Getting closer

Hello All, 
Wanted to let you know we are still waiting on a surgery date. Samuel's cardiologist called Tuesday to let us know that after reviewing the cath they would like to do an MRA before proceeding with the surgery. They are concerned that one of his veins is not in the correct spot and want the MRA to be sure.  The MRA is scheduled for August 16th. It will be another sedated procedure, due to his age.  Please keep us in your prayers as we wait for the 16th and then wait again for our surgery date and day to arrive.  I am growing impatient and agitated as I'm ready to get all of this behind us.  I'm ready to have Mr. Samuel going down the road to recovery. 
We are thinking the closing date for our new home will be September 1st and will be moving that weekend.  Pray that the Lord would provide renters for our current home and that they will be people who take care of it. 
I'm glad that the summer is almost over, the sun is wearing me out more this year than ever and leaves me a little agitated by the end of the day. I have to apologize to my wonderful husband all the time as he is the recipient of all of this, he is so patient with me and I am so lucky to have him. 
Continue to keep us in your prayers as well have much going on in the next two months...pray that Samuel would handle everything well, continue to eat well and sleep well also.  Pray for us that stress would be minimal, we would seek and depend on Christ through all of the upcoming events and changes and that we would make time for one another in that mix.
We love you all and thank you for your support and prayers!

Lauren, Scott, and Mr. Samuel

Good News

I forgot to mention that we got the results back from the total body x-ray that Mr. Samuel had the end of June and everything was normal.  Praise the Lord for good results!  Hopefully we will have a surgery date some time this week, so check back I'll post as soon as I know.
Hope everyone is doing well!

Lauren

what a long day

As I sit here listening to the thunder outside and the motor of the baby swing containing sleeping Mr. Samuel I am filled with joy that though Monday was such a long day God brought us through smoothly! You see yesterday Morning I woke up at 5:30 a.m. wanting to make sure Mr. Samuel got in as much food as possible before his 7 a.m. food cut off time.  After getting in a 5oz bottle around 6:15 a.m.  I couldn't go back to sleep thinking of all the what if's of the day.  I laid in bed silently praying, crying, and asking my Heavenly Father to get us through without complications and with a definite conclusion for Mr. Samuel.  Scott told me he didn't have to go to work if I felt he needed to go with me, I assured him it would be better for him to go to work and to the home inspection we had absent mindedly scheduled on this important Monday, and that i would call him after I knew what was going on.  Scott got ready for work and then we prayed for our very busy day before he left a little before 7 that morning.  I took the opportunity to get myself  ready and gather everything I thought we might need for the day and possibly having to stay over night.  Samuel, being an amazing and already wise you man slept in till about 9:30! He handled not being able to eat very well and only put up a small fuss when he discovered his bottle only contained water.  I got him ready gave him some water put all our stuff in the car and we were out the door a little  after 10 a.m. so that we could run by Sam's club for more formula before heading to Kosair Children's Hospital.  We arrived around 11:15 a.m. and got checked in before heading to the 8th floor where they gathered information on Mr. Samuel before our long wait began. And and long wait it was indeed! We were on the 8th floor from 11:30 till a little before 3. This is where I have to brag about our little trooper! The whole time we were waiting he never once had a fit. If he started to get fussy we would go for a walk or find another distraction, thankfully we managed to get a nap in from a little before 12 till around 1:30, otherwise things might not have gone so well.  Scott decided to work a half day and showed up at the hospital shortly after Samuel had fallen asleep.  Around 3 is when our wait was getting closer to being over. We were down in the waiting area of the cath lab waiting on the doc and for them to come get Mr. Samuel, who is still being awesome! They finally took him back around 3:15 and the doc showed up around 3:20 with everything getting started around 3:45.  The cath took about 2 hours and went really well, the doc got everything he needed to have a clear picture of what was going on.
Around 4p.m. Scott left the hospital to go to the home inspection and shortly after my wonderful mother in law came and spent about 2 hours with me.  When the doc came and got me to take me back and show me everything I was glad to have her with me and couldn't think of a better more knowledgeable person to have by my side.  the doc explained all the pictures had taken and showed us where the hole was and how much was being pushed back through.  The hole he has is pretty big and between the right and left ventricle. I asked him how soon they will want to do surgery, if it was something they would wait a little while to do or would he want to get it done soon.  He said that he will be putting him on the schedule and he would think it will be happening in the next month.  So, I don't have a surgery date yet but I'll be posting again as soon as I know. After finishing up talking to the doc we waited for them to bring Mr. Samuel by on his way to recovery.  We headed up to his room where i waited for Mr. Samuel to arrive.  He was brought to the room close to 7p.m. and I was so happy to see my still out of it little guy.  The nurses got his vitals and told me I could go ahead and let him have something to eat. I used their little 2oz premixed formula bottles and he drank that in under 5 min, a record for our little guy! When I tried to switch out the empty bottle he had in his hands with a full one he wouldn't let go of the empty one.  It was so funny yet sad at the same time! I can only imagine how hard it was to go 12 hours without eating, especially for our little guy! He downed about 6oz before going back to sleep.  So, we waited a little more and around 9p.m. he had his blood drawn for labs and went down to get a chest x-ray. we waited for the results on that and for the doc to be called before being discharged.  We left the hospital around 11:20p.m., got home around 12 put Samuel to bed and then we crashed.  It wasn't a very restful night as Samuel seemed to wake up often and then was up for good at 7:15 Tuesday morning.  But, we made it through Monday and everything went SO well!
I want to thank you all for your prayers on Monday for Mr. Samuels cath and for us as we went through this process.
Please keep us in your prayers as we prepare for Samuels surgery as well as a move.  We also would covet your prayers and ask that you be praying that the Lord would provide the perfect renters for our current home. I would love to know it's in great hands.  Pray that in all things we would lean on the Lord, find strength and rest in Him.  Also, that we would seek Him daily and spend time finding refreshment in his word and in fellowship with our Father. 

Here is a picture of Samuel waiting...got so hungry even the book looked yummy!

SOS

It came to my attention this morning as I was spending time with the Lord that when my life gets crazy or more starts happening instead of running to the Lord for what I need I start running from Him.  After giving it some thought and wondering why I do this I figured it out.  I do it because the closer I am to Him the less control I have and what can I say, I'm a control freak at times!  So after what is turning into three busy weeks in a row and a crazy weekend somewhere in the mix I found myself feeling so distant from the one person that would help bring calm to what is a very large storm growing inside my heart and head. 
After reading 1st John this morning and spending some time journaling I feel like what could have landed me shipwrecked is now slowly calming to just a little rough patch on the adventure. 
I feel like there is so much going on! We are in the process of buying a home in Middletown and just had everything officially approved yesterday...exciting yes, but for me very very scary at the same time. I'm not one to take risks...how I've managed to come out of the house and live I have no idea.  But I like things for the most part to stay predictable and uncomplicated, my life that used to be the for mentioned is now anything but! 
So, house...big thing! Next we have pool problems at work that continue to cause problems for me in so many different ways that it's frustrating.  After that we have Samuel, he's having his heart cath done on Monday afternoon and I'm growing more and more nervous.  I know the Lord has every single one of these things perfectly under control but I don't! I don't know what is going to happen or come of all of these things and like I said...Control Freak! I feel like some of them, well all of them, I have no control over. 
So, I'm trying my very best to pray! Every time I start to feel overwhelmed just say a little prayer and ask the Lord for peace, wisdom, and a calm spirit. It's the only thing I can think to do...I'll let you know how it goes!  But in the mean time I'll just keep praying and clinging to the Lord and if I get off course He'll bring me back! He is so good and faithful to never leave me and He doesn't...I just try and take over and steer this ship in the wrong direction...will I never learn???
Praying, Clinging, Trusting, Resting, In Christ Alone!

Lauren

Put on your listening ears

We just finished our first session with the OT! I feel so truly blessed that the Lord has put together an amazing team of ladies to work with our family as we try to give Mr. Samuel every opportunity to have an upper hand in his development.  The OT showed me some signs to do with him to aid in promoting listening skills and speech in the future. 
For me it feels there is a lot to remember to do with Mr. Samuel between the PT and OT...pray that I will be intentional in doing the exercises and different things they have shown me to do.  Sometimes it gets a little overwhelming especially when I feel my time is limited already.

Here are two pictures from our trip down to Georgia.  We left Friday morning and got back very late Sunday evening.  It was wonderful to see my parents and on saturday evening to watch my girlfriend get married.  The visits never feel long enough but are always nice. Wish it wasn't so long of a drive!

I knew I forgot something!

Last Wednesday I took Samuel to get his blood work done for his single kidney as well as to get a full body x-ray.  The x-ray went well, I have yet to hear anything back from it but will inquire next week if I don't get a call by the end of this week.
The blood work was a little more challenging! It took them awhile to find a good vein in his arm and after they stuck him it filled up the tubing going to the specimen tube but that was it.  So, they had to do a heel stick which was painful for me to watch.  Poor kiddo was getting really tired, was hungry, and just ready to be done and we are doing this one drop of blood at a time...but we made it through and had a wonderful rest of the day!
I got a call from the urologist the same afternoon telling me that everything look fantastic and that they would be seeing us at our already scheduled appointment in December.  So thankful that though we have run into many complications the Lord has allowed his only kidney to be functioning beautifully!
Praying that each of you is doing well and that you are blessed and encouraged by reading this.

In Christ,
Lauren

Sorry this took so long to post

Where to begin??? First off I appologize for this taking so long to post! I feel like work and life have kept me very busy the last few week and so much has been going on that I  have wanted to share with everyone.  I am sure I will forget many things is this post...so there might be one shortly after.  I would like to try and set aside a day and time where I sit down collect my thoughts and update...but for some reason it's easier said than done! So...here it goes!

Mr. Samuel had his first ever pool experience a few weeks ago when Scott brought him to Norton Commons.  The water was a little chilly but he did really well and I do believe enjoyed it! I have attached the two best pictures from that day.

Last Tuesday Mr. Samuel and I met with the First Steps ladies as well as his Physical Therapist (PT) and Occupational Therapist (OT), I'm so excited to be working with both of them!  We talked about Samuel's service plan and decided on PT once a week and OT twice a month for the next 6 months.  Samuel had his first PT session yesterday and it went really well! Samuel was wonderful and tolerated being moved into positions that he doesn't usually care for.  The PT showed me some stretches to do with Samuel after diapers changes as well as ways to encourage tummy time, which he HATES! By the end of the session we went from 5sec on our tummy to about a minute...we are going for 5-15 minutes the more we practice.  Pray for Samuel as he will be challenged weekly at PT. Pray that the Lord would allow him to be patient and a quick study and that he would improve and continue to catch on as well as develop in the areas where he is behind.  I often find myself stopping and just silently thanking and praising the Lord for the miracle He continues to do in and through Mr. Samuel.  He is such a joy and blessing and I can't imagine life without him.  He is so talkative and expressive and melts my heart constantly with his crooked goofy little smile. :D

Hope you all enjoy the short update and photos. Please feel free to ask questions if you have them and make comments.  We love you all and hope this finds you well!

The Paige Family