120 hours...

A typical Monday's post would consist of too many sentences about the goings on of my Saturday and Sunday.
This past weekend was lovely, a 7-mile run with some friends, a baby shower and a family reunion.
Followed by a low key and lazy Football Sunday watching my Steelers lose. (WOMP Womp womp...)

This pic was obviously taken pre-game!

But today, on this Monday, I want to share some very important situations going on with too many people that I know and love.

First off.
I've made very brief mention of my friend, Candice and her son, Jase that was born on June 28th.

About half way through Candice's pregancy, they found out that the baby had DORV (Double Outlet Right Ventricle) - a condition where your pulmonary artery and aorta come into your right ventricle rather than separate ventricles.
When Jase was born, they actually found out that he also has a condition called Dextrocardia; where the heart is backwards and located in the center of the chest leaning towards the right.
Jase is scheduled for catherization on September 12th and then heart surgery will be approximately 2 weeks after that!

We are doing a fundraiser to raise money for the cost of Jase's surgery, travel (the hospital is about 2 1/2 hours from where we live) and lodging for however long they will need to be up there on September 21st.
We are having Independent vendors such as Stella & Dot, Thirty-One, Mary Kay, Scentsy, Oragmai Owl and more set up so people can come and shop. And a portion or all of the proceeds go to Jase.
If any of you would like to order anything online to go towards this, just let me know and I can get you the online websites or whatever you need.
I also have tickets for the 50/50 drawing we will be doing the day of the event.
They are $1 a ticket and you don't have to be present to win!
Again, if any of you are interested, just let me know!! :)

And please pray for sweet baby Jase, his parents, the doctors and medical team as Jase goes through heart surgery!

Another friend had her baby, Gabriel August 23rd and has yet to bring him home.
When he was born, he had fluid in his lungs and trouble breathing.
His lung collapsed twice so he was put on a ventilator and a chest tube was put in to pump medicine to his lungs.

He's been transferred to 3 different hospitals since being born.
(This third, and most likely final one is the same hospital that sweet Jase was born at and will have his heart surgery! Praise God for UVA Medical Center in Charlottesville, VA and their incredible staff!!)
Since being at the 3rd hospital, Gabriel has been slowly but surely improving!!!
He has all of the vents, chest tubes and oxygen taken off of him.
The only tube left on him is his feeding tube.
As most mommies know, breast feeding is not an exceptionally easy task.
Since Gabriel is used to food and nourishment being pumped to his stomach, he doesn't want to have to work for it.
Please pray for Gabriel to continue to improve, to learn to eat on his own, and to come home!!

Gabriel's parents, Colette and Derek, also have a son, Uriah who will be 2 this Friday.
How incredible would it be for this family of four to all be in their own home on Uriah's 2nd birthday?!?

Uriah and Royce are good buddies!! : )

Now on to a good buddy of mine...
Kelly and I have been friends for about 17 years.
Kelly met an incredible guy and they are set to get married on September 28th.
I am beyond proud and honored to be a bridesmaid and stand beside her on her wedding day.

However almost 120 hours ago, on Wednesday, September 4th, Kelly's fiance, Tony was in a terrible car accident.
He's had 2 surgeries on the bottom part of his right leg to repair the many broken bones, etc. And a 3rd surgery is on the horizon.
Tony had a large laceration on his forehead that they had to stitch together by layers.
Since that accident, Tony has been sedated and has yet to fully wake up.
They have been on a roller coaster ride of Tony coming out of sedation, becoming aggressive and combative which results in elevated heart rate and blood pressure, and then back to having to sedate him to calm all of that.
Tony has responded to Kelly's voice when she tells him to calm down, but only for 30 seconds to a minute and then he gets aggressive again.
They did an MRI of his brain and neck and saw that there is no neck/spinal injury so they were able to take the neck brace off of him which they were/are hoping is one less restraint on him that could cause less aggravation while coming out of sedation.
The MRI did find that some of the nerves in his brain are sheared.
What this means, we don't really know until Tony wakes up...
to see what or how he's different and what he remembers, etc.
The constant roller coaster of coming out of sedation, and longing for your love to wake up, combined with worrying of what he will be like when he wakes  is weighing heavily on my dear friend.
I mean, the stress of a wedding 3 weeks away is anxiety-inducing enough...
this situation on top of all that?!?
I cannot even imagine.
Please join me in praying for Tony to come to, to be the same Tony, and for his long road to recovery!
Please pray for Kelly in dealing with all of this!

One last prayer need.
I just got word that a family friend's mom just got news that she has liver cancer.
She has been in the hospital for her heart for awhile now.
Since her heart is only working at 24%, she is not able to undergo Chemo treatment.
Please pray for her, her strength, her healing, and for her family.



I'm so fucking sick of grimm fucking news!
Who's got great things going on in your life!! I wanna hear some good news!

I hope all of this news didn't put a damper on your already Monday blah.
But I believe in the power or prayer and just wanted to ask all of my dear blogging friends to send some up as you can!
Thank you!