Sunday, December 11th

It feels like forever since I have posted anything!

I apologize for all those waiting on an update, but like they say, no news is good news!

We have been to Houston twice for checkups since coming home in October. Kate doesn’t care for the drive much, but the appointments go just beautifully!

Her heart function is great, her labs look good and she is growing like a weed. Our big girl is up to 16 pounds and 26 inches as of her last appointment this past Thursday. We are so proud of her!! She has such an appetite, she loves her milk and her baby food (well all except for the pureed veggies) and lately has really enjoyed bites of our dinner. Tonight she even got little tastes of the hotdogs we roasted for her big brother’s birthday!

Her next appointment will be in January, it will be for the biopsy. They will insert a catheter into her femural artery and up to her heart. They check for any rejection she might be experiencing. We are extremely optimistic about this procedure and are anticipating absolutely no rejection since she is doing so visibly well, but its still nerve wracking. She will be put completely asleep while they do the procedure and will be admitted to the hospital a total of about 12 hours. If all goes well we are released to come back home, and she won’t have to be seen again until March! We are unsure of the day of the appointment yet, our transplant coordinator is going to call us in the next week or two to schedule. Please keep our sweet baby in your prayers, that the doctors don’t find any trace of rejection, that they only see healthy heart tissue!

We are so excited that we get to spend the holidays together in our own home. We’ve gotten to spend Thanksgiving with our families, we celebrated Braden’s birthday this weekend (he turns 6 tomorrow) and Christmas is coming so fast! At times it still feels surreal; as we were really expecting to still be in Houston when all this began.

Today we were able to take the kiddos to see Santa. A friend suggested we call and just see if they would open early for us one day so Kate wouldn’t have to wait in the crowd of kids and be exposed to all the germs. The staff was so accommodating and Santa was just wonderful. He made sure the whole place was disinfected for us, they really went above and beyond. Santa took a special interest in our little Kate, he told us his wife was also a transplant patient! So, in case you were unaware, Mrs. Claus has herself a new lung!

Since this will probably be our last update before Christmas, we want to wish you all a Merry Christmas, from our family to yours, thank you all so much for supporting our family through this tough year, and May God Bless you all this holiday season!