Updates...

God is so good! He has given us family and friends who are unbelievably supportive and who love us so much. I am so touched by the outpouring of love and support for Joshua, Ben and me during this time. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts. Knowing that we are so supported in prayer is making this time so much easier for us. Everyone is asking what they can do. Honestly, the best thing you can do for us is be on your knees in prayer. I am so thankful that God has orchestrated this so beautifully. We are at the best hospital with the best doctors in Northern Virginia. We are able to pay the bills with only Ben working so I am free to be with Joshua all day. We have friends locally who are supporting us with their love, and family who is coming to stay to help us out (my mom is arriving today and will be staying for at least a week, and my sister and her husband will be up on Thursday to stay for the weekend). Aren't God's blessings amazing?!

Yesterday was a long day for Josh. He had surgery scheduled for 12:30pm today to insert a central line to make it easier for them to give him his medicine. This way they don't have to stick him as often or change an IV. He was NPO (allowed nothing to eat) from 6am on and his last feeding was at 3:30am. I was a little annoyed that they hadn't fed him once more before he was NPO, but there wasn't much I could do. It turned out to be a great blessing. I was expecting a very unhappy little one when I got there in the morning, but our son is a very relaxed child. He slept all the way through until they called to say they could take him early and get it over with. I was thankful at that point that he hadn't eaten closer to the 6am cut off time. His surgery went beautifully and he is now the proud owner of a central line in his groin. The doctors did a great job and it looks good, it's just really difficult to change his diapers.

One of the doctors we saw yesterday was the pediatric opthomologist. He was looking for any signs of damage to Joshua's retina and other parts of the eyes that CMV can damage. The doctor said that there is no retinitis at all and he looks perfect. Yay! Today, Joshua is scheduled for a CT scan and a visit from the neurologist. This is the big one. Hopefully this visit, along with the CT will tell us more about what parts of Josh's brain will be impacted. I'll try to update tomorrow to let you know how it went. We've been coming home at night to sleep so the only time I have access to the internet is either really late at night or really early in the morning before I go. Both times, I'm pretty groggy. :)

I know there haven't been any daily pictures lately, but we've been kind of busy. :) Joshua is continuing to change and grow and get really, really fat. His little cheeks are more like the jowels on a bulldog now and we love it! This is Joshua's crib. It makes me feel like he's an exhibit in the zoo and they insist we have the siderails up whenever he's in the crib. Like he's going to make a mad dash for it or something...

We have a completely wired baby. See the wires coming from his feet? They measure his blood oxygen, his heart rate, his respitory rate & a bunch of other things. If any of those things change beyond the normal limits, his nurse comes running.

Poor Joshua kept knocking himself in the head with his IV before they took it out and put in the central line. It was unbelieveably heavy!!

This is Joshua modeling the world's smallest hospital gown! :) We dress him in his clothes, but yesterday morning he had a sprinkler episode and the nurses changed him into this.

Finally, here it is. The smile that lights up my day! I caught the tail end of it the other day just as he was closing his eyes. He looks so mischevious!! That he gets from his daddy. :)