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!

Tuesday, February 21, 2012

A quick trip to C-town...

Ava Grace and I made a quick trip to Chattanooga to meet some VERY special people recently!  It was a quick trip... down on a Wednesday and back home Thursday, but we had fun!  My sister was in from Montana and Ava Grace hadn't met her aunts, uncles, and great-grandparents yet!

One of our first stops was at my grandparent's (her great grandparent's) house!  Great-ma couldn't wait to get her hands on Ava Grace!  She met us at the door with arms ready!  Ava Grace wore her cute Valentine's outfit that Great-ma got her and sent in the mail!  It was a perfect fit and just happened to match a red head band we hadn't had a chance to wear yet!
Great-pa got in some snuggles too!
We had a wonderful time visiting and catching up!  I really don't get to see my grand parents often enough, and it was so nice, long, un-rushed visit!  It made my heart smile to be able to introduce our baby girl to these two very special people!  We can't wait to go back and visit again soon!
It was also wonderful to introduce Ava Grace to her Aunt Sarah and Uncle Malcolm!  Sarah and Malcolm don't have any human babies of their own (just three furry ones), so they really enjoy the kind they can give back, lol!  They soaked up the snuggles with Ava Grace, because they'll only get to see her (and us) about once or twice a year!  Hopefully some time this summer or fall we'll get to see them again... I'm scheming a girls trip! ;-)
In order to meet her cousins and other Aunt and Uncle on my side, we had to go to Couch's, of course!  So we met for dinner and Ava Grace's first trip to Couch's.  This is a big thing in our family, as you can imagine!

It was fun having everyone together, but we sure missed Chris and Lily!  They both had school obviously, since it was in the middle of the week, and were not able to come!  Above are Kensley and Bentlee loving on Grandmommy.

And here we all are... minus Chris and Lily... they sure were missed by everyone!
And a picture of Ava Grace with Papaw and my brother, Ken.  We had to "officially" document her first Couch's trip by a trip behind the counter!  As you can see she was thrilled... she slept the entire time, lol!

2 comments:

Sarah said...

it was so much fun! I'm so glad you were able to come down! We all enjoyed the visit, though we missed Lily and Chris very much. Hopefully we'll get back soon for another visit. Love the pictures, esp. the ones of Great-ma and Great-pa with Ava Grace! Those came out beautiful! Grandma has great lighting in the room for pictures!

Ashley said...

What a fun trip! So glad y'all got to go do that. Ava Grace looks ADORABLE in that Valentine's outfit with headband! I love it!