Most of you know that Abigail fell when she was young and damaged her right eye. This happened when she was a little over a year old. The last time Ron came to visit (Abby and Lily's biological mother), Abby came home from visiting with her with a new story about her eye. We had been previously told that she fell on a stick, but now Abby says that she ran into a hammer that was hanging on her grandpa's belt. This story seems likely to me, because she is always running around without watching where she is going. Which ever story is true, she is blind in that eye, and that is a fact.
We have taken Abby to an eye specialist in Cambodia, and after two seconds of looking into it with a light, he told us that she would never be able to see out of it, and that the stitches should be left alone unless they caused her problems. Obviously, Kelsi and I did not want this to be true. We wanted there to be some surgery that could be done, so that she could see out of that eye again. We let it go, but when we found out that we were going to get to come to the States, we decided to go ahead with a second opinion.
We went to see Dr. Susie sometime last week, and did not take pictures, because it slipped my mind. It was funny, because during the pre-check up, one of the assistants was going through the motions and came to a test with some glasses, and she said, "Have you ever been to a 3D movie?" I replied, "Yes, but she doesn't like them, because the glasses don't work for her." The assistant looked perplexed, so I added, "You have to have both eyes working to see 3D..." She looked kind of embarrassed and said, "Well, I guess we won't do that test..." Yeah... probably not.
Once we got in to see Dr. Susie, I was excited to ask the question... but before we got there, we found out that Abby is nearsighted. She will be getting glasses eventually, but not quite yet. The doctor told us that she would love to slap some glasses on her to protect her good eye, but she is still a little young for glasses. What a shock! Abby is going to wear glasses for the rest of her life!? I guess I couldn't give her my great sight, since she is technically not biologically mine... oh well.
We finally got to ask about Abby's blind eye, and Dr. Susie took a look inside. The doctor in Cambodia missed that Abby does still have part of her iris left, so she could be eligible for a cornea transplant. I was really excited, but then the bad news came. Even though she could technically get the transplant, her brain has already developed for three years with one eye, and there is a slim chance that it would adjust to having two eyes. Dr. Susie said that it would be hard to find a surgeon who would take the chance on it. She is still young enough to maybe pursue it, but we would need to be stateside with insurance before we tried anything with it.
It is looking like Abby is just going to have one eye. She is already quite adjusted to it, and most of the time, I forget that she is blind in that eye. We are super grateful to Dr. Susie for the check up. She was great with Abby and answered all of our questions with grace and kindness. And on top of it all, she gave us the visit for free. Such a blessing to our family! When/If we get back for good, she will definitely be our eye doctor.
Well that is your update on Abby's eye. Hopefully it answered some questions you might have about her vision and what we could do about it. We get asked all the time, "Will she ever be able to see out of that eye?" Like most things, God could work a miracle and give her vision... or He could show His glory in her through her testimony of a life with one good eye. Just as in the story with the man born blind, Jesus explained that it was not about sin that he was born blind, but so that the glory of God might be shown in him. I believe the same thing for Abby. We all have a choice to live for the glory of God, and I believe that her heavenly Father has a plan for her life that will give her an opportunity to show His glory in an amazing way. That is my prayer for her at least.
BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens.
November 23, 2014
November 19, 2014
Airplane!
So I am finally getting around to writing about our flight. We have been in the states about a week now: praise God!!!
Our flight did not go exactly as we planned. Phnom Penh to Korea was great. Abigail freaked out when we took off for the first time--a good freak out. She loved flying. Lily didn't even pay attention to it. The flight was in the middle of the night, so the girls basically slept the whole flight. The only thing not so great about it was that I forgot to take some Dramamine before the descent, so I ended up being super sick. We had a seven hour layover in Korea, so I had plenty of time to recover. It is a great airport to have a layover in with children, because there is tons of room, and there are play-places. We were able to put some dance videos on for the girls on my computer, and we basically just waited at our gate. I ended up walking across the airport for some Subway, which was great! We made our flight and took off for our long flight.
One good thing about traveling with small children is that you get put to the front of the line on everything!
The long flight was all right. Kelsi and I sat in the middle and the girls were on either side of us. They again slept most of the flight, and when they were not sleeping, they were watching movies! To the person who thought of putting movies on the backs of seats in planes, I love you. The girls were amazing! Such troopers. When we landed in LAX, we knew that we had only about an hour and a half to make our connection--because our flight was delayed slightly. We were not super confident that we would make this flight, because we had to go through immigration and re-check our bags, and LAX is a terrible airport. We told our flight attendant that we were going to be on a short connection, and so when we landed, they put us on the fast track to go through everything.
We went through immigration, and went to the front of the line on multiple security things, but in the end, having to re-check our bags killed us. By the time we made it to the place to check our bags, they told us that we should just take them to the gate. When we got to the gate, they said that since we did not have our boarding passes, and it was only fifteen minutes to take off, they could not do anything for us. So instead of getting on that plane at 10:15 AM, we were to wait for the next flight at 6:30 PM.
LAX is not a good airport to have a long layover in, and by this point, we had already been traveling for about twenty hours. As we waited for our flight, it got pushed back to seven, and then eight, and then eight thirty. By the time we got on the plane, it was nine. All I can say is you might want to avoid LAX and Delta is not my favorite airline, but that is based on one experience.
All in all, we landed in Kansas City! It was a long journey, but the girls were so excited when they saw their memas and papa standing at the gate. They were so excited about being in America that Abby ran straight to go outside... I don't think that she realized how cold cold could be. When it snowed on Sunday, she picked it up with her bare hand and then said, "That is sooooo cold!" When we played in the snow for the first time, she didn't last one hour. At forty minutes into playing she said, "Daddy, I think we need to go inside... my hands are freezing!!!"
We are blessed to have this time in the states, and we are slowly getting over jet lag--it is much harder when you have a baby! Abby and Lily woke up at two in the morning the second night and said, "We don't want to sleep anymore..." And Melody has been waking up at four in the morning ready to play, after on and off sleeping. I can't complain though, because most babies sleep like that anyway, but Mel usually sleeps through the night! Oh well, in the words of Abby, "We're in America!!!" :)
We would love to see you guys, so please get in touch with us, so we can plan a time to meet up with you! Our email is micah.kelsi@gmail.com
BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens.
Our flight did not go exactly as we planned. Phnom Penh to Korea was great. Abigail freaked out when we took off for the first time--a good freak out. She loved flying. Lily didn't even pay attention to it. The flight was in the middle of the night, so the girls basically slept the whole flight. The only thing not so great about it was that I forgot to take some Dramamine before the descent, so I ended up being super sick. We had a seven hour layover in Korea, so I had plenty of time to recover. It is a great airport to have a layover in with children, because there is tons of room, and there are play-places. We were able to put some dance videos on for the girls on my computer, and we basically just waited at our gate. I ended up walking across the airport for some Subway, which was great! We made our flight and took off for our long flight.
One good thing about traveling with small children is that you get put to the front of the line on everything!
The long flight was all right. Kelsi and I sat in the middle and the girls were on either side of us. They again slept most of the flight, and when they were not sleeping, they were watching movies! To the person who thought of putting movies on the backs of seats in planes, I love you. The girls were amazing! Such troopers. When we landed in LAX, we knew that we had only about an hour and a half to make our connection--because our flight was delayed slightly. We were not super confident that we would make this flight, because we had to go through immigration and re-check our bags, and LAX is a terrible airport. We told our flight attendant that we were going to be on a short connection, and so when we landed, they put us on the fast track to go through everything.
We went through immigration, and went to the front of the line on multiple security things, but in the end, having to re-check our bags killed us. By the time we made it to the place to check our bags, they told us that we should just take them to the gate. When we got to the gate, they said that since we did not have our boarding passes, and it was only fifteen minutes to take off, they could not do anything for us. So instead of getting on that plane at 10:15 AM, we were to wait for the next flight at 6:30 PM.
LAX is not a good airport to have a long layover in, and by this point, we had already been traveling for about twenty hours. As we waited for our flight, it got pushed back to seven, and then eight, and then eight thirty. By the time we got on the plane, it was nine. All I can say is you might want to avoid LAX and Delta is not my favorite airline, but that is based on one experience.
All in all, we landed in Kansas City! It was a long journey, but the girls were so excited when they saw their memas and papa standing at the gate. They were so excited about being in America that Abby ran straight to go outside... I don't think that she realized how cold cold could be. When it snowed on Sunday, she picked it up with her bare hand and then said, "That is sooooo cold!" When we played in the snow for the first time, she didn't last one hour. At forty minutes into playing she said, "Daddy, I think we need to go inside... my hands are freezing!!!"
We are blessed to have this time in the states, and we are slowly getting over jet lag--it is much harder when you have a baby! Abby and Lily woke up at two in the morning the second night and said, "We don't want to sleep anymore..." And Melody has been waking up at four in the morning ready to play, after on and off sleeping. I can't complain though, because most babies sleep like that anyway, but Mel usually sleeps through the night! Oh well, in the words of Abby, "We're in America!!!" :)
We would love to see you guys, so please get in touch with us, so we can plan a time to meet up with you! Our email is micah.kelsi@gmail.com
BecauseHeLives,
The Bergens.
November 4, 2014
Abby Goes to the Dentist
Abby was complaining about her tooth, so we looked in her mouth and found that she had a tooth growing in behind her baby tooth (commonly called a "Shark Tooth") Her baby tooth was wiggly but was not ready to come out. We decided to take her to the dentist to have it extracted, so that her other tooth would fall into place correctly. Here is a photo tour of our experience :)
The whole procedure only took about five minutes. The dentist rubbed her gums with the numbing gel, and Abby screamed at that. When the dentist got out the pliers, Abby reacted as if it was a chainsaw. When the pliers went into her mouth she was not happy, but before she even had time to react, the tooth was out. The dentist asked me afterwards if I could help her to not be scared the next time... Hello, I bribed her with ice cream afterwards and held her hand and spoke to her in a calming voice the whole time. And leading up to it, I said over and over again that it would not hurt... what more could I do... seriously... any suggestions would be great... comment below.
It took me three tries to get her to finally hold this smile--showcasing her new gap :) The dentist told Abby not to stick her tongue in the whole or play with it for a while... who is she kidding, how can you resist? Abby kept telling me, "Daddy, I'm sticking my tongue in the hole :)"
As promised, afterwards we went to the new mall, and ate ice-cream. Abby picked the chocolate chocolate chocolate... I'm not sure if that is really what it was called, but it was a big bowl of chocolate things, and Abby ate it all by herself, because Lily is as stubborn as Kelsi, and when she found out she had to share, she would not eat a single bite of it... other than the cherry on top, which she did not have to share.
Hope you enjoyed it!
Thank you to everyone who prays for us and supports us. It is because of you that we were able to take Abby to the dentist and ice cream! You are a huge blessing to our family!
BecauseHeLives,
Micah.
Abby was not excited. A couple nights before, I tried to pull the tooth out (how hard could it be?). When I was unable to get it out, I told her that she would have to go to the dentist, and she cried, "No! I don't want to go. You pull it out... I don't want to go to the dentist, cause it will hurt." I could not convince her that it would hurt less at the dentist than if I tried to pull it out...
It took me three tries to get her to finally hold this smile--showcasing her new gap :) The dentist told Abby not to stick her tongue in the whole or play with it for a while... who is she kidding, how can you resist? Abby kept telling me, "Daddy, I'm sticking my tongue in the hole :)"
Hope you enjoyed it!
Thank you to everyone who prays for us and supports us. It is because of you that we were able to take Abby to the dentist and ice cream! You are a huge blessing to our family!
BecauseHeLives,
Micah.
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