slow and steady…
I looked back at the date of the last post and was surprised that it was almost a month and a half ago since I last posted. I can’t believe that it’s already October and holiday plans are already in the works. I apologize for not updating you sooner. A lot has happened, including the blessing of having Adam’s parents here for 5 weeks. It was exactly what we all needed. Maliyah was thrilled to have her Ginny and Grandpa here to play with, and Adam and I were even more thrilled to have their company and also the extra help. You would often see Maliyah playing dolls with Ginny or snuggled up with Grandpa reading a story. Her persuasive personality would often convince everyone to get involved with whatever she was doing. We really cherished the times we had with Ginny and Grandpa and miss them dearly.
Maliyah is slowly but steadily improving. We have been able to restart small amounts of solid food and she is now able to drink fluids. She has maintained her weight and has even gained a little resulting in us being able to slowly taper down her TPN from 17 to 14 hours!
Maliyah has also improved physically overall. When we first got home her energy levels were very low. We would take her to the playground and she would be tired in 10 minutes. Now she is often going all day without a nap.
We still have our moments of panic, like when she threw up all over me in Costco the other day. It seems like every time things start to normalize she has another episode that throws us off. It’s an ongoing process to figure out what her digestive system is able to handle. This last week has had more challenges for some reason - She’s had some more episodes of bloating and vomiting and has been complaining of back pain. I’m guessing that with all that she has gone through it may take a while to get back to where were were prior to her stomach perforation. I have to keep reminding myself “slow and steady” wins the race….
I know that many of you who read this have never had the privilege of meeting Maliyah before and I hope that one day you will. She has a love for life that is infectious and a smile that brightens a cloudy day. She has this thing for dancing anytime she hears music and puts her heart and soul into it. Her imagination is crazy wild and she is able to make up entire stories from simple props. She loves to teach and play doctor on all her stuffed animal patients, and might I say she has quite the medical vocabulary. Maliyah loves to help in the kitchen whether it’s baking muffins or putting away the silverware. But what I have noticed recently her is growing love for Jesus - or “my Jesus” as she always says. This evening Maliyah’s back was hurting again as she was going to sleep and she asked me to pray to “my Jesus” again for her tummy and back to feel better. I hope that her pure and innocent trust in Jesus will always stay strong.
All in all, we are doing better today than we were a month and a half ago. We are so very blessed to have a God who cares for us, and family and friends who are there for us. Thank you for your ongoing prayers. In the mean time…our little miracle fights on.
I also wanted to mention - Our little MMIHS support group is very tight knit and we lost one of the bright little warriors to MMIHS about a week ago. It hit our community pretty hard. Please keep Amanda, Bryn and their son Kai in your prayers as they are missing Malaya dearly.
