Finally an update!

I know, I know, so it's been like 4 months since our last post. Were a mess, what can I say :-) Where do I begin? I will try and do my best to give you all a brief update on our family. I am going to do it with bullet points, because I think it will be easier for everyone (and for me!).

- We had a great Thanksgiving with our amazing friends, the Zorns and Mitchells. I made the whole spread for the first time in my life. It was a bit stressful, but I felt like a real mom. I was amazed at how long it takes to prepare everything and how quickly the food is eaten. :-(

- This last Christmas we got to go home to Chicago and Michigan for the first time with our whole family (thanks mom). It was soo much fun! The flights were a bit long, but thankfully we were well prepared with tons of food and DVD's (Donny was an all star). It was also Ty's 6th Birthday while we were back home. Can you believe he is 6 already, such a big boy?! It was so great to have family there to celebrate with us. Hudson loved going sledding and he didn't even care how much snow he got in his clothes. We miss being around our families so much. I can't wait to see everyone again.

- Donny had another winter camp with the high schoolers at the end of Dec. through New Years. They got soo much snow up in the mountains where they were at that they needed to stay an extra day; all the passes home were closed. The students loved it, but I didn't. I was home struggling with strep throat watching the kids by myself. Thankfully our great friends the Janho's came over one day and saved me. The Lord definitely knows what I can handle.

- Jan. 1st we hired our good friend Steve Janho as our college pastor. Yeah! It has been a blast having him apart of our team. Donny loves his humilty, wisdom, and passion. I love seeing Deb (his wife) more often and their 5 kids really mesh with our family. Lord-willing they will be able to find a house closer to us sooner rather than later.

-January was filled with basketball games, field trips, and getting life back into the swing of things.

-In Febuary Donny took some vacation time while Ty was on his winter break. We re-organized things throughout the house, did some projects, and just hung out. It was amazing! I wish he was home with me everyday, all day. Bailey started standing on her own and cruising around furniture. :-) Just this week Bailey started taking steps to me. It is so cute to see her cubby body waddle towards me. Oh, I love her so much. Donny tells people she's the "anti-birth control", because you can't be around her and not want one of her!

-On March 1st we hired our good friend Kyle Evans as our Junior High Pastor. Kyle and his wife (Amy) were on high school staff with us and Donny and Phil felt like he would be an amazing addition to our team. I feel so blessed to have them as friends. We feel like our staff is super healthy and we are so excited to see what the Lord has in store of our ministry.

- Hudson is doing great! We celebrated his 3rd Birthday on Feb. 9th. It is hard to believe it has only been 3 years. Over our Christmas vacation he began to pull himself up and stand (supported). We rearranged our living room to fit a "coffee table" (i.e. "Thomas the Train table" and he'll pull himself up and play A LOT during the day. His vocabulary is out of control (good) and it has been so much fun seeing him take off. At the beginning of March he started to cruise around some of the furniture, holding on as he walked along the edge. It is still really difficult for him to turn corners, but he's getting there. We've just come to realize that you can't really miss a stage. At least he can't, and we've come to accept that he'll just do things on his own timeframe. Still, we can't wait until he can walk on his own.

- There are a few other fun things about Hudson. He's started to go swimming with Donny in the mornings a few times a week and the other boys love to go when they can. It seems to be really good for his balance as he learned in the water to stand unsupported on Donny's hand. Wow. Now, even out of the water, he can hold himself upright and stand on Donny's hand even with his head 7 feet up in the air! It's adorable - he can even dance with his arms up there. For some reason, though, he still has a hard time standing on the ground.

- Hudson is also getting his g-tube out on April 15th. It will require a minor surgery because its been in so long, but it will be so nice for him to not have any tubes at all in him! It will be the first time in his whole life he hasn't had anything sticking out of him somewhere. What's cool is that Children's normal policy is to not remove a transplant patient's g-tube before the first year after transplant, just in case things go wrong somehow. But because Hudson takes ALL his medicine and pills (some of which are huge) by mouth he is allowed to take the g-tube out early. It will also be nice to have it removed because the g-tube gets in his way all the time (especially as he is trying to walk), which is another reason they're willing to take it out. His transplant surgeon, Dr. Healy, will be doing the surgery and we are really thankful because he is truly the best. My mom is hopefully coming out to visit us that week to hang out with all of us and help watch the kids as he has the surgery.

I think I have covered most of our families big moments over these past few months. I will do my best to reguarly update our blog. Please pray that Donny and I would have the strength to continue to help Hudson as he is not walking yet. We were truly expecting that this would not be an issue after transplant and it's been difficult adjusting our expectations. I feel like I do not have any reserve left and I know that's right where the Lord wants me to be. I need the Lord's strength to cover me every day. Please pray that he will gain the strength and the confidence to walk on his own soon.

Kristi