We made it!

Here I am...way behind on blogging, so I feel like I have tons to make up for, which hopefully I can do with pictures!  The past couple months have been crazy busy and I can't believe it is almost May! What?!  Here are a few pics of what's been going on! (details on PJ's surgery below as well)

family picture time on Easter!

Mitch and I finally got a picture of just the two of us love birds! 

Here's the Easter cake Daniel and I made! I stole borrowed this idea from a family friend :)

Daniel is now a t-ball player!  I can't believe he is old enough to be playing already.  His team name is the Blue Claws!  Sounds intimidating right?! hee hee.  Mitch and Daniel have been playing baseball in the backyard for a couple years now, so Daniel is just thrilled to be finally playing on a team.  The games are hilarious to watch.  The first time Daniel was up to bat, he stopped mid-run to first base to pick up a "treasure" that he found.  It was funny and typical, I hear, of first-time t-ball players.  The weather hasn't been cooperative either.   Typical Nevada spring-time is windy, dusty, cold...and just all around yuck for t-ball season.  Hopefully we'll get a nice couple games out of this season!!

 Here's my handsome Blue Claw at opening ceremonies!

This picture he looks a little too old for my liking...how can he be that big?!   

This past weekend we were in San Francisco for PJ's hip surgery this past Monday and he had a urodynamics study done on Friday.  The urodynamics study went well, but it is pretty involved and it included PJ laying on a table naked for an hour waiting for the nurse practioner to show up...needless to say we weren't very pleased with that, but we did receive good news that there is no reflux of urine into his kidneys.  Because of all the nerve damage he has from having Spina Bifida, he is on special medicine for his bladder so we can prevent reflux into his kidneys...we are thankful to hear that he is doing well in that department.
We also met with the pediatric orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Delgado on Friday to go over the surgery on Monday.  She told us that after meeting with other dr.'s about PJ's hip, they all agreed that this was a good decision to go forward with the hip surgery.  However, from the information she gave us, it sounds like there is a chance that this may not fix his hip completely.  They are concerned that it may dislocate again.  If that is the case, they will wait to do a more invasive hip surgery when he is 3 or 4.  So, we are praying that this will work!!  God is the ultimate physician.  Sometimes it's easy to think that it is all in the dr.'s hands, but God is in control and can heal PJ at any moment.  Knowing that PJ is in God's hands and He will protect PJ is such a comforting truth. 
So, after those appts. we had all weekend to do "fun" things to try and distract ourselves with what was going to happen on Monday.  I kept telling Mitch that I just felt like there was this huge impending doom and the countdown was on.  It was hard to have fun when we knew what was happening on Monday.  None-the-less, we tried our hardest and we did create some new, fun memories together.  Here are some pics of the weekend:

We went to the beach on Saturday.  It was so beautiful out and the beach was packed!!  We had a picnic and enjoyed some people watching...which is always interesting in San Fran! 

Mitch and PJ by the shoreline.  I caught this awesome candid photo of father and son...so precious.   It's so neat to sit and look at the ocean and be reminded of how big our God is.  It really puts into perspective how small our problems on this earth are when we think of our Creator and all that He has done for us.  It's overwhelming...in a good way :)

Enjoying the sounds of the ocean! 

Flying high! 

PJ loves the new car seat.  It's like a new world for him.  He is able to see outside of the window now and loves to look at the cars go by.  He is still rear-facing by the way...it looks as if he's not, but he is. 

One of the many pictures I took of our PJ in a diaper so we could remember our chunky little man.  As you can see his left leg doesn't go out like his right leg due to the dislocation.   

We were trying to get the the Golden Gate bridge on Sunday, but our GPS took us to Fisherman's Warf...kinda funny.  But we were up for whatever so we went with it and found free parking!!  I carried PJ around a lot that day...taking advantage of our snuggle time. 

Of course there are tons of street performers down by Fisherman's Warf/Pier 39 and this was pretty cool.  It was a small family band and the drummer couldn't have been more that 4 or 5 and he was really good!!  It was so cute!  There were some other...um...sights that I dare not talk about on here that are burned into my brain, great ol' San Francisco!

Monday morning we were told to be at the hospital at 6:30 in the morning...so we were up at 5...bright and early.  Thankfully we all got a really good night's rest.  We got to the hospital and signed in and waited only a few moments before they called us back to the room to get PJ ready.    

Poor little guy had no idea what was coming!!  So precious in his jammies!

We were only in the room for a few moments before we were greeted by the anesthesiolgist who talked to us about what he was doing.  Soon after that, Dr. Delgado came by and made sure we were ready.  Of course we weren't! ha!  Not too long after that all of the dr.'s/nurses came in and said they were ready for him.  It was one of the worst feelings ever.  Knowing I had to hand my baby over to them.  I squeezed him a few more times knowing I would be able to do that for a while and reluctantly handed him over.  Once they left the room a few tears of fear, sadness, worry fell, but I was soon reminded of God's hand in this whole situation.  I was comforted in knowing that God was in control and whatever happened, He would get us through it.  Then we had to wait.  We hand't had any coffee yet that morning (yikes!) so we hurried to the Starbucks at hospital and grabbed a coffee and came back to wait for PJ.  We sat in the waiting room and thankfully they had a t.v. in there.  We were distracted by Good Morning America.  Never thought I would be so thankful for that show!!  The whole procedure took about two and a half hours.  We were so glad to see Dr. Delgado walking towards us to tell us they were done.  They were able to go in and only cut one tendon instead of a full reduction which requires cutting 3 and some muscle.  She informed us that she had a lot of diffictulty actually getting the hip in the socket but with the other anttending ortho dr helping, they were able to get it in.  She also told us that she wanted him to get a rapid sequence MRI once he was fully awake so they could make sure, after him moving once awake his hip wouldn't dislocate again.  

Here's PJ just moments after we saw him for the first time.  He was crying, but wouldn't open his eyes.  It took him a good hour to wake up.  The cast was hard to look at in the beginning.  His legs are so spread apart and it's just really akward to hold him...but we are getting used to it and are finding our groove.  They had a hard time finding a vain in his chunky hands so there is evidence of 4 pokes on each hand and wrists.  They finally found a vain in his inner elbow.

After he woke up from the anesthesia, we were sent across the street to the other section of the hospital to get the MRI.  Not only were we stressed about getting over there, the process of actually getting him over there was stressful.  He didn't fit in the stroller, so I carried him, akwardly I'm sure across the street.  The MRI itself took about 20 minutes, but it felt like forever because he cried the entire time!  Nothing worse for a mama then to hear her baby crying and you can't do a thing about it! 

 Back to the surgical center waiting for the MRI results, PJ has just had enough!  This seems to be one of his favorite positions so far and we will take any snuggles we can get!! 

The MRI results were good and his hip is in there like it should be.  It's so neat how God gives us strength when we need it most.  The anticipation of it all is killer, but when you are actually in the moment, going through it, God gets you through it with nothing more than what He provides us.  We were so encouraged by family members/friends texting us scripture while we were waiting.  One that I really loved was from my mom...Psalm 46:10 "Be still and know that I am God"...isn't that the truth!!!  There is nothing better than being comforted by God's word and knowing that His promises are true and we can rest in that.  God will never leave us or forsake us...even when we feel like things are bad and how could we get through it...we are brought to our knees to surrender our need of control and let God reveal himself in so many ways.  It's so awesome! 

We were going to try and drive home after the surgery but we were all so tired and worn out that we got a hotel room and spent the afternoon resting.  PJ slept the whole day.  He woke for just moments and would drift back to sleep.  If we only knew what the night had in store for us, we would have slept all afternoon too!!  The night was rough.  We knew that PJ was in pain and the shock of not being able to move your legs and the anesthesia made for a rough night.  All in all, we got a total of about 3 hours of sleep.  By 4 am we knew the alarm was going off in an hour so we decided just to get on the road and get home.  It still took us until 2pm to make it home, but we made it!!  God gave us the energy and alertness we needed...and the extra patience!  Now we just take care the casting, which involves rotating him every so often, checking for sores, and making sure we can keep it clean!   We go back to San Francisco next Friday for a follow-up with Dr. Delgado.  They are going to make sure his hip didn't come out of the socket and also have the cast inspected and see whether they will need to make some changes.  I couldn't believe it when they told us that we had to go back so quickly, but whatever helps PJ in the long run, we are going to do it!  He is becoming his old self day by day.  We are trying to find things to entertain him, but he really can only be in a couple positions...most which require his new resting place...the bean bag!  He seems to be most comfortable there anyways so we are SO thankful for that!!  We are so thankful for everyone's prayers and thoughts for our family.  We are so overwhelmed by the support and love we receive from everyone.  We are truly blessed to have such wonderful family and friends...we are so thankful!!

 Daniel at his AWANA awards last night!!  He received his Cubbie award! Isn't he a stud?!

Daniel got his book award for his second year! He is no longer and cubbie and is so proud to tell you that he is a Sparkie now!  We are so thankful for the hard work everyone puts in the bring the word of God to these children...We have been so blessed by the AWANA program! 

Here's my handsome boy...proudly displaying his award for all of hard work!!

I am going to try and do a better job of updating my blog.  I apologize for such a long update!  Oh my goodness...my fingertips hurt!! ha!  Serves me right!