Hallie's ONH & SOD Blog

Our Last Blog from China!

October 31st, 2009

I can only say that our stay here has gone much faster than anticipated.  As our friends from the UK would say, “It’s been a lovely time.”  We have loved meeting all the families from around the world and hearing their stories.  We will miss hanging out in the common area of the VIP Ward.  We will miss the amazing staff of Beike, the nurses, translators, drivers, doctors, etc.  We will miss all the free time we have had as a family.  We will miss the experiences we’ve had, but mostly we will miss the dear people we connected with here.  This has been a once in a life time experience and we thank God that we’ve gotten to do it.

Thank you to all the people back home who have been faithfully following our adventure.  We really feel very supported through your comments of encouragement.  You are the reason we want to come home.  (And because we are getting sick of the food.  Adam is going crazy from not having any outlets like basketball and we can’t handle the smell of the water any longer).  Truly though, THANK YOU.

Lastly, why we came… We came for a chance to give our daughter Hallie more vision.  We came without expecting Hallie to have results right away.  During our stay here there have been two people with ONH (Shannon, 40 and Lilli, both had improvements while they were here.  They were also older and able to voice what those improvements were.  They both took a VEP test that measures how much light is going from the optic nerve to the brain.  Again, both had significant improvements while they were here.  We had a VEP test done with Hallie before we came and will do another 6 months post op. (It’s harder to do with little ones that don’t sit still  The small improvements that we see in Hallie will probably not be very noticeable to anyone that doesn’t know Hallie personally.  But we are still hanging in the balance of hope and patience.  Most ONH patients don’t see significant results until 3-6 months down the road, and then even up to 18 mo. post op have others seen more improvements.  So this next year will be one filled with anticipation as we wait and learn what Hallie will see with her eyes. Adam and I came here knowing that we had to offer Hallie this opportunity.  We have done that, and feel so confident that this was exactly the path God had planned for us.  Whether or not there will be any HUGE changes in Hallie, we know that God has this little girl in the palm of his hands and will do amazing things through her life.

Colorado or bust!

love, Katie & co.

This is Carter's idea of helping pack. First, climb into the suitcase without my diaper on and pee inside it. Second, get my diaper on and continue to climb back into the suitcase every time my dad takes me out. Thank you to the Hulseys for letting us borrow the suitcase.

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