Feeling Blessed

Our Luke is doing great! He is loving school and enjoying time with his teachers and friends. He is now playing T-ball and doing really good. He turned five this month and is definitely acting like a five year old. He is like a sponge and wants to know everything! He is amazing us everyday with the things he comes up with and at times he is super funny with his comments. He is growing up too fast, so we are trying to enjoy every minute with our little guy.

Little Miss Abigail is doing great as well! She was born a "happy baby." She loves to smile and laugh. She is getting so strong and loves to roll across the enitre room. The biggest blessing is she is doing so much better with her formula. Today we were told she weighs 17lbs! I pray daily about how wonderful it has been to feed Abbey. We have an appointment with her cardiologist next Thursday, however, she seems to be doing wonderful. The pediatrician said her lungs sound great which we are hoping means that her lungs do not have fluid around them. She is such a little blessing and her personality is developing daily.

With everything going so well, there are times when my heart feels so happy. However, at the same time it always is thinking of Gracie. As Luke grows up we always imagine what Gracie would of been like at his age. As Abbey is starting to develop her personality she sometimes reminds us of Gracie. Although she is always in our hearts we try not to show the void we feel in our hearts at times. Our time we spend grieving for Gracie is at private moments. Adam and I went to dinner last night and we were sharing how difficult loss is and how your heart is forever changed. We were saying that we feel so blessed that we had the three years with Gracie that we did. Then of course our eyes filled up with tears as we shared stories about our little princess. The "missing part" is what hurts so very much. We will always be comforted in knowing Gracie is safe with Jesus and we continue to pray that God helps us with our grieving for Gracie and that he continues to allow us to rejoice in all our special times with each other, Luke and Abbey.

The night of Luke and Gracie's birthday, we went and got Luke a cupcake...sang him happy birthday and then waited for the rain to stop so we could sing to Gracie and release her balloons.

Make a wish!

I asked Luke what he would like to write to Gracie.

Dear Gracie,

I miss you. I will be up in Heaven when God

wants me to then I can play with you.

I love you.

Luke

We love and miss you Gracie. We cannot wait to

be together again princess. Happy Birthday!

Since it was Luke's 5th birthday we had a birthday party with grandparents, aunties and his special friends. Thank you to everyone who came and made Luke's day so special! Enjoy the video

Since we are still having to be extra cautious with Abbey's health we are having "family days" outside. What better way to spend time together then at our favorite beach, Corona del Mar. Feel so blessed to live so close to such a beautiful beach. I've always loved the ocean...something about it...that's another blog story. :) Here are some pics of our day at the beach.

Adam and Luke on our way back

Thank you for checking in!

All our love, The Chez Family

Request for Help

As many of you know, we try our best at Hopeful Hearts to have as many resources available to families as possible. We are still growing as a foundation and have limited resources in some areas including, "in home care." So I wanted to reach out to all our friends and family to see if anyone can help.

We currently are in the process of starting a blog for Hopeful Hearts however, until it is completed I wanted to send this request over our personal blog.

We have a heart family in Orange County, that is looking for someone to hire to help to care for their four month old heart baby, that they will be bringing home soon. They are looking for someone who is available to work 30-40 hours a week and who could help with the following:

-Administrating medications (preferably someone who is experience in this area)

-Help with feedings

-House cleaning- consisting of sanitizing everything often as the doctors are very concerned with infections

-Laundry

Due to privacy issues I am unable to share too much additional information about the family and their daughter however, if you have further questions or know of anyone who may be interested in the job please contact the heart families friend: Margie Sullivan at margiesato@hotmail.com

You can always contact me as well if you like: terrachez@hopeful-hearts.org

Thank you so very much!

Love to all!

Happy 5th Birthday!

Five years ago today, Adam and I received one of our greatest blessings, Luke and Gracie. Yesterday while Luke and I were outside playing I began to get a little teary eyed. As I watched Luke hit some balls, I was thinking "I cannot believe our little guy is five!" He is growing up so fast. The tears continued to stay as I thought about Gracie and wondered what she would look like today. It sometimes hurts to think she will always be three in our minds, and as Luke's birthday's come (since they share the same birthday) we will probably always go through this feeling. My hope is the hurt is a little less each year and that God continues to keep us focused on celebrating Luke, his life and all the love and blessings we receive from him. As all this was going through my mind, Luke said, " hey mom check out that butterfly, it is flying around your head." I turned so Luke would not see the tears, but then I smiled.

When Gracie passed I read this beautiful story on the life of a butterfly. It explained that it starts off as a caterpillar, then makes a cocoon and then after it has been there for sometime it moves on into another life as a beautiful butterfly. For Gracie's service we released butterflies, which to us represents a "New Life."

When Luke pointed out the butterfly while we were outside I could not believe it. It was as if Jesus wanted to remind us something. I feel that something was...Remember Gracie....miss her and shed tears when you need to, but then remember she is celebrating every day with Jesus and what a celebration that is! We will be sending her up five pink balloons today with a special note for her birthday! Luke always asks..."Mom, do you really think they it will make it up to Heaven.? Only God knows. : )

Today we woke up feeling God's new mercies and we are so very excited to celebrate our Luke's birthday! We thank God every day for giving us Luke, he has been such a blessing to us. For being only five he has the biggest heart! All that he has had to endure has made him a wise soul..he loves big, plays hard and most importantly has Jesus in his heart!

Things he loves:
-His family
-His friends
-His play friends (curious George, Gracie's doggy and pillow)
-School
-Cars
-Baseball
-Basketball
-Video Games
-Going to the park
-Riding his bike
-Riding his Ranger
-"New"Salsa Saturdays (Adam and him go down to the beach climb the rocks and then pick up Adam's favorite salsa)
-Reading books with mommy
-Playing with mommy and daddy
-Loving Abbey and playing with her
and so much more!!

I read this poem and loved it!
No amount of gold could ever compare, to the gift of love that my son shares.I've been blind and I couldn't see that all the love I've wanted is right here in front of me. He gives reason to get through another day. Maybe it's how he loves me in his special little way. And when it gets hard for me to sleep at night....He wraps his little arms around me and says God will make things right! From sweet gentle touches to his bear hugs and a kiss...That great big kool-aid smile and the twinkle in his eyes....Every time I look at him it makes me want to cry. But they're not tears of sorrow; they're tears of pride and joy....Too know that all the love in heaven is wrapped around my little boy. by Sabrina

Thank you God for entrusting us with Luke....we pray that we continue to be the parents that you called us to be. We also pray that you continue to help guide Luke, protect him and heal him.
Happy Birthday buddy we love you so much!!

Enjoying Some Firsts

Aside from miss Abigail still not taking in enough formula and her lungs being wet (which is still very concerning) Little miss Abigail is doing great! I want to step outside of all the concerns we still have for a moment and leap right into how well she is doing....

Her laughter is contagious... No one can make her laugh as hard as her brother. He can pretty much do anything and she cracks up! I love it! I'm going to invest in a flip sometime soon so I can share some of these priceless moments with you.

Her ability to make screaming noises makes our heart smile...she starts slowly talking (Abigail talk) then if no one is listening or she is being ignored it becomes louder and louder...typical girl.

The fact that she just had surgery a few weeks ago and is doing so well is such a blessing...we are just taking in each special moment.

We felt it was time to start a couple "firsts"

So let's jump right into it....First time in her excersaucer.........

Hmm..looks colorful

Big brother Luke showed her a couple things and

she went right at it!

Ok..now we are having fun!

Mommy...enough pictures already!

Since Abigail is not taking the bottle very well and

she seemed interested in food we decided to try cereal

a couple weeks early..she is after all 5 1/2 months!

First time eating

Not sure, but I think it taste good

umm...is there anymore in here?

I think there is a little left...

I think I almost got it all! :)

Tah Dah...All done!

First favorite blankie/kitty

Thanks Dana!

Oh...my sweet girl

We continue to pray that the Lord clears her lungs and helps her appetite come back!

Thank you for checking in.