Happy Birthday Miss K

"Taipei, I born" - Miss K quote. The above photo was taken there during our layover.

Happy birthday, Miss K. Today you are 9. Back in Asia where you were born.

Her birthday is always a time when we remember various details from her birth and first few months so allow me to remember a bit and tell about those first few days.

We didn't have a car and I wanted to take a taxi before I was too far in labor. I didn't want to deliver in the taxi or be screaming in pain. As it turns out, we had plenty of time in the hospital. We got there around 10:00 in the morning and she was born at 2:10 the next day.

Miss K weighed 6 pounds 1 ounce at birth. She was so tiny. Her fingers were blue and her ears were tiny. I just thought she needed to warm up. It wasn't long after her birth that they wanted to move her from the nursery to the NICU because of her breathing. Moving her to NICU also meant various tests. One of the first things they noticed was her stomach. The opening between her stomach and small intestine was just .5mm think of a .5mm pencil and you will know the size of the opening. At 72 hours she had surgery to repair that. I remember sitting on the plastic aqua chairs in surgery waiting while she was in surgery. It was hours and hours of waiting. Finally the doctor told us she was out and everything was fine. That doctor did not speak any English. Then we had to wait 7-10 days for that to heal and before we could feed her.

We had it all worked out -- we would feed her and she would be home in about 10 days. Then there was talk about heart issues. The heart catheterization was on a Thursday we had sat and waited and waited for that procedure. I went home and then got a text that I needed to go back to the hospital. I got back and the best information that we had been given was she had a bleeding problem. That night the doctor told us that she would not make it. We called my parents on Thursday morning their time and asked if my mom would come. Both my parents were able to get tickets for Friday morning. We went home around 11:00pm. Our pastor was working late at the church and so he walked to our apartment as well as some other missionaries and together we sat and prayed. We went to bed and slept until 6:00 am. We called the hospital and she was still living. She is stubborn and that continues today.

Friday morning we got the results of the chromosome study -- it was confirmed that she had Down Syndrome. We then met with the heart surgeon and he was willing to do surgery even though she had a bleeding problem.

My parents arrived on Saturday evening thinking that they were coming for a funeral but instead they came to sit with us during heart surgery and then daily visits to the hospital.

She came home at 26 days old. My NHO insurance would cover 30 days of her in the hospital and then we would have to wait 3 months for her to get NHO insurance. We checked the bill a few days before she was to be released and it was about NT$90,000. When we went to pay, it was NT$9,000 about US$330.  We really do not know how the bill was reduced other than to say that God provided.

So in the past 9 years you have traveled the world, learned to read, began talking non-stop, make friends where ever we go, fallen in love with life, ballet, and everything pink, and keep us laughing.

Here she is 9 years ago.

 This was the night before the heart catheterization.

Happy birthday, Miss K, we love you.


Here are a few other memories that I have shared from other years.
Miss K memories
Part 2 
Part 3

Beth