Pinch me...it can't be real!

My husband just booked us on a Southern Gospel cruise to the Caribbean for our 25th wedding anniversary. We will be going with our friends, The Whisnants. There will be 8 other singing groups/soloists on the cruise. We leave from Ft. Lauderdale on November 11 for 6 days & 6 nights in the Caribbean with stops at Key West, Grand Cayman, and Ocho Rios, Jamaica. I never dreamed we'd really do something like this, but the down payment has been made. I just spent 10 days in the hospital with Krissy & Ryan, so I know my little ones will be fine without me for the 8 days we will be gone. I don't know what I will do with myself with no dishes to wash, no meals to cook, no laundry, no schoolwork. Rest, relax? Hmm....not sure if I remember how to do that! Guess I'll just have to try!!

Jumbled Contemplations

We've been home ten days now, and it's just been busy, busy, busy!!! Hardly a moment to catch our breath! Krissy has had doctor's appointments for herself and Ryan, several of them. Today, Gary took his dad to the cardiologist while I took Heather to Riley's for her annual checkup. Tomorrow, Krissy has 4 appointments in Lafayette. It just seems never-ending. And then there's a newborn that wants to eat every 3 hours and makes a load of laundry every day all by himself!
As Krissy was writing thank you notes today, she needed an address that sent me looking through all the cards we got when Lainey went to Heaven. In that huge stack of cards is a card from the anesthesiologist that gave me the epidural when I was in labor with Lainey. He cared enough to send a sympathy card. He's been here with his hunting dog to go pheasant hunting with Gary & some of the girls. Before we went to the hospital with Krissy, Gary called him and asked him when he would be on duty. Once he found out when Krissy was scheduled to go in, he stopped and checked on her. Through her whole 9-day stay at St. Elizabeth's, he stopped in every day (except the weekend he was out of town), sometimes more than once a day. His sister is an OB nurse, and he set her up to take care of Krissy the day she had Ryan. He even brought a gift after Ryan was born. Gary asked him if he could recommend a good cardiologist for his dad. He not only recommended one; he called the cardiologist himself. Then that doctor's office called Gary's dad and set up an appointment for just a few days later. It just amazes me how God brings just the right people at just the right time across our paths. What a huge blessing Dr. Madren has been to our family!
There have been a few things that God has shown me that I've been mulling around in my mind these past few weeks. Of course, we all know that "all things work together for good" (Romans 8:28), but it's not always real to us. There has been more than one time during the past month that God has made this verse real to me. There have been some things that have happened that have seemed very bad, something we would have never wanted to happen, but they have brought about good things, even answers to prayer. The details are personal, but so very real to me.
Last week our pastor preached a thought-provoking message. Have you ever been at a point where you just didn't know how you were going to get through this? I've been there more than once myself in the past year. Our pastor gave us the example of Hagar when she fled from Sarah with her son, Ishmael. She was crying because she and her son were going to die....until God opened her eyes and showed her the pool of water nearby. The answer to her problem was right there all the time. He gave other Bible examples of answers that were right there all the time, but the people didn't see them until God opened their eyes. How often are we like that? God has the answer waiting right there. He's just waiting for us to ask Him for it before He shows it to us.
I'll close all my ramblings for now with some of the words to one of my favorite songs....Is anything too hard for God? Who's got a problem beyond His power to solve? Are there situations He's not the Mastor of? Is anything too hard for God?

Thankful to be home

Ryan following surgery at Riley's Hospital for Children in Indianapolis.


Krissy & Ryan - Goin' Home!!!!

Ryan's fan club greeting him when he got home.

Ryan - 1 week old

After 10 days in the hospital, Krissy & I were so thankful to get home Friday afternoon. It has been such a roller coaster...so many reversals in conditions in just a matter of seconds. Of course, Krissy has been in pain from the c-section and neither of us got more than 3 or 4 hours of sleep each night. We either had hospital food or fast food every meal for 10 days. Home never looked so good! We both enjoyed the home-cooked meal Autumn made for supper the night we came home. The best part about it was that we were all together around the table--Gary, Karen, Autumn, Nathan, Meagan, Krissy, Ryan (in Aunt Autumn's arms), Erin, Heather, Laura, Kara, Leah, & Nanna.

The two dishes of chicken enchiladas and dish of corn pudding were all gone, licked clean. Delicious!! We just kind of worked around the piles of mail and baby stuff on the table and enjoyed being together, safe and sound.

Ryan has some follow-up appointments scheduled. He is on the monitor at home to monitor his heart rate and his oxygen level. So far in the past approximately 48 hours, the only times it has gone off is when the leads haven't been making contact with his skin properly. We hope to get rid of that old thing soon, but we'll see what the pedicatrician says. He had surgery Thursday night to correct the testicular torsion. They had to remove the left testicle, tack the vessels of the other one down so it did not twist also, and do his circumcision. He came through that very well. They watched him overnight and dismissed him at noon on Friday.

He is such a good baby. He doesn't cry much & sleeps well. Krissy is a great mom, taking such good care of all of his special needs.

New Wrinkle

When Ryan was born, the nurse that assessed him put down that he was actually 35 to 36 weeks gestation based on his weight & that she thought his chest muscles were underdeveloped. Because of this, he was required to have a carseat test. I went out & got Kissy's carseat. they put Ryan in it & connected him to a heart & oxygen monitor for an hour-and-a-half. His heartrate dropped below 70 during the test, so they sent him to NICU to be monitored. They have done an EKG & an ultrasound of his heart, but haven't found any problems. They did say it could be sick sinus syndrome. They are hoping it will clear up on its own. Once it has stopped dropping, he will have to stay for 48 hours longer. So we don't know how long we'll be here.

Our latest life-changing event...

RYAN JOSEPH

5 lbs. 12 oz., 20 inches long

Born Friday, March 2, 2012 at 4:30 p.m.

And now we become Gammy & Pop to this precious little boy, our first grandchild.

Krissy has been dealing with very high blood pressure and a lot of swelling. They've been monitoring Ryan very closely for the past couple of weeks. Krissy's doctor decided it was the optimum time to relieve the danger to Krissy's health and have the least risk to Ryan's health. She went in to start the induction Wednesday afternoon at 4:00. She spent many hours of pain and misery, and still was no closer to delivery Friday afternoon than she had been Thursday night. She didn't progress more than 3 cm. When Ryan's heart rate dropped Friday afternoon, they whisked her away for an emergency c-section.

Ryan has had his own set of troubles. At his initial exam after birth, they discovered a hard spot in his testicle. They immediately called in the ultrasound people. The urologist came to see us later. Ryan has testicular torsion, meaning the vessels in his left testicle are twisted. At first they took him away to NICU to prepare for surgery to try to save the testicle. After they read the ultrasound, the doctor said it was already dying & wasn't able to be saved. The doctor said he preferred to wait until Ryan was about a month old to do the surgery to remove the testicle.

Today they did two hearing tests on Ryan. His left ear failed the test both times. They want to send him somewhere else in about two weeks to do the test again. They said a lot of times babies that fail the test the first time will pass when they go on to this more specialized test.

So it's been a long week with many ups and downs. We appreciate your prayers for both Ryan & Krissy. As long as they both continue to do as well as they have today, they will come home Sunday evening to a house full of doting aunts!