What a wonderful day we had at CHOP

Today was Morgan's 6 week post op appt at CHOP.  Morgan's ear healed up nicely and we are now going to have a final appt in August prior to the September surgery to fix the ear that has the hole in it.  The hole is there from when the tube fell out and it didn't close up like it should have. 

Today was extra special.  Morgan had 3 dozen sand buckets ready to donate to CHOP's short stay unit.  She poured her little heart into this project.  She always would say, "oh these little kids are going to be so excited when they see their present when they wake up".  Each bucket was filled according to age.  She filled baby buckets with puffs, sippy cups, baby food a baby book and the famous Woofi.  The toddler buckets had things such as oreos, pretzels, juice boxes, water, books, crayons, coloring books, and Woofi.  Some of the buckets also had a special book called, Have you filled a bucket today?.  The publisher of this book actually donated them.  Not only did Morgan learn what " paying it forward"  meant but adults did as well doing this project.  So many wonderful people helped her out.  There was a church group that filled 4 of them as a service project.  Many wonderful people gave monetary donations as well as things to fill the buckets.  Morgan could not have filled this many buckets without all the help she received. 

Morgan had the honor of giving out two buckets personally.  They were both little boys that will be getting cochlear implants this year.  Both of these little guys loved Woofi from the moment they saw him.  We wish Rocco and Beckett only the best in the upcoming journey.  Lots of therapy and love and before we know it they will both be following Morgan's footsteps and enjoying mainstream school.  All the hard work of the learning to listen will be just a memory. 

After CHOP we enjoyed a nice celebration lunch at Olive Garden.  What a great day! 

Sand buckets are everywhere!

We are having such a fun time filling these sand buckets. We have had so many people excited for us that they have been donating money and time and other items to put in our buckets. We have had two newspapers do stories on this. How exciting to have really cool stuff in the news today when the world is in so much turmoil. Here is the article from the Town and Country this past Wednesday. We are so proud of Morgan and who she is becoming one day at a time. This coming Sunday Morgan will have her first violin recital. She is a bit anxious but who wouldn't be. She will be playing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and Hot Cross buns. http://www.phillyburbs.com/blogs/news_columnists/phil_gianficaro/the-greatest-sound/article_f1375014-e5a1-5628-a145-d36c5323e596.html

Exciting things are happening!

The sand bucket project is in full swing! We are so excited for Morgan. Tuesday Morgan was given two cash donations from friends. On Tuesday Morgan also received material things for her buckets from her daytime caregiver. Wednesday we got a letter from the publisher of the book and they are DONATING the books for the buckets. These books are so meaningful. Every child needs to have this book! Today a company in Quakertown donated $100.00. We also have been in contact with Woofi the missionary puppy organization. For every Woofi that is purchased they will also donate a Woofi for Morgan's buckets. This is also not just a regular stuffed puppy. It is helping someone else. So two children will be helped with the purchase of one puppy! Doors just keep opening, The Lord our God is so incredibly WONDERFUL!

Paying it Foward!

This past Friday Morgan had the first of two surgeries. She was getting the tube removed from her left ear and a patch put on the hole. As she is getting older these pre surgery days are not as easy. She had lots of tears on Thursday night. We were trying to make it as light of a deal as possible but that seemed to backfire a little bit. I think she thought we were blowing something off that was very important to her. She was in better spirits Friday morning on her way to CHOP. Uncle Jamie went along with us. Ben's new job does not permit any real time off yet. The longest part was prepping and waking up afterwards. She slept for the better part of the day. Wide awake by the evening though so we had time to go get the Phillies Jersey she asked for. A little gift for being such a big girl. Well deserved. CHOP gave Morgan this cute little bucket for Easter. All the kids in the short stay unit received them on Friday. They were actually made by Merck though. Well, this sparked Morgan up so much that she is now going full steam ahead to have 12 buckets ready to donate to CHOP when she goes back in 6 weeks. She knows what a good feeling she got from someone else doing something nice. It is going to be a fun six weeks getting these buckets ready. She spent her Easter money that her Grandpop Frank gave her on some books for the buckets. She has chosen the book called, "How Full Is Your Bucket, For Kids" Very good choice I might add. Those books are around 10.00 each so this will be a bit difficult for her without some help. On Sunday she was an Angel in the Easter program for her Sunday School. She recited the Easter Bible Verses. It took a couple weeks of practicing to memorize them, but she got it!

Where has the time gone?

I can't believe how long it has been since this blog has been updated. For two reasons actually. One was a sign on issue. The other was our CI life has calmed down drastically. We are almost what I would call a "normal" family. Geez, I hope I didn't just jinx that.
Morgan is doing an awesome job in Kindergarten at Pennview. Everyone knows how the CI's work, the FM/Soundfield is working great not only for Morgan but for the whole class. The kids love passing around the microphone. It is just amazing to me how much they learn in Kindergarten in today's world. They have accomplished telling time and counting money and measuring just about everything you can think of. This week since it is Easter time they are doing an egg drop in science class. Poppop and Morgan think they have this all sewed up. We will see! Morgan is also now involved in learning to play the violin. Her teacher says to us she is a natural at it. That is incredibly hard to believe but stranger things have happened.
Morgan still has the one tube in her ear from almost two years ago. One fell out and left a hole. So on April 6th she is getting surgery to removed the one that is left in and patch that hole. If she doens't get any ear infections in the fixed ear then in 3 months she will have the ear fixed that left a hole from the tube that fell out on its own. Morgan had a problem with the anesthia when she got her tubes put in. Let us pray that this will not happen again! She is getting the first surgery on Good Friday at CHOP in Chalfont.

Morgan just loves to make her baby sister Rylee laugh. Her days are filled with all the things a normal hearing kindergarten girl does.

Hopefully now that this blog has a good sign on and good weather is right around the corner we will be updating more frequently.

We realize these blogs help other parents going thru the same journey as we are.