Pea of Sweetness

Happy Birthday Brayden!

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I can’t believe Brayden turned 7 yesterday! I would have posted yesterday but between his birthday treat and not feeling so great I wasn’t on here much! I figure that’s a good enough reason to post the next day instead! 🙂 So, wow, 7! Being our oldest, we have definitely learned A LOT about parenting. We have learned how to be advocates for our children – particularly when we were going through the process of getting an Autism diagnosis. I recently posted Brayden’s Autism story. My entire birth experience and first few years parenting Brayden have been very humbling from my “all natural birth plan” turning into an unexpected c-section, breastfeeding efforts proving to be unsuccessful after 2 weeks, and attachment parenting? He didn’t even like to be held! Everything I “thought” of parenting and actually parenting him were totally opposite experiences! You know what I learned? It’s OK! All children are different – as we have definitely learned as all 3 of ours have been parented differently as well! But God has always blessed us with the resources (and love) that we needed to both parent and advocate for Brayden (and the other two children as well)!

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What a blessing Brayden is to our family. It has been absolutely amazing watching him grow. There have been challenges along the way followed by great triumphs – and sometimes followed by minor setbacks like his sleeping with his light on once again. Each accomplishment is a blessing, though, and I am just in awe watching him grow. He has such an amazing love for God and talks about Him all the time! There are times when I’m not feeling so great, and he reminds me how much God loves us! It brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it! In fact, tomorrow he has his last Praise Dance practice from a class he took at our homeschool co-op before a performance they are going to do this weekend. We missed a lot of days of co-op unfortunately, so I was surprised he was invited to participate. When she shared how she could just see God’s love radiate through him during their class I almost started bawling my eyes out! We are truly so blessed. He prays for us when he wakes up and before bed. My heart broke a little when he was diagnosed with an Autism Spectrum Disorder, and God has not only restored my joy but has blessed us in so many ways through Brayden!

Happy Birthday Chaz!

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Well, our “baby” turned 3 today! I can’t believe it! I know it’s so cliché they grow up too quickly, but time really does seem to fly by! 3 years ago I went into the National Naval Medical Center to get an amniocentesis to see if Chaz was ready, and we got to meet him that same day! There was nothing nice and smooth about it, and he spent some time in the NICU, but everything turned out just fine! 🙂 He was the first baby I left the hospital with breastfeeding exclusively, and he didn’t wean until he was 2 1/2. He was such a sweet, peaceful baby, but around 4 months he changed. I could barely put him down – EVER. I was full-on attachment parenting with him, and I honestly don’t know how I could have chosen differently. Joey had started his chemotherapy around that time, and I thought the stress of the household was affecting him. Of course, later we found out he has Sensory Processing Disorder, and everything that started happening at that time makes perfect sense. So, to say he’s been a “momma’s boy” might be an understatement! It might STILL be an understatement! He is my little buddy – or as I say “my sweet boo.”
Birthday
Chaz has such a strong personality. He is really going to be a go-getter when he’s older – I just know it! He knows what he wants, and he knows how to get it. And if he doesn’t get it? Well, he’ll make sure he does! I found it rather amazing that our first two kids were so incredibly different. I assumed our 3rd would be more like one or the other or somewhere in between. I was wrong. He is totally different than either of them and not anywhere in between! I have learned so much through him – including being humble because if there was anything I thought I knew I realized there is so much more to it. Parenting has been an amazing journey, and I thank God he blessed us with three amazingly unique children. I have truly learned a lot and grown as a person and in my relationship with Him as well. I have learned about sacrifice, humility, and what it truly means to be accepting – and flexible! Those are lessons that I will always treasure. Parenting continues to refine me. I also experienced disappointment as we learned Chaz would be our last but have been filled with joy knowing he needed that extra attention he may not have gotten if we had another. I saw God’s plans play out so perfectly.
So, today, we had a blast just having a fun day to help celebrate Chaz’s birthday. No big birthday party this year, but they didn’t even seem to mind! We just enjoyed the day together and let Chaz pick out some new toys! He picked out 2 car track sets, of course, because he LOVES cars, and we just had fun playing with them together as a family. His siblings were even extra sweet to him today! I’m excited to continue to watch him grow and see the man he becomes! Happy Birthday Chaz!

2 Years

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My husband has officially been cancer free for two years now! This also means he no longer has to follow up with his oncologist as often. We also got some good news at his most recent follow-up. To understand how good this news is I first need to provide some background.
There are many types of chemotherapy, and the type my husband had has some pretty harsh side effects. In fact, he had to be admitted to the hospital during his final week of treatment because his organs started shutting down, and he had already risked losing his hearing and sight. He was so very sick. There is more to the story that I won’t discuss just yet. Basically, though, I was told they wouldn’t stop his chemo treatment “even if it kills him.” They also told us that it WILL kill him – if not now then 15 or so years down the road. You see, the chemo itself is a poison and can cause well, cancer, along with a slew of other issues he already experiences like the chemo induced peripheral neuropathy, memory loss, etc. Well, we still hold out with the hope knowing we can trust God’s report rather than the doctors’. I hold firm in the belief that he is cancer free for good!
At his previous oncology follow-ups the scans had revealed some spots on his lungs. There were a couple of concerns – the nature of the cancer he had if it were to metastasize more would be in the lungs, and the type of chemo he had can cause problems in the lungs. These spots were too small to be of any concern at this time, but they were slowly growing. I am so happy to report at his last appointment the scan revealed the spots on his lungs are actually going away!! In fact, most already had! Praise The Lord!! This is definitely GREAT news!
Another fun fact is Joey celebrates his 29th birthday next week! 🙂 Every birthday is a blessing, but there is always something special about celebrating birthdays when you’ve had a life threatening illness like cancer. I still haven’t decided what we’re going to get him yet or what we’re going to do, but I’m really excited to celebrate no matter what we do! 🙂

Happy Birthday Aurora!

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Wow, I cannot believe our baby girl is 5 now! They really grow up so quickly!
5 years ago I got a phone call in the late morning that the amniocentesis came back saying her lungs were mature, so they were scheduling the c-section THAT night (repeat c-section – but I’ll skip all those details)! Just a few days prior I had passed out in the office before they could even do the amniocentesis due to some weird issue where my blood pressure drops rapidly and tachycardia begins. Because I’ve had open heart surgery, the tachycardia was a big concern. (They never did find out the reason, but it happened often during my last pregnancy as well.) So, I called Joey because he worked 45 minutes away and told him he must come home now because we need to get ready! I was 36 weeks 4 days, so we weren’t quite ready for miss Aurora to arrive yet! My c-section kept getting pushed back due to emergency c-sections, but at 8:40pm we finally got to meet our baby girl! She was a small 5lbs 12oz but was already a fireball! The first thing she did was take the clamp out of the doctor’s hand! haha
She did have to spend a few days in the Special Care Nursery. They made her a cute stocking assuming she would have to stay through Christmas. I was devastated. Just one year prior we lost a baby on Christmas day. I was beginning to feel negative about this time of year. God turned this into a special blessing, and Aurora came home on Christmas Eve. It’s so cliche when you say your children are the best gift you’ve ever received, but truly, after experiencing a loss at Christmas we couldn’t have asked for a better gift than having our healthy baby girl home with us on Christmas!
Aurora Birthday
It’s been quite a journey with some challenges along the way. Despite the challenges, though, parenting her has been a joy! She’s currently doing homeschool at the 1st Grade level. She loves animals, is funny, a little shy, a great artist, loves to sing, and is super sweet and loving. It’s been amazing to watch her change and grow, and I know it will continue to amaze me as she gets older!