Growing Growing and more Growing

Grady is getting over a cold but he has been a trooper through the stuffy nose and cough. We have been pumping him full of baby vitamins to keep him cleared out and we are happy to say that it seems to have worked it course (for the most part). After 10 days of this cold we decided to take him to the pediatrician, not for medication but to just make sure that the cold had not gotten to his chest or ears. Thankfully it had not. While we were there we asked for the nurse to chart his height and weight for us.... Well Grady at almost 9 months weighs 23.9 lbs and is 29 1/2 inches long which is 90-95% on each category. I knew that he was flying through his clothes but I had not idea he was this big. And at 9 months is is now wearing 12-18months clothes. Although he is definitely slimming down, due to his over abundance of movement, he still has his baby fat!

Here lately we have had many people tell us that they are faithful viewers of our blog. Today we had a very nice man tell me that he had gotten our web address from his mom (whom I work with) and he blessed us so much by telling us how he has been praying for our little Grady. Thank you so much for all the prayers. God is so good and He has a way of bringing people together who might have never met, but joins them together by His blood.

Thanks to the prayer, Grady will probably be out of his helmet in 2 weeks. At that point he will only be wearing it at night. We thank you so much for the prayers for our family.

This afternoon we went to my brother's house Grady was able to have some time with this cousins Will, Tyler, and Caleb. Grady is a bit smaller but he is right in there with them. We are so blessed to have such a wonderful family on both sides!

Will (9), Tyler(6), Caleb(3), and Grady(9months)

A few weekends ago Grady's friend Elijah came over to visit but Grady was not the best host and was already asleep for the night before Elijah even got here. But, we had fun spending time with him anyway.

Your buddy Elijah

Psalms 116:5 "The LORD is gracious and righteous; our God is full of compassion. "

LOOK AT THE DIFFERENCE

Ok so I decided that although Grady is not out of his helmet yet I would take a picture of his beautiful head so show the difference that we have already seen.


Before




Almost After

As we near the end of this journey I can say that I am shocked on how quick the process has been. I am thankful for all of your prayers from the fitting of the helmet to the many adjustments and now as we are getting to the end. I am sure that we will have many new things to talk about and new pictures to show and I will continue to post updates on what is going on in our house.

Great and Mighty

Grady had check up today with John at Hanger to see how the band is working. Garth and I have seen a lot of improvement but were afraid to get our hopes up about his progress. When we took his band off for John to start measurements even he was surprised by how quickly he has improved! We were shocked to hear that since Grady is doing so well that there is a possibility that he will be out of his helmet as early as next month!!!!
Here is the thing that is AWESOME, I have not told anyone but I have been praying that he would be out of the band by Christmas. Well, guess what John said today, "Looks like Grady will be out of this thing in time for CHRISTMAS PICTURES!!" What a Mighty God We Serve! Such a small request, what a small desire, what a small thing but my BIG God answered my prayer! Thanks you Jesus!
Grady is in the bed right now but I will be sure to take pictures of his head now to compare so check back soon.

2 weeks of school down

I must admit that I was a little apprehensive about going back to school. I love all of my kids, co-workers, and my job but I just keep thinking about Grady and how much I want to be with him. As I dropped him off the first morning with Ms Tracey as soon as he heard her voice he turned and looked at her and started smiling! Could her really remember her after 10 weeks? I am not sure but it made me feel a little more comfortable.
As I walked into the school building I looked around and everything was just as I left it and everything just seemed normal. But the thing that was ironic is that as I was first seeing my kids for the first time as song was in my head and it was so fitting,
"I am a Promise"

I am a promise
I am a possibility
I am a promise with a capital "P"
I am a great big bundle of potentiality
And I am learnin' to hear God's voice
And I am tryin' to make the right choice
I am a promise to be anything God wants me to be.

Somedays the kids will try our patience but all in all they are a Promise! How often to I "try" my heavenly Father's patience but He still loves me and is quick to forgive.

The kids are so wonderful and every time I thought of how my arms were empty, another hug would come my way. I truly have an amazing job.

Here are some fun pictures that I just thought I would share!
Is it? Maybe?


YES IT IS! TOUCHDOWN HOKIES!!!!


Grady's helmet was rubbing his head so I cut a T-shirt to make it a little softer until Hanger could get some Shear Ban to put inside of it. He has already seen some improvement. Next appt is Sept 5th

So Many Milestones So Fast.

I cannot believe that our little baby boy who just a few short months ago was so quiet, still, and peaceful. Well, those days are over and the new Grady is here! Grady is now 7 1/2 months old and he is growing up ever so quickly. He is waving bye-bye, eating with is own little fingers and 2 teeth, laughing, and grabbing everything in sight. Just this past week He has start CRAWLING to get to anything that he wants. He is melting my heart by saying Mama over and over.

The summer has quicly come and gone and I will have to go back to school tomorrow. The halls will be bare, the gym will be quiet, and my little boy will not be in my arms. The past 10 weeks have gone by so fast. I consider myself so lucky because in Grady's 7 1/2 months with us I have been with him for 5 1/2 of them. I get a little teary eyed when I think about all the things that I am going to miss out on during the days ahead, but I know that he is in a home with someone who loves him so much, but I will be so happy to see the clock strike 4. Tomorrow morning has felt so far away, until now.

As I walk in to the school tomorrow I realize more than ever how important my job really is because I will be caring for and loving other parent's "Gradys"

Under Construction!

As we were getting closer and closer to getting Grady's helmet I kept trying to think of what to put on it for different seasons and of course we have VT football, and UNC Basketball, but then one hit me... Under Construction! I starting thinking back to my days in Elementary School and Sunday School when we always sang the song

"He's Still Working on ME"
He's still working on me to make me what I ought to be.
It took Him just a week to make the moon and stars,
The sun and the earth and Jupiter and Mars.
How loving and patient He must be, He's still working on me.

1. There really ought to be a sign upon the heart,
Don't judge her yet, there's an unfinished part.
But I'll be perfect just according to His plan
Fashioned by the Master's loving hands.

How true is this that as a Christian He is still working on me everyday!

I Corinthians 13 :10
"But when perfection comes, the imperfect disappears."

Grady's New Accessory


Well, Grady has a new accessory and he seemed to be doing well with it. This afternoon I noticed that his cheeks were a little red and still had the lines from the helmet so I called the Ortho and they told me to leave him out of it and come in first thing in the morning. We were very surprised that he did not fuss about any of the process today, Grady is such a trooper.
I have blogged many of the bumps in our journey thus far, but I have left a few steps out. After we went for the last set of scans I finally contacted the managers at Hanger and I told him what we were going through, with dates being pushed back over and over and having little to no communication with our Ortho. Garth made a personal appearance at the office to speak to our Ortho(professionally) about how we were upset with the communication that we had been receiving.
I received a phone call from the manager that afternoon saying that they would be bringing in a specialist from about 5 hours away to personally see over and care of Grady.
Grady's new Ortho is John and I must say so far he has been so helpful and we really appreciate everything that they have done for us. :)

Grady being scanned for his Helmet

The scan worked!

So we went back to Hanger today and they did another scan to try and a perfect mold of Grady's head and finally after 4 scans we got it right. Lets face it we have an active 7 month old boy! He kept wanting to see the red light and figure out what it was. I took his Bumbo seat so that he would be a little more still and I fed him sweet potatoes while they did the scan so that I could redirect his head with the spoon. IT WORKED!!! We should get the helmet in on Tuesday and start the breaking in process. I ordered some Virginia Tech stickers today to decorate it (getting ready for football season)
Grady gets to go to his first kids birthday party tomorrow. My youngest nephew just turned 3. We have a great family!