The Eyrings: Confirmed Surgery date, a special FROG, hip scoped, dinosaurs, and a splashing good day

First and foremost, we have a CONFIRMED surgery date for Colin's Fontan... JULY 16th! It is the date we requested, so that's good news.. well is there really ANY good news when talking about open heart surgery for a 4 year old?? We go in Monday July 15th for pre-op then we get to come home and go back up there the morning of the 16th. So MANY MANY mixed feelings about this. I KNOW he needs it, I KNOW he will do better but it is SO hard as it is my sweet boy, there are risks as any open heart surgery, and it won't FIX his heart. He can express pain and sadness much more than his last surgery at 5 months old.

BUT we put our faith in God.. which brings us to our very special new member of the family. Colin received an awesome present from our heart buddy Paxton (Pax). Pax sent Colin a FROG (FULLY RELY ON GOD) frog. It had a very special note about how GOD made both their hearts very special and for his surgery, everything is possible with God. Thank you Pax and Jessica for the wonderful gift.

We are going to be on lock down starting July 1st. We already have 4 trips planned out of the 5 weekends in June! We are fitting a WHOLE summer into ONE month. It is going to be busy BUT we will have a few weeks in the hospital and house arrest to rest up from it all. We want to make sure the kids have a BLAST before going through such a hard and trying time for all of us. We will enjoy our time as a family before we have to come together STRONG as a family. Please pray for an uneventful and speedy recovery. And that this will be his last intervention on his heart. Please pray for all of Colin's heart friends who are also under going their Fontans as well: Bodie, Jake, Abagail, Derrick, Evan, Zoe, and so many more.

I am not sure how to do this with a 4 year old but I will lean on God, our family, and friends for support. And yes, I want to throw up just typing the word.. FONTAN.. but we knew about this since Colin was 3 days old and it is finally here. It can stop looming over our heads. We can stop wondering "when it will be".

Last Friday Matt had his right hip scoped. He had a small tear in his labrum and his hip socket was a bit mis-shapen, so they went in and cleaned it all up. He has done really well and is even now walking without his crutches. I am so glad that it was not as extensive of damage as they first thought, one estimate was that he would maybe be on crutches SIX weeks.. whew.. I am so glad that wasn't true. We have our 10 year anniversary trip in 6 weeks!!! Matt's parents watched the kids Friday night and Saturday so Matt could rest up. Sunday the kids and I went to my brother's house to enjoy their neighborhood splash pad, the kids has a BLAST.