"I want a hippopotamus for Christmas"

We are ready for Christmas at the Brian household!! Cade loves this time of year. He absolutely loves everything about Christmas..the lights, music, trees, inflatables, etc. He heard the "I want a hippopotamus for Christmas" song on the radio on the way to school this past week, and he laughed through the entire song. We also have the Griswold house right across the street from us which is Cade's favorite. They have everything up except inflatables..ha! (so many lights!)

I wanted to give some updates on him and let you all know about his upcoming surgery on the 15th.

Cade has been studying the planets at school this past week and informed Chris and I all about Pluto. He absolutely LOVES school! He also has been working with a speech therapist at school and is doing great. She has told me that Cade is such a hard worker and is making great strides.
He is also just now getting into watching sports on TV with Chris and I. He is already very competitive. He wants to know who is winning and gets VERY upset when his team is losing. He gets it honest.
He loves playing video games on my computer and is very tech savy for a 5 year old..Crazy how young they start!

As far as his eye is concerned, his vision has not improved, so we are back at step one with the patching. We patch we he gets home from school until bed time. He has done great with it. He is schedule for another surgery on December 15 at Vanderbilt Children's here in Nashville. Again, I cannot tell you how thankful we are for that place! Dr. Mawn and Dr. Singer will be working on his bottom eyelid. The procedure will be very similar to last year's procedure on the top eyelid.
We are praying now for no complications and no pain for Cade and for his heart. We know this will be a scary thing for him once again as he fears the hospital.

I will say that each time Cade has had to endure another procedure the Lord has given me such a peace. I am praying for that once again and that we would release our fear and worries knowing He is holding Cade in the palm of HIS hands.
Please continue to lift Cade up and the doctors on December 15th. Will post again after the procedure!

Love you all!!

Where Have We Been???

Okay, so I just noticed that I have not updated my blog since July.. Wow!! There has been much going on here, so I guess I will just give a few updates on what we have been up to in the past 2 months..

We all started back to school in August. Cade started PreK-5 this year and he absolutely loves it--not to mention his teacher is a former student of mine-HA! He has learned so much and he even gets to eat lunch with the big kids. He loves that!
Chris and I have been busy coaching and teaching. I am still coaching middle school volleyball and he is coaching football, needless to say, we are very busy right now. Cade spends the afternoons with me in the gym. As he has gotten older, he has enjoyed being in the gym and hanging out. The girls love him and he usually plays with his Legos or his Leapster while I practice. We had five games this past week, so we were both spent by the end of the week.
Chris' team is struggling some this year and it has been hard to see him come home frustrated. They lost a few key players and it has made a big difference. This week should be interesting though, they play us! Yep, Davidson v. CPA If you ask Cade who he is rooting for, he always says daddy's team. It should be an interesting matchup!!

To update you on Cade's eye we have been to Ohio a few times to check on the scarring on his cornea. It is thinning out, which is a good thing, but will go back in November to see if the small piece will need to be removed.
He is scheduled for another procedure with Dr. Mawn and Dr. Singer(his neurologist) here in Nashville, in December. They will be working the bottom lid this time. We are hopeful that they will be able to get what is left of the VM on that bottom lid.

So that is a quick update on the Brians. Yes, we are still alive, but super busy!! Love to you all!!

Not worthy, but HIS

Our favorite place to be..

We just returned from a fabulous trip to Seagrove Beach. My family and I have been making this annual beach trip since I was in high school. It is something that we look forward to every summer. My parents, our family, and my brother's family all stay in a house on the beach--no better place to be than ON the beach!

Cade took his first steps at the beach and has always been pretty cautious about getting in the water. It seems that each year he gets a little braver about getting in. This year he really took to the water. He surfed the waves for the first time and loved it!! He and Brody played so well together! They had so much fun, whether they were chasing each other with their water guns, or throwing sand on each other-they had a blast!

Some of our favorite things to do while there is looking for seashells, looking for crabs at night, visiting Pier Park, eating shrimp, looking for dolphins, walks on the beach, ice cream, etc.

We love our time at the beach!! So thankful that we have these times with family to share and we can't wait until next summer!!

Summer has officially begun..

We love our summers!! This year we started our summer with a trip to San Antonio, Texas. We haven't been back in a few years so we were very excited to get to see everyone. Chris' entire family live there, so it was a very busy but fun trip. We ended up staying with Chris' dad and stepmom in their beautiful home. Cade loved it! They have a trampoline and a hot tub. Being that it is so hot there we limited Cade's time outdoors. He would wake up and want to go on the tramp. and end the day on the trampoline.

We spent most of our days visiting family. Chris' mom's side of the family and Chris' dad's side of the family. We were very busy each day. We did spend a day at SeaWorld. Cade's favorite place. We went with Grandma and Navaeh-Chris' brother's little girl. It was VERY hot to say the least, but it was a fun day! His favorite thing this time were the sharks!! :)

Greg and Donna (Chris' dad and stepmom) have two dogs. Cade is allergic to pet dander, but he didn't have a problem being around them, in fact, he LOVED them!! He wants a dog soooo bad! He chased them around and he loved for them to chase him back. It was so cute to watch!

Because of the location of where we were staying, there were many deer around the neighborhoods. When I say everywhere, they were practically just chillin' in the yards. It was so neat to see. So close, you could pet them..Again, this was something Cade was not used to and he loved to look for each day!

It was a great trip..in fact, neither one of us were ready to leave. We hope to see them all again very soon!!

pics to follow!

Heaven...

Well, this past week has been very interesting and hard all at the same time.. It is nearing the end of the school year, in fact, this is our last week of school. We have been busy reviewing with kids, making exams,etc. Chris and I both are anticipating the summer, and not to mention Cade has been counting down how many days left of school.

Everything though came to a halt for me last week, and LIFE took over. We had a student who was involved in a tragic skateboarding accident and passed away due to severe brain trauma. So yeah, everything kind of took a backseat for me, as I pondered how fragile our lives here on earth are. I also mourned for this precious mom who no longer would be able to hug on her son as he came home from school, or watch him play football and soccer again.

My students have been walking around dazed as they continue to grieve the loss of a classmate, and as I sit here and write, I will be heading to his funeral in a few short minutes.

Of course, death gets us thinking about Heaven and about all those we will soon see once again. I can't wait to see my Nana and Papa in heaven. I loved them so much and the Lord called them both home when I was in the 8th grade. Both of them met Jesus within about 3 months of each other. What a great reunion that must have been.

I have had the book "Heaven is For Real" for quite sometime now and never really picked it up to read. My books to read for the summer are piling up, but I thought it would be fitting because of the course of events this past week to start this one. So yesterday I sat and read the entire book. Very interesting perspective of Heaven from a 4 year old and so "matter of factly." As I read, my anticipation grew even more for Heaven. Reading this little one's experience with Heaven made me ponder "if only I had the faith of a child."

It is a great book and I highly recommend it. In fact, our pastor will be going to Nebraska next week to interview Colton and his dad. He will be beginning a new series on Heaven and Hell in the weeks to come. Excited about that..

So this is where my head has been in the last few days.. Cade and I have also had some discussions on this as well, and it is amazing to hear a five year old's perspective on Heaven.. So cute!!

I will leave you with one part of the book that I just loved. Colton was explaining to his dad where everyone was sitting in Heaven.. He was explaining the throne room of God. Colton's dad asked him where he was sitting and Colton said, "I was sitting on Jesus' lap, next to the Holy Spirit.." This just reminded me of how we should view our Heavenly Father, similar to our earthly Father...sitting in his lap comforting us when we become frightened, scared, worried, stressed, whatever it might be. LOVE THIS PICTURE!!!!

April Showers..Bring May Flowers

Where did April go?? Wow..It flew by so fast!! We are getting near the end of the school year and we are all ready for the summer. Cade has been doing great, but he is ready for school to be over. He even told me on the way to school this week he didn't want to go to school. I told him we didn't really want to either.:)

In April, we spent Easter with my parents and my brother's family.Mom and Dad's church had a car show and easter egg hunt, so of course Cade was in heaven! Cade loves to visit Nana and Papa. He also loves his cousin Brody! They have the biggest time together and Cade is so excited about getting to see them once again at the beach.

We have had some pretty bad weather in the last few weeks. Alot of wind and rain, but nothing in comparison to the damage we have all seen in Alabama. My mom and dad were spared also of the bad weather. The tornadoes that touchdown in Ringgold (where Chris and I were married) missed their area by an exit. We were so thankful!!

We have had some pretty days as well and have spent those being outside. We did some landscaping last weekend around the front of the house. Can I just say, I love doing yard work. If you ask Chris he will tell you that I LOVE mowing the grass, and actually a little OCD about it.

May will be busy for us as we finish up the semester, but we are looking forward to June and going to Texas to visit. Cade is so excited to get to fly again and to see everyone.

Cade has his five year old checkup tomorrow, and I am not looking forward to it. He gets 4 shots I think.. It won't be pretty. As far as his eye, we went back to Ohio a few weeks ago and everything looked great. We have to continue using the steroid drop 4x a day for 6 months. This has been somewhat hard, but Cade has done great. He has a chart on his door and he gets a sticker for every drop. At the end of the week he gets a surprise. It has worked so far, so hoping it continues. We might be broke in 6 months as well..:)

Waiting for the summer!

carlee

A Milestone...FIVE

I can't believe that we have a five year old.. Cade has grown so fast..He has grown into a little man from the small 5 lb. 12 oz. baby five years ago. He is our joy and our life. He has been through more than any five year old should have to go through, but he has conquered every difficulty thrown at him. He has taught Chris and I so much about perseverance, about faith, about courage, about fear, etc.

We are so proud of what he has become and we can't wait to see what the Lord will do in the next five years.

Cade, mommy and daddy love you and we are so proud of how you have walked through difficulty the last five years with resiliency and a quiet strength. You truly are OUR WARRIOR and as your papa would say our "HERO."

Happy Birthday Bubba!!

Spring Break

We enjoyed a great spring break a few weeks back together. Chris and I both had spring break off at the same time which seldom occurs. We spent alot of time outdoors with Cade. One of the best times we had together was visiting Edwin Warner Park.
It is very close to where we live, but we never had visited the park before. We had some great weather so we decided to take Cade. They have a dirt park for the kiddos, but Cade wanted nothing to do with getting dirty.. He could care less about the huge mound of dirt and shovels, so we quickly made our way to the creek behind the park. We spent at least 2 hours just walking down the creek and throwing rocks. Cade LOVED it!! We also spent some time to walk the trails of the park, of course Cade leading us up the trails. We reached a point on the trail where a low tree branch was bent over. I picked Cade up to let him hang on it like the monkey bars and he didn't trust me I guess, and his hands slipped. Those would be the before and after pictures below.

We had so much fun at the park that we went back the following day! It was a great week to just spend some time outdoors. We also took him to play putt-putt. His first time to play and he had so much fun!! What a fun week!!!

Here are a few pics from our week!!

Back to Ohio

We left on Sunday back to Ohio for Cade's post-op appointment. The drive is beginning to get old, but thankful we don't have to travel to far and for the great doctors there.
We met with Dr. Holland and Nerad. They had to take the stitches out of Cade's eye. Our only option was to do it in the office, which was down right awful. Cade was a trooper and he did great! We then had to remove the plastic ring out of his eye-also in the office. Again, very traumatic for Cade, but again he overcame another obstacle. It was harder on mom and dad than on him.
No parent should ever have to go through that-holding their child down as doctors work on them.. This is the worst part about Cade's condition for me. I hate how scared he gets and there is nothing I can do about it!! HATE IT!!

I do know that we continually try to calm him down, by telling him that Jesus is with him when he is scared. We tell him to pray when he gets scared. I am not quite sure he gets all of that, but HIS strength through all of these procedures is God-given!

He amazes me daily, and it's not all about his eye. He is inquisitive about everything. He prays for our compassion child-Christian EVERY night and reminds me when I forget. He has a sensitive heart and talks about giving his toys away to children who might not have as much. He goes to bed praying and wakes up praying. Yesterday he woke up and asked if he could pray for his eye. AMAZING! He is not shy about what his eye looks like and tells his friends and teachers all about it. He is one brave 4 year old--almost 5--cannot believe that!! He tells me he loves me to Heaven and back and then explains that Heaven and God are far, far away and that it is alot!!
I am not sure of the plans the Lord has for Cade, but He is going to do great things!

You know through all of this somehow I always go to back to Mary, mother of Jesus. I think probably because in the waiting room in the hospital there is a cross mounted on the wall. After they take Cade back I always come out to the waiting room and see that cross. My eyes stay fixed on it for a while as I think about Mary and what her "wait" looked like. What thoughts were racing through her head as she sat and watched her little boy suffer? Not knowing if she would see Him again. Was she saying to herself, "Let me take the pain, not my one and only..". Knowing He would suffer, but also watching Him suffer. Can you imagine? Watching your little boy suffer and take on the pain of the world? But God had bigger plans right? Yes, He did and Sunday was a'comin'!!! I can relate to her in a very small way with Cade..

Cade does suffer and sometimes we have to watch, and we do question God at times, but the end result as we all know is that we have all been placed on this earth to bring glory to Him. So through all the doctor appointments, surgeries, imaging, etc as hard as it might be we will continue to be faithful and know that HE is the ONE who can heal, and know that HE can do exceedingly more than what we could ever ask!!!!

Sorry, for rambling.. Not even sure this post makes sense, but wanted to share some thoughts from the week!! We have spring break next week and can't wait for some time off!!
Love you all!!

Cade's Latest Procedure

I wanted to update everyone through the blog, just because of the complexity of the procedure today.
Cade is doing great right now and watching cartoons. Our intentions were to go home today, but they want to see him tomorrow to check on the eye.

Dr. Holland and Dr. Nerad both did the procedure today of removing the scarring off Cade' cornea. They also put down a mucous membrane graft over the area where the scar was removed. Cade also has a doughnut ring in his eye, which they stitched in place, to keep the skin from re-attaching again to the cornea. He will have to wear this for a week they are hoping. He also has a contact on the eye underneath the ring. I know this sounds so confusing reading this, and it is. The doctor had to actually draw it out for us on paper.

So the plan is to see Dr. Holland again tomorrow. From there we will be given a time frame of removing this ring, which will be another complete ordeal for Cade since it is stitched and they will have to remove it in the office.(we don't want him to have to be put under again for this, but not even going to think about that right now)

We are very thankful that Cade is not in any pain. He did amazing and the nurses couldn't stop talking about how good he was before and after surgery. THAT'S MY BOY-MY WARRIOR!! One nurse even commented on how "tough" he was. Yes, he is and he gets his strength from the One and only who is strong when we are weak!!!

To God Alone Be the Glory!!!

Winter Storm #7????

Yes, it is true.. Chris and I are home once again due to snow..This makes Nashville's 7th snow storm this winter. Never thought I would be complaining about being at home, but this is getting old!!
Even if you wanted to get out and go somewhere, people who forget how to drive when it snows, threaten your life!!

So it looks as if we are stuck for the time being.. We will welcome spring with open arms, in fact, we are supposed to have 60 degree weather by the weekend!! Yippee!!

Cade has been doing great. I finished up my bball season this past Tuesday and he was sad about it. I thought he would be thrilled, but he loved being with the girls. They were like his big sisters and they treated him like their little brother.

Chris' team is still playing so we will go watch some of his last games as well as a few of CPA's games. Cade enjoys going to the gym. Thank goodness, he really doesn't have a choice between Chris and I..

Continue to keep Cade in your prayers. We leave for Ohio on February 21st for another procedure. I know he will be upset and scared. So please pray for a calming spirit to surround him.

Staying warm!!

carlee

Been a While...

Sorry, it has been forever since I have updated this blog.. Christmas has come and gone and now we are left with a very cold winter. We have already had 4 snow days this winter and are expecting more in the weeks to come. We are sooooo ready for Spring--can't you tell? The snow has been beautiful, but it has overstayed its' welcome.
So since December, Chris and I have been very busy coaching our basketball teams. I have been coaching our 5th and 6th grade team, and it has been a blast!! I love them! I call them my "itty-bittys" They are so litte, but they are sooo scrappy!! Love it!!
Cade has been hanging with me during practice. The girls love him and of course he loves all the attention! Chris is coaching middle school and the assistant varsity coach. Needless to say, we are BUSY!!

In other news, my brother had another little boy last week named Bryce Tyler Marcum. He is so tiny and can't wait to see him! Mom and baby are doing great!

Cade also had another appointment with his cornea surgeon right before Christmas. He has more scarring on his cornea that will need to be removed, so we will head to Ohio in February to take care of that.
We are also hoping to finish the removal of his VM in his lower lid this year, but will wait and see what his recovery looks like from his cornea surgery.

We were all able to go to the circus last weekend. Cade had a great time and his favorite part was when they brought out the baby elephant. We had great seats-about 5 rows up from the floor. It was a great show until a little one sitting behind me puked all over my seat..Good thing I was already leaning forward with Cade..YUCK!!

Well, that has been our life in the past month or so. Will try to get back into more of routine with this blogging thing!

Blessings! Love ya'll!!