A Bear Named Patch.

After giving you the straight facts of Brooke's unique heart, I wanted to share this precious story real quick. Our girl truly is SUCH a trooper...the bravest girl I know!

Meet Patch. He is Brooke's very first Build-A-Bear creation, chosen and filled with fluff by the little Cai Wei herself :) I didn't guide her towards a specific bear (although I was secretly hoping she would shy away from the terrible neon colored, peace-sign filled, "pre-teen styled" heart covered bears). She immediately gravitated toward this little guy...with a heart patch stitched to his chest. We had been searching for a way to help her understand what she will be going through in less than a week, and thought that doing the "Build-A-Bear thing" by putting a heart in the body, etc might help a little bit. Well whadda-ya know, they had the PERFECT little bear for our sweet girl, and I think she really REALLY understood.

She really was excited about it...she was concentrating WAY too hard on running the "bathtub" to scrub Mr. Patch clean :)

You'll have to forgive the lack of more pictures...it was only Brooke and I (Meredith) there, and I was diaper bag holding/Sonic drink-drinking/Build-A-Bear fluffing/Cai Wei entertaining :) Needless to say, I snapped one with my handy dandy phone camera, and hightailed it out of that store before something spilled.

The most precious part was watching Brooke hold the little red heart before she put it inside her bear's body. She followed the sales lady's instructions perfectly...rubbed it hard between her fingers to "warm it up". Tickled it so her bear would be funny. Gave it a kiss so it would love, love, LOVE.

And then, she pulled down the top of her shirt and touched her beautiful scar...her "brave mark"...and said "Cai Wei's heart!" Oh my. I was almost in tears thinking how just next week, the surgeons will be "holding" her heart...stitching it to "make it better"...with as much (and hopefully more!!!) care as Cai Wei was giving her little bear's heart. I knelt and explained to her as best I could that we were giving her bear a "new heart", just as she would have a "new heart" next week...fixed to the best of the surgeons abilities!!! I didn't know how much she understood of this, giving me her cursory "Oh. Okayyyyyyy" response. :) She was so excited to put his heart inside his body, and watched the lady "stitch him up".

Once we got home, I saw her sitting with her bear. She would gently touch the heart patch on his chest and say over and over "Cai Wei give bear NEW heart!!!" And then suddenly...it seemed like a lightbulb came on. She touched her scar once again, while keeping her other hand on Patch's patch....and said

"Cai Wei's heart....Cai Wei get NEW heart too!!!"

Be still my heart. How I love this girl. She is beyond precious and amazes us every day with what she has learned. We can't WAIT to see all that she will do with her "new heart" (and no...she's not actually getting a BRAND new heart...but her God-given heart is being patched up nice and "new" just for her)