Prayers today for baby Elijah

Baby Elijah is having open heart surgery today - send up some prayers for him and his family - most of us unfortunately know how hard it is to hand over your little one.
http://www.babyporta.blogspot.com/

Cute little sayings

Eric and I had a very relaxing and pampering weekend in Brown Co. and I highly recommened The Manor at Tabor Hill to anyone that would be there visiting. It was beautiful weather, we could not have picked a better weekend. I did okay during the day but, once Eric went to sleep I really started missing Evan and other than enjoying alone time with Eric this weekend taught me that I'm a very lucky person to have been chosen to be Evan's Mommy and that although he is a rowdy and loud 3 year old that I need to treasure all of this and slow down a bit and remember these moments with him. I called and checked on him Sat. night and my Mom asked if he wanted to talk to me, he said no but that it was getting dark and that he was ready to go home, kept telling my Mom that it's dark out and I'm supposed to be home when it's dark in my bed. He started to cry and that made me sad... Mom said that when they went to bed she told him that we let him come stay with her because my Dad was out of town and that she would have been lonely and Evan said, "Awwhhh... Mamaw, that's what friends are for." She said he snuggled in and went to sleep after that, isn't that sweet...

Brown County IN. and Golf Scramble planning

Well, for the first time since Evan's birth, Eric and I are going away for the weekend just the two of us celebrating our 7th anniversary. We have chosen Manor at Tabor Hill Bed & Breakfast in Brown Co. Indiana - http://www.manorattaborhill.com/guestrooms.shtml - the master suite with in room massages for both of us and champagne before bed and a 4 course breakfast the next morning. I'm looking forward to some alone time and just slowing down a bit. There is lots of shopping to be done in Brown County and outlet malls on the way home so, I'll have to be careful to not go overboard. My parents will be entertaining Evan for the weekend and he will probably not even notice Mommy and Daddy are gone - I for one will definately miss him - hence the reason Mommy and Daddy have never left him overnight before now. I hoping although I will miss him that I will be able to enjoy this weekend away and also hope this is just what Eric and I need to re-connect.

Tomorrow AHA is hosting a kick-off party at the Louisville Zoo for top-walkers from 2006 and our 'Team Brave Hearts' will be in attendance. Evan is so looking forward to seeing the animals and playing in their new water park with his heart buddies. We are just starting to get things moving for our 2nd annual 'Team Brave Hearts' Golf Scramble which will be held at Glenmary Country Club on Aug. 12th. I have attached the flyer we are putting up for that. I'm so excited about our team this year and how many CHD families have joined us - this is such an amazing group to be a part of.

Cath. Results

I'm going to try to explain Monday's cath. results in the best way I know how - I'm still a little unsure myself and have a meeting with Evan's cardio today to get a better understanding. Evan was a real trooper even though he realized the minute we pulled into the parking garage where we were and was a very brave little boy the whole day. Once sedated the cardio came out and told us that today could be just exploratory, that even though the Vent. Perfusion Scan showed that the pressures were off between the left and right lung that they wouldn't know until they got in there what was really going on. They came out about 2 hours later and called us in the discussion room - aka the room that makes me feel like I could run screaming - and said that there were no benefits to doing another stent right now - that the pressures were really the same as they were post-stent last April and that the right pulmonary artery was narrowed now as well but that was actually helping push blood flow through the very narrowed left pulmonary artery. Then the blow - Evan will require another open heart surgery to place a conduit. I was totally stunned and have lived in a nice little world of cath. procedures only since he was 9 months old. I said I understood what he was saying but really I'm not sure - I believe that his valve is leaking more and both right and left pulmonary arteries are narrowed which makes the conduit necessary to replace them and the valve. His cardio did say that Evan is in excellent shape right now and they hope to put this off for as long as they can - even mentioning 10 yrs. If they could wait this long it is possible that only 1 surgery would be needed and they could place an adult size conduit and valve in - all in Evan's timing I suppose. They did start him back on Digoxin. He urged me to treat Evan as a normal child. We will continue our appt.'s with the cardio and then once a year do a Vent. Perfusion Scan and a cath. to see how things are going. Evan woke up from the cath. in recovery and the nurses came out and said he woke up and said, "My name is Evan, I'm 3 and I want my Mommy and Daddy" and continued to try to get up and walk out. They said they had to keep the popsicles coming to keep him still. He's not said a word about it since we left the hospital and is already back to his normal self. Me - I'm struggling with the thought of having to go through this again but am wondering if I'm ever going to learn the lesson of "Cast all your cares upon him, lay all of your burdens down at his feet and anytime I don't know what to do, cast all my cares upon him."