Two things to pray about

Quickly here, because there's not a lot of time in between feedings, washing up after feedings, comforting Tsvetomira when she cries, and trying to spend some time with Bogomila, too. I spend most of that time attending to the emails that come in that need attending to, and Skyping with Adam as needed.

So, the two things - one for each girl.

First, there is a new medical test required for older children that was put into effect in October or November. Without going into all of the details, we have had a difficult time getting the appropriate sample needed for Bogomila to be cleared for her visa on Friday.

With no visa, we don't fly home.

We made a second attempt with Bogomila at a sample this morning, but are not certain if it will be considered an adequate sample, or if the results will come back invalid. We will not know the results until AFTER our visa interview at the US Embassy on Thursday. That in itself is not a problem, as our representative from the adoption agency can run the results to the embassy later in the afternoon. The problem lies in whether or not the results will clear us to leave, or if they will require a re-test next week. This would obviously be a challenging complication on many fronts - we would need to arrange to stay another week, meaning my parents are gone from their responsibilities another week, and all of the arrangements I've made with friends to help us out the week we're home will have to change. But more importantly, Adam's rearranged work schedule makes him free THIS week to be here to fly home with Tsvetomira, besides the fact that we are hoping to get her into competent medical hands in the US as soon as possible. Please be praying that the results will be favorable, or that our government would be sympathetic to the fragility of Tsvetomira's life and consider a waiver.  My Dad has plans to contact his congressman today to alert him to the potential of fast action needed on Friday.

Which is point number two.

Tsvetomira is certainly hanging in there, and many of her lab levels came back at good places, including the ones that are indicators for refeeding syndrome. However, she has a number of levels that are moderately to severely out of range. Adam and I are working on adjusting things that we can here at the hotel to help stabilize her. He believes that some of these levels are chronic, and that some of them are likely caused by changes in her care over the last week or two as they tried to "prepare" her for us to bring her home.

Her sodium levels are very low. This can be caused by water toxicity (too much water changes the balance of important nutrients...like sodium.) Low sodium is, apparently, one of the first things an emergency room will check for if someone comes in with an unexplained seizure. It can also be caused by an excessive dose of one of the anti-seizure medications she is on. A few of her other levels also suggest a toxic dose of that medication. We have not yet received the results of that particular medication in her blood work, but Adam is guessing it's because if the levels are indeed as high as he anticipates they are, the measuring system will not work or the technician reading the results will dismiss them as inaccurate. At Adam's recommendation, we are discontinuing the med (it is one you can stop "cold-turkey" without any negative side effects - some seizure meds need to be weaned off) until her levels stabilize. We are mixing her formula with less water so she gets the same calories, but less water (she is not showing any signs of dehydration). And no beer.

No, really. He said that! ;) Not only is this guy a seriously caring nurse, willing to sacrifice of himself for the life of someone he's never met, but he's also got a sense of humor. ;) In reality, the liver function levels she's showing are either caused by too much alcohol, or too much of the two seizure meds she's on. So she really can't have a beer. I don't think she'll take it too hard!

Life is hard for this tiny treasure. Diaper changes cause her to cry even before I begin. [I take that back - we just got through a long diaper change with zero crying!!]

I don't have time to wrap this up nicely - it's time to feed her again.

Thank you for praying for these two girls. These are the kinds of prayers that are close to the heart of God.