Update

So, here's the update:

Nate - He continues to be very easy. He sleeps a ton and is a good eater. He cries only when he's really upset and is sleeping through the night. We still don't know the prognosis of his hearing, but I feel the last test that showed he has mild hearing loss in both ears is probably pretty accurate. He doesn't respond to sound much unless it's very loud. We have an appt on the 18th with a pediatric ENT doctor and then another Audiology appt on the 30th - then we will likely need to get him fitted for a hearing aid and get him going on that ASAP. We have been having weekly visits at the house with early intervention. We're learning different ways to encourage physical and cognitive development - the meetings are helpful, but feel a bit overwhelming sometimes too.

Cody - He's doing much better. We were really having a hard time over the last 4 months of him hitting other kids without any reason. We actually had the children's pastor from our church come over to the house last week to talk about his behavior and ideas of how to deal with it...somehow though, it seems to have gotten better in the last week, so I'm very thankful for that. Cody seems to be doing better with Nate and is becoming a great little helper.

Bob - Work is going well and he continues to give everything he has to be a great dad and husband. He is beginning to develop a lot of great friendships and getting involved at church. He is going to play the drums at church for the first time this weekend and he and another guy from church are organizing a men's softball team. I'm really excited for him to have some outlets he enjoys!

Me - I'm adjusting to being a mom of 2. I'm getting into a better rhythm and enjoying the boys more. I am doing 2 Beth Moore Studies (Patriarchs and Esther) and am loving those (even though I don't usually make it through all of the homework). I went back to teaching Baby Boot Camp last week and it went well. I'm only scheduled to teach 1/wk, but taught 3x last week due to others being sick. A huge prayer answered is that a friend of mine from childhood who lives here in West Linn asked me if I would teach an early morning boot camp here if she got some people together. She just asked me last night and I told her I would need at least 8 ppl to get started - she emailed me tonight and she already has 6 interested. I'm really excited about this as I love teaching, but just couldn't figure out how to find the time/energy to market and get a crew together. We'll likely start at the end of April/early May.

Overall, we're doing pretty well. Each day is filled with mixed emotions. Most of the time I don't think much about Nate having Down Syndrome, but when I do it hits pretty hard. I still get sad and wonder why this happened to us. It's just hard to believe this journey is for life. We went to a dinner for parents with children with Down Syndrome on Friday night and it was both good and bad. There were about 40 people there. It was great to meet more people and recognize that we're not alone, but also difficult. We talked with one man whose son is 11 and his vocabulary is about the same as Cody's - that's really tough to swallow. We are pretty certain Nate will be fine physically, but the cognitive/communication piece is what we're most concerned about - we just won't know for a long time.

All we can do is trust that God knows our hearts and knows what's best for us.

-Danielle