Parker's Robotics Camp

His team's robot...

They designed and built it themselves!

Parker's team scored the most points of any round, and was way ahead of their closest competitors going into the championship round. Parker scored the most points of any operator in one round, by getting the most balls into the cylinders! Sadly, their robot got ripped apart by another robot, and they we'ren't able to fix it in time to finish the competition. But had their robot worked...they would have won by a sizable margin. Maybe next year!

Addison's Baptism

We're proud of you Addie!

Spring Break in Zion Canyon

Warning: Picture overload

I can see why they named it Zion National Park---

Although, I'm not sure I would think of it as "Zion" if I had lived there as a pioneer!

Beautiful---YES! Unforgiving---DEFINITELY!

#3 Logan

Logan turned 3 this month. It's crazy to think back to that day in Manila when I had him. It doesn't seem that long ago.

Logan HAD to have a football cake---and it HAD to be chocolate! His famous saying around here is, "I want to grow big like Parker so I can play football!" One day I told him that he was getting SO big. He got really sad and said, "No I not! I not big enough to play football yet!"

Big or not, we're so glad we have him!

That would NOT be my Whitley in the cereal drawer AGAIN, would it?!?

Jr. Jazz

Addie and Lily played Jr. Jazz b-ball this year. They did great for their first time! Addie even scored once or twice, and Lily came really close. They were the only girls on a team full of boys who have obviously been playing their whole lives! Addie was a good head taller than most of the boys.

They were both G.R.E.A.T. little defenders!! The kids they were guarding could N.E.V.E.R. get the ball. We felt kinda sorry for them! In fact, they were both so good at it that they even defended their guys when they were supposed to be on offense! Addie and Lily would stick their hands all up in their faces---and you should have seen the confused kids who were trying to guard them. Hilarious!! Way to confuse the defense, girls! ;)

Note to Brett: Next year we need to teach them about offense!

Lock Down

Today the schools here were locked down because of a shooting threat. I could hardly believe it was happening here. It was terrifying! I started to panic when I couldn't get any information about what was going on.

I decided the only thing I could do for the kids was to pray---and worry---but mostly pray!

And then I gratefully remembered that Brett had already asked for protection to be with the kids this morning. I'm so glad we took the time to say prayers together as a family before school. I'll be honest, more often than not that doesn't happen at our house (and rarely without someone ending up in tears or a tantrum). I think it will become a priority now.

The all clear was issued in the afternoon, and the kids came home without knowing much of what happened. But I'm still a little dazed and shaken by the whole thing. It's a scary world sometimes!

Whit's surgery, Part 2

On January 25th, we took Whit to Primary Children's for surgery. She was scheduled at 10:30am, but we waited around until nearly 12pm before they finally came for her. The poor girl was starving. She had only had 1 bottle of apple juice at 7 am, and she was tired of waiting. It was also her nap time, which didn't make things easy. So they ended up giving her Valium to make the hand over go more smoothly...which then makes coming out of anesthesia more difficult. Handing Whit over to the Anesthesiologist was one of the hardest things I've ever done! I cried.

The surgery lasted about an hour. I could not concentrate on anything the entire time. I just prayed and prayed, and asked for angels to be with her. I did not want her to be alone! I felt like I got a minuscule glimpse into what our Heavenly Father must have gone through while the Savior was suffering. How difficult it is to watch as a child suffers!!!

After the surgery, the doctor came to talk to us. He told us that he tried to stick a prob into the hole to see how far the tunnel went, but it would barely go in. He knew it was long because it was leaking, so he thought that was very strange. After trying a few times, he decided to just cut her open and figure it out that way. He was shocked to not only find a tunnel (fistula) going to her right tonsil, but in the middle of that tunnel was a rather large cyst. It was completely unexpected. Usually there is one or the other, a tunnel or a cyst, but not both. He was able to remove the cyst and cut all of the tunnel out...and also remove her right tonsil. It was good that we did the surgery so soon, and got the cyst removed before it got any bigger!

We were supposed to be able to see Whitley 30 minutes after surgery was over. However, it took nearly 3 hours for her to come out of the anesthesia! It was nerve-racking having them tell me that they couldn't get her to wake up. Every 30 minutes they would give us an update. And every time it was "She's not waking up yet". After waiting 2 1/2 hours post surgery, they informed us that they HAD to wake her up--which they don't like to do because it can affect all sorts of things--but she wasn't coming out of it on her own. I was beginning to freak out a little at this point! They had to put wet rags on her face...and even then, she wasn't really waking up. They finally let me back (even though she wasn't fully awake) after about 3 hours of waiting....and I had to stop myself from running! The nurse didn't even have to ask if it would be Brett or I going back (only 1 of us could go). She just said, "I know mom needs to see her baby, let's get you to her!"

When I saw Whit, she was completely swollen. She had a huge bandage wrapped all the way around her neck. I started to cry because seeing her with all the cords and monitors brought back so many memories from the NICU. The nurse quickly handed her over to me and told me that Whit's stats (breathing, heart rate, etc.) kept dropping really low because they had woken her up. She needed me to keep oxygen by her face (Whit wouldn't let them strap it on her) while she was waking up. The monitors kept going off for her breathing, and every time I thought back to the NICU monitors. Whitley would wake up and pull at the cords with such anger one second, then she would be out the next. The waking up was not going well!

It took quite awhile, but finally Whit stabilized enough to let us go to a room with the oxygen. Those first few hours were horrible! The poor nurse kept rushing in and out as the monitors went off pretty steadily...she earned her pay that day! She was very sweet and understanding, and offered to sit with Whit so I could have a break. But I was not going to put Whit down for a second! I ended up staying the night, and Brett slept at the hotel. I got about 30 minutes of sleep the whole night, but it was all worth it when at about 2 am Whit started smiling and playing. She really wanted to run, but they had the IV in her foot....and she was still flying pretty high from all the drugs! She was a crack up! I should have thought ahead and videoed that part!

Whit did much better than expected (once they got her to wake up, that is!). [You can see her stitches in the picture above.] She's such a trooper to have had to go through so much already in her little life! And while she's developed a pretty healthy fear/hatred of her doctors over the past 15 months, I don't think there's any other lasting effects. For that, we are grateful!

And we're just REALLY glad it's over!!

Whit's Surgery Part 1

Let me preface this by saying that this entry is for our journal...so there are probably more details than anyone else really cares to know. But I know I'll want the details for Whit someday.

Whit has had a hole in her neck since she was born. We discovered it right after we brought her home from the NICU. We thought it was odd, and noticed it often leaked a clear bodily fluid. We informed her doctors about it and were told that she would need surgery to fix it once she turned a year old. We saw an ENT who finally gave us a term for it--"Right Brachial Cleft Fistula", and were instructed to keep it clean so it didn't get infected until we could have the surgery done at Primary Children's (our local hospital again, was just not equipped for it). Apparently, brachial cleft fistulas are pretty rare. Whit's doctor was even giddy about it--saying, "You know these are rare, right? We only read about these in textbooks. Whitley is the only case in our E.N.T.I.R.E. practice." Thanks a lot, Doc...that makes me feel better!

We saw the specialist at Primary Children's on Dec. 23rd, who confirmed that it was a very rare brachial cleft fistula. He explained it as basically a tunnel that usually starts at the tonsil, voice box, or inner ear. When she was forming in the womb, a flap of tissue got folded over and never sealed up properly. That created a hole that continued to grow and form this tunnel out to her neck where it is leaking bodily fluid. Because the mouth is so dirty, there is a high risk of infection. And because Whit's leaks, that increases the risk. If the tunnel gets infected before it is removed, it makes complete removal nearly impossible....and it could come back. Infection in that area is also extremely hard to treat. So there is an urgency in having surgery once one of these are found.

The doctor also explained that he wouldn't be able to know where the tunnel leads until he's actually doing the surgery. There are no tests to tell how long the tunnel is or where it goes. And some surgeries are more difficult and have worse complications--according to where the tunnel ends up. So we would be going into it blind--with little information about how it should turn out. That was scary for me, because there were possibilities of paralysis in the shoulders or face as a result. That was pretty drastic for me. Whit has already been through so much in her life, and I hated the thought of her enduring any more.

The doctor asked us if we wanted some time to think about it before we made the decision. But Brett and I both agreed that we had known about this for a long time, and knew that surgery was pretty much inevitable. But even then, we were shocked when the surgery was scheduled for the following month, on January 25th! We knew Whit needed surgery, but THAT fast!?! We were a little (okay, a lot) shocked! They also informed us that they could have done the surgery when she was only 3 months old, we didn't need to wait until she was a year like we were told....waiting only increases the chances of it getting infected, which would cause major problems....thanks again, local doctors!

Getting back on the horse

Saying it's been awhile is a huge understatement!

I was ready to give up on the whole blog thing. In fact, I did! Blogging, was a great way for us to keep in touch with everyone while we were living overseas, but it lost it's luster once we moved back to the States. Add another baby (a very premature and medically needy baby) into the mix, and well, blogging ends up at the bottom of the list.

But now that things with Whitley are finally winding down and I'm semi-adjusted to being back in the States (it only took 2+ years!), I guess it's time to give it another try. Purely for the sake of journaling!

So here we go again......