Woo Hooo Baby! It’s Gav’s six month transplant anniversary today (July 3, 2008) and we couldn’t be happier! This is a big milestone for him and we are definitely celebrating!

I was just reflecting on Gav’s six months and I thought that the grocery store would be the best example of how much things have changed. Six months ago Gav was helping me put things in the cart as I walked with him in my arms and pushed the cart in the other. Now he prefers to sit in the cart and throw things out when I take too long. It must look quite silly as you can barely see him because the milk and diaper boxes tower over him and things spontaneously fly out. However, his other quirk helps buy me a few more minutes of grocery store malay as I ask him 800 questions that end with him asking me “why?”. Also, Gav will never pass up a good opportunity to lay out the word “no”. No and why are definitely the top two words used in our house. He is quite the philosopher and loves to pontificate on the reason why for just about everything. He is starting to grow some and has hit the 10% mark on the growth chart.

Gav went in last week for his g-tube placement so he no longer has his “tubie” on his face. It was a rough surgery, as they all are. He is just now starting to feel a little bit better which is nice. It is so great to be able to go out and not be stared at. Last week when we went to the zoo I was stopped four times to be asked what was “wrong” with my son and this week, stopped zero…so the anonymity is nice. It is great not to have to worry about tube placement as well, or him throwing the tube up at night so I have finally been able to sleep again (other than the 13 kicks a night from Gav who thinks it’s cool to sleep horizontal).

Lulu is just being posh and hyper and recently cut off ten inches of her curly locks. I must admit I am very proud of her but also was very hesitant. She told me that she wanted to donate it to locks for love and I gave her the ol’ maybe next month “hoo haa” response and she grabbed her little scissors and held them up to her hair and said that she would do it herself then. I knew if I turned my back for one second that hair would be gone, so I immediately made the appointment. It’s very cute of course. I just thought if we were all as determined as a 4.8999 year old (she is also very upset that her birthday is taking FOREVER This year to get here already!) how much more the world would have accomplished (on the downside thought there would also be a heavy increase in drama, she is like a soap star). The thrill of t-ball is dwindling and she usually only pulls it together for the first inning and the second and third are either spent as using Jay’s arms as a jungle gym as he tried to rally the team into the second inning, or picking dandelion and clover boquets in the field. She has expressed interest in going on vacation (aka she jumped on her dad grabbed his collar and told him that was the one thing she wanted this summer, after a water park and horse of course). Jay asked her where she wanted to go and she replied “Africa” of course, we got her down to camping so that is on the itinerary.

We’ve been busy enjoying life and arguing with the people at the insurance companies. In our experience it seems that most of these people are hired for their jobs because they can say “no” so easily. We have decided that there is some magic verbiage out there that you must use when communicating to insurance company customer service representatives, because just plain vocabulary gets you nowhere. I think it’s some nonsensical secret password like “Aladdin flies an oriental rug” and that will get you to the third person who doesn’t know anything (after a two hour hold time) and they would like to help you but it would take three months processing time, six months of returned phone calls, sixty pages of signed notarized papers and a thirty dollar signature. We limit those to only once a day, because they can be entire day mood crushers.

Overall, we are so happy to see Gav and Lulu running, wrestling and laughing like all kids should be doing. She’s like a little fairy princess and he’s like the mini hulk so it’s always interesting, and mostly crazy, and beautifully exhausting. And there is not a night that goes by that we don’t know how blessed we are for the day we’ve just had and the next one to come.

I just want to take a moment and bring your attention to a family who has a little boy just like our Gavin. His name is Major Key and he will be having his transplant in California at Stanford on July 11th. Major’s kidney will be coming from his daddy. Please say a prayer and check out his site at www.cota.org under patient campaigns. We have never met, but his mother and I have become dear friends from across the miles. We have promised each other that one day the boys will meet and play while we relax and don’t talk about any of this! May God be watching over all of them. Also, if anyone is in the CA Stanford area and has housing that they would be able to use, please let me know, as they are out there for three months.

Happy fourth of July and God Bless America and all of you!

Jill