The Six Pack

Thank you for all your prayers, concern, and messages of support for Steve's dad. His surgery went very well and he is already home recovering! He asked to thank you all for your prayers and to let you know that they were answered...he was discharged a mere seven hours after his surgery! Now it's off for a last-minute push to pack the van for our little getaway. We hope to leave bright and early in the morning for the beautiful Ozarks! Happy October, friends!

Please keep Steve's father in your prayers today. He has a case of appendicitis and will have surgery today at noon.

When Zachary was in the hospital up in Ann Arbor, the Ronald McDonald House (RMH) was an incredible place to stay. It was our home away from home, but also a place we could meet other parents who were going through a similar and difficult time, many whose children also had heart defects similar to Zachy's. We met most of these families at dinner, a special time for RMH residents. Nearly every night, a group of volunteers brought dinner for the 29 families staying there. It was a time to look forward to--a time to get away from the doldrums and tension of the hospital, a time to meet and converse with others like ourselves, a time enjoy a tasty meal without having to worry about groceries or cooking. We so appreciated the gift of food these volunteers provided that we wanted to help out in a similar way back home. So last spring, once Zachary was stable and thriving, we visited a local RMH (near Wesley Hospital) and served dinner in his honor. Tonight we finally got up the ...

It has been a tough week. Well, to be honest, no week is easy with five boys, but when Mom's out of commission, things get really wild. We grow a leaning tower of dishes. And laundry. And...you name it. No doubt, our house is never clean , but usually resides in a state of orderly chaos. This week, there was simply no order to be had. I had to laugh when my sister called this past weekend to see if I knew of any good cleaning services. You see, she says she needs help, but there is not one speck of dust to be found anywhere in her house! I used to have some ladies come clean our house on occasion, but I quit calling them because I had to pick up before they came. I guess with each new child, I learned to lower my expectations of what is good enough, and I'm trying to balance Mommy time with housekeeper time. There's just more Mommy time required these days. I suppose that's what Mary is doing... she wants to give her son more Mommy time and leave the dust to ...

On Wednesday Zachary had his nine month well-baby checkup. He's up to 18 lb. 7 oz. and 27 1/2" long, putting him in the 12th and 17th percentiles for weight and height, respectively. His doctor is nothing short of amazed at Zachary's growth and development, and was impressed to watch Zachary "roll 'em up" in a game of pat-a-cake. That evening Zachy came down with a fever, and by Friday he was still feverish and cranky. So we made another doctor visit to rule out any ear or lung infections, but by Friday afternoon the fever broke and he was starting to feel better. Zachy continues to build upper body strength and is learning to navigate the living room floor quite efficiently. On his bottom, he can spin 180 degrees and scoot backwards. He also scoots in circles on his tummy and rolls across the room in the wink of an eye. He'll soon be crawling and wearing out the knees on his already "gently used" hand-me-downs. And now for one of those m...

The CarePages made some of us heart moms a little upset last week when they disabled picture and video embedding on their site. So we moved over here to Blogger, and hopefully we'll have a bit more flexibility in posting. I'll still post on the CarePages when there's an update, because the e-mail notice is a nice touch. You can also subscribe to an RSS feed on the sidebar of this site to be informed when there's a new update. I'll continue to update on Zachary, but will blog about the rest of the family as well: our adventures, quirky "kid-isms", pictures, trials, and little glimpses into our family life. I'm not a great scrapbooker, but perhaps this new site will serve to remind me of noteworthy occasions while our children are little. So come along and enjoy continued updates on our miracle baby and a taste of the blissful chaos we call our Five Little Blessings .

Eighteen months--that's how long Zachary has been with us. Of course, for the first few weeks all we knew about him was that he was much like his brothers--he had a great knack for inducing morning sickness and fatigue. But little by little we came to know him, by his busy little arms and legs while still inside me, by his sweet face we first saw at 17 weeks, by his response to Daddy's voice when he talked to my tummy, by the head full of hair his sonogram tech pointed out, by the way his hand was down between his legs at every sonogram, by his stubbornness in waiting to be born until induction date, by his special heart... until at last we held him in our arms and shared him with you. Nine months in the womb, and now nine months out. During these last nine months, Zachary's story and the stories of his heart friends have brought many to their knees in prayer, reminded us that life is a precious gift, and hopefully brought a smile to our faces. We have rejoiced in the grea...