(the picture was taken about 20 minutes before the surgery)  

We praise God in telling you all that Ethan's surgery went very well! 

We arrived at 6:15 and he was quite a champ. He played on the Nintendo DS while the nurses poked and prodded and then around 7:50 they gave him some meds a.k.a "happy juice" which just relaxed him and made him a bit loopy, so that separation from Jason and me wouldn't be too painful. He still did cry when they took him from us, which was the hard part for Mommy as well. I didn't like hearing him cry the whole way down the hall as we left.

The Anesthesiologist said he did remarkably well. The surgery took about 50 minutes and then they brought me back into the recovery room, where I found him awake, confused and upset. He was pretty cute when he saw me - laid against my chest, put his finger in his mouth and fell back to sleep. I stayed on the bed with him until he woke up again and we gave him some juice (just to make sure he kept it down). He began speaking fine, answering questions correctly and sitting up on his own, so they let us go home 2 hours ahead of schedule! Every time they'd ask him a question, "how are you feeling, Ethan? Would you like something to drink? Are you dizzy?" he would reply with "No thanks, I'd like to go home now." :) We got home around 10:45 and he's watching a new movie that Nana bought him. He seems to be doing better than I thought he would. I had my adenoids and tonsils removed, so I think my recovery was a little more painful... and much longer.

His ears actually appeared to have NO fluid in them, so the surgeon went ahead and put temporary tubes in each ear. They will be taken out within 6 months to a year at a regular office appointment. His adenoids, however (the part we knew was probably the biggest problem) were very large for his age, infected and just plain nasty looking. She said they had a lot of bacteria and just basic infection on them, which was probably causing a large part of his problem. He is having some basic speech problems right now. She told me that he will probably form some of his words better within a week or so, but at first it will be hard and weird for him to talk. She said they were interfering a bit with his previous speech and also with the way he formed his tongue and breathed when he talked... since that is all changing, his speech will take a little while to catch up. That's probably the biggest frustration he's had since being home. He started crying a bit ago and told me "Mommy, I don't know how to talk right!"

Anyway, we're all 3 very thankful to be home and so thankful to God for answering our prayers and making this a smooth process. Thank you to ALL of you who were praying for us - we love you all and are so thankful for you.

-Stef

Tomorrow morning we have Ethan's surgery. Please keep him in your prayers. He told us tonight that he's "a little bit scared" but he also seems like he's ready and understands this will help his over all health. He told me today he's glad he's having the surgery "because I do NOT like getting sick all the time."

He had a fun night all by himself with us. Rachel went to Jason's parent's house and so it was just the three of us. 5AM is going to come very quickly, but Jason and I are both having trouble going to sleep. We'll most likely skip out on sleep tonight and nap with Ethan tomorrow when we get home.

Thank you ALL for your kind emails and phone calls, reminding us that you're praying. We greatly appreciate it. I'll be sure to post about the surgery as soon as we're home and settled back in.

I finally got the surgery date for Ethan today! They set it for July 3rd, so that gives us about 3 weeks of keeping him freakishly healthy. If he gets sick (at all) we have to reschedule and we don't want to do that. I'm feeling hesitant about bringing him to VBS the week before the surgery just because it seems like a good place for him to catch something, but the Dr. reminded me that its fine, as long as we know none of the kids are sick with anything. She told me that we can't be too weird about it or we'll have to keep him home, away from everyone for the next 3 weeks, which we don't want to do. :)

He has a pre-op appointment with his Dr. the end of June, just so he can confirm Ethan is healthy and good to go and then on July 2nd we meet with the Anasthesioligist to go over him being put under and such. Because I have such a bad reaction to Codine, they're going over other pain medication options for him, because they'd rather not try it on him and find out he reacts the same way I do. He'll need the pain meds for the tubes that will be put in his ears. She said most kids complain about pain for about a week.

I think its ended up being a good thing that we had to wait so long to finally get a date - its given me especially more time to pray and feel calmer about the whole thing. Anyway, please keep him in your prayers. We've been talking with him about it a bit and even though he doesn't fully understand he tells people "I'm going to go to the Doctor and he will give me medicine to help me fall asleep and then he will fix my ears and nose and I will wake up and go home!" :)

Pictures: 

Ethan and I have been doing crafts together every Friday. Sometimes we do more on other days of the week, but Fridays have been our set day, during Rachel's nap, to sit down together and work on some sort of craft or bake something together. It has been loads of fun and he enjoys the one on one time. He's also very good with his hands, pays close attention to direction and normally follows the rules very well. On Wednesdays we've been doing a craft with Rachel, because I think it helps having them work together on things - good team effort. :)

Yesterday our craft was very simple, but lots of fun. We made bird feeders! He's enjoyed going out in the front yard and seeing the missing seed. 

Anyway, here is one picture I thought I'd share and then rest are in our photo gallery.

We went to our weekly park day with church friends today and on the way home, we passed by a park near our house where we went about a month ago for a BBQ. Ethan yells out "there's the BBQ park! I'd like to go there today!" I explain to him that we'll need to wait and go with Daddy because "Mommy is terrible at BBQ'ing and when I've tried, you can't even eat the food, its so gross."

He replies with... "there are some things Daddy is just the best at - making money, playing with me and cooking with BBQ's." I laughed so hard and then told him "Daddy is our hero." and he says "Yeah... he's even way better than Lightning McQueen."

While watching Robin Hood with me...

"Mommy! Pull up your shirt, this is the baby's favorite part!"

I haven't updated anything on Ethan in a while, so I thought I would now. Its harder when they get older because you get less and less of the new stuff every month. It comes gradually and over time you can look back and see changes, but they're not as obvious. Thankfully I've got Ethan's journal I keep for him, so I just grabbed some stuff out of there and put it here.

Ethan is very talkative and very opinionated. Two things he definitely got from us. :)

He loves meeting new people and has a million questions for everyone he talks to. He likes to know what their favorite toys are, what movies they like, do they love Jesus? is their mommy having a baby? etc... the questions are endless.

He loves to learn. It can be hard sometimes, because he has a hard time laying low and doing nothing. But for the most part, its a blast. We can turn anything into a learning lesson and he soaks it all in. He's got an incredible memory and he enjoys memorizing things.

He has started helping me around the house a bit and really, really enjoys that. He takes all the small garbages and brings them to the kitchen garbage and dumps them in for me to then take out the one big garbage. He clears the dishes from the table after meals. He makes his bed by himself. He can mostly dress himself, but still prefers to have help. :) He's learned how to take himself to the potty and not need so much help.

He loves music and really enjoys singing. I'm always impressed with how well he can memorize tunes to classical pieces.

He can't wait to meet his new brother or sister - though he insists its a sister and NOT a brother. He got to feel the baby kick last week and said "There IS a baby in there!!"

He loves sharing a room with Rachel. He tells me every night that he protects her in there.

He is very active. If running is involved, he's there. Soccer is the sport he wants to play.

Marine World (Thomas Land) is his all time favorite place to be.

He tells me he wants to be like Daddy, Grandpa Ernie and Mr. Rippee when he grows up. All fine with us!

He knows his birth date, most of our address and is working on a few simple Bible verses. Yesterday he said when he's 6, he will memorize all of the Bible.

He's an over achiever. :)

"Mommy, when I'm 30 I want to be like Mr. Rippee. I wanna play the guitar and the violin and the drums. And I will like to talk about Jesus a lot too and tell people to love Him."

 - I find this quote funny because, aside from the fact that Ryan (one of our Pastors) isn't 30 anymore (although he's close enough) he also does not play the drums or violin. :)  

We had our consultation with the specialist at Kaiser today! Ethan wasn't in the mood to be poked at or examined, so that part of the appointment was rough. I literally had to hold him down to let the Doctors check his ears, nose and throat. Thankfully though, both Doctors very much agreed that he definitely got his Mommy's nose issues and has major blockage of his adenoids. :(

  They both said it was painfully obvious just looking up his nose and in his ears. The bad part was, he not only has to have the surgery to remove his adenoids, but he also has to have tubes put in his ears. She said he has too much fluid in his ears and removing his adenoids won't take care of existing fluid, only prevent from future problems.

To my surprise, I found out that he actually cannot be suffering from sinus problems, due to his age. I had no idea that sinuses don't even fully develop until a child is 12 years old! She said right now its impossible for him to be having sinus problems. I felt kind of dumb asking her if that was the problem, but she kindly reassured me that all questions are good questions. :)

Since I had figured his problem with milk and other dairy was due to a sinus issue (like adults find out they have) I asked her if maybe that could also be a problem. She said his problem with milk is basically this -- Milk is a mucus producer and so when Ethan drinks it (especially heavier stuff) its aggravating the problem already going on up there in his head. He has so much blockage from the large adenoids and fluid in his ears, that things like milk and cream only frustrate that and cause congestion... which then leads to him getting ear infections, etc...They actually said his issues with dairy should go away completely within 6 months after having the surgery. 

SO, right now we're waiting to get the available dates for his surgery. He has to be completely healthy for it. His asthma needs to subside as well (which she said also may subside greatly after the surgery). As soon as we get the date, they told us to keep him away from anyone who has even been around a sick person until after his surgery, because they cannot operate on a sick child. 

We want to thank those of you (many of you) who have been praying for us. This was definitely one of those things that God made pretty clear through our research and then through hearing what the Doctors had to say. Oh, they're not taking his tonsils out. Basically because they said those are not the issue and if its not necessary, don't touch them. :)

They told us that his surgery will be an in patient out patient procedure. The main scare (with anyone have surgery) is being put under. When you've never had it done to you, its always quite scary. They reassured me that its done on brand new infants on a daily basis and if they put him under and he right away doesn't respond well, they won't go through with the surgery. She also reminded me that n many cases a younger child is more likely to handle it better than an adult - stronger heart and over all stronger body... unless you're dealing with a very sick child of course.

So, we'd appreciate your continued prayers and we'll of course keep you all posted on when the surgery is taking place.

I posted this on my website and was told it must be posted here as well. :) So, hope all of you jastef.net readers enjoy it.

Ethan's thoughts on Mommy's pregnancy:

"Mommy... is your body just gonna keep getting bigger and bigger?"

"Rachel, we have to help Mommy push her baby out in Octonber, so we will take her on a scary ride that goes really fast."

"When the baby gets to be one years old, she will stop drinking Mommy's milk, because its disgusting if she's 2."

"When my baby comes out of your tummy and cries and cries... I will say "you don't need to cry because I have chicken nuggets!!"

"Will our baby come to church with us?" after I said yes, he followed with... "Oh. So do I tell her about God or will it be just you and Papa Griffith?"

As you can see, Ethan says he knows he's having another sister. He's decided he'd like the rest to be girls because Rachel is fun and cute.