Life Is Good

Friday, August 28, 2009

Today was such a wonderful day. It started with breakfast at the local cafe...something we never do. After breakfast we went to the park and played for a little while...

We ALL played a little!

Where's Waldo? Can you find Waldo?

Did you see him...huh?...huh?...huh?

This is Ryan's "thinking face". In other words...his "what can I get into now" face.

Yep! There it is again.

Ryan picked his Momma some flowers. Isn't he so sweet?

After our adventures at the park we drove around town , found a garage sale, and visited with some old friends. Then we decided to drive out to the new house to look around a little. Ryan loves to go out to the new house. He always says excitedly, "new house?!". We looked things over a little while, but Ryan ended up walking through some stickers , and they lodged themselves in his shoes, socks and even a couple in his legs. That ended his interest in the new house.

We left , but on the way back to town we stopped at Nana's house. Ryan and I stayed and visited for a bit. We also went out to the garden and picked these...

Jalapeno peppers! Ryan loves to go to "Nana's gawden". He helped pick the peppers too...and the green tomatoes...and the grass...and...and...and. We picked a 1/2 bushel of jalapeno peppers. Most of them I will process and freeze to use to make jalapeno jelly at a later time. Ever tried jalapeno jelly? It's great. You really should try it sometime.

This evening we played outside and cooked on the grill. We grilled steak, mushrooms and even some of those jalapenos (stuffed with cheese of course).

It sure was a good day. The weather has been wonderful...another fall teaser.

Ryan is doing well. Actually...he isn't feeling his best. He has a runny nose, and he's a little irritable, but he just had two immunizations yesterday...MMR and HepA.

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Brandy Danielle

Brandy is our firstborn, our precious angel baby girl. Her entry into this world wasn't without excitement. At 26 weeks I started preterm labor with contractions 5 minutes apart. With 10 weeks of strict bedrest, most of which were in the hospital, she made it to 36 weeks.
Brandy was diagnosed with "possible/probable" heart defect around 28-30 weeks gestation. After her birth she was whisked away to the NICU for monitoring and after a few days her defect was formally diagnosed and labeled...atrial septal defect and a cleft mitral valve.
Brandy, upon indications of failure to thrive and pulmonary hypertension, underwent her first of 2 open-heart surgeries at 4 months of age. A week after her surgery on the day of her anticipated discharge home Brandy coded for 13 minutes...a stoke.
From that point on Brandy's life was full of doctor's visits, endless crying, pain and suffering. She underwent another heart surgery, fundoplication and g-tube surgery, treatment for infantile spasms, and a mountain of tests and procedures. Her brain damage was extensive.
Upon counseling of our wonderful, most amazing heart surgeon, Dr. Christopher Knott-Craig, and many hours of prayer, we finally called in hospice and called off all of the extensive medical interventions and surgery needs that would prolong her suffering while possibly prolonging her life. Brandy, our precious baby girl...our angel...passed out of our arms and into the arms of her Saviour, Jesus at the tender age of 17 months.

Ryan Andrew

Ryan, our micro-preemie miracle, is a ball of life. After nearly a year of trying to conceive imagine our delight when we finally knew he was on the way. My pregnancy with Ryan was uneventful at first. It seemed perfect and with all of the precautions for preterm labor being taken and monitored we entered this pregnancy with cautious anticipation covered over by a whole love of naive excitement.
At 20 weeks we discovered our "Baby Peanut" was going to be a little boy. We began to make plans and began dreaming about the day we would meet our son.
Almost 2 weeks later everything changed in our lives. It wa a whirlwind of fear and emtions as I began to bleed, was sent for monitoring in L&D and eventually had an appointment with my OB only to find out that it was serious. I had incompetent cervix with hourglassing membranes. The doctor admitted me to the hospital immediately and an emergency cerclage was placed. The statistics were grim, but the hope was to keep our son inside for at least 10 more weeks. We only made it 10 more days.
Early in the evening of February 11, 2007 our son, Ryan, came into this world in emergency fashion at only 23 weeks 5 days gestation. He weighed 1 pound 8 ounces and was 12 ½ inches long. He was so tiny. All I could think of was “oh my goodness is he really that tiny? And is there any way he could actually make it?” I tried to hold on to hope, but in all honesty I had never met anyone with a baby born that early and that small that ever made it.
Ryan did make it! It was a long, hard road, but in the end he spent 90 days in the NICU. He was on a ventilator for 2 months. Finally on one fine glorious day in May we bundled up our 4 pound 4 ounce baby boy and went home...May 11, 2007.
Ryan is now a spunky, lively, strong-willed little boy. His laughter is contagious and his spirit is compelling. He is our miracle. There are no words strong enough to share our delight and joy that God has blessed us with this little boy.

Evan Alexander