March 2008: Happy 12th Birthday, Heather...

This was the birthday party--very quick! It was Easter week and amazingly busy with Russ gone every night because of play practice. Heather didn't even open any presents--we just took her to Target and told her to pick out a few things...don't recall having done that before.
What an adventure it has been with these 3 girls! All I can say to those of you with small children right now is, "Hold on!" "Buckle-up!" Whatever you need to do...I don't think I was quite prepared for how incredibly quick children grow up. God is gracious to us as parents as we raise, train, discipline, make mistakes, re-train, etc., our children. What a gift and blessing they are. As I think about Heather's 12th birthday, it is not without thankfulness for what He has done in her life physically. Some of you may remember, she was born with a hole in her heart (atrial septal defect). I was always told by her first cardiologist that if a person had to choose a hole in their heart that would be it. Not life threatening, no physical symptoms--just a hole. No need to really do anything, we'll just watch it. God, in His sovereignty, had been at work all this time changing circumstances little by little. We just remained faithful having her checked every 3 years. We received word that her cardiologist retired and she was being assigned a new one. Our first appointment was June of 2007-the end of another 3 years. As we met, Dr. Kyser continued to ask us questions. No, we didn't know her heart was enlarging and no we definitely didn't know she had 2 holes. He recommended a procedure called Cardiac Catheterization as soon as we could. He just so happened to specialize (See!! Isn't it incredible how God just knew we would need this particular doctor??) in that area. This was completed in July 2007 and by August 2007 both holes had completely closed and her heart, if I remember correctly, was back to its normal size by the day after the procedure. We are so thankful for God's hand in all of this--amazing how He works and exciting for us to reflect on His wonderful sovereign grace!