greater arteries and will be rushed to another hospital where he will have emergency surgery! (one thing you must know is that getting out of this hospital is like trying to get out of jail) i am told i have to stay at least 24 hours but James gets in a taxi and races to the hospital! Finally a nurse who is in charge of mental heath after birth comes to talk to me! She sees I have been crying and tells me it is natural to feel depressed after having a baby! I tell her my situation and she realizes why I am crying! She gets the doc to release me on account it is not healthy for me to be a room with 10 other women and there babies when mine my not live! So i am released to my in-laws as long as I go straight home! I do and James waits for the baby to get out! That first day is kind of a blur after that! They say his first procedure went well and they will now wait a week before preforming open heart surgery! The first week was filled with ups and down as I saw him improve and got to hold and feed him knowing that on on Tues the 30th he would be put back to square one and we would once again be back in limbo! The 30th came, James and I were at the hospital at 8 in the morning and 8 hours later I saw my 6 day old baby wheeled out with more tubes them baby! They told me to wait and a doctor would be out to talk to me! 2 hours later they let me in and the doctor explains that they had to leave his chest open in case they need to go back in! I look at my little baby who is being kept alive by more machines then I have ever seen and who chest is still open and decided it was time to go home and prep for the weeks ahead! The next few weeks all kind of mesh together! For 2 weeks we were aloud to see our baby for 2 hours a day, he was sedated and so we would sing to him and talk, we could only touch the top of his head so that is what we did! Once his chest was closed we were also given a hand to touch! We saw him take steps forward and take steps back, Go through more procedures and then get better. Finally on Tuesday the 14th of Dec. he was moved from the surgical cardiac ICU to the NICU! This means we can see him from 10-10! Finally on Wednesday I was able to hold him and James got in to hold him today! He is an angel and we love him so much! His surgery was a success and now we just have to wait for him to finish a treatment because he got an infection in his opening, but at least we will get him home and that is what we want most! Maleah has still only seen pics but she loves them and always tells me she loves baby Micah! She has been a champ through the whole thing! I told James that he could add anything to my story when I wrote this blog, but he has about 40 pages written in his journal about his perspective so hopefully one day I can get him to publish his on here too. We love our little Micah!

Happy B-day Maleah Grace!!!

So our little angle turned 2 on the 22nd of Oct!! I dont know how she got so big so fast! She was so excited for her birthday!! We did a two day celebration!! The first day we had luch with dad and then we went to a cake shop and let her pick a cake!! She picked a really yummy rocky road cake that was as good as it looked!! We took the cake to meadow and sang happy birthday!! That night we ordered pizza and let her watch her favorite show "Sleeping Beauty"!!

She was so excited cuz the cake had marshmallows on the top!!

Trying to figure out how to blow out the candles!! Daddy had to help a little!!

Maleah and her birthday cake!! Thanks Maxims

That night after she went to bed we blew some balloons and put out her presents!! James and I were like kids on christmas the next morning waiting for her to wake up!! It was one of the rare morning that she slept in but when she did wake up it was so fun!! We could have just got balloons and she would have been the happiest girl in the world !!

She loved her princesses!! All 7 of them!! She knows them all by names and sings there songs

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE MISS MALEAH!!

Summer Adventures

The summer started with a day on a Yacht for Maleah and I!! We went with some friends to a private beach and just played all day on and off the boat!! It was something not even James had ever done before and it was a blast. James still hasn't, haha, he had to work.

Maleah discovered it was quicker and easier to go through the window then to climb the latter!

She also taught our friend Yen to go through the window and by the end of the trip everyone was climbing through the window.

We have very much enjoyed having Arnica here and one night we took her to the light show! We had not been to the show since we've been back and it was one fun night!! It was very hot!!

We had parties with friends and BBQs on the roof

Maleah and I went to Disneyland a few times but it was so hot that we had to try and stay in shows the whole time!! But she got to meet all the princesses and cried for every single one.

Squidding (Fishing for Squid) was a new adventure for everyone also!! We boarded a boat at 8 in the evening and they took us to the middle of the ocean....then a light is shinned on the water and everyone is given a string with a hook on the end and there you go!! When you catch one they fry it up for you right there on the boat and you can eat it!! Cant get much more fresh then that.

I didn't eat one personally but James said they were great

Slurpee for the heat

Pizza on Friday nights

She was starving this night. She almost ate the whole thing!

B ball in the mornings

I play a different sort of ball!! Am I about to pop?......YES!!

We love where we live!!