I HEART heart friends!

Can I just say that I cherish all of the heart families we've met on this journey? Our "Kindred Hearts" list just keeps growing and I have quite the attachment to these heart babies. I've also met some amazing adult CHD survivors who bring so much hope. I've read too many heart blogs and carepages to count (I don't even want to admit this, I'm a bit of a "blog addict/stalker" in my downtime.) But what I've learned through all of my reading is that we are not alone. We share so many of the same fears, frustrations, worries, hopes and dreams for our little ones with special hearts. It's good therapy and cheap too. God has put some pretty amazing people in our life and we've met them through our hospital stays at Children's and through the "blog world" and email. Our paths have crossed because someone has reached out who's been there, it's a great feeling.

Here's a few things that I've learned most heart mom's have in common: 1) we keep a huge stock pile of Purell, 2) we have a keen sense to spotting the sick & germy, 3) we can rattle off our child's weight, sats, heart rate as well as how many milliliters they've eaten in a day, 4) we have watched our child turn too many shades of purple, 5) we have had to hold our child down for countless procedures while trying to comfort them at the same time, 6) we have learned to "let go" of the small stuff, 7) we have had to kiss our little one goodbye then watch them be wheeled into the OR to have their chest cut open, 8) we have had to ask for and accept help more than ever before in our lives, 9) we have learned to be patient and take it a day at a time, 10) we want to give back and help others who are behind us in this journey!

To celebrate this post's title, loving our heart friends, I'd like to share some pictures from the fun weekend Maddie and I had in Seattle with our friends, Susie & Teagan. We hit the big CHD support group meeting, Heart to Heart, at Children's a couple of weekends ago. Since we were at the hospital, we took the opportunity to do a little visiting at the CICU, meeting both Joshua and Karlee's mom's (Leah and Devon). It was great to see them and to be able to chat for a bit. Our nickname, the "sunshine committee". The Cardiac ICU isn't the happiest place to be in; the worry, stress and grief is so evident on almost every parent's face you see. Feelings come rushing back each time I step foot in the train elevator that leads to the ICU, from our days of being there and I only hope that Maddie brings some hope to parents going through those tough times. We also got to visit Ann, one of our favorite nurses, and we brought some "healthy" Krispie Kreme's for the ICU staff as well! The meeting was very informative...Dr. Cohen, chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery as well as Dr. Lewin, chief of Cardiology, joined in to answer questions and speak on behalf of the Heart Center at Children's. It's always interesting to hear the doctor's views yet as a parent, some of the information we hear is tough to swallow. Maddie and Teagan's, as well as all single ventricle kids, staged surgeries are still fairly new procedures so there isn't much history to look at for data and statistics. Thank God they were born in 2008 because 30 years ago, in our part of the country, there was nothing they could have done for them. It was amazing hearing how far the Heart Center has come and we are so proud that Maddie is a patient of their excellent program.

We also enjoyed a fun evening and dinner with more heart friend's, Mimi (Mia's mom) and Jesse (Luke's mom). It's always so great to visit with other heart mom's!!! Here's a few pictures from our great night...the girls even got to meet Mia when we went to pick her mommy up! Of course there was no baby mauling involved... she's doing so wonderful only 2 months post-transplant and she's just so PINK! What a darling, sweet girl and we felt so honored to get to see her (Mimi's idea :O)!





We also had coffee with Ray, our favorite echo gal and friend, which was fun. She's always a blast to be around! So we had a great weekend and the girls were troopers, minus the car ride over and back for Miss Maddie. Poor thing, she's hating the car again. Ugh. Sus and Teags are always so much fun and we can chat for hours. Thanks for the fun weekend girls!