Hannah's 5th birthday

The day was Hannah's day and she got to pick whatever she wanted to do. She had school in the afternoon. I took the day off so we could do something in the morning and she would have her mommy there and able to play when she got off of school.

First we went to the donut shop. A 5-year-old HAS to have a donut!

(Note the "5" candle in the donut :))

Then I had to take Mark in for an appointment which I felt awful about doing on her birthday but it was very important and I couldn't reschedule. So after donuts, I took Mark in and my mom and dad took Hannah to the library and played with her there. They have a nice big place to play and Hannah loves it there.

Then, we met up at Hannah's choice of lunch---McDonald's!

Then it was time for her to go to school which she loved doing that day for sure!

When she got home, we surprised her with her gift from us: A dollhouse that she had been begging Santa to bring her!

Then she got to choose where she wanted to eat for supper. She chose the new Dairy Queen that had just opened up. :)

Of course she had to put "candles" into her ice cream cone. :)

By the time we ate at the DQ, she was so tired of pictures. She told me "I know it's my birthday but this is the last picture, Mommy!"

It was a fun day and loved doing everything she wanted to do. :) Love my little 5-year-old!

Week 16 of 4K

This was a very busy and fun week for Hannah. :)

Tuesday, December 20 was her birthday! She was so excited as she got to bring cupcakes to school and also brought goodie bags for all the kids. She also got to wear a special birthday hat. She was in her glory. :)

Here she is after school in the dress she picked out to wear for school and her birthday hat. She was so excited!

Thursday, December 22 was her concert at school. She made me so proud. She was very scared and nervous about the concert and she had quite a few tears. :( But she made it! Like we told her, it isn't about the tears, but about singing through the tears and that makes her the bravest of all! She felt so bad that she cried but I was so proud of her for sticking it through. Bless her sweet heart.

Here are a few pictures of the concert:

They also sent some of the projects they've been working on the past couple weeks:

A wreath which is now hanging on our front door :)

An elf which she points out is definitely a girl as she has blush and earrings on. :) I was impressed with how well Hannah wrote her name on the back so I had to include that.

A stocking

Her elf hat that she made for the concert

Friday, December 23 was her Christmas party. She was so excited for it! She said they played games but she really kept saying they opened presents. I think she really enjoyed opening the presents. :) All the kids brought in a gift and then they did an exchange. Hannah brought in a pair of dolls as a gift. She got Shopkins for her gift which was perfect as she LOVES Shopkins. :)

Here is Hannah before her party:

A fun week for sure and very busy!

Merry Christmas!!

Introducing…..the most sarcastic Christmas letter you’ll ever read:

I’m not one to brag and I feel bad talking about our wonderful year when yours couldn’t be possibly be better than ours….but we had an awesome year.

It didn’t start out too well. In April, Hannah and I traveled with the whole Gustafson family to Hawaii. It was pure torture. Can you imagine? Beautiful weather, sunrises, relaxing, family time, swimming, etc. Yeah, worst time of our lives and we never want to go back again.

Don’t worry though. No need to feel sorry for us. The year picked up.

In May, Mark was admitted to the hospital for a brain bleed. He was unresponsive for a week and it was unsure if he would pull through. I was so fortunate to be able to use all my vacation time in the hospital and rehab facility during a gorgeous June. Mark ended up spending a total of 6 weeks there. When he finally got home he had therapy 3 days a week. What was left of the summer, we spent adjusting to the new life and new Mark. While everyone else was spending their summer swimming, vacationing, relaxing and doing all the boring summer activities, we were having the time of our lives in hospitals, therapy and readjusting.

Just when things were settling down, Hannah started 4K. Now that wasn’t emotional at all—seeing my baby girl with her backpack that is almost as big as her, getting onto a bus she can barely make the first step and seeing her wave at me with her face just barely able to look out the window. Yeah, not hard at all and I didn’t cry a single tear.

After a week of being in school, Hannah woke up with a swollen and red eye. For about a week she was unable to open up either eye so she was basically blind. I had a glimpse of what life would be like to have a blind child---some wonderful times. We ended up needing to see a pediatric optometrist an hour away, making a couple trips a week (having the fortune of using more vacation time) and never really found out exactly what was wrong. It is possible something got into her eye and scratched her eyelid. How I love not having answers. To give the optometrist credit, he certainly tried and put Hannah on several drops to help clear her eye, but he never really figured out what was causing her eye to be so red and swollen. Our daughter is a medical mystery for sure. Her eye is now finally healed---it only took months.

As you can see, we’ve had an awesome, amazing year. Not too many people get the honor of spending so much time in the hospital and seeing so many doctors. It was like one good thing after another---no, make that one awesome thing after another.

In all honesty, God provided this year for us. He gave us miracles. It is a miracle Mark is still here and suffered minimal long-term effects from his brain bleed when it could have been much worse. It is a miracle that if something did get into Hannah’s eye, that it never scratched her actual eye—only her eyelid—and her vision was never affected. It is a miracle that after spending a week together in Hawaii, our family still loves each other.

God provided angels to help us through this year and we feel blessed beyond what we deserve.

Praying and hoping you received your miracles in 2016 and continue to receive in 2017.

Sending much love, hope and miracles your way.
Mark, Tammy and Hannah

Hannah's 5-year-old questions

When Hannah was 3 and 4 I asked her some questions. I plan to do this every year and see how her answers change. Should be interesting. :)

3-year-old answers are first. 4-year-old answers are second followed by this year's answers.

1. What is your name?
(3) Hannah Dawn Wondra
(4) Hannah
(5) Hannah

2. How old are you?
(3) 3
(4) 4
(5) 5

3. What is your favorite color?
(3) Purple
(4) Pink
(5) Pink

4. What is your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?
(3) Bread
(4) Mac and cheese (She's never had it for breakfast :))
(5) Soup (never had this for breakfast :))

5. What is your favorite thing to eat for lunch?
(3) Cheese and bread
(4) Yogurt
(5) Chicken

6. What is your favorite thing to eat for supper?
(3) Strawberries
(4) Yogurt
(5) Mommy's food (awwwww)

7. What is your favorite snack?
(3) Cheetos
(4) Lunchables
(5) Daddy's stuff (she usually has snacks with Daddy and they share :))

8. What is your favorite fruit?
(3) Strawberries
(4) Tomato
(5) Pears

9. What is your favorite vegetable?
(3) Carrots
(4) Carrots and tomato
(5) Broccoli

10. What is your favorite thing to do?
(3) Drink pop
(4) Play with Daddy
(5) Play with my mom and dad

11. What is your favorite animal?
(3) Pig
(4) Elephant
(5) Giraffe

12. What is your favorite toy?
(3) Pig (As a side note, I don't think she has a toy that is a pig :))
(4) My food (her play kitchen food)
(5) Mommy's stuff (Not sure what she means by that but she does like to get into my stuff a lot :))

13. What is your favorite book?
(3) Dora potty book
(4) Princesses from Christmas
(5) Mommy's books she buys

14. Where do you like to go?
(3) Living room (we were in her room at the time)
(4) Grandma and Papa's and Jude and Sage's house
(5) Library

15. What is your favorite song?
(3) Old MacDonald Had a Farm
(4) Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
(5) Mommy's songs (kinda liking this Mommy theme :))

16. Who is your best friend?
(3) Mommy (Awwwww!)
(4) Mommy, Claire, Daddy and Auntie April
(5) Mommy and Daddy

17. What is your favorite show on TV?
(3) Dora
(4) Nature Cat
(5) Survivor (it's the one show I have to watch and she likes it now too :))

18. What do you want to be when you grow up?
(3) Claire (her baby-sitter---so sweet! :))
(4) Fireman, picture girl (photographer :)), Spider girl
(5) Fireman

19. What is your favorite thing to do outside?
(3) Play
(4) Play in the snow
(5) Play Duck Duck Goose

20. What is your favorite thing to wear?
(3) Frozen dress
(4) Shirt and pajamas
(5) Costumes (she has princess dresses and loves to dress up)

21. Who is your favorite person?
(3) Claire
(4) Claire, Mommy and Daddy
(5) Mommy and Daddy

22. What is your favorite game?
(3) Storytime
(4) Go Fish
(5) Duck Duck Goose

Hannah's birthday parties

Usually we do one big party for Hannah but she's getting to the age where she wanted to have a lot of friends for her party and have a swimming party which I knew the adults wouldn't really like. So we decided to have two parties.

The first one was with family, my aunts and uncles who are like another set of grandparents to Hannah and her baby-sitters and special aunts. We ate at one of Hannah's favorite places to eat, the Village Pizzeria. Despite it being so cold and just having a winter storm, everyone was able to come and made it safely. We were so grateful!

Hannah with her baby-sitters, Grant and Claire

Hannah with her Uncle Wayne who is really like a second grandpa to Hannah

Hannah eating her pizza---sure love that face. :)

Hannah with my dad and her Papa. It was actually my dad's birthday (Dec 17) when we all went out to eat so we were all celebrating his birthday too. :)

Opening gifts

CAKE!!!

Table 1 of guests

Table 2 of guests

I always try to instill into Hannah that it is better to give than receive and we celebrate her but also thank the special people in her life. So as a thank you for being an important part of her life, she gave all her guests a bag with a picture of her in it, a "Take 5" candy bar, "100 Grand" candy bar and a "MIlky Way" candy bar. On the front it said "On my "5th" birthday, I'd like to thank you for being such an important part of my life. I love you "way more than my milk" and you're worth more than "100 grand" to me. Love, Hannah".

The second party was a swimming party the next day with her friends and cousins. We were so amazed that people still came even though it was -22 degrees out (yes, that is a negative in front). We are so blessed!!

The birthday girl swimming!

Hannah and her friend Easton

The nonswimmers who came to just watch and eat :)

Mommy and the birthday girl swimming

Hannah's friends and cousins who came to the party

Easton and Auntie Kari

Amy, Reese, Preston and James

Presents!

Pinata. It kinda malfunctioned so it was a struggle getting the candy out but they were determined. :)

Hannah's cake

We had such a fun weekend celebrating Hannah's birthday with family and friends. We are so grateful and blessed!!

Happy fifth birthday Hannah!

To my sweet daughter,

As I'm typing this, my mind goes back to that precious day you were born. Oh, sweetie, I remember it like it was yesterday. So many emotions that day. So many people waiting for you. So much love surrounded you. I still remember your first cry, the first time I saw your precious head of hair, the first time I held you.

And now here you are five years old.

So much has happened this past year. You started school and I've watched you become more confident with each passing week. You competed in your first national clogging competition and won! We were all so proud of you as we knew you were scared to go on stage but you did it! Your confidence has grown so much this year and that makes me so happy.

This year was a tough one for you, honey, with lots of changes. Not only did you start school, you were also forced with deal with watching your parents go through a life-changing event. I'll never forget having to say good-bye to you in the hospital and your sweet, brown eyes filled with tears. You were so scared but trying to be strong at the same time. When I told you it was okay to cry and be scared, your eyes wept and you clung to me so tightly. As we both held onto each other, never wanting to let go, we wept tears of fear, sadness and grief that no one but each other could understand. One of the hardest things for me is to see you go through something so scary and so sad when there is nothing I can do to fix it.

You have your "make mommy go insane" moments just like any child but I'm so very happy I'm your mom and you make me so proud. You never miss a day telling me you love me. You always go to bed wanting huge hugs, snuggles and kisses. I'm so proud of your love and care for other people and animals. You have such a caring and sensitive way for others.

While in my heart, you're still my little baby girl and always will be, I've seen how much you've grown this year. You have such a motherly instinct when you're around babies and toddlers. It's amazing to watch you bond with them and take care of them, just like a mother would do. I know one day you'll make an amazing mom. You always tell me you want to be a mom when you grow up but you also want to have a car and a phone. I have a feeling God provided you with your great motherly ways because you will be a mom, and yes, with a car and a phone.

You are so talented with your singing and dancing. What I love most is how you use your gifts for Jesus. So many songs you sing are ones you make up yourself and are about Jesus and how He died on the cross. You dance while you sing praises to Jesus. Your prayer before eating is usually always "Jesus, thank you for the food. Thank you for dying on the cross. We love you! Amen". Please always keep that beautiful faith, sweet Hannah. God has given You gifts that we are so amazed by and we thank God every day for the joy and smiles you bring to this family.

You sure have grown this year sweetheart. What doesn't change is your contagious smile, your loving heart, your amazing hugs and kisses and your warm personality that makes anyone near you feel peace and joy that only you can give. Keep that loving heart sweetie. Keep singing and dancing for Jesus. He loves you so much, even more than I do.

I'm so proud of you, Hannah. So very proud and I never want you to forget that.

All my love forever and ever,

Mommy

Week 15 of 4K

Another week focused on Christmas. :)

Hannah was actually sick on December 13 so she didn't go to school that day which she was really bumming about. But the next day she was able to go. :)

It was so cold all week so the kids didn't go outside for recess. I felt bad for the teachers this week for sure!

Here are a couple things she brought home this week:

A coloring sheet to help with counting. She didn't do much on it and wanted to do more at home she said. :)

Her gingerbread man which she was very proud of!

It may have been a quiet week this week but next week will be so much fun for her! It's her birthday on Tuesday so she gets to bring treats, her Christmas program on Thursday and Christmas party on Friday! She's super stoked for next week. :)

Witnessing miracles

"We strongly feel Mark needs to be evaluated for a heart transplant before going ahead with the kidney transplant".

It was a month before the scheduled kidney transplant for March 21, 2002 that had been rescheduled already. I was sitting at work and time just froze. "What?"

"I'm so sorry Tammy. I've been dreading making this call. His heart function is so low and his heart is so weak. We think the surgery might be too hard on the heart. We think this is the best."

I could hardly talk. We had already had 2 brothers be denied as a donor with the third and last brother finally being approved, although just barely. Now that we finally got a transplant surgery date, we were faced with this?

Telling Mark was even harder. Normally he's a positive person but this one hit hard. After I told him he looked so defeated. I told him he couldn't give up and he responded with "Yes, I can". I didn't blame him. I wanted to give up and I wasn't in his shoes.

After much discussion, it was decided to go through with the transplant as a high risk. A cardiologist would need to be there during the surgery. We were told there was a 50/50 chance something would happen. We were also told that if he survived the kidney transplant, they would highly recommend being evaluated for a heart transplant. At this time, they felt having a new kidney could put less stress on the heart and the heart was so weak they felt they should try to do the kidney transplant first.

It wasn't easy. Mark did end up having a heart attack during the kidney transplant surgery....but he made it through.

It was a couple years after the kidney transplant and things started settling down that Mark decided to get evaluated for a heart transplant. We knew we were likely looking at another transplant surgery. We were basically starting over. Going through tests after tests, going through the whole process step-by-step, so many steps people don't even realize. We even met with a heart transplant support group---a requirement during the process.

We weren't being told the results of the tests as we went along. We just showed up when they wanted us to.

There was this one rather invasive test where they actually made an incision near his heart and went in to examine the heart and the functionality. It took a couple hours and I had to sit in the waiting room. When the doctor came out, he had a smile on their face. "Well, Tammy, we're done. Everything went well and his heart looks pretty good!"

I was shocked. "Are you sure?"

The doctor kinda laughed and said, "Yes. It's really not that bad and I certainly don't think he needs a heart transplant, at least not yet".

I was dumbfounded. We later found out that his heart function had actually increased. A normal ejection fraction is 60-70%. Right before the kidney transplant, it had gone down to 15% and we were told it would never get better. At the time of these studies, his function had actually gone up to about 25%. As I'm typing this, it is now up to 40%. Truly shocking as that just doesn't happen.

We ended up not going through with a heart transplant and it has never been brought up again.

I tell that story because we believe God performed a miracle. He improved Mark's heart when every doctor told us he wouldn't survive, that he needed a transplant and his heart would not improve. God proved them wrong and Mark beat the odds.

That was in 2004 and just recently in 2016 we experienced yet another miracle in which God proved doctors wrong and Mark beating the odds.

When Mark first had his kidney transplant, we were told we would be lucky to make it 10 years--that diabetes will "fry" a new kidney. Mark has had his kidney for 14-1/2 years and we have always been grateful that he has made it so far.

This summer, his kidney numbers started creeping up a little bit. As the fall came, the numbers increased even more and what was more terrifying was that Mark was having more and more protein in his urine (a definite sign of kidney failure).

We were told that most likely the cause was chronic rejection. Being the kidney was almost 15 years and with Mark's diabetes, it was thought to be the most likely reason. It was devastating for Mark to hear. Even knowing that he was still a few years away from needing dialysis if chronic rejection was the case, he had a hard time feeling positive.

It was recommended he have a kidney biopsy to determine the exact cause for his kidney numbers and protein in the urine to be increasing.

We were hesitant at first. We knew if it was chronic rejection, there was nothing they could do. In our minds, we didn't want to go through a rather invasive procedure only to be given bad news.

However, that tiny bit of hope that it wasn't chronic rejection convinced us to go ahead with the biopsy.

Just a couple days before the biopsy, I got a call from Mark's nephrologist. He said that the latest tests just a couple days ago showed that there was more protein in the urine and his kidney number was even higher. "I just wanted to prepare you for the fact that we will most likely see some chronic rejection in the biopsy. I know it's disappointing but that doesn't mean he'll lose the kidney right away"

I couldn't tell Mark. I knew that would destroy him. I held onto that small hope and miracle that they wouldn't find rejection and I never told Mark about that phone call.

Mark had the biopsy done and we waited 3 long days before our transplant coordinator called with the results.

"Well, Tammy, I have good news! There is no rejection!"

I thought I heard her wrong. "Um, really? Are you sure?"

She laughed a little and said "Yep, I'm sure. I've got the report right here. I'll read it to you". She went ahead and read the report word for word, many medical terms but also very thorough examination and tested many different antibodies for rejection. I heard our coordinator tell me many times as she was reading the report of the antibodies "No rejection", "No rejection". It was music to my ears.

That being said, there were a few issues that were brought up but the fact that there was no rejection was a miracle.

Another miracle of many that Mark has been a recipient of.

I firmly believe that medical practice is necessary. Without it, Mark wouldn't be here. I believe God gives the knowledge and expertise needed for the medical professionals to do the work they need to. For that I am so grateful.

I also believe in the power of God and with God, anything is possible.

Mark is proof of that. He truly is a walking miracle, not just once but time and time again.

Week 14 of 4K

Lots of focus on Christmas the next couple weeks. :)

They've been doing a lot of reading of Christmas stories and singing Christmas songs. They will have their 4K Christmas program on December 22 and Hannah is so nervous. Go figure....can clog in front of hundreds of people by herself but doesn't want to sing in front of her family with a bunch of her friends. :)

Here are a couple projects she brought home:

She made a reindeer

Here she colored Santa, from the time he wakes up in his pajamas to when he gets dressed. She said the blue thing in the left upper corner is the moon. :) Love the imagination of kids.

Weeks 12 and 13 of 4K

I'm combining weeks 12 and 13 as week 12 was Thanksgiving week and really was only one day with the Thanksgiving break. :)

On Tuesday, November 22, they had a fruit feast where each of the students brought in a piece of fruit. They made pilgrim hats and then had a feast with the fruit. Very cute. :) Hannah brought in blueberries and she was so proud of her pilgrim hat she made:

The week after Thanksgiving was "J" week:

She also brought home this fall project they had done:

December 2 was the 50th day of 4K! To celebrate, they had a pajamas day and you could bring in your favorite stuffed animal. They watched the movie "The Polar Express" in a drive-in, 50s type style. Hannah was so excited to go to school in her pajamas with her stuffed animal. :)

Of course she had to wear her Frozen pajamas with her Frozen slippers :)