Tyson Hugh Hooper

Tyson Hugh Hooper
Our son, Tyson Hugh Hooper, was born with coarctation of the aorta, hypoplastic arch, and a transitional avsd. His first open heart surgery reconstructed his aorta and was on day 9 of life. His second open heart repair was not anticipated to be needed until two or three years of age. Ty had other plans. We spent the vast majority of his first 3 months of life at Vanderbilt as he went into heart failure and was diagnosed with pulmonary hypertension. As a result, the medical team concluded that he needed the repair much sooner than usually recommended, and at just shy of 3 months old Ty underwent his second life saving open heart surgery. God has already worked so many miracles in Ty's life and the life of our family and we know he is using our story. Because of this, we are grateful for Ty's special heart and feel beyond blessed that God chose us to travel this road. We ask for prayers as Ty continues to heal. We are praying for a full recovery and life without restrictions for Ty. We are praying for God to use our family and Ty for His glory.

Thank you to each and every person who supports us through prayer, giving, or just by loving on our family! We are humbled and blessed by all of the ways the Lord is providing for us and know that he is using Ty and his story to do great things!

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Ducks and Football...

Whew! What a weekend so far! Warning: This could shape up as quite a lengthy post, so hang in there with me!

Update: for those of you who prayed for me and my germ, thank you! Here has been the progression of my thoughts: Friday... scratchy throat and sniffiles, darn those kids. Saturday... Oh **** I feel like I am swallowing razor blades, great. Sunday... YAY, I feel better, but I have absolutely, positively NO voice and I sneeze approximately every five minutes. :-) Somehow I have twisted all of this in my head to be a good thing because I have convinced myself that since my symptoms change each day that what I now affectionately call, "my germ" is just "running it's course" (I hope the course is short, cause I am ready to have my voice back!)

Saturday was a big day for me and lots of my friends! I began my day quacking! Okay, not really but I did see a lot of quackers! La and I showed up bright and early Saturday morning to help fellow Junior League members and volunteers set up for the annual Duck Derby that benefits the Child Advocacy Center! We worked the morning shift setting up and, as always, had a good time! I think I laughed the entire time I was there from the second La picked me up, until she dropped me off! It really doesn't matter what the two of us do together, we always have a fun time of it and this was no different! The good thing is while we are laughing it up and having a good time we are helping the community and children of Rutherford County and quite frankly, that feels good!

Here is, perhaps, the largest inflatable duck known to mankind! It was on the road to show people exactly where the derby began (too bad they didn't get it up sooner, right La?).

Here are me and our friend Susan! She is in Junior League as well and La and I were so glad that she was on the morning shift too - the three of us had a great time together setting up!

Here is La pulling an Ella Grace with her Starbucks in the car waiting for everyone to get to the site so we could begin setting up for the derby! Too bad it was the wrong site... they failed to inform us that the morning folks were to be on the OTHER side of bridge... but we ended up in the right spot and everything turned out okay!

This picture makes me laugh out loud - La never fails to pose for a funny picture! We had to sort shirts and such at the Sportsman's club by the river... the place had 3 HUGE stuffed bears, a stuffed wolf, and various other animals and foul - nice! It was a little on the creepy side, but we coped with some humor - clearly!

Side Note: If you notice, the third of the three amigos is no where to be seen... No worries! I am SOOOOOOO proud of our sweet Megan! She wasn't at the Duck Derby, but she was bettering the community as well! Moo was at the Habitat for Humanity conference and she actually facilitated a session on Volunteer Coordination!!!! I know she did an awesome job - I am so proud of you Moo!

After our busy morning we all cleaned up and got ready for the second phase of our action packed Saturday! The moment that all of us had been counting down to... THE 2008 FANTASY FOOTBALL CO-ED LEAGUE DRAFT!!!!!

That's right folks, it's football time - and that is exciting enough in and of itself, but add some fantasy drafts, a little change on the line, and a big 'ole group of friends and you have got yourself a seriously exciting situation!!!!

Here are me and my best girls at the Draft! We had so much fun! We met at Coach's to do our live draft and had THE BEST TIME! We have 12 teams in our league this year and it's big time exciting stuff!

I had some pretty disappointing draft positions (12th the first round, 11th the third round, and 9th the fifth round) but I still think I did okay... what do you think:

Starting lineup: Drew Brees, Marques Colston, Tory Holt, Reggie Bush, Brandon Jacobs, Jeremy Shockey, Nate Keading, and the Bears Defense!

Backups: Marc Bulger, Donte Stallworth, Desean Jackson, Jerious Norwood, Ahman Green, Todd Heap, David Akers, Chris Perry, and the 49rs Defense!

Here are some of our fellow League members, Chris, Scott, and Dennis' friend David.

And here is as much of the whole crew as I could manage to get in one picture!

Stay tuned for sure... I am confident there will be updates from La, Moo, and myself and maybe even some smack talk too!! Wish me luck, the regular seasons just a week away!

I have to close with a warning from my sister. Something came up on her computer about "anti-virus xp 2008" like her virus protection had expired and she needed to renew. It looked very legitimate. Unfortunately it was not, it was spy ware! She had to cancel her credit card and now can't use her computer at all until someone gets it off which apparently will be costly and time consuming. She wanted me to pass the word along since she can't get online to send out a blog post or email herself about it! According to Geek Squad this one is big and going around A LOT here lately! Be on the lookout!

3 comments:

Megan L Hutchings said...

You are the BEST of the BEST! Thank you so much for the shout out on your post ;)!

I had SO MUCH FUN at the draft! We literally are so funny...if people only knew!

Lauren said...

Loved all of Saturday!!! Thanks for being my partner in crime/humor. Love you!

Leigh Ann said...

What a great weekend. I'm always impressed by how much you three do for your community. It is inspiring. I LOVE La pulling her Ella Grace. That made me smile big time, and of course you three look precious in that picture together. I can not wait until I get to see you. It's right around the corner! Thank you for our shirts! I can't wait for us to wear them!