If you thought brain surgery before your first birthday was hard...

...try post-op seizures on Day 3 of an otherwise on-track recovery. Thankfully, Baby Zoe has stabilized after a scary bout of unresponsiveness, muscle spasms and respiratory distress last night. (And that's only what it looked like from the outside.) Sharon, one of our nurses who is on mommy-duty for Zoe, caught the early warning signs and a team of nurses and the doctor pumped Zoe full of anti-seizure meds to bring her back. Saturday's operation, the surgical removal of a blackberry-sized tumor between her lobes (plus 4 pea-sized ones scattered about her brain), was a bit much for our sweet 11 month old from Zhengzhou.

This year I turned 1 again!

Today's a reminder that I'm getting old...at least being with the kiddos at the Sanatorium makes ya feel young! (New Hope nurse Sharon, baby Zoe, Emily and I celebrated with Emily's presents and balloons, which are still around from her own birthday on the 1st =P)

All the king's horses and all the king's men...

ly put Baby Emily's lower abdomen back together again!

With my Japan postponed indefinitely, I had the opportunity of coming back to visit Baby Emily in Hong Kong , and to relieve fellow volunteer Sue of mommy-duty. (Even superheroes need a break, especially after four weeks of round-the-clock baby-duty--three of which were post-op hospital bedside care.) Baby Emily's surgery went smoothly thanks to the incredible work of the MedArt team. She is recuperating well and is all wiggles and giggles, even in her hip spica cast!

Fatburger Fieldtrip!

Thank you to our generous friends at Fatburger Beijing for treating our kiddos to a fine dining fieldtrip!
Excursions are so much more fun when they involve Fatburgers and fries (rather than hospitals and MRI's)!

New Toys at New Hope!

Thanks to the amazing generosity of our toy-drive donors, the kiddos got to open up and test out their first new batch of toys-- ever! They love their new play things, which include a bumblebee costume, mini-cash register, play car, audio cassette player and bowls--brightly colored bowls! =P I must say, nothing is cuter than little Chinese toddlers making their best attempts at singing along to English-language songs and nursery rhymes =).