Family Time

We have really appreciated all the kind words, encouragement and prayers during this time - they have strengthened our hope and given me, especially, a lot of encouragement, so I just wanted to say thank you.  I have been in constant awe at how God has been bringing to light things about our situation that bring comfort and peace knowing He has truly been with us and provided for us, even when we couldn't see Him working....Amazing. We continue to rest in God's peace that His timing in all things is perfect and complete, and we will keep trying when the time is right again! =)

So on a more positive front, given our recent events, we have been spending a lot of family time lately.  Before we knew any of this, Dustin had been planning a long weekend for just the two of us.  We made a last minute decision to go (since it was local), and I'm so glad we did!  It was a very healing time for the two of us, and also a lot of fun as well!  He spent so much time planning our weekend in the weeks prior, watching him do that for me was very sweet! LOL, ya know, since I'm such a big planner myself and all ;)  He also decided to Groupon all the "activities" to save money, which led to a very creative and fun time, since I had never been to most of the places we went, plus he saved us a lot of money, which is another way to my heart...ahhhh!  Do I have the best hubby or what?! 

This past weekend, Dustin also took a day off for a long three day weekend.  We decided to have a family "Tent Movie Night", play a lot, went to the Airport Park and Farmers Market and just had fun being together.  Thought I would just share some photos of our recent family time and let the rest of the post speak for itself!  All is well with our souls =)

Working on a homemade volcano!

Volcano work - forgot to get a picture of the final product when erupting, good ole baking soda and vinegar trick - Liam loved it!

Playing in the homemade tent...it was a homemade type weekend.

Snuggling in before our movie!

Mommy and Liam

Family picture! We watched a full length Lego movie - it was cute!  Liam is really into Legos right now...and hopefully will be into them for awhile, given the fact I think they are secretly multiplying!

Dustin took us to a painting class, where you follow an instructor and they show you how to paint a painting - very cool!

Blank canvas to start with...

Painting base coat...

Painting!  Might I mention Dustin was 1 of 4 men there, with 30 other women, haha!

Finished result!  Vineyard landscape

Finished!

Lego fun

Dress up time!  And no, I don't dress him in girlie things, he was pretending to be his Mimi...and I think it's rather fitting! LOL

We visited the "Airport Park"  which is an observatory next to a runway of our airport.  It's pretty neat, you can listen to the pilots talking back and forth with the tower on an outside radio and watch the planes land.  Liam was not really interested in either of those things though, go figure.

Pretending to be an airplane!

Next to the giant radio tower

A hard post to write...

There is no easy way to say this, so I'll just start....Dustin and I found out last Monday that I was miscarrying.  We went in for a sonogram due to some symptoms I was having and there was no heartbeat and no growth since our last sonogram in December when I measured 7 weeks (which we saw the heartbeat at that time).  We were obviously deeply saddened by the news and chose to wait and let everything happen naturally at home. 

I've always wanted to be honest and real on my blog, but this was hard to write.  It's hard to become vulnerable and announce this type of thing to everyone, and it feels unnatural - it is unnatural.  But, a part of me knows that the way in which I heal best is by sharing things, talking about them and letting people know our story.  That's the main reason I created this blog in the first place.  I hope to post my miscarriage story on here someday, as I feel like I greatly benefitted spiritually, emotionally and physically from reading and hearing about other's journey with this.  I hope maybe someday our story can be a comfort and hope to others in this area, as well as our story with Liam's CHD. 

We have hope and faith that our Father, Lord and Creator will turn this into good for us.  We have already seen and heard evidence that it has already been used for good, and I have no doubt God was with me, even preparing me and my family, well before this event ever took place.  My confidence is in His faithfulness and that His timing is always best, even when we don't understand it.  We serve a good God!

"Therefore, we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."  2 Corinthians 4:16-18

1.6.13 - Happy New Year and updates

Happy New Year everyone!  We celebrated at home on Monday with a family stomach bug ;( No fun all!  Thankfully it was a quick 12 hour thing and we were back to feeling better by New Years Day, so we could bleach everything in the house and get it back in order! LOL. 

Apparently every sickness you can think of is going around here is mass quantities, with record wait times at all the Urgent Cares and ERs, it even made the news. We are thankful we didn't get anything worse, so we didn't have to be a number at one of those places.

Liam had 2 follow up appointments Friday, which made for a long morning at our favorite city, Medical City Hospital.  First was a follow-up by his ENT, which we had not seen since June of 2010, yep a long time!  But Liam had not had any new problems with this area, so we never needed to.  The pulmonologist requested we follow-up on the status of his vocal chord and check his airway again just to be sure there wasn't anything else contributing to his allergy / cold-like symptoms he gets each winter.  ENT did a scope of his airway and said everything still looked the same, the right vocal chord still has no movement and is in a partially closed; same position as it was 2 years ago.  He did say this is the reason sometimes he sounds "wheezy" even though his lungs are clear.  This made me feel better about the usual symptoms he has during this time of year and answered the question of why his breathing and cough can sound worse than it actually is.  It was also good to get another closure diagnosis on the vocal chord.  We knew during his 2nd surgery it was most likely paralyzed for good, and it's not good that it's paralyzed obviously, but it is good to know the status.  The ENT said if you were to have one paralyzed, you would want it exactly how Liam's is positioned.  He should have minimal speech issues, but possible breathing issues if they ever start to swell worse than they do with a normal cold.  Just a long term thing we'll have to deal with I guess.

The next appointment was his Pulmonology follow-up.  His breathing and lungs were clear and they told us we could stop doing nebulizer treatments and only continue his Qvar steroid inhaler.  The inhaler is new for us, Liam has always had nebulizer treatments, but since he is older, they have a special mask and tube that fit on an inhaler that he can breathe off of to get the medicine.  I love it because it takes only a few seconds, as opposed to the nebulizer which can take anywhere from 5-10 minutes, not to mention the large compressor you have to lug around!  So mommy was happy to hear no more nebbys!!  We continue with the inhaler for another 4 months, then re-evaluate to see of he needs to continue through the spring/summer.

So all in all, very good reports.  It's nice to be on the other side of being so fragile when he was little.  It seems each year he handles the sickies better and better.  He does start school back this week and will be going 2 days a week as opposed to only one day a week last year....I am a little nervous he may pick up more illnesses, but am confident that he is in good shape to be able to handle them.  I just have to make sure I don't catch everything as I won't be able to self medicate! 

We have a couple more appointments coming up for him, GI is at the end of January and Cardiology (can't believe it's almost been 6 months since his last visit!) will be beginning of February.  I, too, have a couple appointments, sonogram on the 16th and my first midwife appointment on the 23rd (more on that decision later!).  I am praying all of our appointments have good news!!

On another note, a heart mom friend has asked for our help to spread CHD Awareness on PBS!  Their family is featured in a film on CHD's called Heart of the Matter and PBS stations across the nation are airing it, but not all of them.  She is asking that we request they show the film on our local stations.  This is so important, as it will help open people's eyes to CHD's and help bring in more funding for CHD research.  Please click HERE to visit her page for more details!  Thanks friends!!