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GIRL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That’s right, almost everyone was right!!!! In the poll: http://poll.pollcode.com/qv4_result?v – 76% of you voted that it was a girl. And in addition to that, there have been a slew of people who did not vote who all said GIRL as well. In addition mommy & daddy felt a little bit of instinct in that it may very well be a girl, as well as a dream about it too.
After a while we thought, surely we can’t ALL be right… but indeed we were…. here’s a pic of our littlest princess:

Natalie Grace is the name we have chosen as many of you know. Mary Elizabeth came with us to the ultrasound and was SO happy that her prayers were answered and she was getting a little sister. When we came home to Drew, he was already told by Grandma – so as soon as mommy walked in he says “Mommy where’s Natalie??? where’s the baby??, where is SHE????” as he proceeded to look behind mommy and everywhere. I think he was confused and thought she was being born! haha.

All in all we are very excited and also happy that everything looks good and she’s growing well. There is so much about this pregnancy and child that is meant to be and we know God had his hand in it. We are blessed, at some point we’ll go into detail on it all 🙂

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

Christmas Came and Christmas went… it is always pretty hectic but very enjoyable seeing friends and family. We’re looking forward to ringing in the New Year! 2012 should be pretty exciting with lots of changes and so forth.

Speaking of….. ONE WEEK FROM TODAY we will be finding out the sex of the baby when we have our big ultrasound. Well, considering the baby cooperates and shows us the goods. This is exciting for us as we have never found out the sex of the baby prior to birth before… but we’ve had two surprises and are ready to do things a little differently!! After all, the fact that we even conceived on our own was surprise enough!!! 🙂

So with that said, you have a week to vote on our poll… whatcha thinking- this gonna be a girl or a boy? Are we having a Natalie Grace or a Benjamin Joseph as our last child??? Is ME getting a sister or is Drew getting a brother??? Either way we’ll be thrilled!!!

Lastly Mary Elizabeth had a follow up appointment with Dr. B who does her sclerotherapy. We all went down to the city yesterday to see him. There was some improvement from her last procedure which is good! He wants a few more MRI pictures (certain angles and views that he didnt get before). So she’ll have that done soon – no contrast or sedation needed so it should be easy for her. After that they will ask us to come down for one of the weekly conferences they do- all the big doctors in the team down in NYC meet and discuss cases. They will go over her MRI, take a look at her, decide and discuss the details of her case and make a game plan for what she needs for now/future. This is kind of exciting for us because we’ll get to sit in on that brainstorming session! We’ll keep everyone posted on what transpires and what they have to say. 🙂

Either way we’ll be back next week to see if the poll results match up with the ultrasound results!!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving to all our friends and family… and those that are reading 🙂

We always have so much to be thankful for… we are truly blessed. But this year we added just one more blessing by adding BABY RAIA #3

We announced on facebook (since we live on there) that we are pregnant with our 3rd child with these 2 photos:

That’s right- we are having a 3rd child. Things went a little differently this time, as many know we had to go through infertility treatments to conceive both Mary Elizabeth & Drew… we were just about to prepare to track things and get ready to go to the doctor in about 6 months or so…. but instead we got pregnant like right away without even really ‘trying’ – so WOW. A miracle in itself. And come to find out the exact day we conceived was the same day (just 7 years later) that we conceived Mary Elizabeth. This was definitely meant to be! Though the due date is in the beginning of June (as it was with ME) – we will be having this bundle of joy at the end of May. There were already two c-sections, so another c-section will be scheduled. We are looking at Friday, May 25th – however that could change and as we know the baby could change things too since my water broke with Drew almost 2 weeks early.  Either way it will definitely be close to ME’s birthday!
With both ME & Drew we didn’t find out the sex. But we wanted to change things up, and also prepare the bedrooms (one of them will be sharing a room) – so we will be finding out the sex. We are scheduled to find out on January 4th… as long as the baby cooperates!

In other news… Drew is now FOUR years old. Still adorable, still active but definitely growing up before our eyes. He is doing great in preschool and really maturing. But still- don’t get him going because he will never stop!! The good news is he is a great sleeper still! hahaha. And although he’s easily wound up, he does very well playing quietly by himself. He will be known to sit and play with his cars, puzzles and definitely building blocks and legos… he could do that for hours. As well as some of his new action figures in his Bat Cave that mommy & daddy got him for his birthday. He’s creative and imaginative.

Mary Elizabeth is doing well in 1st grade but boy is it an adjustment for her. She wants to know why there isn’t as much recess time hahah. But she got her 1st report card and did really well. She seems to excel in spelling, getting a 100 on every test so far (she gets a test every Friday). She does well in most of her subjects anyway but that’s her best! She’s reading more and learning things every day. She gets frustrated when her brother won’t understand the vowel rules – as she tries to teach him. Ya know every day when she comes home from school (after changing into comfy clothes) she has to play school and is always the teacher!!!

Anyway all in all things are well. Mary Elizabeth’s last surgery went well, which was her sclerotherapy procedure back in October. We go back for a follow up after Christmas… but no major complaints or anything from that surgery- seemed to be very smooth. Things are slowing down for her in that department which is nice and good since she’s got a busy life now with school and dance class etc.

Anyway – may everyone have a very Happy Thanksgiving – be blessed!!!

So what prompted me to write this update was the fact that Mary Elizabeth was in the newspaper today! My cousin, a wonderful person and friend, Michele Andersen is a freelance writer and felt compelled to write a story on our journey. She submitted it to the local newspaper (Poughkeepsie Journal) to see if they would pick it up and they sure did!!

Here is a link to the article: http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/article/20110717/NEWS06/107170329/Parents-daughter-lymphatic-malformation-find-treatment-support

What a great way to spread the word/bring awareness to her condition!

In other (smaller) news…  after Mary Elizabeth’s kindergarten graduation which was a beautiful little ceremony…. we kicked off summer and since then – we’ve been having a GREAT time!! LOTS of swimming since Mary Elizabeth is now trach-free. We are just pool-hopping all over the place and loving every minute of it. Other than that we’re enjoying time with friends and family – the people that are closest to us!

The kids also enjoyed going to VBS (Vacation Bible School) at our church for a week of fun activities, songs, and fellowship with their friends! And we have a nice small vacation planned coming up- Sesame Place for 2 days with friends and then our yearly family vacation to the beach!

After that though, she is due to have surgery on August 4th. We will be sure to update all of you with what goes on. But it’s not a small procedure by any means so definitely keep her in your prayers and thoughts!

Thanks! 🙂

We are welcoming 2010, at the end of 2009 some good things started to happen… Mary Elizabeth got her gtube out, Andy got a new -great- job, and we are hopeful that 2010 will bring on lots of good things. 

We already know that Uncle Daniel & Aunt Amber’s baby is coming in 2010 (and soon as she is due in 2 weeks!!!)… and we know that Mary Elizabeth has a very important appointment coming up. Unfortunately it was post-poned twice, but the date set is February 1st… she is going to have a scope done under anesthesia to take a look at her airway and determine how close we are to decannulation (trach removal).  In addition to the scope they may do a little lasering in her mouth while they are at it- as they see fit.

The last month of December was a whirlwind. Mommy didn’t have time to blink! It was also a very expensive month. We had Aunt Amber’s baby shower, went on a train ride with Santa & Friends which was so much fun!!! And we had lots of holiday activities. ME was very into the whole idea of Santa this year which made it very exciting. Drew loved opening up all of his presents of course. And they both were taught pretty well on what the true meaning of Christmas was. We did help with a little fundraiser in our area to help a family in need and ME’s school did some donating as well. It’s good to see that ME is so giving at such a young age.

Anyway, in addition to 2010 starting, we are beginning a whole new chapter for ME… while she doesn’t start Kindergarten until Sept 2010… we are already registering her like NOW for Kindergarten. Crazy huh!  The thought is a bit scary as we are used to her nice little preschool – and we are now opening up to a whole new world with her being in elementary school but she has a strong, loving foundation so we are thinking she will do just fine.

Other than that things are well. We hope everyone we didn’t see had a very Merry Christmas and has a Happy New Year.