We interrupt your regularly scheduled birthday blog posts to bring you this special post about our newest family member.

Meet Susan Pinky “Sukey” Young!

Sukey’s story with our family began last October, when Coraline found a tiny injured kitten in the woods behind our vacation cabin in Westernish-Central PA. She was lame in both of her back legs, though much worse on the right, and she almost certainly would have died had Coraline not noticed her tiny cries. We were miles from anywhere in a cabin with no cell reception, so we really had no choice but to make her a part of the family and feed her and look after her for the two days we were staying there.

It happened that the book we had brought to read aloud together that week was Pinky Pye, the story of a family that finds a homeless kitten while on vacation and ends up making her part of the family. I should have known then! We called her Pinky for the couple of days we spent with her then, though I had no intention of making her a permanent fixture in our family. We already had two cats, and we were in the market for a puppy, which the kids had begged for for YEARS. (I’ll tell you about the puppy in another post at some point. Yes, that happened, too.)

As we prepared to leave the cabin, we called several local-ish rescues and finally found one on our way home that was willing to take her. The day we dropped her off was hard and tearful. I was prepared to walk right back out with her if I didn’t get a good feeling about the place, but Mending Hearts Animal Rescue more than met my expectations. When I asked what would happen to her next, the woman began with, “Well, I’ll try to get her to the vet today ,and then she’ll come home with me tonight.” “You wouldn’t ever euthanize?” I asked, and the woman said “Oh, God, no!”, and I knew Pinky was in good hands.

The woman from the rescue texted me a few days later to let us know that they were not going to be able to save Pinky’s right leg, but we had every reason to believe she would still heal and thrive and find a wonderful home. In fact, my sister Chelsea, who used to be a vet tech, assured us that “tripods” always get snapped up quickly.

Three months later, in January, in a routine stalking of the Mending Hearts Facebook page, Bea saw her. She hadn’t been adopted. Apparently it had taken a while for her left leg to heal enough to allow the surgery on her right leg. And then she needed more healing time before she could be listed for adoption. And then suddenly there she was.

This was when the real begging began. I insisted we wait at least a few weeks to see if she did indeed get “snapped up” by someone local, but when we reached the three-week mark and she was still available, the pressure got intense. I knew I had lost the battle when Trevor said in our family group chat, “I’m not getting involved, but if you need a ride to pick her up, I’ll drive you.”

And the rest is history. On February 15th, Trevor, Bea, and Coraline trekked 5 hours (one way!) in the snow to bring home a still tiny but now three-legged kitten. We renamed her Susan to fit our Tolkien and Lewis pet name theme, but she will always be our Pinky, and indeed we still slip and call her that sometimes.

We love our sweet Sukey-girl!

A very happy three-days-late birthday to Annis! Annis Octavia (who was indeed the 8th child to join our family, hence the middle name) turned 11 on Wednesday, though she would rather have skipped right to 12, because she strongly prefers even numbers!

She is often to be found in her room with a kitten on her lap these days. Our new cat Sukey* (see bonus post for more about Sukey!) seems to have chosen her, out of all 17 members of our household, as her person. I don’t think she minds too much, though she admits it makes it tricky to get things done. In the photo above, Annis is copying the Bible, a project she’s been working on since January. So far she has finished Genesis (all 50 chapters) and is halfway through Exodus!

Annis is silly and creative and clever and witty. She is a deep thinker and an even deeper feeler. Her compassion for other people can bring her to tears, but she’s also quick to find the joke in a situation. When Romilly’s fiance Davis was visiting last week, Annis heard Trevor say, after Milo sustained a minor bump to the face, “Oh, no! Your nose is missing!” And she quickly remarked to Davis, “I hope you’re keeping a list of all these dad jokes so you can start practicing!”

Her Bible knowledge is exceptional, and she is constantly processing her world through this lens. She was watching Trevor prune her rose bush the other day, and she commented that the woman’s part of this sin curse (pain in childbearing) had always seemed much harsher to her than the man’s part (thorns and other difficulties in making the ground produce food). Then, as if on cue, Trevor managed to get a thorn embedded in his finger THROUGH HIS NAIL (which is a story in itself and may end up needing minor surgery!). She changed her tune then, and said, “I don’t know. Maybe you would want to trade with mom after all!”

In the spirit of Romilly’s “Romilly But Very Small” Annis began her own comic called “Lego Annis” (the cover of the book reads, “by Human Annis”) Her wit and subtlety always keep us laughing.

Annis is never bored. She has a world of interests and creative pursuits (many of which I don’t even know about until months later when she finally decides to share them with me.) She loves the Spanish language and has written stories in it as well as the beginnings of a personal Spanish-English dictionary. She is an accomplished crocheter and becoming quite a skilled little baker as well. She is always drawing, writing, and watercoloring. Just yesterday she won first place in our AWANA Grand Prix for car design for her taco car!

This girl gives me more hugs throughout my day than the rest of her siblings put together, and she is always encouraging my heart with her kind words. She seems to know when I’m having a hard day and shows up just in time to tell me I’m the best mom ever or to thank me for everything I do.

Annis has a strong interest in missions and sharing Jesus with others. She has recently been considering Bible translation missions, which would certainly combine two of her great passions! I took a peek back at her 7th birthday post in 2021 when she wanted to be “a missionary pirate and a ballerina”, among other things. I love that her heart has always been to share the love of Christ (and I’m glad she has found new ways to channel her creativity since then. Jesus and piracy probably don’t mix well!)

Annis continues to be defined by her love of all things anise and licorice flavored, receiving for her birthday both a jar of star anise to flavor tea with and an anise plant to add to the small empire she has in our garden.

It’s so hard to sum up a child in a brief blog post, and there is so much more I could say about this girl. It is always a joy to be your mom, my sweet and spicy girl. I love you!

Would you believe that this handsome young man turned 18 today?! This past December marked 9 years since Lewis joined our family as a tiny little 8-year-old guy. He jumped right into life here with both feet and felt as though he’d always been here. He has learned and grown so much since then, and we are so proud of him.

This has been a challenging year for Lewis in a lot of ways. He has outgrown some of the things that he enjoyed when he was younger but has struggled a bit to find new things to do with his time. I suppose this happens to a lot of us as we grow up! We are beginning to explore more adult activities and ways for him to engage with the community. He spent a day volunteering at my mom’s thrift store over the summer and was very helpful there, so we may be doing more of that once we finish our school year. Although Lewis is 18, we will continue to officially homeschool him for two more years, in keeping with his grade at public school when he came home during the pandemic, before we graduate him.

(Baby Lewey. In China about 3 years before we met him.)

He has made steady progress in reading and math, but spoken language continues to be a bit of a mystery to him. He has gotten great at using his communication device (fondly known as his talker!) to bridge that gap, and he continues to sparkle and meet new goals at his weekly speech therapy sessions. As always, he loves to connect with others, and he finds ways to make himself understood and make friends everywhere he goes. He especially loves to use his talker and his mad art skills to make cards and drawings for those he cares about.

And speaking of mad art skills… look at this beautiful work of art from a paint day with my sister Chelsea a few weeks ago!

Lewis had lost interest in crocheting for a little while but has recently picked it up again. He whipped up this light saber for Milo in less than an hour a couple weeks ago, so he’s definitely still got it!

Lewis loves being outdoors, and he is up for anything. When Trevor plans a long hike on a rainy day and only a handful of kids are crazy enough to join him, Lewis is always among them! He loves playing games and sports of all kinds and has dance moves that he definitely did not get from me.

Lewis Christian, you are a treasure! I am thankful for your smile and your helpful spirit and your joie de vivre. Happy birthday, and wǒ ài nǐ!

This charming young man is well and truly an adult now, complete with a job, a couple of college classes under his belt, and a hairstyle that mom didn’t choose 😉 Happy 19th Birthday to Nikolai Dickson (a couple of days late, sorry!)

(The earliest photo we have of Niko. Oh, how I wish we could have known him at this age!)

Niko is now in his senior year of homeschooling and also in his second semester of dual enrollment classes at our local Christian college. Next semester he will be attending as a full-time student, but he is already well-known there by friends and professors alike. Last week we heard through Pippa that Niko had delivered a gift of crab cakes to one of his professors following a conversation they had about favorite foods on a recent field trip. “It was the strangest and most thoughtful gift I’ve ever received from a student,” their mutual professor told Pippa. “I just found them in my inbox!”

(This is what happened when I asked Bea and Niko for a “normal, smiling” picture.)

It isn’t just his professors whom Niko blesses with his generosity and his grocery store connections: he regularly brings home treats and snacks to share with all of us, or to bless a particular family member. (My love languages are sugar-free chocolates and Chick-Fil-A salad dressing!) He has blossomed into such a thoughtful guy, and he delights in using his resources to bless others.

Speaking of the grocery store, Niko has been working at Redner’s for over a year and a half now! He first got the job through a combination of sheer grit and a glowing recommendation from the manager of the thrift store he used to volunteer at, and he’s doing such a great job there. He is helpful and friendly with the customers when he’s on register, and he’s now also working part-time in the meats department.

Niko has an eclectic set of interests ranging from chess to playing the accordion (very occasionally) to collecting anklyosauruses. He can strike up a conversation with anyone about anything, and you never know what he might say next! He certainly always keeps things interesting, and he seems to have a way of putting a smile on the face of everyone he interacts with.

As I look back on this boy’s life – the unusual way he entered our family (by way of an airplane rather than Mommy’s tummy) and how hard he’s had to work at everything – I marvel at how far he’s come. He’s smart and tenacious, and at times those traits have been challenging. But he is loving and resilient, and he is always working toward being a better version of himself.

Niko, I am so incredibly proud of you. I see how hard you work at everything you do and how much you want to do the right thing. It has been an honor to be your mom and watch you grow into the young man you are today.

This sweet girl with the bright blue eyes and the strawberry blond hair is sixteen today! Happy Sweet Sixteen to our dear Juniper Lucy.

The baby of my “original four” is now a capable and accomplished young woman who does everything she does with excellence. It is a hard truth of raising children that just as they become mature, helpful human beings (and this happened at an unusually young age for June!), they also become in demand by the rest of the world, and I hardly ever get to see them. June is a busy girl these days!

She has a couple of weekly church babysitting jobs, and she also works two full days a week at my mom’s thrift store. In the first weekend the store was open last summer, they received a less-than-stellar review online that has now become family legend. My mom was working the register by herself for the first time that day, having had Junie by her side the first day, and she had to call Junie to ask for computer help. The customer, misunderstanding the situation, commented that, “the poor clerk (that is, my mom, the manager) had no idea how to work the register and had to call her boss (Junie, age 15)” (As an aside, it is also worth noting that I played the part of the boss’s “rude secretary” when the customer heard me on speaker phone say, “well, she can’t come help you right now. She hasn’t had lunch yet!” Oops!) In truth, Junie really does keep things running smoothly there, and all the customers love her.

At home June is a huge help to me and a fan favorite with the little kids. She spoils me by making me on-plan treats and meals (she has been doing the Trim Healthy Mama eating plan with me for about a year now), and she is quick to help me with an organizing task. She is often found in her room doing schoolwork with one or more small Youngs hanging out with her.

Juniper favors her British side, being, in general, one of our quieter and more reserved girls, but like her Daddy, she has an unexpected sense of humor and an infectious laugh. I love hanging out with her!

(Junie in China when we were adopting Lewis in 2015.)

June has a great eye for detail and creative skills in pretty much every area she turns her hand to. She is currently thinking she might like to pursue a career in architecture or interior design, but there is still plenty of time to decide. Whatever she does, she will do it with all her heart, she will do it with excellence, and she will use it to bless others.

Juniper, I’m thankful for who you are and all you do for our family (and that you are still willing to pose for me with every single juniper we come across!) I love you!

This is such an exciting post to start with! There is no point trying to save the best news for last here, so I’ll just lead with…

This beautiful young woman, who is 19 today, is getting married! (If you’re picturing that scene from Father of the Bride where Steve Martin sees his daughter as her five-year-old self, announcing at the dinner table, “I met a man in Paris, and we’re getting married!”, you’re not alone!)

Romilly and Davis met in the Fall semester of 2022. She was taking an English comp class as a senior in high school at the local Christian college where four of our kids are now students. Davis was a college freshman. In my usual state of complete back-to-school disorganization, I had been late to order school supplies, and Romilly turned up for her first day of classes with no notebook. Davis offered to lend her paper. Towards the end of the semester, they sat together and were partners in editing their final papers. And so it was that a boy caught Romilly’s attention for the first time.

The next semester they didn’t have any classes together, and by summer she had committed to go to a different college a few hours away, but she hadn’t forgotten him. It was Pippa’s boyfriend Silas who suggested that she should get in touch with Davis over the summer. It was a radical idea for our introverted girl, but after much thought and discussion, she sent him an email. He had recommended a systematic theology book to her when they had worked together in class, and she genuinely did want to get the name of the book again. (Really, that’s why she emailed him. Honest!)

That was the beginning of a beautiful summer of near-daily emails and phone calls. She still went away to college in the Fall, but not for long. After one semester, she transferred back to our local college, and Davis has been a part of the family ever since.

(Pencil sketches of all the kids, by Romilly while she was away at college)

In December, Davis moved back home to South Carolina. When Romilly visited him in January, he asked her to marry him (with Trevor’s blessing!) They plan to get married in June, and she will move down there and finish her degree online.

While engagement news does tend to eclipse everything else, I just have to gush about this girl a little bit. I have truly never known anyone like her. She is never not busy working on some (usually self-assigned) project. She does pattern-testing for a well-known (in the crochet world, at least) fantasy pattern designer. She writes stunning, thoughtful essays on big topics at Petra Publications, a website she and Davis work on together. She has written at least three more fantasy novels since her first during COVID lockdown when she was 14. She’s worked on graphic novels and individual comics, her latest being “Romilly but Very Small”. She will hide in her room for hours and finally emerge with ink on her hands and face, looking for a cup of tea.

(“In Which Romilly Washes her Hands” and “In Which Romilly Works at the Writing Lab”)

For all the time she spends lost in her various pursuits, when we do finally catch a minute to chat, she continues to be one of the wisest people I know. She thinks and feels deeply, and she has become a person that I can share my heart with and know that I will find compassion and insight.

I’m not ready for this girl to move away from home. Not at all. But I know that she is ready, and I know I am placing her in good hands.

Happy birthday, Romilly Alice Young, your last with that name! I am so excited to see what the future holds for you and Davis. May God bless you abundantly as you seek after Him in all you do.

#youngnomoore2025

Well, it’s become increasingly clear to me in this very busy season of life that blogging isn’t going to happen unless something forces it to happen. So, since I haven’t written a thorough update in a very long time, I thought this would be a good year to do a reboot of my birthday posts. Firm deadlines seem to be the only way I get anything done anymore, and birthdays come whether we want them to or not!

The Winter birthday season starts in just three days, so I won’t leave you hanging for long! But in the meantime, I thought I’d give you some teasers in the form of a photo dump of our last few months. I have so much to report, and I’m thankful to say it’s all so good!

If you ask me questions in the comments you may tempt me to share more than just birthday updates, but for now, I should have enough to be getting on with! As always, if you are still reading, thank you for hanging in there with me. I am always pleasantly surprised to find there are still a few people who notice when I post something 🙂

Would you believe that our little star turned ONE on Monday?! That officially makes this the latest I have ever been to tell a name story. And I LOVE telling name stories, so you know I’ve been busy!

It was my name first, Gilbert, and my father’s before me and his father’s before that. My maiden name. I never cared for it growing up. I knew it only as a nerdy name from a movie I should never have seen so young (don’t judge me, things were different in the eighties!)

In college, I was introduced to Anne of Green Gables and began to see my name in a different light, or at least to realize that others did. It still took me until at least our 4th baby to take it seriously as a first name possibility.

Meanwhile, the name Gus was there all along. Living in Scotland, where Anguses and Ferguses abound, I fell in love with the name Gus when I was pregnant with Romilly 18 years ago. Trevor remained ambivalent on Gus through the years, no matter which full name I might suggest. His favorite boy name for all those years was Barnaby, which I loved, too, but didn’t feel quite brave enough to use, especially after we moved to the States. We were pretty solidly gridlocked, so it was a good thing we kept having girl after girl after girl!

I first suggested the combo Gilbert Barnabas, Gus for short, when I was expecting Verity in 2016 (I know this, I’m embarrassed to admit, because I keep records of such things!) I don’t remember how it was received then, but I know it wasn’t the name we ended up choosing for her if she’d been a boy. Sometimes Trevor needs to simmer for a long time!

The name Gilbert means “bright pledge.” Daniel 12: 3 says, “And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever.” My prayer for little Gus is that his life would shine brightly in this world and cause many to glorify God.

Barnabas, like Barnaby, means “son of encouragement.” A perfect meaning for this little son of ours who seems to bring a smile to the face of everyone he meets. And while it isn’t quite the name that Trevor pined for all those years, it does end in -us and so nicely closes the loop on the whole Gilbert-nickname-Gus situation.

Milo’s pregnancy was the first time Trevor actually agreed to the combo Gilbert Barnabas, but as you can probably tell, that is not Milo’s name. You can read that story here.

Gus was both desperately wanted and prayed for, and also a wonderful surprise. His pregnancy was different and stressful from the get-go. I think Trevor must have known that I needed the name not to be one more source of stress, because he let me have my way from the very beginning. When we received Gus’s Down syndrome diagnosis at 25 weeks pregnant, I asked if we could, for the first time in ten pregnancies, intentionally find out the gender ahead of time. (We found out with Freya as well, but quite by accident, and that’s a story for another time.)

The day we found out that Gus was a boy was a wonderful, hope-filled day, and we began calling him Gus and praying for him by name that very day.

A year later, I still look at him every day and pinch myself that I finally got my Gus. And, of course, that the name I’ve dreamed of using for so many years is attached to this boy.

I’ve often heard other women describe their labors as “short but intense”, and I’ve been a bit skeptical of how that could be worse than a labor that stops and starts and keeps you awake for three days, but still becomes very intense at the end, which is what several of mine have been like. I think now I understand.

Due to my age, my history of high blood pressure, and Gus’s Down syndrome diagnosis, I was scheduled to be induced on April 26th, when I would have been 38 weeks exactly. But all along, something told me that as soon as I reached 37 weeks, something would trigger a chain of events that would bring him sooner. With both Freya and Milo, I was induced due to high blood pressure, and the stress of knowing that was not helping my blood pressure to behave this time around. In the end, it was not my blood pressure that misbehaved, but a 24-hour urine sample with a bit of protein in it, signaling the early stages of preeclampsia.

Thankfully, the midwife who triaged me that Friday, April 21st, took pity on my situation and asked if I’d like to go home first and come in a few hours later (she shared with me a very amusing cautionary tale about another mom who was sent straight to her induction without going home first: her husband had packed her bag for her and included some rather unhelpful undergarments! But I had my own reasons for wanting to go home first…) That morning, my sister Chelsea had been visiting for what we knew would likely be our last double bump photo. She had stayed with the kids while I had my appointment, and I was able to go home and squeeze her one last time before heading to the hospital at around 5.

If you could see the scribbled prayer requests of the lovely ladies at my Bible study table at our last meeting on April 20th, you would see that I was specifically praying to go into labor on my own and not need to be induced. That very afternoon, (warning, TMI labor details ahead…) I began to have some mild contractions and lose my mucus plug. The next day, during the few hours I had at home in between my appointment and going back to the hospital for my induction, I continued to have some very mild contractions, and my water broke! This was one of so many specific answers to prayer surrounding Gus’s arrival that I know I will not even remember to list them all, but this one felt huge, because it was more than a week earlier than I had ever gone into labor on my own.

Because of my head start on labor, when I arrived for my induction, the team decided to skip the early step I had had with Freya’s and Milo’s inductions (a drug called cytotec used to soften the cervix) and go straight to pitocin to bring on stronger contractions. My nurse started pitocin at about 7:45 pm.

There was no midwife on call on the overnight shift that began shortly after we arrived. That may be part of why this induction was so different from my other two inductions, which lasted 48 and 36 hours. While I was bracing myself for a long, slow labor like my others, my nurse began turning my pitocin up and up and up again. By 10 pm I could tell I wasn’t coping nearly as well as I usually do in early labor. I struggled through the next hour of long, intense contractions two minutes apart, and finally called my nurse in a tearful panic.

I told her this didn’t feel like my other labors, and that I wasn’t coping well at this level of pitocin. Thankfully, she listened to me. She told me she trusted my judgement, because I had done this so many times before. She suggested stopping the pitocin completely for an hour to give me a rest and see what my body would do on its own, and she told me she’d be back at midnight to check on me.

But that rest never came, and neither did my nurse! The contractions spaced out to 3 or 4 minutes apart, but they stayed strong. By midnight I was very ready for my nurse to come back and check on me. I was coping better, but still feeling like I’d need some pain relief if I still had a whole night or more of hard labor ahead of me. We could hear the delivery happening down the hall that kept my nurse from returning at midnight when she said she would (and the sounds coming from that mother were not doing anything to help my state of mind!) At 1AM I finally pushed the button and called for my nurse. A different nurse came and told me the doctor was working her way along and would come check me soon. I felt a little scared, and really wanted someone to stay with me, but there was a lot happening down the hall, so the nurse left me to wait for the doctor.

At 1:15 the doctor finally came. I was 4 almost 5 cm. I asked her to go over my pain options with me. I asked about the morphine-type drug that would help me get some sleep. She explained that it carried a risk to baby if I delivered while it was still in my system, which it would be for about 3-4 hours. I turned to Trevor and said, “Then I want the epidural.” It was not something I had ever said to him while in labor before. I’m not sure what he thought at the time, he told me later that he believed it was God’s direct protection of Gus that I chose not to have the other drug, even though I had had before in a couple of my other labors with no ill effects. I had no idea how close I was to delivering. It would certainly still have been in his little system when he was born, which could have caused him to be born with respiratory issues.

The anaesthesiologist came in a few minutes later to discuss the epidural with me, and I told him I wanted it. By about 1:45 he was back with his supplies and ready to give me some relief. I sat hunched over a pillow while the catheter was placed in my back. While I had been waiting for the anaesthesiologist, and especially while he was placing the epidural, I felt my contractions change. Part of me must have known what was coming, because I remember asking how long it would take the meds to kick in and feeling a bit disheartened when he said fifteen minutes.

My notes state that the catheter was in place at 1:57 AM (about 45 minutes after the doctor told me I was “almost 5 cm”). At this point, as the doctor was beginning to put the drugs into the catheter, while I was still hunched over sitting on the bed, I instinctively tried to push myself up off the bed a bit with my hands. The anaesthesiologist and the nurse both yelled at me not to move or touch my back (I wasn’t trying to!).

At this point I became fully aware of what was happening and started yelling, “he’s coming! I think he’s out!!!” I don’t think anyone believed me at first, but after a few seconds of my freaking out, the nurse told me to lie down and Trevor sort of tipped me on my side. Gus flopped out onto the bed and shocked everyone in the room. His birth time was recorded as 2 AM exactly, and the anaesthesiologist’s name was recorded as the delivering doctor. He was the only person in the room qualified to deliver a baby.

The OB who had checked me less than an hour earlier heard the commotion from the hall and rushed in. The nurse (still not MY nurse) was trying to cut the cord and asked the doctor to pass her the instruments she needed, but since their roles were usually reversed, no one quite seemed to know what to do. Trevor and I were just laughing and crying at the whole situation while the team of NICU doctors looked our little man over. He was perfect!

Meanwhile, the anaesthesiologist, who seemed mildly irritated by the whole situation, commented, “Well, you won’t be needing this” and pulled my catheter back out 🙂

Although his actual birth was probably my easiest (no stitches for the first time ever, and I don’t even think I actually pushed), that couple of hours of crazy contractions that I *thought* would last for the next 12 hours or so were some of the hardest labor, physically and mentally, that I’ve ever experienced. “Short but intense” is definitely a real thing!

The next morning, my midwife Kathleen came to visit. We were both so disappointed that she hadn’t gotten to deliver Gus. She was the one who counseled me through my early worries of low progesterone. She delivered the news of Gus’s extra chromosome when I was in my second trimester. And she knew him by name by the time we were having weekly third trimester visits. By the end, she had become a trusted friend, and I am thankful for the part she played in his birth, even if it wasn’t at the main event.

Most of all, I am thankful for the Lord’s kindness to us in every part of Gus’s arrival and life so far. One more baby. At my age! Pregnant along with my sisters. With another boy. With Down syndrome, and a perfect, healthy heart. He came just barely full term, but left me plenty of time to recover before Trevor’s sister and family came to visit in May. Gus is an absolute joy, and his siblings and mommy and daddy adore him.

“The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed I have a beautiful inheritance.”

Psalm 16:6 ESV

He’s here! Introducing Gilbert Barnabas, Gus for short.

He’s actually been here for quite a while. Gus arrived on April 22, 2023, just over a month ago. (I will tell you all about his arrival in another post.) So many prayers were answered, including that we were both able to come home from the hospital together just two days after he was born. I almost got a chance to write a post about him, but then just a couple days later a low temperature reading at his check up sent us back to the ER and ultimately landed is in the NICU.

We had a four-day stay for some warming and oxygen support, and we were so grateful to be able to go home when we did.

On the first night of our hospital stay, Gus received a tentative diagnosis of transient myeloproliferative disease, a pre-cancerous condition that is very common among newborns with Down syndrome and potentially very dangerous. We googled, we cried, we prayed, and we all held our breath. By the next day when we finally met with the hematologist, there was absolutely no trace of the offending blast cells in his bloodwork. We may never know if his diagnosis was a false positive or if his TMD just resolved very quickly (it often does), but either way, prayers were mightily answered for our tiny boy.

He is home now and keeping me busy with pumping and round the clock supplemental feeding, but for all that, he is thriving! We are so in love, and so happy that he is here. The world is a better place with Gus in it.