8 months - May 25

It is hard to believe we have an eight month old!!! From a trip to the Arboretum, to the recovery from his surgery, to his first vacation to Craig's Family's Ranch in the Hill Country, to a crazy month of a ton of activities as we wrapped up the school year with our 8th graders (end of year parties, graduation, etc.) Caleb is getting more and more active and enjoys making plenty of noises to keep us all entertained. He is growing so much and has such a precious little personality. As I have watched my former students and my 8th grade girls grow, change, and become a year older. I think back to the 5 years I taught before having Caleb -this "school year" has gone by far faster than it ever did when I was nose-deep in teaching. I have done some reflecting on my past jobs and I realized having Caleb has brought new meaning to my life. My job used to be what gave me a sense of accomplishment. Now, I no longer earn evaluations or a paycheck, just our son’s love. Knowing that I’m making a real difference in his life is all the reward I need. I pray daily that he will someday become a fully-devoted follower of Christ (and that is truly the ONLY reward I need.) Disclaimer...we apologize for the numerous photos- we had fun borrowing a friend's camera.




This was a fun month of many different looks....See below for a few new looks we gave Caleb (We played dress up a few times and we are struggling with what to do with his long hair - we are not quite ready to cut it.)





Is Caleb not his father's son or what? He already LOVES dressing up!


Mimi and Caleb at the Arboretum the day before his surgery.


Caleb puts EVERYTHING in his mouth including a little nibble on Mommy's nose.

To see more pictures of Caleb's month, click here.

Caleb's Post-Op Update

We went to our pediatric urologist today for Caleb's post-op following his surgery 3 weeks ago. This entailed doing a sonogram to see how has kidneys have responded since the surgery. His right kidney was still dilated, but our doctor said he expected this until the stint gets removed on June 9th. The left kidney continues to look really good, which is wonderful. Looking ahead - on July 16th, our doctor has recommended we do two tests (nuclear medicine and VCUG) in addition to his normal sonogram. The tests will determine how his kidneys perform using his new plumbing (by then his body will have been on its own for five weeks following his stint removal). We continue to pray that the Lord would allow Caleb's reconstructed right ureter to reduce the swelling in his right kidney and that his left kidney would continue to function normally. We also pray that the day surgery on June 9th to remove his stint would go smoothly and that Caleb would continue to respond favorably to anesthesia.

As you can tell in the below pictures, Caleb seems unphased by all of these doctors visitors and hospital stays...

Happy Mother's Day

In light of Mother's Day this weekend, I figured it was time to post a little something about the wizard behind the curtain that makes our family run. I thought the best way to do this was to list the Top 10 reasons Julie is the best mother and wife on the planet (just edging out our two moms). Without further introduction, here they are:

Top 10 Reasons Julie is the Best Mother and Wife on the Planet
1) She makes Caleb laugh even more than I do. She makes our family fun.
2) Her smile is contagious – one smile from Mommy makes Caleb light up like a Christmas tree.
3) She is willing to do the small, dirty, thankless tasks serving Caleb in ways that get no glory.
4) She faithfully prays for Caleb every day – mostly for his character to become more like Christ.
5) Every day I leave for work, she’s at the front door with Caleb waving bye. Every day I return from work, she has Caleb in her arms excitedly saying “Daddy’s home, Daddy’s home!!!”
6) She loves her full-time job as a stay at home Mom and works with joy every single day. You’d be hard pressed to find a more loving, patient, and gifted teacher than Julie.
7) She is a Hot Mom. Her external beauty is effortless and her internal beauty is even more amazing. Sorry Caleb that you’ll be embarrassed when your friends say your mom is hot and your dad is a dork.
8) Her character makes me want to be a better husband, father, and man of Christ.
9) She somehow finds time to be an amazing Mommy, an efficient manager of our house, a good friend to others, a leader of teenage girls, a great sister, a faithful daughter, and a supportive wife.
10) She trusts God’s sovereignty, works to become more like Jesus, and loves/supports/believes in me. There’s no greater gift she can give our family than these three things.

Thank you for marrying me and for being Caleb's Mommy.

Happy Mother’s Day Babe!

Love,
Your Blessed Husband

Home from the Hospital

We are pleased to announce that we got released from the hospital late this afternoon and we are now at home with our little guy. We appreciate everyone's prayers as Caleb became pain free about 3am, which was great. We got a few hours of sleep at the hospital which was more than we expected. Caleb had a relatively pain free day and began to get his smile/laughter back. The highlight of the day was the wagon ride where we wheeled him around the hospital as he screeched with laughter. At the end of the ride, he got a little sleepy from all the fun. After he proved he could urinate on his own without the catheter, we were released from the hospital. All is well at home but we could use some prayer for Caleb's feeding. He's not eating very much so we pray the Lord returns his appetite for his sake and Julie's. We appreciate all the prayers and encouragement we have received - we feel blessed by our awesome friends and family. Below are the photos from today...

Preliminary Surgery Results from Dr. Strand

We talked to our doctor tonight and here's the scoop on the surgery. We've got two pieces of good news and two pieces of bad news. The good news is that Dr. Strand was able to taper Caleb's right ureter and he thinks that he has taken care of the problem on the right side. Coupled with his right kidney surgery back in December, the right side should be good to go. Time will tell through ultrasounds (over the next month, 6 months, year) if the pressure on his kidney is reduced and the right kidney shrinks in size. The other good news is that his left ureter was in good shape and didn't need any surgery. The bad news (which really isn't that bad) is that Caleb will need a day surgery in 6 weeks to remove the unexpected stint that Dr. Strand had to use as part of the tapered right ureter. The other bad news (which again is not the bad) is that Caleb's left kidney is shaped a bit odd which we'll need to keep an eye on. His left kidney and ureter appear to be functioning just fine, but his plumbing looks a little different so Dr. Strand wants to make sure over time this doesn't present a problem. To summarize, the four big learnings from today are: 1) we think the procedure was effective, 2) over the next few months we'll know how effective they were, 3) we'll need to do a follow-up day surgery, and 4) we'll need to track his left kidney more than we historically have.

Caleb is recovering well but is in a bit more pain than the last surgery so he is on morphine. We'd appreciate you praying that Caleb is able to comfortably go off the morphine tomorrow and his pain subsides.

Tonight we hope to get some sleep at the hospital, but it will likely be a long night. Lord willing, we'll be released tomorrow from the hospital but that depends on Caleb's pain level.

Below is a picture from a few minutes ago. We caught him during a good moment when he managed a little smile...

Caleb is Out of Surgery

Caleb is out of his surgery and is now recovering up in his room. We spent about 30 minutes in the recovery room as he was coming to (see photos below). He was and still is pretty groggy, but hopefully he'll wake up a little more after he eats. It is hard to see your little angel look so lifeless and sickly after surgery, but we know he'll be back to his ole' giggly self soon. Since the surgery went a couple hours longer than expected, our doctor had to run to a different part of the operating room so we haven't heard how it went. More details to come once we know more, but we love being able to hold him and see that he's still the sweet little guy we love unconditionally. We've gotten tons of emails, texts, and phone calls and are grateful for everyone's prayers. We'll be here overnight at Med City and hopefully will get released tomorrow - depending on how Caleb recovers...

Waiting, Watching, and Welaxing

It looks like the surgery will take a little longer than expected. We just got a call from the operating room - the surgeon will need to taper Caleb's right ureter because it didn't contract on its own when it was cut. So, we'll see how the left ureter procedure goes (if it is necessary), but odds are he'll be in surgery an extra hour or so. Amazing what they can do on the fly during surgery - all through a one inch incision.

Visitors & Technology

We have been blessed by visitors this morning which really helps pass the time. Mo Sadjadpour was kind enough to bring us manna (aka Chick-Fil-A) and Stacie Hurst came by to support us. Medical City has a really cool system they use to provide updates on how the surgery is going (see picture below showing the knife representing that he is in surgery). Like a flight status board, it shows where the surgery is in process. We look forward to seeing the band-aid icon which means he is getting stiched back up. Is Craig a dork that he notices the efficient use of technology to reduce anxiety for parents and lower costs for the hospital by reducing staff? (don't answer that...)