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January 23, 2014

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Baby’s first Easter! 🌸💕

Baby’s first Easter! 🌸💕

My little Easter bunnies. Some of who aren’t so

My little Easter bunnies. Some of who aren’t so little anymore... 🐰🌸✝️

Eight months today and already crawling, pulling u

Eight months today and already crawling, pulling up and CRUISING. Yes, cruising. CRUISING! You guys...😩 Next up: standing and then walking... out the door to hop in his car to leave me forever. 😭😭😉

He has an insatiable curiosity and never stops moving. He continues to capture more and more of our hearts with his sweetness, with his smiles and with his orneriness, as displayed here. Our baby Ira Lee. 😍❤️

Thurser had his tonsil and adenoid removal this mo

Thurser had his tonsil and adenoid removal this morning, everything went super well!!

We are at home and he is resting enjoying an array of his favorite special drinks, couch snuggles and full control of the TV remote.

Prayers for a seamless recovery (and for no more surgeries for awhile for this fam!) would be gratefully appreciated! ❤️

7 months old and still dishing out smiles like the

7 months old and still dishing out smiles like they’re going out of style. This baby... Gah! This BABY!! He’s wild and sweet and hilarious and beyond precious. 🥰🥰

HO HO HO! Merry Christmas! 🎅🏻 We are home,

HO HO HO! Merry Christmas! 🎅🏻

We are home, we are healing, and because of Him, we are hopeful. Happy Birthday Jesus!

Feeling much peace and joy today having spent the last few days surrounded by family and, of course, these smiling faces. I pray you are able to say the same!❤️🎄

CHECK STORIES FOR LATEST UPDATE - Got to see Donn

CHECK STORIES FOR LATEST UPDATE
-
Got to see Donna for the first time around 6:30 PM. She’s doing well overall. She’s already off the pacing wires (which she was on immediately after surgery). So far we are able to manage her pain and are trying to keep her in a slightly sedated state. She is agitated by all of the things connected to her and we are doing our best to keep her happy and calm until she can start having liquids and food again, which is ultimately what we think she really is agitated about. (AKA there have been one too many requests for chocolate milk that have gone unanswered.) I must be honest and say that it is difficult to see her in any amount of discomfort at this point.

We’re settling in for the night, hopefully it will be a quiet one. Thank you all so much for your thoughts, text, calls, prayers! Will keep you updated as we get through these next few days.

Today we send off Donna into her second open heart

Today we send off Donna into her second open heart surgery. My idea was to make a music video to Donna’s favorite dance party song full of the people she holds closest to her heart. So that we might put a smile on her face while her heart heals.

Yeah, that didn’t happen.

But this is a photo of Donna dancing to one of her favorite songs, in one of her favorite costumes, admiring the dazzling light that she always, always radiates.

I’m sharing with you today because well, today really sucks. I am angry about today. I am sad about today.

I remind myself my anger and sadness do not diminish or negate my gratefulness or hopefulness. We get to have both. All get a seat at the table.

I remind myself that there is power in the name of Jesus. And wouldn’t you know, there is power in a dance party too.

And sometimes when it’s hard to find joy, you make a little of your own.

#chd #heartwarrior #heterotaxy #becauseheterotaxy #openheartsurgery

Long day of pre-op exams. Donna’s second open he

Long day of pre-op exams. Donna’s second open heart surgery in the morning. Prayers and positive vibes are very much appreciated! ❤️

It’s not what we wanted, but we started remote l

It’s not what we wanted, but we started remote learning yesterday and just wrapped up day 2. I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how smooth everything‘s going. At how much fun everyone’s having. At how much more time I feel like we have: both in the day and spent together.

On Sunday evening I felt naively excited for us all to be at home together again but also pretty stressed out. Two kids doing remote learning? Alongside a toddler? AND a baby? One week out from open heart surgery...?

Talk to me at the end of the week, (😜), but right now: the extra lazy mornings, lack of car drop offs/pickups, extra snuggles, morning dance parties, afternoons playing in the snow, trying out a new yoga channel, starting Minecraft STEM challenges, sneaking in Christmas activities and movies in the middle of the day?

It’s not what we wanted, but it feels exactly like what everyone needed.

Thank you Lord for always finding a way to comfort us when we need it most. For giving us what we need and not always what we want. For turning what we needed into what we really want most of all.

Couldn’t get the tree up fast enough this year.

Couldn’t get the tree up fast enough this year. 🙃 #myblantonbunch

Two years ago Katie and Carey sent me the followin

Two years ago Katie and Carey sent me the following photo just after they received their flu shots. It was the first flu season we’d encountered with Donna. We were weeks away from her first open heart surgery. Days away from her first NG tube. Actively in heart failure. Suffice it to say that hope was diminishing.

But the moment I saw this picture come across my text messages, I wept. There they were, proudly displaying their band-aided arms. Smiles on their faces. Reminding me once again that they were in our corner. We weren’t fighting alone. Reminding me that although big things are often out of our control, little things are often within it. Hope magnified.

I won’t share with you in detail the ridiculous amounts of coordination and rescheduling it took for me to get my flu shot this year. #2020 But today I wanted to share with you my band-aided arm and a little smile because, I need hope magnified. My guess is you do too.

Our peanutiest peanut is 4 months old today! ❤️

No surprise here that Ira is a total animal. 😆 Rolling over, pushing up, reaching, grabbing and chatting up a storm. He’s a chewing, drooling, delicious little chunk of heaven that is happy to be along for the ride — so long as it’s not in the car to pick up or drop off kids from school... Which is a lot of the time right now. Lol.

Love this little red headed boy. 🥰

Start with amen, the broken way. Unglued. The po

Start with amen,
the broken way.

Unglued.

The power of now?
(To name) one thousand gifts.

#spinepoetry #spinepoetrychallenge

A lion, a baby bear, Iron Man and Wolverine. 🧡🧡

My beautiful babies.✨. @amandareedphoto

My beautiful babies.✨. @amandareedphoto

Irons Fruit Farm over the years! 🍎 (2020, 2019,

Irons Fruit Farm over the years! 🍎 (2020, 2019, 2016, 2015, 2014)

Remember that year we tore down the barn? The year

Remember that year we tore down the barn? The year the tree fell? When we didn’t see our parents for 76 days in a row? The year we all wore masks and didn’t touch and barely breathed?

The year Wyatt finished his first year of school on a Zoom call? When he had his first crush and we actually got to see the way they looked at and talked to each other? The year Donna learned to walk and talk but we didn’t go anywhere or see anyone? The year the summer brought a winter that seemed like would never end?

Remember the year we met Ira? When I labored and gave birth in the middle of a pandemic, narrowly escaping an emergency c-section? The year Thurser started his first year of school with a mask on his face? How you could still see his joy from under it after he braved his first day?

Remember the year even our big house didn’t seem big enough to hold everyone’s big emotions and there was more yelling and crying than we’d ever hoped? How we also hugged and made up more than we’d ever hoped? When we watched movies and ate dinner in the family room together because I tried to be cool about all the crumbs? When you worked from home and I made you bologna sandwiches for lunch for weeks on end? When we laughed at Ira’s crazy eyebrows and soaked up Donna’s neck hugs? The day we found out we were headed into another open heart surgery and we could only hug because sometimes there are no words?

When people still got married and people still died. When the grass still grew and the garden still bloomed and there were still clothes to fold in the dryer?

Remember the year God revealed all the broken things that needed torn down right alongside breathtaking beauty? When he showed us our chaos but also hope on the actual horizon, sandwiched between the wreckage and stormy skies?

Remember that year?

// Forever inspired and encouraged by the words of @ashleegadd

Fall on the Farm fun, cont. 🎃🌽

Fall on the Farm fun, cont. 🎃🌽

Fall on the farm fun, cont. 🎃🌽

Fall on the farm fun, cont. 🎃🌽

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