New Job

James just finished up his fourth week of work at his new job!  Ours prayers were answered in a really big way last month.  Exactly one month from the day James was laid off, he was offered a new position at a great company only four miles from home!

The relief that he has a job again is huge and the fact that it's even better than the last is beyond wonderful.  Today James is mountain biking along the McKenzie River with a couple new friends from work.  I'm so happy to see James enjoying his job and his co-workers.  Thanks be to God!

Grandma Valerie and the boys' cousins came to visit

Happy Birthday Levi, School's Out, and Job Hunt

Levi's Birthday

2012 - Isn't Levi looking like a big boy?!

Sweet Levi is two years old!!!  I still call him my baby, but he's far from it!  He's an adorable, coordinated, opinionated, two year old with a smile to melt your heart.  We love our little guy and he is healthy, strong, and growing well.  He loves riding his balance bike, playing with cars, splashing in water, and running straight down the street whenever I turn my head!  He is busy, busy, busy, but oh so cute.

Levi is still having much difficulty with his speech, or lack thereof.  He continues to receive services from Early Intervention and I recently took him

2010 - Levi, three days old

to another speech and language pathologist in town who will see him once a month.  We still don't know if this is just a speech delay or if it's something more serious like childhood apraxia of speech.  Levi had an in-depth hearing test done a couple weeks ago, and his hearing is just fine, so it's good to rule that out.  In the meantime, I'm teaching Levi some more signs so he has another way to communicate.














June 24 marks the one year anniversary of Levi's open heart surgery.  I haven't wrapped my head around that yet, but will reflect on it as it draws closer.  I can't go there just yet.


Schools Out

Jacob's end of year preschool performance

The big boys are out of school for the summer.  Noah finished up kindergarten and Jacob completed his first year of preschool.  They both had great school years and we love that they both love school!

Now that summer has arrived, they spend their days playing outside with the neighborhood kids, having water shooter fights, and going on walks in Shevlin Park.  We'll mix in some swim lessons, a couple VBS camps, and some day trips to the Cascade lakes, and that's our summer.  Fun!

Job Hunt

Noah's last day of kindergarten

Unfortunately, in the midst of all the summer excitement last week, James was laid off from his job of five years.  Due to financial difficulties, the company had to make some drastic cuts, and that meant James was one of many employees let go without notice.

As you can imagine, this is a huge stress for our family as he was the sole income. It throws us into a lot of unknowns.  With Levi's ongoing health condition, maintaining good health insurance is a must, so that's just one of many pieces to this puzzle that we need to figure out.

James is spending his days working really hard to find another job.  He is such an amazing husband and a such a dedicated worker. Whatever company hires him will be so lucky to have him.  He does have a promising local interview set up next week and another couple possibilities, so we are hoping that something pans out soon.  Central Oregon is not a very big place, so finding a job could prove difficult.  We ask for your prayers that God will open the door to an amazing new job.  It's hard to see beyond the shock of this past week, but we know that God has carried us through some very dark times before and He will again.  I just wish I had that future perspective now, rather than that awful anxious feeling in the pit of my stomach that sometimes sneaks up on me.

Grandma Arrives
My mom arrived from California and is staying with us for the week.  I'm super excited to have her here as it's always so much fun for the kids to have grandma-time, and I love getting out and about with her during this beautiful time of year.  She couldn't have come at a more perfect time too as she always puts a smile on our faces.

Crater Lake stop on the way to Southern Oregon for a mountain bike race in May

Lithia Park in Ashland, OR

Rogue River Gorge, Southern Oregon

Jacob at the Sisters Stampede Mountain Bike Race (daddy and boys raced)

Our Family

Six Month Cardiology Check-Up: Looking Good

Next month marks the one year anniversary since Levi's open heart surgery to repair his aortic valve.  It's been six months since his last cardiology appointment, a record length between check-ups.

the sternal scar is hardly visible almost a year after surgery

Today's echo showed that Levi's heart remains fairly unchanged from his last appointment in Nov. 2011.  That's GREAT news!  His aortic stenosis is still in the mild range, based on a variety of readings that show it's either the same or just slightly elevated. His aortic insufficiency (leakage) is still only trivial.  Prior to surgery it was severe.  Levi's ascending aorta looks fine (not dilated like before surgery) and he doesn't show signs of excessive narrowing below the valve due to sub-aortic stenosis either.  According to the EKG, His left ventricle does show a little hypertrophy, or thickening.  Because of the aortic valve stenosis, his heart is working harder to pump blood out to the rest of his body, so the muscle thickens.  This is expected with aortic stenosis, but it's nothing to be concerned about at this point.  So all in all it was a great appointment!

The doctor said Levi can go a year between appointments, but she also said if we want one in six months for peace of mind, she's fine with that too.  I, of course, want one in six months just to be sure things are still okay, and James is leaning more toward a year, since "if the doctor's okay with a year, then so am I."  I get it, but we'll see how I'm feeling around the six-month mark.  ;)

Sedation today, as usual, was difficult.  Levi is a typical 22-month old toddler, who won't hold still for an echo or any other poking or prodding.  I hear about other kids being fine with just distractions like TV, bubbles, music, toys, etc, but Levi is a mover and a shaker with a strong will!  So we opt for oral sedation.  However, he has a really difficult time (a) keeping the medication down--it's nasty tasting, and (b) falling asleep with ease.  We arrived at 8 am, but it took over two hours to get him mellow enough for an echo.  He was groggy and on the verge of sleep for so long, but just fought it so much.  We've tried two types of  oral sedation in the past, and neither are very easy on Levi.  So our appointment from start to finish stretched almost 3.5 hours.  Phew!  It was a very long morning and I always leave cardio appointments with the biggest headaches.  But, it's all worth it to get accurate readings and know how Levi's heart is really doing.  The nurse said that around age three, echos become much easier and sedation is rarely used.  We're almost there!

the boys LOVE riding bikes

Developmentally, Levi is a very normal almost-two-year-old.  He loves playing outside with his brothers and zooms around on his little push car or in his foot-powered "cozy coupe".  He likes dogs, trucks, buses, and frozen peas.  He's also our escape artist when he's outside, so momma has to keep a very close eye on him!  My mom suggested fastening a bell to him or making him wear squeaky shoes.  I'm really thinking about it!

The only area where he's behind is expressive language.  He'll be two years old on June 18 and he's not talking yet and doesn't make very many vowel or consonant sounds.  He'll say "mama" and "u" for "up" when asked to, but not much else.  He understands everything though, so that's a good sign.  He's enrolled in Early Intervention and has a teacher who comes out to our house to work with him twice a month.  We're not sure if this is just a typical language delay or if it is caused in part by trauma the first year of life, i.e. heart surgery and a cath procedure.  So we continue to support Levi in this area and hopefully he'll start talking soon.

What a relief to have today's cardiology appointment behind us.  We were anxious and nervous about what we might find out and I couldn't help but play the different scenarios through my head.  What if things have worsened?  What if he's facing heart surgery again? What if...?  What if...?  So if you just heard a big sigh of relief, it was probably coming from our house.  We are once again given the gift of a good report and a good chunk of time before the next check-up.  For now we can get on with living a life of normalcy around here.

"For I know the plans I have for you," declares the Lord, "plans to prosper you and not harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."    Jeremiah 29:11

                                                               

Jacob and Noah out for a bike ride with daddy

I turned on a yoga video and the kids took over!