Still a journey

Today February 12, Joseph is six months old. His half birthday. It has been an amazing journey and it will continue on for quite some time. I remember when he was about 4 weeks old and he was still in the hospital. Some friends asked us when they could see him and I replied, "not until at least 2008." They were shocked because it had not really sunk in how we would have to keep him out of circulation. It kind of shocked me too. Maybe we are over protective but until we hear one of the doctors say, "they surgery went much better than expected." we are going to stay a little gun shy. I think that not hearing that line has been our biggest frustration. Each surgery has been a step forward but not the leap forward we hope for. This last surgery has proven to be the same. It is progress but now there are other issues.
Joseph is having a tough time breathing out his tube free nose. It is hard for him to eat and sleep so he is a bit less happy and we are a bit more frustrated with the effort it takes for him to feed. He has to stop and start constantly to catch his breath. Watching him eat actually makes us breath harder as we try to will more air into him. We saw the doctor on the 11th and he gave us a few more tricks to try to help Joseph tough it out. If it gets worse or if Joseph starts losing weight, he will go back in surgery to have new tubes put back in. That will allow him to eat better, but it will mean an additional surgery to remove them once again. Each surgery is tough on him and tough on us. (But they tell us that the tenth surgery is free--as long as we have our card punched!)
I learned to like the tubes that Joseph had for 5 1/2 months. They were easy to keep clear and he tolerated them very well. But I was so glad to see them go. Now we are facing the prospect of having them return. That is not our goal. We are going to do all we can to keep him tube free. So we ask you once again to keep him in your prayers. This child has taught us so much. He has also confused us so throughly at times. I have a few questions for God that I hope will be answered some day--but for now we are content to continue the journey with all of you walking along with us.
HAPPY HALF BIRTHDAY JOSEPH!
Someday he will read that and know how he has been loved from the start.

In gratitude,

Kenny

p.s. Come back soon and I will have some more pictures