Sweet Home Alabama

GRAYSON AND NANA (Jeri's mom) @ THE SURPRISE BIRTHDAY PARTY.GRAYSON AND REAGAN AT THE AIRPORT BEFORE WE LEFT. WE HAD TO BE CAUTIOUS WHEN GRAYSON WAS NEXT TO REAGAN. SHE WOULD ALWAYS BE YELLING AT US SAYING "HE'S YANKIN' MY CHAIN. HEY! LISTEN. HE'S YANKIN' MY CHAIN". WHICH WAS EITHER HER BLUE VENT TUBE OR HER SATURATION MONITER CORD. I GUESS HE THOUGHT THAT THEY WERE TASTY. WE HAVE TO TEACH THAT BOY BETTER WAYS TO PICK UP ON THE GIRLS!!!

GRAYSON'S ADOPTIVE PARENTS, DOUG AND JESSI. (Jeri's sister and brother-in-law)

THE CUTEST GIRLS IN ALABAMA!!! THIS WAS @ MY B-DAY PARTY TOO.

THE DIRT BIKE BOYS! NEED I SAY MORE?!!?

GRAYSON AND I JUST CHILLIN' IN A-BANANA AS PORTER CALLS IT!

Wow! Time flies by so fast. Grayson and I have been back a couple of weeks and I am so behind on blogging. I have been waiting on a usb cord to imput pictures from my camera. Needless to say I still don't have it, so pictures will come later! I am just going to give you a brief account of our trip. We had so much fun. I got to learn how to do some cool things in the way of taking care of Reagan. I learned so much by watching, but I got my chance to have some hands-on experience. I learned so much cool trache stuff. It made me want to be a nurse even more. I got to hold Reagan which was so awesome. She is so fragile, so I was nervous for a second, but I got over it quick because it was amazing. Not many people hold her, and no one has really held her for the last 5months because of the halo. (by the way, she let me hold her more than once!) Reagan also had her first real bath since the halo while I was there, and her first big outing. She took baby Grayson and I to the airport! She is such a little angel.

Jeri and I had a lot of retail therapy to take care of, so we did. Almost every day we had a shopping trip. I had my first spa experience, and it was divine. We stayed up late, especially Reagan and I! And had tons of good food. I am sure the airline didn't want to let me board when they saw how much weight I had gained! I had a suprise birthday party, complete with every southern dish you can imagine! It was so much fun to get to meet people we had heard so much about. I tried fried catfish, which I ended up really liking!! Alan ended up watching Grayson a lot while I played. He got him hooked on dirt bikes and being held a lot! Grayson had to adjust to not getting held so much when we got home. Brennen is so much fun and loved Grayson. He is the teacher's favorite student! He is the sweetest, well mannered little guy around. I tried to pack him in my suitcase, but he wouldn't stop running long enough!! I was certainly spoiled by southern hospitality. We can't wait to go back with everyone and spend longer!!!!

Unanswered prayers

Do you ever feel like God does not answer your prayers?

Many times when Grayson was at Primary Children's Medical center, I would sit and wonder why God would not heal him and make him better. It was heart-wrenching to sit and watch him suffer and not be able to do anything.

It was by chance that Grayson had surgery the morning of April 25th. He was scheduled for May 5th, but I was in a hurry to get his insides put back where they belong! I would frequently call the surgeon's office and ask if they had any cancellations and if they could move the surgery date up. Finally the answer was yes. They got him in a week earlier than planned. That was great by me. I couldn't wait for him to poop like a big boy!
Well,Grayson ended up having a much rougher time than anyone had imagined. We planned on staying days and ended up there for weeks. I felt like I was constantly hearing that we beat the odds the wrong way. The doctors could not figure out what was going on. They seemed to have less guesses than I did. We were eventually moved back to the PICU when things got really bad. After the second surgery, the doctors thought that they had finally figured out the problems and had them fixed. Two days later, Grayson had a major cardiac arrest and almost lost his life. Again I was upset and wondered why God would not heal him after he had come so far. The doctors could not figure things out and HOPED Grayson would live. I often thought perhaps it was my fault things hadn't gone smoothly because time after time God may have been trying to tell me it wasn't quite time for surgery, and I continued to push. I guess I will probably never know the answer to that or a lot of other questions I have!!! BUT, somethings I know for sure. Grayson did end up making it through all of that big ordeal and is now doing much better, thank goodness!

It was by chance that the only surgeon the McBride family could find to fuse 2 year old Reagan's neck, practiced at Primary Children's Hospital, 1,500 miles from their home in Tuscumbia, Alabama. Reagan was scheduled to have surgery on April 28th, but when she saw the surgeon for her pre-operation appointment, he felt Reagan needed surgery ASAP because her life was in a lot of danger. She ended up having surgery that same afternoon on April 25th. Things did not go as well as everyone hoped. After surgery, sometime that night, the hardware used to hold Reagan's brittle neck together had completely fallen apart. Doctors informed Jeri Ann and Alan that Reagan would require another major surgery to try and put things back where they should be and to put a metal device on her tiny body that would hold her head completely straight and still. But that second life-sustaining surgery would have to wait because Reagan was very unstable. She was fighting for her life. The doctors assured Alan and Jeri Ann that they would do everything they could to save her life, but things looked grim. If that wasn't enough, then came the news and devastation that sometime during these 2 awful days, Reagan sustained a spinal cord injury and was now paralyzed from the neck down. I know that during this time, Alan questioned the decision they had made to have the initial surgery done and blamed himself that Reagan may not live. When Reagan got more stable she now needed a third surgery to place a tracheostomy in her neck so she could be on a ventilator permanently. Reagan did make it through her second and third surgeries, and things did improve little by little. Reagan stayed in the hospital until July 14th. She is now home and doing so much better. She has even regained some movement, mostly in her hands and feet.

Here is what I know for sure. Reagan and Grayson ended up in the same 2 bed room in the PICU after they had both had surgery April 25th. Our families met under tremendous stress and heartache. Grayson was moved in and out of the PICU where Reagan remained her entire stay at PCMC, and he did not really start to improve until Reagan had been med flighted to a hospital in Burmingham. When he would start to show some improvement, things would go 10 steps back and he would end up back in the PICU closer to Reagan. The McEvoy and McBride families spent quite possibly 18 hours out of a day together. The staff got to the point where I know they broke rules giving either family information on the other family's child. Many people think Jeri and Tiff look like sisters. We became very very close in a very short period of time. I guess you can we can all think what we want, but I know that I never would have made it through that month as well as I did without them.

As I look back at what I had thought to be unanswered prayers, I wonder if maybe God had another plan in mind to really bless me if things were going to be that bad. I don't know who could truly relate to me and my situation unless they themselves had almost lost a child and been through an even harder situation than we had been through. I guess what the song says is true "some of God's greatest gifts are unanswered prayers" because I am not sure what I would do without our unanswered prayers,the McBrides!!! We love love y'all!!!

Wow! Well I have finally decided to follow the trend and be a blogger! We have so many people that we want to keep in touch with and it ends up being quite a challenge. We have finally started to settle down in life a little bit. We have been able to establish a little bit of normalcy over the summer. It has been so great to be back together as a family!!! Now Jim, Lainey and Trey are all back to school so that is interesting. I am able to see a side of Porter that I haven't really seen! It is so much fun. Porter can sing his ABC's thanks to the Leap Frog magnet on the fridge! He is talking up a storm and of course full of mischief.

Lainey is of course thriving in 1st grade. She is reading way above grade level and is having a great time. She is not thrilled about school lunch, so this week we will start taking home lunch! Her handwriting has improved so much since the first of the year! Probably her favorite thing so far this school year has been starting dance. Her classes are twice a week. They include hip hop (the most entertaining thing I have ever seen)as well as tap, jazz and ballet. Lainey comes home and teaches Trey her new "moves" which is hilarious and they jam out!

We are so glad that Trey is going to school willingly after he informed us all summer that he was "dwopping out of pwee school and staying home wif mom and pwaying kung fu panda on the WII all day"!!! His teacher is Miss Raquell. She loves Trey and requested that he be in her class. Trey is possibly the most high tech 4 year old around. He can hook up any game system he wants or get to any website that has games to play on the computer all by himself. I can't do half of the things he can. They always say your body compensates for any disability. Boy is that true! Trey is doing so well walking. Progress has been slow, but he can take about 20 steps unassisted! That is huge to our whole family.

Grayson is getting big and chubby! He weighed almost 16 pounds at his last appointment. He has started to laugh, which is the cutest thing I have ever seen! Of course no one can get him to laugh like Lainey can. As soon as we get his reflux under control he will be having his MRI and immune testing done. I worry a lot about those things, but we will continue to pray for good things. The Lord has answered so many prayers for us allready. We are truly blessed.

Jim is finally getting a little break from so much stress. With me having my head on half way straight again, Grayson's little life out of so much danger, and FINISHING HIS MASTER'S DEGREE, I think he might feel like a new man! School has been an easy adjustment for him. He will be back in the gym, where he loves to be starting in October.

As for me, I feel like I can take a breather and enjoy being a mom again. We have had a lot of fun spending time as a family lately, and I love it. Grayson and I are flying to Alabama on Tuesday to see the McBrides, some good friends of ours. We met the McBrides at Primary Children's when Reagan and Grayson kept the PICU staff hopping for a couple of weeks together. (poor guys) I am still volunteering at the Provo NICU, which I love and will continue to do until I start working someday! I hope to start working toward my nursing degree sometime in the near future!!