Braswell/Hite Christmas

Saturday morning CiCi, PawPaw Bill, Memommy (Preston's grandmother), Brian, Jenny and Evan came over to celebrate Christmas. We had a great time visiting and playing dirty Santa. Memommy, a wonderful artist, asked if she could have a particular piece of Logan's art. She told us how to frame it. It looks wonderful to me and I am so glad we could share it with her.

Class Christmas Parties

All three boys had class Christmas parties last week. At Owen's party they made reindeer food, ate a yummy snack and opened their gift from a classmate. At Nathan's party they made ornaments, sang songs, ate snack and opened a gift from a classmate. The boys had such a wonderful time! It was so fun to see their interaction with their schoolmates.

The theme of Logan 's party was "Jesus is deer to my heart." We had reindeer crafts, cookies and a reindeer story about Christmas. We went through the salvation story via the color of the ornaments on the rice Krispy cake tree Logan made. We also played phonogram bingo and the kids opened their class gift. It was great!

Santa Clause

The other day I took the boys to the mall to see Santa. They all enjoyed sitting on his lap, a first for Owen. Logan gave Santa his list and even showed him a picture of on thing he had taken on my phone.

Christmas with the Hites

Yesterday we did Christmas with The Hites. Along with Preston's brother Brian and his family, Preston's step-sister Jennifer and her family were there...and of course DiDi and Big House. The 5 big kids had the best time playing together. They were running all around the yard, climbing trees, etc. We had a delicious meal, made by DiDi (though I can honestly say I knew it would be delicious because everything she mades always is incredible). The adults enjoyed a fun game of dirty Santa. Nathan and Owen took a really good nap. All 5 kids received really nice razor scooters from DiDi and House. They had the best time riding them together. Nathan and Owen received a fisher price zoo that has 26 animals and does all the sounds, identifications, etc. This is a great gift for their learning. This is definitely a Christmas that will be listed as a favorite for years and years to come!

God provided!!!!

Nathan has severe to profound hearing loss. Most likely he lost his hearing when his body went completely septic at 9 days old, either from the infection or medication used to save his life. On October 28, 2011 Nathan received his first cochlear implant. This is Nathan's only chance for hearing. We had decided to wait awhile until we thought about the next implant. Nathan's ENT explained to us that we should really do it within one year so the brain will except the second implant. We started the pre-implant process again and received a surgery date much more quickly than expected. The doctor's office submitted to Blue Cross and we received a letter saying the implant was medically necessary but they would not confirm or deny payment and would review the claim when it was processed. Knowing how expensive the surgery is, Preston and I decided to step out in faith and trust God to provide for the surgery. Nathan received his second implant November 26. This past Friday night we received our e-claim status showing us that we owned less than $500 of the $73,000 surgery cost! Praise God! He is so amazing.

Nathan will receive the external part of his implant January 2nd. We will see the audiologist every week the month of January and part if February to work on programming the device.

Painting

We have all enjoyed painting together. All three of the boys have painted reindeer and Christmas trees. Nathan and Owen also worked on some other painting creations. They have really come a long way in their painting skills.

Art show

Tuesday night we had the opportunity to view all of Logan's art and the art of several other students at the Westminster Lower School art show. We were very proud of the work Logan produced and he was proud of it too. Special thanks to CiCi for coming to Logan's show. He enjoyed showing his work.

Week in review

Sorry it has been a while since I last posted. Here is a review of our entire week.
Monday-Nathan had a great speech therapy session. Later in the afternoon the boys and I made cookies. Owen ate an entire cookie.
Tuesday- we had lots of fun swinging at the park together before Nathan's post-op visit. The visit went really well and Nathan is all clear to resume to normal activity.
Wednesday- Nathan headed back to school after a week off.
Thursday- we celebrated Paw Paw Bill's birthday. I also had an orthopedic appointment. My foot is healing nicely and I am now weening out of the boot.
Friday- Logan and I practiced a lot on riding his bike and we went the walk through nativity at Briarwood with the Cooks.
Saturday- Logan's basketball game and a trip to Atlanta to see our friends.

Update on Nathan

I am sorry I have failed to post the last several days. Things around here have been pretty crazy. Thank you for all if your prayers for Nathan's recovery and health.

We returned to the pediatrician Thursday afternoon as planned. Nathan was still doing about the same but to add to it he refused to eat or drink. So, our pediatrician sent us to the ER at Children's Hospital for Nathan to receive some IV fluids. We had excellent service in the ER. Our doc called ahead and it made all the difference in the world. We never sat in the waiting room. After filling out our initial form at the desk (per there request to move us along) we then went to triage, then straight to a room (bi-passing the second waiting area) where the nurse was in less than a minute. Before the nurse finished the doctors were waiting outside the room to come in. We were there a total of 3 hours which also included an IV bag for fluids, a chest x-ray and blood work.

By Saturday afternoon Nathan began feeling better and by Sunday afternoon I would say he is at about 90%.

Tomorrow he has speech therapy, Tuesday his post-op visit and then will start back to school on Wednesday.

Here is an outline of the next steps for Nathan's implant.
-we will turn on his left ear implant at the beginning of January. This will allow his body a few weeks if healing time including allowing a lot of the internal swelling to go down a good bit.
-it will take several months to work up the map on his left year just as it did his right.
-it will probably be late spring/ early summer before he is hearing well out if both ears.