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!!!!