happy Happy HAPPY Anniversary!!!

I called Brian's room this morning and he answered. . . and it sounded like my husband!  He got a little sleep last night and improved dramatically.  He is feeling much better and the fog has lifted.  He was very curious about what happened and my brother filled him in the best he could.  He asked if he could come home today.  He'll stay in the CCU at least another day.  He got to talk to Aubrey on the phone as well.  Today is our anniversary and I think this may be our most memorable and in many ways the best one I'll ever have (maybe not the most fun, but so special.)  God has given me my sweet husband twice now and I am overjoyed.  Thank you for the thoughts and prayers.  I think he may be up for a few more visitors today--especially if it would help you to see him doing so well.

Praising God Tonight!

(This is Julie)  I am filled with thankfulness and relief today.  I was so anxious about this morning--the day the cryo-therapy and the sedation came off.  There were lots of ways this day could have gone and I was fearful, but our God is SO good!  Things couldn't have gone better, today.  Brian woke shortly after the sedation medication was stopped.  He was responding appropriately to commands and recognizing people and opening his eyes the best he could. He was even writing his requests on a tablet of paper and trying to talk. He was very uncomfortable until they took the breathing tube out and stopped cooling his body.  The medical staff was amazed at how quickly he was able to get the respirator removed (a couple hours after waking rather than days!)  

As the day went on and he became increasingly aware and more able to talk.  Everyone is overjoyed at how well he is doing. . . everyone except Brian.  He is just now going through a lot of the emotions that we have been processing for the last couple of days.   He was very sad and discouraged today. His strong fit body is healing remarkably fast and we expect to see continued improvement each day.  Please pray that his spirits are lifted and he begins to see more of the positives that we are all so excited about.  He still doesn't really know what happened, though I think he has pieced together a lot of it.  By the time I left him late this evening, he seemed much more at peace.  We were able to spend some good time together just the two of us.  My brother is staying the night with him.  They called when they were going to bed and Brian had even gotten to eat a little applesauce and some ice chips.

Thank you so much for all of your prayers and messages and help with everything.  I feel so much support and love.  I know many people want to help out in some way and I will try to let people know our needs as they arise.  Please don't send flowers to the hospital as they are not allowed in the CCU.  And for those that helped Brian in any way on the soccer field I can never thank you enough--you saved his life.     

Good News

This is Julie’s friend Aundrea, writing with a brief update and good news.

This morning they stopped sedating Brian. As he wakes up, the doctor and nurses are monitoring him closely. They are encouraged by the fact that he is responding appropriately—he wiggled his toes when asked, seems to recognize everyone, makes eye contact, and is trying to talk. However, he is still on a ventilator, which makes it difficult for him to speak. The ventilator should be removed sometime soon. The doctor is positive about his chances for making a full recovery.

Please pray for Brian as he continues the recovery process.

This is Julie's friend, Jenny, updating her blog since she is at the hospital now with Brian. I am going to attempt to summarize what has been happening to the best of my ability after speaking with Julie.

Yesterday during the lunch hour, Brian was playing soccer with co-workers when he collapsed on the soccer field. His heart stopped beating and people began CPR. Someone was able to access a defibrillator right away. The defibrillator was successful on the first try and Brian was then transported to the hospital. They think his heart was stopped for approximately 3 minutes.

At the hospital, they started a 24 hour therapy where they sedated him and cool his body temperature way down in order to prevent his brain from swelling. Around 5 pm tonight, they will begin to warm his body back up and they expect him to wake up sometime tomorrow morning. Brian is stable and they expect a full recovery. The results of the initial cat scan and echo did not show anything abnormal.

Brian will probably be in the hospital for at least a week, but probably not too much more than that if all goes well when he wakes up.

Julie said that God has been providing amazing support for them during this time. A couple of their neighbors have been helping take care of Aubrey and Malakai and have provided rides to the hospital. Brian's coworkers have been very helpful and supportive as well. Brian's parents were in North Carolina and flew back last night when they heard what happened. Julie's mom and brother will get to Houston tonight to be there for support as well.

Please continue to pray for Brian and Julie and I will keep updating this as I hear more.

Look Who's 2!!

Aubrey gets a three-day celebration this year.  Yesterday (the 7th) was actually her birthday.  She and I did some special things throughout the day and then we went out with Daddy for dinner and played at Chuck E Cheese for a little bit.  Tonight is the family party--GiGi and PaPa are coming for dinner and she gets to open her presents today.  Saturday we are having a joint birthday party for her and our neighbor friend Lydia who both turn 2 this month.  We just invited all the neighbors in our cul-du-sac for a BBQ.  I am in charge of making a whole lot of cupcakes!  She is getting so big.

We have been having some pretty rough nights lately, though last night may have been a breakthrough.  Last week we went to this Aquarium in Houston for a fun family outing.  It a really neat day.  One of the coolest things this place has are these white tigers.  We were able to watch when they switched the tigers out--they seem to just have one on display on at a time.  The first tiger was getting pretty excited for her big moment to leave and with lots of people watching on the other side of the glass.  Aubrey was standing right up close to the glass with Brian behind her and the tiger wanted to play.  It crouched in the corner then all-of-a-sudden jumped up on the glass right at Aubrey, standing taller than Brian!  Aubrey jumped back and fell on her bottom, Brian jumped back--it was all very funny.  We got a ticket to play a carnival game for free and Aubrey won two little stuffed tigers!  Aubrey was pretty worn out from our big day and slept great that night.  The next night, however, she woke up with nightmares.  I finally got her to tell me what she was thinking and she said, "Tiger jump up, tiger jump up, big tiger jump, Daddy Aubrey, Daddy Aubrey."  This repeated itself the next few nights but I think she has finally forgotten (we hid the toy tiger.)  Our great little sleeper has been having lots of trouble sleeping in her bed lately--sometimes I wish she was still in her crib.  I am hoping we are on the back side of this for a while though now.

I am in a Beth Moore Bible study Thursday mornings.  I am loving it.  This morning was a little emotional for me though.  Aubrey and I battled over her medicine before we left the house.  We were both crying after that.  Then the whole drive to the church Aubrey was saying "Mommy no.  No, no Mommy.  Go home."  We get to Aubrey's class room and there is a little boy screaming in there.  Aubrey loses it.  I nearly do as she is clinging to me and not wanting to go.  Then I find out she cried off and on the whole time last week.  I reluctantly leave her in the arms of the very nice lady.  Then head down the hall and the woman in charge of the child care stops me and explains what the little boy's background is and assures me they will call if Aubrey doesn't stop crying.  I start crying again, as this lady is reassuring me that she'll be fine.  She checks in on her before I head to class and she's already doing fine.  After our discussion time, we watch Beth on video.  She talks a lot about fear and I always relate everything to Aubrey's heart.  The heart of the issue that she drove home was what God has been teaching me all year.  It isn't enough to trust God that the thing I fear the most won't happen--most of the things I fear won't happen and some may--maybe even that thing that I fear the most.  God tells us not to fear--more than anything else he commands in the Bible.  As Esther faced her biggest fear, "If I parish, I parish," I need to be able to answer that "if ______ then, _____" with God. If my biggest fear happens I KNOW that my God will be with me and ultimately I will be okay.  

In the trials we have faced so far--God has brought us through.  We have witnessed friends walk through the trial of losing a newborn and painful as it was and is, God brought them through.  God is good and he is still working on me in this area, but I feel like a few things clicked into place this morning.

When I picked Aubrey up she was so happy--she said she had fun.  The head lady came up to me and told me they had a great day, Luke (the little boy) stopped screaming and played the whole time and Aubrey never started crying again either.  What was I worried about?

Home to Alaska

What a wonderful time we had in Alaska this month.  We were there from the 8th through the 23rd.  It was great timing for Brian to have a work trip to AK, only working the first 4 days of our long vacation.  We split our time staying with two families and then camping the last weekend in Seward.  Aubrey had a blast playing with all of her old friends and meeting several of their new siblings.  We had great weather.  It felt like we were just at home.  We spent a lot of time with lots of our friends.  Everyone kept remarking that it felt like we had never left--we felt that way, too.  It was refreshing to be there.  

We were back less than a week and Brian took off again--for a week in the UK and Norway.  Hopefully I will be able to keep myself and Aubrey busy for a week alone!

Summer Time

It has been a long time since I have sat down to blog, sorry about that.  We have been very busy since summer started.  Aubrey is doing great.  We just spent a wonderful two weeks with Grandma Sue (Julie's mom) in town.  Aubrey calls her "Du."  She is starting to really talk a lot and even in short sentences.  She is growing in confidence as well.  She always wants to do everything herself and will tell you,  "Aubee, Aubee!" when you try to do things for her.  She is so much fun.  If you want her to get really animated, ask her about Shamu--we have been to SeaWorld three times now and she LOVES it.  She loves stickers, coloring, and pushing around her baby doll stroller.  We converted her crib to a toddler bed.  There were about three or four days of transition where she was always on the floor when we went in to check on her, but now she is doing great with the change.  She climbed out of her crib one afternoon when, apparently, she wasn't ready for her nap.  I watched to see if she could do it and caught her before she hit the ground.  That was the end of her crib days.  

We are looking forward to heading back to Alaska for a nice long visit in a couple of weeks.  We miss our friends so much.  I'll try and blog again soon.