Gavin

by

Gavin is doing wonderful – Getting ready for Christmas

“You never know how heavy a burden you carry until its lifted off of you” – how true that is. Now that we are home, and Gavin is doing wonderful, wonderful, wonderful we can all live life as it should be lived. Its been such a relief to see him bounce back so quickly and better than he was before. We had a doctors apt today and they thought he looked great! In retrospect, I wonder if it was really colds or backlash to the problems that they operated on that was making him so uncomfortable, maybe a combo who knows. Either way he is just so full of life again. He is cooing and moving and eating like a champ and it couldn’t be more fun to watch his curious little mind at work. He is so interested in everything! Between him and Lauren they get like a million kisses a day! It is so fun to see him and Lauren light up at all the Christmas decorations! Lauren went to sleep last night with a candy cane under her pillow and dreams of Santa coming to her house. I can’t express enough how nice it is to be together again as a family, to have my daughter, son and husband together again, and happy and healthy and out of the hospital. (Bummer that Jay had to go back to work after the holiday weekend!) This is the best holiday gift that I could get! Hope this finds you all enjoying the super nice weather outside and spending it with those you love! I must admit I am looking somewhat forward to a little snow to get more into the spirit, but I am sure I will regret saying that. 🙂 I think Santa is coming to the Mills next week, so I think that Gavs is going to get his first glimpse at the big red man and Lauren will be elated, he comes in on horses, what could make Lauren happier than that?

by

Event Newsletter

Here is the latest copy of Gavin’s event newsletter. This newsletter includes information about the latest fundraising events for Gavin. Please feel free to print and distribute this newsletter.

To open and print this newsletter, you will need Adobe Acrobat. To download Acrobat, click here.

by

Thank You Sam!

A lotta smiles were seen walking out of the Country Springs Hotel on November 11th as shrewd seasonal shoppers avoided the black-Friday-slapdash and instead, ‘Shopped for sweet baby Gavin’s Life’. Thank you Samantha Christianasen for warming baby Gav’s upcoming winter nights with your “Shop For Life” Consultant Open House Fundraiser, raising over $1,254.41. We are so grateful!

by

Thank You Angie Hallmark & Youth Group

Most smiles are started by another smile, and that is exactly what Angie Hallmark and her Youth Group of 2nd through 7th grade altruistic kids from the Methodist Church in Lake Mills have drawn on the face of sweet baby Gav’s fundraising campaign. We would like to offer each of them a deeply-felt thank you for their early holiday treat – raising over $464.00 (their grand total is not quite yet official).

Speaking of treats…we want to extend an especially warm and grateful thank-you for the “sweet smiles” provided by the James J. Cholate Shoppe located in Lake Mills. They created a candy-bar fundraising program explicitly for Angie and her kids, bringing this magical project to life! We are so very grateful.

[mygal=candy-bar-fundraiser]

by

Thank You “Shop for Life” Fundraiser Consultants

We are honored to send special thank yous to the following Consultants who so generously donated a portion of all their sales, from their premium and glittering merchandise, at the Shop for Life fundraiser held in honor of our sweet baby Gavin:

  • Angie Rewolinski – Consultant for Crayola
  • Sue Karras – Consultant for Discovery Toys
  • Tracy Loughney – Consultant for Lia Sophia
  • Jennifer Newkirk – Consultant for Mary Kay
  • Claire Doelger – Consultant for Pampered Chef
  • Jill Fischer – Consultant for Silpada
  • Kristin Niedziejko – Consultant for Tastefully Simple
  • Lisa Castro – Consultant for Tupperware
  • Sue Mews – Consultant for Usborne Books
  • Kim Hierlmeir – Consultant for Tupperware

Certainly, little Gavin’s been ten times blessed. Thank you all for making a wonderful difference! This wonderful event raised $1,254.41 for Gavin.

Warmest thanks to the Country Springs Hotel in Waukesha, and their gracious, kind-hearted front desk staff, for donating the use of their lovely establishment for this fundraising event.

by

We’re home – all is calm!

What a great day, since leaving the hospital life has been full of good surprises. Gavin is eating like a champ, polishing off one—get this—and a half jars of chicken and rice (his new favorite) for dinner, so I took a picture of him so you can see his delight. The nurse called his little fat creases- bracelets…we need more bracelets or maybe we should call his little rolls his bling, because they are worth their weight in gold…so its wonderful!

The kids are both settled back at home and are so much more relaxed—it’s wonderful. I officially left today for two hours and Gav was excited to see the return of the juice sippy cup. Jay said that he picked it up with both his hands and stuck it in his mouth.

After rereading the hospital journals, I realized that I said that the doctor can’t help. I just want to clarify that his doctors have been wonderful, and I know if they could, they would fix him…sometimes I say things in frustration, but I just wanted to make sure I clarified, that although they can’t fix his problem, they are the only reason that he is alive, so I appreciate all they do!

Well, we are all still in our turkey coma, but hopefully tomorrow we will get out more and enjoy this beautiful weather! Lauren decorated the back window with some window paint to start getting the kids into the holiday spirit and we put up little trees in both their rooms. Gav is into the lights and Lauren needs hers on now to fall asleep.

I added a video of Gavin and his cousin, Annalyse, when she came to see her cousin in the hospital. Gav loves her (and baby dolls). I think that he is somewhat pleased he is no longer the low man on the totem pole, but as you can see, he is all about getting her hair, and hands on this video (and in this one he doesn’t take her nuk, but loves grabbing her nuk away). Hope all is well and you can all enjoy your good weekend! We can smile and relax—- all is calm!

by

Day Three…Gavin’s looking better

It’s day 3 and things are looking a little brighter, Gav is up and moving and seems to be doing well without his pain meds. He looks normal again so I am starting to relax some (okay so there is no such thing as relaxing in a hospital, but feel less anxiety for sure). He played with his cousin Annalyse today in the hospital crib and managed to steal her nuk right out of her mouth. You would have thought that he won a gold medal in successfully swiping the nuk because he was grinning from ear to ear, he just kept taking it out and putting it back in – Annalyse on the other hand did not appreciate the gesture!

Thanks Julie for calling and keeping me optimistic (I hope that the small fire has been extinguished), sometimes you just need a little nudge to keep going. Jay always tells me that it’s a marathon, not a sprint, at first I thought it was catchy, but now it drives me somewhat crazy, but it’s 100% true. Can’t let anything knock you down too long. I heard a quote, life is not about how many breaths you take but how many moments take your breath away. He does take my breath away. I could just kiss his dialysis machine and whoever invented it. It gives him life, all this, all these battles are so that he can live, what an innate survival instinct babies come with—now it’s our job to make sure that his life and world are worth it! Hope you are all having fun, still no expected date of release, but we will see, I hope not too much longer! Hugs, Jill