I have had a difficult time blogging lately. Not that I don't have tons of things to write about, just the opposite really. I am enjoying life as a mommy so much that I am finding it hard to break away from any moment with my boy! When he's awake, I want to play with him and watch him smile. When he's asleep, I want to stare at him and kiss his baby soft cheeks. So basically, this is the last thing on my mind. My sweet friend, Kerrie, just welcomed a new nephew and asked mommy bloggers how they do it? I would like to know that answer too. But here I am now, so I better not waste time blogging about how much I don't have time to blog.

I really just wanted to give a quick update on a few things.

We went to the doctor on Monday for Micah's heart appointment. Let me tell you... it was the most encouraging appointment yet!!! Basically, he is having NO symptoms of heart failure. He should have by now if the hole in his heart was causing him problems. What the doctor explained to us was that the hole is actually being blocked by a muscle - so it is not allowing as much blood flow to escape! He drew a picture for us to help us understand. Instead of being a straight medium-large hole in Micah's heart that allows a lot of blood flow to leak out into the lungs, there is a muscle blocking the hole, so the blood returns on it's normal path. If blood does get around the muscle somehow, the holes are so small that he could live with it as long as he continues to have no symptoms! Or even better, the muscle blocking the hole could attach itself to the top and bottom where it's not connected and cause what could be described as a "dip" in the wall. Not sure any of this makes sense written out like this (hence, the reason the doctor drew it out for us on paper) but to sum it up... he most likely will NOT need surgery!!!!! Major blessing! Of course, they still need to confirm all of this by continuing to do scans on his heart and monitoring his progress as he grows. I'm not sure how long we'll be going to the heart doctor every two weeks, but as long as he is healthy it is worth it. PRAISE GOD!

So there's the medical side of how we are doing.

In other news... Micah is 9 weeks yesterday. And it's like he's all of a sudden a whole new boy! He is smiling and cooing and moving around like crazy. So alert. A little more fussy (which is what I expected really, why he was so quiet for 8 weeks made me nervous!) and this time change has completely thrown off his sleeping schedule! But we are working on it. :)

The election results are in! And... I feel the same as yesterday. Nothing has changed. And my hope is still in the Lord. I will say this though, I learned a lot about the state of our nation by watching the voting poll results on the news last night. 1 in 5 people claim no religion. Our country is the ungodliest it's ever been. And what some call "moving forward" is actually quite backwards if you take a look at history (Sodom and Gomorrah, anybody?) I am continuing to pray for our leaders. But mostly for Jesus to invade our lives and change us from the inside out! Only once He has radically changed our thinking will we ever see things the way He sees them.

Ok, I'll stop there. But I will leave you with this plea. Be on guard. Stand firm in the faith. Be courageous. Be strong. (1 Cor. 16:13) It's a desperate world out there, we need to be ready to face it.

In the mean time, I'm working on raising my little warrior for Christ right now. :)

Another month has FLOWN by!!

I am still in awe & so blessed to be Micah's mommy.

Today was rough (aka. busy, fussy little one) & I almost skipped out on blogging. But I never want to miss a chance to document these moments. They are going by so fast -- and it really is hard to keep up, but this little place online is my journal to share the special times.

Here are a few snapshots from Micah's second month.

One of his very first smiles, at 7 weeks.

Like father, like son.

Micah took his first road trip out of state to visit some friends!

His first kiss! (besides the ones I give him :) :)

Halloween outfit.

Meeting his great-grandpa!

Break-dancing at church (see video below!)

 He loves his daddy.

See my husband's blog for a full 2 month video!

I cannot tell you how many times I have tried to sit down and write a blog post in the past two weeks! Whew. Let's see if I can get through this one. :)

This week has been an emotional roller coaster. This whole journey has been really, but this week was the dip in the ride. Monday we had our bi-weekly appointment with the cardiologist (which I am going to hearby refer to as the "heart doctor," I like the sound of that better - and it's easier to spell) and my biggest concern going in was to see if the hole in his heart was any smaller. My concerns multiplied as soon as he hit the scale. His weight was down. He didn't just not gain weight in the past two weeks - he lost weight.

I immediately began to think over the past couple weeks and what may have caused the decline.

1. He was sick. I noticed he had a lot of congestion and a little diarrhea earlier that week. 2. They just started him on a new medicine, which acts as a diuretic (makes him pee more). And then the biggest possible reason came to me... 3. They weighed him with a wet diaper last checkup. 

I didn't think anything about it at the time, but I mentioned to the nurse that he had a wet diaper when they were going to weigh him and she told me not to worry about it and to just put him on the scale. A couple ounces may not matter to anyone else - but to Micah, it is crucial. This could be the deciding factor between him having surgery sooner rather than later. And every day counts, to give the hole a chance to close on it's own.

So I let the heart doctor know all of these things, and he agreed that we need to monitor his weight (diaper-less) for a couple weeks. Thankfully, we don't have to drive to Shands to do this - our pediatrician in town is more convenient. We went today and his weight is UP! Praise the Lord. The pediatrician also confirmed my suspicions that Micah has a little viral infection - not contagious - and should go away in the next couple days. This could definitely have contributed to his lack of weight gain the week before. We'll go back again next week to make sure things are progressing again normally.

All of this has really opened my eyes to a world of hurt. Every two weeks when we walk into the pediatric heart clinic - I am blown away by the number of beautiful little children in the waiting room. This is a common struggle for many families out there. I talked to one mom, whose little 2 year old boy was about to have his third open heart surgery the next day. You could see it in his big brown eyes as he was about to walk back to meet the doctor - he knew what was happening. He stopped in the middle of the hallway and cried. It broke my heart.

I prayed for her the next day. The waiting, the surgery, that God would let her feel His presence. After all, God is close to the broken-hearted.

One day, that could be me. And the thought of having to hand over my precious little boy's heart and put it (literally) in the hands of the doctor, scares me to death. I think I could die thinking about it right now. But I trust that if the time comes, God will prepare my own heart to go through it. Just as He has always done.

Thank you all for the prayers. Please continue to pray for Micah, as well as mom and dad. We so appreciate it!