It's raining it's pouring, the old man is snoring, and so am I of BOREDOM!

Seriously, we're going on about day 7 of rain and thunderstorms. Carsten and I are about to explode from boredom and being tied up in this house. So, I figure blogging while Carsten looks at his new Clang Clang, Bang Bang book will take up about ummmm 15 minutes this morning then I can figure something else out. I'm thinking museum maybe, but WHERE in Leavenworth, Kansas, I guess we could always go look at the prisoners for a fieldtrip! Now it's really pouring, great! No, I should be thankful in all things so I'm going to be thankful for the rain, bored, but thankful.

We finally got Carsten's EGD scheduled for next Friday, whoop whoop!! Friday afternoon sometime, they call Thursday to let us know. So after that we'll get the results faxed asap to Baltimore and then hopefully start the insurance approval process! We're still not sure where we're living in Atlanta yet, nope, life is never dull being an army wife:) I'm praying something happens today, I've really been trying to pray that the Lord would put us in the "right" neighborhood with the "right" people as opposed to the "right" house.

Well Carsten is starting to pull dangerous objects off of all my shelves so I better go supervise like I should be. He slept 14 hours straight last night! I figure I should take that as a blessing from God, or a sign that I'm not being a good mother and making sure he gets the sleep he needs on a daily basis:) Either way, it sure was nice.

I was so sad to hear of the toddler yesterday that died from the swine flu. I've been reading from Psalm 91 a bunch lately, hope it's encouraging to you.

Psalm 91

"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High will rest in the shadow of the Almighty.
I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.
Surely he will save you from the fowler's snare and from the deadly pestilence.
He will cover you with his feathers, and under his wings you will find refuge; his faithfulness will be your shield and rampart.
You will not fear the terror of night, nor the arrow that flies by day,
nor the pestilence that stalks in the darkness, nor the plague that destroys at midday.
A thousand may fall at your side, ten thousand at your right hand, but it will not come near you.
You will only observe with your eyes and see the punishment of the wicked.
If you make the Most High your dwelling-- even the Lord, who is my refuge--
then no harm will befall you, no disaster will come near your tent.
For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways;
they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.
You will tread upon the lion and the cobra; you will trample the great lion and the serpent.
"Because he loves me," says the Lord, "I will rescue him; I will protect him, for he acknowledges my name.
He will call upon me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble, I will deliver him and honor him.
With long life will I satisfy him and show him my salvation."



Blessings,
Momma Bridges

KKI

Okay so here's the deal. The good part is the nurse called to schedule the EGD for Carsten in the next two weeks!!! The bad part is I missed the call because I was outside with Carsten. Now I'm back on the phone listening to hospital automated messages which is how I spend most of my adult life these days. I have memorized all of them at Arkansas Children's and Children's Mercy and pretty much know what button to push when for any clinic, the only thing is you HAVE to listen to the whole thing BEFORE you push the button!!!! So, PLEASE pray that I get in touch with her today or Monday and it gets scheduled in the next two weeks so we can get this thing on the road and get the insurance approved in order to go by the end of May!! Please please please Lord, thank you in advance!

Just for fun

Okay I have to tell this funny story about me and my silly self. I have this hand me down Iphone from my dear husband who graciously gave it to me (really so he could get the newer updated version which is how it usually goes down). And so, I've had this Iphone for a few months now and I really enjoy it, but not even remotely aware of all that it does or how to do it. One day, however, I saw Chad shaking his Iphone and I wondered hmm, what does that do. So I ask him and he says, oh you can just shake the phone and it and it will "refresh" it. Wow I think, now that is something I can remember. So the other day we're driving along and here I am shaking my Iphone as I have been for about a month now with not quite as good of results as Chad. Chad looks over at me and says "what in the world are you doing!" Well, I'm just shaking it like you said to refresh the page, except why doesn't it always work for me? Chad starts cracking up and tells me I'm a crazy woman. Apparently, you can only shake it to refresh your facebook page, not anytime you want to refresh your email or anything else, just facebook! Ohhh, oops, okay that explains things:) Now I'm feeling really stupid, especially in front of my gadget genius husband. We both got a pretty good laugh out of it though and I thought I would tell you all that little trick in case you didn't know now that I've figured out how to do it right.

On an even sweeter note, I had so much fun today watching Carsten play at the park across from our house. He is walking around the playground (yes, still his Frankenstein walk but nonetheless) and going down the slides all by himself! Seriously, this kid is trying to climb UP the slides and going on the big kid part of the gym (I have to stay with him because it's so high up he could fall off). I am so impressed by the way he tries to keep up with the other kids and is so interested in what they're doing. This little girl today took a liking to him and was "showing" him how to go down all the slides, it was so cute. He just soaks it all in though and it's amazing to see. If we keep having this much fun at the park I'm afraid our house is going to turn into a disaster area with all the lack of cleaning going on. Oh well, less than 7 weeks left, I figure a clean house will come and go but memories from this special time will last forever. So guess what we're doing tomorrow?!!!

Happy Friday everyone!!
Love,
Momma Bridges

Miss America

I just wanted to say "You go girl!" to the runner up of the Miss America pageant. She has, sadly, taken a pretty harsh beating for the way she answered her question on Sunday night which she believes cost her the crown. Chad and I watched her yesterday on one of the news channels and she displayed so much character, grace, and integrity. I won't go into all the details here on the blog but I think it's sad that our country is becoming a place where we're not allowed to speak our opinions without retaliation, namely, conservative opinions. I also admire her because her degree is in special education and she volunteers with the special olympics in her free time. She is someone that's standing true to her convictions regardless of her state or popularity and we need more people like her to lead. So, Miss California, you're a winner to me with or without a crown!

Read more of the story at http://iphone.foxnews.com/story/0/517277-Miss-California-Feels-Backlash-From-Former-Hollywood-Friends.html

It's about time!!

Yeah I know, I've been such a blabber mouth on the blog lately I haven't even given you any recent pics of our angel. Shame on me. Here he is at his new favorite place, the park! He LOVES the swing and the slide. We try to go more now that it's warming up. He's definitely all boy and wants to be in the dirt and on the ground, I'm learning to let go and let him get good and dirty, cause that's what a boy wants to do right? Nothing makes me more happy than when he is happy, I love being his mom! Enjoy:)

Shots and Scopes

So I decided to face my fears today and go ahead with Carsten's immunizations. I've been putting the dreaded MMR off since he was 12 months and I realized yesterday that he probably won't be able to go to the feeding clinic without them. I felt a little stupid breaking down in front of the immunization nurse but she was so reassuring and even prayed for Carsten before she gave him the shot. I feel a peace about it today and know I did the right thing. Let's face it, everyone has to be immunized and Carsten can't start school without it so I had no choice. We've just been through so much and you hear about the immunizations and it was a fear I had let build and build inside of me and it was taking over. I feel better today and Carsten seems to be doing fine, we had a nice long pillow fight on the bed after his bath and now he's sleeping peacefully.

It looks like the next thing we have to face is an EGD or a "scope" from GI. KKI called and said the team wants him to have it before we go to Baltimore. They basically put you under and put a scope down through your throat to see what's going on. I think they want to see how his reflux has affected him and whether or not the medicine is working. So I'm working on scheduling one right now, yuck! Not looking forward to Carsten being under again, enough already!! But it will put us one step closer to Baltimore. Please pray that all this gets worked out soon, especially the insurance approval, since once we move to Atlanta we will be on another region and will have to start ALL over again. I told the lady just call me and we'll have our bags packed and on a plane. I'm feeling pretty crashed today from all the adrenaline yesterday so I think I'll go rest. Ready for the weekend and a date with Chad. Happy Thursday everyone.

Momma Bridges
Psalm 56:3 "When I am afraid, I will trust in you."

How much can one take in a day!

Yesterday will probably go down as one of the Bridges Bunch "best days". So we got a call from KKI that said Carsten was recommended for the inpatient program! What a blessing, now we get to go and I can stay with him in the hospital and not have to worry about a place to stay! Then, we found out that an offer was accepted on a house that we decided to go for. Ultimately, we decided that renting wasn't the best decision for us and it was a deal we couldn't turn down. Then Carsten does FANTASTIC in feeding therapy, he was eating pieces of graham crackers without gagging at all and drinking from a regular straw! I mean, really the only way the day could have been any better was if Carsten ate a cheeseburger and fries! So, we're excited and trying not to be anxious about all the details. Just spoke with KKI and they think Carsten will get in somewhere around late May (yes, that's right, 2 weeks before our move June 13th!) So, it looks like momma and baby Bridges will be spending their summer in Baltimore. Hey, if we come home to Atlanta eating, all the better!

The house we're buying is an older ranch, red brick, with a HUGE fenced in backyard for Carsten to play, and a bonus playroom, I can't wait! The only negative is that I told Chad if we bought it I would mow it, (being as spoiled as I am, I've never mowed in my life) so THAT should be interesting! Maybe we can get a riding lawnmower and Carsten can ride around with me:)

So the Lord was good to us yesterday and we are THANKFUL! But even if all that stuff didn't happen, something Carsten has taught me is that the Lord is STILL good even if good things don't always happen. God is good all the time, even if it isn't "good" all the time:) Yesterday just happened to be one of those "good" days and we'll take it!


Momma Bridges

Just got a call Carsten got accepted into the INPATIENT program at Kennedy Krieger in Baltimore!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
excited!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Carsten's tube

It's 8:30 and I've already cleaned up one episode of banana throw up. We ran out of night bags for his night feeding so for two days he hasn't gotten his night feeds. We thought we would try to go ahead and see how he does without it. Apparently, he still needs it. Something happens when his stomach gets completely empty and then add drainage to that equals vomit in the morning. I still can't figure it out and the doctors can't either but I've heard that reflux is worse on an empty stomach. So, thank goodness we got our supply yesterday afternoon and we will be resuming the night feeds tonight, period. I think until Carsten is able to drink by himself, the reflux will continue without the night feeds. He has really done well lately though and I think we only had one or two vomits on our trip to Atlanta. It's painful for me to even think about the days when he would vomit 6-8 times a day, we've come so far but still have a ways to go but I'm thankful for the progress and I'm thankful for the GJ tube.

I'm still waiting on a call from KKI to find out if he will get to go to the inpatient portion of the feeding program. If they don't call soon and get something worked in, I have a feeling we will be going to the Atlanta program. The only thing with the Atlanta program is it's northeast of the city and we will be living southeast, so that's a major drive for Carsten and I everyday for 8 weeks. We may end up staying in the Ronald McDonald house if they let us. But, I'm still hopeful for KKI in Baltimore to work out, it's probably the better program of the two.

Carsten's walking is coming along great, he can pretty much walk across a room now. His communication is not so great. We do a lot of sign language with him and he hasn't caught on to much of it yet. He still babbles a lot of different sounds but no words yet. I'm a little sad about it but all his therapists say that his comprehension is really good, he just needs to work on expression. You can tell him to go get your ball, stack the blocks, stand up, or raise your arms up and he knows how to do all of it on command. I think his talking is going to coincide with his eating, so only time will tell.

I better get this week going and get caught up on house stuff, Chad keeps asking where his "fly lady" went from Little Rock. I told him she flew away when we moved:) Hopefully she'll show up by the time we get to Atlanta.

Happy Tuesday,
Momma Bridges

II Corinthians 4:17 "So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, for what is seen is temporary but what is unseen is eternal."

There's no place like home, there's no place like home!

We're finally home and boy are we glad!! This was a long week for the Bridges Bunch. We felt like we were living out of our car and poor Carsten was such a trooper. All I can say is I gave birth to an angel. He was so good the whole week and never complained once! We just kept saying all week how blessed we feel to have Carsten, we really couldn't have asked for a sweeter little boy. As far as the house hunt, that's another story all together. We did finally find a house on the last day to rent. We looked all week for a house to buy but couldn't find anything we were just crazy about and couldn't resist, so, we think renting is going to be the best choice this move. Here is the cute little house we found in the same subdivision as my friend.



We are still praying about one house that we might make an offer on. It's a really good deal but has a lot of stairs so we're a little hesitant with Carsten knowing he won't be able to go down stairs for a while. We are excited about either house though and know it will all work out. We can't believe it's only 2 more months until we move. We loved the Atlanta area though, I was surprised at how big the city was and our visit to the aquarium was tons of fun, Carsten LOVED watching the fish. Hope everyone has a Happy Easter tomorrow! We're going to go enjoy our sunny day here in Leavenworth!

Love to all,
Momma Bridges