Family Time, Clinic Visit

Since our last update, we have had some wonderful time with both sides of our family.  My parents came up for a great weekend of celebrating Mom's birthday, and we had a big Thanksgiving in Arlington with Michael's family.  It was good realize that we CAN leave town (Asher's first trip!), though it's certainly not easy.  There is no running from all of the extra work and gear that goes into caring for our precious boy.  We just bring it along.  He did great in the car, and we made some beautiful memories all together. That, we are learning, is most important right now.  His NG tube fell out soon after our arrival, but we were thankfully able to put it back in ourselves.


On Friday  Asher had an appointment with his cardiologist and pulmonologist.  He also got another echocardiogram (an ultrasound of the his heart) which was about the same as his last one.  His doctors were pleased with his growth and progress.  He weighs 9 lbs 5.6 ozs!  He is not on the typical growth curve, but he has his own little growth curve, on which he's moving along just fine.  We will be starting a new medication to see if it can reduce his pulmonary hypertension at all.  He is scheduled for another follow-up visit with his doctors in two weeks.

Meanwhile, we are all preparing our hearts for the coming of Christ during this time of Advent.  Honestly, it's a challenge to be hopeful these days as we long for our boy to be healed, but we do  trust that God is doing amazing things in all of this - even if we cannot understand it at all right now.

Ollie, our Christmas mouse (see below) has made his return to our home.  He loves to help the boys count down the days by giving them little tasks or creating some fun activities for them to do.  This year we are seeing more clearly how important all these seasonal traditions are.  And it would be so much more challenging if we did not have all the help we do - grocery and errand runners, meal providers, and babysitters.  Thank you again for all our your prayers and support - for being Jesus' very hands and feet to us!!