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Steve and I had two wonderful bio kids... Chelsea, born 9/97 and Jesse, born 6/02. Life was going great until Chelsea was diagnosed with a sagital sinus thrombosis. A blood clot in the major vein running along the back of the brain to the spinal cord. This was discovered after she had an MRI. She was expected to be fine but required a lot of surgeries. We spent a lot of time at Seattle Children's from October 2005 to December 2005. Both holidays were spent in the hospital. Chelsea had 3 shunts in her brain and was not tolerating them and was finally diagnosed with dural arterial venous fistulas. In layman's terms she had "extra" blood vessels that had formed off her sagital sinus vein. We were scheduled to return to Seattle on January 10th, 2006 for her first surgery to "treat" these. We were told she would survive. On January 5th, 2006 she had a horrible headache and after arriving at the hospital had a massive brain bleed. She had surgery and survived but died the next day. We were so shocked.
I have to tell you about a conversation I had with Chelsea on December 7th, 2005 during one of her admissions here in Anchorage. We were up playing Operation Shrek at 11:00pm. She was feeling good so I was siezing the moment. She began to ask me about Mom and Dad having more kids. She knew I could not have any "from my tummy." She looked up at me when I told her we could not have more kids and said, "yes, you could - we could adopt one." She added in her best 8-year-old big sister voice, "but it would HAVE to be a sister, since I have a brother." I smiled and told her we needed to worry about getting her better first. This amazes me to this day because I believe now that God was speaking to me through my daughter. Chelsea died the next month and it was unexpected. She led us to adoption. Chelsea knew we would still want to be parents to a daughter and she wanted Jesse to have a sibling. Jesse is 4, almost 5, and is doing great. He is entering Kindergarten in August 2007 and has been healthy. We are so lucky to have him. He will attend the school his sister did and will see her memorial bench and plaque and all her friends. We work very hard to keep his sister's memory alive. We also work hard making sure Jesse is happy and has fun. He is a great boy. Steve, my husband, is a long-haul truck driver. He has driven all over the west coast and into Canada. He now drives all around Alaska. He loves it and is very good at it. He is anxiously awaiting our trip to China. I am Kathy... I work as a registered nurse. I have worked in the acute care setting until 2005 when I began working as a school nurse at an elementary school. I love it and I will get to see my son after school daily. I was able to spend each hospital stay with Chelsea and am so blessed that was possible. Lindsey will be a welcome addition to our family. Everyone says, "she is so lucky..." I correct them saying, "No, WE are the lucky ones!" We truly are.
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