April Pictures

Pop took some family pictures of us during his visit. I really love this one!

Joel and Daddy during floor time

At the Cameron Park Zoo

Another zoo pic

Joel's new thing is to hold on to his carrier once he gets buckled in. Haha!

My little cowboy

Joel's Surgery

Today was a big day for my family. Joel underwent lacrimal duct obstruction surgery. This is a technical name for a procedure used to unclog the tear duct in his left eye. We had to be at the hospital at 6:00 this morning, and Joel was not allowed to eat anything after midnight last night. This had us a little worried because Joel is pretty fond of his morning bottle. We prayed that God would take away any hunger pains and allow Joel to rest comfortably until it was time for the surgery (which was scheduled for 7:30). This prayer was answered!! Joel was 100% content leading up to his surgery.

When the time came, we had to take Joel back to the "holding area" as we will call it. We met the nurses and the anesthesiologist, and Dr. Hacker (Joel's eye doctor) was there. This was the moment of truth when we had to hand Joel over to the doctors. :o( I was encouraged (thanks to my friend Kerry) by remembering that Joel was not going to be laying on a cold, metal table, but instead he was going to be cradled in God's mighty hands. A lot of prayer led up to this moment. Joel was given a general anesthetic, and the surgeon inserted a probe into his tear duct in order to break through any clogs or troublesome membranes. Joel was out for about fifteen minutes, and the procedure took about seven minutes. That, however, was the longest fifteen minutes of my life!!!

Finally, Dr. Hacker came to us and said that the surgery went well. (Chalk that up to another answered prayer!) He then took me to the recovery room to get Joel. (Thanks, Andrew, for letting me be the "one parent" they allow back there!) Joel was crying, but it was mostly because he was hungry. We fed him his bottle and some baby food which settled him down. We were released a half hour later, and Joel was back to his happy, energetic self once we got home.

What a day of answered prayers! I just continue to praise God for how many blessings he poured out on Joel and Andrew and I today. God is so good!!!

On a side note, we had to put Joel in a baby-sized hospital gown for his surgery. He looked so precious (in a sad way), and we were bummed that we didn't bring our camera to the hospital. So we figured we'd bring the gown to the camera. (Come on, they're making enough money on this surgery to buy thousands of gowns, am I right?) Anyway, here are some pictures:

We will know in the next five days if the surgery was successful. Thank you for all your prayers for little Joel leading up to today. Please keep praying that the surgery will be a success! Love you all!

Mimi and Pop Visit

Mimi and Pop just left from a wonderful visit. They drove down from Indiana to see us, and we had such a great time. We miss them so much already! Here are some pictures from Mimi and Pop's visit:

We tried to keep Joel awake for Mimi and Pop's arrival, but he was exhausted. I think they missed seeing him the first night by 15 minutes! :o( I'm on the phone telling them to hurry up.

Pop and Joel

At the Cameron Park Zoo

Super Baby!!!

Joel loved Mimi's glasses

Everyone fought over feeding Joel. Pop won this round.

Mimi and Joel after story time

Thanks for a great visit, Mom and Dad! We love you!!!!!

Cool Dude

It was sunny today, so I decided it was a good day to try out Joel's sunglasses. They were immediately torn off when I first tried to put them on. So I tried again- same results. It wasn't until I held Joel up in front of a mirror and said, Look at that cool dude, that he finally decided (with a smile) that he would keep the sunglasses on.

Waving to his peeps

Workin' it

Blowing kisses (sort of)

Overall, a complete success!!

Dinner Time!

During dinner tonight, Joel was biting the food off his spoon instead of using his usual slurping motion. I think this is a result of our chewing practice lately. Here is what Joel looked like before and during each bite. (Note: Daddy was feeding Joel in these pictures; that's why he's so messy!)

I love the intensity!