First, as you may have guessed by the title of this blog post, today is Atticus' 4 year Glenn-aversary! I can hardly believe its already been 4 years since Atticus had his second stage of 3 open heart surgeries, known as the Glenn. He's gone through so many changes since then. Four years ago, he was still this fragile little guy that had never managed to make it off a ventilator, never been outside the hospital, and wasn't a good candidate for the Glenn procedure. Today, he is a little red headed fire ball that can run, jump, climb, loves to wrestle, loves football, and does many of the things that any average 4 year old likes to do (though he still has his limitations, he doesn't let it slow him down).
I started today off kind of emotional (blame the pregnancy hormones), as I also realized that its almost exactly 4 months until we face the 3rd stage of Atticus' heart repair, the Fontan. I just held him for the longest time this morning, rocking him in my rocking chair; noticing how big he's gotten as his legs dangled off the end of the arm of the rocker. Quietly letting a stream of tears flow down my cheek, I prayed so hard for the strength to face the upcoming surgery, and for the strength to face the time in between until then with faith that God has it all under control. I just held him tight, treasuring that quiet time together, as Daddy was at work, and Nana had the older two children at church. I held him for a good 20 minutes, until Atticus decided it was time to start playing, and looked up at me with that little devilish grin he has. I wiped my face and got our day started. It wasn't until much later in the day, that I realized that today was his Glenn-aversary. I pulled up some of the photos from that day. It was God's way of reminding me, "Don't worry. I got you both this far. I'm still in control." It was a humbling experience to say the least. God was reminding me to celebrate how far Atticus has come instead of worrying about the things that haven't even happened yet.
So on to other news. I'm happy to report that Atticus is going to have a new baby sister! We only have about 4 weeks and 5 days (or less!) until she arrives. I'm also happy to report that according to all the sonograms, echocardiograms, etc, she appears to be completely healthy! Yay!!! I've had to deal with gestational diabetes (no fun at all!) this time which is why I can say with a fair amount of certainty when she'll be arriving. My OB won't let me go more than 39 weeks. So if she hasn't already made her appearance by Valentine's Day, she'll be here by then! :) I still have soooo much stuff to do before she gets here! Its funny how things change the more children you have. When I was pregnant with our first child, I had her entire nursery set up by the time I was 5 months along. This time, I still haven't even gotten the crib out of the shed yet! Lol!
In other Atticus news, he continues to learn more and more sign language, and is getting better at being able to use it to let us know what he wants. Right before Christmas, he even tried to say "crackers". It sounded like "ka-kas" in his deep, gravelly voice, but it was the first time he had tried to make a hard "c" sound, and it made my heart happy. I was eating a pack of PB crackers, which he loves, so he looked at me and signed "Atticus wants" and said "ka-kas". I must have had a look of surprise on my face because he reiterated his request by signing "crackers". We of course went and immediately got him a pack as well! ;)
We had a pretty good Christmas. The kids got way more stuff than they needed, but everyone was happy, and it was good to have us all home and healthy. New year's day was also good to us and we're looking forward to a busy next few months with the new baby and Atticus' upcoming surgery. In the meantime, we keep taking it all day by day, working on Atticus' vocabulary with signing, making progress with our OT skills, and growing by leaps and bounds. We'll have a busy next few months, but I'll try to remember to update with some pictures of Atticus with his new little sister once she gets here. In the meantime, as always, keep on prayin' for us! I'll leave you guys with a photo montage of the last few months! Until next update!
San Francisco may have their own Batkid, but THIS one has my heart!
A princess, Sully from Monster's Inc, and Wolverine for Halloween!
Our family before Baby #4 gets here!
A boy and his dog, just enjoying a puddle after a few days of some nasty weather here!
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