Prayers for Baby Vivian and her family

For those that keep up with us, I'd appreciate special prayers tonight for Evan's friend Vivian in the NICU right now. Her heart is close to failure, and we'd just like for you to lift them all up to Jesus right now. Her parents names are Kristen and Peter. They are amazing parents with equally amazing faith. Kristen and I have gotten to know each other after being put in touch shortly after Evan came home from the NICU. What is extremely frustrating, and we'll never know why this side of Heaven, but she did very well prior to some surgeries that were necessary for her to have, and then continued to need increasing respiratory support. As before, that's all I'll share to protect her family, but please keep her in your prayers. Vivian is a beautiful little girl who has touched so many lives.
Thanks, Misty

Vacation

Brianna and Evan

What can I say, I love the camera.
John and Sheila. I know John would be embarrassed to see the bandages are shown in this picture, but we're proud of him and Sheila.
Just Grandpa John and I having fun at the beach!
I love my Grandma!
Grandma Sheila and Davin, and Grandpa John and Evan before we left for the airport. Davin and Evan are wearing matching outfits from Grandma Sheila

Moms and babies enjoying the ocean at Punta Gorda, FL
Mandy and Misty
Evan dipping his toes in the ocean for the first time ever! Look at me now, NICU doctors and nurses! I just can't be stopped!
My "at the beach" outfit that mom picked out. I have swim trunks, a surfer shirt (that really ended up being a hunky belly shirt) and a beach bum hat! I loved the beach.
The boys both needed a bath, so we thought, what the heck...a bath together would be fun! I think they agreed!

Evan, Paul, Misty, Mandy, Andy, and Davin in the ocean at the beach in Punta Gorda, Florida


We had such a wonderful time in Florida, visiting Paul's mom and stepdad, Sheila and John. John has been enduring a second occurance of leukemia, and will undergo a second bone marrow transplant in the near future. As that takes a pretty nasty toll on a person, we knew he'd be unable to travel any time soon and all of us flew down to Port Charlotte, FL to spend time with Grandpa John and Grandma Sheila. By all of us I mean Paul, Evan, and I; Andy, Mandy, & Davin, and Paul and Mandy's brother, Matt. So, five adults and two carseats with exceptionally cute babies in them, piled into a rented minivan and drove two hours down the gulf to their beautiful home in Port Charlotte, FL. We went to the beach, did some shopping, ate out a couple times, ate in a couple times, took a sunset cruise on a small boat, visited with some family of Paul's (Aunt Dannee and Uncle Steve, his cousin David and wife Carla with their kids Brianna and Jacob).



Brianna and Evan have a whole lot in common, as she was born at only 24 weeks gestation due to Carla having preeclampsia. Brianna was born at only 1 lb. 3 oz. and spent nearly 5 months in the NICU in Indianapolis at Riley Hospital. You'll see a picture of her and Evan together with this post. She is truly a miracle, never experiencing any brain bleeding, cerebral palsy, or lasting effects of her prematurity. She did have a monitor like Evan's, and was on oxygen for quite a long time once coming home, but now she's a happy, healthy six year old girl. Its interesting to look at her when you know the subtle facial characteristics that many micro-preemies have, you can sort of pick them out. If you look at the picture and compare her and Evan, you can see that their faces are structured alike. Their cheeks are chubby not out to the sides, but the chub comes forward. Their eyes are placed slightly in the same place, and their chins are the same. This is because she also had what the nurses affectionately called "toaster head." Preemies that spend so much time lying down on their sides have thinner faces and elongated heads for some time until their soft bones shift and develop while they grow and gain more weight. It is encouraging to see that Brianna has a full, filled out face now as a young child. While we remember Evan having "toaster head," his has definitely nearly corrected itself, but he has not been spared a crooked head from preferring to lie on his right side! Maybe you think its insensitive to say that, but I'm perfectly comfortable pointing it out because if that's all we got from his extreme prematurity, then I'm thrilled to death!



Anyhow, getting to speak with her mother Carla and visit with Brianna was a highlight for me, as it is very difficult to find other parents of preemies like Evan who appear to have only mild effects of the circumstances of their birth.







We had the greatest time with Andy and Mandy and Davin, and visiting with Sheila and John. They seem to be in great spirits despite the difficulty of dealing with a long-term illness, for John as well as for Sheila as a caregiver. Sheila helps John take care of his PICC line (a semi-permanent IV line) each evening. John isn't behaving as he should (as any man would) mostly because he works in the yard outside, and generally won't just stay put and rest!







We had an awesome time at the beach, of which there are pictures posted, and Evan and Davin had a great time getting to know each other better. Davin is extremely fond of Evan, and wants nothing more than to touch him and squeeze him and love on him. He couldn't get enough of him, watched him all the time, and even shared a bath with him! Mandy said that he's still looking for him, from checking out all of the other strollers at their airport once they landed in Nashville, to trying to get to his picture on their computer screen. I'm sure if Evan could tell us the way Davin can, that he'd do the same.







Evan seems to be doing so many more things now, just after the week of our vacation. He seems so much more alert, he loves to stand up, he's making more faces, and he even tried cereal while we were at Grandma's! He wants to be like his cousin Davin.







This is an incredibly long post, so I'm going to cut it short. Enjoy our pictures!

Pictures!

Hard evidence of his new skills...no such luck capturing his rolling over. Stinker!

This is Evan with the famous Dr. Gilmore. It took some begging to get her to pose with him, and you can see he's smirking because of it. He gave her a great big smile as soon as he saw her. Nurse Laura was jealous because he smiled at Dr. Gilmore first! In case anyone is wondering why Dr. Gilmore is famous, it's because most times that Evan progressed in the NICU, it was because of a decision or treatment that Dr. Gilmore made.

This is Evan with Nurse Jan, from Labor and Delivery, that took such good care of Misty in the hospital. She nicknamed Evan "Bladder Boy" because he was stomping on Misty's bladder and Jan was the first one to believe her that he was making the catheter move and as a result cause her extreme pain. Jan also gave Misty a back rub, so she of course earned extra points for that.

Among the new things he's learning includes how to charm Mom's socks off. One look at those dimples, and its all over.

I thought I'd sneak up on him and take this picture of him in first thing in the morning. He heard me coming.

A foreign language...

Well, the Kerns are still learning how to speak "Evan." It was amazing...he was upset most of the day and evening, not eating well AT ALL (1.5 ounces at most, when he had been taking 4-5oz each feeding) and wouldn't tolerate being held, put down, or placed in his swing. This is all very unusual for him, as he really doesn't cry unless he's hungry.

Anyhow, back to the amazing part: He hadn't had a dirty diaper since Tuesday (3 days) and as soon as we gave him something for it (I'll spare you the details) he was instantly happy! The doctors office told us to wait until Sunday to intervene, but with his mood today I decided it was time for him to go! He then gobbled down almost 5 ounces and went right to sleep. I probably shouldn't have been so impatient, but he just wasn't himself. Paul commented on that when he got home, that he hadn't been himself the last couple days.

Tomorrow is the March of Dimes walk that we'll walk in to raise money and awareness for premature babies. I never really understood what it was all about until now, but they fund research and prevention programs and much more.

We'll be walking with Angie Winkler, who organized a team and raised money, as I just couldn't commit to doing it. But she's a great friend and has been touched by our little man's journey, so thank you Angie, very much!

I'm going to try to post more pictures, but sometimes it doesn't work. Good night and God Bless!