Run! Jared Run!

Two weeks after we returned from Boston, Jared had his first visit with our home cardiologist.  It was the standard "Dinner & A Movie" visit i.e. EKG, ECHO and Exam.  We had talked with them over the phone during our stay and after we got home but it was great to talk in person again.  The Doc said they did a "remarkable job"; that's very high praise coming from him.  He told us that there was even a bit of overlap with the cone which would allow some growth to take place in the heart.  Time will tell if its enough but it's very hopeful.  He also said the incision was completely healed and Jared could swim and bathe if he wanted.  He smiled when I said I think I'll stick to the conservative direction of waiting eight weeks, just in case.  He and his head nurse know us well after seven years and its nice.

However, I was more than willing to let Jared start riding his bike again when he reached the six week mark (the minimum wait time for that activity).  He was tired of being left behind or having to walk.  The six week mark happened to fall on a baseball practice night so we even had somewhere to go;  he was so ecstatic!  That weekend, we all rode down to the park and around the lake together as a family to celebrate.  We were all thrilled to be greeted by otters!  In the eight years we've lived here we've heard otters lived near the lake but Chris and I had never seen them.  We actually got to see three; two parents and a juvenile and the juvenile was more than happy to eat some bread we threw it.

Today is the eight week mark, and after golf lessons today I'm sure he's going to turn into a raisin soaking in his first bath in months.  We started golf lessons shortly after getting home. He had wanted to learn how to play golf for a while and it was one of the few activities not on the "to be avoided for six months, till the sternum heals" list.   He and Titus as having great fun.

I never realized how "blue" Jared was till after his operations.  To me he was Jared, my beautiful son and that's just how he looked.  Now that he's "pink", I realize how truly "blue" he had always been.

Another major upside since his surgery is that he now has an appetite.  For years I had crammed his smoothies with all the calories and nutrition I could.  Getting him to just maintain his weight the last year had been a huge struggle, trying to get him to eat something small and high calorie every hour or two during the day.  Chris and I were floored the first time he said he was hungry, he'd never been hungry a day in his life, we jumped up ready to serve him anything he wanted.  In the last eight weeks he's actually gained seven pounds and you can really see the food finally sticking to his ribs.  Yay!  Even his hair has thickened up considerably.

The other major upside is that he can now keep up with his brothers and his friends.  Before his surgery he would run out of breath and energy just jogging to the mailbox (about 30 feet), playground games like tag had always been out of the question for him simply because he couldn't keep up.  That has all changed.  He gives Lance a run for his money literally.  It filled my heart to see him running ahead on our walk last night keeping up with Lance.  Just like it did his father when he took them to the playground and he could actually play tag with the other kids.  In fact this weekend, for the first time I saw him with sweat running down his face he was playing so hard in the backyard.  Who would have thought sweat would look so good.

Sometimes I find myself forgetting to breathe again.  I had held my breathe for seven years and was accustomed to living in fear; its still hard some days to believe he's doing so well. We truly serve an awesome God.

Grocery Shopping 101: Sugar

In previous posts I've covered some of the chemicals that are added to food that should be avoided.  Now lets looks at some of the foods.

The general rule of thumb is to minimize the "Four Whites":  White Sugar, White Flour, White Rice and Salt.

For this post we are focusing on White Sugar.

Traditional White Sugar is highly refined sweetener with very little taste, no nutrition value and only provides sweetness.  Unfortunately, in today's day and age it is a huge part of most diets.

So what's so bad about Sugar? Well, beside the blood sugar/mood swings and hyperactivity we all know about...

• Sugar is the food cancer eats.  With friends we've known over the years that have battled cancer the first thing nutritionists tell them is to stop eating sugar, period.  It just makes sense then that the rest of us should probably minimize our consumption.
• Sugar promotes inflammation.  Finding ways to decrease excessive inflammation in the body seems to be the key to healthy living.  This is why Chia seeds and other foods that decrease inflammation are getting so much press lately.  A leading cardiologist recently went on record saying that cholesterol levels wouldn't matter if the veins were not so inflamed, its the inflammation that causes the problems.
  
• Sugar suppresses the immune system.  Right after you eat sugar you temporarily tamp down your immune system.  Your body views white sugar as a toxin and spends its defensive energy fighting it instead of germs. The effect can last for several hours.  Therefore, each time you eat sweets during the day your decreasing the effectiveness of your immune system.
• Sugar speeds up the aging process.  It does this by suppressing the release of human growth hormone.  Which this article explains is why people get injections of to stay looking young. This is the article I used to outline my ideas for this post and it goes into a few other issues too.

Many Organic foods promote that they use "Organic Sugar", "Raw Sugar" or "Evaporated Cane Juice/Syrup".  Though there are differences in how they come about the effect on the body is the same as traditional "Sugar". However, the differences in how their processed is worthy of note.

What the alternatives mentioned above gain you is an avoidance of additional hindrances, such as pesticides, herbicides, in the growing process and chemicals like sulfur dioxide (that's why sugar plants smell so bad), and calcium hydroxide in the manufacturing process.  The simple fact that they process molasses out of sugar and then add it back to make brown sugar is a fact that has always blown my mind.  The retention of some of the molasses is why Raw Sugar is not white and why it has more flavor than White Sugar.

Raw Sugar is processed through a pressing process enhanced by lime, then dried/evaporated into crystal form and then put into a centrifuge to separate the solids and the liquids.  Sounds like a much nicer process, personally I'd rather avoid all those chemicals used to process white sugar from start to finish.

All that said it would be really difficult to avoid sugar all together and there's no need to for most people.  What you need to be is aware of how much sugar your eating and try to find ways to minimize it where you can.  One way to do this when choosing between foods; choose the product that has sugar the furthest down the ingredient list.  Another way is to decease the quantity or frequency in which you consume these products.  This can be a life long tweaking process.  I find the more I eliminate sugar from my diet the less I can tolerate it, since sugar is a toxin this makes perfect sense.

Note:  Not all sugars are the same on the body, the sugars found naturally in fruits are different than the white sugar we are talking about here.  Molasses, Maple Syrup, Honey, Stevia and Agave also react more positively with the body.  What we are talking about here is processed sugar from the cane plant.

Indus River to Joseph

Since we've been back from Boston we've been trying to find a new rhythm/schedule that works but to be honest we are still looking.  I hope the new plan for next week will be a success but I'll wait to see if it lasts more than a week before I talk about it.

That said, we did the below over more than a week but I think with focus it is entirely doable to do in a week or two at most.

I've been using a lot of free videos on the internet lately, in addition to books to both entertain the children and simply teaching for me.

1750 BC Aryans Establish Indus River Valley Civilization

• REVIEW:  Timeline;  Use puppets to narrate about China
• Read excerpts from "Building History - Indus Valley City by Gillian Clements.  An alternative book is “Life in Ancient Indus River Valley” by Richardson.  I chose Glements books because I thought it more would be more interesting to my boys in content and layout.
• Watch? “Crash Course: Ancient Indus Valley Civilizations” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7ndRwqJYDM  This video is designed for highschool kids so it has some irrelevant tangents about getting a girl friend and the such.  Ignoring that it is a fast paced introduction to the highlights of the Indus River Valley civilizations.  Boys thought it was funny and totally missed the older references.  Watch it yourself first to see if its appropriate for your children.
• Watch this video “Achievements of Indus Valley Civilizations” http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLXJxemLEI4  This video is a second alternative to Indus River Valley in a nut shell.  It is basically a power point presentation highlighting their achievement with some nice photography.
• Mark Timeline
• Memory Narration Points:
• Developed same time as Egyptians, Babylonians, and Shang in China
• Highly advanced city planning; grid system, oriented to catch wind for cooling, sewer systems 
• Trading culture, known to have traded in mesopotamia from seals found there.  
• Peaceful culture; no evidence of weapons or sacrificial religious practices
• Had unique pictorial form of writing that has yet to be deciphered, reason for disappearance unknown. 

1750 BC Minoan Culture

• REVIEW:  Read "Search for Lost Cities" by Nicola Barber.  We went back to this book again this week.  I enjoy using so much I bought it this week when I couldn't check it out from the library any more.  It provides a nice summary about how many ancient civilization were found again and what they discovered.
• Read “Usborne Internet-Linked Greeks”  pgs. 4-8
• Read and look at pictures of Knossos in “Lost Civilizations” pgs. 28-35
• Watch this video "Minoan Culture"  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkau9AEko2g  I chose this video over others for the following reasons: It skips the sensationalizing of the Minotaur legend, has a nice tie in to Egypt, a nice lead into Mycenean culture and its only 15 minutes long. 
• Find Crete on a map.
• Mark Timeline
• Memory Narration Points:
• Lived on island of Crete, Capital was Knossos
• Worshipped the bull, myths of Minotaur and Labyrinth
• Traders and Sailors known for their beautiful pieces of arr and pottery; admired by the Egyptians.

MUMMY MATH: An Adventure in Geometry by Cindy Neuschwander
I bought this book on a whim for $6 on amazon.  I've read books by this author in the past and really enjoyed them but I had no idea how much the boys would like this one.  Don't be intimidated by "Geometry", the geometry is limited to the identification of various geometric solids.  The story is top notch!  I read it to the boys once and Lance immediately asked to read it out-loud to his brothers again.  They must have read it four times that day and continued to read it over the next few days so much that Titus had parts of it memorized.  Eight thumbs up!

 1703 BC  Middle Kingdom in Egypt

• REVIEW: Make “History Pockets”  Egyptian Puppets to narrate what they’ve learned about Egypt
• Read “Usborne Time Traveler” pgs.  100-105
• MAP TREK: Map #9
• Watch Video "Pyramids of Egypt" http://www.beyondpatmos.org/watchvideo.aspx?videoid=440  This is an incredible video by the writer of "Unveiling the Kings of Israel" and "Unwrapping the Pharoahs", with footage in areas no longer accessible for filming, which is reason enough to forgive the low quality of the picture sometimes.  The first half covers Joseph, so you may choose to wait to watch the whole video till you study Moses.  This may also help keep the attention of younger views since it is a long video. There is a lot of new information in this video to spur off lots of discussion, at least it did in our house.
• Draw something from “Draw and Write Through History” or “Ancient Egypt Drawing Book”
• Read ““Peeps at Many Lands – Ancient Egypt” by James Baikie – Chapter 2 & 3 “A Day in Thebes” (13 pgs.)  To be honest we tried reading this but it didn't work.  At first I tried to edit and skip ahead but it didn't keep any of our interest.  If you like HIGHLY detailed descriptions of things, you'll enjoy this, if your looking for more action you'll either have to make it further into the book than we did or look elsewhere.
• Mark Timeline
• Memory Narration Points:
• This is the era of Joseph, Israelite slavery, Moses and the Exodus
• Dynasty 12 was one of the three great high points in Egyptian history with a huge number of monuments being built. 
• Sesostris I was believed to be Pharaoh when Joseph was viser and known as Mentuhotep.  A viser of unusual power and prestige that all who saw him had to bow down.
• Significantly, the pyramids in this dynasty were built of mud brick not stone.
• There is much evidence of large number of Asisiatic slaves.
• King Khasekemre-Neferhotep I of the Dynasty 13 is believed to be pharaoh of exodus, its significant his mummy was never found.
• Contrast in two pharoahs facial expression on monuments, Sesostris seems to smile and Neferhotep has a deep frown.

Joseph as a Slave & Famine in Egypt

• REVIEW:  Timeline, Maps
• Have children narrate what they remember about Joseph
• Have children draw what they think Joseph’s coat may have looked like
• Mark Timeline
• Read “Joseph” by Brian Wildsmith  This is a beautifully illustrated book, the books took down to read a look at after we finished the first read.
• Discuss story verses biblical account
• Discuss art, try to recreate some of the art

Twelve Tribes of Israel

• REVIEW:  Timeline; narrate the story of Joseph.
• Read Genesis 41: 1-57
• Read VJTB pgs. 46-50
• ACAB Unit 3 – Make a Sun Clock pg. 28
• Narrate and read excerpts from “Unveiling Kings of Israel” pgs. 49-55 or watch the second half of the "Pyramids of Egypt" video as a lead into next weeks discussion of Moses.

Amber-girl is One Year Old!

It's incredible to think its been a year already and it's incredible to think its only a year.

Baby-girl is so big, sporting 2T clothes, weighing in at 24.6lbs and 30inches.  In addition to our already in place five prong protection plan (i.e. Daddy, Lance, Jared, Titus and Matthew), her height alone will intimidate unworthy males from even thinking of bothering her in the future.  Daddy laid the foundation with the boys, its simple, no male talks to Amber without the expressed permission of her father.  Its the job of the four boys to see to it that rule is never broken.

Amber-girl may take exception to that rule someday, for she definitely has a mind of her own and is determined to get her own way.   

After installing the hearth gate across the whole front room, she kept us moving. Next on her hit list was the kitchen table chairs; climb them and run across the table. CHECK.  The kitchen table chairs were moved to the front room behind the hearth gate.

The sectional couch in the back had already been split in two to stop her from using the corner to shimmy her way up.  That solution bought us about two days before she was able to stretch those long legs up high enough and use her upper body strength to climb up any time.  CHECK.  So the Hippie stopped at Bed Bath and Beyond on the way home and bought bed risers for the couch.  The extra five inches might buy us a few months.

She uses open drawers and the dog as stepping stools to reach many a desired treat that should have been out of reach.  She can unscrew caps and open doors.  Frankly, I don't remember ever being in this much trouble this early and my boys were certainly not blobs.

She is, however, quite content most of the time.  She'll happily watch the boys play outside from the inside window.  She'll even sit and watch a few innings of baseball.  She'll play for long periods of time with her puzzle boards and never get frustrated. I adore it when she just sits on the floor with legs straight out and wiggles her feet back and forth.

She loves to go on walks with Daddy and watch the planes fly over head and does her best to sign her enthusiasm. Her favorite game is the clapping game where she taps out the tune and everyone else copies till she stops.

Above all she LOVES her brothers and they love and adore her too! She is not generous with her smiles, she reserves them for her true favorites and all three of her brothers are high on that list.  In fact, "Bro, Bro" is one of her few recognizable words.  I say recognizable because she's quite the babbler we just don't have any idea what she's saying most of the time.  The Hippie says they all start out speaking Klingon.

Mommy has her place too.  I'm her favorite cuddle buddy at night.  Though she stopped nursing two weeks ago, I'm happy to say she still seeks the comfort of mommy at night.  The Hippie and I will be in the same room again soon enough.  I have treasured this period with all my children, the early morning cuddles and talks.  I know how quickly they grow up.  Our little girl is one year old today and already long past the toddler phase.

Mommy, Daddy and your brothers LOVE YOU VERY MUCH.  We pray that you will always walk on the path God has before you and that He will bless you abundantly with health, Godly friends and a beautiful family of your own some day.

Back to School

I realize that one of the main challenges of homeschooling for me is that I have ADD.  I am bored too easily sometimes and since my boys would rather play than do schoolwork its easy for us to get off track.

We've been on a break from school for a month, plus now that we are home, Lance has swim lessons on Tuesday, baseball practice three nights a week and games on Saturday.  Transition to being home and increased activities was going to make for an interesting week.  I knew this week would need a lot grace mixed in if it hoped to have any success.

The two highlights of the week were a spontaneous science experiment courtesy of our friend Christina and life tying into the bible.

When Christina came over this week she brought the ingredients to make a pseudo lava lamp.
I of course had to muck with the instructions; ie. try a whole piece of alka-seltzer all at once,  put gum on the top to stick the alka-seltzer to and then turn it over, etc.  It was fun!

We are enjoying listening to the Seeds of Change CDs (Thanks Brandy!) for worship time in the morning or during free play.  We also continue to read through the Hulburt Study Bible, which I like because of its conversational style and the interesting tidbits I am learning too, such as the origin of the term "Scapegoat".  I thought it was really neat this week that we read about the day of atonement, then Jared noticed it was Yom Kippur on the calendar.  Yom Kippur is the Hebrew name for "The Day of Atonement" so it was a really cool tie in between the bible and life.

Back to our regular school work:  I decided the boys needed to write more for a number of reasons; I had let it go a bit because its not my strength (you may have noticed) and Lance always pushes back hard when we start.  However, this time The Hippie (aka Chris) got Lance's buy-in by explaining how fine motor skills obtained through writing would help him improve at baseball.

So with buy-in secured, I began the new plan using the following tools:

• Fable Dictation - What we do here is I read either an Aesop Fable (Seemed appropriate since we are studying the Ancients this year.) or a fable from "Solomon and the Ant" by Sheldon Oberman.  Then the boys narrate it back to me and I type up what they say.  I then print it out for them to edit and we print a final copy.  Jared in particular enjoys this exercise and narrates fabulous stories; here's a link to this week's story.
• One Lesson from the  Wheeler - Elementary Speller four days a week (FREE).  These are short Charlotte Mason type lessons, tested over time and peppered with beautiful literature. My choice was reinforced this week when I found this site arguing the superiority to older methods of teaching reading through spelling, it includes links to other free resources also. (We did three lessons this week so not too bad).
• Work on AAS Level's Two (Jared) and Level Three (Lance) two to four days a week.  I'm going to take these one lesson at a time.  Some will take more than one day especially as we progress to higher levels. See my previous post on how we use All About Spelling. (Two days this week).
• Prima Latina - I went ahead and bought the DVDs that go along with this curricula that teach the class for you, which works great.  The boys like it a lot and are even practicing Latin at dinner time.  The guide suggests only doing it two days a week so we follow that schedule.  I chose this Latin program for it boasts that it will help them learn English grammar as well. I'm crossing my fingers.

I'm really trying to stick to many short lessons(15-20 min each) verses a couple long lessons a day.  However, math has always been a challenge, since it takes longer.  My new solution is to mix it in between the subjects above.  For instance, while I work with Jared on Wheeler, Lance does some math, then they switch.  It gives them three short sessions to finish their math lesson each day.  If Jared finishes early he can do Xtra Math and if Lance finishes early he can read Life of Fred.   If they need longer to finish their math, they have to complete it before Dad gets home or they miss out on the evening activity.  So far that's been sufficient motivation but it came close one night.

For History, Lance completed reading The Golden Bull.  This book gave us many opportunities to discuss issues of character and culture.  It is a great book for triggering discussions with your kids.  Other than that, we worked on reviewing the timeline and geography learned so far this year.  I was pleased that the boys seemed to have retained much of what we learned.  I hope this weekend to get organized and get back on track with our history curricula again.

This weekend Lance had his second baseball game and we did some household rearranging.  Lance's team lost the game but I'm proud to say had a great time anyway.  Lance got to steal home (I great thrill for him and the main reason he wanted to move up to minors) and pitched very well in the final inning.  

At home we had to deal with a dangerous combination; an extremely agile 11 month old and tile floors.  I'm always amazed that we have to do MORE child proofing with each new kid.  This time we had to fence off the entire front room.  She had started climbing on the couch and running back and forth at a moments notice. It was just a matter of time until she ran off before someone could catch her.  She was also starting to terrorize the bookshelves.  The upside is that putting up the gate made it safe to take the Legos back out of the attic for the boys to enjoy.  Not sure how many more times we can revinvent the front room but something tells me this isn't the last time.

Home Coming!

When I tried to book our return trip on the Auto Train they only had two sleeper rooms left and they were on opposite sides of the train.  We, of course, took them because we needed to get home.  I kept calling at least once a day after that in hope there was a cancellation and we could get two rooms together again where we could open the door in between and continue traveling together as a family.

We arrived a little later than we hoped at the Amtrak depot.  We were suppose to be there by 2pm but didn't arrive till 2:30pm and the final deadline was 3pm.  When we walked into the lobby to see that everyone was already on the train, my hope of switching rooms nearly vanished.  However, I went ahead and asked again anyway.

Jerry, the Amtrak employee, said there was little chance because the rooms we had, being on the end, were actually smaller than the other sleeper rooms.  At that news, I accepted our fate and resigned myself to be content we were getting on the train heading home in separate rooms.

Then all of a sudden, Phyillis (the other Amtrak employee at the checkin desk), shouts to Jerry "Is that the Ottos?".  To which Jerry replies an affirmative and she replies "Check the other reservations."  At that Jerry looks up the other reservation (Titus had to have his own reservation, long story) and Jerry apologizes and tells us that we DO have have adjoining rooms on the train.

Chris and I were in shock.  Why would she know who we were?  Why would she have taken the time and energy to find someone to switch rooms with us?  All I could conclude was that she was an angel.  I went over shook her hand with both of mine and gave her a tearful, heart felt thank you.  This was the final straw; God had truly taken care of us, even in the little things.

We really enjoyed riding the train. The service and food are great and it cuts out over 17 hours of driving.  I don't think little miss would have made it that long in the car. On the train she was quite content, albeit a bit adventurous.

When we got home the next day we were happily surprised that elves had been at work in our home.  They had hung up this great banner and placed cards from the cub scouts and another elf family had stocked our fridge with the essentials.

I feel I have not done a very good job of putting into words how much we appreciate all the different ways people have showed their concern for our family; through emotional support, prayers and many generous deeds.  Please know how much you have all touched and blessed our family.

Thank you with all our hearts!

The Otto Clan

PS.  As you can see he is healing well :-)

The Final Week in Boston

Sorry for the delay in posting.  We didn't have internet access the last few days at the hotel. 

Jared was feeling so well after his release from the hospital we had some time to play tourist before his final appointment.  They told us to just follow his lead for what he was up to doing and that's what we did. 

Since Grandma Elaine was leaving Friday, Jared wanted to do something special with her on Thursday.  Being that he was just released from the hospital I wanted it to be something fairly calm and not too germy.  Germs are still a major concern.
 
We found the perfect thing to do "Duck Boat Tours" of Boston. They are these cool WWII amphibious vehicles (nice and open to fresh air/less germs) decked out as tourists transports that take you on a historical journey across land and sea (or a least the Charles River).

Everyone had a blast.  The guide was called "Supersize", a super hero that admitted to eating too much fast food, but who what very knowledgeable about the history of Boston. Every time he said "SuperSize" we were all to chant "QUACK! QUACK!" to which Titus added "an adorable little echo".

We learned a lot about Boston; from the monkey living in the rafters of the "Garden" to the multi-million gallon molasses spill/explosion that drowned 21 people and flooded an area of downtown in 30 feet of molasses, to traditional points of interest and history.  My favorite part was when he pointed out the Paul Revere would has never yelled "The British are Coming!", since they were all considered British at that time.  He would have yelled something like "The Redcoats" or "The Regulars are coming!".  Once he said that I thought "Duh!" but I'd never questioned it before.  Just another example of how important it is to question everything and see if it makes sense. 

The boys on the other hand all had the same favorite part.....when Supersize let them drive the DUKW in the Charles river!  He even let Titus drive, they were thrilled! And of course they've been "Quacking" ever since.

Friday, we attended a home school program at the Museum of Fine Arts where they did a short tour, talked about certain pieces and did an art project.  WOW!  What a museum!  They had actual Egyptian sarcophagus, sculptures from the walls of Mesopotamian cities, Olmec statues, original painting from O'Keeffe, Manet, and Cassatt just to name a few.  Chris and I were in awe and we only saw about half the museum.  I thought we would have to go to Europe to see things like this.  It was so awesome to bring so much of what we had studied this year to life for the boys!

Additionally, the boys integrated so well with the group of homeschool children, what a nice group of kids.  They had questions and answers galore for the tour guide and talked with the kids during the art project.  Opportunities like that just don't exist where we live.  The people of Boston are so friendly and the city so full of wonder, culture and history we have grown quite found of it, I wonder how I am to entertain us all when we get home.

Saturday, by request we went back to the New England Aquarium.  Being gifted a membership was so nice beacause we all so enjoyed visiting.  We were there to see Myrtle the Turtle the first day in her new home.  Jared's favorite part was the little Blue penguins and Amber just loved trying out her balance walking up and down all the ramps.  I hope we can get back maybe for a visit before our passes expire to see the all new Aquarium.  They are doing a total make over of the main aquarium that has not been altered since 1969.

Second on the request list was to ride the Ferry, so this time we rode it over to the U.S.S. Constitution dock but walked a little way to visit the Bunker Hill Memorial.  You can walk the 294 stairs to the top of the monument.  I had no intentions of doing so, my poor knees would never make it but the boys decided too.  I thought for sure Jared would wait with me but he was determined to walk up.  Chris kept checking his heart rate and it was fine so up they went all the way to the top!  Now Chris ended up carrying him half way back down but that was to be expected since he'd just been released from the hospital three days ago.  Jared's quick recovery continues to amaze everyone; his doctors, his nurses, us!  What a miracle God has preformed!

Sunday, we kept it quiet.  We returned to the Boston Public Gardens.  We had visited it the day before his surgery with Aunt Susie but didn't get a chance to ride the fabled Swan Boats.  The boys didn't think there visit to Boston would have been complete without riding these bicycle propelled boats. They are a feature in two of our favorite children's books; Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McClosky and Trumpet of the Swan by T.S. Elliot.

This was our last ride on the train/subway.  I often think that was the boys favorite part of all our excursions.  I was just happy they were clean and safe; incredibly cheap and convenient was a bonus.

Monday, we hung out at the hotel and let Chris work some more, while I started to pack up.  He'd been trying to put in a few hours a day since Jared's release.  His work has been so accommodating, that too is a great blessing.

We chose to be positive and pack everything up and load the car before going to Jared's final appointment.  We knew if anything came back negative we would have to stay longer but after all God had done we felt confident we would be going home.  

The appointment was at 11:30am on Tuesday.  First he had some chest X-Rays, then an EKG and vitals.  I thought he would need an ECHO also but they decided against doing one.  Miss Ann the NP removed his remaining stitches and told us what our restrictions should be for the next six weeks.  No water (swimming, bath, etc), no bicycling, no roughhousing but other activity as much as he's comfortable.  When the doctor came in I asked him how the X-Ray looked, if he had more fluid build up we'd have to stay.  He said it was "better than fine, it was awesome", so awesome he lowered the directic he was taking in half.  He reiterated again, what so many had said during our stay, that Jared had recovered amazingly and that he was an amazing patient "we should be proud" and we are.  We are proud of Jared for his strength and positive attitude, his big brother who had to grow up a bit to help out a lot with his little sister and never complained once, and even for the Mighty Titus and his sidekick Amber who handled all the change like troopers.

We left the hospital, checked out of the hotel and were on the road to Scranton by 2:30pm.  We ran into heavy rains so we didn't make it there till 8pm.  But we made it safe and funny enough found out we were the "resident of the day".  We got a snack from the snack store.

That night Amber started a high fever,  thankfully it broke in the early morning.  We had kept Titus with Chris for the last appointment because he was a little snotty but he never got the fever thankfully.  Its amazing we all held out as long as we did.  

Next, we continued our reverse course back to Lorton, VA to take the Auto Train home.

More about our return home in my next post (sounds like teaser Hee!  Hee!). 

Chris FB Posts:

Sep 17, 2012, 9:43 AM

It's been a very surreal three weeks. Three Mondays ago I was loading the car amidst rain bands from Isaac. It was an ominous start to what would be the most difficult time in our lives. We were about to embark on a 1300 mile journey to someplace unfamiliar to have something done neither of us wanted to have done. Our beautiful boy had reached the end of his body's ability to cope with the heart defects he was born with. We had to trust that God had a plan and would watch over us. And did He ever. Just as when Jared was born, his strength and ability to recover simply amazed everyone involved with his case. We knew better. We both knew God had a plan for our little miracle. Our first glimpse came a few years after Jared was born. Our cardiologist told us a little girl was born in Altamonte, just north of Orlando, with very similar defects. From what they learned in treating Jared, the little girl was able to go home in 5 days instead of the month Jared spent in the hospital. We may never know what may come of this latest experience, but it matters not. It's our job to make the best of our current circumstances.
Three weeks ago, we left Orlando with the "blue" Jared. On Thursday, (Lord willing) we will return with the new and improved "pink" Jared. It's the same little boy we know and love, but his body is now operating at full capacity. Tina said in her blog that our expectation in coming here was to just save and extend Jared's life. What we received back was beyond our wildest imaginations. The cardiologist treating him here told us it was time to "mainstream" Jared. We were dumbfounded. It's been difficult to convey to ourselves what this exactly means. Our entire mindset towards Jared is going to change. Over the past few days, Jared has been changing it for us. On his release from the hospital, the instructions for activity level were to simply follow Jared's lead. His body would tell him when to slow down and rest. What we saw astounded us. He has been walking, running, jumping, and keeping up with his brothers, which is something he has never been able to do before.
Before we left Orlando, Jared would climb the stairs at home and be out of breath by the time he reached the top. Our stairs only have 17 steps. On Saturday, September 15, a mere 11 days removed from the completion of 8 hours of open heart surgery, Jared climbed 294 steps to reach the top of the Bunker Hill Memorial. We never rested for more than a few seconds and he never ran out of breath. Granted, I did have to carry him back down, but he needed a break, he did just have surgery, right??
I would like to personally thank everyone that has prayed for us, but that is impossible. Jared's story has literally spanned the globe and people from all over are praying. Don't stop, it is working and we are not home yet!!
Tuesday we meet with the cardiologist here and then head out. We should be home Thursday. Please pray that the doctor gives his blessing and for our safe travels.
Thank you all.

Sep 17, 2012, 10:20 PM

On her last night in Boston, Amber choose to stay up late and hang with daddy on the 25th floor and see the skyline

Sep 18, 2012, 2:35 PM

We are packed and leaving Boston!!

Sep 18, 2012, 8:59 PM

at Residence Inn Scranton: We arrived safely. Sketchy drive. It rained the whole way and it was very, very heavy at times