Tuma Adoption Journey: Long time, no write

I have been dismally failing at the blog lately. I'm just done, I think. I always only planned on doing this until Liana had been with us for one year but then she had her surgery coming up and I wanted to cover that. This is, after all, Liana's story and that was a pretty big deal for a teeny, tiny girl. So, since her surgery, a month ago, she has done really well. She came home a couple of days after her surgery and just jumped back in to playing like nothing had happened. Honestly, I was so exhausted and she was so energetic, I was beginning to wonder which of us had the surgery. It was a little rough in the beginning because she couldn't have any food for a while. We had been told that she could have soft things, like small pasta, but we quickly learned that she could not. First attempt at macaroni and cheese led to her retching in a restaurant, which was very scary for her and us. We knew that she was okay but she didn't know what was happening and it scared her. So we were back to liquids for quite a while. Having the nissen fundoplication, her esophagus is tighter than the normal esophagus. She can't burp or throw up. That's just how it is. But right after surgery, it's swollen, of course, and much tighter and, as her surgeon explained to us, being her second time having this surgery, it was even more swollen so it took a while for that swelling to go down. But gradually it did. She had to learn to take smaller bites and to chew, chew, chew her food. We can tell when things start to get stuck in there. She doesn't panic anymore, just waits and drinks something and waits some more. When the food is down, she shrugs her shoulders and smiles and moves on with eating her food a little more carefully. She can be such a tough girl. She is our little drama queen a lot of the time, who will cry over nothing and we will tell her to shake it off, and she does. But, I swear, when it comes to the big things, she is so tough! Erik called it her survivor side and I think that is a perfect way to explain it. She handles the things that would be tough for anyone with such amazing strength. It's just in her, this survivor side. Some people have it and some people don't. Liana just does. She's been through a lot in her tiny life, things that most of us can't even imagine having to go through. Yet she smiles through it all! Life can be rough and has been for this little one but she handles it with such strength. It's amazing how you see qualities in your children that you admire and want to learn from yourself! I have seen qualities in all of my kids that I would love to have myself! They are amazing little people who teach me things every day!

Spoiled by family! Thank you Uncle Tim and Auntie Carri!!