A Day in Athens

Last Monday, Noah had his post-op appointment in Athens (it was closer than going all the way to Augusta!), so we decided to make a day of it. We saw the doctor who assisted with his appendectomy and Noah was once again released from their care...hopefully for the last time! He is doing great, as busy as ever, and other than a little case of the sniffles, very healthy. We couldn't be more thankful to God for preserving his life - for the second time in 18 months! - and bringing him through this ordeal stronger than ever. We believe that God must have some amazing things planned for our little guy and can't wait to see how his life unfolds! Noah is now saying several words in addition to using several signs spontaneously..."juice" and "shoes" (two of his favorite words) sound suspiciously alike, as do "football" and "foul ball" (two of his other favorite words). Other much-used words are "Mama", "Dada/Daddy", "Sissy" (sounds like "Diddy", very cute), "Claire" (sounds like "Deh?", always like a question), "yum yum", "no no", "bye-bye", "uh oh" (this one is used often everyday...when you're as busy as he is, there are plenty of opportunities for "uh ohs"!), "moo", "moon", "Bible", "bowl", "meow", "woof", "puppy", "peas" and "please" (both pronounced exactly the same way), and he signs "more", "please", "all done/all gone", and "thank you" (sometimes - we're working on this one). He's a great little dancer and loves music...and the Wii! Two of his favorite pasttimes! Looking at his sweet face, you'd never believe he would ever be anything but gentle and kind, but don't be fooled! After he hits someone or throws something at someone or in some other way hurts someone (when I say "someone", I mean "usually Claire", whom he ADORES!! It makes NO sense!), he immediately lays his head on that person's shoulder and "apologizes"...it's very endearing and causes you to quickly forget whatever he did to prompt such sweet repentance : )

We wanted to make some stops around Athens that we don't usually have time for on game days, so after Noah's appointment, we stopped by the Theta house and I gave the girls a tour. Not much has changed in 19 years!! The dining room still looked and smelled the same (yummy - it was nearly lunchtime!), and when we walked up to the 3rd floor (where we found all four of my composite pictures), it was like flashback city for me!! The sound of the shower running, girls heading out to class in kind of bummy clothes, the window at the end of the hallway where I would watch for Matthew to drive up for a visit, all of the memories came flooding back, and it was really fun and special. Matthew and Noah hung out in the chapter room and Noah entertained various girls walking through...I bet they thought their boyfriends were the cutest boys to wait in the chapter room til they saw Noah (and Matthew!!). : )

Lunch at The Grill...we all loved our burgers and fries and Noah made it through (almost) the whole meal without having a little fit. Matthew and I discovered and LOVED the feta cheese dip for the fries...heavenly! We almost ordered a milkshake and then decided our $4 + would be better spent at Hodgson's Pharmacy. So after visiting the Old Athens Cemetary (that sounds so morbid, but it was listed in our Georgia History curriculum as a field trip and I used to walk through it as a child with my family before/after games, so it was another nostalgic stop for me!), we bought everyone a cheap (and very delicious!) ice cream cone at Hodgson's. For those of you who remember the 25 cent cones from the '80's, you'll be disappointed to know that they're now $1...but we didn't mind and Noah LOVED all of the pictures of Hairy Dog and the cheerleaders and ran around pointing and saying "FOOTBALL!!!" The picture on this blogpost is kind of far away, but you can click on it and be able to see it a little better.

Soon we'll post some pictures of the Daddy-Daughter Dance from this past Thursday night, but for now we wanted to let you know that Noah is all well and that we GREATLY appreciate your prayers. We firmly believe that his progress and health are due to God's graciousness and love in answering all of your prayers. We are also aware that He could have chosen to demonstrate his love in vastly different ways (ways that I shudder, in my humanness, to think of. However, as hard as it is to say, we would love and serve Him, although brokenly and much more desperately, had things turned out not how we wanted). We are forever thankful that His mercy toward Noah (and us) has allowed Noah to live abundantly and well.

Have a wonderul week - we love you all and pray for you to blessed by the love of Jesus!

Shortest hospital stay in his life!

We're out!!! Noah had a great night, was able to eat regular food this morning, and seems to be in absolutely NO pain! We are home (at my parents' house) where Noah is playing with his sisters and cousins and getting ready to take a nap. At 28 hours, this is the shortest hospital stay he's ever had! We'll be heading to our house tomorrow and appreciate your continued prayers for Noah's complete recovery. God's goodness to us is overwhelming!
Love to all,
Ashley

Surgery Success!!

Noah has made it successfully through his surgery! The doctors finished performing his appendectemy about 10:00 am this morning. Noah is now in his room (the same room he was in for 10 days in December) sitting in mommy's lap watching the "strange" Wiggles. Thanks again for all of your prayers for Noah, we our so thankful the we have so many friends and family trusting God with us for him. Dr. Howell told us that Noah will be in the hospital for a couple of days and then we get to go home on Sunday! Please continue to pray that Noah will recover quickly from his surgery and that he will not want to get to active until we leave. Thanks again and to God be the glory!



P.S. - As you can probably tell from my inferior writing skills, this is Matthew signing off!

Surgery tomorrow!

Dr. Howell called last night and wants to do Noah's surgery tomorrow (Friday, Jan. 23rd) at 8:00 am. We have to be at the hospital at 7:00, and the surgery should take about 1 1/2 hours, so hopefully we'll be back in Noah's room ~ appendix free! ~ by around 10am if everything goes according to schedule! Thanks to everyone who is praying and who has offerred to help with the girls and pets, etc. We treasure each of you and are so blessed by the love you've shown us! I'll post just as soon as I can after surgery to keep you all up-to-speed on how he's doing. Now, off to pack...

Nothing yet

Just letting you know that we're still waiting to hear about when Noah's surgery will be. We've been told to call the clinic tomorrow and maybe we'll get an answer then! We'll keep you posted...

Trying to be flexible...

Well, folks, we were just kidding about Tuesday! We got a call today that Noah's doctor's father-in-law passed away yesterday (Saturday), and his funeral is scheduled for the same time as Noah's surgery. Please keep his family in your prayers...as we all know, it's hard losing a loved one. Surgery should be rescheduled for sometime this week, but we'll know more when the surgeon's assistant calls us Tuesday. And we'll let you know, too!
Shifting gears...I never learned to in a car (I STILL can't drive a stick shift!!), but I'm slowly learning how to in life : )

Surgery this Tuesday!

We wanted to show you these cute and fairly recent pictures of our children and ask you to please be praying for us, especially Noah, as we head to Augusta on Monday for his surgery on Tuesday. We have to be at the hospital at 11am, and his appendectomy will begin shortly thereafter. They expect him to only be in the hospital for one or two nights - we've never stayed such a short time in the hospital with Noah, so this seems like a real treat!! We have some specific prayer requests:

• that Noah will be content to only eat and drink clear liquids on Tuesday morning and nothing at all after 9am...he LOVES his juice and we need for him to forget it during those few hours!
• that the surgery will go smoothly, just as the doctors expect it to, and that God will guide their hands and instruments as they remove his appendix. They should be able to do the surgery laparoscopically, and that is what we're praying for - his recovery time should be much shorter this way.
• here's a Mommy request: that he would not experience much pain or fear or any other thing that a little guy shouldn't have to experience! I'm thankful beyond measure that his IV will be started AFTER he's anesthetized - his veins didn't cooperate very well last time and starting IVs was the yuckiest part of his whole hospital stay in December!

Our family has requested prayer so much in the last 18-months! We truly appreciate your love and generosity in holding us up to the Lord. We are certain that we all are here, healthy and strong, due to God's great mercy in answering your prayers and the prayers of many others. Noah will have such a story to tell one day, won't he?

At Matthew's suggestion, we enjoyed a night out last night by going to Red Robin as a family (it was really yummy!) and then wandering around Barnes and Noble. Well, you only wandered if you happened to NOT be in charge of Noah at any given time...if you were in charge of him, you raced through the store, whispering apologies to the poor patrons that Noah whizzed past as he giggled and squealed. It was fun for us...but I'm sure that store will never be the same! Matthew wanted us to have a fun night out before being stuck in the hospital for a while, and it was a much needed break away from home for us.

I'll post again as soon as I can on Tuesday to try to keep everyone up to date with what's going on. Thanks again for praying!

Love,

Ashley, Matthew, Noah and the girls

P.S. By the way, if you want to reply to any of our blog posts, but you don't want everyone who receives these updates to receive your reply, remember to close this email, and send a message to our regular email address (apiquette@att.net).