Sarah Mei's Surgery Date

We heard from the surgeon's office yesterday. Sarah Mei's surgery is scheduled for Friday, August 17th. We will travel to Charleston on Wednesday, Aug. 15th in the late afternoon. She will have pre-op appointments for 4-5 hours on Thursday and surgery on Friday the 17th. We travel to Charleston next Tuesday, July 31st, for an initial meeting with the surgeon and to see the facility.

Sarah Mei continues to adjust and bond to our family amazingly well!! As one of our dear friend's observed...she's our family's "otter". If you are familiar with the 4 personality types...golden retriever, beaver, lion and otter....our family has a disproportionate number of lions. The lions are the bossy, leaders...LOL. Sarah Mei is an otter...always looking for a party or a reason to have fun!! What a great balance for our family. God knew exactly what we needed.

I continue to stand in awe of all of your love, support and prayers. The gifts, meals, phone calls, e-mails and visits have blessed us incredibly. We're thankful, to God, to be part of a loving church family and part of the Body of Christ.

On the farm...staying "germ-free"

Life on the Farm...AnnaGrace and Sarah Mei look at God's beauty in a flower. Amazingly, during this photo shoot, Sarah Mei actually let her toes touch the grass...a first since she's been home.

Sarah Mei in her princess dress...a gift from the Cernuto family.

Sarah Mei and AnnaGrace in matching outfits from their special friend,

Brenda Scott!

All is quiet here at the Horton home. Since we are trying to keep Sarah Mei healthy for her heart surgery, we are spending the majority of our days here on the farm. Sarah Mei is warming up to our animals which is a relief. When we first brought her home she would have nothing to do with fur....not a good thing for life on a farm with cats, dogs, horses, goats and a bunny!

We have been so blessed by everyone's love and care. Our church family has been amazing. Their outpouring of love through prayer support, meals and beautiful gifts,

for not only Sarah Mei, but our other girls as well, has warmed our hearts. Also, we've felt special support, from my SisterChics (who gave me an incredible baby shower!) and Sarah Mei's Chenzhou sister's families! Many others have e-mailed, called us and given tremendous prayer support. We can't thank you enough!

I just wanted to give everyone an update!! Thanks again for your love and prayers.

Update on Sarah Mei

Our girls...Michaela (11), Sarah Mei (1) and AnnaGrace (6) ...missing Torie (17) (she is at The Summit Worldview/Leadership Camp in Tennessee.)

The last week and a half has been a blur with a myriad of Dr.'s appointments. The most important appointment was with a pediatric cardiac surgeon in Charlotte. The information we received from him was invaluable. He confirmed what our cardiologist had indicated, Sarah Mei has AVSD and will need open-heart surgery. After researching many surgical location options, including Charlotte, Philadelphia, Atlanta and Charleston, it looks like we'll end up at MUSC in Charleston. The pediatric cardiac surgeon there has an impressive success and survival rate (97%), and MUSC offers a state of the art surgical team and follow-up care. We meet with Dr. Bradley, the surgeon at MUSC, on July 31st and are praying for a surgical date in August. Sarah Mei's surgery will be slightly more complicated than anticipated due to the fact that her regurgitation (blood flow from chamber to chamber) is in the moderate to low-severe range. Please pray for wisdom for Dr. Bradley and for our family as we plan for Sarah Mei's upcoming surgery. Also please pray for clearing of a persistent sinus infection for Sarah Mei and pray for patience and endurance, as we try to keep her as isolated as possible, to protect her health until the surgery. (The surgery can not take place until she is healthy.)

Despite the sobering news, I can tell you that we have an incredible peace. We know this is all in God's hands, and we are so thankful for all your prayers on our family's behalf. We truly serve an awesome God.

"Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your request to God. And the peace of God which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Phil. 4:4-7

Thanks be to God!!

Medical Update

Unfortunately we didn't hear the words, from the cardiologist today, that we would have liked to hear..."no surgery required."
Sarah Mei actually has a heart condition called complete atrioventricular septal defect. This means that she has 2 holes in her heart that need to be repaired (ASD and VSD) and also problems with her valves which will need to be repaired. As I've said several times in this blog, we see the fingerprints of God all of over this little girl. Today was no exception. The cardiologist c0uldn't believe that she had such a serious heart condition, because she is completely asymptomatic. She actually has an extra flap of tissue in her heart which has offered protection to her lungs...thus no congestive heart failure or pulmonary damage. We see this as such a "fingerprint" of God. Without this "extra" flap of skin, she wouldn't have survived to see her 1st birthday.

We continue to ask for prayers as we make critical decisions concerning the location and timing of her heart surgery. We plan on scheduling it sometime in the next 4-6 weeks.

Prayer Request

Sarah Mei rocking in her chair:)

Playing Peek-a-boo!
I'm not sure how many are still following our blog, but we'd love prayer for Sarah Mei's cardiologist appointment this week. We meet with Dr. Greene on Tuesday morning. Please pray for wisdom for him, calm for Sarah Mei (she's not thrilled with Dr.'s...she had 4 immunizations on Friday, so now she's really not thrilled with Dr.'s...LOL) and peace and direction for Phil & I as we make medical decisions for her.

We also found out that she will require an upper GI in the next week or two. She coughs and wheezes when she drinks fluids. They want to check and make sure that she is not aspirating fluids when drinking. Again, we appreciate your prayers concerning this.

We are thankful that God is the Great Physician, and that Sarah Mei is safely in His hands!! Our God is an awesome God!!