Prayers Needed Again...

We are off to Vanderbilt Children's on Thursday the 22nd. Cade is scheduled is for another big procedure. It is similar to the one he had about a year ago. It is a very complex procedure with 2 doctors involved... Dr. Mericle and Dr. Mawn. We are not sure the length of the surgery, but the last took 7 hours. We are praying that the Lord will calm Cade as he enters the hospital on Thursday and that he will heal him quickly.
In this particular surgery they will remove more of the VM from his eyelids. Dr. Mericle will inject a glue-like substance into the eyelids which will harden the blood vessels. Dr. Mawn will then go in and remove what she can of the VM. Like I have stated in previous posts this is something that seems to be very complex and something Chris and I have come to believe will be a ongoing thing for Cade. I am not however completely sold on that fact, just because of how big of a God we serve and the power He has to completely heal Cade. I do believe that whole-heartedly!!!
If you will please lift up these two doctors on Thursday...pray for a calmness for Cade and that he does not get upset not having eaten all day(surgery is scheduled for 1:45-no food all day!), pray for a full recovery, and for this momma's heart!
I will update through facebook on Thursday and maybe some through the blog. Thank you again for all your prayers!!
Soli Deo Gloria-To God be the Glory!

love you all!!

SeaWorld

The second part of our vacation was spent in Orlando. We took Cade to SeaWorld. He had a blast. We got there pretty early and just in time for the dolphin and bird show. Cade was mesmerized. Birds flew through the crowd and were so low that we thought they would hit our heads. So neat! Between shows we went to see all of the animal encounters...sea turtles, sharks, flamingos, sea lions, manatees, etc. We went to the sea lion and otter show too. It was funny and Cade enjoyed it. They had a stingray encounter where you could touch all of the stingrays. Cade would not go near the water. He was not that impressed and I couldn't make myself touch them either. He loved the dolphin encounter! We viewed them from underneath the tank as well. Of all the animals there, he hasn't stopped talking about the dolphins. He loved them!!!!
The last show we went to was the Shamu "Believe" show. I have always loved this show and amazed at the enormity of these animals. Incredible! It was an amazing show, but no trainer ever entered the water with the animals. I was guessing it was because of the death of one of the trainers last year at this park. Cade liked the show, but I think he could have watched the dolphin one all day.
By the end of the day we were all pooped!! We went back to the hotel and went for a swim.

We also happened to be about 20 minutes from Gwen who was in the Orlando area for Jeremiah's national championship game. They played teams from all over the nation and the championship game was Saturday. We drove over to watch Team 147 play and they won! On top of that Jeremiah won MVP. You have to remember, Jeremiah was like our own son when he was a baby. We practically help raise him and always took him places, so it was neat to get to watch him play. He is now 11. Crazy!! Another "extra" about going to watch him play was that Shaq was there. He was walking in the door as we were walking out. Jeremiah played his son's team earlier in the week and beat them. So of course I got a pic of him..Man, he is HUGE!

We headed to Madeira Beach that afternoon for the week with my parents. More on that later..

Satellite Beach..

We have spent the last few days in Satellite Beach, Florida visiting Chris' Aunt Cathy. It is gorgeous down here and they live practically 3 minutes from the beach. We went to the beach yesterday and it is quite different from the gulf. The water is FREEZING and the waves are huge, which would explain why Cade wouldn't go near the water..Anyhoo, we have had a relaxing few days. Today we visited the marina so Cade could see the boats and huge manatees. It was a treat for all of us to see the manatees. So neat! Tomorrow we are headed to SeaWorld. Hoping the rain holds off for us and that Cade has the time of his life! To say it is HOT down here is an understatement..We have stayed cool thanks to Aunt Cathy's pool!!

VACATION!!!!

So we are about to head out for a few days. Cade is so excited and has actually counted down how many more "sleeps" we have until we leave. We were planning to head to Orange Beach for a week, but the oil has changed our plans somewhat. So we decided to go visit Chris' aunt in Satellite Beach, Florida, on the Atlantic side. We will stay with them for a few days and decided since we are so close to Orlando we will make a stop to SeaWorld. Cade has not stopped talking about SeaWorld. He is not a big animal person, but has always loved ocean animals so this will be a special treat for him.
We are also going to be in Tampa for a week with my parents and my brother's family. Our vacation with them to Seagrove Beach was moved further down the coast also due to the oil. We are very ready for some family time and to spend more time with Chris before his crazy football schedule starts in July. We feel very blessed to be able to get away for a few weeks!

On a side note, we did hear from Cade's doctor this week regarding his recent MRI. It was not news that I wanted to hear. She told us that the VM has increased in size and is "different" in some areas. I am not sure what all this means, but I am not going to jump to conclusions either. Again, my prayer for Cade is really a miracle.. that our BIG God will just heal this VM and remove it or keep it from growing or re-appearing in other areas. That is my prayer. I was reminded again this morning during our worship service that "nothing is impossible for Him..nothing is impossible, because He holds the world in His hands!!!"

Will post more of our trip in a few days!!! Love you all!!!

My Celebrity Crush

(disclaimer: i apologize for the randomness of this post-ha!..)

Okay, so everyone has one but not everyone would admit to having one. I must admit that my celebrity crush changes from time to time, but right now it is Carrie Underwood. Yes, I have a little obsession for her right now. Her new CD has been out for a while and Cade and I love to listen to it in the car. She is getting married in July and coming to Nashville on tour in October. I do not have tickets YET, but hope to get them!!! A few of my students went to a benefit concert last night for flood relief here in Nashville and guess who showed up??? She did!! They sent me a couple of pics of her performing. So great!!!

Off to the Races!!!

Felt like it has been forever since I last posted. We are thoroughly enjoying our summer! We have had some fun times and it has been very relaxing.. very thankful that I have summers off.
We visited my parents a few weeks ago just to get out of town for a few days. As most of you know, Cade loves cars! He has so many hot wheels that we have given boxes away at times to other kids. It is all he plays with at home. He races with them, lines them up in many different ways, tows them to the garage to get fixed, etc.. It is what he loves to do.

My parents live about 5 minutes from the drag park. They have lived there for some time and you can always hear the races from their house at night.
We decided to take Cade to the races. Number one, I felt like the biggest redneck paying for a ticket to the drag race. Number two, was not dressed properly-I guess proper attire was cut off blue jean shorts, tank top and at least 3 tattoos on each arm. Number three a bad sunburn from being there all day!

My mom and I took Cade and we waited and watched several different kinds of cars each line up to race. It was very loud and I thought Cade would want to leave, but he just covered his ears and watched! He loved every minute of it and it was all he talked about for the next few days. Even now when he plays, he says, "red, yellow, green.."
It was fun to watch him enjoy something that he loves!

Back to VCH..

We headed back to Vanderbilt Children's yesterday for Cade's MRI. He is having surgery in July so the doctors wanted to get a grasp on what they would be working with and how much of the VM is left in the orbit area. This is a routine procedure, but Cade's fear of the hospital never makes things so routine.
They gave him what we call "happy juice" to calm his nerves before they gave him his IV and it worked great. I would love to have some of that in a bottle here at the house at times! It always seems to make things a little bit more pleasant for him and his parents of course.
When he woke up in recovery he was ready to eat. They gave him teddy grahams and juice. He kept asking "can we go home now?" Because he wet himself earlier, they also gave him some Spiderman boxers that he has worn since we left the hospital..ha!
On the way home he kept saying,"they almost gave me a poke mommy.." So glad he didn't remember any of that!
He is doing great and was back to his old self by the time we got home yesterday. He is very excited, because today we are headed to Chattanooga to see Nana and Papa! That is all he has talked about since yesterday, so much so, he would not go to sleep last night! He loves to visit his Nana and Papa!!!