As someone who has never been a big fan of Valentine's Day, I'm excited that I do like to celebrate it more. Of course I love to celebrate Ty, but I just never was a fan of the commercialized version of celebrating. For the past 5 years, Valentine's Day has had such a deeper significance for us. On Valentine's Day in 2007, Jake was diagnosed with his CHD at 7 days old. At the time we thought it was bitterly ironic as I remember us eating a sad dinner that night at our local favorite Mexican restaurant and not talking much, just thinking and absorbing our news. When Jake's (awesome) doctor told us the news she also informed us that Valentine's Day was National Congenital Heart Defect Day...what are the odds of that? Today, 5 years later, and 3 heart surgeries later, we gladly and "wholeheartedly" celebrate.
We have so much to celebrate: the incredible medical care Jake has and continues to receive, Jake's good year he's had this year, the success of his three surgeries, and our countless friends we've made throughout the heart community during our journey. Jake's first doctor, Dr. Grenier, told us about the organization "It's My Heart" on the day of his diagnosis. Two years later after finding out Jake had sub-aortic stenosis and would need further surgery, we finally got involved. At first we had almost selfish motives to make ourselves feel better. However, I have no doubt God had placed His hand on the situation and guided us to work with this organization. We've met incredible individuals who all have the same goal--to bring awareness to CHD so that more children's lives may be saved and more medical advances may be made so that new technology can help our kids. So we celebrate It's My Heart and the friends we've made in this community.
I also celebrate Ty and the fact that his heart continues to do well. Jake adores the fact that Ty has had heart surgery too. As a small child, he thought all boys had heart scars. He loves that he "matches" his Dad.
Of course, we celebrate our precious Grace, too. I want her always to feel just as special as Jake. It's a delicate balance when you have a "sick" kid. You always want to make your "sick" child feel special and important while knowing they often get more attention than their "well" sibling. I'm pretty sure our omniscient God knew this when creating Grace--her outgoing, sparkling personality will never be neglected :)
So, we had a wonderful "heart" day, a nice, quiet evening spent at home with our family. And thanks to my new Pinterest addiction, I found a few fun new traditions to include:
We have so much to celebrate: the incredible medical care Jake has and continues to receive, Jake's good year he's had this year, the success of his three surgeries, and our countless friends we've made throughout the heart community during our journey. Jake's first doctor, Dr. Grenier, told us about the organization "It's My Heart" on the day of his diagnosis. Two years later after finding out Jake had sub-aortic stenosis and would need further surgery, we finally got involved. At first we had almost selfish motives to make ourselves feel better. However, I have no doubt God had placed His hand on the situation and guided us to work with this organization. We've met incredible individuals who all have the same goal--to bring awareness to CHD so that more children's lives may be saved and more medical advances may be made so that new technology can help our kids. So we celebrate It's My Heart and the friends we've made in this community.
I also celebrate Ty and the fact that his heart continues to do well. Jake adores the fact that Ty has had heart surgery too. As a small child, he thought all boys had heart scars. He loves that he "matches" his Dad.
Of course, we celebrate our precious Grace, too. I want her always to feel just as special as Jake. It's a delicate balance when you have a "sick" kid. You always want to make your "sick" child feel special and important while knowing they often get more attention than their "well" sibling. I'm pretty sure our omniscient God knew this when creating Grace--her outgoing, sparkling personality will never be neglected :)
So, we had a wonderful "heart" day, a nice, quiet evening spent at home with our family. And thanks to my new Pinterest addiction, I found a few fun new traditions to include:
I had both kids tell me several reasons they loved each other and their Daddy. After everyone went to bed, I blew up the balloons and tied notes to each one, some for Ty, Grace, and Jake. Each note had a reason the kids or I loved them. Valentine's morning everyone picked out their balloons, and we read the notes.
These were the Heart Calzones I made for dinner :)
Here are the Pirate Valentines I made for my class at school. I found them on this blog, but did conversation heart eye patches instead of felt hearts. I stapled a chocolate gold coin on the back in a small plastic bag from Hobby Lobby.
