We are home again......

                           The normal life is the good life! That is what keeps going through my head as I am home with the kids and baby Ward. The Friday morning after Thanksgiving. Ward had a fever of 102 and we could not keep it down with tylenol.  We ended up at the Egleston ER that morning around 2 a.m. The hospital did a shunt tap [took fluid from Wards shunt] and it came back showing infection. They wanted us to stay overnight and watch the cultures to see what it did. Worse case they would have to take Wards shunt out and put 2 external tubes to drain the fluid on the outside. Give him antibotics for 12-14 days and then do surgery to put the shunt back in. This news killed Brian and I. We were given a room and I was given a bed to sleep in with Ward. He was not himself and all night I begged the Lord to make him better so we would not have to go through surgery again. Saturday morning the nurse came in and took his temperature he was 103. My heart sank. I went in the bathroom of our hospital room and fell to my knees. I needed the Lord to take me to the next step. Our doctor let us know Ward would have to have the surgery to remove the shunt. We walked Ward to surgery that morning and watched him be wheeled away.  We spent the next 11 days talking to Ward and surrounding him with toys. He could only sit up for 30 minutes at a time. He had to lay down for most of the day for the external tubes to drain correctly. The Lord took care of that. He has made Ward a people person. He loves people. He will watch them and smile and is very happy doing this. He stole the hearts of all the nurses on the 5 East floor. The infectious disease doctors determined that he had a staph infection. This was most likely contracted six weeks prior when he had his last surgery. The chance of this infection was 10%. Ward had his shunt put back in and was discharged from the hospital a day later. So, we spent a total of 12 days at Egleston. Thank you for all the prayers,visits and phone calls. We are blessed beyond words. You can never know how much a blessing it is to have people love you through something like this until you go through it. We have been back to the ER three times because Wards stitches from surgery were leaking. He has had his sweet head stitched up so many times.
                    The Lord made him so tough. He has not been held back at all through all this. He is still AMAZING! God has a perfect plan for Ward and we are blessed to be his parents. I was rocking Ward in his room this morning and looked at a plaque over his door. It reads Great is thy Faithfulness. Wow sums up our year of 2011. He shows Himself faithful in our valley this year. This past Sunday January 8th we dedicated Ward to the Lord at our church Grace Baptist. Plus Weston our second son was baptized on the same day. Weston accepted Christ as his savior after Ward was born. What a time of rejoicing this past Sunday was for us!! I just kept telling the Lord thank you all day.
                       Ward is so strong! He is sitting up and rolling over. He is ready to go. I can see it in his eyes. I know the look I have seen it with my other 2 boys. He is eating food and loves it. He has physical therapy every other week. He is so happy all the time. He is a party boy and does not want to miss a thing. Guess that's why he does not love to sleep! His brothers Will and Weston and sister Whitney can't leave him alone. They all want to be around him all the time. He is an absolute super star. He has stolen many hearts and is only 8 months old. I wanted to post some pictures of Ward and his everyday life. We are so excited for a New Year and can't wait to see what the Lord has!!!
  

Lamentations 3:22-25

²² Through the LORD’s mercies we are not consumed, 

      Because His compassions fail not. 

       ²³ They are new every morning; 

      Great is Your faithfulness. 

       ²⁴ “ The LORD is my portion,” says my soul, 

      “ Therefore I hope in Him!” 

       ²⁵ The LORD is good to those who wait for Him, 

      To the soul who seeks Him.