Heart Heroes Family Night Out

I was blessed and honored to be in charge of hosting Heart Heroes, Inc. 2nd Annual Family Night Out event again this year.
This is such a fun event!!
We rent out the Omaha Children's Museum and have pizza, frozen yogurt and cookies....all for FREE...for CHD Heart Heroes, their families and our supporters.
It's really low key and relaxed and families just love it.

It fills my heart to see the smiles and joy on people's faces when they arrive and are playing in the museum.
We were also super blessed to have the head of Children's Hospital's Cardiology Department, one of the cardio-thoracic surgeons, a few cardiologist and nursing staff in attendance.  SUPER COOL!!  Many of our heart families call these wonderful people family, so it was great they were there supporting our families and Heart Heroes!!!

We had this amazing photo booth this year.  It was a hit!

 

 

 

The other BEST part of the evening is looking around and seeing what AMAZING friends and family that I have.  My friends volunteer their time and talents to Heart Heroes and this event to help it be a huge success!! 

I seriously CANNOT THANK Nancy, Shellie, Katie, Katie and Dana enough for ALL they did that evening (and so many, many things PRIOR to that evening...especially Dana!).

They support they give our family, Heart Heroes, and most...to me....moves me to tears....literally.

My HEART RUNNETH OVER!!!

 

And finally....these 2 VERY FINE ladies....

 



 

Without these ladies, Heart Heroes would not exist.

They started it all.....and have opened their hearts and their organization to me.....allowing me to join them in this beautiful journey.    For that I'm blessed beyond words.

Love you girls.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Puffy Cheeks & the Her Helper

E had two more teeth pulled last week to give her adult teeth more room to come in.
First of all....I don't understand why her teeth refuse to fall out on their own.
Secondly.....we are starting our braces saving account for her already....it's inevitable....SIGH....

H was along for the visit and actually got to help with the extractions. After Dr. Bryan pulled the teeth, H was in charge of getting them into the tooth box.  She was pumped!  It was pretty fun!

It's always pretty cool to me how brave my girls are.  They don't cry or excessively worry about these types of things.  They believe me and Ed when we say they are going to be 'fine'.  They are constantly looking to soak in new information and experience something new.  I like that they are that way.  I like that they are not 'chickens'.  Well....unless you're talking about going anywhere in our house without someone else......but in all other situations, they're not. 
They're brave.
They're confident.
That's cool.

Our Healed Heart Hero

On Tuesday, EIV had his check up with Cardiology at Children's Hospital.
He had an Echo, an EKG and a follow up appointment with Dr. Delaney.

He was very 'chill' during both the Echo and EKG.
A little iphone distraction doesn't hurt.

 

It was incredibly adorable...he looked up at the screen and said "Look at my baby"

Clearly he's been to one or two of mom's ultrasounds.

 

I summed up most of our feelings on FB that day.  Instead of re-writing, thought I'd simply share that:

 

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change"  -James 1:17

 

God is GOOD!!! After Edward's Echo, EKG and cardiology appointment, this morning we received AMAZING news.  His heart is in PERFECT, EXCELLENT, FANTASTIC shape!  They can't even see either the ASD or VSD repairs on the echo because the tissue has grown around it.  And we don't have to return to cardiology for 5, yes FIVE, years!! Unbelievable!  It literally takes my breath away! To think about how hard the first year of his life was.....likely the most challenging one we faced as family....and to see where we are now.  Thank the Lord!!  We are so very, very blessed!!!  Beyond words Blessed!

 

 

 

God is Good!

So, So Good!

We get to close this chapter of EIV's life.

We get to continue to give back to other heart families, Heart Heroes, and our heart community.

We get to celebrate health and perserverance.

We get to comfort and support those who provided us comfort and support.

We get to do so much more.

 

 

My Heart Runneth Over.....

 

 

 

 

 

Happy Birthday!

I apologize for my tardiness on this one.

We celebrated Ed's birthday on Monday.
The kids made him brownies with M&M's and decorated with any cake toppers we could find.
I think it was perfect.  So did he.
He even insisted that we cut our evening short so we would be home before bedtime so the kids could sing Happy Birthday.  Such a softie :)

We enjoyed good friends over lunch and an evening out (just us!) for shoe shopping and dinner.
Shout out to my sister for making that a reality.
It was such an enjoyable day celebrating my man!

Happy Birthday honey.  I'm very blessed and grateful for the memories we've made over the past year.
Thanks for your unwavering love & support, unbridled amount of patience, ability to calm me the hell down, and commitment to your family/children.
Here's to many, many more :)
We love you!