Valentines Day Got a Lot More Special

This week was a big week for our family. Our sweet nephew baby Hayes had his open heart surgery which has been such a long time coming!!!

Monday was seriously the longest day waiting for updates and just thinking about Mike and Megan and the emotions they were experiencing. I found it very timely that for Come Follow Me we were studying about Abraham and Sarah because although Mike and Megan weren't asked to sacrifice their son they were asked to hand him over to doctors and the Lord and trust them to heal his little broken heart. 

I thought a lot about women in the scriptures and how they remind me of Meg. Specifically Sarah, Mary, and the wife of King Lamoni.

Sarah: One thing I’ve always wondered was did Sarah really not know what Abraham was asked to do? Would she be willing to give her son to the Lord? Megan’s not being asked to sacrifice Hayes but she’s being asked to hand him over to the doctors and the Lord. 

Mary: I’ve also thought of Mary, watching Christ suffer on the cross, she was with him until the end and Christ loved her for it. Hayes will love Megan for all of the time, sacrifice and love she has given him. I love this picture Mike sent us a while back and the way Hayes and Meg look at each other it’s so so sweet. 

King Lamoni’s Queen: Finally King Lamoni’s wife. It may sound strange but I think they are the greatest love story in the Book of Mormon. Everyone thought Lamoni was dead but the Queen knew he wasn’t. She says “to me he doth not stink” she knew him better than anyone else and she knew what was going on. When she too was overcome by the spirit she was the first to awake and then bent down and took her husband’s hand and woke him. Like Amy has told Meg she is Hayes’ advocate. She knows him better than anyone else. When he wakes up she’ll be the first one he sees. I just love them and their relationship. I know these next days are going to be grueling but like she said to us last night: “you don’t really have a choice. It’s what’s going to keep him here so you’ve just gotta do it.” She is absolutely incredible!

 

 

We had reached out to so many friends and family asking them to pray for Hayes ever since his surgery date kept getting postponed. We have had so many people ask for updates for him and I’m sure it’s only a fraction of what Mike and Megan are experiencing. Even though it’s such an emotional thing to go through it’s a pretty cool experience to be part of uniting so many people through prayer. Hayes really has blessed so many lives in his short 7 months of life!

I tried to keep track of the updates Megan sent throughout the day:

8:30 MST: They took him about an hour ago to get him put under and all his IV’s in…they should be calling us anytime within the next 30 minutes to tell us he is on bypass and surgery has started

8:57 MST: They said he feel asleep fast and was happy and smiling at them the whole time, they have all his lines in and are starting surgery. So about 6 hours and they will update us every 90 mins

9:33 MST: He’s on bypass and they are starting the repairs

11:45 MST: This just came in: Off bypass, repairs look good, finishing up and waiting on the surgeon to come talk to us in 45-1 hr

12:58 MST: Surgeon just came…said he did really well. Probably be on the vent for a couple days but he said his rhythm looked good and isn’t concerned about a pacemaker. Still will always be concerned about the left valve as he grows and how those sutures hold but there is trivial to mild leakage on both sides right now which he is super happy about that as a starting point after the repair. They are just transferring him now, should get to see him in about an hour.

1:22 MST: He will be sedated while he is intubated.
Once they feel like he is breathing well enough on his own they will stop the sedation meds to take it out and then yes on top of pain meds but they will watch him close

1:29 MST: On the vent longer to help his pressures go down too. Don’t want to take it out too early and spike his already high pressures

Hayes ended up being on the ventilator longer than a lot of kids that have heart repairs. Because he has high blood pressure they wanted to make sure his breathing, BP and overall lung pressure were stable before they took him of the vent. We were all ok with it because as long as he was on the vent he was sedated so his body was able to stay sleeping and heal which hopefully prevented him from feeling too much pain. That’s probably the hardest part is that he’s not able to speak and communicate pain. Megan said the team of doctors, nurses, respiratory therapists were awesome and took such good care of him. One added tender mercy was that one of our friends Jill was his respiratory therapist for part of his stay. Helped a little bit knowing she was there taking care of him, it seriously was such a tough week being so far away from family. We just wanted to be able to hug Crew and Parks and play with them and see everyone! But in the summer we will and Hayes will be so much bigger and healthier with a new strengthened heart!

His oxygen levels dipped a quite bit when they started weaning him off the ventilator but as soon as they suctioned out his lungs he made amazing progress and before we knew it he was awake alert, weaned off his meds and headed home. Seeing him grab his toes and stare up at the camera after only four days after surgery was amazing to watch. He is such a strong, resilient and brave boy! We just love and miss him and look up to him so much!

Jaden and I talk all the time about how grateful we are that our kids will get to grow up with Hayes and learn from him and see what a good example and light he is. We are so grateful he is part of our family and will forever see Valentines Day as the day his little heart was made whole through the prayers of hundreds and the mercy of our Savior who has the ability to heal all of our hearts no matter the condition.

As far as the rest of the week we had a nice Valentines dinner with Parmesan chicken and noodles. I made and took around treats to a couple of ladies in the ward for our relief society’s valentines hugs activity, one lady wasn’t home and the other lady wasn’t able to come to the door but I hope and pray that they still felt loved and looked after.

Amanda and Keile both headed out of town so we made sure we took care of Tanner and Taylor while they were bachelors for the week. We took them to dinner and a movie with Zach and Jenna and made sure we fed them Sunday dinner and played games it was a lot of fun but we missed Amanda and Keile. Amanda went to Washington to see her new niece that was born back in December and Keile went home for a baby shower her family threw for her.

So grateful again for this family we’ve built out here. It would be such a different experience without them around. And we are getting so excited for Taylor and Keile to have their baby so we get to enjoy the new baby snuggles and watch and support them as they figure out parenting!

Peaches:

• Hayes surgery was successful and he is on the mend and doing so well!
• We have such an incredible family and support system
• Making treats and taking them to ladies in the ward
• Jenna going with me to a less active lady’s home to deliver a Valentine treat. Jenna is always willing to be my companion and go ministering with me and I’m so grateful for her support! 
• Surprising Jaden with a Valentines dinner of Parmesan chicken that he loves 
• Collecting recipes from both sides of our family and sharing them with friends out here 
• Going to see a movie and dinner
• Hosting Sunday dinner and playing dominoes with friends 
• The snow we got this week honestly looked fake as it was falling it looked like the kind they use in Hallmark movies that swirls around in big clumps. Guess the fake snow is more realistic than I thought because it looks like Pittsburgh snow! 

Pits:

• Being away from family. Especially on weeks like this when a big event is happening is hard to be so far away. Thank goodness for technology and FaceTime though! 
• Our other nephew Hunter fell off the monkey bars at school and broke his arm and might also need surgery 
• Tried to make Amy’s Texas sheet cake Jaden loves but our oven ruined it. We were so excited to finally have an oven and have been so let down by it. I think the temperature fluctuates so much because it is so old and the door doesn’t seal in heat very well. 

Lessons Learned: 

• We have such an amazing support system in and out of family 
• Challenging things unite people together in prayer
• Kids really are such good examples of bravery, trust and resilience
• Air fryers are still better than ovens