This is an attempt to give our family and friends a glimpse
of our baby Carter's llife. I hope this will help you better
understand O.E.I.S complex (Cloacal Exstrophy). Carter is a true blessing and God has a special plan for him.
We are doing great! Sorry for the lack of updates. I recently went back to work a few weeks ago, we are moving this weekend, and we took our FIRST family vacation! We have been busy! We got the opportunity and Carter is finally well enough to travel more than an hour away from the hospital, so we went to the beach. Carter absolutely LOVED the beach! He wanted to be in the ocean the entire time. He walked up and down the beach at least 100 times a day and would happily run straight into the ocean. It felt so good to see him so happy. The only time he got upset is when we would leave the beach.
Carter has continued to gain weight. We have started purposely slowing his weight gain down, because he has started having trouble walking. With his hips being turned out, he does not have the balance or stability a child his age should have. We will be traveling to Johns Hopkins in August to see his urologist and neurosurgeon. We hope to find out what the next step in his care will be. We will also travel to Cincinnatti Children's in September to re-evaluate his intestinal issues. We are so thankful for Carter's well days and have really enjoyed having him out of the hospital. It has been wonderful to see him enjoying life. Thank you so much for all of your faithful prayers. To Him be the Glory!
Our first family vacation.
Should I get in?
Da-da and Carter.
Carter LOVES ducks, so of course he loved his duck robe!
My little shark running up and down the beach!
Carter's setup by the chairs!
I saved the best for last. Enjoy this sweet video!
This week Carter was turned off of his feeding pump for the first time. He gets to be off of it for 4 hours a day and he LOVES every minute of it.One of the best things is when he is off of his feeding pump he is hungry! He has tried pizza, crackers, coke and anything else we could get him to put in his mouth. We are extremely happy! He is still learning how to swallow and chew, but is making huge progress. Here are a few pictures of our eating, walking little boy!!
Trying pizza!
Clapping for himself!
Walking around!
Carter's favorite thing to do...SWIM!
Eating his favorite food...Crackers!
Carter's first time off of his feeding pump! Can you tell he is excited?!
I have thought about not writing this entry and just pretending that none of it happened. The past two weeks have been full of ups and downs. Brandon and I celebrated our seven year anniversary on the 14th. I am not sure if I should use the word celebrated. In fact I think we are going to start pretending the day doesn't exist. As some of you already know, on our five year anniversary we went to find out if Carter would be a boy or girl. We left the office that day finding out that Carter would be born with a very rare birth defect. So rare that no one in the office even knew the name of it! We were devestated, heartbroken and hurt. I ended up having an amniocentesis and was put on bedrest for the rest of the day.
This year we celebrated our anniversary by moving unexpectedly. Brandon found some issues with our home that required us to move immediately. We are very fortunate that my Mom and Dad allowed us to move in with them. God has already opened up new doors and we hope to move into our new home sometime in July.
You really never know what life is going to give you. God really knows how to place events. The night before the pep rally I spent packing and moving all of our stuff to my parents. Moving not because we wanted to, but because we had to. Brandon and I both felt like complete failures, not because the move was due to anything we had done, but because we were basically homeless. I think I spent most of the night crying and rocking Carter. Carter does not do well with change and will not sleep unless he is at home.
The day of the pep rally Brandon woke up and read his daily devotional like he always does. It read, Thank me for your problems. As soon as your mind gets snagged on a difficulty, bring it to Me with thanksgiving. Then ask Me to show you My way to handle the situation. The very act of thanking Me releases your mind from it's negative focus. As you turn your attention to Me, the problem fades in significance and loses its power to trip you up. Together we can deal with the situation, either facing it head-on or putting it aside for later consideration. I told you this book was written for us! Here we are exhausted and basically homeless and an entire school desides to have a pep rally for my son! The timing of the pep rally was perfect! God knew we needed this and it made us realize that everything was going to be ok. When Brandon spoke at the end of the pep rally and told everyone how much it meant to us, he really meant it. We needed to feel all of the love and support that we felt on that day. We honestly NEEDED it!
Now that I have gotten everyone caught up on our crazy life, I will catch you up on my little super star! Carter is doing really well! He actually started walking on his own the day after the Caring for Carter event! This is a big deal! We were told Carter would never walk on his own, and to see him walking brings us so much joy! Carter LOVES swimming at my mom's and swims almost everyday! Carter had one of his best days a few days ago, he only vomited once all day! This is a first since September. I am praying this is a good sign and the vomitting will soon subside forever! We are now trying another antibiotic to try to beat this infection. Please pray it works! We are ready to be over the infection! Carter is gaining weight so well they are allowing me to turn him off for 4 hours a day! It is the best 4 hours of our day! Carter gets to run around without me chasing behind him with his backpack. We are praying Carter will continue to gain weight and we will be able to turn him off for longer times. For the most part Carter is doing great and we give Him all the glory!!! Thank you all so much for all of your continued prayers for Carter. Keep them coming!
Oficially wearing shorts and a shirt for the first time!
I just though the dryer was broken...Someone was changing the settings!!!
On May 15, 2012 Brandon High School had a pep rally just for Carter. It was a 2 1/2 hour event devoted to Carter. It was an absolutely amazing event! I honestly had no idea of what to expect and I was completly shocked by what unraveled. There was a cheer that completly touched me. It said hope, joy, peace, love...Carter! Here is a video of the cheer!
For me the highlight of the event was when they brought Brandon, Carter and myself our to center court, while playing the song "Courageous". Everyone stood up and cheered for Carter. I saw tears streaming down the faces of strangers, young and old. It was very moving. I am not sure there was a dry eye in the gym. Knowing what all Carter has been through this past year, it meant so much to me. It made me realize how much of an effect his little life has already had on so many people. This was a big reminder of the BIG plan God has for Carter! Thank you Brandon High School for not only having the pep rally, but for the support and love you have shown our family. We love you all!
Here are a few pictures from the VERY special day!!!
The past few weeks have been CRAZY to say the least! We have been super busy. There was Caring for Carter Day, a pep rally for Carter, Brandon and I celebrated our 7 year anniversary and we unexpectetly had to move! We have been very busy, so I do appologize for not updating the blog sooner. I am going to try to play catch up with the next few post. Here we go...
Caring for Carter was a HUGE success! Hundreds of people came out to show their support for Carter. To say that it was overwhelming is an understatement. When we drove into Shiloh Park, I saw all of the cars and thought there was a baseball tournament going on. Much to my suprise the full parking lot was for the Caring for Carter event. We are so blessed to have such great co-workers and live in such a great community! I have to say a special thank you to my coworkers on the second floor of Blair E. Batson and a bigger thank you to Emily Sullivan. Emily came up with the idea and basically lived and breathed Caring for Carter for months. You all completely took my breath away and you honestly have no idea how much it meant to us! We are also extremely thankful to our Brandon Elementary School family. You all continuously do things for our family. We honestly could not make it without all of you. I am still in shock that there was a day devoted just to Carter!
There have been multiple times on this journey that Brandon and I have both asked one another how we are going to make it? I am not only talking about financially, but how will we make it emotinally and physically. To say that the past two years have been hard is just not good enough. We both feel like we have been tested on every aspect of our faith and lives. It has been hard! On the morning of the event Brandon woke up and read his daily devotional. It said, Relax in the knowledge that the One controls your life is totally trustworthy. Come to Me with confident expectation. There is nothing you need that I cannot provide. I am pretty sure this was meant for us. Actually, I am pretty sure the entire book was written for us. I will talk about other verses in my future post. God has met every one of our needs this far and I know he will continue to do so. Sometimes I am confused on what I did to deserve this. I do not deserve all of these blessings! God has been and continues to be so good to our family. I do not care how hard it gets. I will stand strong in my faith and continue to ride along on this little journey. I want to say a big thank you to everyone who came out to Caring for Carter Day. I also want to say a big thank you to all of the businesses, vendors and Colleges for your donations. It will be a day we will NEVER forget! As always... To Him be the Glory!
We have made it home! Carter did great on the flights home and was thrilled to see his Peanut and Hankie(our dogs). All of Carter's Doctor's are meeting to discuss Carter's future. We plan to travel back to Cincinnati within the next 6 weeks and to Johns Hopkins sometime this Summer. We are enjoying every minute of being at home. Today, Carter had an interview with News Channel 16 about the Caring For Carter day this Saturday. If you do not already know, our sweet co-workers have put together a full day of entertainment to benefit Carter. We are extremely grateful and we feel very special that they want to do this for our little boy. We would love to meet all of the followers of Carter's Journey and hope everyone comes out to have a good time. News Channel 16 will air the interview tomorrow morning or Friday morning between 5 and 6am. For more information on Caring for Carter Day please visit www.caringforcarterbenefit.com. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support for our family. We are humbled and overwhelmed by the love we feel for our family everyday. As always...To Him Be The Glory! At least one of my kids knew how to behave on our flight! :)
