SUPER eventful weekend...

This has been a SUPER eventful weekend!!!  Here we go...

Abigail graduated from Kindergarten!  This year has been so special for so many reasons, making the end of her Kindergarten year sort of emotional.  Remember her first day of Kinder, shortly after walking her in for the first day of school, my water broke and our sweet Grace Astrid Ross blessed us with her presence.  Despite all of the chaos (with Grace alone we had 6.5 weeks in the hospital after birth, two open heart surgeries- one of which was in Boston and a whole lot of ups and downs in between), this school year was packed full of SO many rich memories and blessings!  On Abby's last day of school they had a little performance and awards ceremony.  We got to watch Abby (and all the other sweet Kindergartners) perform about 5 songs for us and afterwards we went to her class room for individual awards.  The awards were "candy" themed and Abby got the "Sweet Tart Award" which read  "You are a genuine sweetheart, anyone would be lucky to have you as a friend!" Abby's best friend, Julia (aka Ju Ju) got the same award in her class.  I thought that was so special considering they both could have received any of the other 18 "Candy Awards", but they got the same one! Those girls are certainly blessed to have each other!  Abby's amazing teacher put together a slideshow with pictures that she took throughout the year, while the song "You'll Be in My Heart" played in the background... cue the tears!!!  It was precious and will serve as a great reminder of God's goodness through a colorful year :-).  We love and appreciate you, Mrs. Gazaway!!!

Abby had her tap recital on Friday night, which was such a treat to watch!!! Their routine was to "You've Got a Friend in Me," which was a perfect fit for Abby because she has grown up with all things Toy Story for the past 3 years, thanks to Andrew.  

Her dancing sponsor, Nana Lu Lu, came into town for the festivities too, making it even more special!

Andrew didn't want to be left out of the spot light, so last night, he got all packed up and ready to go to....

get a staple in the back of his head!  He was bouncing around on Abby's trundle bed (they have been having slumber parties in Abby's room since she got out of school) and decided to bounce on his booty and throw his head back...  the wood border of the bed didn't make for the best pillow, so he ended up with a nice deep gash.  Thanks to your prayers, David and Andrew left for the hospital and returned home with a staple about 30 minutes later.  That in itself is truly a miracle in my mind and by God's grace, Andrew was super brave.  He only let out a small whimper when they put the staple in (he was distracted by having his head phones on and watching Despicable Me, so I think that he was caught off guard).

If you don't like blood then scroll down really fast, so that you can avoid the next picture...  It's really doesn't look that bad (especially since we took the picture after cleaning off most of the blood), I just want to be sensitive to people that don't enjoy bloody images (i.e. Jackie- sorry that you caught a glimpse of the staple at church today :-).

Grace also wanted to make sure that she made the "highlights reel" from this weekend, so she pulled off two performances that are MOST CERTAINLY praise worthy!  She is getting better and better at sitting up by herself...  she sat up for 20 seconds all by herself!  That may not sound like that big of a deal to most, but for how hard Up's children (and their parents and therapists :-) have to work to achieve milestones that just seem to happen with "typical" kids, it makes for just one more reason to celebrate!  It is sort of a sweet treat that Gracie has Up's and does things a little slower because we get to truly enjoy and appreciate every little milestone, instead of it just passing us by without much thought.  It also gives us one more reason to get excited and act silly :-).  Grace's other super exciting achievement is that she has slept through the night (hasn't woken up for 2-3 hours to party in the middle of the night like she did for a week and a half straight) for 3 nights in a row now.  Please, please, please pray that it continues and wasn't just a teaser.

I like this picture because you can see Gracie's two teeth (on the bottom) and her Cindy Loo Who hair doo :-)

Gracie got to attend her first wedding on Saturday night!  It was such an honor to get to pray for the bride and groom during the ceremony since they hold such a special place in our families hearts!  Nana Lu Lu had a playdate with Abby and Andrew while we were at the wedding and you can tell that they had a ton of fun due to the explosion of toys in the background of this picture :-).

The two youngest members of the "Zipper Club" at Abby's recital...

Update on Grace's Cardiology appointment- she didn't have an echo this time, so we don't have a very clear picture as to exactly how her mitral stenosis is doing (her Dr could still hear it when she listened to her chest, which means it must still be in the moderate to severe category), but all of her other measures (oxygen levels, blood pressure, chest x-ray, exam) were stable (normal for her).  We are grateful for a relatively uneventful visit!  Thank you for your prayers!  Will you please continue to pray that God would keep Grace healthy, that her mitral stenosis would improve without any intervention, and that her heart is growing and functioning perfectly for a biventricular repair?  Please also pray for an uneventful cardiology appointment for Abby, which is scheduled for June 22nd.  Thank you, Village!  We truly feel your prayers and pray that you know just how much you are appreciated and loved by us all!