All tucked in....

Her sleepy little eyes were open for a few minutes

Beautiful despite the puffiness, weird wires, and tubes

Grandma H. is spending the night with Anara in the ICU. Anara is still doing great. She has periodic temperatures which they say is pretty normal after surgery. She is getting morphine and she still has the epidural for pain. Everything seems to be draining appropriately and she isn't bleeding too much. We are very thankful that she is stable. She was awake for short periods today and she would usually cry or whine. But, before I left tonight, she had her eyes open for a little while without crying.

Here are some pictures from today. Below you can see the large, metal device that they are using to keep her bones in place. She will have this on for 6 weeks. I am kind of hesitant to post this picture because it is a little alarming, but she really is doing great and all these things were necessary to correct her malformation. We are so thankful that she is doing well. I know I keep posting this but thanks to everyone for your prayers. This might seem like a difficult time but we are grateful for it. I keep thinking that if we weren't going through this - if Anara didn't have bladder exstrophy, then we wouldn't even have her. We were not the next family in line at our adoption agency for a baby and the only reason that we got the phone call about her is because of her medical condition. Today I was remembering the phone call from the director at Nightlight. He wanted to know our 1st impression or thoughts about Anara. He said that if we wanted to pass then he would understand. One look at her picture and Nate said, "She looks like an H. When can we go get her?" What an awesome and amazing journey this has been. Praise GOD!

Anara and all her devices