He's Still Working on Me

   Today was the day that I have kept in the back of my mind for almost a year now. Last year we had our first Pediatric Cardiology appointment with Dr. Colvin from Birmingham. We were so impressed with the way Dr. Colvin explained in a very calm way that Sam had three holes in his heart that would eventually need fixing through surgery. We had all the questions last year such as; could the holes still close up, will this cause any additional problems, what types of restrictions will this lead to, are there any signs or symptoms that we needed to watch for in the next year to know if something serious is happening? I'm sure there were more but those are the questions I can remember asking not really wanting to hear the answers. We had been through a good bit with this little guy. Did we really have to add ASD (that's what his heart issues are called). So after the Dr. told us that the holes would not heal on thier own because of where they were located and that Sam was already past the "given age" of the holes healing with growing up some. We were reassured that this condition had absolutely nothing to do with Sam being premature. We took all this in pretty well I thought. I knew it was just one more thing for me to try not to worry about. I decided that I was not going to dwell on this and that the same poweful God that brought Sam and me through a very rough time a couple of years ago was going to carry us completely through what ever we would face with these heart conditions.
With all of that being said, I am so thankful for my family, friends, and church family that have persistently lifted Sam and these "holes" in his heart to the Lord and prayed for healing.  It is so encouraging to know that you are surrounded with prayer warriors in your life that will daily pray for your little boy. Anyway, will all of that said, back to the appointment today.
Remembering that we were there almost 4 hours last year being moved from room to room to wait for the doctor, I packed a bag full of things. Sam didn't care about much of anything that his mama had packed to keep him content. He wanted to climb up and dowh the chairs and bed. He said hey and bye to anyone that passed. He did dig a ball out of his bag and set up his own game of catch and throw with one of the ladies working in the waiting room. That was oh so entertaining!  We still had to wait a couple of hours to see the Dr. (of course they did little things here and there with Sam to get ready for the dr).
So finally the dr came in and asked how Sam had been doing.  We didn't have any complaints except for the ear infections that we are battling but that is a whole different story.  The dr did a couple of things and listened to his heart a minute or two. He said that it sounded pretty good. He explained that we would attempt to take a closer look with the ultrasound machine, and what he would be able to see would depend on Sam's reaction to the ultrasound experience. That was Sam's least favorite but he hung in there for about 10 minutes while Dr. Colvin searched over his heart. Sam could see the screen and would say.."what's dat?"  It seemed like forever before the Dr. said anything. He even changed wands to get a closer look at everything. Sam was a little scared but was trying his best to be a big boy. Finally, Dr. Colvin stopped moving the wand and pulled it away from Sam and told him that he did a good job. I was waiting for him to say something, anything about what he saw this year. 
So calmly, just as a year before he looked at us and said, "I didn't see anything, no holes, he looks great and I won't be doing any kind of heart surgery on this guy."  I wanted to scream, cry, jump up and down, give high fives, and rejoice. Instead of all of these I looked at the dr with a little bit of a laugh and told him that was great news and that was exactly what we had been praying for since this time last year. I didn't get a response from him with that but it didn't matter to me. God is still in the healing business my friends. I thought of the song He's Still Working on Me. I know that it has a deeper meaning than that of He is still closing up holes that "could not be closed because of Sam's age and placement without surgery." There was some surgery, just not by any human hands. We will have to go back when Sam is around 4 just to check again. That's ok.
The other reason I thought about that song that we've all sang a billion times is that He is still working on ME.  God continues to show His powerful, faithfulness, and love for His children.
I want to say a HUGE thank you to all you prayer warriors our there that have been praying for us over the past couple of years. I know that we have a many of years ahead of us and will have our share of scares and worries. I do know that God will hold our hand through those times too. 

Newton's Law of Motion

I can officially say that Sam has had his first "real" black eye. I snapped a couple of pics to show him later in life when we can laugh again at this funny little ordeal. It is already much better, but it is still noticeable.  The funniest thing to me is the way people look at you when you go into public with a child that looks as if I've beaten him (only in one eye of course).  Maybe it is just me, but I think not.  I forget that it is black and I will see peeps just staring at me and then looking at Sam with a "I wish I could help you" face. Really people?!? I mean, he is in the buggy sitting there giving me kisses and laughing, how could I beat such a precious little thing? SO anyway, this is how it went down...
  Last Sunday night Jeff, Mama, and I had nursery duty at church. So we were outside with the kiddos and the number of various ages of kids began to grow rapidly the closer it came to church time. I could already tell that my mom was a little nervous with the amount of kid/adult ratio happening on the playground. So Jeff was trying to keep Sam's daredevil, climbing-monkey friend off the top of the "big kids" equipment while Sam was roaming around inside the playground area. The next thing I knew was that Sam started his wind up of a cry ( the kind that just gets louder and louder ). As I saw my mom make sure the kid she was with was on the ground and then take off toward Sam, I knew it probably wasn't going to be a good outcome. Once she got to him and the crying didn't let up, I got a little nervous and then I say a big blood blister under his left eye. So Nonna rushes inside to attempt some ice/cold pack for swelling...not successful. By the time Jeff and I rounded the others up and made it inside, he was playing like nothing ever happened but there was clear evidence that said otherwise.  Well, Sam had officially been whipped by the swing! Yes, you read it correctly. He was pushing some swings that were above his head (I know this is so shocking since he is so tall), then he moved on down the swings pushing them until the reached the ones that were "eye-level".  He pushed the swing and it came right back to get him.
So while Jeff thought Sam looked tough coming off the playground with a black eye, Sam's mama was not as amused by the blackening since Sam's 2yr appt was the next morning @ 8 am.  So as we arrived at the dr's appt. the nurses and Dr. Williams asked what got a-hold of him. It was a little funny to hear Dr. Willaims' advice to Sam. He told Sam to always remember Newton's Law of Motion! :) 

So anyway, we are making it and the eye has a new rainbow of colors each morning.
I have so enjoyed having this little black-eyed stinker home with me this week while on Spring Break.
Daddy was off Monday with us and we went to the playground and worked in the yard. Nonna has been off the rest of the week and that has been fun as well. We went to Tallahassee to see CorCor and Debo on Tuesday, went shopping for some deals on Wednesday, played outside almost allll day on Thursday, and Friday everybody was home and we had a jam-packed day of work inside and out. Sam loves every minute of helping anyone with any type of manual labor. It is fun to watch his short, little legs carry him from one activity to another. These are such fun, fun days. Spring Break is over now and we are looking forward to SUMMER!!!

This is my sand/water table that CorCor and Debo gave me for my 2nd bday and I LOVE IT!!

 

Terrific Two!

Really, can it be true? My little Sam is 2 years old!!! Wow, has time passed like crazy. We have been having a lot of fun with this precious guy. I am very aware that it has been about 7 months since my last post but I will try to catch up on some things for my own sake. I like to go back and look at these posts every once in a while to remind myself of how much we have been blessed with this little stinker.

   Where shall I begin? October was a fun little month. We didn't do anything way out of the ordinary but we did make a little visit to the pumpkin patch and that was a lot of fun. Sam loved the all of the orange balls, I mean pumpkins. He thought he was in a world of unlimited balls made just for him to pick. He would run from one row to the next yelling "ball, ball" and then add a little laugh behind it like he just didn't even know what to do with himself. It was really funny. We didn't get to do much dressing up for Halloween. Sam was going to be a cowboy but he wasn't feeling to great that weekend. We did dress him up for costume day at the daycare but didn't get a good picture before he took a nose-dive into the concrete because he had a wardrobe malfunction. His cowboy boots didn't allow him to bend his ankles very good, so he kinda got off balance trying to play in the flower bed and to a crash. It scraped his nose pretty good and of course caused a big crying scene. This was our first "real fall" where he walked away with some blood and battle wounds. He made it through that just fine though.
    November, the month of fun Thanksgiving  activities. We had a pretty normal November and Thanksgiving. It sure beat his first Thanksgiving when he had fever and some type of rash!  In the month of November we found out that the Miracle Playground is a lot of fun and Sam thinks that he is real big when he's there. He wanted to play on the big boy side, of course.
   December was a busy month as always. Birthday parties, Christmas parties, and Christmas are all a lot of fun for everyone! I enjoyed having a couple of weeks off with Sam.  Christmas was a blast. Sam was always excited when he saw a Christmas tree or any type of fun decorations. He did pretty good with not destroying the Christmas tree. The fact that I scared him to death when I first put it up might have helped him keep his little fingers off the lights and balls ornaments. This is how it went down. I had just finished the long process of putting up the tree and all its wonderful decorations, when Sam walked up and started pointing at everything. I stood back for a minute and did my usual "no, no Sam, don't touch, just look". Well I knew that he was paying me absolutely no attention. So I stayed really quiet until he got almost to the light he was about to touch and then I yelled pretty loud. I didn't yell any words but I yelled. It scared Sam enough that he took off with his hands behind his back like he was saying, "I wasn't going to touch it". He went in circles mumbling some jibberish for a minute. It was very funny!! Anyway, he was broken from messing with the trees. Sam had a good time opening presents at Christmas. Santa brought him a John Deere riding tractor.  We had to rig it a little so that he could ride it because the lil' fellas legs are short like his mama. It works for now.
    January's highlight was the National Championship. Sam was all over the house saying "touchdown Auburn" and cheering when we cheered and saying "oh no" when he could tell that something bad happened. It was entertaining. He was in bed by the time Auburn had been named champs, so it was a challenege to keep quiet enough to not wake him, but we were successful.
   In February we took a trip to ATL for a long weekend. It was a blast. Sam, Daddy, Pawpaw, and Mama went to the aquarium and it was awesome. Sam said "what's dat" a billion times but we answered him every time even when we were not completely sure of what it might have been (this would've been rare since Sam's daddy is Jeff Corwin) . The next day Sam, Daddy, Pawpaw, and Dave went to the zoo. They said that Sam was ecstatic to see the animals playing and making noises. His favorite part must have been the gorillas. He came back to Honey's house saying "goriya" and beating his chest and laughing hysterically at himself. He played a little football with everyone in the front yard and helped Honey trim some blooms off of her flowers. It was an absolute wonderful weekend.
  Then came March. The month that Sam came into this world.(barely since his bday is the 31st, but anyway) We were busy with planning the party. This year we decided to do a joint party for Sam and his cousin, Elizabeth. We chose a farm/barnyard  theme. It was so much fun to plan and decorate for a fun theme like this. We had it at my house and we prepared fun little treats to go along with the theme and had an amazing cake. (shout out to Slice of Heaven Bakery)  Sam and Elizabeth were great and seemed to have a load of fun. We had a little hayride ( Sam might have thought that since he rides the tractor with Pawpaw alot, that's were he belonged instead of the actual trailor with hay bales) They each got gobs of presents that were too cute and fun. They had some matching shirts (thx Stitches and Britches) that were adorable.  We really enjoyed this little barnyard bash. Thanks to Nonna and Honey that helped to make everything so perfect and special for the kiddos. We couldn't have done it without your help.
   So now on to some of the things that Sam is loving and amazing us with these days. Now that he is 2, he is weighing around 27 lbs. Our 2yr appt isn't until Monday so I'm not sure about how short he is but I will try to come back and add that once I know. He is a pretty good eater. Some of his favorite foods are: mac & cheese, bananas, grapes, carrots, squash, cheese puffs, cereal, french toast, cinnimon toast, egg white and cheese sandwhich. His all time fav that he never turns down, drum roll please....Reeses. Yes so very healthy. He absolutely loves these things. We only get the minis and let him have a couple at a time but he would eat the entire bag I'm sure. He even knows where we hide them and we have to change that hiding place often. I usually don't get them but his Nonna always has some for a little prize when needed. :)
  He has a Duckie Potty. We aren't quite ready to use the potty yet. I have put him on there a couple of times but he really doesn't understand yet. We might try again this summer. Sam has a step stool at his sink and loves trying to brush his teeth. It's very funny because he just sucks all the toothpaste off and then says "more". I wish he was actually brushing those teefies.
  Sam is in his toddler bed now. Bedtime is between 7:30-8 and I usually have to wake him up around 6:15. Lateley he has been saying "no, no, nite, nite, nite, nite" when I have to get him up to get dressed. He is sleeping through the night for the most part. Every once in a while (when he has an ear infection mostly) he will wake up in the night but will usually go back to sleep without having to be rocked or taken out of his bed. He has enjoyed having more area for toys in his room now that he is in the toddler bed. When we set the new bed up we put new bathroom decorations up also. We used the monsters collection from Kohl's. It is super cute, not scary. Sam likes it too.
   As far as developmentally, I feel like Sam is really starting to catch up to his real age. He is talking a little more each day. He will try to sing his ABC's and loves puzzles. He loves reading/looking at books. Sam has finally started following simple directions. (take this to your room, give this to daddy, go find your shoes) That is very exciting knowing that he is beginning to make some connections. I know I probably worry too much but it is hard not to compare and continually try to push him.  He has started putting words together for short 2-3 phrases. He says around 50 words (not actually counting but estimating). I'm not sure how that lines up with his age but I think he's getting there. I am amazed at how it seems that he is saying a little more each day.
   I know that this is long and I don't blame anyone that doesn't read all of this but I needed to do some documentation for my own sake.  I am still reminded frequently of how blessed we are and what God brought us through with Sam. I went to a conference this past weekend and the speaker was talking about how our life interruptions are on the heels of divine interventions. God is bigger than our circumstances and we are often put in these situations to see God's power. I know that our life interruption was definately a divine intervention and we did see God's mighty power and that He was bigger than us and our circumstances. God held us in His hand as we walked through some very difficult situations. I know that He is worthy of all the credit we give Him and even more. I am in awe of His love for us and our little family. We continue to pray for God's will in our family and lives. We know that He has great things planned for His children. We will return to the pediatric cardiologist for the heart check up in May. We pray that the 3 holes that were found last year have closed or gotten smaller. If not, we know that God will still be in control and will carry us through what ever might be in store for Sam's future with these issues as well. God is faithful!