Cousin Love

Around Here

Before I begin, please continue to pray for the Adams family that I posted about last time. The twins right now are holding steady, but they are not out of the woods. Thank you.


What have we been up to? Well, we recently had a date with the Flowbee and RID shampoo because Dave discovered lice (blech!) on all three boys. Made for an interesting and memorable day after Christmas activity!

And a bike ride with friends. . .

Lily believes that the purpose for boxed presents is to sit on them! Doesn't matter if there is Lego inside, or Little People, or play food - this girl LOVES to sit down on any box!

I finally finished the 7 Hour Toddler sweater with my own modifications. It took me 3 weeks! But I like the result.

We learned about the ear in our homeschool. Look at Aarbear and his cutting skills! Woohoo!

We are off to attend the winter church retreat part time today up in the Santa Cruz mountains.

Urgent Prayer Request

There is a family who needs your prayers.

Please pray for Ian and Henry Adams. They are twin toddlers (i believe they are not yet 2 years old) who were airlifted to Phoenix Children's Hospital yesterday with viral pneumonia.

Their parents, Joey and Ginger Adams are asking for prayer. Dave and Joey grew up going to retreats together.

Ian is not doing well and is in very very critical condition in the icu.

I don't want to go into all the details as I don't know how much their family wants to share, but I know that they urgently need prayer and are asking for prayer.

Please, please pray for these little ones and their parents and big brother Caid.

The twins also have an older sister Gwyneth, who succumbed as a toddler to the flu a couple of years ago and is with the Lord now. You can imagine how difficult this is for their family.

The Lord is mighty to save.
May He surround, protect, heal and deliver these boys.
May He give peace and His presence to their whole family.

If you want to receive updates via text, please email me at chenningpeng@ yahoo.com with your number.

Catching up!

Yes, we are still here :-). Have been very busy, feeling better, and enjoying the season.
I had some trouble lately uploading photos, so the next couple of posts should be catch up posts.
You can see Lily rocking the arm splints (she has been arm splint free now for 2 weeks - yahoo!), and some Christmas crafting and baking. I know I said in my last post that I was going to take it easy this year and not make cookies so I feel the need to explain that this was store bought cookie dough from Costco. The awesome thing was that Aaron really got into it this year! He had fun baking and painting magnets (inspired by dear friend, Ivy, who made these for as handmade gifts in a previous year).

How has your holiday season been?

I know that everyone wants to know how Lily is doing. In a word - FANTASTIC!

Now that she is 3 1/2 weeks post-up, she is practically eating everything again. She does not seem to be in any pain at all. She has stopped snoring!

She is back to getting into everything and keeping us all on our toes!

One thing that I have realized. I guess I expected her speech to improve overnight. What I have realized is that it will take some time. I guess I was being overly optimistic, or had unrealistic expectations. Her stitches have not even dissolved yet, and I was hoping that she would have marked improvement in being able to make different sounds and enunciate. That has not been the case. I guess that it is like learning to use your mouth all over again, and learning to speak from the beginning again. And we know that that takes time. I knew I was never good at waiting!

However, Lily had a blast last weekend in Los Angeles. We visited friends and family, and not she can identify her cousins and grandparents. When I mention them by name, she perks up right away and knows who I am talking about. It is cute.

Now I Will Praise the Lord

We went to Lily's follow up appointment with the plastic surgeon yesterday. She was 11 days post op. Here is a picture of her playing with the doctor's swivel chair in our exam room while waiting for Dr. Hoffman.


Dr. Hoffman looked in her mouth with a tongue depressor (she was not pleased), and said that everything looks great! She is healing well, and told me that she should still eat liquids and wear her no-no's until Saturday. I had some questions about the leakage that I had seen when she would eat yogurt (a teeny bit would come out of her nose still) and her vocal tone (which is better, but still nasal). He explained that he had to leave two small holes right at the gumline to allow for her jaw to grow properly. Those holes will be there until she gets her bone graft surgery when she is 9 or 10 to fix her cleft gumline. I will seriously try to draw a diagram or take a photo so all of this is a little clearer. Anyway, it is possible that there will be some minimal leakage until that time. However, he said that as her palate heals up and moves and stretches more, she will be able to control that better. As far as the nasal tone, part of that is that she probably will need speech therapy to help her learn how to make proper sounds. Already, when Lily laughs now, it sounds much more normal - like a baby giggle - instead of how it used to sound (throaty and nasal). Well, one step at a time, and it definitely seems to me that this is a process that involves intervention, but also a lot of growth and adjustment and development that should happen naturally over time for Lil.

Ok, so UCSF hospital and clinics are on this street called Parnassus. But if you drive just a couple of blocks on Parnassus, it turns into Judah Street.


I love that because it struck me that Judah means, "Now I will praise the Lord." And I do :-). He has been so very kind and gracious to Lily and the whole family.

Christmas Love

"In Him was life, and that life was the light of men. And the light shineth in the darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not."
John 1 :4-5

P.S. These were actually taken before the surgery, so we are a little out of order. Please read the post right before this one for our updates about the surgery and our family.

Big Update - Sorry to Leave You all Hanging

Lily did have her palate surgery on the 2nd. Everything, according to the surgeon, went smoothly. It was a rough day, and as I will entail later, a rough last couple of weeks. Lily's surgery was at 7:30 in the morning, so we had to be at UCSF at 6:15am.

Lily nervous about what is happening. She did not understand she was going to have surgery, but for sure she could tell that something was off that day. She knew that strange things were afoot. And you can see by her expression here that she is onto us, and getting worried. This was in the pre-op room.


After a nice cocktail of versed and anesthesia administered through a gas mask, she fell asleep very easily. I got to gown up and take her into the OR. She looked so tiny and peaceful lying on the table amidst all of the equipment. I cried when I left her, and Dave and I prayed and walked around and tried to eat and rest a bit while she was in surgery. The surgery (which also included another procedure of putting tubes in her ears) took about 3 hours. When we were called up into the Recovery Room, she was still sound asleep. It was a little scary seeing her lying there with the tubes connected, and a black thread sewn into the base of her tongue (Dave and the nurse took turns pulling gently on that thread to open up her airway a bit more to make it easier for her to breathe). She was sleeping, but we knew it was the calm before the storm.

Ay! When she woke up she was agitated and upset, and moaning and crying. She would drift in and out of consciousness, and be pretty ticked off every time she woke up. Poor thing.


She was not a happy camper that first 24 hours post surgery. She was also overdue for her pain meds by the time we finally got to the pediatric ward, and I was in tears trying to hurry things up for her. She slept fitfully and would still be crying off and on even with Dave and I holding her the whole time. Thankfully though, by about 8L45 that night - she was resting more comfortably and fell asleep for a longer stretch. The nurse practitioner (whom we LOVE) told us that the first day was the hardest and tomorrow Lily would be much much better. And lo and behold, thank the LORD, that turned out to be true. Here Lily is looking much better riding a toy car that they have from the playroom there.


You can see that awful black thread hanging out of her mouth, and also her no-no splints that she is wearing on her arms to keep her from putting her hands and toys into mouth. Oh, and also her hospital pajamas. Lily was able to drink apple juice that next day so we were able to go home by the evening. Woohoo! It felt so so much better to be at home. The hospital was nice, but goodness there are nurses and doctors coming in every so often to check vitals, give meds, turn off and on the machines, etc.

And would you believe that these photos below are from just 2 days later. Lily doesn't even look like she had surgery! Of course, it was all inside her mouth, but the swelling has gone down, and she looks ever so much happier, no?




You can see that she can still play in the tupperware drawer with her no-no's on. Still smiling and playing. Amazing and resilient. I thank the Lord for how astoundingly well Lily has been recovering. Here's a pic I snapped over the weekend when Lily slept in, and Nathan was reading next to her.


Now, about me. I had a rough rough week last week. My in-laws came to help out, which was such a blessing! They helped drive the boys to their classes and lessons, and cooked meals to eat and be frozen. Brothers and sisters from church ordered food for us, made soups, and brought treats for the kids. We felt so loved. I had a terrible time last week, though (and the week before) because I was really not feeling well. I had these tummy aches and gas distention that was not getting better. It was getting to the point where I was an emotional wreck every evening because I felt so overwhelmed by everything, and frustrated and sad that I could not play/teach/love on the kids and serve the family because I felt so tired and weak. Finally, Dave put me on some meds for gastritis, and I have to tell you that I feel like a new woman. Seriously, I feel back to normal and just want to give all of the glory to the Lord. He really is the one to give strength and hope, and I know He holds my family in His hand and that He wants me to rely on Him.

So, gastritis - I think that means I was more anxious and stressed than I thought. So I am taking it easy now (trying to). That means no Christmas cards this year, and no homemade cookies for the teachers or friends. Also, we are "coasting" in our homeschool now, and the house is not very picked up.

Tomorrow Lily goes for her follow up. I am a bit concerned that there is still some leakage when she drinks - a tiny tiny bit still comes out of her right nostril. Let's see what the doctor says. We have received such grace, though, as LIly has been such a trooper, and very tolerant (after the initial day) of her liquid/soft diet and her no no splints. Those darn no-no's do keep her from sleeping well at night, thoguh. I think that she wants to turn and roll over sometimes, and then she feels the restraint of those things. She is supposed to wear them for 2 weeks, so only 4 days left. Woohoo!