hand in hand

For those of you who don't already know our insurance did go through and was approved! Joe and I are so relieved and nervous. We leave to Boston for our little mans first procedure on Sunday August 28. We will be doing assesments and testing/appoinments all day Monday, then Tuesday will be the actual procedure, Wednesday will be recovery and as long as everything is going good we get to fly home Thursday. Quick and easy...(right?) Pretty amazing what they can do and how they do it.

Each day that goes by seems to make me more and more nervous...I know Dr. Tworetsky is an amazing surgen and knows what he is doing, but still you place so much faith in these people and just pray that it will help. One thing that seems to never slip my mind is that our Heavenly Father is in charge and His will will be done. I feel very comforted by this and relieved by it in every way. Like I said, I'm still so nervous and have so many questions.

So if you remember Tuesday we would really appreciate your prayers! Thank you everyone who has helped us so much with the girls and with lining everything out, you have made this a tremendous amount easier!

pre school already?

Ryah started pre school on Tuesday: I have the weirdest mixed emotions about this. I'm sure every mother goes through this. I am so so thrilled she is going because she is so ready for something new and so ready for "school". I am also so weirded out that she is big enough to go to pre school. She absolutely loves it though and loves. Mrs. Tarrah...

All morning I kept telling her Mrs. Montgomery is going to be your new school teacher and she was so excited. So after I picked her up from school I asked her, " How did you like Mrs. Montgomery as your new teacher?" She said, " She wasn't there, it was just Mrs. Tarrah." Oh how that girl makes me giggle. She loves going to school and loves her hello kitty back pack. It is really nice for me to be able to spend some one on one time with Aubree! I think Aubree loves it too.

The pictures of Ryah all dressed in the blue is the outfit she wore to the first day of school, and of course she picked it out. I would have probably made her change if she wasn't so thrilled about how well she did with all the matching blue...I just didn't have the heart to tell her otherwise. She made it cute though:) And the other pictures were her second day. I thought she looked so stinken cute so I had to take more pictures. And of course my sweet Aubree Kate looked to adorable too, so we had to take some pictures of her. I love those cheesey grins and beautiful blue eyes! I'm one lucky mamma!

Happy pre school days Ryah!

something:

something embarrassing: Today, Ryah somehow managed to stick her head into the back of the plastic chair in sacrament meeting and get it stuck. Yep...the whole meeting stopped and turned back to look as she began crying and then screaming. It wouldn't have been too bad if she would have been able to get it out, but no...she was freaking out way to bad and it took a minute as she screamed and as sacrament meeting was silently staring at us...

something sad: Joe left to go fishing today and I am home without him a couple of days. My bed feels too empty when he is gone. Maybe I'll sneak Ryah and Aubree in with me.

something cute: My mom asked Ryah if Joe and I had talked to her about her baby brother. She said yes in a sad/serious tone, and my mom then asked, "what is wrong with him"? Ryah then turned to my mom and said in a devastated voice, " He has a broken neck"...(as she was placing her hands over her neck). It was worth a try right? I got a good laugh out of it.

something irritating: sitting in the doctors office for two hours because Aubree is sick, and getting checked for 5 minutes then him saying everything looks great, keep her fever down and watch her diarrhea... uh, DUH! Thanks Doc.

something gross: Aubree pooping in the tub and trying to clean it out! Thanks sweet baby...

something funny: Missy at game night trying to act out Jack Nicholas, with her hands held up to her eye like shes looking through a door or something, and Greg guessing a gynecologist... (really Greg?) Oh the roar Tom got out of that...then he had to add on of course, I won't go into details...needless to say, it was funny.

something I'm frustrated about: still waiting on insurance to clear for the Boston procedure.

something sweet: Heath bars and mint chocolate chip ice cream.

something nice: My husband, he just finished the outside of our house and it looks so good. I can't believe all the things he does! He really is superman I think...I really really really love him

dealing with people like us

Today we got some really great news! There is a wonderful foundation called the Ellianna Grace Foundation that deals with people who undergo in utero surgery and who have to fly to Boston, and stay for a week or so. They deal with people like us. So as long as Boston is a go we will have one plane ticket paid for, our hotel expenses paid for, a food card and a taxi voucher back to the air port.

I can't express in words, the load and burden lifted off our shoulders... It humbles me to know how kind and generous people are. I know we are being watched over and can feel so much comfort and peace through all of this. If you want to find out more about the Ellianna Grace Foundation their site is, www.elliannagrace.org or go to their face book page  www.facebook.com/ElliannaGrace. Brita the founder has quiet the story. You won't regret reading it. Anyway, thank you everyone for your prayers. We have truly felt them! We have been so blessed throughout our lives, and I feel we will continually be blessed if keep trying to do what is right. I know we don't always have the answers, but I do know we have a Heavenly Father who loves us, and so many gracious people supporting us and praying for us.

Here is my 28 week picture, it feels so silly to post these pictures, but I know I will want to have them for later! So sorry you have to put up with them:) They are more for me then anything...

sweet son of ours

So we were able to meet with Dr. Stock, the fetal cardiologist and we absolutly loved him, and were so pleased to work with him. We found out a few more interesting problems developing with the baby which they were concerned about. His atrial septum has begun to close off. This is considered the highest risk type of hypoplastic left heart syndrome. The atrial septum is basically the hole in the heart which all babies have that closes up shortly after birth. This hole is vital for babies with HLHS because the left side is non working and the atrial septum is the hole allowing blood flow to his body which the left side is suppose to do. Dr. Stock has spoken with another cardiologist, and spoke to a surgen in Boston about our situation and they are in want to perform an in utero catheterization. This will allow them to go in to the babies heart while he is still in utero and place a stint in the atrial septum to open it back up and to keep it open. On top of all of this my fluid levels were high at 25cm, which is dangerous to the baby and to me if they get too high they will hospitialize me, put me on steroids and deliver the baby as soon as his lungs are more developed from the steroids. I have been really trying to hold it together, but I feel like its one thing right on top of another. We are hopful, and love this sweet son of ours. We know he is perfect in everyway, and feel very blessed to have him as part of our family. Yesterday was the day we told Ryah of her sweet baby brother. She was watching Joe and I hold eachother crying and she came up to ask me why I was so sad...It's hard to tell a three year old her baby brother has a broken heart, we tried to explain he will be a special brother and she will have to be an extra big help to mom and dad and baby brother. She was pretty concerned and kept asking me throughout the day if I was still sad. She is such a sweetheart, she kept giving me hugs and kisses which I really needed. As far as right now, we are waiting for our appointment Friday to make any decisions. They have us schedualed in Boston for August 14, but they are giving us a few days to decide on weather we want to do the surgery in utero or not. The other thing the Boston group told us is they would like to do the three surgeries after birth there if we get this opening of the atrial septum done there. I know the Lord will guide us in our decisions, but we really can't make any set decisions right now. Hopefully come Friday we will know a little bit better on what to do. The good news is my placenta has moved up and is no longer a concern! It is still lying low, but it's up enough that we don't have to worry about it! The other wonderful thing that happend to us while we were there was we got to see our beautiful, perfect son in 3 and 4d. Here is one of the pictures we got. I love and cherish this picture. Isn't he sweet?