I want outside!!

Cool dude!!

"How you doin'??"

Uncle Craig and Aunt Rhonda came to visit!!!

Cousin Margo and Aunt Amber have been big helpers this summer!

Just hangin' out in the tub...Bath time is SO SO SO much better now!

Check out my two teeth! Love, Carson

"What'd you say Mom??"

These are my two teeth!

Happy Fourth of July to all!!! First, we want to say thank you to all those that have sacrificed to ensure we have the freedoms we are blessed with in this country. We cannot begin to understand the degree of the sacrifices made but wish to express our deepest gratitude. Although, our country is not perfect, we are very thankful to be put down in this corner of the world.

As some of you may be aware, we had some DRAMA this past weekend. We have been blessed with two wonderful nurses during the daytime and truly thank Jesus every day for them. However, our nurse at night has been a very different story. We have prayed for this situation and ultimately, it came to us asking to not have her back to care for Carson. She had been here every night for almost two months. As a result, we are asking for prayers to guide a caring, compassionate, competent nurse to us to help care for Carson at night. We pray we can trust this nurse enough to be able to at least sleep at night and not have to have someone in the family awake with Carson 24 hours a day. This is a very difficult schedule to maintain particularly while also caring for Kellen. God knows best, and we just pray for His guidance.

Kellen continues to be on a strike against eating. We aren’t sure, but we think he is a little worried about weighing too much to be a horse jockey and so has decided to refuse to eat. The last we checked with the dietitian at Cardinal Glennon, he was 50% for height, 5% for weight, and 3% for weight/height. He used to be much better than this for his weight. We have tried everything we can think of to get him to eat, but he has us puzzled. He will not eat while he is awake and so we must wait until he is asleep to try to get fluid in him. At times, he will eat very well but then go right back to not eating. We just ask for prayers as we cannot see any visible signs or reasons why he won’t eat, so it makes it very difficult to resolve. Other than that, he is doing so well. He is sitting up all by himself, loves to walk around with Daddy and Mommy’s help, and talking up a storm. Just in the last few days, he has started non-stop ba-ba-ba-ba, bu-bu-bu, bye-bye-bye, or ma-ma-ma or da-da-da. I think bu-bu-bu is his favorite. It is truly precious!!!

Carson continues to be a little fighter. He is on 1 liter of oxygen or less most of the time, but still does need a little oxygen to stay up on his saturations. He has two teeth to match his brothers. Both boys seem to be getting ready to cut more teeth, but right now just have the two. Carson is much more interactive than he has been in the past and continues to make great strides in his physical/mental developmental milestones. He still struggles with eating and has not made any progress towards getting rid of his G-tube. We continue to ask for prayers for his study on July 18^th when we will find out more about any progress he has made in regards to his chronic lung disease, tracheal malacia, and subglottal stenosis. The doctors will do a bronchoscopy, and the results will make a huge impact on the timeline of when we can possibly consider removing his trach. It would be absolutely marvelous if we could have good news or progress towards NO MEDICAL EQUIPMENT starting with the trach being removed!

Prayer requests:

1)   For God to guide us to a wonderful night nurse to help care for Carson

2)   Carson’s bronchoscopy July 18^th, for good news and healing of his body (particularly his lungs and ability to swallow and eat)

3)   Kellen to eat and be able to gain weight

Thank you all for your unwavering support and prayers. We hope you all are blessed for all you have done for us.