A Tribute to Hallie

My Grandma Hallie, my mom's mom, passed away Memorial Day weekend following a stroke. She was greatly loved and is greatly missed. The family wanted somebody close to Grandma to say a few words at the funeral but none of us could seem to get our thoughts or our words together and knew we certainly couldn't hold it together to speak at the funeral. Well, my dad ended up typing out a "Tribute to Hallie" and Matt read it at the funeral. It brought my mom flying down the stairs in tears to hug my dad when she read it! I think it meant a lot to mom that her mom meant a lot to my dad. 

Here is the tribute that he wrote:

I wanted to share a few thoughts about Miss Hallie from a son-in-Iaw’s perspective.  I love my mother-in-law.  You probably don’t hear these words very often.  But it’s true.  I don’t know if I ever told Miss Hallie, but it’s true and I should have told her.

I first met Miss Hallie over 50 years ago.  Bob and Pam and I would go fishing and come back and clean the fish and then turn them over to Miss Hallie.  Miss Hallie took care of all the details in the kitchen.  She always made me feel welcome and loved.

Miss Hallie was kind, sweet, gentle, compassionate, generous to a fault, funny and amusing.  But she was no pushover.  Bob knew that and her kids knew that.  When Bob would push his opinion a little bit too far Miss Hallie would tell him to kiss a part of her anatomy that wasn’t her lips.  Her kids would get the “kiss it” comment occasionally as well.  I interpreted the “kiss it” comment to mean “I love you, but I don’t care what you think I’m going to do it my way.”  In the hospital the other day Julia was sitting with her face close to the bed and teasing Miss Hallie about something.  You should have seen Miss Hallie try to swat Julia with her right arm that she just couldn’t get to move.

In the earlier years that I was part of the family I remember all the time that Hallie spent taking care of her mother, Mary and then later on her father Esse.  I’m convinced the Lord added extra years to Miss Hallie’s life to make up for all the years she spent taking care of her parents.

Miss Hallie loved her grand children.  She loved to watch them play ball.  I’m sure she holds the unofficial record for the most ball games attended by a grandmother at Lawrence Academy.  At holiday family dinners she made sure she prepared everyone’s favorite food.  Her kitchen counter looked like the K & W cafeteria.  In later years when Pam, Julia and Jackie had to do much of the preparation they tried to get Miss Hallie to pare down the menu but they usually didn’t have much success.

And her grand children loved her.   Julia showed me a comment that Will wrote when he was a little kid.  If he could have one wish come true he wanted to move to Midway to live with grandma Hallie so he could play with his cousins.   We found a short story written by Elizabeth when she was in the second grade called “Casey’s Flower”.  On the title page it was dedicated to Grandma Hallie.   I’ve never known a grown man who loved to visit his grandma as much as Wade loved to visit Miss Hallie.   You could tell he didn’t make the visit because it was an obligation but because he loved her and she was so much fun to be around.

You can tell a lot about a mother by how her children turned out – Pam, Julia and Wood – loving parents, dedicated teachers, a postmaster, fire chief and farmer, all active in their communities and churches.  Great people to know and be around.  And look at the way they took care of Miss Hallie in recent years as her health failed.  Julia leaving her family in Wilmington to come help as much as possible.   Miss Hallie always had a to-do list for Wood.  And Pam stopped by almost daily on her way to and from Lawrence Academy.  Pam will probably never plant another tomato or okra plant again but she sure planted a lot for Miss Hallie.

We are all better off for having Miss Hallie in our lives.  We will miss her but we won’t forget her because of the legacy she leaves us.  I see parts of Miss Hallie in her children and in her grand children.  She may have even rubbed off on me.

Twin Genders!

Two weeks ago we had our 18 week level 2 ultrasound. The ultrasound revealed that both babies are healthy, including their hearts! Praise the Lord. And we also found out that we are having a BOY and a GIRL! We were excited to find out the genders but so very thankful to find out we have two healthy babies. Everybody tends to say that, but believe me, when you have had a child with as many health issues as Graham, you mean it! We are still working on picking names.

Pics of Graham's ankle braces

I finally got some pictures of Graham's braces. He is now walking eagerly while holding our fingers! (Thanks, Casey, for the extra wide shoes to fit the braces!)

Graham's Development

Graham started physical therapy in January (at 15 months old) and has made great progress since then. The physical therapist comes to our home once a week for an hour and we really like her. Graham is usually cooperative until the therapist touches him, at which point we things get dramatic. By 16 months Graham started scooting on his bottom. See the post on scooting here. He can now scoot quite quickly and will easily go from room to room. Most babies wear out the knees of their pants and Graham wears out the bottoms! By 17 months Graham started pulling up. By 18 months he started cruising around the coffee table. Now (at 20 months) he cruises easily and quickly around objects and can go between objects and is becoming more interested in walking while holding on to our fingers. He still refuses to spend any time on his stomach except while sleeping. 

Graham got braces for his ankles (Sure Step SMOs) at 19 months because his feet like to roll in too much. He is still adjusting to wearing the braces. He no longer fusses when we put them on but because the braces have to be worn with big bulky shoes it is more difficult to get his feet under himself and his feet are heavier to move. Supposedly the braces will help strengthen the right muscles and give him better balance to move towards walking.

We have been very pleased to see Graham progress physically in the last few months. I mean he didn't even start sitting up until 1 year old! We are hoping he will be walking soon so he can start keeping up with all his friends!

A couple pictures from when Graham first started standing. (Taken Jan 15)

Graham on his exercise ball used for many physical therapy exercises. (Taken Feb 2)

 We owe a big thanks to these stacking cups for encouraging Graham to do physical therapy exercises.

Graham's beloved play table loaned to us from Aunt Julia.

  

Graham standing at the playground.

Standing outside at the fence.

I haven't gotten a picture of Graham's braces yet but they look like these.

Sickness and Asthma

Back in mid-March Graham got pretty sick with a cold and his breathing got so bad we ended up in the ER and then staying at the hospital overnight. I hated that he had to stay overnight because he is so phobic of doctors and nurses and therefore is miserable in the hospital. But the doctors convinced us to stay and they agreed to not give him an IV. Graham's breathing has always been kind of labored and whenever he gets a little bit sick he has a really hard time breathing. They put him on an oral steroid and did frequent Albuterol treatments with a nebulizer. The steroid makes Graham VERY fussy and he takes it for 5 days.

Rare smile while in the hospital.

I was 6 weeks pregnant and the nausea was setting in big time. The night in the hospital and the following fussy days were rough because I wasn't feeling good at all. But we hadn't announced the pregnancy yet and so nobody but my husband knew just how hard those days were! Thankfully my mom came to help for a couple of days. We came home from the hospital with a nebulizer and after about a week Graham was better.

When we went in for Graham's 18 month well check the pediatrician finally diagnosed him with Asthma. He started daily nebulizer treatments of Pulmicort.

But then a week later he was sick again and we spent 3 hours at the pediatrician on a Sunday morning. I finally convinced the doctor to let us go home with the steroid, Albuterol, and antibiotics. We went back to the pediatrician many times over the next week. He ended up getting antibiotic shots. There was a threat of tubes for the ears because he had fluid in his ears for so long but it finally cleared up!

Poor guy. Sick and sleepy.

Currently Graham is doing the Pulmicort nebulizer treatments twice a day and taking Zyrtec daily to keep him from getting snotty. He has been doing well for a few weeks now and tolerating the nebulizer treatments as long as he has adequate entertainment. I need to get a picture of him using the nebulizer.

A few non-sicky pics!

This kid loves his doggie!

and the doggie crate.

Easter basket!

Easter family pics.

We're Expecting!

I apologize for the lack of blog updates in the last couple of months, but I have a good excuse... I'm pregnant! We are expecting TWINS in October! We have had a very busy couple of months with some serious sicknesses for Graham and lots of nausea for me. 

I found out I was pregnant in early March and had some early bleeding but blood work by the OB confirmed the pregnancy was progressing. Matt, Graham, and I went in for an ultrasound at 7 weeks. The picture had barely come up on the screen when the doctor blurts out "Well, there's two!" I turned and said, "That's a joke." Dr. said, "I don't joke about that." Then he just carries on with the ultrasound, measuring each baby like this was normal everyday stuff. Matt and I just starred at each other with our mouths hanging open trying to process what was happening. We don't have any twins in the family and I was not on fertility drugs. It never crossed my mind that we would have twins. We were ready for another baby, but we weren't prepared for two babies! The babies are in separate sacs but we don't know yet if they are fraternal or identical. My 40-week due date is November 10, but they will induce at 38 weeks if I make it that far (the majority of twins are born at 36 weeks).

We are still trying to move from shocked to excited. We know that every child is a blessing from the Lord so we are thankful. However, twin pregnancies bring added risks and unknowns and we will also have a 2 year old to care for. We are praying for two healthy babies! I have been quite nauseous all day long until just recently. I was not nearly this nauseous with Graham. I have been on prescription medication (which may or may not have been helping), eating constantly, and still throwing up about once a day or every other day. I am very excited to have some relief recently. I cooked dinner last night for the first time in 2 months! 

My sister-in-law (Matt's brother's wife), Joy, is also expecting in October. So Matt's parents will get 3 new grandbabies in October, doubling the number of grandchildren!

Here are a couple ultrasound pics. One from the 7 week ultrasound and one from a recent 13 week ultrasound. If we didn't have these pictures, I'm not sure our family would have believed we are having twins!

I plan to post soon about Graham's recent health issues and developmental progress and lots of pictures!

MRI Today

Graham had an MRI and neurosurgeon appointment today. This was his first follow-up since his neck surgery in November.

Overall things went well. The neurosurgeon was pleased with the MRI results. The spinal cord is no longer so compressed in his neck. She did mention something today that she hadn't before that we weren't thrilled to hear... apparently Graham's spine is narrow all the way down to C6 and he may require more surgery as an adult. But we won't worry about that now. He will go back for just an office visit in 6 months.

They gave Graham an oral sedative instead of an IV. We were glad he could have this less involved sedation. He didn't have to get an IV or even have any tape or monitors stuck to him! He was quite drunk for a while afterwards but able to eat and drink. He slept on the way home and for 3 hours after we got home!

We are praising the Lord how He has provided and healed Graham! We are praying that Graham won't have to have any future surgeries on his heart or spine and that the nystagmus will clear up.