Lots of news!

We have a lot going on in our neck of the woods. But before we get the all the details, enjoy these cute pictures of our girls!

Little Laurie is all smiles these days. In just the last couple of weeks, she has increased her physical strength in leaps and bounds! She can hold her head up straight and she is even putting weight on her legs when you hold her upright.

Our bedtime ritual of reading stories on Haili's bed. Laurie loves to look at the books with us.

Haili loves to sit and play the piano and sing. She will do this for a solid half hour at a time - which I think is pretty amazing for a 2 1/2 year old. She will play a note on the piano and then match the pitch with her voice... she's even managed to hit a high G!

Since Laurie has been put on Miralax, she has tolerated solids much better. She loves her oatmeal and is sleeping better at nights because of her yummy oatmeal dinners!

Now for the news:

One of the perks of not posting often is that when I do finally write a new post, there is a lot to tell! First off, Kevin will be graduating on May 2^nd! We are extremely excited for him to be getting his electrical engineering degree. He’s worked incredibly hard and we’re so proud of him. We also feel blessed that Kevin has a job lined up after graduation. He’ll start work about 3 weeks after he graduates. We feel fortunate that he was able to find a job so quickly given the difficult employment situation that so many are currently facing.

Right after Laurie was born, she was extremely sick. Not only was she 16 weeks premature, but her severe pulmonary stenosis made her situation even more bleak. We were told several times that she wouldn’t make it and before they took her to the children’s hospital they wheeled me into the room so that I could tell her "goodbye". Kevin overheard some of the nurses saying that there was no way Laurie would survive. When she had her valvuloplasty procedure done on her pulmonary valve, the odds were not in little Laurie’s favor – as the smallest baby they had ever performed it on was over 3 lbs. and Laurie was only 1 lb. 7 oz.

During the course of our 3 month hospital stay last summer, I asked Kevin several times if we should bless and name little Laurie at the hospital. Kevin has unwavering faith. I admire him so much for it! He kept telling me that Laurie would be coming home and she would be OK. We didn’t bless her at the hospital and we decided we wanted to wait until our family and friends could be there to share this occasion with her.

We are planning on blessing her on Sunday, June 7^th. This could change, however, depending on if the neurosurgeon wants to put in a shunt to drain the excess fluid in her brain. We’ll keep you posted.

Our other big news…we are building a house! Yikes! Yes, it’s true. With all the recent government incentives on purchasing a home ($8000 from the federal government and $6000 if you buy a new home) we have been seriously considering buying a home for a while. We came across a builder here in town who is willing to give us the home at a GREAT price and will let us do some sweat equity! Kevin is going to be taping and texturing, painting, and tiling. We can use the equity to either lower the purchase price of the home or get upgrades. It was too good of a deal to pass up, so we put in an offer and he accepted! The home is 2800 square feet and on a third of an acre. It’s here in the valley, so Kevin’s planning to take the vanpool to work every day – which is about a 45-50 minute commute. The great part is that it doesn’t cost anything and he doesn’t have to drive it! They should start construction within a week – as long as the weather cooperates. The home should be done by the end of July if everything goes as planned!

That is our family news! Hope all is well with you and your family. Thanks again for all your continued love and support!