A few changes

I have been feeling uneasy lately about how much personal info is on my blog. I'm not sure why, because in general I try to keep things fairly vague. But, my kids' names and our last name are all over it, which is starting to make me uncomfortable. I'm sure I'm paranoid--I'm the first to admit that I'm a safety-freak when it comes to our kids, just ask my hubby about buying carseats! Anyway, I know that by putting info about our life in the public domain, you always take a risk, but I would like to minimize those risks. So I'm shutting down the current "Life As We Know It" and changing the web address to www.celebratinglifeasweknowit.blogspot.com On that web page, you will notice a few changes, but most of the old stuff is there. So this is my last post here, the rest will be on the new page. I'll delete this site entirely at the end of July. Everyone update your links so you can stay up to date on our happenings!

Open Heart Surgery is Over

On Friday, June 26, 2009, Anna had her AVSD repaired! Dr. Heart Surgeon said that he was able to patch the holes and to fix the valves in Anna's heart so that her heart is working the way it is supposed to now! Hooray!! After a short four day hospital stay, Anna is now home and continuing to recover. There have been a few bumps along the way during the recovery process so far, but in general, Anna has done fantastically well. Right now my biggest complaint is that the hospital totally messed up Anna's sleep schedule and sleep habits; but hopefully those will go back to normal once she is fully recovered. I am SO SO grateful for modern medicine and technology that makes her heart repair possible! In other great news, while we were in the hospital, Dr. Ears did an ABR to see if Anna had any hearing loss (she failed her hearing screens twice) and apparently her hearing is PERFECT! Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers, we feel so blessed!

Here's Anna the night before surgery.

This is how she looked right after surgery--OUCH!!

Here she is the day after surgery--it's amazing the difference that 24 hours makes!

Today Anna started being all smiley again, so I'll have to try to get some pictures of her so everyone can see her at one-week-post-op.

Prayers

Tomorrow is Anna's surgery--please everyone keep her in your prayers that all will go well and that she will recover quickly.

Perspective and a $25 box of freezer bags

In the past few months, I have had a major life paradigm change. Even though I have been highly aware of many differences in myself, sometimes it still catches me by surprise. The other day a "Surprise--You are different!" moment came when the phone rang. The young man on the other end was calling from Disability America (I think that was the name)--a business that allows people with disabilities to have a job and be independent by calling people and selling household items like light bulbs, freezer bags, kitchen utensils, etc. As soon as he started talking and explaining his cause, I knew I would order something...ANYthing to help him out. As he listed his products, I chose freezer bags...not because I NEEDED freezer bags, but because I was thinking about how my freezer is currently full of little bags of milk for my daughter--hours of pumping effort to give my daughter the best start that I possibly can. When I told him I would order, I could hear the excitement in his voice (I used to work for a phone-survey company in college and I know how exciting it is to get someone that will actually talk to you and be nice!) and I didn't even ask how much the box of 36 bags cost. As this polite young man struggled getting my address right (our street name is pretty tricky, even for those without disabilities) I admired him for sticking with a job that is at best, miserable--but one that he could do to be independent. I thought about his mother and how she is probably hoping that there are enough people in America that will buy household items from her son so he can do his own thing and strike out on his own--a mother who is probably hoping for the best for her son, just as I do for my children. When he finally told me my total--$25...I was slightly shocked--who will pay $25 for a box of gallon sized freezer bags??? And I realized that I will. As I hung up the phone, I had a moment of self-reflection. A year ago, I would have been off the phone within the first 5-10 seconds of the call...but now I would give that young man all the time in the world. I realize that I can't afford to pay $25 for freezer bags every time, but I hope they call again, next time I might need some light bulbs.

Family time

This week was pretty lazy. After the chaos of last week, it was nice to not have any big plans. We went to the zoo on Saturday afternoon for a family outing and got some cute pictures of the boys. Not surprising that Anna slept through it! It was a pleasant afternoon--nothing particularly noteworthy happened while we were there, but the joy of just spending some happy, relaxed time with my family always makes life a little sweeter.

Week In Review

It has been quite a week at the Roberts house this past week or so. Lots of different things going on, so this will be a random smattering of info post.

Last weekened was Anna's baby blessing and lots of family came to visit. Tate and Rylan had so much fun playing with all of their cousins but Anna, the lady of the day, slept through a lot of it. After the whirlwind weekend, I realized how few pictures I had taken--what a bummer!

Here are few of Anna--she wore the dress/bonnet that I wore when I was blessed--how cool is that?? Funny story--Darrin got her dressed before church on Sunday and put her in the car before I was ready, so I didn't see her until we were walking into church. As I peeked into the carseat to see how she looked, I noticed that the bonnet was on upside down and backwards--oops! I guess we're still learning about all the girl accesories! We fixed the mistake and I think she looked pretty cute.

Tuesday,Wednesday, and Thursday I spent getting ready for a Garage Sale--I ended up getting rid of almost a whole vanful of stuff--yay for less stuff to have to move! Thanks a ton to Heather who helped me price everything and let me join her and her other friends for the sale. There is something freeing about getting rid of stuff and it's always a bonus when you make money doing it too!

Thursday was also a big day because we meet with Dr. Heart Surgeon at Children's to learn more about Anna's upcoming open heart surgery. Darrin and I decided that Dr. Heart Surgeon struck the right balance of being confident and realistic about her surgery that we feel comfortable (well, as comfortable as you can be under the circumstances) with him performing the surgery. The surgery should take about 4-6 hours (possibly more). He was great at really explaining things to us--so now I have a much better understanding of what has to happen and the complications that could arise. Please keep praying that none of those complications happen and that Dr. Heart Surgeon will know what to do and that he will do it well.

After spending 5 hours in Omaha at Children's, we headed home to pick up the boys and noticed that Rylan had a MASSIVE bump on his head behind his ear that was making his ear stick out funny. So, since we hadn't had enough of hospitals and doctors that day, Darrin took Rylan to the ER to figure it out. After a CT scan and various other tests, it was determined to be a bug bite that has gotten infected. So now we are on a round of antibiotics for him. It's bubble gum flavored though, so Rylan thinks it's a treat.

This week is kind of a down week--the calm before the storm of next week maybe? I'll keep everyone updated. Thank you all for your thoughts, prayers and support--I will probably requesting more next week as we head into surgery.

Next week I'll try to update as things happen so one post isn't quite so busy!

We Have the Date

We finally got a surgery date today: Friday, June 26th at 6AM. We will meet with Dr. Cardio-Thoracic Surgeon on June 11th for a the Pre-Op appointment to ask all of our questions. Anna has to be at the hospital on June 25th for all the pre-op tests (x-rays, EKG, echocardiogram, blood work, and in general anything they can possibly do to poke and prod my baby). So now we wait for three more weeks and continue to be germaphobes to make sure she doesn't get sick. In some ways it's a relief to know when the surgery will be, but I think the next three weeks will have a big elephant in the room all the time. Hopefully I will just be able to relax and enjoy my super-easy baby!

In other news, we are thinking about buying a house when we move to MS--how fun is that?? I love looking at houses and I am so ready for us to have our own house!

And, the best news of the day--Darrin has all the initial writing of his dissertation done so now it's in the editing stage! We are soooo close to being totally done!