Happy Birthday Caden
Today Caden turns three years old. By the grace of God, Caden lives up to the meaning of his name.
Caden – fighter
Gabriel – God is my strength
Caden and our family continue to fight fueled by strength given from God. This week has shown us some great fun times mixed up with some very difficult ones.
Birthday Fun
The birthday picture on the right was taken last Friday night while Caden and Riley were waiting on a train. That’s right. Riley and Caden got to take a train ride for their birthdays. The trip was a huge answered prayer. Literally, it was an answer to Sherry’s prayers that God provide a way. You might imagine that a trip like this is a little bit above the norm for a birthday present. Our budget was not going to allow for this to happen. I won’t go into specifics, but I can say without a doubt that God answered Sherry’s specific prayer.
Sherry and I came up with the idea as a result of a conversation I had with a friend who took the same trip several years ago with his kids. The trip took us to Savannah where we stayed a night in a hotel. The train ride from Charleston to Savannah was supposed to be a little less than two hours long. The trip took more like five hours. There were several 
delays as a result of some signal problems. It was really kind of cool. The boys were wonderful even with being up past mid-night. Really, they were awesome. I was pleasantly surprised that a five year old and a three year old could have so much energy and be so well behaved at midnight.
On Saturday we visited the Roundhouse Railroad Museum. This place was great. I’m not sure who had more fun. This picture was taken as we posed on the back of an old caboose. The site of the museum is the former home of the Central Georgia Railway. Construction of this facility began over 175 years ago. This is a must see tourist spot for any family with young children (or adults) who love trains.
We completed our mini family vacation by traveling back to Charleston on Amtrak. The return trip was without delays. This was a good thing because we were all tired.
Struggles this week
The trip to Savannah was not without struggles with Caden’s health. That night in the hotel, Caden popped a fever of about 102. We had been battling fevers for a couple of days with Caden. We decided to proceed with the trip because there seems to never be a “good” time to do anything. We reflected on the past two years. Every single trip we have taken Caden on has left us fighting a fever. Whether it was a trip to see Grandma and Grandpa in Atlanta, to see Nana and Aunt Becke, to go to the mountains, or just to the zoo in Columbia, we have dealt with a fever on the road every single time we have traveled an hour or more from home. We realized this months ago, but have not been able to tie the fevers to a specific problem. In the end, Riley and Caden did have a great time on the train trip to Savannah and that was the primary goal of the trip.
The beginning of this week gave us a glimpse of one of the best days that Caden has seen in the past week and a half. He was energetic and happy. He tolerated all of his feedings just fine. That was the last day of fun this week. The remainder of the week up until Thursday seemed to worsen. Caden ended up in the pediatrician’s office on Thursday morning with a severe cough, fever, and massive amounts of goobers. We ask for your prayers as Caden continues to be attacked with sinus and ear infections.
ENT Update – and more on Cardiology
We are hoping that the ENT procedure will be able to happen on Tuesday as planned. This is our last chance this year to get all the right people scheduled for this dilation and MBS. I failed to mention last week that cardiology has put a restriction on all outpatient procedures for Caden. The cardiologists want all of Caden’s work outpatient or otherwise to be done in the main OR at MUSC. They said they wanted their anesthesiologist to be involved in all of Caden’s procedures and wanted him close during any procedures “just in case”.
Please forgive me if I have sound a little discouraged tonight. We are all tired. While today is Caden’s birthday, we are not planning to party until next week. It was planned this way to give some room between the boys’ parties to keep family from having to travel back so soon. We are just having family and a few kids that Riley and Caden regularly play with. I think we had barely ten kids including Riley, Caden, and Josiah at Riley’s party.
Thank you for your prayers. We treasure your support. Blessings to you and yours!