Gotcha Day Anniversary

One year ago today we were holding Avery in our arms for the very first time. Amazing that it has already been a year. We gave Avery a Gotcha Day gift, a wooden Chinese doll, and will give her a gift every anniversary.

We also watched the video of the day over and over. Sure is fun to revisit those memories. It feels like we were just there.

Below is a picture taken this evening. She's changed quite a bit during the year.

Travelling One Year Ago Today

It's hard to believe that one year ago today Jeanne and I were on a plane heading to Guangzhou. We sure don't miss the flights (24 hours of them), but we would do it again on a moment's notice.

Avery is doing very well. She talks quite a bit, and seems to be permanently attached to her mother. She had her first experience sitting on Santa's lap earlier this week, and it went surprisingly good. She forced a smile for the picture, then turned and rubbled Santa's belly. I wish I had the video camera for that moment.

Life is filled with work, school, and sports and loving every minute of it. Along with Christmas, our December is filled with birthdays and our first Gotcha Day celebration back at home with Avery. What a wonderful year this has been. We are truly blessed.

Merry Christmas.

Avery Turns Two

Happy Birthday Avery

We celebrated Avery's second birthday with family. We had a great time, and it didn't take long for her to figure out that the presents were for her. She really enjoyed the cake and ice cream too. It's hard to believe that it was a year ago that we celebrated her birthday without her. God sure has blessed us with this little girl.

Below are a few pictures taken from the celebration.

8 Months With Avery

Just wanted to add an update on how everything is going with Avery and the rest of the Sadler family. Things are GREAT. Avery is doing very well, full of energy, and even developing some Sadler attitude. She talks more and more every day, but struggles a little bit with multiple syllables.

A majority of summer was spent at baseball games and camping and it's hard to believe that it's almost over.

Posted are a few pictures taken from a recent camping outing. Hope you enjoy.

God Bless You.

Recovery Update

The stints have been removed, and everything seems to be healing nicely. We've made two post op visits back to St. Louis, and both with good news to report back from the doctors. Avery's next visit will be an annual checkup with a cleft team in February 2009.

The picture was taken last week the day that the stints were removed.

Hope you enjoy and thanks for checking.

Surgery Success

Avery had surgery to repair her lip, nose, and alveolar bone on Wednesday at Cardinal Glennon Children's Hospital in St. Louis. We arrived in St. Louis on Tuesday, and even got to take in a Cardinal game the night before heading to the hospital. (Not sure how much Avery enjoyed the game, but Dad sure did!) The procedure took about 4 hours and everything went very well. Recovery was a little tough for about 6 hours, as Avery seemed to be in quite a bit of pain. She showed progress each hour and seemed to be doing ok by the Thursday morning. After one night of observation, Avery was discharged and is now back home. So far things are going ok. She will wear arm restraints for two weeks, and has stints stitched in her nose that will be there for a month. As bad as that sounds, she has dealt with both items very well. She even helps us put the restraints back on if they slip off.

She has sure been a trooper so far, and has quite a ways to go. We return to St. Louis in two weeks for her first post op visit. Stitches will be taken out and the arm restraints go away. We then return in another two weeks to have the stints removed. Based on comments from the doctors, she should not have to have any additional surgeries!

Her brothers and sister were thrilled to see her back home, and are helping take very good care of her.

We'll try to do a better job in keeping this site updated and post Avery's progress. Thanks for looking, and we appreciate your thoughts and prayers.

Happy Easter

It's been a while since we've added any updates to this site. Today Avery celebrated her first Easter with us. We all woke up very early for our Sunrise Service and breakfast at church...and of course the Easter Bunny. Avery collected some eggs around the house, and was impressed with the goods in her Easter basket. It was lots of fun.

All is going well at the Sadler house. Avery is scheduled for her surgery to repair her gumline on May 14th in St. Louis. We are very comfortable with the cleft team in St. Louis. If all goes well, this could be the last surgery that Avery has to deal with related to her cleft lip and alveolar bone.

Below are a couple of pictures from this morning. Hope you enjoy.

Happy Easter.