Gummy Smile is Gone

That's right...Amelia has...a...tooth.  I am not going to try to post a picture of it, cuz that would just be rude!!!  But the gummy smile is no more!!!

One More Post...This is the BEST ONE for today too!!!

Well, Amelia did it last week.  She officially, without any help from mom and dad (other than a nudge), started walking on her own.  Now, in the last week or two, she is doing it all the time!!!  She moves from the coffee table to her toys and the kitchen all the time, all by her self.  It is so much fun to come home from work and have Kim make her stand up and have her walk to me.  Puts me on the floor!!!

It is interesting what perspective does:  Everyone tells us that we are going to be sad when she starts to walk because we will not be able to keep track of her and she will start to get into everything.  But for us, she is still her and able to walk!!!  That makes every milestone for us so special with Amelia.

Here she is walking in the kitchen.  I was just able to snap this before she was in my arms!!!

Out of Cath

Amelia is in her recovery room (kind off...more like a recovery shared space with 25 others).  Docs said she did REALLY good.  They are very happy with how she is doing and did not find any problems visually.  Now we wait for biopsy results that will test for several layers of rejection.  We should be home by dinner...a thought Kim and I are very excited about.

Thank you for continuing to pray for Amelia.  She continues to thrive and grow.

6 Month Cath

We have checked into PCH for Amelia's 6 Month Cath.  After getting up at 4:15 to be at the hospital by 5:30, we were delayed for a short time for an emergency from another patient.  Amelia was finally taken down for her cath about 8:45, which was just over an hour delay.  We were not too upset since we are no longer at the place that we are the emergency.  It worked out OK too since we got her up at 4:40 and she did not sleep in the car.  She slept in Kim's arms and then in mine for about 1:30.  This got us through the wait.  Now we wait for the doctors to complete the procedure and the results.  We are expecting to go home today.  When we got our phone call for the schedule, we were told to pack overnight bags.  After talking to our nurse, she said she did not think we would be staying.  Our cardiologist also assured us that we should be headed home today, so we did not pack bags for the night.

6 Month Heart Birthday

Amelia has had her new heart for 6 months now.  We have her routine 6 month cath scheduled for Sept 25th.  This is another rejection and function check.  We do not expect any problems since she has been doing so well!!!

Please pray she will do well and there is no rejection!

Happy Birthday

Amelia celebrated her 1 year Birthday today.  Kind of low key, but she is still here to celebrate.  Thank you to everyone who wished her well!!!

Zion

Sorry for being such a slacker and not updating for a while…Amelia and life keep us busy!!!  July 4 weekend we were able to take Amelia to Zion (not the holy city…the National Park).  OK…truth be told, the 4^th was on a Wednesday, so we left the weekend before.  This was a major milestone for Kim and I for lots of reasons.  Zion is an annual event for our family that I started before Kim and I were married with my college campus pastor.  It is one of the craziest weekends we have canyoneering down the slot canyons of Zion.  Think movie 127 Hours – just no emergencies.  This would be Amelia’s first trip.

We made our reservations in January before we knew about needing a transplant.  If you do not make reservations in January, you get stuck is the “bad” spots – those with no shade.  We kept our reservations hoping we would be able to still make the trip.  After good biopsy results and the all clear from our transplant team, we continued our plans.

In Zion, we met up with lots of college and “Zion” friends who have followed our story and because of geography, we only get to see in Zion.  They were excited to see Amelia.  We had a great time, but not the normal Zion trip.  Kim was not able to do any canyons, but let me go down one.  We knew this would be our life now, but we still came because there was one hike we really wanted to do:  Angels Landing.

Angels is a crazy hike from the floor of the canyon to a point thousands of feet up.  The hike consists of a trail carved into the side of the sandstone, many switchbacks and a hike on a knife edge out to a point that is Angels Landing.  Google it and you can see the pictures.  This hike would be our milestone.  We decided that before she was born.  We started the hike…I was loaded down with Amelia and Kim with all our water, food and other stuff we needed for Amelia for the day.  We finally made it to the top and celebrated with our campus pastors the year God carried us through and the precious gift He has given us.

We did some other stuff while in Zion, but nothing as significant for our story with Amelia as making it to the top of Angels Landing.  For Kim and I, this will certainly be an important event in the years to come.