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!

Saturday, January 7, 2012

Christmas in stages...

This year Christmas seemed to come in stages.  Very slow, spread out stages.  I was hit hard with the Christmas spirit and then knocked on my ... well... you know... when I was put on bed rest the day before we moved!  I still maintain that my blood pressure was up due to all the excitement, but my doctor is very aggressive and maintained that I was to stay on the couch!  This made for some difficulties with a move and major holiday (for which I was not done shopping) in the following days.  So first came the move, then the Christmas shopping (done either without me or with me in a wheel chair, lol), and then Christmas and New Years.  It was certainly a different kind of Christmas, but overall it was fun.

My husband, I can say, did not get a Christmas "break" this year.  He packed our whole house - partly on his own and then with the help of my parents and a couple dear friends.  He took care of me.  He did some cooking, some cleaning, some a lot of unpacking, and some a lot of driving.  In all this he also managed to make it a Very Merry Christmas!

We enjoyed Christmas day (evening) at Chris' parent's house.  We opened gifts and shared good food and good conversation.

The highlight of Christmas is always the kids and we all soaked up some Lily time (here she is seen with her Pap - Chris' Dad).  Lily spent the first half of the break with her mother, so by Christmas day we were itching to love on her and celebrate the season with her laughter in the background!  :-)

We enjoyed Christmas day very much with Chris' family, but I think we were equally excited about going to our new home for the first time with Lily to celebrate Christmas and to see what Santa had left for her!  As has become tradition, Lily fell asleep in the car on the way home and so the 26th became Christmas morning all over again at our house!
 Lily woke up and was ready to see not only what Santa had left for her, but to see her new house as well!  In fact, she wanted to explore the house before she even opened her stocking!  Her tour quickly gave way to opening gifts though and she was nothing short of delighted to find things she had asked for and surprises as well!  Santa brought a stocking that was over flowing with teachery stuff and a HUGE Rice Krispie Treat!
Santa also brought her a flat screen TV for her bedroom!  (with strict instructions that it was to be used with a new DVD player and not cable TV  ;-)  She got Operation and Pretty Pretty Princess - which we have played just about every day it seems.  She unwrapped pillow pets, a new white board and markers, American Girl Doll stuff galore, teaching tools and toys, and all kinds of goodies right down to an M&M dispenser! :-)  It was a very Merry Christmas indeed!

We enjoyed  a few days rest and then got ready for stage 2 of Christmas - New Years Eve!  With me on bedrest, we were unable to travel to see my family this year.  Therefore, my whole family came to us!  It was absolutely wonderful and I was overcome with gratitude for each of them for delaying their holiday and traveling all that way to spend New Years Eve and New Years Day celebrating with us in our new home!

Here sits Bentlee, Ken, Lily, Sarah, and Malcolm waiting to open gifts!  We take turns in my family, going in a circle, opening gifts one at a time, making the fun last!  :-)

We all opened wonderful treasures and played with new toys as we awaited the New Year!  Kenslee got a band in a box from us and loved it!  She provided all the entertainment we needed and stayed up and in good spirits to ring in the new year with us!

The New Years Eve slumber party has become quite a tradition and so have matching PJs.  Here are the girls after ringing in the new year!  I'm pretty sure they have the most fun of all of us!  :-)

And for a Christmas miracle (on New Years Eve)...

a family photo!
My mom wanted a photo of all of us... taken on her camera... with a self time... and everyone looked AT the camera (even Kenslee) the FIRST time!  That's right folks, we only had to take ONE picture!  :-)  Now that's a miracle for sure!  ;-)

It was a VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS and a VERY HAPPY NEW YEAR indeed... even if it was a little segmented and unorthodox this year!  Now, we are in our house, the holidays are over, and we are READY for Miss Ava Grace to make her appearance... like now!

3 comments:

Sarah said...

lots of fun memories and I love your house!

Allyson said...

Love the matching pj's with the New Year's Eve slumber party!

So sweet your whole family came to you! And yay for Chris' job to have a break so that he could help you so much! Can't imagine what you would have done!

Betsy said...

That looks like such a good Christmas. A little crazy, though, right? I know you are so ready to get that baby girl here. I can't wait to see her sweet face!!