Just Back From Surgery

Praise God Abbey is just out of surgery. We just got done meeting with Dr. Hanley and they were able to complete the AP Window and he was also got rid of the two collateral arteries that were providing the majority of the blood flow to the lungs without going on bypass(helping in the recovery process). With the AP Window all of the blood flow is now going through the Pulmonary Arteries, which we hope will promote growth of the pulmonary arteries. The wait as always was difficult, but we fell very blessed that she is out of surgery and is stable. Today was our sixth open heart surgery with three children, and each one has been just as difficult for us, but with God's comfort, your prayers and the support we recieve from all of you we are able to continue to get through each of these. We are going to see her now and will keep you all posted, please keep Abbey in your prayers as we now face the next step, which is the difficult recovery process.

Thank you!!!

Adam

Surgery postponed until tomorrow

We just received notice that Dr. Hanley (our surgeon) has a case that is going to take all day and he will not be able to take Abigail until tomorrow afternoon.  Sigh.  We will keep you posted.  

We deeply thank you for all your loving comments, thoughts and prayers.  

Lifes greatest blessings and trials

Preserving through life's trials is not always easy, but without the belief  that God is sovereign and knowing that his ultimate plan will shine through any circumstance, it is this that is carrying us through this very difficult time.  We just found out today that Abigail is going to have open heart surgery tomorrow afteroon.  Not only was this devastating news, we also found out that this will only be a temporary fix until her corrective repair in three months.  We will fix our minds on...God says do not worry about anything, but with prayer and supplication make your requests known to God and then the peace of God will guard your hearts and minds.

Phillipians 4:6-7  With that being said we ask that you would include our sweet princess in your prayers.

Please pray for~

-God to guide the hands of the surgeon (Dr. Hanley)  and all who will be involved in the surgery

-For God to hold Abigail in his hands and protect her little body

-For Adam and I as we feel so very weak and heartbroken that we will once again be facing another open heart surgery for our little child once again.

Your prayers and support have always been such a blessing to our family, thank you.  We will do our best to update as soon as we can. Abigail will be second case so it may be a late afternoon surgery.  

Little bit of information on our week since Abigails arrival.

Monday August 17th:

We enjoyed a great dinner with our family who all came out to be with us for little miss Abigails arrival.

Thank you to everyone for being here for us and for loving us the way you do! We love you!

Tuesday:

"A Blessed Day"  At 10:05 we heard the first cry of our new little princess.  All I can remember is Adam jumping out of the chair to see his baby girl and the tears streaming down my face.  During my last c-section I was put to sleep and did not get to experience the great joy of hearing the kids come into this world.  So, I was extremely excited when Miss Abigail let out her first cry.  Then it was followed with the nurse saying, "She's beautiful-8 lbs(I knew the ice cream would help :) and she has a full head of hair."  Seconds later they brought her near my face and I was able to kiss her her head and Adam and I instantly fell in love with our new little blessing.  Adam followed the nurses to the NICU and I followed shortly there after (passing a big cheering section-our family :)  and was wheeled on my bed directly into the

NICU (what an amazing experience) to hold my baby girl.  I wish I could share with you how much that moment meant to me.  

THANK YOU GOD FOR THIS BLESSING YOU ENTRUSTED TO US

Our new little blessing

Abigail Elyse Chez

8lbs 19 1/2 inches

Wednesday:Such a special day!  Luke came in to meet his baby sister.  His eyes were beaming and he kept saying Hi Baby Abigail...while rubbing her hair and kissing her forehead.  Once again tears filled my eyes as thoughts of Gracie continued to run through my mind...Gracie would of loved to meet her sissy and now Luke once again has a sissy here on earth with him.  Someone to love on like he did with Gracie~Someone to share his love until he meets up with Gracie in Heaven.

Thursday and Friday:  Sweet baby girl had her first procedure a CT Scan which in the end the results were not as clear as we hoped so we scheduled a Catheterzation for Monday.  Once the scan was done we were able to spend quite time with her.

During this time Grandma Laura and Grandma Marsha have been with us every minute and have been more than amazing with their strength, love and dedication.  They have been spending time with Abigail and of course day in and day out with Luke.  Luke is running the show with his Grandmas and needs serious boot camp when we return home...No words will every be big enough to express how much we appreciate our moms.  WE LOVE YOU!

Saturday and Sunday:Were quite and we enjoyed time holding, feeding, loving and caring for our sweet baby girl.

With our recent life events I have continuously been praying for God to help us fix our eyes on eternity and to live cherishing each moment.   Life is to precious to worry about what tomorrow will hold.  So we try to cast all our burdens on God and trust in him.  So we did our best during the week to live in the moment and love on our baby girl.

Now here we are today Tuesday the 25th awaiting Abigails surgery tomorrow.  This is when living in the moment becomes difficult.  This is when the fear sets in with the hurt.  When I look at Abigails innocent little body knowing that tomorrow she will have open heart surgery...the thought makes us want to just fall apart.  After this surgery and the additional weeks in the hospital we will look so forward to coming home as a family and going back to cherishing all those special moments.....again we appreciate all the prayers we can get tomorrow.

All our love,

The Chez Family
 

Our new little blessing

Our new little blessing~

Abigail Elyse Chez

8lbs 19 1/2 inchez

Our sweet baby girl is doing well and we are running test the next couple of days to see how to proceed with her heart condition.  We feel so very blessed and will send a more detailed update with more photos soon.  

Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers..All our love!

Wanted to send an update on our favorite little man, Luke.  On August 5, we went to see Dr. Perry. (the Dr. who put Luke’s stent into his existing valve)  The echo showed there has been no changes at this time.  Praise God!

 An echo is one appointment Luke does not mind

I don't like Luke to be surprised by any appointments so, after Luke’s open heart surgery back in September ‘08’ I promised him I would always be honest and let him know what each appointment was for.  Of course sometimes this ends up being really difficult when I have to tell him when he is going in for a procedure.   Which brings me to last Tuesday....

After meeting with Dr. Cox (Luke’s GI Doctor) we felt we needed to complete one final test (Endoscopy) in hopes to find the cause of his constant discomfort and occasional vomiting.

 We are already aware of the fact that Luke has:

-Reflux

-Esophagitis

-Possible Abdominal Migranes

But we wanted to make sure we were able to catch any allergies and most importantly if Luke had a bacterial infection. 

We had to wake Luke up early on Tuesday for the procedure, which sadly is a sign to him that he is going to the hospital.  It broke my heart because he started crying and saying, “Mommy and Daddy” please don’t take me there, followed by what are they going to be doing?  I explained we had to go do a test to check on his stomach.   Then when we were there he was crying and begging not to get the red medicine (Versed-helps in making them sleepy before the have to be put to sleep and also helps with anxiety).  He of course threw it up :( and we had to take him in without the medication.  I was unable to go in the room, since I am pregnant so Daddy went in with him.  I was sitting in the room as I heard Luke screaming to his Daddy because they were trying to put the mask on him.  Thank goodness the procedure was only 20 minutes and Luke started to wake up within 20 minutes thereafter.  

As we were in the recovery room, Luke just did not seem right.  He then sat up and started throwing up blood. :(  Which was followed by his entire face turning bright red.  They explained the blood was from the biopsy and they felt the redness and swelling of the face was  some type of allergic reaction to the antibiotic.  Although this was a small procedure compared to the others he has had to face, it was still heartbreaking to see Luke go through all of this.

I did my usual one minute thing, “Lord why is it we have to go through all this?”

Then the wonderful thing that we are blessed with is, God’s comfort.  It’s just in our tired moments and when we hurt for our children we loose sight sometimes of God’s soverignty. Which in my heart I feel is totally OK and normal.  As long as we are brought back to the truth and do not dwell on things that our not in our hands. 

*Thank goodness for our faith in the Lord and thank goodness he is there whether it’s big or small he is always there catching us and pulling us back up.

After a few hours we were able to come home and by the next day, Luke was ready to go.  We are thankful this will be one of the last “big” test he will need in regards to his GI Issues.  Once the results are provided we can move forward and continue a plan of the correct meds and continue to work on feedings.

So glad it is behind us and now our little guy is back to having some fun.

Last Sunday we got a special visit from Grampy and Mimi.  We went to Cheesecake Factory to celebrate an early birthday for Grampy.  We had a great visit and of course Luke had lot’s of fun playing with them and was excited that they had a sleep over.  

On Thursday we had another real special visit.  When I became friends of the Nelson family I was so deeply touched when Victoria shared an update with Moriah's sweet friend Vivian.  It made me so happy to see the girls together and the bond that Victoria and Hannah had instantly, as most heart moms find.  I've since followed Vivian's blog that is dedicated to her by her mom, "Hannah" and have been so touched and inspired.  Hannah and I shared some emails and since she lives in the area she offered to come visit Luke and I.  AND what a treat it was!  I just loved them both.  Grandma Laura, Luke and I truly loved our time.  Thanks Hannah for the visit, YUMMY food and for Luke's book. 

 

Grandma Laura and Grandma Marsha took Luke to San Francisco on Friday, for the day.  They spent time at pier 39 and had lot’s of fun! Luke is the happiest boy in town when he is with his Grandma's. :) 

The end of our busy week...yesterday we headed down to the park (at our complex where we are staying) and enjoyed a hosted “kids day at the park”  Luke had so much fun! Later that evening with only 3 days left for our baby girl...Adam and I went on what will probably be our last date night for quite a while :)  Thanks Grandma Laura and Grandma Marsha for watching Luke!

We have our c-section scheduled for Tuesday, August 18th at 9:00am.  Please help us pray for a safe delievery and for God to guide the hands of all the doctors and nurses who will be taking care of our sweet baby girl as soon as she arrives.  Thanks for checking in!  

Awaiting our baby girls arrival

We are officially settled in up north. For those of you who were unaware, we will be delivering our baby girl at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital at Stanford, in Palo Alto, CA. There were a few reasons as to why we chose the hospital. One big one is that we wanted to have Dr. Frank Hanley, a gifted heart surgeon, perform the surgery on our baby girl. Dr. Hanley specializes in the corrective surgery for the heart condition that she has and after meeting him a couple of times, we are extremely confident in his abilities and most importantly LOVE his sincere personality. He listens to all of our concerns and has taken all the time needed to make us feel comfortable and confident in what will need to be done with our precious baby girl.

We arrived here in Palo Alto over a week ago and last week we were at the hospital taking care of all our big appointments:

-We had an ultrasound and baby girl is growing and everything looks great.

-I’ve been contracting quite a bit, but she does not seem to be affected by them at this time.

-Scheduled my C-section for August 18th-Please pray we make it that far, we want her to be as big and strong as she can

-Met with Surgeon Dr. Hanley-As I mentioned before, we will not know until she is born if surgery will need to be done right away. He did mention there would be a very high possibility that we can stabilize her enough and take her home for 2-3 months before she needs her surgery. This will help in getting her a little stronger for what is to come.

-Met with Dr. Susan Hintz-Neonatology- she went over in full detail as to what the plan will be as soon as our baby girl arrives:

*She will be immediately taken into the NICU

*Within a few hours they will then do a Cardio echo

*Day 2 or 3 Dr. Perry will then perform a cardiac Catheterzation on her. Which means they will put her to sleep and then insert a long narrow tube into the blood vessels near the groin area. This procedure allows us to take pictures of the heart and how it functions. Which in return will give us the information we need to see when surgery will be needed.

*if the findings are favorable, they will then start feedings and we should be released within a few days. We will return home for the two months and then be back up for surgery.

After meeting with everyone we feel blessed to have such a great team in place. We have been so very pleased with every single person we have met. From the surgeon, many Doctors, nurses to the staff. Everyone has been so kind and very knowledgeable with our case. It seems as anyone who reads our file, gives their condolences about Gracie, then they ask how luke is and they follow up with assuring us we are in excellent hands and baby girl chez will be very well taken care of. Such a blessing!

We will miss the wonderful team at Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles as they too have become part of our family. We will look forward to going back to LA to continue our follow up care with our children's cardiologist Dr. Skalansky and all the other wonderful staff that we love so much.

As for our little man Luke. He will be getting an echo tomorrow to see how his heart has been reacting to the stent. Also, we have been dealing with many vomiting episodes and have been trying numerous medications. Dr. Cox up hear at LPCH ran some blood work on Luke and the tests came out good. He believes Luke could be suffering Abdominal migraines and has started him on an additional medication. We continue to pray for Luke’s GI issues to get better and for a good echo next Wednesday.

God has been very gracious in helping us stay strong. We have been brought to our knees and completely humbled by him. We are doing our very best to not be anxious about what is to come. We know trusting in God means to trust in him completely and at all times.

God is the one who gives us life and it is his plan that we continue to trust in.  Even though we are nervous for our baby girl we are so very excited to meet her and see her beautiful face and precious little body. We have been on many journeys and through them all, even the darkest moments we have witnessed Gods love. Although our time with Gracie was so short she truly was such a blessing and a great gift of love from God. We know our baby girl is just another addition to the love that God has provided us with.

While we have been awaiting her arrival we have really been enjoying our time here up north. It is absolutely beautiful up here. Being 25 min from San Fran., 15 min from Half moon Bay and 40 min. from Napa, how can you go wrong? Not to mention the beautiful tree lined streets, quaint downtown, being at an arms reach from Stanford University and the hospital, and mine and baby girls favorite “the food,” it’s so good! We have yet to have a bad meal.

Here are some photos we have taken in just the short time we have been here..

One of many tree lined streets..

We are renting an apartment for our stay and this is 

the path Luke rides down daily to his favorite park.

The first weekend we were out here we decided the boys would

pick what they would like to do on Saturday.   Daddy's choice was.....

And Luke's choice was....of course cars :)

And his favorite one was...

And mommy's choice was.....

Golden Gate bridge and of course.....

A Great Big Ghirardelli hot fudge sunday...yummmm!

We headed out to a great park to do what Luke loves best..

ride trains.  Grandma Laura was with us.  She has been amazing!

From driving us up..to getting us settled..to helping watch Luke..

to being out here when Daddy has to go to work. 

 Thanks mom for everything!  LOVE YOU!

We also had the chance to have a play date with Tyler and Riley Cox

Thanks Laura for meeting us at the park we had a great time!

Michelle (Danielle's sister) also lives up in the area and her and her

 beautiful sweet kids came over to visit us.  They brought Luke

 a fun bag of great activities to keep him busy while out here and for

 hospital visits.  The kids had a chance to play at the park and also

 went swimming in the pool. Thanks Michelle!

Here are the two Luke's, Lauren and Ella

The Ritz Carlton at Half moon bay.  Absouletely beautiful!  

We just went down for an hour to check out the

 view and  enjoy this amazing property!

Right down the street from us is Stanford University.  

Adam was so patient and took some great pics of mommy and baby girl Chez

One of my favorites... me and my guy...

Our next post will probably be after our baby girl arrives.  We thank everyone as always for all your prayers, love and  support.

All our love,

Adam, Terra, Luke, Angel Gracie and baby girl Chez

Sorrow, The Truth and Blessings..

As we near our sweet baby girls arrival, many emotions continue to fill our hearts. The joy and excitement of meeting her are also followed with the fear of what is to come.

The other evening before I fell asleep I was enjoying the movement of our new little baby girl. My thoughts then moved on to how badly I wish our sweet Gracie was here with us to meet her new little sister. I woke up with a heavy heart the next morning as my thoughts went right to when Gracie was in the hospital and we were having to say good bye to her. We have tried our best to rejoice about our new little one...and trust me we are so excited to meet her, but there is no way to get around the feelings of just having to let go of our other precious daughter only a year and a half ago and now having to face a similar path of having a baby girl with a heart condition.

The day Gracie went home to be with Jesus the doctors and nurses had been trying to save Gracie for over four hours and when we finally got to see her it was as if she was not the same little girl. Words will never be able to express that awful day and what it was like to have to be in that hospital room with our daughter. I don’t believe you could EVER be prepared for loosing a loved one, but we were so shocked. Even though Gracie had a heart condition we were no were near the point of concern for her life that day. We were thankful for the only comforting feeling that floated away with us as we walked out of the hospital without our baby girl....the Lord reminded me that it was just her flesh and her spirit is now with Jesus. It was helpful..but of course it does not change the fact that her flesh is what we held in our arms daily and so desperately ache to hold again. I’ve heard time helps heal the heart. I think for us it is not so much time, it is just the ability to fall completely on God and have him hold us up when we feel so deeply sad inside and when we fear the same thing can happen to our new little blessing. We do trust in God and his sovereignty, however we can’t help to feel nervous knowing how things can change so quickly. It is then when we just go right to God and pray and ask for him to please help us and remind us that regardless of time we will be blessed with our sweet baby girl.

Why would a good and loving God allow us to go through such things as the death of a child, other trials and tribulations?

The truth:Jesus said, “In this world you shall have tribulation” (John 16:33). Trials and distress are not something unusual in life; they are part of what it means to be human in a fallen world. In Christ we have an anchor that holds fast in all the storms of life, but if we never sail into those storms, how would we know that? It is in times of despair and sorrow that we reach out to Him, and, if we are His children, we always find Him there waiting to comfort and uphold us through it all. Even the sufferings we endure and which seem so terrible “are not worthy to be compared with the coming glory to be revealed in us” (Romans 8:18) Could God prevent all suffering? Of course. But He assures us that “all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose” (Romans 8:28). So even suffering is part of the “all things” that God is using to accomplish His good purposes. His plan is perfect, His character is flawless, and those who trust Him will not be disappointed.

Blessings:Although I have always been honest about our sadness about Gracie and the trials of caring for our special children I hope I have always shared how blessed we feel. We are always thankful for ALL the blessings we do receive and for all the special times God continues to make our hearts happy.

Gracie was and always will be our special Angel who brought us so much joy and taught us how to be courageous and love deeply. We know there was a complete divine purpose for Gracie’s life and we hold onto to God’s promises that we will one day be reunited with her again. WHAT A BLESSING!

Another big blessing... our precious sweet Luke. He has done amazing since his return from the hospital in May when he received his stent. He has had enjoyed time with his big family :) many play dates and fun activities. A week at Vacation Bible School was his favorite~followed by hanging out with everyone who he loves so much! I cannot tell you how happy our heart feels when we see him smiling and having fun. I believe trials make you appreciate life so much more and it makes us so happy to see our little guy having fun at whatever he is doing. We love our little guy so much and are so thankful we are blessed with him. Here are some pictures of Luke from the last 6 weeks.........

Swimming in the pool with friends Koral and Maddi.

Making some yummy cupcakes with cousin Kennedy

Having some fun with cousin Wyatt

Making smores with Cousins Victor Ryan and Marissa

Marissa, Miranda, Victor Ryan and Luke

Playing Ball with Daddy

Our dear friends the Gates family, put us in touch with their

aunt Marcia who was so generous to offer us the opportunity

to house her piano until she is able to sell it.

Luke loves playing us songs :)

Ryan Gates teaching Luke how to play the drums. For those

of you who attended our Hopeful Hearts event last year

you will definitely remember Ryan. He is the most amazing 13 year

old boy who also has a heart condition. He has taken his experience

and inspired many including our family. We love the Gates family

and feel so blessed to have been brought together.

As we prepare for our baby girls arrival sometime in August (more details by July 28th) we are going to be blessed once again. We are still unsure and will be until she is born as to when she will need surgery. It could be a day, a month or three months? At times when we are feeling overwhelmed and our hearts get anxious about what is to come...we then are blessed with the comforting feeling that we will get through this as we have before and we will just take in every blessed moment with our new little girl.

There are many blessings that are bestowed upon us, but the last one that I wanted to share was the blessing of all of you who continue to love and support us the way you do. “We have hurt like we never could of imagined but have been loved like we never knew we could.” THANK YOU!

We will have more information on the plan for our baby girl on July 28th. So I will send an update as soon as I can.

Thank you for loving us the way you do.

Love, the Chez Family

Adam, Terra, Luke, Angel Gracie, and baby girl Chez