Quick update with the promise of more to come

Life after diagnosis has been interesting. Some days are better than others, and we're all handling it differently. During our time in Columbia we've been blessed with some great therapists and other advocates for Tucker. However, the time has come to move on. As many of your know, we are moving to Washington State in roughly 5 weeks. A combination of factors have lead us to this decision, but two were more weighty than the rest:  The proximity of family and the presence of a top 5 children's hospital for Tucker's condition. These two things are going to be life changers for our family.

In the mean time there are several of us who are training for a half marathon in September! We are running the Disneyland Half Marathon with the group Run For Our Sons (www.runforoursons.org) as a way to raise money for research committed to finding a cure for DMD. Check out the website and please consider donating to the cause. Tucker and boys across the world need all the help and support we can give.

It has been a crazy time in our lives but we are committing to keep this blog better updated so that we can keep y'all appraised of what is going on in our lives and what's coming up on the horizon.

http://www.parentprojectmd.org/site/TR/Events/General?team_id=11280&pg=team&fr_id=3450

Life Isn't Fair.

We don't really know what to write. Some of you know what is going on, but we thought it would be nice to have as many people praying and hoping with us as we go through a difficult time we never could have foreseen.

Tucker, our sweet, loving, amazing little boy, has been preliminarily diagnosed with Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy.  DMD is a genetic disorder characterized by progressive muscular degeneration and weakness. It, not only, significantly decreases life expectancy but it also currently has no cure. We take Tucker in for genetic testing on Thursday, January 22nd at 1:15 pm. It will take roughly four weeks to receive an official diagnosis based on those test results. All that being said, he is still such a happy, loving, and goofy kid.

Please think of us and keep us in your prayers.  We are having a very hard time processing this and it has been an emotional month, to say the least. We have some very important decisions to make and hope that God makes it clear what decisions or path to take. 

Praises and Prayers

To keep you up to date, which I honestly suck at, I thought it was time to update our family blog. We are loving life with two kiddos.  Parker is a joy and Tucker just loves her.

There have been a few changes which have proved challenging and I'm writing this blog because many people have been asking about Tucker. For those of you that don't know, our little T has decided not to be a typical toddler. Tucker skipped crawling and decided his means of transportation would be rolling around everywhere. It was around this time we started to see his development was different than that of his peers. He started walking a little later than most, at 18 months, and has had other physical delays; for example, he cannot pull himself up or sit up from a laying position. T also has very little means of communication. After several tests and hours of observation, including appointments with specialists, Tucker qualified for speech, physical, and occupational therapy.  We are still going through the stages of trying to figure out what we can do to help T through this process and are thankful for the awesome team that has surrounded us during this time.

There are so many praises that we have seen throughout this process:

--We are so blessed and thankful that Jordan can stay home and work with Tucker through these therapy sessions.

--The team of professionals we work with are amazing at their job and fit perfectly with Tucker. They even do all therapy sessions in our home! (right now he has three one-hour long appointments each week)

--Tucker's auditory appointment (yesterday) went well and he has no problems with his hearing & Jordan survived taking three kiddos to this appointment!

--After being told it could take months to get an appointment with a developmental pediatrician it only took 2 weeks! AMAZING! Also-Lacey and Austin are coming to watch Parker and S during this appointment so that Jordan can go (it is scheduled to be 3 hours long) without worry for the other littles.

--T is already progressing so much! He has started a pre-crawl and is copying words like "kitty," "cold," "car" (his favorite), "whoa," "up," & "ball."  The physical stuff is a bit more difficult, but he is becoming more motivated and has started realizing that he can pull himself up, he just needs to try.

--The support we have from family and friends (no matter how far away) has been amazing, thank you for your encouragement and prayers!

Some prayers:

--We have our developmental pediatrician appointment next Wednesday (11/19), prayers would be appreciated as this is a long appointment and will be exhausting for both Tucker and Jordan.

--That we can figure out what may be causing this. Our therapists have some theories, but before we get into that, we want to check other things off the list.

--We are still on a waiting list for our team's occupational therapist.  We are next on the list, so hopefully that will start soon. This will mean 4 days of therapy for our little guy (and his daddy...)

--That we can trust in God.

One Month Old

Parker Rae is one month old and we have survived the first month with a toddler and infant.  She is still a super eater and sleeper.  She spends more time awake now and loves her swing.  Tucker has started to realize that she is here to stay and loves to bring her toys and play with Parker's feet.

One Month Old! Sept 6

Our welcome home banner and decorations! Ignore the rain.

First bath at home. Despite the picture, Parker LOVES bath time.

First zoo visit. She has been three times already! We love our annual pass :)

The four Howes!

She's here! Parker Rae Howe, born August 6th.  She weighed 8 lbs 6.6 oz. at 20.5 inches long.  It took a couple days of contractions but when she was ready, she came fast! I started feeling serious contractions on the 4th and they were finally close enough that night for us to go to the hospital, unfortunately the labor did not progress enough and I was sent home :(  So August 5th was a delightful day of contractions! They were close enough for a couple hours before we had other signs that told us to rush to the hospital around 10/11ish at night. Jordan rushed me to the hospital and we were dilated to 6 cm! Crazy! So after a few hours of some pretty serious contractions, I finally got my super amazing epidural and Parker arrived at 8:01 am with one push.  A perfect little girl! We had great nurses and doctors.  After two days in the hospital we headed home with our beautiful little girl. Parker has since gained weight like crazy.  She sleeps mostly through the night (wakes up around 5 am) and is very sweet!

Pictures of our little girl at one day old: (taken by Bella Baby)

Almost a family of four! Final.

Summer activities in pictures...

the three amigos after a nice swim

Tuckers favorite summer activity.

The three amigos changed costumes to become the three pirates!

Finally! We have a walker!

Sleeping on the plane. Such a good traveler.

Almost a family of four! Part 2

Nursery! We went with a wild animal/safari like theme for Parker. Here are some pictures of her room:

Thanks to my awesome 5th grade team for the cutest hamper in the whole world!