last day of school

The boys had their last day of the school year on Friday.  Unfortunately, I was gone for almost all of the year.  I am so proud of the boys, that despite all of the upheaval in the lives, they still managed to get A's!

my wide eyed baby

happy baby

Dahlia had her transplant clinic last Thursday.  Everything looks good and she doesn't have to go back for one month, instead of every two weeks!  Dahlia has started babbling a lot lately.  If she is not being held, she will happily babble to herself and play with her toys.  I love that she is such a happy baby.  I've never had a baby this happy and joyful, maybe she knows how lucky she is to be alive!  For the past month or so we have been trying to get her to eat solid baby food.  In the past she would make a confused face and spit it out.  Recently she has started eating really good; her favorite is applesauce. Dahlia is making such good progress, looking at her now you'd never guess she spent months in an I.C.U., fighting for her life.

mother's day

Today I am extremely grateful to be celebrating my first mother's day with Dahlia. I am also extremely grateful for Dahlia's donor's mother, who had the compassion and love to say "yes," while experiencing every parents worst nightmare. Today my heart goes out to this special mother and I hope she has been able to find comfort and peace on what was surely a bitter-sweet day. I am thankful for my other children, who have had to go through a lot this past year. I am also thankful for my mother, who put her own life on hold in order to spend countless hours in the hospital with me and Dahlia!

and we're back

As of yesterday, Dahlia is back in the hospital.  I knew because her immune system is being suppressed, that this would happen sooner or later, but was hoping for a long break from this place! She had been running a fever for a couple of days and was extremely irritable, which is not like her at all.  We called the transplant team and they wanted her to come in. We were told to take her to the emergency room.  Several of my kids have been to the emergency room in the past and it was always a several hour wait before they were seen by anyone.  When we told the receptionist that Dahlia has a heart transplant, we were rushed back to a room.  Dahlia had some blood drawn and an I.V. started. Between Dahlia screaming, the child in the next bed screaming, someone done the hall screaming and seeing a boy come in the E.R. with head trauma, that trip to the E.R. was just a little overwhelming! We were all happy to get out of there, into a more comfortable room on the cardiac floor.  The good new is that the doctors think it is nothing to serious, maybe a urinary tract infection.  Dahlia is getting antibiotics; she hasn't had a fever all day and is back to her normal happy self.  Hopefully we will be out of here by tomorrow.