Anna Grace - February 5

Today Anna Grace an appointment with her cardiologist, Dr R. The appointment consisted of vitals, an EKG and an echocardiogram. It all showed that everything looked thae same as it did in Charleston so that was good. No medication changes & no activity changes (I thought that was funny since she is a newborn)! It was great to see Dr. R again and formally introduce him to Anna Grace. He was following her while she was in-utero and it truly was wonderful to finally get to present her to him outside of the womb! We are thrilled that he is the doctor who is going to be helping us take care of our daughter. So, we see him again in 2 weeks - and that will be our pattern until her 2nd open heart surgery - see Dr. R every two weeks - unless there is a problem in which case we will see him sooner. Praying that is NOT going to be the case :)

So, after her doctor appointment & the family was settled at home I thought I would take advantage of Mee-Mee's last day with us & run an errond. I needed to go ahead & have her prescriptions transferred from MUSC to a local pharmacy. So, I went by CVS and they told me they couldn't fill her prescriptions. They told me to try Ford Drugs. So... I went to Ford Drugs and they told me they couldn't fill her prescriptions. They told me to try the hospital outpatient pharmacy. So, off I went to the hospital. After talking with the pharmacist there, she ASSURED me that they would be able to fill her prescriptions there and I was thankful to have found a place close by that we could get the needed prescriptions for Anna Grace. Since her prescriptions have to be "compounded" just not any pharmacy can take care of us. We are SPECIAL :) So... to any & all heart Moms out there with new single-ventricle babies (rare as we may be).... go straight to your hospital pharmacy to get your prescripstions filled - your local pharmacy will probably NOT be able to do this for you :)

I am home now, Mee-Mee has left to go back to her home so it is just me and the kids here. I have to admit, it is a little intimidating. I'm in charge????????? Glad today is Friday & Daddy will be home with us for a couple of days :)

Why Good Theology Is Important

Watch this short 2 minute video about why theology is important. The video was made by Tristan Carnahan for Joshua Harris' contest about his recent book Dug Down Deep. There were 5 finalist and this one was my favorite. My favorite line is "We are all theologians." How true, how true this is....

Enjoy!

DugDownDeep_Carnahan.mov from Covenant Life Church on Vimeo.

First Importance

1 Corinthians 15:3
“For I delivered to you as of first importance what I also received: that Christ died for our sins in accordance with the Scriptures,”


Sometimes we get bogged down in the worldly way of doing things. What will get and hold peoples attention? Am I culturally relevant? How can I relate to my kids? How do I handle my money? How do I better my marriage? On and on I could go with example after example of how we try to fix our lives with everything other than the only thing that has power - The Gospel of Jesus Christ.

The fact is the apostle Paul had one answer for all the above questions. Preach the Gospel! Preach it all the time. Live the Gospel out loud and speak it out loud. It was of the “first importance” Scripture tells us being brought to the Corinthian church. Why? Because it’s the only message that can change, fix, repair, and save from all the damage caused by sin.

The Gospel is all we have and all there is. But the real questions we should be asking ourselves are these: Do I really know what the Gospel is? And if I think I know it, why is it not transforming my life? And if I believe it's transformed my life, why am I not trying to help others be transformed by speaking the Gospel into their lives?

Anna Grace - February 4

Things are going well today - Mommy is tired from middle of the night feedings - but, such is life with a newborn! Our Mee-Mee has been such a big help this week, I am going to be SAD to see her go tomorrow! Zachary still can't let me out of his sight for fear that I'm going to leave him again - I am praying that with time this will pass for him. ALso, praying that we won't have ANY reson to go back to the hospital before our scheduled Heart Cath on May 10 :) Quarantine, quarantine, quarantine!

I wanted to also let you all know Anna Grace's "official technical" diagnosis. There were some more additional things wrong with her heart than we thought before her surgery. Our daughter is truly a living, breathing miracle - may I NEVER take her for granted or forget how merciful God has been to our family.

She does have "Hypoplastic Right Heart Syndrome" - but that is just the broad general name of her diagnosis. Specifially, listed below are Anna Grace's heart defects.

Diagnosis:
Tricuspid Atresia
Transposition of the Great Arteries
Aortic CoArctation
Ventricular Septal Defect
Pulmonary Stenosis
Patent Foramen Ovale

Whew..... truly a miracle that we are home with our daughter! Praise be to GOD!

Anna Grace - February 3

We made it to the pediatrician's office this morning :) We are so blessed to have a Christian pediatrician who has been praying for Anna Grace through this journey with us. He was thrilled to see us there this morning and we were thrilled to finally be having our first "regular" doctor's appointment. So, our little one weighed in this morning at a whopping nine pounds even!!!! Other than having a "special heart" she is a very normal baby. We will be visiting him again next week for a follow up, but so far so good :)

We had a pretty good night last night too. Mee-maw & Pos as well as Mee-Mee all came to visit and help. It was much appreciated and Mommy got to have a shower AND blow dry her hair :) Anna Grace slept well last night and went right back to sleep following each feeding. I'm hoping to catch a nap this afternoon as well as continue to put my house back in order - it's crazy how much unpacking there is to do after bring gone for 6 weeks!!!!

So... Cardiologist on Friday.... other than that I am hoping it will b e a pretty uneventful week!

Anna Grace - February 2

We are home. Had a good first night at home together, I think the whole family, including Anna Grace, is happy to be home and all together. Now, to just find our new routine & our new normal..... it's going to take some time I think.

Anna Grace has an appointment with her pediatrician tomorrow (Wed) and an appointment with her Cardiologist on Friday. Thankfully, Mee-Mee is staying with us this week to help watch Zachary and to cook for us as we are getting used to having a very special baby #2. We are so thankful for all of the help all of our parents have given us throughout this journey - we wouldn't be able to do it without them!!!!!

So, now just trying to get our new routine and stay well :)

Anna Grace - February 1

Well, the doctors just made rounds and we have the green light to go HOME!!!! So, they are making sure we have all of our dicharge papers, medications, formula prescription (because you have to buy Portagen from a pharmacy) and I am gathering all my things from a hospial room I have lived in for weeks.

Just think, tonight our duaghter will be home for the very first time. We will be a family of four all under one roof - together. Praise the Lord, truly - I am thankful!!!!

So, once we get home we'll have a flurry of doctors appointments - the cardiologist, the nephrologist and the pediatrician - whew!!!!