June 24, 2013: Traveling to Edmonton

WOW!

It has been about 2 busy years since I was able to sit down and write about anything, but at same time when people say, “No news is good news” that’s exactly how it has been.  Lots of growth has happened with the 3 kids in those past 2 years and it amazes me how fast time goes by and how precious time is.

It is the summer of 2013, Hayden has graduated from grade 1 and it has been a great year for him learning.  He is now able to read with very little help and is doing great at math, and he is writing short stories with his own illustrations.  It baffles me how fast he absorbs new concepts and how he learns so quickly and easily just like his father, a smart one he is for sure.  My Hayley has officially graduated preschool, WHAT?  Really, my little baby girl, my princess will now be entering a world of full-time schooling going into Kindergarten.  Wasn’t Hayden just in Kindergarten?  Now Hayley!?  I watch her sleeping sometimes and all I can see is her pretty little baby face when I would rock her to sleep as a baby.  How I will surely miss her at home during the day and Hudson will too, no doubt.  Hayley and Hudson love to play “mommy and baby” all the time when they are at home.  Hudson of course is the baby and Hayley is the mommy and they can play for hours.  Sometimes he will call for “Mommy” and I respond and he gets annoyed with me and say’s, “Not  youuuuuu, the smaaaaall mommy!”.    Lately, Hudson has played the part of a little doggy.  HA! HA!!

Hudson’s vocabulary and how he speaks makes me feel as if I am speaking to a teenager sometimes.  He just turned 3 years old and is such a cheeky little bean and “full of beans” he is!  Having half a heart has never stopped him from achieving his set goals and he always makes us smile with his charming character.  He loves to run and jump from things and hang off the kitchen table and swing from it.  Since he weighs nothing, it must be easy swinging his entire body from a chin bar and he makes it look so easy and fun.  It has been a blessing watching him develop while his two older siblings push his limits.

How fun it is to watch them all grow, find themselves and watch their personalities awaken.  Mind you, that can also be pretty scary at times.  All 3 of them are super energetic, super stubborn, and strong willed.  My goodness, motherhood is my biggest challenge when those 3 are combined.

As I sit and write in the car while Chris drives and all 3 kids are sleeping, this is one of the only times I can sit and just write my thoughts because usually I am always being interrupted by one of them saying “Mommy, Mommy, Mommy!”.  But like I’ve said many times, I love my job, it’s the best.

It has been close to 3 years since we were first in Edmonton and at that time I was 37.5 weeks pregnant with Hudson and the other two kids were soooo small!  What a nice drive it is this time, I am enjoying the majestic view of the mountains surrounding us on the road, it really is just breathtaking.  I think I could live at the top of a mountain and hike everywhere.  I would be super happy.  I imagine watching the kids roll down the hills, that would be awesome.

So the purpose for this trip once again, concerns Hudson.  Three years ago, I gave birth to this little miracle of a boy and is he ever a miracle.  This time we aren’t being air-ambulanced or anything like that, everything has been planned and scheduled.  We have prayed for guidance and wisdom in this regard for Hudson to have his 3rd and last of a series of planned 3 open-heart surgeries.  To remind everyone, he was born in Edmonton because we only had 2 choices in Canada where he could get his first of 3 required surgeries.  The first was in Edmonton at the Stollery Children’s Hospital and the second was at Toronto Sick Kids.  We decided on Edmonton to have his first surgery called the Norwood (with Sano).  His second surgery was a result of an emergency in Vancouver at BC Children’s.  He had a cadiac arrest in front of Chris in the NICU at 3 months old after his heart rate went up to 300bpm and they couldn’t bring it back down.  There was a risk of a heart transplant because his tricuspid valve in the right side of his heart was “leaking” severely.  The surgeons in Edmonton believed they could repair his valve (by “pinching” it and making it a bicuspid valve) and performing his 2nd (the bilateral-bidirectional Glenn) of the 3 surgeries a little earlier.  They prefer at least 6 months but he was only 4 months.  Even after the emergency surgery and 2 more cardiac arrests, I can say we have witnessed a miracle!  Hudson was previously scheduled for his 3rd (the Fontan) of the 3 surgeries, March 22/13 during Spring Break but he came down with a cold and a runny nose.  If anyone remembers, this was the day that Edmonton had the major snow storm whiteout and the 100 car pileup on the highway!  We feel strongly God’s hand was in this telling us this wasn’t the right time.  Here we are 2 months later and it doesn’t sound like much of a difference but it was.  Hudson started eating better orally instead of mainly being tube fed.  He started eating as much as his brother and sister would eat.  I remember wishing and praying during his first year, during times where he would throw up everything after spending up to more than an hour at times trying to get him to eat, during times when most of his food was through the tube, that one day I would be able to serve three equal plates and everyone would eat what’s on their plate.  Today, I can honestly say that my prayers were answered!  Hudson has improved dramatically with his feeding in such a positive way and in the last two months he has been working on potty training and he is doing very well with it.

We feel sometimes anxious and worried about having to see him strapped to machines, equipment and pumps of medications again and be on constant medication.  We do, however feel confident he will do well and we know that he is in the best hands with the best knowledgeable doctors that know his condition well.  And we are most confident that guiding these great, talented doctors is the hands of Our Great Creator, Our God!

He will be going in very healthy.  We would have liked to have him weight more, because he’s such a skinny bean.  He is soo busy that for him to gain any weight he would have to sit still and eat all day which does not happen!

So even though getting ready for this trip was busy and sometimes emotional, I have to say everything has gone pretty good.  Chris and I managed to get a lot done before leaving and prepared ourselves well with what to bring and this time, not to bring as much.  It’s hard to leave home under these circumstances.  We actually left the house at the time we said we would and we didn’t’ even argue at all while leaving.  Usually, whenever we plan a trip of some sort, we argue about something meaningless before leaving, but not this time.  We seem to have it all together which was a nice change.  I guess staying up until almost 2a.m did pay off.  HA!! Honestly, it’s a blessing.

Now we can fully concentrate on what’s to come and being together as a family without having to worry about work and house-stuff and all of  the business that being at home brings.  Even though we are driving to get here and having to relocate for a while, I think this is the best thing for Hudson and our family.

Kids are doing soo good on this long road trip…..sooo very proud of them.