Lots going on - as usual...

i'm just being silly, again...
Sleeping Beauty...
what's happenin', mama...
more, daddy, more...
man, i'm stuffed...



Wow! It is too long since we added our updates... Goodness, what was the last one? Well, whatever it was it probably didn't mention any of Dana's surgeries.
We found out that Dana was born with Hydrocephylus (water on the brain) and that she was in need of a permanent shunt. On March 13th, 2008, we drove her up to Children's Hospital in Seattle where the operation was conducted. The next day she was discharged home. We thought all was well, however, we were worried about the swelling. Turns out the swelling was the first sign that an infection was soon to rage throughout that entire shunt and cause a shunt obstruction. Two weeks later, on March 29th, 2008, Dana had an Emergency Surgery during which the internal shunt was taken out and an external shunt temporarly was installed to replace it. After 5 days of high fevers and raging infection, Dana finally returned to her normal temp and the infection was finally almost over. During her stay, we all enjoyed Mom and Dave's visit to our neck of the woods. I must say it was a nice break from the constant worries and drama that we had been dealing with. I believe Dave was exceptionally happy to meet his grand-daughter - finally! Finally, after approximately a 2-week stay at Children's Hospital in Seattle, Dana had her final Surgery on April 10th, during which the internal permanent shunt was re-installed. You can see an amazing change in her now. Her eyes shine with a new brightness and her development has caught up to where it should be.
Back to Mom and Dave's visit... They started off their stay with a Tour of Underground Seattle. That was indeed amazing and thriling. Saturday, instead of watching General Conference, we decided to go up to Mt. Vernon and see the Tulip Festival. I don't know where the Global Warming is happening but I can tell you, not around here, because the tulips were late this year. However, it was still amazing for the imagination to comprehend what the fields would look like when all the tulips were in bloom at once. Wow! That's quite the mental painting!!! Sunday, Mom and Dave went to spend some time with Derek and his kids, so I can't tell you much about that day. But I can tell you alot about Monday and what we had to eat. Did you know how good a cook Dave is? He makes the most amazing steak!!! I had more than my fair share of it. Oh and Mom, we still have a piece of that 7-lb chocolate cake. LOL I don't think we are going to eat it now! LOL Oh and Josh ate all the cake that there was when you left except that one piece. LOL!
Now for those of you who may have heard. Back when Jason, Mary, and the kids were here visiting, we found out that we were expecting again and we were really happy and kinda nervous. We spent some time worrying quite a bit, wondering if this one too would end in miscarriage like the one right before it. However, I passed my miscarriage danger zone and we started getting excited and scheduled a doctor's appointment. At the appointment I asked to have an ultrasound done to see exactly how far along I was and figure out an exact due date. So I was so excited thinking I was going to see one, possibly maybe two babies in there. Much to my shock and dismay, we could not find a baby at all. Everything else looked normal and fine excepting no baby. The doctor wished to do a D&C the next day. Fortunately, the next day was completely booked and we scheduled for a couple days later. Then I started wondering and asked the doctor to wait and do another ultrasound and know for sure before we jumped to conclusions. Two weeks went by, by this time I would be about 10 weeks. Hoping for the best, preparing for the worst, I went in for the ultrasound. Once again, my heart sank as we still couldn't find the baby. We decided that this time we would pull through with the D&C so as to minimize the risk of infection. Friday, May 2, 2008, the D&C was done and now we look forward to hearing from pathology on why this (miscarriages) keeps happening and what we could possibly do to prevent it / lower the risk of it happening again. For one we will wait at least til August to try again to give my body and emotions time to heal. If something happens between now and then, it's only because the Lord would have separate plans! Keep us in your prayers. Joshua is having a really tough time with this one.
Dana is doing well. She definitely has rubberband wrists now. She is just over 16 lb. and generally speaking she will sleep 11 hours through the night. Yay!!! Well, I gotta go feed the munchkin.... So I will catch up again hopefully soon....