the more things change...

i realize i've been VERY bad about updating this blog. you'd think with a cross country move and meeting with the doctors at a new hospital that i'd have lots to tell everyone. you'd think that anyway. or you may think that with a cross country move and settling 2 kids into a new house that i'd be way too busy to blog. i wish i could use that excuse. truth is i just haven't had much to update people on. i should claim the busy excuse because it would make me seem less like a bad blogger, but while most of you are in AK there are a few folks here in PA that would know that i was just making up a lame excuse.

excuses aside, there are a few things i can share that may let you know where we're at as a family.
so...obviously we moved. we're all settled in  Bristol, Pennsylvania which is a little town about 1/2 ish outside of Philadelphia. it's a cool old town with lots of history. well, i'm assuming it has lots of history because it's old. i've gone as far as to google books about the area, so i know there ARE books about the history of bristol but i haven't actually read any of them. but trust me, it's an old town. old towns are cool because everything is very "stately" looking. awesome brick houses and just cool buildings all around. the down side of old towns is that the roads were made when everyone rode horses. that means narrow roads with intersections that don't really line up. then there's these weird things called "jug handle turns". that's a whole different issue that i'm not going to get into right now, but for those of you who know me you'll laugh when i say that i no longer have to worry about turning left. you're pretty much NEVER allowed to turn left here. the jug handles make every turn a right turn. cool if you don't like crossing traffic. confusing if you are looking at a store on your left and trying to figure out how to actually get into the parking lot.

we have met with the new doctors a few times. (FYI- CHOP is the name of the hospital in case i use that in the future). they seem like a really good group of people to work with. there's not a ton of new information. (thus the lack of blogging) pretty much we're still just monitoring and waiting until delivery. i'm about to bust into medical talk so if you don't really care you can skip the next paragraph.

obviously baby girl's heart condition hasn't changed. she's still going to need multiple heart surgeries at some point, but the big deal regarding her immediate health is her airway. the heart condition causes her arteries to get bigger than they should be and her airway runs right between those two arteries. so if they get too big it has the potential to "pinch" her airway. there's no real way to know if her airway is compromised until after she's born and having to actually breathe on her own, so we have to just wait and see. we literally could land anywhere on the spectrum of screaming baby with great lungs to baby that gets rushed into surgery to work on her airway right after delivery. so we're hoping for a good fast NOISY delivery.

so if you're looking for specific ways to pray:
* pray for our little girl's airway- that it's not compromised and that she's good and strong at birth
* pray for the doctors and nurses- wisdom and guidance as they work on our baby girl
* pray for lily and gideon- getting a new sibling is always a big deal regardless of medical issues
* pray for garret- his commute to work just got a lot longer. pray he has good flights, and that his time at work is not too crazy.

really we're doing great. yes, it's been a big transition but God has made our path smooth. we should actually know a little more next week. (more echos/tests/ultrasounds) we might even get a better idea ab out when baby girl will make her grand entrance. she's due january 22 but if i had to guess, i'd say she'll probably show up a little before that.