Nate's Heart Business

As Nate's birthday has gotten closer I've reflected a lot on when he was born.  It was such a special time for us for many reasons.  The biggest reason is of course that we were becoming parents for the first time and welcoming a beautiful baby boy into our family.  Nothing beats that.  But it was also special to us because of Nate's heart surgery.  It was a time of spiritual growth, a trial of faith, and a lesson on service.  I grew closer to the Lord in those 2 weeks at the Children's Hospital.  If you want to see what I wrote about that a year ago, you can click here.  But I have been grateful all over again for so many people and experiences.  

I watched a mormon message the other day about a little girl who had a liver disease and was dying.  The family had been in the area for a only a few months when they discovered her illness so they didn't know anyone.  The message was about all the people from her neighborhood and from her LDS church that came together to raise money and help out the family in any way possible.  It touched me so much as I watched it because I remembered all the people that helped our little family.  We had been in the area for only 2 months and didn't know a whole lot of people.  People were so good to us.  People we didn't know were fasting and praying for Nate.  Someone made Steve lunches for school since we were staying at the hospital.  They provided us with big meals.  They offered whatever help we needed.  These people were truly showing me, Steve, and Nate the love of our Savior through their actions.  So thanks again to everyone who made that experience much easier for us! 

And...to top it all off, we had a check up with the Cardiologist last week.  And she was so impressed with how he's doing.  His heart looks great.  The little problems he had at his 6 month check up look MUCH better and he has a healthy heart. 

He loved the waiting room this time!

For his echo we had to put him in this cute little robe.  I wanted to take it home with me so bad.  

They monitored his heart for 24 hours so the poor kid had to carry that thing around all day and sleep with it.  I tried a lot of different ways to strap it on him and he didn't really like any of them.

There it is without his clothes on.  Haha, I think his face totally expresses what he though of it: "Are you kidding me, Mom?"

Sweet little boy.  We love him.