Congratulations!!!!!

Just wanted to post that our bestest friends, Emily and Mark, had their first baby yesterday, March 3 (2 weeks early). Riley Nicole was born at 5:20 pm. She was 5 lbs. 13 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long. I was very excited to be on the other end of the delivery room. Emily did great. Her and Riley are doing well, Mark is surviving too!

Andrew's Birthday Pictures

Tara holding her brother's birthday balloons


Andrew's Birthday

Needless to say, Tara didnt want to let the balloons go (as you can see from the picture). She wanted to keep them there. We tied them to one of the flower vases on the stone. We also couldnt find a balloon that said "I Love You" so we ended up with just the birthday one. I thought it turned out pretty good though. Andrew's "aunt" Emily and "unlce" Mark took him a block for his birthday to "play" with. You can see it in the picture on the left toward the light. Tara sang happy birthday to her brother last night before she got into bed. It was so sweet. We are going to go back out tonight and pick the balloon up, deflate it and put it in the basket full of his momentos we have sitting in the living room. We thought that would be a good idea since Tara didnt want to let it go.

Happy Birthday to my Angel!!!!!

It is hard to believe that it has been a year (at 5:10 pm) since I gave birth to him. I still wish that he was here with us today, but know that I would not be blessed with having Nik on the way and that this all happened the way it did for a reason. My angel was watching down on us when we conceived his brother cause he knew that is what daddy always wanted! Tara wants to take her brother 2 balloons, 1 that says "I Love You" and the other "Happy Birthday." We are going to release them at the cemetary today after her daddy and I get home from work. Hopefully I remember the camera so I can post pictures. I can not believe that she thinks of this stuff and boy did she know that today was his birhtday. She also told us that she is going to sing happy birthday to heaven because that is where her baby brother is! I couldnt believe that either. I am so proud at how she has handled the whole situation and hope and pray that she continues to do this well.

Crabbing for Cash

Hopkins has just started their Children's Center fundraiser "Crabbing for Cash". With my 2 good friends, Gina Koger and Vicki Jensen, we're starting a CDH Support Group with the blessing of Hopkins. Like I said, Hopkins is a special place. We're just getting our group off the ground (I think we finally settled on a name!) but in the meantime I signed us up for the Crabbing for Cash. I put a modest goal of $100 and I hope we shatter that and raise a ton of money for Hopkins. The photo on my Hopkins webpage is the 3 of us at a Blood drive we sponsored with the Red Cross last year to raise CDH Awareness. No amount is too small! I can guarantee that Hopkins puts this money to good use! (Hope you dont mind Vicki I kind of copy and pasted some of this from Jack's blog.

The link to my personal page for this fundrasier is below. Please click on it and find out more!
http://my.e2rm.com/personalPage.aspx?registrationID=590243

1 year ago

One year ago today is when we received the devestating news about Andrew's CDH. I can remember it like yesterday and it is so hard to believe that it has been that long already. Where has a year gone? I can remember going home from that appointment and trying to find out so much information about this condition. I was in complete astonishment and disbelief. This was even before we knew how severe his defect was. I was able to find other families stories through blogs and carepages which was very helpful. My doctor's office had given me Vicki's, (Jack's mom) contact information and I remember getting in contact with her for the first time. I was so apprehensive about the whole thing. I knew my emotions were going to get the best of me. I remember thinking I dont even know this person and I am going to have a major meltdown. I am so glad now today that I made that phone call as she has offered me so much support and continues to be such a good friend!

It's A BOY!!!!!!!!!!!

Today we went in for another ultrasound to make sure everything is still "ok." We also got to fianlly find out what we were having!!!!!!!! It is another BOY!!!!!!! We are so excited. His name is going to be Nikolas Ryan. Everything seems to be OK so far and we are so thankful for that.

In other news, Jack's mom, Vicki, Wyatt's mom, Gina, and myself are forming a CDH arent support group at John's Hopkins. This is where all three of us had our care at. This is going to be a very exciting task that will take some effort to get going, but we have full support of the people at Hopkins which is awesome. I am looking forward tobe able to talk to other parents and help them on their journey!!!!

Andrew is going to be a "big" brother (and Tara a "big" sister again)

I guess I can finally share my news since I have made it just shy of the 13 week mark of pregnancy. Yesterday I actually went in for my first ultrasound scan and was reassured that so far everything looks good. That was such wonderful news to hear. Although I guess I should try to relax and not think about what could happen it is hard sometimes not to. I must say though i thought that I was going to be reacting a bit differently than I am. I asked the doctor to try and guess the sex but no such luck. The baby would not show us a clear picture and it is really early to tell. I have to back every three weeks for scans so I will definately know on January 7th. Although we should be just wanting a healthy baby keep your fingers crossed for a boy!

I must say that my employer has really been accomadating this pregnancy and let me work at home for the first trimester. I work in a laboratory with different chemicals and i just wanted to make sure this time I was really protected against anything that I could have been exposed to.

Chistmas is just around the corner and I am very excited. Tara is super excited and it is so cute to see her this way. I thought that it would have been harder getting into the christmas spirit this year but it doesnt seem to be the case. I know Andrew is in a better place and he would have been suffering for maybe the rest of his life with this defect and GOD had a better plan for him. I know that he will have lots of fun celebrating with his great-grandparents and will be watching over us this holiday season. I hope that everyone has a very merry christmas and a happy new year!