The Most Magical Place on Earth!

Good evening everyone! We have had a CRAZY week! On Friday, we picked the kiddos up from school and drove to Macon, Georgia to visit Great Gramma. We spent Friday and Saturday night in Macon to celebrate Emily's 6th birthday and Great Gramma's 90th birthday. You should see my grandmother--no one believes she is 90 (even her doctors)! She has 9 children, 26 grandchildren, and MANY great-grandchildren. Emily and Matthew just love spending time with her, Uncle Jon, and Aunt Debby. We celebrated birthdays on Saturday with ice cream cake and presents.

We have big news for our little James: we asked Jon and Debby to be his godparents. It was pretty easy to figure out who his godparents would be as Jon is amazing with children and Debby made such an impact on our lives when Luke was with us. We gave them each a note asking if they would be James' godparents and explaining why we chose them. I know that they will both take their role seriously and we are so thankful that they accepted our request. James is a very lucky little boy.

On Sunday, we drove to Orlando for a much needed vacation at DISNEY WORLD! We had so much fun. It is amazing to see Disney through the eyes of children. Em and Matt were so brave and went on every ride that they were able to ride on. The only ride Matthew couldn't go on was Space Mountain. It's funny because they are more afraid of little dogs than they are of roller coasters. The only ride that none of us were too excited about was Stitch's Escape--kind of boring to us and scary for them. I will post pics as soon as I can find my computer hook-up. We also got to meet up with Uncle Bob, Aunt Julie, and Cousin Lauren at Epcot. The kids had SO much fun with them and we are so glad that we were able to see them. Thanks for coming out, guys!

On the way home, we stopped in Alpharetta to stay the night with my sister, Brigid, and her family. Emily and Matthew spent the evening with Isabel and Cecilia and the next day with Sabrina. As always, they had a blast. Matthew and Sabrina make quite a cute, fresh team!!!!
We are looking forward to Halloween tomorrow. Emily is a cheerleader from High School Musical and Matthew is a soldier. They are excited and I am looking forward to all of the candy (not that I haven't already broken into our stash!). This is the first time in a few years that Nana hasn't been with us for Halloween, so we will miss her a lot. We have heard from neighbors to expect a lot of kids, so that should be fun. Tommy and I will split up trick-or-treating duties...I will take the short route and he will take the longer one.

Tomorrow will be bitter sweet because we will miss Luke a lot. What would he dress up as? What would he look like? Would he be full of smiles? It is so hard to believe that we lost him...we should have all four of our children, not just three of them. We look forward to watching James enjoy Halloween next year! We hope that everyone has a fun and safe Halloween!!!!

On the James front...BIG NEWS! Tommy was able to feel our little guy kick me this morning! He gave a few big thumps when we woke up. This is so great as it proves that James is growing and getting stronger. I think that feeling kicks is one of the most amazing things about pregnancy. It is so wonderful to know that I have a baby growing inside of me. I love it and I love him! We have a big ultrasound on Monday with the perinatalogist. It will be another level 2 ultrasound checking out his omphalocele, looking at his heart, and looking for any other issues. PLEASE join us in praying that James is ok and that there are no other defects present. We already love him so much and just want to be able to watch him grow up big and strong! Thanks in advance for your prayers!

Speaking of prayers, I would like to ask you to pray for another heart baby, Lindsay. Her site is www.lindsaysheart.blogspot.com. Lindsay is just over 4 months old and has HLHS. She is a beautiful little girl who is fighting off a bad infection right now. Lindsay has had multiple open heart surgeries and has just been re-intubated due to the infection. Lindsay has an amazing family and could really use prayers to get her over this infection. I am sure that Lindsay's mom and dad would enjoy any words of prayer on her blog. Lindsay's blog is listed to the right of this post as well as other heart blogs. If you get a chance, please check out these amazing babies and their families. The amount of faith that these families have is inspiring.

Once again, thank you for your continued prayers for our family. Our faith is what is helping us get throught these tough times and you all help us to keep that faith. God bless you all!!!!

Happy 6th Birthday Sweet Girl!

THEN:

NOW:

I can't believe that our little girl is a GREAT BIG six years old! I keep thinking back to 6 years ago today...Emily arrived with a vengeance and we were finally PARENTS! I remember that Emily was very sleepy her first day out of my tummy. My sister Rita attributed it to the fact that I had been taking vicodin for the pain. So, I stopped the meds and went with the pain. Emily eventually became more alert, but she was always our best sleeper. Emily began sleeping through the night at 1 1/2 months and was just a calm, sweet baby. She has grown into such a lovely young lady. She is kind, thoughtful, and empathetic to others' feelings. Emily is also quite opinionated and has a mind of her own. The whole clothes issue is making its way into our home--school mornings are so much fun! We look forward to watching Emily grow even more. Thank you to our baby girl for being such a wonderful example to her brothers--she is our sweet snuggler!

I just wanted to give a quick update on James (or JB as Tommy plans on calling him)...yesterday, Tommy and I went to see Dr. Tinker for a belly check. Dr. Tinker was very pleased with James' growth and his heartbeat. It was a strong 145 BPM. We talked to Dr. Tinker a lot about our last ultrasound. He really made us feel a lot better about the trisomy factor and we are trusting in God that James will be fine. We have a few specific prayers for James: (1) that he does not have trisomy 13 or 18 (or any other chromosomal issue), (2) that his omphalocele does not get bigger and that only the small intestine remains involved (we don't want to have to worry about the stomach, liver, etc.) (3) that we have a good ultrasound on November 3rd with no changes, (4) that James continues on the growth curve and that he continues to thrive. Like I said, Tommy and I have faith that James is going to be just fine. True, we will have a bump after he is born, but we feel as though we can handle this bump easily. Once again, thank you for your thoughts and prayers. We hope that everyone has a wonderful weekend! God Bless!

Seven Months

Today is our angel's 7 month birthday. Just 7 months ago, the only thing we knew about HLHS was that is was really bad. We never thought it would affect our lives so much. We never thought that we would lose a child to the awful CHD. We never thought we would have an angel. But though we miss Luke terribly, we are so thankful that he is a part of our lives. Each day, Tommy and I thank God for the blessings He has given us. We are so thankful that God blessed us with our HLHS miracle and we are so thankful that He has given us the strength to get through the tough times. We pray that God continues to bless us and that He makes us stronger each day.

This week has been a tough one with James' diagnosis of an omphalocele. But we are praying like CRAZY and we are thanking God for this wonderful gift. We have faith that we can get through the tough times once again and that He will see us through. Please join us in prayer for our unborn miracle and please know that we are so thankful for all of you. We hope you have a great week and God Bless you all!

And the winner is...

JAMES BENEDICT HABERMAN

We are very excited to announce our little boy's name and are so happy that he has such a BIG name as he is already such a BIG part of our lives. We have put a lot of thought into James' name and we are confident that it is very fitting for him. Here was our thought process on choosing our little boy's name...

As far as James goes, we have seen many signs over the past few days. James is a name that we had thought of as it is a family name (my father's middle name and both of his grandfathers), but it was one name out of a few. Each of our children has one family name (Emily "Bernadette", "George" Matthew, and Luke "Thomas"), so we thought it fitting that James also has a family name. I had mentioned to my friend, Jill, that we really liked the name James and the next day I received an e-mail from her saying that they studied James 1 at her Bible Study that day and that it was so poignant given our situation. James talks about faith, prayer, and healing. One verse that Jill mentioned was "Blessed is the man who endures trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life which God has promised to those who love him." (James 1:12). Another reason that we chose James is because his name was used in the Anointing of the Sick ceremony on Wednesday. As soon as I heard Father Dennis use his name, I knew that was what we were going to call him. As I did more research on James and the Anointing of the Sick, I found that James has a biblical reference for healing: "Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the church, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will save the sick man, and the Lord will raise him up; and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven." (James 5:14-15). This is amazing to me. We have total faith that God is going to keep our little James healthy and that he will live a long, full life. We are so thankful to God for sending us our new little boy!

The reason we chose Benedict is a little easier to explain: Tommy came home from work yesterday with the name. At first, I thought he may be kidding and that he was being silly, but once he told me what Benedict meant, I knew that should be James' middle name. Benedict means blessing. That is just what our James is: a BLESSING! He is a blessing from God and if it weren't for his big brother, we wouldn't be blessed enough to have him in our lives. Plus, we think that James Benedict Haberman flows pretty darn well...and it doesn't hurt that Benedict is the Pope's name! :)

Thank you for allowing us to share our baby boy's name with you all. As I said before, we put a lot of thought into choosing his name and we believe that we have come up with the perfect name. God bless you all and have a wonderful weekend!

Something Amazing...

Hi everyone! First off, we wanted to thank you all for keeping Cuatro in your prayers. We are so thankful that he is already on prayer lists around the world. Our goal is to get him on as many lists as possible. Thank you for all of the support via the blogs, e-mail, phone calls, and even Facebook!

We WILL have a name soon as I am so anxious to call him by his name. Tommy and I have discussed some names and I have my very favorite...I just have to make sure it is a good one with Tommy. All I know is that this baby needs a strong, powerful name as I know he has strength that matches his angel brother. I will let you all know as soon as we have decided on a name. Just know that there will be a lot of meaning in his name.

Today was an amazing day. I have joined the Moms and Tots group at our church. The group is a great mix of women of all ages and it has been so nice to be able to share my faith with them. I was able to take my mom (my parents came into town yesterday) and I am so glad that I could. Thank you to the ladies today for being so welcoming to my mother. Anyway, I had a chance to explain our newest situation with my friend, Kimberly, on Monday and I was so thankful that she let some of the ladies know about everything. Kimberly had also asked if I would like one of the priests to anoint me. I told her of course and Father Dennis came to the meeting today to do just that. He anointed me and then asked the ladies to place their hands on me. It was amazing to have these women (who were complete strangers two months ago) place their hands on me and Cuatro, praying for his healing! Can you imagine?!?! It was quite a warm feeling and I am so thankful to have had this experience as I have never been anointed before. Thank you to Kimberly for suggesting this sacrament and thank you to all of my new friends for participating today--it meant more than you know. I have faith that God is going to keep our baby boy safe and healthy--we just have to get over a little bump. I also spoke to a new friend, Mary Beth, who is a retired NICU nurse. We had met before and I knew of her background, so as soon as I saw her, I broke down. She reassured me that she saw omphaloceles often and that the babies are fine. It really helped to talk to her and to share the spiritual side of the medical "stuff". She told me I could call her any time and I warned her that she might hear from me too often! Isn't it wonderful that God put us in the perfect parish with the perfect people? I am so thankful that we have found yet another church with such great people!

Once again, we would like to thank you for your prayers. We are continually praying for Cuatro's healing and that he does not have either trisomy. As with each and every baby, he is a miracle and we are so glad that he is a part of our little family. God Bless you all!

Our New Little Boy...

GORGEOUS BABY BOY!!!!

Good evening everyone!

Well, to say that today has been eventful would be an understatement. I went to the high risk OB, Dr Schneider, today. Tommy was unable to make it, so I was there by myself. Well, I say "by myself", but I know there were so many prayers going out for our little Cuatro. So I guess that you could say that the room was FULL of people! I saw some absolutely BEAUTIFUL things today: a great brain, a gorgeous spine, kidneys, bladder, no more previa (woo!hoo!), and a MAGNIFICENT 4 CHAMBER HEART! I was so excited to see that so far, Baby's little heart is looking perfect. Of course, we will have MANY more level 2 ultrasounds and will have to keep an eye on it for any defects, but so far, so good! I did see something not so great today: Cuatro does indeed have an omphalocele. Part of his small intestine is growing out of his belly, but is contained in a thin membrane. No matter what, we are looking at a surgery to fix him up. After what we went through with Luke, this is a piece of cake as it can be fixed. BUT, there is a 25% chance that Cuatro has a chromosomal defect, either Trisomy 13 or 18. If you know anything about either one of these, neither is good. They are both fatal and cannot be treated. The baby will not make it. But, I know that we need to look at the better side of things: that he has a 75% chance of this being just an omphalocele. Of course, that is what we are praying for: a simple omphalocele. Luckily, everything in the level 2 looked perfect today and there were no signs of a chromosomal defect, but they can show up later in other ultrasounds. I spoke with my OB, Dr. Tinker, and he was encouraged that they did not see any facial, brain, foot, or heart abnormalities as those can go with a chromosomal defect. He made me feel so much better! He is truly an amazing doctor!

If you are a member of any church, church group, or prayer list, I would like to ask if you can add our baby boy to your list? This is very scary for me and Tommy and we are just going to immerse ourselves in prayer. All we want is to hold our baby boy on our chests and let him fall asleep on us. We were never able to do that with Luke as his chest was still healing and he couldn't be on his tummy. The more people who are praying for our little one, the better I know he will be. We really appreciate your help with this!!!! We are determined to figure out his name this week as I am so ready to start calling him by name (and so that he can have a name on prayer lists). We have a number of apostles and saints who are on the top of our list (go figure with names like Matthew, Luke, and Bernadette--Em's middle name for the others)!

Thank you, once again for checking up on us. We appreciate any and all prayers for Cuatro--he is already such a HUGE part of our family and we look forward to meeting him! God Bless!

Happy Birthday Big Boy Matthew!

Then:

Now:

Time really does fly by, doesn't it? I can't believe that four years ago, I was holding my first son. Matthew is truly one of a kind. He is funny, he is kind, he is fresh, he is sweet, he is smart, he has a million excuses...he is MATTHEW! He is unlike any other child, he is just himself and he is happy with that. Matthew's heart is so pure...purely Matthew. He adores Emily and looks up to her, he is still so in love with his Wittle Bubba, and he is very excited about Cuatro. Matthew has helped to get me through some of the toughest times since Luke's passing. At the funeral Mass, it was Matthew who made me smile. After Luke was gone, it was Matthew who always asked about him. Now that Emily is in school, it is Matthew who keeps me company. I love him so much and Tommy and I are so thankful that God gave us this gift. "Matthew" means "gift from God" and he, as well as all four of our babies, is just that: our gift from God. Thank you for helping us wish our big boy a very Happy Birthday!

Now for an update on Cuatro: we went to see Dr. Tinker today and were able to see the baby on ultrasound. We were checking to see if I still have placenta previa. I do still have it and it hasn't seemed to move, so we are most likely looking at a c-section. A c-section is fine by me, but I am a little worried as I have scoliosis in my epidural space, therefore, I don't get epidurals. So, if I can't get an epidural or spinal, I will need to be put under anesthesia and be "out" during surgery. I want to see my baby when he/she is born. I am still praying that the previa goes away so that we won't have to worry about this. The baby is growing well, but they did see a hernia at the belly. Dr. Tinker thinks that this is either an umbilical hernia or something called a omphalocele. Both pale in comparison to Luke's HLHS diagnosis, but it is still scary that the baby has a congenital defect. I will go to the high-risk OB on Monday (I asked if we could get an earlier appointment than the 15th as I would go crazy waiting), so we will be able to have a better view (hopefully) of everything. This is also when they will first check out the heart. To say that Tommy and I are nervous about this is an understatement. The hernia thing kind of threw us for a loop, so we are a little on edge tonight. But we know that God will take care of our baby and we just need to trust in Him.

NOW FOR THE NEWS PEOPLE ARE WAITING FOR...the tech told me that she never guarantees gender id (we will look again on Monday), but from what she saw (and it didn't take her long) it seems as though my feelings have been correct: it looks like we are having a baby BOY!!!! We are very excited, although we are happy with any gift that God gives us. I will let you know if that changes on Monday (although I don't think that will happen). PLEASE keep our sweet baby in your prayers. And please pray that our nerves will be settled, that we will be able to find out exactly what we are dealing with, and that there are no more defects present. Thank you in advance!

Once again, thank you for checking in on our little family. We are so blessed to have such wonderful people praying for us. Thank you for your compassion! God Bless!