Christmas pictures!

As mentioned in our last update, we do have some Christmas pictures and some pictures from our trip to Tennessee last weekend.

Our trip to Opryland Hotel in Nashville, the whole inside was decorated like this, with a riverboat ride in the middle of the exhibit below these lights.

A view below all those lights, some smaller ponds and greenery near the river.

An outdoor nativity exhibit - imagine that, a biblical display in a public place!

Ethan taking it all in!

Daddy (Ethan's Pop-Pop) and his girls (Ethan's mom and Aunt Jessica & Aunt Jenny) in front of a huge Christmas tree made entirely of Poinsettas!

Ethan with his Mommy, his Pop-Pop, and Aunt Jessica.

Four Generations: Frances Wrinkle (Mam-ma), Frances' firstborn- Rhonda (Mimi), Rhonda's firstborn - Julie, and Julie's firstborn - Ethan!

Well that sums up the highlights of our trip to Nashville to see the Garretts (Julie's dad's family) and then to Knoxville to see the Wrinkles (Julie's mom's family). I think we also have some pictures from Christmas day to come later. We just got a new digital camera for Christmas so we're still experimenting with it. Hopefully we will have some good Christmas day pictures to share.

Thanks for continuing to think and pray for us. We are so blessed to have Ethan in our lives and can't imagine life without him. Thank You Jesus for making Christmas special for us this year by giving us the gift of a son, just like you were a gift to Mary & Joseph so many Christmas' ago!

More family updates

What a blur this last week has been! First, my grandpa's health rapidly declined since my post last week. In fact, just 4 days after I requested prayer, he went to be with the Lord. On Monday, 12/17, he slipped into a coma and then by the following night, he breathed his last breath. My dad and his 3 siblings were all able to be there with him to say goodbye in his final moments, including my aunt Jo who had been in Korea with her husband for the past week on business. She managed to get to my grandpa's side, for his final 3 hours. So...Tuesday night mom called us and told us to get packed and ready to leave the following morning for a 12 hour drive to Nashville, TN for the visitation and funeral. Ethan was my Papa Joe's only biological great-grandchild and I wish they could've met, but Papa Joe at least got to see lots of pictures when my sister Jessica and her husband Brandon went to visit him last week. Papa Joe loved children and Jessica said that despite how sick Papa Joe was, just seeing the cute pictures of Ethan brought a big smile to his face!

Ethan did well with the car ride, he slept most of the way there and most of the way back today as well. Despite the unfortunate circumstances, it was nice to be able to get doctor's approval to travel with Ethan and let all the extended family meet him! Everyone seemed to be healthy, which is good because he got passed around to everyone! And on the way back home, we made a stop about 2 hours into our journey in Knoxville, TN to see my mom's side of the family - her 2 brothers and mom. Ethan is my grandma's only biological great-grandchild as well, so he's now got one more "claim to fame" to making him a special little boy!

Oh, and most important update of all...as we were loaded down with bags in hand, about to get in the car to start our journey on Wednesday morning, UNC Hospital called with Ethan's surgery date. We are scheduled for his 2nd heart surgery on Tuesday morning, January 22nd, with a pre-op outpatient appointment on Friday, January 18th. So please keep us in your prayers that Ethan (and we) can stay healthy until surgery time. This will mean we will need to really crack down on keeping him and us isolated as much as possible. We usually "cheat" and go out to eat or go shopping at least once or twice a week. Being around people we know is hard enough, because everyone knows his situation and wants to see how he's doing, but now we're also facing strangers in public who can't resist this cute little kid. We stopped at Cracker Barrel twice on our trip - once going there and once coming back. Both visits, we had complete strangers come up and touch his face and hands - which, of course, made us cringe as we watched Ethan start sucking his fingers and rubbing his face before we could get out a wipe to sanitize him!

Well it's late and we've had a long couple of days so we're off to bed. Thanks for reading our lengthy update and continuing to lift us up in your prayers. To summarize, here's our current requests:

- Pray for our family, as we continue to grieve the loss of Papa Joe Garrett over the Christmas season
- Pray for health over the next month for Ethan and me and Dan
- Pray for wisdom for Ethan's doctors and surgeons as they prepare for the 2nd surgery

Merry Christmas to everyone! We will post more pictures during the week of Christmas!

Family updates

To begin, thanks for your continued prayers for our family. Dan's foot seems to be doing a little better, thanks to the pain med and him staying off of his foot as much as possible. His doctor has credited his foot troubles to an "accessory navicular" - basically a fancy way of saying he's got an extra bone. It will continue to act up unless he wears his supportive athletic shoes (which isn't possible at work most of the time) or else he goes for surgery. But surgery is not something he's really interested in doing!

As for my grandpa (Papa Joe), he is constantly keeping us on our toes, one day he's looking like he's going to be healed then he gets bad the next day. His staph infection and pneumonia seem to be getting better but he's still on oxygen. He got moved to the ICU yesterday and his doctor last night didn't think he'd make it much longer, but today's doctor is a lot more optimistic and thinks he will be just fine and probably be moved out of the ICU tonight or tomorrow. He's still not out of the woods yet though, he's only slightly conscious at this time and could really use a good night's rest. Hopefully, when he moves out of the ICU, he will be moved to a private room so he can not be so disturbed by the other patients that he had to be with when he was in isolation for the staph infection. Please continue to pray for him. I did get clearance from Ethan's doctor that it's OK to make the 10 hour drive to Nashville, TN to see Papa Joe if we think he's getting close to death.

As for Ethan, he continues to do amazingly well. Even though he was awfully fussy and clingy on Tuesday and Wednesday, recovering from his 4-month shots, hehas managed to keep us entertained with his giggles as we try to cheer him up! Here are a few recent photos of him for your entertainment as well!

Ethan laughing at Daddy!

Sportin' a mohawk!

Watch out mom, you just think I'm cute now...

Praisin' Jesus in my sleep!

Not another bath!

Cross-eyed cutie!

4 month checkup!

Ethan is 4 months old today! In recognition, I did the not-so-pleasant task of taking him for his vaccines and checkup at the pediatrician. We've seen a different doctor every time we've gone, which I guess is ok for now so that we get to test all the docs out to see who we like best. Today we saw Dr. Burroughs and he seemed to be really nice. He's also had heart surgery so the first thing he said when he saw Ethan was, "hey, we've got the same scars, although yours are a lot newer than mine!". He asked if we were being treated at UNC and told us to say hi to his friends over there! Dr. Burroughs also mentioned that his grandson also has a CHD, although not HLHS but nonetheless, he's still VERY familiar with HLHS! This was encouraging to hear, I've really only seen one other doctor in this pediatrician office that was familiar and comfortable with Ethan's condition so I think I'm getting it narrowed down as to who I will try to see from now on. Also, based on my conversations with Dr. Burroughs, it sounds like he may be a Christian so that's another bonus!

Ethan's checkup went well, he's growing well and looking good! According to today's weight, he's actually down 2 ounces (14 instead of 14 lb. 2oz. at UNC last week) but I'll weigh him on our home scale tomorrow just to double check since that's what I'm used to him being weighed on. Dr. Burroughs said it's ok to start trying to give Ethan some solid foods, but since he's already getting rice cereal in his bottle to thicken it, he said it's ok to just stick with that for a little longer. We may wait until after the 2nd heart surgey next month to start the solids.

In other news...Dan's foot pain has been acting up again. Last time it happened was Thanksgiving and it lasted nearly 2 weeks, with Dan not seeing a doctor - just trying to stay off it and keep it wrapped in an ace bandage. This time, I finally convinced him to go back to the orthopedist to have it re-examined. Since it's Dan's right foot (driving foot), he stayed home from work and I had to take him to his doctor visit. He was told he basically has a very flat foot and a loose ankle that makes his foot move more side to side than up and down like it should. The doc told him about some stretches to do and also prescribed him some prescription-strength Aleve. So that's been my day, running all over town for doctors appointments for my 2 boys!

Also, my grandpa in Nashville, TN (my dad's dad) is not doing so well so that has been weighing heavy on my heart this week. My grandpa has cheated death so many times in his life, from being a prisoner of war in WWII, to getting run over by a farm tractor, and many other near-death experiences but this time he's got pneumonia and a staph infection and has landed himself in the hospital for the past week, on oxygen and scaring us all that he may go into a coma and not wake up. Even when he cracked some ribs a few years ago, he was so tough that it took him days to even mention it, and even then, he just said his side was a little sore. So when I talked to him on Sunday and he said he's not doing very well, I knew that this time, it was something serious. With the infection, he's had to stay in isolation and anyone who enters has to wear gloves and a mask. We were all afraid we were going to lose him so Dad and my sister Jessica and her husband Brandon all packed up Sunday afternoon and made the 10 hour drive to see him. I wanted to go, but with Ethan's surgery only a month away, I know I can't risk getting sick or passing it on to him. But God performed a miracle today and Papa Joe is doing a whole lot better and is getting healed from the pneumonia! He has cheated death once again and won! Praise the Lord for answering all our family's prayers in bringing him through this sickness!

Prayer Requests/Praises
- continued good health for Ethan, as well as Dan and I as we await surgery
- pain relief for Dan's foot
- continued healing of Papa Joe (my grandpa) from his life-threatening pneumonia

Heart Cath completed

We're finished with the heart cath! The procedure went exactly as planned - we got to UNC early Tuesday morning (7:30am), checked in with Registration, went to the Cath Lab around 8:15am, the procedure began around 8:30am and ended at 11:00am. Ethan was under oral anesthesia and woke up pretty soon after the procedure was over. After the cath, Dr. Robinson (Ethan's cardiologist that we see every month) decided to go ahead and do Ethan's monthly echo. The advantage to doing it while we were in post-op is that they were able to give him a little more anesthesia (this time through his IV) to put him back to sleep for the echo. The sonographer said he felt spoiled getting to do the echo on a baby that's sleeping because he could get a good, clear picture without Ethan squirming around!

We are so thankful that the cath went well. Recovery did not go quite as smoothly though. After the cath, the nurses and Dr. Robinson had a hard time finding a good, strong pulse in Ethan's right leg (the one that had the cath) so by about 3:30pm, they decided to admit him just for the night for observation. They put him on a blood thinner to make sure he didn't have or get a clot and we just sat by his side the rest of the afternoon and evening, waiting for a bed. Finally around 8:30pm, a bed opened up on the CICC floor - it just happened to be the same room that we had last time we were here! I (Julie) ended up spending the night with Ethan and Dan came back home to get some sleep and take care of our dog.

Ethan's heart is looking good so we're still on track for surgery at the beginning of January. This is good news to hear that he's still a candidate but it's also kind of make us nervous that it's only a month away! Dr. Robinson said that Ethan hasn't outgrown his shunt yet, and he's gaining weight at a good rate so we're fortunate that this 2nd surgery is "elective" as far as the timing is concerned. This is ideally how it's supposed to be done. The surgeons prefer to have the flexibility to operate on heart babies at the parents' convenience instead of getting to a life-threatening time crunch - praise the Lord! We should hear back from UNC within the next week with the surgery date. And if that's not good for us, we can reschedule. We also have to make sure Ethan's not sick at the time of surgery, so if it get's to be about a week before surgery and we find that Ethan's got a cold or something like that, we still have the flexibility to reschedule!

Wednesday morning, Ethan's nurse found a pulse in his leg and Dr. Robinson confirmed it during morning rounds (about 8:30am) so he said we could be discharged. Well apparently, several patients on the floor were also being discharged because we were told we should be out no later than 11:30am but it took until nearly 2pm to get the discharge papers drawn up so we could leave! We were all exhausted when we got home and we all got a good night sleep (9 hours!) last night.