Where have we been.....and where are we going?

That's a very good question, indeed!

The last three months have been a flurry of activity in our house!  School started up and Brady is in Grade 2....and loving every single minute of it!  So thankful for a great school, amazing teachers and a boy who loves to learn!  He also started piano lessons (another hi-light of each week!), and Awana (easily his favorite event each week!).

So, along with the start of a new school year, school pictures were next on the to-do list.  I won't tell you how hard I had to work to get one.  Oh my.... I mean really - the facial expressions were hilarious (but not in a good way!).  I don't know how many times I heard Brady say, "but mom, I AM smiling".  And then just when the nostrils stopped flaring and the smile was genuine, do you think he was looking AT the camera???  Oh well!  Out of the hundreds, I did get a couple for each boy that worked out!

So yes, there were a LOT of outtakes....had to throw in just a couple for you!

This outtake isn't so much about the boys, but rather, their beloved Barn Cat (BC for short), who appears to be feeling somewhat....stressed?!

This one just screams "CHEEEEEEZ"!

A little bit of brotherly love....

And finally.... their reward for nearly sending their mother over the edge - a fun quad ride!

In the midst of the back to school routines starting up in September, we put our house on the market.  And in the perfect timing that only God could orchestrate, our house sold!  This again confirmed how God's got it all under control.  We don't see the big picture, and so we start to question God, or start to stress and worry about things.  That easily could have happened to us, and probably had moments in which the doubt did get a hold of us.  Why didn't our house sell 6 months ago, when we were getting plans together, and were ready build a house on the lot we bought last summer?  At that time we didn't know, but God did, and he had something different in mind for us!

What He did provide for us is a story in itself!  Since Brady started kindergarten, I kept thinking about how wonderful it would be to live closer to the school.  I grew up across the street from my own school and loved it, and now having my own kids, that convenience would be so great!  There was a particular bay that I really wanted, and only a handful of homes that would work (in my mind!).  Being a bit of a Real Estate guru, I had always watched the realtor's websites like a hawk, but nothing came up in that area.

But one afternoon this Septemer, as I went to check new listings, the words "Chestnut Bay" jumped off the page at me.  The listing hadn't even loaded, and I had the phone in my hand and was calling Don at work,   telling him to call our realtor....we had a house to look at!

Given the location of the house, I knew it was going to sell quickly, so the pressure was on!  Later that afternoon I met our realtor (Don was too busy at work to come) and literally checked out the house in about 14 minutes!  Twenty minutes later the offer was written up and then the waiting game began.  There were more showings and offers in the coming hours, so I knew it was out of our hands, and into God's.

And, 24 hours after seeing the house online, we found out it was ours!  So yes, I bought a house.....without Don even seeing it!  My mom made me laugh by emailing me a verse from Proverbs 31, "...she considers a field and buys it."

So, next weekend we'll be loading up!  I'm excited to be so close to both our elementary and junior high school.  Our backyard will have 9 acres of green space and 3 play structures, and the best part is, I don't have to mow any of it!  And we're steps away from school!  See....God had this all planned out for us.  His ways are the best!

Now, after all the drama of buying this house, and selling our own house (which was another another display of God's plan, totally being done in the lives of another dear family!) it was time for a pumpkin carving party!

And now,  on to Brady's latest involvement.....hockey!!!  This boy is loving it!  And even this morning, when they had to be on the road at 6:30am, to get to the arena in time, there were smiles all around!

And even though you can barely see the snow, the GT racers came out, with the excitement of snow days to come!

Well, that's a bit of a long one....  I guess it was 2 months of missed blogging wrapped up into one long, overdue post!  It's fun to be able to share some of the 'normal' things that happen in our family!!

All Done

I had to repeat those words many, many times as he came out of the procedure. He wasn't happy, but after he got settled in recovery with me, he has been more content.

The cath went just as planned - so thankful!! Now we're back up on the ward. He has complained about pain in his leg, but just managing it with Tylenol. A few more hours of cartoons and we should be back to our 'hotel'.

We had to ask for this smile....but he gave it to us for a few seconds - enjoy!!

Here We Go!

I just got out of the cath lab. Nate went in holding me tight, but very brave and quiet - and most likely just unsure of what was all around him. That was at 9:45am.

Now about 3 hours of waiting. Don and I just got a muffin (thanks for the recommendation, Dr. Mike!). So we'll sit and wait it out, with Drew Carey on The Price is Right as our soundtrack, lol! It's empty and quiet in this area so it's nice.

After he recovers here, we'll head back to Children's, and to another familiar face: when we got here this morning, I saw someone familiar, and kept staring (hopefully not creepy!) until I realized the nurse on the ward is one of my Schmidt cousins!! A nice bit of sunshine in our day.

Here are some pics from Don's phone. Always nice to have construction zones to watch to pass the time.

Thanks for your prayers. They are being felt every moment.

Settling in...

Today was pretty easy for everyone. The Pre op appointment went smoothly and was more discussion than anything.

We wandered around a bit this afternoon and our 'moose' enjoyed his lunch at Montana's. Lunch in a truck -can't go wrong with that!! It was lovely to run into some friendly strangers - Hi Karen's mom - thanks for the wonderful visit and encouragement at the mall!! And now that we're settled in at the Ronald McDonald house, it was great to chat with the parents of an ortho client who is at Children's.

Don and Nate are enjoying some air hockey and pool right now. Will get him ready for bed soon. It will be an earlier morning than usual :)

The jury is still out on the use of Versed prior to the cath. Will depend who is doing the anesthetic and how Nate is doing with everything.

Thank you for each prayer and encouragement we have already received.

The Week...

Thank goodness for Lego!!!  Here are my two favorite Lego Creators.  The boys can spend hours in "Lego Land", the room that they have devoted to building and creating!

And hopefully Lego help pass the time in the coming days, too!  It's time for Nate's heart cath.  This is a first for us, so not sure exactly what to expect, but feeling relatively calm and prepared.  As for Nate - he's great, since at this point he doesn't know what's coming up!

He has really turned a corner, when it comes to medical appointments, in the last few months.  He's been cooperative, quiet and content!  My biggest hope is that he won't be royally ticked at me (and the world!) when he wakes up from it.

Our plan is to tell him he has a regular heart appointment tomorrow (Tuesday), which shouldn't be a problem with him.  We have the pre op appointment at 11:00am at HSC.  I'll know more about the day to come after we talk to the anesthetist.  I'm hoping for a cocktail that will reduce the fight or anxiety that he may feel on Wednesday morning when some familiar things (such as not eating/drinking, those horrible gowns, getting the IV) start happening!

We'll tell him that we have another appointment the next day, but for this one they want to watch his heart while he's sleeping.  Think it will work??  At this point, the plan is to report to HSC at 7:30am on Wednesday, with the procedure starting at 9am. They expect he will be under general anesthetic for about 3 hours, the length of the procedure.  After a 2 hours of recovery, he'll be brought to the Children's Hospital to spend the rest of the day.  That's where my bag of tricks come into play.  Hoping the new Lego set and the stack of movies will help pass the time in recovery (about 6-7 hours), during which he has to lie still.

If all goes well and routine, he will be discharged in the evening, but us 'out of towners' are asked to stay in Winnipeg for the next night as well.

Brady will be happily staying with my Mom and Dad, which I'm thankful for!

That's it for now - I'm sure I'll have a chance to update the blog along the way!  Thanks for your prayers!

To Switch or Not to Switch....

Here's the update:

Nate totally rocked his appointment yesterday!  If you saw my update on Facebook, you'll know he did a fabulous job.  He was totally calm and quiet (seriously, no screams!!), he did exactly what was needed of him.  It was like a different boy!  I was SO pleased, if not surprised!

Everyone was surprised at his gradient.  Right after surgery, two years ago, we were at about 50-60, with the hopes that the pressure would increase as he grew.  Well, it didn't increase, and unfortunately decreased to around 30 a few months ago, and was holding steady there.

Yesterday, it was back up to 50-60!  That's great, but still is not where we would like it to be.  His liver was great, and he is not showing signs of failure.  However, the leakage is still severe.  The conference that I thought was going to happen after our last appointment, did not occur as the surgeon was away for several weeks, but did happen yesterday afternoon after we left.  So, here is where we are at.

Dr. Rebeyka, the cardiac surgeon in Edmonton, who did Nate's first surgery, feels that surgical intervention will be required at some point, sooner rather than later, and is suggesting the 'Double Switch' procedure, where 2 major things happen:  First, the arteries are switched to their correct ventricles (arterial switch), and second: the atrial switch, to redirect the blue blood and red blood to their normal ventricles.  This doesn't get rid of his leaky valve, but remember back in Biology class when you learned about the two ventricles (pumps) in the heart?  One is a strong one that has to push the blood out to circulate through the body, and one is weaker and only has to push the blood to the lungs?  So, by switching the jobs of the ventricles back to their intended function, the very leaky valve which is now having to pump throughout his body, will only have the workload of pumping to the lungs.

Before we determine if that is, indeed, the direction that we need to head, a heart catheterization first needs to be completed.  We have a tentative date set in September for that - I'm assuming it's in Winnipeg, but I don't know that for sure.  This will give the team an accurate representation of the heart function and it's pressures.  With that information, they will meet again to decide if the double switch is the best option.  From there, we would need to do an MRI, which can't be done locally, so we'd go to Edmonton for that.

So, those are the facts for now!  A lot is yet to be determined, but now you know where things are at!

Thanks for praying for us all yesterday.  We had a great day and enjoyed time at The Forks and a Goldeyes game in the evening.  A nice end to the day!