Remembering Mia...

I ache for my friend...a fellow heart mama, one I've known for the majority of my daughter's life. We share much in common...our 3rd child was our heart kid, our two oldest children are the same ages and we have baby boy's named Sam. Our little girls are very blonde, very blue-eyed and full of joy, life and happiness. My friend has lost her baby girl though.

 

Mia returned to her loving Father in Heaven on Monday, October 8th. I still can't bring myself to believe it. Throughout my days this past week, feelings and emotions that I didn't know I had have come welling up. I've cried many tears for my friend and spent hours praying for her and thinking of her. I know that Mia is in a better place...she's with Jesus. It's Mimi, John, Jensen, Ellie and Sam and their loving families that my heart completely breaks for.

 

The thought of losing a child crosses my mind like any other mother but the thought of losing my daughter, because she was born with a very broken heart, crosses my mind every day, sometimes several times a day.Yes, Maddie is doing well and a pretty typical four year old. But so was Mia. What I will take from her passing is this...Mia lived four wonderful years here. She was blessed beyond measure with a loving family and a beautiful life filled with normal experiences and most of all, lots of love. Her life was full and she exuded JOY! As parents, this is something we all strive for...raising happy kids who love life. If we can help our children achieve this kind of joy and happiness, the kind that is contagious to others, then we've been able to help make this world a little brighter. Mia definitely brightened the lives of all who knew her.

 

Saturday, the McDonald family will celebrate Mia's life at her service in Utah. She has inspired and blessed so many and her time on earth was cut far too short but her purpose here was so very great. I believe Mia achieved all that the Lord sent her here to do. What an honor it has been to watch her grow and follow her story from the beginning. Her mother is just as amazing as Mia...she has been a wonderful example of grace and strength for me. Miss Mia, you are loved and have left a big footprint here. We love you and will always hold you and your sweet family close to our hearts.

 

  Mia Marie McDonald  July 8, 2008 ~ October 8, 2012

Meeting Mia and Mimi for the first time shortly after her heart transplant at Seattle Childrens...November 2008.

Enjoying a fun heart mom night out with Mimi, Susie & Teagan and Jesse.

Maddie, Teagan & Mia at the McDonald's home in Puyallup

Dinner at the Ram following one of Maddie's caths...

Heart Family Picnic July 2009

August 2009...Mimi & Mia and Maddie & I following dr appts at Children's

If you'd like to help Mia's family and donate to a fund to help defer medical expenses, click here. To read Mia's obituary click here.

pray for Mia!

Remember Mia? She's a dear little friend of ours who's in need of your prayers. Mia and her family left this week for her Make-A-Wish-Trip to Florida...but instead of enjoying DisneyWorld with her family, she wound up in the hospital, only to find out she has pneumonia and is in rejection of her angel heart. Mia had a heart transplant at 4 months old at Seattle Children's. She is a spunky, sweet little four year old who up to this point had been doing great. But during a heart cath/biopsy procedure last night, things turned from bad to worse and she is currently on ECMO (heart-lung machine) to stay alive. Please pray for Mia and her family. They are so far from home, away from family and in a strange hospital. Our hearts are so deeply saddened right now for Mia and the McDonald family...

Firsts...

First Day of School...

Cade is in Mr. Buster's 1st Grade Class (Uncle Mike) and he's super pumped about it! His best friend Bennett is in here too! 

 Jace is in Mrs. Janett's 3rd grade (Aunt Kerry) So fun having family for our kid's teachers!

 Miss Maddie started preschool. I'm teaching one class, a dozen of them and 11 will go to Kindergarten next fall together! They're a great bunch of kiddos, I'm pretty partial to this one :)

 Jace has started Grid Kids Football. He's loving it (this is his mean face) and it's extra special since his dad is one of the coaches!

And let's not forget Sammy! He's been taking his first steps!!! We find him standing alone in the middle of the room often, with nothing to pull-up on or hold onto. He's taken several steps but then chooses to sit carefully down and crawl. He's a very speedy crawler and walking is a bit too slow for the lil' guy still! Can you believe he's already 11 months old?

Mike, Lesa, Bryan and I attended the Seahawk vs. Packers game this week! This was my first Monday night game at the stadium...ear plugs would have been handy! It gets so LOUD, Seahawk fans are awesome, hilarious and entertaining for sure! Whoa refs, but hey, we'll take it! A win is a win :) It was a fun game. Go Hawks!!!

time for another cath...

Maddie had a cardiology check-up on Monday. It was a full work up which was bumped up a couple of months due to her sats declining over the summer. Back in May, she was satting 90-92 and on Monday, her O2 sats read 84%. Though she still has a fenestrated Fontan (hole created to help give blood flow an alternate route due to pressures, which creates some mixing of O2 rich/poor blood) her sats shouldn't be this low now with her physiology. So, Dr. Chun and Dr. Johnston discussed her crummy echo pics and decided she needs to go to the cath lab to figure this one out since nothing could be determined by echo. We have a few hunches: collateral vessels again, her Pulmonary Arteries may be narrowing back down again, or her conduit may have an issue where it's sewed to her own anatomy. To be entirely honest, I hadn't worried much or had that "feeling" going into this appointment. I've noticed her more winded, a tinge bluer and she comments frequently that her breath hurts but being passed the Fontan, I don't worry about it like I used to and overall, she's been about the same energy wise. I'm glad her doctor is pro-active and wants to get a handle on this. We're grateful for their wisdom and how much they care for our daughter and her well-being.

Our plates are very full right now and I wasn't expecting this. Bryan's dad is terminal with cancer, he's declined rapidly the last few weeks and going through this experience has consumed us. It's been a roller coaster and thank God for our family and friends who've helped along the way. Watching someone you love go through this process is agonizing.

But one thing I've learned over these past four years with Maddie is to rely on His strength, His timing and rest in the peace that God has this one covered. When life is heavy and we feel beat down from what we're going through, He is there. Always. What a comfort this brings in times like these.

Covey Run 2012

The Covey Run proved to be a great weekend for our family before getting back into the grind of back to school. Team Maddie Moomer's was the third highest fundraising team for the run, raising $2,075.00 for CHD Research! Thanks to all of you for your generous donations and support towards reaching our goal...which we far exceeded! We love you!

 Our team of 5K runner/walkers & 10K runners

 Catching up with fellow heart friends Jen & Gracie and Jesse (Luke's mom)

My cousin Ashley & Baby Conor joined us too!

Miss Maddie running across the finish line (she rode in the double jogger with Sam until we reached the finish line)

Awesome kiddos who participated too...great job gang!

Team Maddie Moomers!

Yes, we're at it again! Fundraising for the Childrens Heart Guild and Seattle Childrens Hospital! If you'd like to join us for the Covey Run this weekend, we'd love to have you! If you'd rather just sponsor our efforts, please click here to do so. We appreciate all of your support & THANK YOU!!!

Our busy May, June & July

You've been warned...this is a LONG post and so overdue! I'm backing up to May and going to catch back up to our current status. Cade and Jace finished their soccer seasons then began baseball. Watching Jace compete in his second season of soccer with this team was so fun!

Our preschool graduation program was on May 22nd. I had 20 preschoolers this year, filling two classes. I'm already looking forward to preschool this fall as I have cut back to only teaching one class...much more do-able for me & our busy life!

Maddie receiving her preschool promotion certificate! She'll have one more year with mom then Kindergarten. Sigh... She is already excited for when she can begin Kindergarten, reminding me all of the time that she doesn't need to come to mom's preschool but needs to attend Red Rock with her brothers :)

I've enjoyed having this first-school experience with my own children. It makes it so worth while and allows me to see them interact with other kids and how they learn best. I love this side-job!

We ended the year with a fun pool party for each class! I get all of these kiddos again next year plus a few more :)

In May, we also ventured over to Children's to visit three heart friends and their families-Teagan and Natalie were having heart caths while our friend Gracie was having her Fontan surgery, our friend Jesse (Luke's mom) also met up with us. It was wonderful to visit my heart mom friends!

 Maddie and Teagie

 Jen (Gracie's mom) & Jesse and Laney (Luke's mom)So fun to see you all! We were also able to see our favorite nurse, Stacey while there as she was Teagan's nurse! Also awesome that Natalie and Teagan shared a room for the night.

In June, Cade ended his Kindergarten year with a fun spring program and class graduation party. What a fun year having cousin Randi Kay in class!

 And Mrs. Stewart (Aunt Jessica) as his teacher was top-notch!!! He had an awesome year, earning the most "gold dot" awards for doing good deeds and being a great student and helper.

Celebrating with an icecream sundae with dad

Miss Maddie being silly with cousins Jill & Randi

In June, Sam joined the Stewart Aunts/Cousins for a fun night in Spokane

 Kaylee was a trooper, keeping Sam entertained while we shopped till we dropped!

 Our crew minus Elaine & Amy

Great Grandma Shirley and Sammer Jammers

We've spent most all of our Sunday afternoon's out at Pa & Grandma Allred's, many memories have been made & we're cherishing our time together.

Boosters Baseball ended the end of June. Our boys proved to be great players on their teams! Bryan helped coach Jace's team while Cade had Aunt Danyel as his coach :) 

We spent a week driving back and forth to our church in Moses Lake for Sky VBS. Maddie loved it and is still singing the songs she learned during that week of fun. Cousin Kylie joined us as well as Nany serving as Jace & Cade's leader!

Our family has enjoyed a couple of Mariner's games this season...the boys absolutely LOVE the Mariners!

Braydon & Jace at Scout Day Camp

Sam started pulling himself up on everything! Time to lower that crib mattress

The boys & I went fishing one afternoon down on the ranch

my beautiful boys!

Then came a HOT July...

4th of July at Jerry & Chriss' Pond

Swimming Lessons! The boys learned to dive...Cade even does a pretty good back dive and Maddie now jumps off of the diving board and swims without waterwings in the shallow end. Oh yes, goggles are a must for these kids :) 

Jace working in cherry harvest, keeping those cherries cool. We had some scorching hot days during harvest which also brought some rain and hail storms...damaging some of our apples was not a highlight of this summer. Lots of farmers are in the same boat though.

Jace enjoyed a free Seahawks Football Day Camp with his friend Dayne...the highlight was getting two player's autographs!

Sammer Jammers is crawling everywhere! He's a mad-man around here!!! His crawl has been so funny, it's a combo of a bear crawl/sitting down quickly every few strides/normal crawl.

Cheeto had 4 baby kittens! Maddie broke them in with plenty of loves, cuddles, and snuggles. We kept two of them, Ellie & Kyle are their names

 Our family toured the cherry plant in July, watching our cherries run and being packed. Sam rocked his hair net, don't you think?

Maddie rode "Sparky Boy" in our community days Summerfest parade. Nany did a lot of work, sparkling his hooves pink & tying bows and ribbons. Cousin Kylie rode too, on her pony Sarah Girl. Even Ba rode along...It was so much fun and Maddie loved waving to friends!

Enjoying snowcones at our 50th celebration of Royal City!

 Too cute to not share his sweet smile and widows peek- just like his daddy's

The end of July, we enjoyed the Allred Family Reunion up in Suncadia. The kids loved the hot tub, riding their bikes and playing with so many cousins.

And there you have it! Phew!