Update

Hey, yes we are still alive, but extremely busy. We had an awesome holiday season with family and friends. Aiden loved everything about Christmas, but especially his Thomas the Train. It was one of the first gifts he opened, and he carried it around all day and even went to sleep with it that night. It seems January was the month of sickness in our house. I was the only one fortunate enough to have escaped the flu. Eddie had it first and managed to develop a lower respiratory infection as well. Then Aiden had an ear infection that required 3 rounds of different antibiotics to knock it out. During these visits the doctor was concerned about pneumonia as well, so she ordered a chest x-ray. She called last week to say they had received the final report of the x-ray and that there was a suspicious area in his lung, and that she compared the x-ray to the one he had in September, and the spot was there then as well. They originally thought it was just pneumonia, but she wanted us to see a pediatric pulmonologist to be sure, especially since he is scheduled for surgery this Friday. We were fortunate to get his dental surgery piggy-backed onto his circumcision surgery so he would only have to be put to sleep once. He will probably not speak to us for awhile after Friday. Anyway, so the pulmonologist felt like he has some atelectasis (small collapse of his lung) in that area. They want to do a bronchoscopy and a CT scan to determine the cause, but are going to wait until after he is recovered from this surgery. Then I received a call yesterday from the pulmonologist saying that she had presented Aiden's x-rays in their grand rounds and the consensus was that there is an enlarged blood vessel that is obstucting his lung and causing the atelectasis. So now we will be having an echocardiogram on Friday before the surgery to be sure his heart is ok. We're pretty overwhelmed at this point, and we just feel so bad for our little man. He is such a trooper, and is so happy through all of this. However, we are thankful for good physicians that have gone the extra mile to be sure he is ok for surgery. I'm so glad his pediatrician decided to look at that previous x-ray, instead of writing it off to pneumonia. We feel blessed as well to be at Vanderbilt for his treatment. So we definately covet your prayers over the next few days and even months. We know God is not surprised by any of this, and that Aiden is, as he has always been, in His hands. I will try to update after the surgery and let you know how he is doing.

Kyle and Cambrie are doing well with school. Kyle is involved with several extra curricular activities at school, as usual, so that keeps us running back and forth a lot. Thankfully we are taking the spring season off as far as sports go, so that will afford us some much needed rest on the weekends and weeknights. We are looking forward to a short trip to St. Loius for spring break. We went to Indianapolis last year for a few days, and that was just the right amount of time to get away but not exhaust us. Kyle is especially looking forward to going up in the Arch. I have graciously volunteered to stay with Aiden at the bottom. I don't care for heights, not to mention the swaying that sometimes occurs at the top. We also plan to visit the zoo, and a few fun museums. It will be our first official vacation as a family of 5, so we are excited.

Last night we had some professional photos taken of Aiden and the whole family, so I hope to post some of those on here when I get a chance. They turned out really nice, but I spent a fortune on them. I was just amazed that the photographer was able to get some shots of all 3 children looking at the same time. Not an easy feat!

Well, that's our news for now. I'm sure the next few weeks will be just as crazy as the last 5 months, but we wouldn't change a thing. We are so thankful for our blessings.

Kelly