A Good Report!!!!

Anna went to the Cardiologist today for a 3 month post-op checkup and we got a wonderful report. She had an extensive ECHO which showed no residual hole in the heart at all. He couldn't hear the slightest bit of a murmur. He is very pleased with her weight and says she's doing great! It was so nice to hear good news and that we don't have to return for 6 months! Praise the Lord!

Hope you all had a blessed Christmas - we sure did and the girls had the best time. We are off to Charlotte for a couple of days, then I look forward to catching up on the blogs. Happy New Year!

Baby of the Week!

Well in case you missed it - Anna was featured as the Baby of the Week in Sunday's paper(The Beacon). Our practice does a weekly ad spot featuring a baby delivered by one of their docs. I sent her info in on a whim, and wouldn't you know it, a week and a half later, there she was! I've tried to take a picture of the paper since I don't want to mess with scanning it. The subtitle says "Delivering Miracles Daily" If they only knew what a miracle she was.....

Today was our ultrasound on her "spine dimple" and guess what.....she's perfect! The dimple is only skin deep and doesn't effect the spine at all. Everything "inside" looked normal!! Praise God for this special Christmas present who is by all means perfect in our eyes and I know perfect in His!

Happy Birthday Jesus!

Since I know everyone will post about our fabulous Happy Birthday Jesus party - I'm just going to post pictures with a few captions. We had a marvelous time celebrating with friends.

The kids were listening to Mrs. Schrodt read a special story.
These are 2 special buddies!
These will be 2 special buddies!
Cody was working hard at decorating his cookies.
The infamous gingerbread man covered in sprinkles. Those shakers should say, adult supervision required!!!! My fault - I walked away while she shook!

Anna's Dedication

On Sunday, December 9, we dedicated Anna to the Lord in our Kinetic service at Atlantic Shores. She was the only baby being dedicated so Pastor Ira asked if my dad, who is a minister, would like to pray the prayer of dedication. It is always special when my dad prays over my girls and he was very thankful to have been asked.

The ceremony was short and sweet, but powerful in meaning. We are dedicated to raising Anna with a knowledge of the Lord and will pray that she will one day soon choose a relationship with Him. We are so thankful for our church family and the love we are surrounded by. I love knowing my girls are growing up surrounded by other moms and dads that love on them and kids that are being raised in the same manner. I don't think I previously mentioned this, but every pastor from Atlantic Shores visited Anna when she was in the hospital. Some of them even came twice. You know when you are leaving and the woman at the front desk says - Oh I know who Anna is - The clergy came and the clergy came to see her-that your church has left an impression. Thank you all for the love you have already lavished on little Anna. She's starting to return it with big smiles and sweet coos. Praise the Lord!

Anna's dress was also worn by Erin on her dedication, as well as me on my dedication, and also my mom on her dedication. I'm so thankful for all of the sentimental things my mom has saved.

One thing wrapped

Well it is clear at my home there is only one thing wrapped right now - and that is Daddy around Erin's little finger. The power of a little girl's giggles is amazing. We drove through our neighborhood last night on the way home from Sam's to look at Christmas lights. Erin is in awe of this littlest decorations and just loves Christmas lights. We had purchased some outdoor lights back when we lived in an apartment, but hadn't put them up for the last 5 years. But, inspired by the giggles of his little girl, Daddy put them up last night on the porch. He was so excited he went up and got her out of bed so he could show them to her. The picture is of them looking at the lights together for the first time. After her intial "AHHHHH" she said, "Daddy, why didn't you put any on the roof?" She's never afraid to ask for a little more from her Daddy!!!!!

This is Getting Old....

No, I'm not talking about blogging, or my face....I'm talking about Doctor's appointments. Poor little Anna, as if she hadn't already been through enough - now they are throwing something else at us. We went for her 4 month checkup on Wednesday and I wasn't able to see our normal Pediatrician since she is out of town. So, I had to explain in 2 minutes Anna's whole situation to a new Dr. I wish they would read the charts before they came in to the room so they'd have a clue what's going on(can you tell I'm still perturbed?) So this Dr. was very incriminating of me(or so I felt). She was worried about Anna's weight, Anna's uvela, Anna's bottom - it felt like she was just trying to find anything wrong that she could. So I was dissappointed because Anna only weighed 11 lbs 8 oz, and I was hoping for at least 12 lbs. Instead of encouraging me with the progress we had made, she suggested adding some formula into her diet - which is fine - but it just makes me feel insufficient.

And the newest worry is a small section at the top of Anna's bottom crack(to put it nicely). It is the area directly below the spine which is soft. The Dr. thinks there is the possibility the spine may not have formed all the way and just the skin is covering the hole. I truly don't think that is the case, and I'm not really worried about it. But the Dr. was throwing around the term Spina Bifida - but wouldn't explain it to me because she didn't want to worry me - as if hearing the words didn't already do that!

So once again, we need prayer. We'll go to CHKD to have this spot ultrasounded on the 17th. I honestly don't think there is a problem, but we have to be sure. Please pray that the ultrasound will show no concern and Anna will stop having to go through all these things. Pray for me too - it is all becoming overwhelming and I truly dread going to the Doctor's office now and I'm just ready for a clean report for Anna! Thank you friends for allowing me to vent a little and share this info with all of you! Lots of Love!

What a Weekend!

Well we had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend. Erin had a special snack at school on Wednesday and got to dress up like an Indian. Then she helped me mash the sweet potatoes for dinner. We enjoyed muffins on Thanksgiving morning while we watched the parade. Then we headed to my Mom's for lunch and then Baba's for dinner. By the end of the day we were stuffed like a turkey. Somehow Joe mustered up the energy to go play basketball. I tried to get some rest since my exercise was going to be shopping on Friday. I was very successful and am almost done, which is good since shopping with a toddler and an infant is no easy task.

On Friday night we had a great time with the Williams and the Jacksons. The kids even got to sit at their own table and Anna kind of joined them in the swing.
On Saturday one of my friends from college was in town and I haven't seen him in 3 years. He and his wife and boys stopped by to play for a little. The boys were so sweet and absolutely adorable. Erin hit it off with them right away - she gets along with boys so well.

Saturday night we watched the Georgia Tech/ Georgia game with the Judds. The kids played so well together and Carter and Anna got to spend some time together. We had a great time even though our team didn't win!

And to top the whole weekend off, we went out to get our Christmas tree last night. So the house is starting it's transformation, all though I'm not an over the top decorator - I just don't have the energy! But, Anna did sleep about 9 straight hours last night - so energy is right around the corner!

What a wonderful family weekend!