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!!