the afore mentioned update

so we weren't really expecting to get pregnant again so soon after gideon. but once we found out about our baby we were super stoked! trust me there was a lot of laughter- even from the doctor.  3 under 3. that was something we hadn't expected, but...we knew we wanted more kids, so bring on the craziness.

then we found out that our precious little girl had some pretty serious heart issues going on. the laughter stopped. our joy wasn't gone, just the levity that had surrounded the pregnancy. when they told us all of the statistics and explained what our baby was going to be facing, things got real serious real quick. they explained that we wouldn't be able to deliver her in alaska. we needed to be at a bigger hospital that could take care of things immediately once she was born. not gonna lie- that was a little scary.
fast forward through a few heart scans and more discussions with our doctors, and we come to find out that they have no way of knowing how long we'll need to be out of state.

our options were #1) go to seattle for an indefinite period of time, and figure out how to keep some sense of normalcy in our lives or #2) figure something else out.
we opted for #2. the more research we did on her heart condition the more we realized that the children's hospital of philadelphia (CHOP) is the top hospital for everything that we need, AND we happen to have family there. we could live in limbo going back and forth between anchorage and seattle, or we could take what little control we had, and give our family a little stability. so we prayed about it, talked it over between G and i, and talked about it with our doctors. our doctors agreed that it was a great idea, so here were are- on the verge of a temporary relocation to philly.

our plan is to rent out our anchorage house and  relocate for a year. that way we have family that can take care of lily and gideon when we are at the hospital taking care of baby girl. less stress, the kids get to spend time with their cousins/aunts/uncles/grandparents, and garret's family get's to see him more than just once a year.
here's the cool part- God has totally been AWESOME throughout this whole thing. from the seemingly little things, to the really big things- He's been surrounding us with folks that have given us the support we need (and are willing to watch our kids while we pack or go to doctors appointments ) and making this transition happen smoothly.

• for example: about 12 hours after we told his family about our plan, we got a text from them telling us that they basically had our philly house all furnished. 
• more than once we've gotten offers to help us out with a very specific need that we hadn't even had the chance to ask for help with yet. 
• we've got friends that have been in very similar situations that are helping us prepare. (bring on the NICU stories and the pictures of pediatric heart surgery) we are going into this very prepared. 
• and let's not forget to mention the obvious- most families don't get this option. we are very fortunate that garret can commute from philly just as easy as he can commute from seattle. he has a job, i don't so we're not loosing an income there, and our kids aren't in school yet so we don't have to worry about pulling them out. most families in this situation HAVE to split up. we don't. not only do we get to stay together, we get to have some time with family members that up until now we really haven't seen all that often.

so that's where we're at as a family right now. things are changing, but we're doing alright. we have lots of reasons to be optimistic and positive, so we're going with that. we covet your prayers, both for us and for our little girl. we know it's going to be a long year (medically not because of the family) but we also know that God will continue to shower us with His grace and mercy. i wouldn't have chosen this route, but i know that He's got it all under control so i'm resting in that.

on a lighter note- this does mean that come december there will be 2 mary slaugenhoups in philly. no more differentiating by saying philly mary and alaska mary. that should be interesting.