Rest At Ease

Everyone can rest at ease. Our little Abby is back in good spirits. She is obviously still sore, but she is smiling and goofing around like she usually does. Colton brought her a balloon with a stuffed dog attached to it which she loves playing with. We cannot be happier right now knowing that she is doing better. We owe it to your prayers and a God that shines through once again. He is truly amazing and we thank Him for everything He has done for us today. We also thank all of you for what you have for us today. Even one thought was heard and appreciated. Below might not be the best picture because Abigail's mouth is still a little bloody but it is when she was playing with her balloon. She is now more cleaned up and resting in Mom's arms. Thanks again to everyone.

Post Op Scare...To a Good End

What a day! First off I have to give it to Children's Hospital of Denver for taking care of everything in a way which makes us feel like we are the only ones here. Also, our surgeon, Dr. Allen is a complete God send. He is one of those Doctors who doesn't really know he is a doctor. Everyone can see is love for these kids by just looking at how he treats them.

Dr. Allen told us the surgery went really well. Everything went as planned including the ear piercing we asked him to do. Yeah, that's right, we asked him to pierce Abigail's ears when she was under. They look beautiful. It will be hard to mistake her for a boy now.

Now for the scare of a lifetime...She came out of her sleep ok, but she was showing that she was in pain so they began by giving her a little morphine. This is very common, and was done in the PACU where they can monitor her very closely. She was still showing she was in pain so they continued with more morphine. Again, they were monitoring her closely and she was not reacting in any bad ways. I don't know how many doses they gave her but through her continuing to show pain they completely exhausted the morphine treatment. She then calmed down enough for them to release her from the PACU and send her upstairs to the post-op floor. She continued to do a little better. She faded in and out of being asleep and awake. During one of her awake moments Heather tried to give her some apple juice. When Heather did this it made Abby upset which ended up sending her into a respiratory arrest; she couldn't breath or essentially she stopped breathing. I have been through a lot of difficult times in my life, but there is nothing that compares to the feeling I had during this time. Abby turned completely blue. Heather and our Awesome nurse, Ellen, reacted quickly and put Abby on her bed. Abigail continued not to breath. By this time Ellen had yelled for help and ripped the "bag mask" off the wall and put it to Abby's face. A bag mask is what you see on TV where they are squeezing the bag in order to breath for people who cannot do it on their own. My heart really began to pop out of my chest when they told someone to call the core team. A core team is a team that is specialized in rehabilitating people. Nurses and doctors began pooring into our room. Everyone was asking what happened, doctors were giving orders and everyone was trying to help. It was very chaotic to me, but they had everything down like clockwork and were on top of everything. With my heart all buy stopped, Abby began to come back after about 30 seconds. This seems like a short amount of time, but by now she had not taken a breath in over a minute and a half by herself. This also seems like a short amount of time, but while this was happening my concept of time had come to a screeching halt. It felt like hours had gone by. To give a happy ending to all of this, she came "back to" with a loud cry. The ENT (Ear, Nose, and Throat) team, who had also been called was now in the room and began to take care of everything. Dr. Allen suctioned out her mouth and Abby began to fall back asleep. This is, by far, the worst feeling I have ever had, but I thank God for watching over our Abigail and providing her with an extra Angel to be there to help out. She has spent the rest of the day being fairly restless, but finally she was able to fall asleep for about 30 minutes. When she woke up, big brother Colton came to visit and was able to make her smile and laugh. Finally my heart came out of my stomach as I saw this. The bond those two kids have is also something from God. As soon as she saw him, it was like she felt no pain. He is the greatest big brother Abigail could ever ask for. We are truly blessed.

We want to thank everyone for their prayers and thoughts. Yes, this was very scary, but we are past it and have moved on to recovery. Our God is so great and we love Him for what He has provided us. I am even more thankful for God giving me such a strong and caring wife, a beautiful and resilient daughter, and a son who has a heart of gold. Furthermore, God has provided us with a hospital staff who reacted in such a way that saved our little one. How can one not praise a God who has given us so much. We are just so thankful. We love you all and again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers.

Abigail Turns 1!!!!!

Abigail's party was a blast. We had such a good time and want to thank everyone for coming. Enjoy a picture story of her party!
Abigail was helping us get ready for her party by playing in the balloons

She loved the static balloons

Abby had plenty of help opening her presents. Thank you to everyone who brought presents. Abigail is one who loves to play with everything and she already has. Her mother is also good at putting all of her clothes to good use. THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!

For Abigail's party we wanted to cut down on the amount of toys Abigail would never play with so we gave people the option to bring presents or to help with a donation to Operation Smile. We are so thankful for what people gave. We feel so blessed to have good insurance and to live in a country where we have doctors and surgeons to help fix Abby's cleft. The following picture represents part of what everyone gave. During Abigail's party we were able to raise enough money for one and a half surgeries. That is one full surgery for a child who could not afford it themselves, and half the money for another. THANK YOU ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!

Yes our daughter is crazy

Abby's new favorite doll. She is trying to kiss it through the packaging

Abigail and her cousin Molly

Abby's lady bug cake

Am I really allowed to be doing this?

Here Mom, we can share

Licking it is so much easier

Mmmmm....Cake

This was not at her party but a picture that captures her fun loving spirit. She is crazy!


This past weekend we went to my sister-in-law's sister's wedding reception. We had a great time and so did the kids.
This is (from right to left) the Sister-in-law, Dana and her little one, Emily. The Mother-in-law, my mom, Mima, and Heather and Abby.

Our little beauty show off her pretty dress to everyone

Our little one getting down to the music. We are going to have our hands full as she gets older

Again, we want to thank everyone who donated money toward surgeries for other children who are in need. It really means a lot to Heather and I to help bless other people for we are blessed beyond what we could have ever imagined. We feel this way going into Abigail's second surgery and pray everything goes as well as the first one. Thank You everyone for your thoughts and prayers. I will keep you updated on Tuesday as to how everything went. Abby also sends her love to ALL of You!!!

Tuesday, May 19th at 8AM

We got a phone call from Abigail's scheduler and she told us that Abby is first to go on the 19th. Her surgery will begin at 8Am and will last about three hours. Again the feelings of a bitter sweet feeling have come. Abby has really taken to eating solid foods and now we have to have to go back to a liquid diet for two weeks. Overall, we are more excited than anything. After this surgery we will be done for a few years. Furthermore, we should be done with inpatient surgeries. Everything after Tuesday will be touch-ups and a couple of reconstructions, which are not as major.
We feel so blessed. The support we have from everyone and the God we trust in to watch over us is more than we could ever ask for. Abby is such a great baby and a great joy to be around. We really thank God for everything he has given us.
Abby did turn 1 year old on Saturday, May 9th? I am sorry we do not have the pictures off of our camera yet, but I plan on doing that this weekend. I will have them posted shortly. We are also sorry for not posting in the last few months. I have been out of the country and Heather has been trying to keep the house on the ground. We really appreciate every ones help while I was gone. Aunt Sue and Papa really saved our behinds with watching the kids, so thank you for that.
More will come this weekend, and I will leave you with a message from Abigail,
njjnmnb nnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn bbbbb bnnnnn

May 19th

So we are now on the schedule for May 19th. Our doctor has told us that they give her cold a full 4 weeks to clear up. They do not want anything extra to deal with when doing this surgery. Abigail has also been put on the cancellation list, which means, anytime after April 28th, she can fill in a spot where someone else has had to cancel. We are little concerned that her speech will be more affected now that her surgery is after she turns one, so if there are any words of experience from other cleft families that would be great. It is only 10 days after her first birthday, but still, who doesn't want to hit that optimum time for their kids? We can only do our best to lean on God and know that He has Abigail in His hands. We don't know why things happen when and how they do, but we have faith that this is all in His plan. Maybe May 19th is the optimal day for Abigail's surgery. Thank You to everyone for your prayers and thoughts. We have such a great support group and would not know what do with out any of you. Thank you so much.

The Mostly Ups and This is a Down

Abigail's surgery had to be cancelled today:( We woke her up early this morning to feed her for the last time before her surgery and she had a stuffy nose and a little cough. When they do these surgeries they don't want our little troopers to be sick at all. When they are sick it can really affect how well they heal. If there is any chance they won't heal the way they are suppose to they won't do the surgery. We have to give her four weeks to fully get over this and we will try again. This is hard to take because of everything that is put into planning for this: emotionally, schedule, and just preparing. We thank everyone for their prayers.

Abby Update

Where has time gone? It wouldn't be a normal post if I didn't mention how busy our life is. I can only imagine that sometime life will slow down, but as many of you know, it doesn't. I have been out of the country for three weeks and only to return for three weeks to turn around and be gone for another three. Heather, of course, is holding down the fort and taking care of everything on the home front. This is all being done while still working. We have to thank everyone that has helped out so far and everyone that is has signed up to help when I leave again: Aurora Jenson's, Mima, Papa, Sue, and "The Girls" (All of Heather's friends). Colton and Abby have been wonderful with the adversity of me being gone and others taking care of them. It is too bad that I came home with a cold and have recently shared it with Colton; who is home from school today with it.
Abby has seemed to miss catching it, which is a blessing, since her palate surgery is on Tuesday (tomorrow). She is one of the most energetic babies I have seen. Of course, I don't see very many other babies within their home, but even when we are out and about, she looking around, looking for friends, flirting with other boys (which I do not approve of), and just being a fun baby. Yesterday, I took her to church and let her spend the service with the childcare and they said she just played the entire time. I was a little nervous during the service, but they said she did great. We thank God for such a great baby, and furthermore, such a great family.
Like I said before, her palate surgery is tomorrow, Tuesday, March 17, St. Patrick's Day, at 11:30. We have faith that she will do just as good as she did with her lip surgery. God has blessed us with a great surgeon and we pray that God will have His hand over everything tomorrow. We thank everyone ahead of time for your thoughts, prayers, and their help with everything you provide. Below are some pictures to catch you all up and a little video of Abby learning some of Beyonce's moves.
Once again, we keep everyone updated as soon as we can on Tuesday. As soon as we have moved to our hospital room, I will post an update. The surgery is about 3 hours so I suspect I will get an update on here around 4:00 Mountain Time. Love you all and talk to you soon.
Abigail loves her blankets

Like my new do?

How about now?

Abby being happy as usual

Colton after eating some pizza

Colton and Papa playing dart tag

Learning Beyonce Moves: