Un-BEE-lievable News!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wednesday, we met with Dr. Heinle at Texas Children's Hospital!

This is the same surgeon who has done all of Sarah's open heart surgeries and has known her since birth. He has not seen her in person since she was about 8 months old and he was AMAZED at how big and great she looked today!Basically, we found out today that they are able to do the "Fontan" operation several different ways.

Option 1: (this is what we are PRAYING for!!!!) The most preferable way is to place a tube from her main arteries that carries the blood straight to her lungs without pumping through the heart. They will place the tube, attach it to her lungs, detach the blood flow from her heart and put it to the tube! Sounds like a piece of cake to me! HA! I'm glad that these doctors and surgeons have done this MANY times because I can't imagine having to do it once!This tube they place is large enough to grow with her into adulthood! In this option, they will have her on the heart/lung bypass machine, but they WILL NOT have to stop her heart or go inside of her heart!!!!!!!!! AMAZING! We won't know until they get in and see what we are up against, though! (about 2-3 hours into the surgery.)

Option 2: (they will be prepared for this if option 1 is not a viable choice)

Once they get inside of her chest, it is possible to see that there is not room or things are not laid out in a way that allows for this tube outside of her heart and in that event, they will build a tunnel THROUGH her heart to do the job. In this scenario, not only would she be on the heart/lung bypass machine, but they would have to stop her heart for most of the surgery to build this tunnel. As Dr. Heinle put it "The heart is not as happy with this option as the other way, but they CAN do it and HAVE before."This is also a very good expected outcome, but just more invasive during surgery time.

We found out that once the surgery begins, it takes 2 hours or so to even get to her heart. It takes a while to get through scar tissue and the breastbone which they will have to crack to get inside. (this has been done before on her! Nothing new there) He just wanted us to know that we should expect for the first updates to be that they are just working on GETTING TO the heart and lungs.

The best news that we heard as far as what to expect AFTER she is healed.....

She CAN ride rollercoasters as long as they aren't extreme g-force kinds or ones that HOLD you upside down for a long time!

She CAN be a dancer, cheerleader, swimmer, whatever she wants!!!!!!!!!!!!!

She CAN live a normal life without limitations except for the ones she puts on herself!

She will possibly get tired a little quicker than others and she will not be a professional athlete, but we are going to focus on the things she CAN do and not the things she CAN'T!

One little bit of news I didn't care for is that she will be on 2 kinds of lasix after surgery for a while. She will most likely have to wear pullups for a while and she doesn't like that but we are easing her into that. She'll be so thankful to be done with surgeries for a VERY LONG time, that pullups will be NO big deal!

I am so thankful for these miracles I've seen in her life! She is amazing to me! We returned from Houston and she wanted to go swimming at Mimi & Pop's. We got there and she hugged her soaking wet brother and said "I missed you, Jason!" Then, she put on her swimsuit and swam all over the pool doing different moves like she was training for the olympics or something!

I am so proud to know that she is such a determined little girl! She brings tears to my eyes as I watch her in complete amazement of what she can do because she doesn't know she shouldn't be able to!

There is a story a dear friend shared with me about a bumblebee charm she wore on a bracelet....It truly is something I think about every single day with Sarah!

"For years scientists have stated that the bumble bee should not be able to fly. Aerodynamically their bodies are too big and their wing span is too small. The bumble bee, however, doesn't let itself be labeled by those silly scientists. It "bee-lieves" it can fly and it does!"

Sarah just has to grow and not let herself be "labeled". She has to fly on her own without realizing how she "shouldn't" be able to do things! I hope, as her mom, that I am always helping her spread her wings and if she falls, I'll be there to catch her! Her wing span may be "small" but her heart is so big and I know she is going to do great things in her lifetime!

Thanks to God for all of these things! And thanks to all of you for your continued prayers and support! Love,Sharon