Lilly visits the zoo

In the past week, I've had quite a number of people ask me what exactly Lilly's upcoming heart surgery means for her. In other words, does it change her short life expectancy. Well honestly, only God knows. But we hope, that by getting the hole in her heart patched, that it will help Lilly to live longer. That she at least won't die of heart failure. That she'll handle sicknesses, like viruses, easier. I have heard that of the 5-10% of children with Trisomy 18 that make it to one year old, about 60% of those children will live to be 5 years old. Now that is an exciting thought! :)

Yesterday was both Lilly's and her brother's first time to visit a zoo. It was a cloudy day - perfect for Lilly's sensitive eyes. I figured we'd have an interesting time as we walked towards the entrance and in front of us was a man - presumably with his family - wearing a skirt! And no not a kilt. It was an "industrial" skirt for "manly men." Ooookay ... I had heard about those in the past but had never actually seen one. Besides that oddity, we saw many animals and did so much walking. The most interesting thing I actually learned was that a rhino's horn is actually made of hair! Here are some pictures of Lilly around the zoo:


Riding a baby elephant (statute):



Taking a lunch break (bolus feed):


Lilly in front of the giraffes (she got a lot of laughs and smiles as people passed us and saw her sunglasses):

Lilly by lily pads:

At the children's playground -Lilly on a giant climbing spider web:

Lilly in front of the carosel (which disappointingly closed just before we got to it):

Lilly riding the tram between "North America" and "Africa":

Lilly was tired enough from all the fun that she slept in past 11:00 this morning.