"Every obstacle presents an opportunity to improve our condition."

My good looking boys~

Paul on his baptism day


Son and Father pic


Just before the big moment!


Josh teaching the boys how to play Battleship


Nick and Andrew playing their own game


Andrew "just checking" Nick's board


Nick "just checking" Andrwe's board


Making a "monster-mask" for a school activity


Nick and Andrew modeling their masks


Just making sure who's behind each mask... those 2 are pretty hard to tell apart sometimes.

Just some pics with a couple of our fav's at PCMC.

Nick and Dr. Cowley


A goofy shot


The awesome lady who does a lot of the work with the ICD (but who I've temporarily forgotten her name), Nick, and Dr. Saarel.

Newest Nick News

Today I took Nick to see the cardiologists at Primary Children's Medical Center. For the first couple hours of the appointment things were pretty routine, and it looked as though we would be sent home and asked to come back in a few more months. It ended up, however, with the doctors and us deciding that another open-heart surgery will probably be the next step for Nicholas. This is probably going to be done in Rochester, Minnesota at the Mayo Clinic, and probably fairly soon-- like May/June-ish. This will be another attempt to remove (if not all, then most of) the fibroma inside of his heart. I keep saying "probably" because it's mostly discussion today, and our cardiologist will start working on pulling things together for us soon.

Hopefully this will be a good thing. There is a risk by not doing anything, and a risk by doing something. We have gone a long while not doing too much interference (other than some cath labs, medicine, etc.)and Nick has done well, but this may be the time to try another approach. He has been having some very serious heart rhythms, ones that would prove fatal if not for the implanted defibrillator, and the ICD has had to shock him more than once each time recently to get the desired results.

There are still several questions, many of which cannot be answered yet, but sometimes life is a step-by-step process, so we will put one foot in front of the other and pray to be led through the right course.

There are a few things that I do know though.

*God is a kind and loving Father who loves us.
*He wants good things for us.
*We have been blessed, and He will continue to bless us with what HE knows we need.
*Things are ultimately up to Him. Always.

So. We're preparing to hold on tight and get ready for this next ride. Hang on baby, here we come! =)