Thank You!

Thank you everyone for your cards, thoughts, prayers, calls, emails, Facebook messages, gifts, balloons, and icecream! As you can see he has enjoyed it all! He especially loves to get mail!

It is good to be loved!

19 Weeks and Growing

After the ultrasound on Thursday we celebrated by going to the Pizza Hut lunch buffet and then on to the park for some celebratory playing!

Surgery Update Day 10

I thought that you could use an update of my little healer. The steri strip fell off Thursday morning (a week later) and his wound is completely healed! I now totally forget that he even had surgery. You can barely tell where the scar is AND the bump is gone! Gotta love that young skin just sealing up like nothing ever happened!!

He never even messed with his "owee". When we would ask him about it he would point to his eye but not touch! Now that is discipline.

Bumpless! And handsome to boot. What am I gonna do when the ladies start calling...?

My friend Brooke took these of him at the Farmers Market this morning. Thanks Brooke!

Ultrasound

Today we had an ultrasound and found out that the baby is a boy! We are excited that all of the boy things we have will get used again and that Luke will have a little brother to play with. Thanks to everyone that voted on the poll!

We are not sure whether or not Luke understood what the ultrasound was - the "pictures of the baby" were funny pictures & mommy had some stuff on her belly that he really wanted to touch!

We found out the due date may be a little off - late January instead of February 11?






























Luke liked the gel on Allison's belly, and he also like the diving magazine!















the body parts have all developed normally - like the brain































The Chinese conception calendar has been right for basically everyone we tried - but it was wrong this time! You look at the mother's age and the month of conception below to determine what sex the baby is. We got pregnant in May, which means it should be a girl! Upon further inspection, we noticed that this is for entertainment purposes only and reports have shown that it has better than 50/50 accuracy!

Age >	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30
January	girl	boy	boy	girl	boy	girl	boy	girl	boy
February	boy	boy	girl	boy	girl	boy	girl	boy	girl
March	boy	girl	boy	boy	boy	girl	boy	girl	girl
April	girl	boy	boy	girl	girl	boy	girl	girl	girl
May	boy	boy	girl	girl	girl	girl	girl	boy	girl
June	girl	girl	boy	boy	boy	girl	girl	boy	girl
July	girl	boy	boy	girl	girl	boy	boy	boy	girl
August	boy	girl	girl	boy	boy	boy	boy	boy	girl
September	girl	boy	girl	boy	girl	boy	boy	boy	girl
October	girl	boy	girl	boy	girl	boy	boy	girl	girl
November	girl	boy	girl	boy	girl	girl	girl	girl	boy
December	girl	girl	girl	boy	girl	boy	girl	girl	boy

Recovery Day 3

Things are looking better and better! These photos were taken Saturday, day 3 of recovery. Thankfully the swelling has gone down and what is left is some bruising. He also has developed a blood shot eye. He still handles it like a champ. Apparently he is not experiencing significant pain! He only had the three Tylenol doses! I am glad that I didn't fill the prescription with codeine after all! He did not need it.

Through it all, he is such a joyful guy! We love him dearly! He is an encouragement and I pray that I can have joy through trials and have no fear just like he has taught me.

Surgery

We discovered a little bump by Lukes' left eye when he was two months old. I alerted his pediatrician and she advised us to "wait and see". We all thought maybe it would go away on it's own. Over time it became more clear to us that the bump (a cyst we thought) would have to be removed surgically.

I put off the referral as long as I could. This summer my mom and I took Luke to see Dr. Wooden a pediatric plastic surgeon at Riley Children's Hospital in Indianapolis. He diagnosed the bump a dermatoid cyst. He said that it would probably just get bigger and more difficult to remove.

We scheduled the surgery for yesterday, Sept. 10th. Phil does not have class on Thursdays and Fridays this semester so we decided to go ahead and get it over with while life is somewhat simple.

We have been explaining the surgery concept to Luke for the past couple of weeks. He knows where his cyst is and he agreed to the surgery by shaking his head yes and saying "I did" when we asked him about it.

The nurse took his blood pressure and oxygen level. I guess he liked it.

He looks so sweet in his peach scrubs. We prayed with him before he took the Versed. I was very thankful for the Versed. The nurse called it "goofy juice." It made him very relaxed and happy. It really helped with the separation. The nurse took him away peacefully.

I was a pretty nervous mom in the days before the surgery and had some sleepless nights but the day of I was completely calm. I did cry in the waiting room before we went back because I saw another mom crying. My heart was breaking for all of the other kids and parents. She had just left her child with the nurse. It suddenly hit me how lucky we were that Lukes' sugery was so minor. We saw many kids and parents in the waiting room. Some kids had cancer and were getting radiation. One little girl was having her hip broken and reset with a metal plate. That family had flown in from somewhere else just to get care at Riley. It made me have faith in the hospital that families were flying there to get care. We only had to drive an hour to get there. I am blessed and humbled by that.

This is a photo of Luke in recovery. He had a hard time waking up but when I rubbed his lips with a posicle he popped up! Mr Mouse got to go with him to surgery.

The Dr. originally told me that he would have stiches and an eye patch. We were relieved when we found out that they could glue the skin back together and cover the wound with a few fiberous strips. He can bath and shower and not worry about the strips falling off. The Dr. said it was even okay if he played with it! I am so impressed!

We were so happy to hold him in our arms after it was all over! He was such a little trooper. We are so proud of him!

He will eventaully have a black eye. We took this of him after his nap yesterday.

It is getting swollen but he does not seem to mind. He ate two pieces of pizza for dinner last night and then grandma took us out for icecream. He ate his entire cone and some of mine!

I wrapped up some gifts for him to open. I was not exactly sure what would make him happy throughout this process. He had fun opening the gifts last night though!

Grandma brought him some surprises too! It is a huge blessing to have her here helping. My Aunt Lisa also came to the hospital to wait with us. It was a nice distraction to have familiar people to talk to!

This is what his eye looks like today. He does not seem to be in any pain though. I gave him some regular Childrens Tylenol last night around 7:00pm and I have not given any more since. He slept through the night last night too! I could not believe it. We all needed the sleep though since we left Bloomington yesterday at 5:30AM.

He is back in the swing of playing today! We just need to watch for infection. Oh, and I forgot to tell you that it was not a cyst after all but a lipoma. A lipoma is a fat growth and it is fairly common. They did send it off to a pathologist for testing but lipomas are rarely malignant. We are so blessed and encouraged by the outcome of our experiences and thankful for all of your prayers. He was so peaceful throughout the whole process and I give the glory to God for that. He is our Peace.

Leo Lions and Thomas the Train

"Rawr" in lion means "I love you"

Smiling eyes and teeth

Paws for hands. Grooming tongue. True kittyness.

Mr. Conductor

Love that crooked smile!