As you probably already know February is congenital heart disease awareness month. There's so much that needs to be done to raise awareness that I don't even know where to start. CHD's are something that I never knew anything about, but is the #1 birth defect. 1 in 100 babies born are born with a CHD and CHD's are the leading cause in infant death. How crazy is that!? I have no idea how I could not have known that before or why it's not more publicized than it is. In the US twice as many children die from CHD's each year than all forms of childhood cancer combined, yet funding for pediatric cancer research is 5 times higher than funding for CHD.

There's a whole lot more statistics that I could mention, but I'll move on. Recently I did an interview for Stephanie's blog where I got to tell Pax's story. If you'd like to read it click here.
She is doing a series of interviews with heart Mom's for CHD awareness month. You should go over and read some of them. They are so inspirational! Be sure to have some tissue ready though because you'll probably let a few tears drop.

Oh and I almost forgot...Dakotah is taking part in a fund raiser at school called Hoops For Heart for the American Heart Association. His goal is to raise $250, by Thursday. (He has to turn everything in on Friday.) He only needs $150 more to reach his goal. Here's his website that he has set up for it. You can read more information about it here.

Have a lovely Tuesday!

On Tuesday Pax went for his monthly cardiologist visit. Once again, it was a good visit. Dr. Madranero said that the pressures around the area they just repaired has gone up some since his last appointment, but not enough to worry her. The averages were between 19-23. At an average of 45 they would do a diagnostic heart cath to see what exactly is going on. Dr. Madranero is hoping that they won't have to do a heart cath for another 4-6 months. Of course, the pressures could stabilize and not increase at all, which is what would be the best thing to happen. :) Overall she was very very happy with how he's doing and once again was amazed that through this whole ordeal he has never shown any outward signs of anything happening to him. This just makes me smile everytime. :D She is also hoping that in the near future we will be able to stretch our appointments to every other month. How awesome would that be??!!

On Wednesday I took Pax for his 9 month checkup at our new pediatrician. I can't tell you how relieved I am to have him at a new office and with a new doctor. *sigh* It's a very small practice with just 1 doctor and a few nurses. And bonus, one of our good friends works there! I'm so happy to have a doctor that actually speaks English and cares about my kid and can actually help him. Anyways, I could go on and on, but the important thing is that he's doing beautifully in his growth and development. He's sooo close to crawling. He's been getting up on all 4's and tries so hard to move, but isn't quite there yet. In the meantime he is very content with just scooting at the speed of light on his belly. He's also been learning to stand and he's been doing quite well. I would expect him to be starting to take steps with help in the next month or so. He isn't sitting up yet, but he has 3 more months to get that one down before physical therapy steps in. I'm confident that he will get it though! 

On another note...we are going through some very important "changes" and seeking God for some direction concerning some steps that we may need to take. Please be praying for us that we would have wisdom and CLEAR direction as to what we need to do. Change is never easy or pleasant but is sometimes necessary.