Handsome Fellow

Tara and I (accompanied by Lulu, Tara's mother, this time :) visited UAB again today for an ultrasound check-up for Dade.  First thing's first: everything but his CDH remains normal!  The little guy is now a strapping 3.3 lbs. (up 1.3+ lbs. in the 3 weeks since last time) and has graduated from the 34th percentile to the 51st percentile in size.

We are so very thankful that nothing else appears to be amiss right now.  We've heard many stories from other families who have dealt with CDH coupled with other serious issues, so we know how blessed we are to have nothing else facing us at the moment.  We do have one more appointment just to make 100% sure that Dade's heart is at full function.  When I wrote about our last visit on May 7th, I mentioned that Dade wasn't turned in a way that let Dr. Kimberlin (one of the group attending physicians with whom Tara and I have developed a rapport) completely see his heart.  She tried again today, and again, he was turned face down so no go.  Dr. Kimberlin tried to coax him into flipping over, but apparently the little man was having a good nap!  Since she couldn't get a good look, Dr. Kimberlin is sending us to see a pediatric cardiologist so they can accurately assess his heart.  There are no concerns that anything is wrong with his heart, but they're just making absolutely sure!  The appointment with the cardiologist is June 5th.  I've added it to the list of dates in the right sidebar, so please be praying that we leave there still having no concerns about his heart function.

The best thing to come out of today is that we got to see Dade's face for the first time!  The ultrasound tech was doing her thing when she suddenly switched on the 4D.  She didn't even tell us she was about to do it, so it caught us both off guard in a great way!  It took my breath away for a second; it's wonderful watching the screen as those regular ultrasound images are showing, but it's a completely different feeling seeing this fetching face up on the screen:

FIG. 1 - Morning Nap

I haven't been able to stop looking at him all day; it's nice to put a face with a name!  Especially that face and that name!

As always, thank you all for your continued prayers, notes, and calls.  We love getting little snippets of scripture and encouraging words from you!  I'll close with a favorite of mine sent to me by Mark Conner, the director of the Engineering Academy at Hoover High School and someone I'm honored to call a colleague and friend.  He texted me this statement from his Sunday school teacher: "God is not reacting to your life; He's ordaining it!"  As long as this road will be, I breathe easily knowing that all of this is not and will not be in vain, and I can't wait for the hindsight that lets us see what God already knows!

We love you all!  More to come. 

Choose Joy

"Choose Joy" was written on a leather cuff bracelet worn by my friend Holly.  It is a bracelet that I have searched to find for myself since seeing it on her late last year.  Those two words have stuck with me through the aching of the last six months and have become my motto and goal for each day.  Our attitude is a choice. It truly is up to us.  It is impossible for me to control our current situation or the recent months events. I AM in control of how I react to the situation, how I treat others, and how I will face each day.  Do I cry often? Absolutely! Do I smile often? Absolutely! There are so many GOOD things in my life that I refuse to focus or dwell on the bad or "what ifs." We think about it, we talk about it, we cry about it, and keep going day after day. Right now, I have no reason not to keep fighting and seeing Joy in so many things around me.  DJ and I had braced ourselves for discouraging news at Dade's echo cardiogram last week, but gratefully it went well and our MD saw no complications or issues! THAT is something to be joyful about. EVERYTHING other than his hernia looks good so there are many reasons to rejoice.  His heart, his head, his brain, his spine, arms and legs, etc. look wonderful and measure perfectly.

This past weekend, I attended a baby shower Saturday morning, we went to a wedding Saturday night, celebrated our 6th Anniversary, and Mother's Day. To say the weekend was full of many emotions would be an understatement.  The whole dynamic of our anniversary was different this year. Our marriage is different with what we've endured the last six months and what we know is ahead.  We are stronger than we have ever been. I have seen more and more of DJ's strengths through this more than ever before. He has been so encouraging, loving, helpful, and has been the best team mate to go through this with.  

Mother's Day was perfect!  DJ's Dad had made reservations for the whole family at a fabulous place called Central in downtown Montgomery.  If you haven't been, add it to your list! Anyway, we had a very special lunch with his mother, grandmother, both sisters and their children, and Dads.  We opened gifts together and enjoyed visiting at his sisters house before returning to Birmingham to visit with my Mom.  She came to our house and we had a sweet visit together. She brought me tulips (my favorite) and I gave her the gift she had asked for.

I woke to many texts, Facebook messages, and had a precious voice mail wishing me a "Happy Mothers Day" from my best friend in Nashville. I have also received several cards from many of you.  Thank you for making my first Mothers Day very special!  I received two precious gifts that I'll never forget.  The cross I received from "The Deupree Sisters" was priceless for many reasons and the necklace from DJ was exactly what I hoped for. The necklace he gave me has two disks, one engraved with "Dade," and the other with "Joy."  This serves as a symbol and reminder for me that I will "Choose Joy" with our situation and with whatever we may face with Dade.  It doesn't mean I won't have rough days, shed many tears, or that I am unrealistic.  It means that we will continue to seek God's will in this.

When my grandmother, Honey, was dying we had this cross that said "Grandmother" in her hand.  I had given it to her for Mother's Day or her birthday the year before.  She always loved crosses and this one was special to her.  Last week, I checked the mail and opened a package where I found a similar cross for Dade from The Deupree Sisters. It has sweet baby footprints on it. Scarlotte, Jenna, Julie, and Mrs. Joy had no idea of the connection, but I immediately felt their love as well as Honey's, so present.  Jenna didn't remember the cross that was in Honey's hand, but loved the coincidence when I explained exactly how special it was to me.

Please know how grateful we are for your cards, prayers, texts, Facebook messages, and calls.  We had two more precious cards come today, one from cousins in Texas and the other was from a church in Montgomery.  Just so you know where they go, we have a bucket that we place all of our/his cards in.  We call it the "Dade Bucket" and it hangs on his bedroom door.  I love adding to it daily.  Thank you for following us through this! 

Great News!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers today when we went for Dade's echo-cardiogram.  Everything the doctor was able to see looked perfect!  I say "able to see" because the little guy was being a little obstinate.  I said in the first post that Dade comes from a long line of hard-headed determination, and that started to show itself today!  The doctor kept shaking and bouncing the ultrasound probe trying to get him to roll over so she could take a look at other parts of his heart, but he was having none of it.  In fact, he just stuck out his tongue and hunkered down!  So, we'll have to wait a few weeks to make 100% sure that his heart is all clear, but from the looks of things now, everything is just fine.

Pleasantly Surprised!

Hi, everybody!  It seems that we should have done this a while ago!  Tara and I have been surprised at the number of people who have read our first 2 posts (2500 people in about 48 hours), and are very thankful for the overwhelmingly loving messages and encouragement we've received - even from people we've never met.  As I said in the first post, we're blessed with a HUGE network of family and friends.  It looks like that network is only going to grow from here!  A special hello to those reading from Germany, the UK, Brazil, Poland, and the Dominican Republic.

As far as updates go, there's nothing new to report at the moment, so I'll keep it short.  We're just continuing on as normal, and have started getting Dade's room together.  Thank you, Lulu (Cynthia, Tara's mother) for all of your help getting the closet cleaned out!  It's amazing how much stuff two people can accumulate over 6 years. Room decorating will kick into high gear as soon as I'm finished with school in a few weeks.  I have some sanding, priming, and painting to do, but I don't think it will take too long.  I've said that before though...

One little thing I want to point out too, is that we've added a list of important dates to the right sidebar. We'll list things like upcoming doctor appointments so that everybody can be praying specifically on those days.  Number one on the list is this coming Wednesday morning, May 7th.  We'll go to UAB for Dade to have a prenatal echo-cardiogram.  The doctors have looked at his heart a few times already and say that all is functioning as normal.  However, since birth defects tend to come in twos, and the heart is the most common place for another defect to manifest itself, they're doing the cardiogram to check things out more thoroughly.  We would greatly appreciate your prayers for good news that day.  We'll of course update here once we get some results.

We love you all!