Life Is Good

Sunday, October 31, 2010

Like I mentioned yesterday, we went to Texas last weekend to visit relatives. We left Saturday morning about 5 a.m. That was after a failed attempt at setting the alarm clock correctly and sleeping an hour later than planned. We were hoping to leave around 4:30-ish. Oh well. The trip down was uneventful. Great, I suppose, if you like riding in the car for 4 hours considering we have 2 small kids. Ryan talked the entire way there and Evan slept most of it. We stopped once mid-way for a donut, coffee, and gas.

Saturday morning we went to eat breakfast at Pete's. It's our favorite...and a tradition we wish not to ever break. After breakfast we went back to Gigi and Pawpaw's house for about an hour or 2. We then drove about an hour to Arlington to see great grandma. While we were there and on our way back the heaven's opened up and it dumped buckets. Major storms!

Upon our return to Gigi and Pawpaw's house we visited for a while, and we played for a couple hours. Then we went to the Harvest Festival at Gigi and Pawpaw's church. By that time Ryan had been awake since 5 a.m. (short nap on the way to see great grandma), in the car for almost 6 1/2 hours for the day, and getting rather tired. We only stayed for about 30 minutes. However, Ryan did manage to land himself in jail...

It better be the one and only time he lands himself in jail!

Sunday morning came early after an alarm in Gigi and Pawpaw's house startled the crowd (us) into the new day. We got up, ate, dressed, and went to church. Ryan did great in his little classroom. Evan did great during services until about the last 10 minutes. At which time he and I joined Ryan in the nursery. After church we went to a bbq place and ate and visited with great friends. Ryan went to sleep right as we arrived and would NOT wake up, so we made a bench out of a couple chairs and he slept peacefully (and I ate peacefully!).

After lunch we went back to Gigi and Pawpaw's house and visited and played and took a walk. We started on our way home around 4:30 and got home around 10:30. Yes!...that's six hours to traverse a 4-hour trip. Construction. Ugh.

We had a great weekend, but man were we pooped!

1 comment:

mimi and Grampy said...: Is that Puppy
in Jail or the Pound!; November 2, 2010 at 10:15 PM

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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