This is our belated Christmas letter

I'm not sure I had everyone's address so I thought I would post it here.

The Year 2013, where do we begin! This year has been full of surgeries and recoveries for our family. Timothy has been the best baby ever through it all and such a blessing to our family. He has gone through four major surgeries and one minor surgery in the first year of his life but has handled them amazingly.

Many of you know, He was born with an imperforated anus, meaning no bum whole. He had his first surgery three days after birth, the reconstructive surgery four months later and he was supposed to have his last surgery to connect it all last May but during the intubation they discovered he had Tracheal rings. This is where the bone of the windpipe forms a complete ring instead of forming into a horseshoe shape, which prohibits growth in that area. For Timothy’s case this would have been fatal if not repaired. This of course was a much bigger surgery so they canceled his last bowel surgery and we immediately went to work to find the best ENT surgeon for his condition since it’s a very rare birth defect.  Only 600 births a yr and then only 30% of those children need to have it repaired. We found that the best Doctor was in our back yard basically, at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital.

 To make a long story short, we had a very hard open chest surgery performed in June. Three weeks later Mom and Timothy came home and where thankful to be back! It took several months for him to heal after each of his surgeries but this recover was by far the worst It was the beginning of Sept before life came back to normal and Timothy started to act himself again.  He had his last major surgery to repair his bowels 5 days before his first birthday in October.  Sorry to say, his birthday was very parallel to the first year of his life. Ruff! His Daddy was amazing and made him a Monkey Birthday cake and an amazing meal while Mom took care of Timothy.

Timothy continues to amaze, as he has been able to endure such hard trials. He’s been such an example of persistence and strong will. He has complained very little with all he has gone through and just smiles and enjoys life! We have been so thankful to have him in our family. He teaches us every day!

Aaron has also been stellar! God has blessed Aaron with a great deal of patients and majority! At the age of three-years-old he is able to go on average to four doctors appointments a week with his Mother and brother. Many of the Doctors say, “You realize that most children don’t act this way don’t you? He is really an amazing boy!” I completely agree with them. Aaron always ask which doctor we are going to as we get into the car. He can remember most of them and what fun things they have in their buildings or rooms. That is pretty impressive considering we visit around 18 to 20 different doctors.  He is especial fond of water, so he can through in coins.  Aaron loves puzzle, games and playing with Timothy. He really enjoys having his company!

As for Mom and Dad, it has been a very difficult year but we have seen the hand of the Lord in our family’s life! Just one example of this was when we decided to move to Indiana from Utah, we had no job here or home to call our own. We now know we moved mostly because of Timothy and the Doctors he would need. We have felt the power of prayer and received tremendous support from family, friends, therapist, and good doctors and staff. How we have needed every one of you! Many of you have watched Aaron during appointments and surgeries. You have made us meals, cleaned our home, given us money, called or showed up at just the right moment, and offered countless prayers for our family in the past year! You have helped show us the true meaning of CHRISTmas this year!  We hope you know how grateful we are! We never could have done it without you. Thank you each very much and a MERRY CHRISTMAS!

Both boys are taking a nap now. I have been on the phone all day with ENT offices, surgery offices, pediatricians and other offices for coming up appointments. Currently I'm holding the phone to my ear with my shoulders while on hold. I had to record the events of today. Timothy's little bum continues to have horrific diaper rash from the amoxicillin for his ear infection combined with him not being able to control his sphincter muscle yet so it's an open flow of poo on his weeping bum. As I was changing his diaper for about the 6th time today and it was only noon, I thought of his baby blessing. A blessing his Dad gave him soon after he was born. Daniel had said over and over again that, "he would be blessed with strength to overcome all his trials and pain that he would experience in this life." As he groaned from me wiping off his poo I thought of how he never cries and he most defiantly should be. Surely he has been given a great amount of strength to overcome all of the pain his one year old body has had to suffer this year. I'm so grateful for blessings.

Today as I was sitting at my kitchen table waiting to hear back from another doctor, a seemingly never ending battle of calling and waiting that I knew very well at this point of Timothy's life, after his fourth major surgery.  I picked up the Book of Mormon Another Testament of Jesus Christ and started to read in Jacob 7:5. Jacob said that he truly had seen angels. I have never seen an angel but I have felt their presence before at times when I felt very alone. At times when I wondered if I could continue to carry the load.  Today was one of those days and I knew God had sent my Grandma Butcher. I remembered all the wonderful times I would sit at her kitchen table and feel so comfortable and loved eating her homemade pies and other baked goodies. She was so diligent to make sure I was warm in my bed when I stayed the night at her house and every other way I could possibly be comfortable when I stayed there. I'm grateful she has been here to comfort me and I'm sure to also make Timothy comfortable. It has been wonderful to feel her near by. Thanks for your help Grandma and Happy Birthday!

 Timothy had his Ostamey let down surgery on October 21st.  This was the last surgery to finally make him poop like a normal boy, through his bum whole. We had to start his bowel prep on Sunday morning which included only clear liquids and miralax for a full day before his surgery to clean out his colon. This was so much easier than our past experiences since Timothy would now take a sippy cup! Go Timothy! Before we always had to check him in on Sunday and place an NG tube to get the liquids in since breast milk doesn't count as a liquid here.

He had the surgery on Monday morning, had a bowel movement the same day, which was two days ahead of schedule. I never thought I would ever be so excited to change a poppy diaper! Started to nurse again on Wed morning and then allowed to come home on Thursday afternoon.  Two days ahead of schedule, which is typical for Timothy. I guys he doesn't like the Hospital very much! Me either baby! Aaron stayed with friends of ours from church until Daniel could come pick him up after work. We are so grateful for all the support we had from our friends during this surgery! Our family has been their to help with all of our other surgeries this year but my Mom just had breast reconstruction from her battle with breast cancer several years ago so she was unable to help this go around and my sister Desna went out to help her. Our other grandparents each took precious days off and flue out to help with other surgeries. I feel like we have now really exhausted all of our help since we have needed the help of ALL OUR family, friends, neighbors and everyone else. You will never know how grateful I am for each person that was willing to take their precious time to help us!  Thank you!!
All in all it was a very smooth hospital stay until we made it home which is also typical with Timothy's recoveries. The next day after he came home he started to bite me while nursing. After several times of being bit very hard, I decided enough was enough and I guess he was weaning himself since he only wanted the sippy cup. I would pump and then giving it to him in a sippy which was fine but time consuming. Then on Sunday morning, his Birthday, he only wanted to be spoon feed. He would take baby foods or liquids on the spoon and that was all. So I spoon feed him the whole day literally! I was worried about constipation with his new incisions so I was willing to do whatever I had to do to keep him well hydrated and of course I didn't want to go back to the hospital to do that. I called my sister Lindsey who brought up the point that Timothy has done this after most of his surgeries. He just doesn't want to eat very much! She was right, there was a trend. I was also noticing him pulling at his ears and then cry so I knew he was probably getting a ear infection from not moving a lot at the hospital BUT OF COURSE it was Sunday and we would have to wait to see a doctor tomorrow. So in the mean time I worked all day to get 15 oz of fluids into him on his Birthday, while my amazing husband took care of Aaron and made an amazing lamb dinner and cute monkey birthday cake to celebrate Timothy's birth! It's ironic that his first birthday was so much like his whole year! Recovering from surgery!

On Monday morning he started taking a sippy again and after a doctor visit and some amoxicillion he was able to start taking his sippy cup more.

While Timothy was in the hospital I was able to read a book called, "Heaven Is Here" by Stephanie Nielson. This book was given to me by Amber, my sister in law. She gave it to me within a few months of Timothy's birth. I read the back cover and knew there was no way I could read this right now or maybe even ever. It would just be to sad for me and at the time it would have been.  At that time I was still morning the loss of a dream. A dream of a perfectly "normal" family with children who would all grow up and raise their own children and Daniel and I would be able to travel together and serve on many church missions together. I now know that those things will still happen but a little differently than I had thought. I can't imagine my life now without our Timothy. Timothy has brought so much depth into our family! He really is what life is all about I'm realizing and this book helped me see that clearer than I had before.

I decided to read it after Elder Holland mentioned Stephanie's story in General Conference, which was just a few weeks before Timothy's surgery. I'm so glad that Amber thought of me and I decided to read it. This book reminded me of how faith, family, love and hope can sustain us in our hardest trials! It has also encouraged me to start blogging again. After reading her story I realized that so many people want to know our family story with Timothy. I know I haven't done a good job of even telling our closest family members what we have learned in that past year.   I'm hoping I can convey that as I record our past year experiences.

Last General Conference Elder Russell M. Nelson spoke on, "Thanks Be to God". As I was reading this talk I thought of Aaron and his sweet, tender prayers. He is the most thankful little boy! He thanks His Heavenly Father for everything he see's or has experienced in the day. He thanks Him for his blanket, his baby brother who isn't yet here, his milk, juice, pancakes or anything else he eat. He thanks him for his grandparents and his cousins playing with him. He was grateful for his great-grandma Hosaflook whom he hasn't seen for a few months. Aaron's sweet prayers make me realize how much more grateful I should be for all the wonderful things around me! We sure do love him!

Desna said it best, "this is the future of our family!"
Daniel has been teaching me his techie ways and I'm loving it. I have made a news year resolution to work on my family history and I believe this is one way of doing that. Recently I attended a World Wide Leadership Training meeting held by the first presidency of the church. Elder Uchtdurf told us to always think of the reason WHY we do things in the church and I think he will agree with me that we should do this in our personal lives too. So I'm going to tell you WHY I want to start to blog more often. I want to be able to have my children and their children look at the books I will compile from this blog and be grateful that their mother or grandmother or great grandmother compiled these books for them. I want them to feel the same way I do when I read through my mothers and grandmothers journals. How I feel when I see an old picture of them and wish I had more information about that day and what they did and how they where feeling. I want them to have both a picture and the story together if I can. My favorite picture of my grandmother and grandfather Hosaflook is when they where very young. Maybe they had their first child by then. He is dressed in a military uniform and she in a dress. I wish I knew where they where and what they where thinking and feeling. I want Aaron to know these things about us which will one day tell him something about himself!

Aaron Aden

Little Aaron Aden is 7 months old today. He's growing like crazy. Aaron is rolling around everywhere and likes to do push-ups. He's a joy and a delight!

Hunting in Tennessee with Doug

Over Christmas break, Doug McArthur took me hunting. Our first day we didn't see anything. Our second day I bumped two does while trying to find my tree stand and was able to bring down one with a perfect shot through the heart and both lungs. I was finally able to officially join the McArthur and Butcher family :)

Baby Shower

Baby Blessing

Cabin Reception

Bridals

Adrienne Prego Pics

Soooo...we decided to post things a little backwards...Baby...Prego...Wedding.
Click on picture to see the rest.

The Long Awaited Chronicles of Aden Aaron Sturgeon

 
 
 
 

The Long Awaited Chronicles of Aden Aaron Sturgeon

Wednesday, July 14, 2010
3:25 pm Our bags are packed, the car is loaded, and Daniel & Adrienne leave home.

3:30 pm We stop at Olive Garden. We splurge at Olive Garden. We really enjoy Olive Garden. We highly recommend their Strawberry Siciliano drink and their Black Tie Mousse Cake. They were amazing.

4:25 pm Show up at Utah Valley Regional Hospital and get checked in. Adrienne is dilated to a one.

7:15 pm Finally Adrienne receives the first of what was supposed to be three pills to soften her cervix. Soon thereafter she starts to have minor contractions every one to two minutes. She was supposed to get a pill every four hours but her contractions were still very regular so they waited an extra hour.

Thursday, July 15, 2010
12:15 am Adrienne receives the second pill and is dilated to a one-plus. Daniel is passed out on couch but Adrienne can't sleep due to the contractions. The sleep and pain medicine they gave her was basically useless.

2:54 am Adrienne dilated to a two.

4:09 am The water breaks partially. Adrienne is shaking uncontrollably due to the pain of the contractions. Dilated to a two-plus.

4:35 am Epidural placed by Doctor Lind...who is amazing!

5:11 am Dilated to a two-plus (unchanged).

6:32 am Dilated to a five. No need for third pill to soften cervix or for pitocin to induce labor.

6:40 am Adrienne is given Oxygen.

7:30 am Dilated to a 10.

7:50 am Doctor Jefforey Thorpe arrives.

7:54 am Adrienne starts pushing with nurse. Does amazing but the babies heart rate drops significantly with each push/contraction, then recovers during resting period.

8:22 am Doctor says to stop pushing and wait for him.

8:31 am Doctor says he wants to use forceps. Adrienne says she'd rather have a C-section. Doctor says it might come down to it because of his heart rate.

8:36 am Adrienne starts pushing with Doctor Thorpe

8:43 am Aden Aaron Sturgeon is born weighing in at 6 lbs. 5 oz. He is 18.5 inches long. Everyone kept asking Daniel what Aden's wellness stats were (he can't remember what they were called) but Daniel had no clue. He later found out that Aden was a 7 at one minute and an 8 at five minutes. Aden was born with a head full of black hair and looks a lot like his Grandma Butcher and his cousin Gavin Aspy. He definitely has some Hosaflook in him.

9:20 am Aden first latches on to eat.

9:45 am Daniel and Aden go down to nursery. Aden is given his first bath.

6:00 pm Aden still hasn't been able to nurse. Mom and Dad are getting nervous and the nurses at the hospital weren't helping much.

8:00 pm Grandma Sturgeon shows up to save the day. She teaches little Aden how to keep his tongue down and how to suck. She teaches Mom and Dad how to really wake him up and keep him awake while nursing. She also teaches Mom and Dad tricks to train Aden to latch on and start sucking. It was a success and Aden was able to nurse.

9:00 pm Aden goes to the nursery so Mom and Dad can sleep.

Friday, July 16, 2010
1:30 am Aden wakes up and Mom and Dad are successful at getting him to nurse on their own.

5:40 am Aden eats a lot and Mom and Dad didn't have to use any tricks to get him to latch on and start eating...just to keep him awake.

9:00 am Aden is circumcised.

12:00 pm Aden is traumatized and won't eat.

5:40 pm Aden nursed again!!!

11:15 pm Aden weighs 5 lbs. 14 oz.

Saturday, July 18, 2010
11:30am Mom, Dad, and Baby go home.

Sunday, July 25,2010
Then we changed his name to Aaron Aden..... after the baby blessing!