Home Sweet Home

We moved into our new house over a week ago (explains lack of blog posts). We are so thrilled to finally be back in our own home. We have lived with my parents for the past year to save money for Gavin's big surgery in California. Gavin enjoyed living with Nana and Grandpa and getting in lots of swimming time in their pool. Thanks N & G for letting us invade your household for a year!

Gavin news:

Gavin is officially in a BIG boy bed! We are so proud of his achievement. He loves his new bed and his new house. When we are out and about for to long he asks to go back to "my new house, my room". I think he is a little proud of himself to, every morning we wake up to him saying "I did great, I sweep in my wroom". Next achievement: potty training... tips, suggestions, greatly appreciated! Gavin is really into taking showers now, he prefers them over baths. He actually takes the washrag and trys to clean himself like a big boy. It's a little hard trying to open the door and give him a good cleaning with out getting soaked!

Gavin goes in every week for his weekly blood draws to check his INR levels for his cumadin medicine. He is so brave, most the time he doesn't cry and always looks forward to the new toy, sticker and sucker he gets from the nurse at the end. I think he was trying to sike himself out this last time, the entire way to the hospital he said "Bwood work not hurt, I not cry". His poor arms are suffering from the battle wounds, lots of bruising going on! I just wish I could get all the blood work done for him! Hopefully we will end this once he has his heart cath in December.

Brody news:

I had my first OB appt. since the fetal echo last week. My OB was pretty bummed and focused on the heart the entire ultrasound. He advised me to go ahead and have Brody at the bigger hospital here in Tulsa instead of the smaller one where I considered having him. A lot of people have asked how we are holding up... to be honest, my first emotion was mad. As soon as the cardiologist said "VSD's" I knew what she meant, I didn't have any questions and I wanted to get out of her office. Adam was on a business trip so my mom & sister attended the appt. with me. My mom was full of questions because she didn't know what "VSD" meant. I think she could tell I wanted to leave, I just wanted to get back to that spot in front of the elevator where Adam & I had once broke down when we found out about Gavin. So we got to the elevator and I lost it. I am glad I had support there because I honestly felt as if everything was ok and I could go to the appt. by myself. God knew I needed them there. Adam's initial reaction was mad, I think he is still there. Rightfully so, it's hard to understand why this is happening. But I have come to the conclusion that all this worry and "what-if's" running through my head is not doing me any good. YES, I am thankful this is fixable, YES, I am thankful it is not as severe as Gavin, YES, I know it could be worse and YES I know God does not give us more than we can handle. But it doesn't take away the pain, the anger and the frustration that we are experiencing. All I know is these two little boys will have one special bond that none of us can comprehend.

(Pictures to come soon)

A bittersweet day...

Exactly what our day was... my parents anniversary (Happy Anniversary to my wonderful parents, such a great example of love and endurance) and the day we found out baby boy #2 also has some heart defects. I will just copy and paste an email one of our friends sent out for us today.

Hello!I had not expected to use this email list again, but I’m glad it’s available! As many of you know, Faith had a fetal echo cardiogram with the pediatric cardiologist today. We already knew that Brody has 4 chambers, and we give God that glory. She just called from the appointment, as she learned that while Brody does have the 4 chambers, he has 2 holes (VSD's) in his heart. One large, and one small.This is considered a “common” heart defect. It will not be known until after birth, if he will need surgery or not. If surgery, it is usually taken care of with one surgery.Faith knows of 4 babies with this condition, and all required surgery.The dr. considers it a good chance that the smaller hole will close while Brody is still in utero. As you can imagine, they’re disappointed. But not disappointed enough to forget where their strength comes from… God and his earthly angels!Faith and Adam ask for prayers that both holes close on their own, and that Brody will not need surgery.Please add to that prayer for Faith and Adam to have strength and reassurance, as they come to understand this latest information.

June/July Picture Post

The first of June, Gavin was released from his non-fat diet... so what did we do?!? We celebrated with his favorite meal PEPPERONI PIZZA!!!

Auntie Kate joined the festivities...

Every Thursday night of the summer, a local mall/park features a band and anyone and everyone is welcome to come and have a picnic or just listen to music. We went with our wonderful friends, Devin, Kevin & their two girls Skylar & Londyn. We had a great time especially Gavin, he entertained us with his dancing skills.

Random pictures of Gavin from June:

The first of July was celebrated with cousin Cooper's birthday at Outback. Gavin loves his cousin Coop, he chatted him up during the entire dinner.

Our annual fourth of July celebration was a hit again. My parents always do a wonderful job at throwing a pool party. There was lots of swimming, volley ball tourney, "men's water competition"-consists of who can swim the fastest under water and pick up the most rings- it's pretty serious stuff, we keep a record book every year-makes the men feel macho I guess?!? We had lots of yummy food, three kinds of home made ice cream, and of course lots of fireworks. We wanted to be the best of the best so we all pitched in and bought a very expensive box of fireworks to shoot off, I have to say for the price, they were a bummer. The cul-de-sacs to the left and right of us definitely showed us up... maybe next year we will do better!

Kind of scary but Gavin is not afraid of anything, well except the Chick-fil-a cow and sand. The child loves water and loves fire. We could be in trouble!

Adam made his annual "fourth of July music mix" Gavin couldn't resist and had to bust a move in between fireworks. I think we have a dancer on our hands?!? Notice a pattern?