An Adoption Story

Four years ago.. my sister gave birth to Luke. She made the selfless decision to give him up for adoption. Luke was adopted by the most amazing couple and he is the center of their universe! My sister, Kelli, has changed her life in the past four years and is now a great wife and mother to Liv.

I won't go into the whole adoption story, because it isn't mine to tell, but everything fell into place as it was meant to. Luke is such a lucky boy to be surrounded by so many that love him!

Kelli and the adoptive family have an open adoption. A couple times a year, we all get together and have a little celebration! I know that my kids and Gigi look forward to seeing Luke and we always have such a great time together. Last night, we celebrated Luke's upcoming 4th birthday. He is in LOVE with Star Wars right now and my Dad picked out the best weapons ever!

Luke and Owen playing with light sabers.

Kelli (my sis), Luke, and Jen (his Mom) I set the camera on the tripod to try to get a picture.. out of 30.. this was the best!

We love that we can know Luke and be a part of his life. I think adoption is such a wonderful thing! We love you little buddy and can't wait to see you and your baby brother soon!! We hope you have the best Star Wars Birthday ever!!

Kamryn Update and a plan at Stanford

I had originally planned to post about Owen's Make-A-Wish today, but his wish granters had to cancel due to illness. It happens. I'm glad they cancelled instead of sharing the germs. They'll call to reschedule, hopefully next week! He has a few ideas up his sleeve, as I'm sure you can imagine what goes through the mind of a 3yr old boy.

Last night, at 8:30, we got a call from Stanford. They were calling to let me know that someone else would be calling me to set up Owen's cardiac MRI for August. That was all news to me. I called Dr. R's NP today and she said that Dr. R wants to give Owen six months to heal before doing pre-op testing for the Fontan (his next open heart surgery). We are being cautiously optimistic that everything between now and then will go smoothly. T0wards the end of July, Owen will have a cardiac cath and MRI scheduled at Stanford... both in one day.. one dose of anesthesia. He'll also have cardiology clinic with Dr R (cardiologist) and we'll talk to Dr Hanley (surgeon) to see if the Fontan is going to be successful. If not, we'll go to a Plan B, transplant. If surgery is an option and everything looks great, then we'll schedule surgery for the end of August.

They are working on coordinating the MRI lab and cath lab, cardiac anesthesiology and clinic appointments with Dr H. and Dr R... over a 2-3 day period. I should hear back in the next couple weeks with dates so I can start planning for that.

It's time to update on this little sugar! I can't believe there is only one more week of school until Spring Break. Fifth grade is disappearing! Kamryn loves school, but nothing beats a whole week off!! We usually visit several local museums and the zoo during spring break, but this year is seems like there are SO many germs going around. Maybe I am more sensitive to them this year with Owen being fresh out of surgery.
We'll spend a day at the movie, walking around the outdoor mall by our house and going out to lunch. Another day we'll probably do the zoo in the morning and then meet Daddy for lunch. We have a heated pool, so if we get the promised 80 degree weather, then we'll live in the pool the rest of the week. We're going to have a fun week!
After spring break, the school year kinda wraps up. Kamryn will have a week of AIMS testing, which she surprisingly enjoys! Golden Scholar night for all the students with perfect "A"s all year. Kamryn will have another Orchestra concert. Then school is pretty much out in mid May. I am sad that my little girl only has one more year of elementary. I know we have another year, but the thought of my baby girl going to Junior High scares me silly!!

Karate. Cheer. Dance. Violin. Volleyball. We're trying to figure out which one Kamryn wants to do next. She loves gaming (Ds, Wii, iPod), reading, writing (she's AMAZING), and art! She has so many talents and we love watching her experience new things. Owen looks up to her SO much and always wants to do exactly what she is doing... because of this.. he too is now a gaming junkie at 3!

Our little girl is growing up so fast!! We are getting ready to try out contacts and then if her baby teeth ever fall out... we'll move on to braces. She is beautiful, smart, funny, sweet, generous, kind hearted, and the best daughter that we could ever imagine! There is no question that she is also the best big sister to Owen. We don't know how we got so lucky! Love u sis.

"My Heart Happy"

Owen's way of telling us he needs pain meds is by saying "my heart happy" (no meds), or "my heart hurts"(give me Motrin). After our cardiology appointment today.. my heart is a happy one.

For the first time since surgery.. Owen decided to stand up on his own... on the scale at the doctor's office. What a big boy! He weighed in at 31.9lbs and 38 1/2" tall. His sats were in the mid 70's on 1.5liters of oxygen.. no surprise.. but yikes.

Owen's echo was speedy fast because he was just not having it. I grabbed the echo tech's coffee cup for him to puke in (sorry about that) and we got the pictures we needed in record time.

While waiting for Dr Stock, I got a call from the nurse at Kamryn's school, and she was sick. She stayed home yesterday because she was sniffly with a mild fever, but was fine this morning. I have to give a BIG shoutout to Larissa (my sis-in-law) for swinging by the school and picking her up for me. I called the peds office and they were booked up til' Thursday but were going to squeeze her in for a strep test at 2. It's only viral and she's acting fine tonight. Thank goodness! I think she needed some more chillin' out time at home. It's so fun to have her home, so no complaints here!

Back to cardiology..

Dr Stock came in and said everything looks great. Owen's Tricuspid valve has a mild stenosis with a mild regurge. This means there is some backup in the right atrium, but SO much better than it was. His heart function has a mild decrease, but Dr Stock said he might even call it "normal" function. Music to this momma's ears. There is still a long road ahead as we allow his body time to heal before we start the process of surgery number 4, the Fontan.

After picking up Kamryn, we came home just in time for Physical Therapy. Jessica worked some magic and Owen was up and moving. He was pulling to a stand and walked a little bit. This is huge! He was such a new walker going into surgery and hasn't wanted to do any weight bearing in his legs since surgery. Again.. my heart is happy!

Owen continues to puke all the time. It has to be so painful to have your sternum ache each time you puke. I wish I could just take it all away. The worst part is that he is so used to it... like it's "normal" to him. He was puking in a cup while jamming out to Black Eyed Peas on his iPad tonight. He says 'all done' and goes about his business, with bloodshot eyes and an empty tummy. I am starting him on prevacid again to help with the burn.

On a much more exciting note....

The wish granters from Make-A-Wish are coming out tomorrow night!!! I'll be videotaping him as he makes his wish and we are all in for a big surprise!