Quick update of this year!

Wow, it's been a long time! I'm such a slacker.. I can't believe Brandon is almost 2 and our next baby is almost here! Time flies so much. Brandon is doing amazing! I can't believe how much his life has turned around in the past year. He hadn't gained weight for almost a year and up until a week ago still weighed 17 pounds. .Everywhere I go people ask if he's 9 months old. =) We went through a lot of testing and waiting to get him some human growth hormones. But a week ago we finally were approved and started them! He is at least 19 pounds, maybe more. In one week he gained 2 pounds! We are sooo happy for him and his little body, now he finally has energy..he's so much happier and gaining weight. What a blessing for us all to have been approved for this amazing therapy. 

This baby (due the end of September) is perfectly healthy and doing good. It's another boy, and we're naming him Jackson Alexander. We are so excited for Brandon to have a little brother. I will have a C section the last week of September if it doesn't come before that. We are so grateful that we haven't had a stressful pregnancy this time around. 

Mike got a new job in the ER at KU. So tonight is his last night in the burn unit. He's excited and sad at the same time. This morning he got home and said he worked on 2 people who kept dying and coming back to life all night. He literally did chest compressions on 2 people from a house fire for 4 hours straight. He was exhausted and pretty bummed when he got home because they both ended up passing away. I'm so proud of him, he is a very valued employee at KU. 

I am continuing to work on my masters online. I have just been going part time so I can go without being too overwhelmed with everything else that's been going on. I will be done next May and couldn't be happier! I tease Mike that I'm going for my PHD after that. lol He says I'm done after this. I have literally been a student all my life, no breaks seriously. I am not going to know what it feels like when I'm done. I think I'll be sad..I'm such a nerd. 

Well..I was thinking I should update and that's about all that's going on with our family. Hope everyone is doing well! 

Help and vote for Brandon!

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New Day..New Perspective

I was wanting to write in my journal tonight, but then I realized I didn't have it with me since we're at the hospital.  I know people probably don't even read this, and if they do they probably don't really care. lol But it makes my day seem like it was worth something if I document it. So I'm just going to blabber on and on if you care to read....  

Today Brandon had surgery (yes, another one) and the surgeon is pretty confident that he "fixed" some of Brandon's problems. We have been praying nonstop since I was 3 months pregnant for some relief and comfort on our part, and for Brandon to be healed. Well it's been about 16 months since the day we found out there was something wrong, and Brandon has yet to be fully healed. I want to have faith, and I do have faith that this will be our last hurdle to cross, but I don't want to be disappointed later on down the road when something goes wrong. I feel like this whole crisis has been such a mind game.. Do I have enough faith? Do I not? Is that why things aren't better yet? But then I think about so many people who have it WAY worse than Brandon and it makes me feel like a small, insensitive person for even complaining. However, trials are trials. What may be a huge trial for one person may be a small trial for someone else. It's all about what an individual can handle and what God wants for them at this time in their life. 

I feel like the lesson God has in store for me is PATIENCE...and we all know that's something I need to work on. If you didn't know that, now you do. lol Anyway, in all this rambling what I'm trying to say is that there have been a few key things that have gotten me through this last year. 1) My testimony 2) My family 3) Prayer 4) Faith/Hope 5) Patience/Endurance. But the key thing is the third, prayer. If anything has changed for me in the past 2 years it's been my testimony of prayer. I used to be a loser with my prayers...repeating the same thing over and over every single day. And then Brandon happened, and with each day my testimony of prayer has grown enormously. I used to think that God didn't hear my prayers, or maybe he did and just didn't feel like answering me. In fact I sometimes thought that way up until just about a month ago. Some pretty amazing things have come to pass since then. I know prayer is real. I know that with all of my heart. I know God hears us and whether we believe it or not, He has His own way with answering us. My prayers were answered this month.. and I'm not saying Brandon is cured by any means.. but God listened, and He answered. My testimony of prayer cannot be broken now because of the strong reminder I had this month. I am so grateful that we have such a loving and merciful God. I got to the point where I was so broken down that God helped ease my burdens.. maybe it's not forever, in fact I know it's not, but at least He helped pick me up this week. I am very, very grateful for that. I needed some hope in my life. I was reminded by all of this as I was reading this scripture tonight. James 5:11 Behold, we count them ^ahappy which ^bendure. Ye have heard of the patience of ^cJob, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very ^dpitiful, and of tender ^emercy. 13: Is any among you ^aafflicted? let him pray. Is any merry? let him sing psalms. 

Anyway.. I'm done rambling.. I'm just so grateful to have Brandon and Michael in my life. I'm feeling very grateful tonight. =)

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Mikes Surprise Party!

So I threw a surprise party for Mike last week at Mongolian Barbecue. It was a blast to see everyone there! Here are some pics. 

Brandon holding his bottle for the first time!!

I know! I'm terrible at updating this site. It's new to me and kind of time consuming. lol But luckily I have the day off and can write all I want. So Brandon is doing great. He LOVES Baby Einstein. I know you're not supposed to have babies watch TV but I can't help it, he just loves it so much. He makes noises at the TV and laughs, it's so fun to watch him. It seems like he's been home, he is just excelling more than ever. We are so grateful for that.   Peggy- Here's some pictures with the outfit you bought for him. He's getting so big! I couldn't believe he actually fit into it already. I love the hat on him!!

Brandon Update!

So I decided to give this blog thing a go. I figured it would be a great way to keep people updated on Brandon and his health conditions since they change so frequently. Brandon is finally home for the 3rd time. Hopefully this time he actually stays home. We're praying hard! He's doing really good, he's very happy here. He still has a million pumps and tubes connected to him, but he doesn't know any different so they don't bother him much. There's so much care involved it's crazy. It's like I became a nurse when I became a mother. It's funny .. I always pictured  myself saying to Mike, "Hey honey, can you grab the diapers?" or "Can you get a bottle ready for him?".. but instead I find myself saying, "Will you help me hold his leg down so I can give him a shot" or "It's time to start his tube feeding and turn on his TPN so we better flush his line with heparin." Ya know.. the usual. =) But we seem to be adjusting to it really well and we're just so grateful to have him home, nothing else seems to matter. We have home health nursing almost around the clock so that is a HUGE blessing! Here are some recent pictures of him.. he's a very happy baby.