Piano lessons

Evan's new piano teacher gave him homework for the week-she told him to watch this video on You Tube!

Baptism

Evan drew this in church right after the baptism

He's dressed just like my dad!

Pastor Steve, Evan and Mike

We had Evan baptized at the bedside in the NICU when he was 13 days old, the night before his esophageal and fistula repair. He was a fragile baby with a critical airway and I just had this overwhelming feeling that I HAD to have him baptized prior to this surgery. So, the chaplain on duty that night came to the NICU and performed the sacrament for us. I always felt it was an act of desperation, not celebration.

So, here we are almost 8 years later. Once we made the decision to start going to First United Methodist in London, I knew it was time to have Evan baptized again. Mike made the decision to join the church but he had never been baptized so we asked that the pastor baptize them both. I had asked Steve what the church thought about a re-baptism and he said this: "As I see it, this would not be a re-baptism. I view it as an "extension" of the event that began so long ago. You see, a congregation must be present to witness and participate in the vows both given and received at a baptism. And, though a congregation was present (those who were there at the bedside constituted a congregation for "where two or more are gathered..."), the "entire" community of faith was not. The congregation that held Evan in prayer, that loved him before seeing him, were not there to bear witness or to vow to help raise him in the faith. By our "extending" the actions of that baptismal moment into the here and now, the entire congregation can complete what was begun. All that is to say, we can simply celebrate his baptism like in other, as the body of Christ known as First UMC in London. And, we can celebrate Mike's baptism at the same time. What a rare treat to baptize father and son, together on All Saints Sunday, which seems a very appropriate day to baptize Evan, a little one for whom all the saints prayed, and now,with whom all the saints will have the opportunity to rejoice. " Well, that sealed the deal for me!


It was wonderful. Mike and another new member were baptized first and Steve saved Evan for last. He commented about the power of prayer and how that congregation prayed and prayed for this little boy and look at him now. There wasn't a dry eye in the house. He told me later than he almost got choked up as well. Of course I was a mess! This was one occasion that I really missed my dad and had wished he was there. I know he was with though, I have no doubt. My brother and his family (minus Sam) were there as was my Aunt Georgia and afterwards we gathered at Liz's along with our close friends Jim and Diane for pizza and ice cream! Evan told me later that Jesus was there with him while he was getting the water on his head. Amen to that.

Happy Halloween!!

The boys with Tom

Tom's

The kids at the Farners

Indy

Indy

The two Indys

Me and my guy

Indy

Evan, Owen and Andrew

CANDY!!!

Evan's favorite day of the year is coming to a close. We had a great day with the school parade and party and lots of fun trick or treating. We went to party at 5, came home at 6 and trick or treated in our neighborhood with friends Andrew and Owen then went back to the party for awhile. We had to make sure we went to Tom's house which is one neighborhood over from ours. We discovered Tom's love of Halloween decorating when Evan was in preschool. We started stalking his house, pretty much every morning on the way to school and over the years have gotten to know him. He loves the fact that Evan gets such a kick out of his house so he waits for him every Halloween now and has a special goody bag just for him. This year he took down 3 of his skulls and gave one to each of the boys. Evan ended up with 9 lbs of candy, most of which will end up on MY thighs!! He likes to dump it out and sort it but then he's not too interested in it aftewards. I on the other hand become obsessed with it and have to eat it until it's gone. Oh, BTW, hot cider and Jim Beam is a very good combination!! I found that out tonight. :)

Fabulous fall weekend

We had the best weekend. My cousin Jim and his wife Jenny live on about 12 acres in southwest Ohio, near Cincinnati. You can see pictures of their place on a blog entry from August. Anyhow, we went there on Saturday along with my mom for a little overnight getaway/Halloween extravaganza! Much of their property is woods and when we were there in August, it was determined that it would be a great place for a haunted trail! So, a haunted trail was created just for Evan. Their 14 yr old nephew created the entire thing-thank you Carl!! Our day was spent carving pumpkins, hiking in the woods, riding on the tractor. Then evening came. We first went up the road to a haunted corn maze-OMG, it was so much fun. Evan wasn't quite sure about it-he went thru the whole thing but I think was then leery of going on the haunted trail when we got back. I had to explain to him that it wasn't like the maze-no one was going to jump out at him-it would just be Jenny and Carl in the woods. It took a bit of convincing but off we went. It was great. Evan loved it! We then had a bonfire along with s'mores and then Evan was done for the night. Next morning we were treated to a huge

breakfast and then we took off for the barn where Jenny keeps her horse. Evan rode for a little while but then the horse was spooked by a deer and that ended the ride real quick!

We had such a wonderful time, thanks to my wonderful cousins. I just love my family. Evan has been in tears every day since we left because he misses them so much and is sad that the weekend was over. :( Bless his heart. Jenny called yesterday and said that they decided it needed to be an annual event-I told her they were on the same wave length as Evan because he told me Monday that it needed to become a tradition.

I just love YouTube!

I mean, come on-where else can you find a clip from the Partridge Family??

NICU Newsletter Article

This is an article I wrote for our NICU Newsletter.

"We must be willing to get rid of the life we’ve planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us." -Joseph Campbell, author.

This quote has been on my refrigerator for the past 7 years, ever since my son Evan was born. I doubt I would have thought anything of this quote if it had not for the birth of my beautiful boy.

January 18th, 2001-11:41 a.m. Evan entered my world and my life has never been the same. I had developed pre-eclampsia at 30 weeks and made it to 33 weeks before they had to take him. No one seemed overly concerned at OSU that he was going to be 7 weeks early so we weren’t either. During the c-section the doctor commented on the fact that he had punched his hand out and he had an extra thumb. I was devastated! My baby was not "perfect". What were we going to do? Little did I know that the extra thumb would be the least of our worries. By 1:30 p.m., Evan had been transferred to Children’s because of respiratory distress-they had a hard time intubating him and it was discovered that he was born with a tracheoesophageal fistula, esophageal atresia and a laryngeal web. It was so difficult to be separated from him but I remained at OSU for 4 days before I could come here to see him. That in itself was devastating. Was he scared? Was he in pain? My heart was breaking, knowing he was here by himself. Yes, my husband spent much of the time here during those 4 days but I couldn’t shake the feeling that Evan needed his mommy to be by his side. Once I was released, I never left his side. My life for the next 45 days would consist of sleeping at home and being here at the hospital during the day. It was so difficult to pull myself away from him each night. After my 10 minute ride home, I would often call the unit to see how he was doing!

49 days after our journey here began, we took our baby boy home-he was 5 lbs., he had a trach and G-J tube. Not the way we had planned on starting our life with our son. I was so incredibly scared-this is not what I signed up for. I had visions of never leaving my house because how could I drive by myself with him in the backseat with a trach? How would I be able to just run to the store with all the paraphernalia we had to take along with us? How were we going to do it? Would we ever lead a "normal" life again? Not only was I scared but I was mad, I was sad and felt our situation so incredibly unfair. He was my first and only child. Why didn’t I get to experience first time motherhood the way all my friends and family had? Why me?

But you know what? We DID do it. We had to create a new "normal". We endured countless appointments-neonatal clinic, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, numerous OR visits for bronchoscopies and endoscopies. We changed his trach. We changed his Mic-Key button. My husband could set up and turn on the feeding pump in his sleep. We sat through a 6 hour surgery where a team of doctors actually reconstructed his airway so that he could breathe without a tube in his neck. We went to a feeding clinic because of he had trouble eating solid food. Who knew there was such a thing?? In my life before Evan I would of thought that to be very strange-don’t all kids know how to eat?

As our life with Evan unfolded, we learned that he would not hit the baby milestones when others did, like crawling, walking, talking. So, when that day came that he first crawled (18 months) and when that day came when he first walked (Christmas Eve, when he was 23 months) we embraced those milestones with all that we had and celebrated what he had accomplished. At one point we were told that he may never have a voice. As I mentioned earlier, he had to have his airway reconstructed using cartilage from his rib cage when he was 18 months and the trach was in for another 9 months. Up until the surgery, he made no noise because his cords were fused together. When we got the o.k. to start using a speaking valve on the trach, probably about 3 months or so after the surgery, I remember holding my breath and praying that he could tolerate it and that we’d finally hear his little voice. We DID hear his voice that day and he hasn’t stopped talking since! I actually have to tell him to stop talking at times, something I never thought I’d have to do. He has a somewhat gravelly,whispery voice because of all the scarring on his cords-people ask me ALL THE TIME if he's got a sore throat- but he makes himself heard and he doesn’t let it stop him when it comes to participating in school or talking with his friends or talking to anyone that will listen to him because he has a lot to say!

Remember how I wondered why me? Well, now, seven years later, I can say why not me? I am blessed with a confident, beautiful, smart, funny, compassionate 2nd grader who wakes up each day with a smile on his face and love in his heart.