All went pretty well Tuesday for our Riley visit. Micahale's labs were beautiful and he is growing well.

His exit site still looks bad so he is going to have surgery on Wed 3/10/10, we don't hava a time yet. Thankfully it's an outpatient procedure so we should be home the same day. The catheter is not going to be replaced they are doing what is called a roofing. From what I understand the infected tissue is going to be removed and new skin will grow over that site. The surgeon said it was better in the long run than replacing the whole catheter.  Lets hope it works.

No word yet on a kidney but we are praying it is soon.

Just wanted to update you we officially placed Michael on the transplant list. We could not find a living donor that matched. No big worries we just now have to play the waiting game. We are excited for this to happen and hope it happens very soon.

Having trouble with his exit site, it keeps getting infected. He has been on 3 different antibiotics for this. If this last one does not work he is going to have to get another catheter placed.  We are trying our best to keep the surgery from happening. It is starting to look a bit better.

Please put us in your prayers that his transplant happens soon.

Thanks.

Sorry it's been a while since I blogged. Michael has been progressing by leaps and bounds. His talking is getting much better. He is actually putting words together and making sentences. He is doing so well that his First Steps therapist and I decided she only needs to come once a month instead of once a week.  He is even eating solid foods much better. He is actually finding likes and dislikes in foods. This is a big step for him. For a long time he was only taking in his formula and just tasting food and spitting it out. Now he enjoys several different kinds and varieties.

He has also found a new skill which is giving me some gray hairs. He enjoys climbing. This boy will climb on anything. The other day he got himself stuck on top of his dresser and could not get down. He loves to climb into the high chair and just sit saying "mommy, look". He is quite the character.

Had a very busy couple of weeks. Michael was sick at one point. He was running a fever that took about three days to get under control. Then Ted and I both got sick with upper respiratory stuff. Sara was the only one that seemed to squeak out of it. Our last Riley visit turned out well, they were happy at Michael's progress. We still have not found a donor yet. My sister ended up  not being a match, however, I do beleive she is still going to donate her kidney to 'Circle of Life'. This organazation apparently takes donors from different families and swaps them with each other. My sister said that she is still considering this as giving Michael a kidney since he will get one anyway. We are anxious to get this done and over with.

Just found out we have a pancake breakfast set up for us thanks to the South Bend Freemasons. It will be held at the mason's lodge on Saturday 10/17/09 from 8:30-10.  Location is on US 933 North and Brick Rd. Sorry, but I don't have any other information as to cost. If I get any more info I will post it.

Hope to see you there.

This weekend we had a booth at the Niles Apple Festival. We didn't sell much but we did get a lot of cash donations in the coin box thanks to a couple of volunteers. Thank you Mrs. Woz and Dawn who had the energy and good grace to take the coin box all over the fair grounds and ask for donations. Without them we would not have made a little over $300.00. Not bad for a cold and rainy weekend.

Thanks to my best friend Rose who braved the weather (along with my mom) to help out. They both made some really nice stuff to donate.

And a very special thanks to Heather my campaign coordinator because without her the Apple Festival would not have been the success it was. She was the one who made all the arrangements for the booth and marched in the parade with Michael's banner and handed out fliers. Thanks Heather and family.

We still have a lot of craft stuff to sell so we are going to save it for the next fundraiser. Hope to see you there.

Wanted to share some pictures of our trip in the UP. After the fundraiser we decided to stop at Lake Superior for a little sight seeing. Michael was pretty funny, he would not walk in the sand. He just stood there in one place and played with it. Sara was all over. Hope you enjoy these pictures as well as we enjoyed the scenery.

The fundraiser in the U.P. went really well. We made almost 2200.00. Ted's parents did a wonderful job. The spaghetti was yummy and so were the desserts. People were really friendly and they were very happy to see Michael there. Michael cheezed it up really well for the cameras. We had TV 6 and TV 10 the day before doing interviews. Unfortunately we didn't get to see either one, but we are trying to obtain copies of both. The girls who did the interviews were really sweet and did a great job.

The pictures turned out a little blurry so I apologize.

The first one is Ted's mom Jean, then we see dad & Michael.

Sorry this is a little late. Wanted to tell you about the Celtic festival. I will try to post pictures. I am not very computer savvy and I was trying to download them from Kris's Facebook page but somehow I messed it up.

The Celtic festival was a big success we made about $300.00 give or take. It was a lot of fun. There was music an Irish food as well as the Highland games. I had a dish called Bangers and mash. Please excuse me if I spelled it wrong but it was yummy.

The Highland games were fun to watch. Even some women were ivolved. One of the doctors I work with Dr. John stopped by and he even played some music.

We had a kids booth with games and prizes for the kids.

It was a little chilly out but a whole lot of fun.

What a great time Michael had at his birthday party. We had some really good friends over and Michael had a blast.

We had a lot of good food. A friend of ours made her famous potato salad, which was out of this world. Ted cooked hot dogs and hamburgers on the grill. We all had a really good time.

This one I call Joe Cool. He really likes those sunglasses.

Michael received some really nice gifts.