Logan is 2!

My precious Logan,

Today is your 2nd birthday!  I am so proud of the little boy you are becoming.  You are so talkative and want to do everything your big brother does.  You love the Wiggles, your stuffed animals and fruit! You are a picky eater; you mainly just nibble at meals.  Hopefully you get more of an appetite soon. 

I can't believe that you are 2 years old already.  It seems like just yesterday I was rocking you in my arms as a new born baby.  I will never forget January 26, 2011, such a special day; we got to meet you finally at 1:40pm!  I still thank God for you every day.  God placed you in our family at just the right time; amazing how His plan and timing is always best!

I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always, As long as I'm living my baby you'll be.

Love,
Mom

We held out like his doctor adviced and just swtiched Logan to forward facing in the car. He loves it and thinks he is such a big boy.  Amazingly this advice changed in the 3 years since Shaun, so this was our first time going all the way to 2; Shaun got to turn around at 1. Happy Birthday bud!

Here he is facing backward for the last time. 

Here he is facing forward!



A Simple Blessing...

...by Michael W. Smith, is what I am currently reading.  I have been reading quite a bit lately, during the evenings when relaxing before bed.  I have a desire to learn and grow in my faith, so I  have been reading all kinds of "Christian living" type books the last few months. 

We went to one of Michael W. Smith's Christmas concerts back in 2007 with the family when I was very pregnant with Shaun. This book is about "The Prayer of Blessing" that Michael says at the end of each concert.  He wrote a book about it because it has been so impactful to A LOT of people.  The book takes a chapter each to discuss each of the 6 sections.

Here is the blessing:

In the name of Jesus Christ,

I bless you with the promises of God,

which are "yes" and "amen.''

May the Holy Spirit make you healthy

and strong in body, mind, and spirit

to move in faith and expectancy.

May God's angels be with you to

protect and keep you.

Be blessed with supernatural strength

to turn your eyes from

foolish, worthless, and evil things, and to shut out

the demeaning and the negative.

Instead may you behold the beauty of things

that God has planned for you

as you obey  his Word.

May God bless your ears to hear the lovely,

the uplifting, and the encouraging.

May your mind be strong, disciplined,

balanced, and faith-filled.

May your feet walk in holiness and

your steps be ordered by the Lord.

May your hands be tender and helping,

blessing those in need.

May your heart be humble and

receptive to one another

and to the things of God, not of the world.

God's grace be upon your home,

that it may be a sanctuary of rest and renewal,

a haven of peace where sounds of joy

and laughter grace it's walls,

where love and unconditional acceptance

of one another is the constant rule.

May God give you the spiritual strength to

overcome the evil one

and avoid temptation.

May God's grace be upon you to

fulfill your dreams and visions.

May goodness and mercy follow you

all the days of your long life.

-Michael W. Smith 

Happy New Year 2013!

Hi everyone!  Sorry it has been a bit since I have posted.  We are doing well.  From the hardest day of my life in the last post, it has been good since.  We will always miss Skye, but know that she is in a better place.  Ethan and Coral are doing fine too. We found out from the autopsy that she had pneumonia, and so that is what took her. I got a porcelain Angel to display and to always remember her.  For Christmas, I made a photo book of all the pictures I had taken of Skye to give to Grandma, Bill's Mom.  She was so happy to get it!

What has been going on in our family since November?  Busy, busy, busy; as you can imagine with the Christmas season!  Shaun sang in "Wee Praise" at church and also performed a short Christmas concert at Preschool.  It was all so cute!  We had family gatherings and good Hunter family time together.

We all enjoyed a nice Christmas vacation. I took off a week and a half, between Christmas Eve and New Year's day. It was good to have some quality time with the family. We got my fairly long 'To Do' list done, which always makes me feel good. I like to get things done that are harder to do during the week when working or even on the weekends. The biggest task we accomplished was cleaning out the garage. We have a deep garage, so there is plenty of room for junk to build up, because it is "out of the way". Well, it was not really out of the way anymore, so time to clean and organize! We organized and took one load to Goodwill and one to the dump.  Dad took Shaun with him to the dump, and Shaun was in heaven!!  He loved it and didn't stop talking about it all evening.  This afternoon, when playing he made a dump in the corner with a pile of toys.... Boys?!?!?! :)

Shaun continues to LOVE school. I hope it continues well into the future.  He loves to do "homework" all  the time.  He finished up a Preschool activity book and has started a "Get Ready For K" workbook.  He also got a workbook for Christmas from his teachers.  There is one page for each letter with an activity. I have limited that book to one page a day, otherwise he probably would have done it all in 1day!  He can do one page out of each section a day in his K book, probably about 8 pages.... He should be good and ready for Kindergarten by the time it gets here in September, maybe not me though!  Never thought I would have to limit the "homework".

Shaun's appetite has grown in the last couple of months. He now eats a small size adult serving.  "More please!" is Shaun's favorite phrase during meal times.

Logan is growing and maturing before our eyes. He is talking up a storm.  He continues to add more words and they are getting clearer by the day.  He is talking in phrases/sentences now too.  He has also turned into Mr. Independent!  "I do it!" is his current favorite phrase.....

It seems like I am always throwing Logan's clothes in the 'Too Small' bin.  I feel so blessed to just be able to go to the closet to get the next size clothes out, and it is fun passing on his small clothes to 3 friends! Passing on the generosity others have given us feels good! 

Logan has continued to be our picky eater.  He doesn't eat much, just nibbles at his meals, but I try not to worry about it too much, because I remember the doctor saying once that they won't starve themselves.  Fruit, is the one food group that he would eat until the cows come home, which we don't allow for reasons I won't mention! :)  I can't believe he will be 2 in less than 3 weeks now!

Happy New Year to anyone who reads this!!  I will try to blog at least once a month to not get behind again!  If you're not on Facebook, you can see the latest pictures by clicking on the monthly pictures at the right.

The hardest day of my life.....

On October 27, 2012 at about 10:30pm, 6 week old Aurora Skye Hunter-Phillipson met Jesus. We are so sad to not have her here with us on earth anymore, but she is now healed and wrapped in the loving arms of Jesus. Beware, some tissues may be needed when reading this post.

About mid week she started taking a turn for the worse. They had to up her meds, the ventilator and then by Friday they had her sedated like I spoke of in that post. They couldn’t really figure out why or what was causing her oxygen and heart beat to go up and down. They had maxed out the oscillator and her oxygen levels were still really low. They said it would soon be time to make a decision. The actual decision was more as to when Coral was ready to remove the tubes.

I got the call from Ethan about 8:30pm Saturday night that the tubes would be coming out that night sometime. I headed right down there to be with them. When I got there Coral was sitting on the couch they had brought in the room holding Skye. She had been put on a different ventilator and a bunch of the stuff in her arms that had been placed there in the last couple of days, like some IVs I think had been removed. She was dressed and had a little pink bow in her hair.

We sat there crying together and just watching beautiful Aurora Skye for about an hour and a half. One of the docs came in to give his sincere condolences. He explained that researching the CDH disorder is his specialty, so he wanted Coral to know that he (and the other doc that had been closely working with them) were deeply saddened by this. He also wanted her to know that if she so chose, she can allow them to do an autopsy to hopefully learn something about what was going on in her little body and thus possibly help babies in the future with CDH. Ethan and Coral had already discussed this and have chosen to do so.

So, at about 10:30pm Coral said that she was ready and so they got the nurse that would turn off/unhook the ventilator. It was the simplest of tasks, yet so big. They then could take out the tube in her mouth and get the tape off her face and we could see her without any of that for the first time. What a beautiful girl! Coral then got to snuggle with her in lots of different positions. She was such a natural snuggling her baby on her chest.

About 20 minutes later the nurse came back in and listened for a heart beat. She didn’t hear one, so she got the doc to make sure, and then it was official.

It was now about 11pm and I went out in the waiting room to give her some alone time for a bit. I came back after 20-30 minutes and sat with them again for a little bit.

Coral was then ready to go, so she wrapped her up in the knitted blanket and laid her back on the table, and we said goodbye. The nurses assured her that they would take good care of her. Then was the long, quiet, tear filled walk through the hallways out to the car. I know this was only possible because God’s hand was on Coral the whole time; she was so strong.

I was also so impressed with one of her main nurses, Rhama. She was on the day shift, which works 7am-7pm, but was still there when I got there at about 9pm, and stayed until about 11:30pm because of them, so heart warming!

Bill was able to spend a few hours with them Sunday afternoon. I took them to the train station Monday evening. The boys met us there so we got to hang out with them for about an hour before the train came. It was sad all over again to let them go. We will miss having them around!  We all didn't think it would end so soon or so abruptly.  Coral said on Tuesday that it was weird being back home.  I hope and pray that they both will be able to grieve as necessary and get help in the process if they so choose.

Aurora Skye is in Jesus' loving arms!

Our precious baby niece, Skye, went to heaven and met Jesus last night at about 10:30pm. We here on earth are going to miss her so much, but I rest my hope in the fact that I will one day see her again where there will be no more pain and suffering! Please pray for Coral and Ethan as they grieve the loss of their precious baby girl. I felt honored and fortunate to be in the area and able to lend them support since they got here on August 27. I think last night was the most critical support time, and I was glad to be there. Love you both Ethan & Coral!

I will post another blog later this week with more details and some last pictures, but I'm not ready to delve into it all yet. 

6 weeks and fighting

Skye is fighting for her life. The docs say that there is a high chance that she won't make it. So, the hospital flew Ethan back today, he got to the hospital about 6pm.

I spent the afternoon at the hospital with Coral and Skye. They don't know what exactly is causing her downturn, but they are doing everything they can to help her. She is back on the oscillator at full capacity and still struggling. When I got there this afternoon she looked so different and pale. She is back on a bunch of meds including ones to keep her still so she doesn't get agitated.  Getting agitated hurts her numbers even more and they are so low now.  She is completely out and not awake because of the meds. There was a slight improvement in her numbers by 4pm when I left, so that was a little bit encouraging, but she is still the worst she has ever been.

They have prepared Coral to be thinking of making a decision if it comes to that point in the near future. This evening an organization that takes professional photos of sick babies came in and photographed Skye.  They then get a CD and prints of their precious baby girl all for free.

Selfishly we want her to stay here on earth with all of us, but the Lord may have bigger and better plans for her home with Him. 

Dear Lord, please help Coral and Ethan through this big emotional struggle.  Please give them peace with any decisions that need to be made and show your presence and overwhelming love for all of them.  Amen.

5 weeks and Ethan's Birthday!

Skye turned 5 weeks old this week and today is Ethan's birthday.  We got together with them to celebrate by having lunch and birthday cake.  We got them a set of movie tickets to go have some fun, so I think that is what they did this afternoon/evening. Ethan is going back to Montana tomorrow for an undetermined length of time.

Skye is doing great!  She is 6.8 pounds and eating 5mL/hour of mom's milk now. She is initiating each breath, but the ventilator is set up to help her each time.  She still needs help.  Nothing else developed with the fluid, so that is sooo great!  They do x-rays daily, so caught it very early.

Here are the pictures from my visit today!!

She is in a crib now!!!

Happy Birthday to Ethan from Children's!