Praise the Lord! Her Heart Is Good!

We are so thankful! Katelyn Grace's heart is perfect!

Mom and I spent over four hours at the children's hospital yesterday taking Katelyn Grace to see the cardiologist. Katelyn Grace had an EKG, echocardiogram, and exam.

The doctor told us that any heart problems related to Down's Syndrome are congenital, and that they would show up now if she has any problems whatsoever.

He assured us that we have no Down's Syndrome-related heart problems to worry about ... ever!

We were ecstatically thankful!

Little Katelyn Grace was so patient during the echocardiogram. They had to put that cold gel on her, and I know she didn't like it. And the poor little thing was hooked up to several wires.



Finally, the precious baby fell asleep. Awwwww!



All of the doctors were so nice. We really appreciated their kindness and openness.

Oh, praise the Lord that Katelyn Grace doesn't have to go through the heart surgery that over half of Down's Syndrome babies have to go through! We are so blessed!

Happy Birthday to Two of Us!

Yes, it's about that time of year when our family gets hit with a double-whammy (is that really how that's spelled?).

Austin's birthday is today, and mine (Lauren's) is tomorrow. ...At least, I think it is. I'm really not sure, actually. These Leap Year birthdays can be slightly confusing.

Leslie is planning on writing a nice little thing about Austin this evening for the blog, so maybe I'll just make this a birthday announcement.

At our trip to Grandma's house on Sunday, (click the link, or just scroll down; it's the next post) there ended up being a surprise birthday party for the two of us. How nice!

Happy Birthday, Austin!!!

Katelyn Grace's First Trip to Grandma's House

Sunday morning, we went out to Grandma and Pop's house for church. And yes (we're really keeping track of these "firsts"!) - it was Katelyn Grace's first trip out there.







After church, we took Katelyn out to the beach, (another "first"!) which is just a mile or two from Grandma's house.


She looked so adorable in her little carrier.







For part of our "church time," "fellowship time," "gathering time," or whatever you want to call it, we are going through the series, The Way of the Master, by Ray Comfort. Thank you, Aunt Sharon, for giving us such a wonderful gift! We are enjoying it so much and learning even more!

No Longer a Newborn Baby!!!

Our little Katelyn Grace is growing way too fast! She's gained almost a pound-and-a-half and well over an inch! I think that whole pound-and-a-half all went to her cheeks.

To think that she's practically a month old already! My, how time flies....

She's already 8.33% of the way to her first birthday!

Mom has gotten all of her strength back, but is still fairly tired. Katelyn Grace sleeps well some nights, but has this annoying habit of grunting and squeaking in her sleep all through the night. : ) And that can be hard to sleep through, I'm told.

Echocardiogram Is Tomorrow - Please Pray!

We go into MUSC tomorrow for Katelyn Grace's echocardiogram. It is sort of like a "moving X-ray" of the heart.

Both of the doctors we have taken her to so far (a pediatrician and geneticist) have not detected any heart murmur, which is a wonderful sign! However, the echocardiogram will tell us definitely whether or not she has any heart problems. We're not sure when we will get the results back.

More than half of Down Syndrome babies need to have heart surgery, and we are praying that this is not the case for Katelyn Grace.

She continues to grow, and is becoming quite adorable! (More than she was before!) I'll post some new pictures sometime tomorrow or Wednesday, hopefully.

Thank you for your prayers!

A Royal Day of Cooking

Those chicken pot pies Mrs. Helen made us after Katelyn Grace was born were delicious! We simply had to figure out exactly how she made them!

Monday morning, all of us girls (Mom and Katelyn Grace included!) headed over to the Royal's home for a day of cooking with Mrs. Helen. We had an ambitious list of things to accomplish:

Chicken pot pie
Pork roast
Pizza
Stir fry
...and a few other things that I don't remember.

You see, we figured that if we could all get together and get a few days' worth of cooking done for both of our families, things would be simpler: we would only have to mess things up once, we would only have to clean up once, and of course we would have lots of fun and some wonderful fellowship!

First, we warmed up a lunch for ourselves and Christian made us delicious strawberry milkshakes.


Then we got down to business. We chopped vegetables for the chicken pot pies and pizzas, got the pork roasts in the oven, and Christian and Shannon made and rolled out the pizza dough.


Christian thought it was great fun to stick the banana sticker on his forehead. : )



So many distractions! Of course, someone had to hold Katelyn Grace while everyone else was busy cooking!


We got almost everything on our list accomplished by around 3:45pm. The food was made, we got most of our chatting done, and of course we had way too much fun!




We had hot homemade pizza that evening, and wow! those chicken pot pies came in handy over the next few days. Now the pork roast is gone, too, and I think it's time for another Royal Cooking Day!

Thank you, Mrs. Helen, for the wonderful time, the glorious food, and the handy cooking tips!

A Reminiscent Trip to the Beach

On a cold, windy day about a week ago, Dad and I [Lauren] - and Paton, of course - went out to the beach for a nice walk.




I have wonderful memories of one Christmas Day when Dad took us out in the boat to this old, abandoned lighthouse. I remember climbing the spiral staircase all the way to the top, stopping to look out of one of the tiny windows at our boat far below. It looked like a tiny child's toy. The old, iron staircase had steps missing along the way, and I remember clinging to Mom's hand, afraid of falling to - as it seemed to my 8-year-old mind - my death. But, eventually, excitement pushed out any fear that I had.

I have one other memory of that Christmas Day over a decade ago. At our house, before starting out, it didn't feel very cold outside, so I decided to bring only one light coat. Mom and Dad both told me to take some more warm clothes, but I insisted that I would be fine in what I was planning on bringing. Knowingly, they both decided to allow me to have my own way. I distinctly remember sitting huddled in the bottom of the boat, shivering until my teeth chattered. A lesson was learned on that cold day that I still remember clearly all these years later.

Today, the lighthouse is shut up and no one is allowed to climb to the top. Someday, if they ever open it up again, it would be exciting to climb those steps once again and look out over our beautiful Harbor and at our miniature boat far beneath.