Quick Disney Trip

We took a weekend trip to Disney World and had a ball! Mom and dad had this trip planned and Amanda and I decided to take Elyse and Blake down to join them for a few days. We had so much fun. I grew up thinking Disney was a magical place and now, after seeing my two year old experience it, I know I still believe that! Elyse loved Dumbo, The country bear jamboree, It's a small world,... but not Peter Pan. She said "Peter Pan is too scary." They also enjoyed a day at Animal Kingdom, where we had breakfast with the characters!

It was a perfect way to spend time before surgery, ... which is the day after tomorrow! I will post updates on here in the days after surgery. Please keep praying for our sweet girl and her doctors!

Decorating for Christmas

We have had SO much fun decorating for Christmas. Elyse turns on the Christmas tree every morning when she gets up and loves to walk around it and look at all of the ornaments. She started out calling them "instruments" but finally caught on when she heard us call them ornaments. Her favorite thing though about decorating for Christmas is the nativity, or as she calls it, her "new dollhouse." She loves playing with the people and talking about baby Jesus. It is the most precious thing ever! These Christmas decorations may have to stay up for a while. :-)

As for surgery, the day is quickly approaching! We feel so peaceful and "ready" to do this so we are really praying that Elyse stays well so she can have this. She is on an antibiotic for strep right now so as awful as that is, we are hoping it will protect her from catching anything else in the next couple of weeks. Please keep praying for our girl.

December 15...

... is surgery day! Elyse will have her pacemaker put in that morning at UK Children's Hospital. We chose this date because we will only have to take a week off of school and then be off for two weeks for Christmas break. The plan is to cut her breastbone and bury the pacemaker in her upper abdomen. The surgery will take about an hour and then she will be in ICU for 24 hours, then admitted to a room where she will stay for 3-5 days. The first couple of weeks after surgery, we are asked to keep her away from kids as much as we can because her breastbone will be so tender. We don't want to risk kids running into her. The breastbone will take about 6-8 weeks to heal completely. During this time, we will just have to be extra careful with her.

While the thought of the surgery is very scary, we feel peaceful, knowing that she will be taken care of and wonderful results will come from this surgery. We can definitely feel the prayers because of this peace among us. Thank you for prayers and we ask that you keep them coming as this day approaches! We would like to ask for specific prayer that Elyse will stay well during the time before and after her surgery. They said even if she has a cold, they will have to cancel the surgery. It will be hard for all of us to stay well during December and we need prayer for that. Infection before or after surgery is not good at all! Thank you!

Our trip to Boyd's

We had a blast at Boyd's Orchard today! Elyse had heard me talk about taking my students to the pumpkin patch last Wednesday and since then, she has been asking me when she could go. So, thankfully it was beautiful weather and everyone was "well" today and it made for a great day!

Is it time...?

Dr. Cottrill called me on Tuesday afternoon and said she had reviewed Elyse's echo pictures. She is concerned about the leak in her valve. She is not sure why this has happened with Elyse's heart. She is taking her pictures from the echo to her weekly meeting with other cardiologists on Monday, to present Elyse's case. She said she suspects that it may be time for the pacemaker. Her hope is that the pacemaker would speed up the heart rate and possibly "reverse the leak." So... we will know something on Monday. Please pray for our sweet girl's heart, guidance in our doctor's decisions, and strength for all of us. We knew the time would come for a pacemaker, we just didn't know when. Now that it could be near, it is scary, but we are reassured that God's hand is in all of this.

Fall break fun

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We totally enjoyed a week of being lazy! I love fall break but it always leaves me wanting more time with my girl. We had a trip to the cardiologist on Wednesday, which went well. She had an EKG and an echocardiogram done. This was her first echo she had in two years. We didn't actually get to see Dr. Cottrill because she was out of town but the PA said the echo looked good. It looked like it did almost two years ago, which is great. She noticed a few things she wanted Dr. Cottrill to look at and said they would get in touch with me if they wanted to do anything about them. I didn't hear from her so I guess that is good news. :-) Those things were that it appeared that the left side of her heart is slightly bigger than the right and that there may be a small amount of leakage from one of her valves, but not enough to impact anything. So, we are praising God for a good appointment! Elyse was SO good during the entire visit. She is so amazing!

Here are some pictures of her enjoying making cookies and playing with friends, Ella and Kylie, over the break!a

Elyse's first UK football game!

We took Elyse to her first UK football game last weekend! Well, she actually just came for the tailgating, but that's ok. Her pop pop came and got her before the game started and took her to one of her favorite places, the mall. She enjoyed the tailgating and I'm sure enjoyed the mall even more. Her new thing to say when we are shopping is "that's cute!" You can easily tell her mommy and daddy are shoppers!
Ryan had fall break this week and got to spend every day with his little Lysee. I get to spend every day next week with her... yay! We have an appointment with Dr. Cottrill on Wednesday, whom we haven't seen in 6 months! I can't believe that. Other than that, we plan to play with friends and family all week! Bring on fall break!... BUT this little girl will probably be rotten by the time Mommy goes back to school. :-/