New Development

Alrighty! Lord, you are good and I know you will provide in your perfect way,whatever that means. Everyone that was left at Kenny's company was given a 10% paycut today. Please be praying even more fervently that the Lord provides a caregiver for Maia by January so I may return to work as soon as possible. Each new trial is an opportunity to point to Him more! I am not be sarcastic, I promise....I am actually very excited to see how God is going to use this new circumstance! Father, work!

Oh, also...Mom is having a rotten day. She is feeling pretty poorly right now. It is the official 48 hours after chemo treatment woes. Please pray that nausea and fatigue and pain away!

Whew!

Kenny just called me and said that his bosses laid off 22 people from his company today. His company is not that huge so this is quite a large development. Everyone was hoping to get bonuses today. This is the typical day for the bonuses to be handed out. What a shock it was to come in and be handed your pink slip and then be escorted off the property. They are not even letting them work the rest of 2008. Thank the Lord Kenny was not among those without a job now, but he wanted me to get on my blog and let everyone know to be praying for his friends and colleagues who are jobless now. There are many hurting and scared folks out there.

The LOVE for a MOTHER

This past week my mother's hair started to fall out. It didn't fall out in clumps, but just more hair in the brush and individual hairs falling out a little at a time. She decided to go to the salon last Thursday evening to get it all shaved off. Little did she know that as she was preparing to go to the salon, my brother, Joel, was shaving off what he could at home, including his beard and mustache. Toby, Joel's wife, entered the salon first and handed my mom a bag and told her that Joel wanted her to have it. She opened it and wondered why Joel would give her such dark ugly hair that wasn't even her color. As she was about to pick up some of the hair, Joel walked into the salon in all his ineptly shaved glory. The salon erupted in howls and claps. Many of my moms friends were there for support. Joel looked pretty rough. He did get it cut shorter by the stylist after my mom's head was complete.

Here is a picture of my beautiful mother and her wonderful son!

I wasn't sure how I was going to see my mom bald, but she looks awesome! I am so proud of her and how she is handling each day and each new challenge with this stinking illness! I am also proud of my brother and I love him so much for showing such awesome love for our momma.

Toby tried to prepare Ethan, their son, for his dad's change in appearance on the way home from the daycare. She told him that all of daddy's hair was gone. Ethan kept saying on the way home..."Daddy hair gone, Daddy hair gone". When he entered their home and saw Joel he kept laughing and laughing and couldn't stop for a while. Too funny!

I am also proud of my two guys. They were inspired by Joel's act of love and wanted to show their mother-in-law and grandma the same heartfelt act. So here they are in all their shaved glory as well.

It is weird to look at all my family members and only see bald heads. It is going to take a while to get used to this. Gideon and Kenny both are much colder when they go out and need to wear snow caps on their heads. I wanted to "Sinead" it (go bald) for my mom too. I have always wanted to shave off all my hair and what a great reason to do it for my mother, but I just spent a lot of money on a style and color job a few weeks ago and Kenny would have killed me if I had shaved it all off so soon. Maybe in a month or so! Hee Hee

Doesn't he have a cute noggin? He loves rubbing his daddy's head and his. The "feel" is cool he says.

All my baldies! Too cute!

Can't wait to get a picture of my mom with my family in a little over a week.

We love you so much, Grandma Judy! We will look at all our bald heads and be constantly reminded to lift our loving Grandma up in prayer each and every day! May the Lord be with you encouraging in soul, spirit, and body. May His healing touch be upon you!

Here is one of our Christmas gifts to you!

Reflecting

Amazed by the World Around Her

Daddy's Girl


Doting Cousin



Why Oughta!




My Reflective Pose

My Cousin Kim Visiting Me From Connecticut!

Hanging out with my Bro before Bedtime and After my Bath

Our Ladybug!

I think my Brother Loves Me!!!!

Yup! He Does and I Love Him too!

I used to think that that our family was immune to the woes of this world. I would watch different families around us suffer different tragedies while our family seemed to have a hedge of protection around us. I do believe there was a hedge of protection around us. Did we suffer sadness? Yes. But it was more of the normal kind...not the big stuff that some had to deal with...until this year. 2008 will be a pivotal year in the history of the Gerdis family, well at least in my heart and mind. I thought that between Maia's HRHS diagnosis, mom's dealings with cancer, my dad breaking his arm, and parents almost getting obliterated by a semi truck. That would be it you would think. Right?

Well, we have one more notch to add to the Gerdis 2o08 list before the year is out. This is actually a mixed bag of good and bad news. My brother, Micah, and his longtime girlfriend, Gina, just found out that they are expecting a little girl. Gina has been very sick with lupus symptoms and has been in and out of the hospital this year for treatments on her liver and recently on her kidneys. With all the pain and symptoms she has been experiencing she did not know she was pregnant. She has been on different medications throughout the pregnancy. She only has 9 more weeks until her due date, however she is 75% effaced and the doctors think she might go into labor in the next week or so. She is a little over 31 weeks and the doctors really want her to make it to 34 weeks if possible. Please be in prayer for this little baby, for Gina, and for Micah! This is a difficult time for them. May the Lord surround them with his love and healing during this time. The baby will have many issues when she is born according to the doctors. Development of the lungs and bleeding on the brain are some of the major concerns.

Now, I don't want you to think that all of a sudden I am bitter. I am not. I am just realizing that this hedge of protection that I have always felt from the Lord and taken for granted seems to have lifted for a while. I am not sure the reason, but His reasons are always sovereign and for His glory. Lord, I pray that our family will only be used as a testament for You.

My mom had her head shaved tonight. She has about a quarter of an inch of hair now. What was very special about this night is that Joel shaved his head and goatee as a symbol of support and solidarity with my mom as she fights this battle. She did not know that he was going to do this. Many of the ladies that are such a support to my mom came to the hair salon tonight. Toby showed up and handed my mom a bag and told her that this was from Joel. My mom opened it up and there was all this dark brown ugly hair in the bottom of the bag. My mom thought..."Why would Joel send me such ugly hair? It isn't even my normal color!!!" Then at that moment Joel walked into the salon in all his bald-headed glory! The salon of ladies erupted in laughter, whoops, and claps! They said they took many pictures and hopefully I will get to post some of them on this site soon. Mom said as she was going through the process that many of the people were crowded around her saying that she looked really cute and that she had a great round head. It was pretty nerve-racking for her though. She got her wig fitted and she said she feels pretty comfortable with it.

I wish I could have been there tonight! Oh this darn distance! I told her that I would have loved to have shaven my head as well, but since I just spent money on a haircut, style, and color, I better hold off for a while. :) I think my boys, Kenny and Gideon, might want to shave their heads as support for her as well. If they do, I will make sure to share the images. Dad wanted to know if he should shave his head for my mom, after he found out what Joel did. After trying to picture my father without hair, my mom told him definitely not! :) I agree. Hee hee.

Oh by the way, Toby, Joel's wife, was trying to prepare their son, Ethan, for his daddy's change in appearance. Ethan is 2 1/2 years old. She told him that Daddy had no more hair. So all the way home from daycare tonight, Ethan kept saying..."Daddy no hair, Daddy no hair". Well, when he got in the door and saw Joel, Ethan started laughing uncontrollably. Too funny! Thanks for the comic relief, Ethan!

Maia had her cardiology appointment this past Tuesday. She is doing well. Her right ventricle has grown a millimeter. Her blood flow out the heart has improved. The ductus between the two sides of the heart is still about the same size as it has been for the past month. Her oxygen levels were okay. I asked what the blood flow of a normal hearted baby was and Dr. Rivera told me that she doesn't and won't compare. I guess I will have to do my own research, but Maia's was (at the highest) 31. I am not sure what that means, so I will have to bone up on that and get back with you all. Maia is also gaining weight like a champ and is now a whopping 8 lbs. 11 oz. You go, girl!

Dr. Rivera did mention that sometime later on, Maia will probably need another valvul0plasty (the catherization and balloon procedure she had her second day of life outside the womb). She told me that this is typcial with HRHS babies who have had this procedure so early on in life. I was comforted by this, since Dr. Rivera did not mention the Fontan or Glen procedures that open up the chest. I will have to ask Dr. Rivera if these are still possibilities later on in life for her or if she thinks this might be all.

I will be going back to work next month on January 5th. I have mixed feelings about this. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at home with Maia, but at the same time I have missed my school family and try to stop in and visit with them whenever I can. I don't have a caregiver for her yet, so it is still up in the air, but I am trusting that the Lord has the right person out there. Please continue to pray that the Lord will provide the best person to watch out little ladybug.

Please also pray for this transition time. I know it will not be easy and also trying to get back into the swing of things might be difficult.

I thank the Lord for all his blessings. Thank you, Lord, for all You have provided, but more importantly for all that You are. May all your attributes be magnified as I ineptly try to point towards you in my life!