Friday, January 30, 2009

Happy <3 Day!

It has been one year since Lucy's little heart was patched up and we are celebrating with a day of heart shaped food and all kinds of yummy treats. I'll try to post some pictures of our festivities later tonight.

***sorry for the picture posting delay. We had so much fun yesterday that we all sacked out early!***

The girls woke up early and we had heart shaped toast with nutella for breakfast. The scarfed them down before I got a picture. Next we went to IKEA for some fun playing in the children's decor section and of course some yummy Swedish meatballs for lunch. Oh how I love IKEA!

Oh no...Grandma's being eaten by a hippo!

I'm only including this picture so you can fully appreciate the hat...It's a birthday cake with candles! Wait, it looks like I have horns...AND I'm being eaten by a hippo!

Maryn in a moment of reflection

Trying to get a picture of both girls together, AKA mission impossible.

Chris made a heart-shaped pizza for dinner and my contribution was chocolate cupcakes with vanilla buttercream frosting which Maryn decorated with sprinkle hearts. You may question the choice of cheesy pizza and buttery frosting for a kid with heart problems but we're just following doctor's orders :)

Heart ice cube tray from IKEA

This is kind of a birthday do-over as she was not too into cupcakes then. How things have changed!

We really wanted to do some kind of fund-raiser or to adopt a family going through something similar as a way to mark this milestone in our lives. Time and HIPAA regulations prevented us from organizing it for this year, but I wanted to mention that donations made to this Compassion International fund are used to provide medical care for children with all manner of medical conditions, including heart defects, to kids in third-world countries. We love Compassion!

There is also a really good movie that was made about the doctors who pioneered open heart surgery to save the lives of babies with Tetralogy of Fallot. It is called Something the Lord Made and stars Alan Rickman and Mos Def. It hit close to home knowing that if Lucy had been born 50 or 60 years ago there would be no treatment to save her.

We are so thankful for our sweet Lucy-goosey, for the doctors and nurses that took such wonderful care of her, for our friends who have supported us and prayed with us through it all, and for our wonderful Father who has had us in His hands the whole time.

Happy heart day, everyone!

12 comments:

Pastor Katherine said...

What a wonderful way to celebrate such a monumental event in the life of your family!

Pastor Katherine said...

Oops, I'm signed into the church account. ;-)

Amber G. said...

Happy heart day! What a blessing to get to celebrate a year of wholeness.

Lots of love to your fam!
Amber

.kim.h. said...

Yay!!! Love this!!! Happy Heart Day Lucy!!!

meg said...

so wonderful! I can't wait to see the pictures. Happy Heart day!

Jessica said...

Thanks, guys! And Katherine, does your church have a blog?? I'll have to check that out!

kwpershey said...

Yes and no... I used to put sermons on a blog, but then they got plagiarized and I stopped. I tinkered with writing a blog on the church website, but I haven't posted in over a month. I don't think anyone ever read it! We do have a gmail account for email, so that's what I was signed into.

Carol said...

Jess, you are so creative. And Oh my Goodness, I have such cute grandchildren. It's hard to believe that the surgery was a year ago. She is doing just great now. We "heart" you!

steph cowell said...

oh, that is beautiful!!! I miss you guys! and I hope you and your mom survived the hippo bites. those can be nasty

Melissa B said...

praise God as we rejoice with you guys in this celebration - and you guys are too cute in all of the heart stuff... btw, we love IKEA too!

Anonymous said...

IKEA is such a treat... and yay for healthy & happy hearts all around.
xo,
Linnea

Hannah Harder said...

What fantastic ways to celebrate! Hurray! Now we can get on with this arranged marriage thing. :)