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!

Friday, March 9, 2012

The Best Big Sister

Ava Grace has had so many posts lately because she's growing at lightening speed!  I just realized the blog was in desperate need of a Lily update!  Rest assured, big sister has NOT gone unnoticed or neglected at home!  :-)  Before Chris and I even conceived Ava Grace we spent a lot of time talking about our future family and what a careful balance it needed to be!  While I was carrying Ava Grace we spent as much or more time talking about Lily and preparing with her as we did for Ava Grace.  We didn't (and don't) want either of the girls to be jealous of each other or feel that they get the short end of the stick.  We go to great efforts to make sure that we each spend quality time together as a family and that both girls get quality one on one time with each of us!  :-)  Lily is one special little girl. 

She is the single most kind hearted and tender hearted little person I have ever known!  She thinks of other's feelings and is considerate beyond her years.

She is also very creative!
Here we are playing "show"  ...imagine a mix of American Idol and America's Got Talent...  with lots of American Girl dolls!  Me, Chris, and Ava Grace are the judges... Lily's the host... the girls and boys are the contestants!  It's a running game... this week is round two!  I can't wait to see what acts we see Thursday night!  ;-)


Lily is also a reader.  We try to foster this love of reading by providing lots and lots of books!  She loves being read to and reading out loud to us and also reading to herself!  On school nights, she reads before bed each night!  (On weekends she gets to watch a movie on her TV).  Some of her favorites are The Berenstain Bears, Junie B Jones, Cam Jansen.... and right now she's working on The Boxcar Kids.

 (Lily reading with her Mimi)


If there is one thing that Lily loves to do most, it's laugh!
I can't tell you how many times we hear, "let's be funny!"  or "let's laugh" or "make us laugh daddy, you're so funny!!!!"  :-)  And boy do we laugh!  Sometimes so hard it requires a hasty trip to the potty! LOL  Lily likes to tell stories to make us laugh, and she is turning into a very talented story teller! :-)


Lily is growing up so fast too!  It's hard to believe that she is already 7 (and three quarters)!  She is quickly developing her own tastes!  Grandmommy took her shopping to let her pick out stuff to decorate her own bathroom...
 ...and she did so good!  See the lamp?  The towels and rugs match the colors with bright pink, green, and blue dot rings!  She likes to pick out her own clothes too, and this year has decided the doesn't really like jeans.  She likes skinny jean leggings okay, but not actual blue jeans.  Her favorite "look" is either a dress or a cute skirt with leggings with a matching top and hari bow for her side ponytail!  It's fun watching her develop her own sense of style! 

She is the most loving little girl in the whole wide world and everyone that meets her quickly learns how special she really is!

Ava Grace sure is lucky to have such a great big sister!

2 comments:

Ashley said...

That was such a great post! You're such a good mama to both of those girls! They are both so precious and sweet.

Sarah said...

this was a wonderful post! I love the picture of her trying to hide her laugh behind her hand. She is growing up! She looks even more like a young lady and less a little girl than she did at Christmas! And I LOVE her mis-matched socks in picture #1! I used to do that in middle school. Is that coming back into fad? I love Lily and love this post! Might have to print it off to keep.