Joel

Hey everybody,
My brother Joel is still at Riley and will be until at least next week. He is improving though, and is in good spirits most of the time. I'm pretty sure I already explained a little bit, but he has a GI disease that has resulted in lots of bleeding, and has been at Riley since late Sunday night. He was severely anemic and S.Bend Memorial wanted him down at Riley to better control his symptoms, as his doctor, the only pediatric GI doctor around, practices down there. He was diagnosed with this last July, but has been suffering a severe flare-up for a few weeks, and it has come to this. But, as I said, it is improving! Hopefully we'll see him coming home next week.

Please pray for him,
Misty

Happy New Year!!!

He loves to play in his crib in the mornings.
This was Evan and Landon after we tried FOREVER to get a nice picture of the two of them together.

Misty, Evan, Gavin, Shannon, Sam, Becca, and Landon.

We got to spend a few hours together while we were in town.

Evan and Davin, his cousin and best bud.

Evan thoroughly enjoyed fingerpainting some gifts.

Happy New Year to everyone! We continue to thank the Lord for the healthy little boy we have, and know that this year will be even better than the last. Though last year we spent the holidays in the hospital with Evan, we have found ourselves celebrating this holiday season as his first. It just feels that way to us, since he didn't come home until Jan. 12th.

We had an awesome Christmas last week. Evan has more toys than he could ever play with in a week. He also received an Evan-sized armchair and a toybox. You know, now that I think about it, he really didn't receive a massive amount of toys. It was just the right amount to keep him busy, and for me to cycle in and out of the mix so that he doesn't stay bored with what he's already got. We also got to spend some time with Becca and Shannon and their families. Shannon's kids are Gavin and Samantha (Sam) and they are almost 5 and 2 1/2. Becca had Landon Jan. 25th, which was the due date that she and I shared. So, Evan technically should be similar in size to Landon and doing similar things. And he is! It is so exciting. Evan is possibly a little taller, too. But Landon has about three or four pounds on Evan, and is walking. But it was so nice to see that for his adjusted age, Evan is right on track! Praise the Lord.

I'd like to ask you for your prayers for my little brother. I don't want to say too much, but just to say that he is having some health issues and is at Riley Hospital right now until they are under control. He's been having these same health issues for a year, and was taken to the hospital Sunday evening in South Bend, then transported to Riley to get them under control. He's still there, and possibly will be through the weekend.

Diaper Rash!?!?!?!

Any ideas on how to treat real, red, inflamed diaper rash? Evan is miserable. He has never even had a red behind until now. It started Tuesday when he must have woken up in the early morning for his morning poo, then fell back to sleep, because I found a mess when he woke me up in the morning at 7:30a. It seemed to have been there for awhile. He's never done this before. He has had problems with yeast down there, which yes, little boys still deal with as well because it also lives in poo. This started as a yeast infection and I think it is now just a plain old diaper rash. His problem with yeast always started in the places that no longer exist because of his circumcision, but now it started from this one time waking up in the morning, sitting who knows how long in his poo. I already feel like a bad mom for lots of things, then I go and let this happen. I'm not sure exactly how I could have prevented it, but that's good ol' "Mom guilt" for you.
Ideas would be great!!

Christmas is coming soon!

Up on hands and knees!
Now, since he can crawl, he pulls himself up on everything!

This is one of his favorite places to pull himself up...the edge of the couch. He loves to sit on his knees, which he is in the process of doing right here.

He started crawling and finally got his 2nd tooth (1st one came in over two months ago!) on December 6th. Since then, he's gotten the rest of his teeth that come at this time...he has cut 5 teeth in a matter of two weeks!! He's done so much in the last two weeks for us to be proud of...crawling, tons of teeth, pulling himself up, cruising, and trying to let go of whatever he's holding onto when standing! He's a man now, not my little baby :(

We wish everyone a very merry Christmas! We will have a busy Christmas extended weekend, as we will attend one family Christmas gathering every day starting with Christmas morning and ending Sunday evening. No complaints, however, because we're eager to visit with family we don't see everyday. And we will miss Sheila and John, Paul's mom and stepdad, as they are in sunny Florida. Yesterday Huntington was -3 degrees. Florida was 73. This injustice has no words fit to describe it.


Here's a few pictures to enjoy of Evan...I'm sure Christmas weekend will provide plenty of opportunities for photo shoots, to add to the blog.

Surgery

Evan's surgery went really well. He didn't cry like they said he would coming out of the anesthetic, as I guess some kids really let loose. He was just himself! And, before the surgery, when they took him away, I was perfectly calm. I had thought and thought about that moment and got all upset nearly every time I thought about it. But the nurses and staff were all great, answering my questions and informing us about what was going to be done. And, when the nurse who would be attending the surgery came for him, he grinned at us, over her shoulder, all the way down the hallway. We dressed him in the little booties, and they even had an Evan-sized hospital gown, open in the back, of course! I found myself wishing I had a camera. Who wants to commemorate their infant son's surgery? Don't know what's wrong with me...

So, our crawling, two-tooth wonder (one top and one bottom...he definitely does things his own way) is slightly fussy and doesn't quite know what he wants at this moment as I write. He's watching a movie, and just might get to do so most of the day. His mom and dad, having gotten up at 2:45am to be in Indy by 5:30am, are anxiously awaiting their saviour, Grandma Rhonda, to arrive and allow some naptime!!!

Crawling!!!

Evan is crawling and is so excited to show it off!! Sometimes, he is so excited to be mobile that you can see his legs go faster than his arms. Funny!

I'm going to try to post a video. We'll see how that works out!

This is also the eve of his surgery...his "little boy" surgery. He is being circumcised tomorrow, very early in the morning, in Indy. We have to go to Indy because the pediatric urologist does not do surgeries here in Ft. Wayne because they do not employ pediatric anesthesiologists. And that is fine with me! We want him to have as little as possible, as we do not want him intubated (with a tube down his throat helping him breathe) because of the damage that has already been done to his trachea and vocal chords. If they do have to use more than a facemask or oxygen, they will use something different than the ET tube, and it will only go through his vocal chords and not down his trachea.

Anyhow, updates are sure to follow!



Pay no attention to the fussing baby in the background...it is Lucas. He was getting hungry.

Thanksgiving

A sort of journal entry from me (Misty), since I don't have access to any pictures right now :(

Thanksgiving means so much more to me this year, as I'm sure holidays always take on new meaning for those that were childless the year before. Listen to how I speak of it, though...as if he didn't exist last year. I have found myself several times this year thinking it was actually Evan's first Thanksgiving and Christmas. But it's not. And we do have fond memories of last year's holiday season...the NICU nurses and doctors, his photo shoots with Nurse Laura, the gifts we received for him, the time away from the NICU to be with family and friends we so missed. No, it's not his first holiday season, but it is certainly a different holiday season than last year. I have found myself emotional when engaging in typical, traditional events this holiday season, such as decorating for Christmas and having Thanksgiving dinner. I have so much to be thankful for. And it's not the good reports at the doctors, the milestones he achieves, or even his amazing smile that gets me emotional (most times). It's when we're doing something mundane such as grocery shopping, sitting down to dinner at Thanksgiving (not exactly mundane, but a very normal activity), and simply visiting with family that I find myself choked up. It is these very normal, traditional, day-to-day tasks and events that would be so very different had Evan's course in the hospital gone differently. He either just wouldn't be here, bringing a smile to my face nearly every minute of every day (except, of course, when he won't eat for me), or he could still be here but be a very different little boy, either physically or cognitively. But instead, I took home the sweetest, best behaved, smartest, happiest, cutest little man EVER. What did I do to deserve THAT? What makes me so special that I get him? Why do other people, who would make amazing parents, have to watch their precious little girl teeter on the edge of life for months on end, just to put her to rest in Jesus' arms? Don't get me wrong...Jesus' arms is a fine place to be, but why do they have to suffer and I get what I have?

I was so relieved today that we skipped one of our traditions of going around the table to state what we are thankful for. I was having one of my choked-up-because-we're-doing-something-normal-with-our-healthy-baby moments at just the time we would have been stating what we are thankful for. I'm sure I would have only been able to eek out the name Evan. Just Evan.