Bittersweet

Two years ago Luke and I moved in to apartment 705. We were so excited and proud to be moving in to "our" own place, it had two bathrooms and two bed rooms, and "SO MUCH storage". Luke proposed to me in the living room of that apartment, we planned our wedding in that apartment, we danced in the living room, came home from our honeymoon as a married couple to that apartment, found out we were expecting in that apartment, and brought Easton home to our first home in that apartment. It represented so much, our decisions as a couple, and as a family. It was OUR first place, it was not much, just a small little apartment, but it was ours. Today I hate it, its covered in mouse feces and stinks, the management has treated us so badly in the last few months and we have found a new place to rent, it is smaller, but it will be wonderful, because it will be new and it will be a place we can make our own, again.
Its a bittersweet thing, to move to a new place, two years ago I loved that apartment....today I hate it. I hope we can fill the new place with as many and more loving memories as we did apartment 705.

This week we take Easton to an appointment at Cooks in Fort Worth. We will set a date, at this appointment, for his first cleft repair surgery. ANother bittersweet moment. I love his face, his lip, the fact that he can move his little lip in two directions. I hate that he has to endure any pain, that his face has to change, I pray that the change is ONLY a physical one and that his little sweet personality stays in tact.
When we first found out about his cleft lip/palate, we were so afraid of what was to come. What would he look like, would he be able to eat, how many surgeries would he have to go through etc....And now that the ball has begun to roll, we know surgery is in our near future and I pray that I am woman enough and a good enough Mother that I can handle it and be strong for Easton. Its a bittersweet thing, we are changing this precious face that God gave our sweet boy, changing it so that he can be given the chance to live a normal life, be able to eat and function normally, but we love this sweet face. Its an emotional roller coaster that I think we are all struggling with, but I know God is with us and will guide us.

It has been a trying time for our family, but we are stronger than ever, and I look forward to the future!

Life goes on...

Well we have passed the 2 month mark as new parents! Easton will be 10 weeks old tomorrow, I cannot believe the time has flown by so quickly!

It’s not been the easiest 10 weeks but we have survived and Easton is thriving! He weighed in at 10lba 10 oz at his 2 month appointment and the Drs are very pleased with his progress! He is smiling and cooing more and more now and is starting to be so much fun! He changes daily, I can’t believe how different he looks from day to day, and we are just totally smitten with him.

A lot has happened in the last 10 weeks. We have moved out of our apartment and in with my parents for a while, there was a health concern in the apartment and management did not react the way they should have so we put our intent to vacate in and are in the process of moving out. Mom has had a few health scares, she was in the hospital the night after I got out of the hospital and though she’s not totally out of the woods, things are better and she is receiving great care. Meanwhile I have started back to work and am missing my boy terribly, I know I am doing the best I can to help support my family, but it is really hard to let someone else care for my baby.

ON June 27 we will return to Fort Worth to Cooks Children’s Hospital and at that appointment we will schedule Easton’s first repair. We’re looking at the end of July first of August for the lip/nose repair. It makes me really nervous to think about it, I will miss that sweet up turned lip. So I plan to take a million pictures between now and then.

Life goes on, that’s something we are learning, Life goes on no matter what we are dealing with personally, we can’t let our guard down for long or we might get run over!

God has blessed us tremendously and I thank Him every day for everything we have, even if it is not the way we expected or planned for it to be, its beautiful.