The Greatest Gift

"This happened so the power of God could be seen in him". John 9:3

Hi Guys,

I can't believe I'm actually writing this post right now!!! The post I've waiting to write for seven long months to tell you all about Madi's new angel heart!!! Its still so surreal, I can't believe how fast things have gone from "we're gonna be here forever, and there is no end in sight" to "we've gotten a new perfect heart and we'll be going home sooner than we know it!" It's just an amazing, scared, sad and awesome feeling all at the same time if you can imagine. I can't even describe the feeling you get when you find out someone else has chosen to give your child life even though their own child's was so severely cut short; this is the biggest act of selflessness that I can truly think of and for that I feel that thank you is not enough. I don't know anything about our donor family other than they are amazing people who have allowed our little girl a a new lease on life. No longer will she have to struggle to catch her breath every hour of the day, no longer will her stomach constantly feel upset because it wasn't getting enough blood flow, no longer will she feel like she can't stand up and play with her toys because she is too tired, no longer will she feel hot and sweaty all the time because her poor body is always working over time and no longer will she only get ice chips when she is thirsty because her body cant handle extra fluid! Our baby girl will get to experience what life is meant to be not what it has had to be the past 22 months. I hope someday our donor family will come to know just how great this gift is, just how deeply grateful we are and how much this has changed our family's life for the better. I do not know what it feels like to lose a child and I hope I never do, but I do know my baby girl has knocked on death's door one too many times and for that I realize how precious life is
and how huge this gift of life is to us!

I want to thank you all for your outpouring of love, support, prayers and undying faith through all this. I couldn't believe my Facebook page on Tuesday when I told you all the news, it was just awesome to see how many of you have been praying for her!! It brought tears to my eyes every time I logged on just to see how many of you care for her! And thats just Facebook, not the countless others out there who I know are praying for Madi but I don't get to directly communicate with. It's so wonderful and I can't thank you all enough! Your prayers are what have brought us so far and we will continue to need them as we embark on a whole new journey.

Madi has done amazingly well through the first 24 hrs with her new angel heart; the doctors warned us before surgery that the heart may struggle against her high lung pressure (consequence of her native heart disease) and she would probably come out on a temporary assist device for the new heart while it got used to her body. Well, her angel heart didn't need any assist device and was beating so strong against her high lung pressures that her surgeon couldn't even explain it!!! This little heart was hand picked for our little M&M no doubt about it. Her surgeon said he had never seen a transplanted heart do so well against such high lung pressures! Isnt that just awesome! God's handy work was yet again all over this one :). "This happened so the power of God could be seen in him" John 9:3.

She has done great so far but we still have a long recovery ahead of us. The first 3 months to a year are the most critical months for rejection so once we do go home we will have numerous trips to and from the hospital to make sure her anti rejection meds are working as they should. Most transplant recipients deal with rejection throughout their life and take medications every day to keep their body from rejecting the organ. She will have ups and downs, good days and bad days and best case scenario her heart will last until she is in her late teens and she will have to get another transplant or an artificial heart if they have such a thing by then. But it is all a million times better than what she has been dealing with since the day she was born and we will take each day, month and year as they come with open and grateful arms :)

In the mean time, I can't believe that we will get to go home sometime soon!!! Austin and I bought our new house in November but as a family we have never even lived in it! It doesn't even feel like "home" yet but once Madi is there it will shed a whole new light on things, I can't wait! It might be a month or so until she is outa here but hey, at least there is a light at the end of the tunnel:) Once we're home we won't be able to have many visitors or take her anywhere for that mater as she will be so immunosuppressed that it is just too risky to expose her to many germs, so if you don't get to physically see her for quite some time that is why! Luckily, I am a huge germ freak and don't mind it so hopefully that will help (or hurt.....I haven't decided yet, lol) but she's pretty much been on house arrest a large majority of her life so it won't be anything new to us. Just overjoyed at the thought of sleeping under one roof with my hubby, baby girl and two big dogs :)

Well, that's about all I have for now! I can't thank you all enough for all the prayers and please continue to pray for Madi as we are not even out of a very critical period right now. She has done great so far and will only continue to do so through God's watchful eye. I hope you all are enjoying the start to your summer!! Oh and.......if you aren't yet an organ donor please please sign up:)!!

Love Tabi