THURSDAY, 11/1/07

First of all, I CAN NOT BELIEVE that is is November!!!! Anyway, I finally got some pictures posted so I hope you enjoy them. I am still waaayyyy behind but I'm figuring that's just the way it's gonna be for a while. Things are definitely settling down but I think it's probably going to take me quite some time to really feel completely settled in our new house and all. Love you all and hope you're all enjoying the beautiful fall weather!!!

Tuesday, 9/11--Sacred Heart gave Gracie this bear and she loved it!
Monday, 9/10--Sorry this picture is a bit dark--this is Gracie in a contraption to get a chest x-ray. I snapped this shot miliseconds before she totally freaked out!!!!
Gracie had to get a bunch of labs drawn which was horrible but the wagon rides helped a lot!!! Thanks Daddy!
Gracie was balancing really well and taking the most steps on her own that she ever had the day before surgery.

Tuesday, 9/11-- Gracie dopped up again and the anesthesiologist taking her off to surgery. This was the first time we saw her after surgery. This is her cardiologist, Dr. Hrair Garabedian.

Thursday, 9/13--here is Gracie's surgeon, Dr. Jack Leonard.
She "came to" for a little bit Thursday and shook the balloon around we got her. This is my friend Amy who was visiting us. Thanks Amy and everyone else who visited! This was one of the hardest things we've ever gone through and it meant so much to have all the phone calls, e-mails, cards, and visits from you all!!!

Friday, 9/14/07- Sleeping soundly all snuggled with her favorite blankie.Friday, 9/14/07- Guzzling her first bottle after surgery and loving it even though it is only very watered down apple juice.
Saturday, 9/15/07--Yeah, she's out of ICU and in an intermediate recovery room!!!
Monday, 9/17/07--A totally different child from yesterday and doing awesome!!! She was soooooooooooooooooooo happy to be home!!! And so was I!!!!!!
Wednesday, 9/19/07--here is her proof of "battle" and it looks a lot better than I had imagined!

Gracie loves "the ride"as all the big kids call it at Pastor John's house
Gracie also loves to swing!!! This is the airplane swing at Pastor John's house.

Big sister, Chloe, giving Gracie big pushes.

At the water park in Hermiston
Using the package of t.p. as a stepstool
Oops, sorry it's sideways! This was very early a.m. before her heart cath She is totally loopy here and feelin' good just before the procedure.
Here is the room they wheeled her to for her heart cath. She was so intrigued by everything and of course totally loopy that she didn't even cry when they took her. We were so glad!!

MONDAY, 10/15/07

AAAggghhhh........what a whirlwind of a month we've had and I'm sorry but I still can't post any pictures! Our "good" laptop died on us and that is where we uploaded all the pictures to last week! We're sure hoping & praying that it just needs a new battery pack! I'm using the keyboard from our broken screen laptop that Scott is running to our PC monitor! Talk about being creative! Anyway, we started moving things into our house on 9/24; only 9 days after we brought Gracie home from the hospital. We are about half unpacked but pretty much completely disorganized and totally frazzled!! We had a scare at Gracie's post-op follow-up...she had a bunch of fluid that had pooled up in the lining of her left lung again. They told us to come back in 5 days and if it wasn't clearing up then we would have to take her back to Spokane for a catheter procedure to drain it again. We prayed hard and asked many of you to pray hard too and God answered our prayers!! When we took her back almost ALL of the fluid was gone!!!! She has another apt. next Wed. and if it's still cleared up then I think she will be taken off the lasix medication. She is doing fabulous!!! She started trying to walk again pretty much as soon as we got her home from the hospital and is now walking more than she is crawling. She has gained another pound since surgery so is now 19 pounds. This is still quite small for her age, 18 months next week, but she is gaining weight much quicker now. Her hair has grown a little but we're considering Rogaine--hee, hee. We realized when we got her home from surgery that she had EIGHT teeth that were breaking through and she never acted fussy at all!!! What a trooper! She has learned to say duh (done) & baa (bye) in addition to her other words and can point to the parts on her face. She totally understands English now and follows directions really well unless she doesn't want to of course. Kaleb, Lucas and Chloe are so good with her and make her laugh all the time. The biggest issue is with Chloe wanting to coddle and baby her and Gracie will have NONE of that!!! She does get quite jealous if we are giving any of them our full attention but they are mostly very patient and foriving of that. She definitely has a stubborn streek like most toddlers but she is a very playful, happy, fun-loving and sweet little angel.