The Night Before Surgery

Tonight was Parker's night. He got to pick what he wore, ate, and played. We started the evening with Monsters Inc. and popcorn. We then moved into no clothes and green pancakes for dinner. Popsicles were for dessert. Then we laid in the guest bedroom, turned off the lights, and played with flashlights until 9pm.

I told Parker today that he was going to the hospital tomorrow. This was the conversation:

Sandi: Parker, tomorrow you're going to a new place called, "The hospital." We're going to see your eye doctor there. We're all going to be wearing funny costumes and you're going to have to put something over your face. When you wake up, you'll feel a little sick, and you'll have a pirates patch on your eye. But, after a little while your eye is going to be fixed! You're going to be able to see!

Parker: Will de be fish at de pital?

Sandi: I don't know, honey. When we get there we can ask about fish. We'll go see them if they have them.

Parker: Okay, mommy. I tink is good. Okay, mommy. I so poud (proud) of you.

We got Parker a little surgeon's costume that we're going to let him wear tomorrow to the hospital. Should be interesting...

Green pancakes, no clothes

Abigail ate pancakes too

Such a guy!

This Week

This week we are gearing up for Parker's surgery. I feel kind of like a robot, checking off my list. I'm totally exhausted. I really haven't had that much to do, but every little thing seems overwhelming right now.

We will go to Egleston at noon on Thursday. The surgery is tentatively scheduled for 3pm. We probably will not be home until late Thursday night. They will patch Parker's eye immediately following the surgery. We will have to wait until we see the doctor Friday morning before we will know if Parker can see and to what extent he can see. My birthday is Friday. All I want this year is to watch them take Parker's patch off and tell me that he can see.

I'll try to update the blog throughout the day Thursday and Friday to keep everyone updated. So many of you have asked what you can do to help us right now. Thanks for even offering! Meals and phone calls would be the best. We'll be couped up in the house for awhile so that we can decrease the risk of Parker getting an infection. Please do not bring over big toys for Parker. We are overloaded from Christmas! If you want to bring him something, a balloon or something small would be fine. It's strange to think that we'll be doing all of this again in a month.

Here are some pictures from our week so far. We had to check "haircut" off the list. See why....?

The new do... much better.
My pigtail queen.

Back to the Blog World

It's been a long 3 weeks since the last post. And, our camera erased our Christmas pictures. So, I don't have any pictures, but here's an update:

Abigail:

• Abigail knew exactly what to do with Christmas presents. She squealed and squealed as she tore into her gifts on Christmas Day.
• She now waves and claps.
• She says Hey, Hi, Mama, Dada, and byebye.
• She does the "army man" crawl.
• She does that little girl high pitched squeal thing all day long. What's up with that?

Parker

• He got to ride a pony in Hilton Head last week. He wanted off the pony and looked at Eric and said, "this is serious!" That's his new favorite phrase. Everything is now serious in our house.
• He's blind as a bat. He can't see who he's talking to or the food on his plate. He calls everyone the wrong name.
• He actually gasped when he opened a present and saw that it was a soccer ball.
• Everyday he asks me if we can "go find friends" for him to play with.

Family

• Our dogs decided to go on a vacation without us for 3 days. They ran off on December 23, and were returned to us by a nice lady 2 miles away on December 26. One day I'm going to write a children's book called, "The Adventures of Rocky and Rambo."
• We went to Hilton Head Island for a week. We loved riding the bikes as a family and playing on the beach.

We are now gearing up for Parker's first surgery next week. I'm getting pretty nervous about it. I'm glad it's still a week away.

Sneaky P

Random things have gone missing lately. Today I was talking on the phone to my sister and saw something in our Christmas tree. I kept looking. Here's what I found...

Abigail's play phone

The long lost pacifier

The puzzle piece

The Chick-fil-a straw from my favorite diet coke

These items went missing about a week ago, if not longer. :)

The Surgery

We visited the doctor at Emory yesterday. Parker did such a good job in the office. They were able to get him to do more, and get a better idea of exactly how bad the cataracts are. Parker will need to have surgery. We'll have the first surgery on January 15. The next surgery will be about a month later.

I'm still nervous about the surgery, but I am confident that we have found the right doctor. I can't even believe how much God has taken care of P during all of this. One of the biggest surprises is that when we got to Emory, they had already received a call from the doctor in Philadelphia. I can't believe he took the time and effort to call for us to make sure that we were taken care of. I was completely honored. I feel like God is showing favor on us. Every night I pray for Parker that God will grow him "in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man." Through this whole process (a quick process) I'm so amazed at how much good there is in the world. And, I know that good comes from above. I never thought we'd get the help we needed, and get to spend so much time with the doctors who are considered to be the best. We're moving forward confident that God is in control and that he loves our little P's eyes more than we do.

Abigail or Boo?

Parker thinks that Boo on Monsters Inc. is Abigail. I guess I can see it.

I don't know what it is about this picture. I like it!

a rat, a BB, and Eric

Eric just shot a rat on his first shot with a bb gun.

I was laying in bed and kept hearing something. I thought it was an animal in our wall. Then, I realized that it could be an animal outside trapped on our screened in porch. Eric hates having to get up to "check on" things for me. But, he got up. We went to look outside, and I saw the nasty thing crawling up and down the wall. Eric went to get his bb gun. He hasn't shot it since I've known him.

One shot. Boom! The nasty thing fell from on top of the door to the porch. This is Eric enjoying his kill.

One more shot just to make sure he's dead.

The nasty nasty rat.