SOLD!!!

Once again the roller coaster ride of life has been taking us for many loop de loops!!! As many of you know we have been trying to sell our house so that we can move back east to New Hampshire to be close to Randy's job. Well, it finally happened......we sold the house. It's been a whirlwind really. We received an offer and got everything settled within a couple of days and the buyers needed it to be a 30 day closing. So, we are down to our last 11 days in our home here in Auburn and we are scrambling to find a rental in New Hampshire. We are following a lead on a home in Bow, NH that we are hoping will be settled really soon. We've been selling a lot of our household furniture and such to get the weight of the move down to a more managable level, but it has been tough to do that. I don't know why we become so attached to our things, but we do. It's certainly been an emotional time as we think about wrapping up our life here in WA and heading east to area we know little about without friends and family.

Our closing date is Nov. 17th and then we will stay with my parents in Tacoma until the rental is settled out there and then I will fly out with the kids and meet Randy. We're pretty sure that Randy and my Dad will drive our truck and moving trailer out to NH and then my mom will fly with me and the kids to meet them. It is going to be our next great adventure and all though we are looking forward to the welcome change it will bring our family and the added presence of Randy at home, it is difficult to realize we won't be here anymore.

In the midst of all of this, Connor had his adenoids removed last Tuesday, November 2nd. He is doing really well after the surgery and shows only small signs of discomfort. We didn't have to stay overnight at Children's, which was a miracle in my book. The surgeon was glad that they removed them because the were 75% the size of normal adenoids. That means that he only had access to breathe out of 25% of his nostril space. Poor little fella. We hope that this make a significant difference in the way that he breathes and also fights off infections.

Please continue to say your prayers for us. I will update as we get closer and with all of our new information.

Here we go on the next wonderful chapter of the Robertson's lives!!!

Lovebug Hugs,
Lori

Happy Heart Day Connor

Newborn...just home from the hospital.Connor's open heart surgery 23 Aug 2006...7 months oldAnd here he is today....walking and smiling....Praise God!

Daddy's just reminiscing about the past.....and Happy Heart Day Connor!!!

I sent along a couple of extra pic's just because....no real order.... just because.

Happy Heart Day Connor!

Today marks the 4 year anniversary of Connor's open heart surgery. It is sobering to think about that day as we feared that we may loose him, but as we joined with the prayers of thousands of people, God answered our prayer and healed Connor's heart through the aid of surgery. We are happy to announce that he is in excellent heart health!!!!

What an amazing journey we are on with this special little boy. Althought there remains great challenges and myriads of unanswered questions, he is our miracle and we are grateful for his life each and every day!

As God continues to unfold the story of his life, may we always be found faithful in the fact that we are giving credit to God for giving him strength and endurance and for teaching us how to be the best parents we can be to him.

We love you Little Bug and we celebrate YOU today on the Happy Heart Day #4!!!!
Lovebug Hugs,
Lori

Haven't Posted In A Long Time...

I know it's been an awfully long time since I posted. I am sorry for those of you that have followed our blog for the past 4 years to have so many recent periods of silence. I wish I could say that things have changed for us, but they really haven't. Things are constantly busy with the kids. Connor, now 4 and 1/2 is still battling long periods of colds and infections that keep us down for a while. He continues to be fed by his feeding tube and his smile still lights up our lives! Mackenzie turned 3 in April and she just wants to experience the world in any way she can. She is a dramatic little girl who loves Tinkerbell and Fairies and she craves new adventures!!! Alex will be turning 2 in just a few short weeks. Whew...he's a fast one....always moving and running somewhere. He loves to climb and quite frequently I find him on the book shelves in the family room!!!

We have put the house up for sale by owner and we are praying that the Lord brings just the right buyer to enjoy our wonderful home. It's hard for me to think about selling this place as we have lived so much "life" here in the past 5 years. But, we need to be realistic and we have to get ourselves positioned closer to Randy's work. The commute to Boston is really a killer for him and for our family time together. We don't see him very much and it is really taking it's toll on all of us!

We will most likely move to the state of New Hampshire and rent for a while until we decide on just the right city for our family!!! We hope that things in the economy settle out sometime soon so that we will have a greater confidence to buy something out there! We again, are putting our faith and trust in God that He will work out all the tiny little details of this relocation. Our hearts remain heavy at the thought of leaving our precious families and friends here. So much so, that I cannot even speak of it right now.

The past weeks have hit us hard with pneumonia, sinus infections, coughs and colds. Alex is the last to get it and he's going on a week and a half of not feeling well. Continue to pray for us that better health would come to our home and we would be free from illnesses!

Thanks for continuing to support and pray and encourage us in all our endeavors. We are blessed and we are grateful to have so many wonderful family, friends and followers of the blog!

Some people have contacted my parents in efforts to find out how we are doing and have mentioned that they could not access the blog anymore. I'm not sure what the problem is, but I do hope that you will see this latest update and things will be revived. Maybe it went inactive because I hadn't posted for so long. We are also on Facebook if any of you would like to find us there. Just send a friend request and you can see more minute to minute updates to our lives.

Many blessings and our prayer is that you are all enjoying a wonderful summer!
Lovebug Hugs,
Lori

2010 Has Arrived!!!!

Hard to believe we are already in our first week of the new year. Happy New Year to all our friends near and far. This will shape up to be another big year for the Robertson's.

Let me catch you up on a few details for the family. Connor is doing well after his tonsil removal. He struggled for about a month or more with continued sickness, but seems to have mellowed out quite a bit and is doing very well. He has been such a joy the past couple of weeks with smiles, laughter and playtime. We enjoyed a lot of family gatherings over Christmas and he survived without sickness.....Praise the Lord!!! Still a bit gun-shy about getting back to school so we will hopefully be able to have home services and therapy here for a while.

Mackenzie is doing great. I'm not sure if I had posted the news that she had fallen in October and slashed open her forehead. She had to have 16 stitches in her pretty little forehead, but she has been surprisingly cooperative about the healing process and putting cream on it to help avoid a terrible scar. During our Christmas trip up to Ferndale last week we had a special day with some cousins and aunties and Grandma R. at a salon where she got her first haircut. She looks like such a big girl now.....still long hair, but now she has bangs. It's adorable.

Alex is exploring the world like quite the little adventurer. He loves to climb and get into everything. He has no fear, and he is curious about everything!!! His giggle can brighten up your darkest mood and he smiles all the time. He is still having a difficult time with teething. Currently he has 7 teeth and working on a couple more, but they are slow on the move. I think he will be a much happier camper once his little chompers are in place and we can put teething behind us.

Randy & I are facing many decisions as this new year ensues. Our biggest news is that Randy has been transferred to Boston, MA as his American Airlines base. This came as a big surprise to us back at the beginning of November. He started out there as of January 1st and this commute is going to be a killer for his time with the family. After much prayer and contemplation, we have decided that it is best to preserve the family and get us to be together more. That being said, we will be moving East.....New Hampshire, that is! WOW.....A cross-country move with our little brood will not be an easy task, but it is a necessity. Randy is going to be getting the hang of things out there first while we decide how we will accomplish this move. I anticipate a spring move, but the timing will be completely up to the Lord's timing for our family. Please be praying for us as we make this transition....it is difficult for us to imagine being away from our wonderful family and friends, but we also see this as the opportunity for our first great adventure with the kids. It's natural that we have totally mixed feelings about the whole situation.

We pray that you are all doing well and are in good health as the days of January quickly pass. It is always our hope that each of you that follow this blog would be encouraged by the words that are written here and by what the Lord is doing in each of your lives individually. Please let us know how you are doing by leaving a comment. We just love hearing from you and believe it or not, your words are always such an encouragement to us.

Be blessed in the days ahead....I will post more news on the upcoming move as soon as I know more details. Thanks for your continued prayers and love!!!

Lovebug Hugs,
Lori

We're Home!!!

We are very happy to be home after our hospital stay. Connor had a very difficult night last night keeping his oxygen levels appropriate. There was a pretty big scare between 1-3am, but after he got some really good coughs out, he was able to breathe a lot better! The ICU staff and doctors were considering transferring us to the floor in the middle of the night and then the oxygen problem happened...that kept us on the unit through morning rounds. I really had to fight hard to get him released to home, but I finally convinced them that he would be much better off at home recovering than being vulnerable in the hospital to secondary illness.

I have to say, we are exhausted and are in need of sleep. You never get a good nights rest in the hospital, and last night was no exception. Please agree with us in prayer that Connor's pain would be minimal. He is such a trooper!!!! He is taking Tylenol every 4 hours and rotating Tylenol w/Codine every other dose. Since we have been home he has been playing so good with little agitation. We thank the Lord that he is doing much better than we anticipated and we trust that this will continue!!!

I will update again in a couple of days and let you all know how he is recovering.
We are all hoping for a good night of rest tonight!!!!

Lovebug Hugs,
Lori

Successful Surgery!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We are so happy to report that Connor is out of surgery and it was a great success!!! We arrived at the hospital at 10:30 and we waited and waited to be called back. Finally we were in the pre-surgery screening area and we were told that Connor's surgery might not happen. Apparently the hospital is so full of patients right now that they did not have an ICU bed available for him to be in, so they put the surgery on hold. By 2:00pm we were told that a room became available and the surgery was a GO!!!! They administered some "happy" medication to Connor to settle him down a bit and then he got the giggles like you can't believe!!! It was the cutest thing I've ever seen. Here he was, getting ready for a big surgery and he was giggling like a silly school girl!!! I guess there really are hidden blessings behind every obstacle!!!


Before they took him in to the operating room, one of the nurses came back and told us that our prayers must really have been answered for this surgery to take place. There were 8 surgeries on hold and Connor was one of two that actually happened. Praise the Lord for that!!! We don't know why Connor was chosen, but we are thankful that he was and that we didn't have to turn around and go home.


About 2:30pm they took Connor from us and headed down that long, ominous hallway to the operating room. We, of course, had prepared Connor best we could to make that long walk without us. We assured him with our prayers as well as the little white treasure box we always send with him into the Operating Room. It contains 2 silver hearts that represent Daddy & Mommy's hearts going with him into the unknown and it also contains a small coin with his name on it and a picture of a Guardian Angel that promises to always be at his side. We have sent that box with him on far too many occassions, but it somehow gives us comfort to send it with him. Before he left us, I once again told Connor the story of his little guardian angel, Herman (that many of you remember that have read the blog from the very beginning). I reminded him that Herman would be there waiting for him when he entered the big white room and he would be doing loopty loops in the corners to make him giggle. We also told him that Herman would sing his favorite songs and whisper in his ears how much we loved him, but that Jesus always loves him more. It is always fun to remind Connor how much he is loved, even if it is in a silly manner.

After Connor was on his way, we headed down to the cafeteria to get a bowl of soup. We sat in our, all too familiar spot, in front of the large fish tank. We remembered vividly all the moments we had sat at that table in tears pleading with the Lord to spare our little boys life. Today, was different story. We thanked the Lord for His faithfulness to Connor over these 3 1/2 years and thanked him for the many miracles that He has preformed for Connor. We asked the Lord to spare him, this time, from pain. Our prayer is that he would have minimal pain as he recovers and that this surgery would accomplish what we sincerely hope it will......better health & an increased immune system for Connor.

Well, it wasn't more than about an hour and we received the page. We called up and sure enough, they were done with the surgery and the surgeon was waiting to talk with us. We knew that everything must have been a great success since it was such a short surgery. There was a spring in our step as we headed down the long hallways here at the hospital. When Dr. Sie greeted us she had a big smile on her face and said that Connor did GREAT. His tonsils were removed as they were the size of unshelled almonds on each side. Comparitively speaking, that is huge compared to the size of Connor's throat (well, to anyone's throat for that matter!). His adenoids looked very good and were quite small so she left those in and she felt that was the best decision. We trust her fully with Connor, so we are grateful that he didn't have to have them out as well. His airway was in perfect condition and looked completely normal and his ear tubes we in proper size and location for his growth over the next year. All things considered, this was a great outcome. Since the tonsils were the only thing to be surgically removed, his recovery should not be as difficult as we anticipated. It will still be rough, but probably only a couple of weeks.

The surgeon helped us better understand that Connor may actually have a better time of recovery not eating by mouth than he would if he were eating. We were surprised, because we were sure this would be the other way around. Actually, with the g-tube, we can make sure that he has proper nutrition and hydration without having to activate the throat muscles, which will be better on Connor for the long run of the recovery. Praise the Lord for answered prayer on this issue.

We are with Connor in the ICU right now and he is struggling to keep his oxygen levels up on his own and is requiring oxygen to supplement his breathing!!! Please pray that he would be able to do this on his own so that we can go home tomorrow.

We appreciate all of your prayers and I will update again later.

Lovebug Hugs,
Lori