Happy Anniversary!

Beautiful,

It's hard to believe that seven years have gone by so quickly. Thank you. I can honestly say they have been the seven best years of my life. And taking this brief moment to look back the one thing I am most certain of is that I am thankful I get to spend the rest of my life with you.

On that warm Chattanooga summer day seven years ago when you said I do (not I will, but I do...I loved you all the more for caring about the difference) I knew you were the best gift God had given me, but now I know just how little I understood the truth of that statement. I knew you were compassionate, but I had yet to experience the full range of that compassion; I knew you were smart, but I had yet to live with your quiet, humble wisdom; I knew you loved me, but had yet to see how steadfast your love was, even when I am a jerk; I knew you were strong, but had yet to walk through tragedy with you; I knew I didn't want to live life without you, but hadn't realized I really hadn't been living life until I met you. You have given me far more than I could ever hope to give you.

Thank you.

I love you.

Happy Anniversary.

Love,

your band of hus

2+1=3

We've been asked a couple of times now what the girls think of Hannah Kate. Well, maybe more than a couple of times at this point. The problem here is that the very people who have been asking this question are likely the very readers this blog retains. At this point in time they have all been given a blow for blow answer making this blog entry entirely superfluous...and yet I am going to write it anyway, and hopefully you will follow along, if for no other reason than...the pictures.

For weeks now we have been working on prepping the girls about the immanent arrival of their "baby sissy." They know what babies are. They knew Hannah Kate was going to be their baby sissy, and they knew that baby sissy was in mommy's tummy. They also knew that mommy was going to the doctor and he was going to be taking Hannah Kate out of mommy's tummy so we could bring her home and let her sleep in her crib and play with her toys and...well, you get the idea. For a while I spent some time totally mesmerized by how well they took all of this. They didn't seem phased at all by the idea that there was a baby in mommy's tummy and soon she would be coming home to live with us. My mom's a lamaze teacher, I grew up with this notion, talking and learning about it, and I have to admit that whenever I would watch Hannah Kate rub her arm across the inside of her womb I would think...yep...totally weird. It seemed like the very idea should blow their little 2 and a half year old minds. And yet...never phased.

Of course, the more I thought about it the more I realized, there's really no good reason why they should be amazed. Their world is full of crazy impossibilities that we tell them are reality every day. Hey look at that metal box, it's different then other metal boxes in that if you get in it it will take you some place else. This metal box over here flies in the sky, and this one shows magic pictures. So sure, why not, babies live in mommy's tummies and then get taken out.

Wednesday was too hectic to try and add the little beautifuls into the mix, so we waited until Thursday to have Nana bring them up. Evidently they were good and ready to see us by Thursday. Thursday morning at 4 in the morning Emma Jane woke up screaming for mommy. She whined and begged to see us (along with Parker) all morning until they arrived. When they got here we could hear them squealing with delight the whole way down the hall. Parker came bounding in. So excited I am pretty sure she actually did pee her pants. She just started giggling madly, running around the room, unsure of whether to stop and stay with mommy, daddy, or baby sissy. I think she spent the entirety of that trip and every subsequent trip to the hospital, giggling.

Parker couldn't be happier with the situation. As I am writing this blog I am now sitting at home, and the sheer joy has yet to dissipate. Parker has always been a little high on life, and right now it couldn't be better. Mommy and daddy are home and they have brought a baby with them. What could be better? Oh, Nana is still here? Oh yeah, life is a amazing.

Emma Jane's attitude on the other hand has proven to be...a little different

As I mentioned, Emma Jane was the one who woke up at 4 in the morning screaming for mommy, you could hear her in the hall calling out for mommy, you would think she would come running in and bounce right into Mary Jane's lap. You would be wrong. Instead Emma Jane refused to acknowledge Mary Jane at all. She gave her the cold...cold..."arcticly" cold shoulder. She wouldn't give her a hug, or a kiss, she barely acknowledged me, and any time we asked her anything she would scream and cry and say "No, Nana do it." You wouldn't think someone so small could rip your heart out, and cut it into little pieces so easily, but she can. When it comes to Hannah Kate, Emma Jane was a extremely excited to see her and to hold her. (Not as excited as Parker, but frankly, I don't think anyone could ever be as excited as she was/is). When things started to get a little crowded in the room and I took Parker and Emma Jane out for a walk the first thing Emma Jane did when the door closed was to start crying for mommy, so I know she cares, but Emma Jane was determined to punish us, especially Mary Jane. And she did.

Friday's visit was better and worse. Parker was the same screw ball high energy this is wonderful bundle of joy. Emma Jane was warmer to Mary Jane, but significantly meaner to me. I guess she decided to pick on the guy who hadn't been sliced into, and I guess that's fair. Although....I miss my Emma Jane. Daddy's little girl decided not to be daddy's little girl on Friday or Saturday (as mentioned above we are home today--more about that later--and she is being a bit better today).

All that said, we're pretty happy with how well they seem to be handling the change thus far. It is clear they are both excited about Hannah Kate.

Hannah Kate, on the other hand, seems pretty bored with the girls. She just slept through all of it.

The adventure continues

Okay, I will admit this was a long time coming. I meant to do another post last night, but baby things kept us busy. But anywho here we are now. For those of you who have yet to hear the story, I will warn you...there isn't much to tell, but, as is usual for me, I'm going to make it take significantly longer than it needs to.

In some ways things started Tuesday night. Mary Jane was having more contractions than usual, and both of us began to wonder if we would show up to our c-section appointment in labor.

And sure enough we showed up the next morning and found she was having a suspiciously large number of contractions. The nurses getting Mary Jane checked in looked at the monitor and asked whether we wanted to try and have this baby the good ole fashioned way. Our answer? Ummmm maybe?

The decision didn't stay in our hands for long. They quickly did a check and found she wasn't dilated at all. So with enough time for a quick picture it was off to the operating room.

The doctors took Mary Jane in first to give her her epidural. This left Jason all gowned up and chomping at the bit waiting to get in. A feeling he remembered all too well from two and a half years ago, when Parker and Emma Jane were ripped untimely from their mother's womb. Fortunately while Hannah Kate was about to be ripped from her mother's womb it was not in an untimely fashion. And while Jason was once again impatiently waiting outside the door to the OR room his expression was less :( and more:

Twenty long minutes later, Jason was brought into the OR where found a bunch of doctors, nurses, PA's and what not, huddling around his wife's body holding sharp instruments and getting ready to cut open his wife. While this had clearly been the plan for months now, there was still something surreal about this fact, and the fact that he was going to just ignore this and have a seat next to her face as though this were a normal part of life.

From there things happened rather quickly, or at least they seemed to to the person who was not strapped to a table, numbed from the stomach down, and being sliced into by friendly-yet faceless medical professionals. For all the people strapped to a table, arms splayed to their side, it can be assumed things were happening at a significantly slower rate. Basically, Jason and Mary Jane were living in two different time lines.

However you count the seconds the time eventually came when Hannah Kate arrived. Faithful readers have already seen the very first picture of her (and some of them even complained about it...ahem...Liz....cough, cough) so here is a second, less goopey, yet still authentically "just born" picture of her.

Okay, maybe only slightly less goopy. She still looks like a dusky zombie baby, in search of brains in this picture, but hey...this is what modern tech has given us, the ability to share everything...even the things people really don't want shared. You think this is bad, just wait till you see the pictures of the placenta.

There are no pictures of the placenta

Give me some credit here

Crimeny.

On a side note, Parker and Emma Jane have become big fans of seeing pictures, and when they came in asked to see some. When Parker saw the above picture she informed me someone needed to "clean the paint off Hannah Kate."

Drama:

We wouldn't be us if we didn't include some drama into the whole experience, but I will go ahead and tell you now the drama was all much ado about nothing. Some of you have asked about my initial text, the one that just said "She is here, details to follow" and still others have seen some cell-phone pictures that appear to include wires and what not. Due to this I have been hit with a number of question regarding health and wellness of baby. She is fine. So what's the story there? Well, you asked, but as I have already said, it's much ado about nothing.

When Hannah Kate was born she was retracting a bit when breathing, which, for those of you medically ignorant people out there who, along with me, require a bit of translation, just means that she was having a little more trouble breathing than they would like. She was doing the breathing just fine, but her sides would go in a bit much and her nostrils would flare, and her sats were a weeee (and I mean a tiny) bit lower than they would like. Turns out this happens a lot for bigger babies after c-sections. They don't get the benefit of having all the liquid squeezed out of them durning the birthing process. It usually takes them a little longer to get it all up and be happy campers. To be on the safe side they like to bring such babies down to the NICU for observation for a couple of hours. And that is exactly what happened to Hannah Kate. Jason following her out of the OR in an isolate, while Mary Jane was wheeled away in a separate direction was an annoyingly familiar scenario, but there was never any real worries or danger.

Perhaps the scariest moment came when Jason realized they would be wheeling that isolate right by the waiting room where Nana, Granny, and Paw Paw were all waiting. He actually stopped the doctors and said, um...can we go a different direction here, because if we walk by the waiting room with this isolate you're going to have three more patients in this hospital. They laughed for a moment, but he said, "no really, this family has a long, distinguished, rich history of visits to the NICU and I don't think they can handle the sight of one more." Jason was astonished to find they in fact really did not have another route, and so he ran into the waiting room and told them how completely okay everything was...he's pretty sure they only pretended to believe him, but it was nice of them to pretend. Thankfully their hearts pretended too, and all collectively decided not to arrest.

Once in the NICU Jason got to help clean "the paint" off Hannah Kate, eventually Nana came back, and they all just generally hung out. Things were so low key that one of the nurses took the time to snap this picture of Jason making silly faces at Hannah Kate. He felt she should learn about silly faces first thing, especially as she seemed so adept at making them. As you can see, the nurse in the background was thrilled with this behavior as well.

All told Hannah Kate was only down there for an hour-hour and a half. And it wasn't long until she was back in the room with Mary Jane looking like this:

Which is pretty much how she looks now, only she's a whole bunch more orangey, which is still not a big deal and something we'll talk about in a later post. For now it is time to wrap things up.

But wait you say, what about Parker and Emma Jane? Have they met Hannah Kate? Do they like her? Have they thrown any spectacular temper tantrums? Are they being cute as buttons? What about more pictures of Hannah Kate? What about visitors? What about that orangeyness?

All this can be saved for future posts, and can be considered reasons to come back soon. (very soon, as someone has already begun loading pictures to the computer and is likely to begin working on another post while mommy and baby nap)

Blessings,

Thank you for your prayers,

Jason, Mary Jane, Parker, Emma Jane, Hannah Kate Broge

Hannah Kate Exits the Womb!!

I love this picture.

I am going to keep this brief for now. Hannah Kate is here, and in case you are living under a rock and haven't heard, here are the stats:

8lbs 12.7 ounces

21 inches long

born at 1:55 PM

Mom and baby are Healthy!!!

Yes, that's right...7 pounds more than the girls weighed when they were born. Let's think about this for a moment. If you quadrupled Parker's weight when she was born you still wouldn't be as big as Hannah Kate. If you added Parker and Emma Jane's weight together and then doubled it you would still be nearly two pounds less than Hannah Kate. This girl is a giant.

It's awesome.

I won't bore you with long stories and details now. Just a quick couple of pictures and some stats. Come back tomorrow and I will give more pictures and a longwinded story...if you like that sort of thing.

God is good. He has blessed a greatly, we give Him thanks and praise.

Blessings,

Jason, Mary Jane, Parker, Emma Jane, AND HANNAH KATE

T Minus 2 and Counting: or How 4 Ear Infections, 2 Cases of Strep Throat and a Whole lot of Medicine Can change your Day

So this is it, or, that is, this is almost it. The week "of".... On Wednesday the doctors are going in after Hannah Kate, cause at this point in time she is showing absolutely NO signs of coming on her own. The girl is holed up in there like the last spoonful of peanut butter clinging to the sides of the jar. Seriously, have you ever tried to get all the peanut butter out of the jar before throwing away. I mean ALL the peanut butter. Impossible. They design those containers to be so deep, and so wide, with such a narrow opening that it is not possible to get it all. You just end up cramming your hand uncomfortably in there and getting it all peanut buttery, and then you take it out and find that all you have to show for it is a sandwich with not enough peanut butter on it and a sticky hand that you don't have time to clean well enough before rushing out the door and off to work, then you spend the rest of the day wondering why everything smells like peanut butter. All this is to say....she doesn't seem to want to come out at all.

We have a theory about this. It is a simple theory. It goes like this. Hannah Kate has ears, and with those ears she hears...everything and she thinks...that place is loud. I think I'll stay in here, where it's warm, and muffled.

Whatever the reason, she's still in there and all indications are the doctors are going to have to go in and pull her out. Which while the same as last time is amazingly different at the same time.

In all seriousness, we're pretty excited. We feel incredibly blessed to be here. That said it's also kind of surreal. We keep waiting for it to sink in that we are less than 48 hours from the C-section.

As it drew a bit closer we (read Mary Jane) suddenly realized that we were running out of days where it would just be the four of us (Mary Jane, Jason, Parker, and Emma Jane). In fact today (Monday) is it. The last one. So we set up these grandiose plans that I would come home from work early and we would go do a bunch of fun stuff with the girls and make the most of it.

Little did we know that today would start a couple hours early with the girls (who have been oozing snot for almost a week--and I mean oozing...the stuff has been coming out of their nose, their mouth and their eyes....ick) crying and complaining their ears hurt. So we spent the wee hours of the morning bonding...the four of us....on the couch...watching the monkey show while they sobbed pathetic sad tears half mixed with snot until the doctor's office opened and we could get them in for an appointment. Luckily we got one pretty much first thing this morning. And do you know what? We must be pretty good parents, because our kids got a 10 out of 10 on their ear exams. Which is to say that on a scale of 1-10 she said their ear infections were a 10. All four little beautiful ears were full of...welll...you get the idea.

After that Jason headed to work and Mary Jane headed over to the doctor's office for a last check before Wednesday's fun adventure. Mary Jane has been sick the last few days as well and as she related her symptoms the doctor he decided, almost on a whim, to do a strep test and guess what...she has strep. Then she mentioned to him that Jason has had a sore throat for a couple of weeks and has had strep throat a bunch this last year and the doctor, in his ever friendly manner, suggested that Jason needed to get his hiney (hiny? hinney? how do you spell hiney?) over to a doctor's office and get a strep test. Soooo rather than get home real early to begin the family shenanigans Jason stopped at a Walgreens Clinic place thing and wouldn't you know it...he has strep throat too.

By the time Jason got home Mary Jane had despaired of us doing any of our fun adventure activities, so Jason ignored her and packed the fam in the car anyway. They headed to Oberweis where they proceeded to stuff themselves with milkshakes.

Once hopped up on sugar and able to ignore the extreme fatigue caused by their various illnesses they hopped back into the car and went to a playground, where, because Jason and Mary Jane are wise parents, they spun their girls around on a merry-go-round. (clearly nothing bad can happen when two sick two year olds are filled with milk shakes and spun on a merry-go-round....please don't call DFS).

Fun was had by all. We then came home, took baths, ate a late dinner, read books, said prayers, sang songs, gave squeezes, kisses, eskimos, butterflies and a blessing (don't even pretend to skip any one of those) said goodnight and then Mary Jane and Jason proceeded to clean the house. Why did they clean the house you ask? Well, obviously because family is coming into town to help out tomorrow and it is important we get all the work done before they get here.

Anyway. Baby coming real real soon (as the girls might say). While I will be the first to admit that we haven't always been prompt with the updates, I think it is safe to say we will have something to say in the very near future, so feel free to head on back.

(oops...gotta go, Parker is coughing right now)

Odd sorts of anniversaries

So, it has been a year, a year since Mary Jane woke me up at three in the morning because her water had broken. And thus began the adventure. For those of you who might not remember the details, or for those of you who might somehow not know them you can go here to go back and reminisce.

Strangely enough the girls decided to celebrate this particularly strange anniversary in their own way. Mary Jane woke up at 3 AM, because, well because some part of her brain was acutely aware of that fact that one year ago exactly began the scariest time of her life. Me, being the sensitive guy I am, was snoring blissfully away. Men and women are just different that way. (Although I must admit that while writing this, sitting in the living room with Mary Jane and Emily, while they are watching a chick flick that I am trying to ignore, and right now there is a scene where the couple had a miscarriage and i will admit to you (but please keep this private...I really don't want this to get around) that I am a little more emotionally moved then I would expect, and watching them grieve and cry is bringing back vivid memories of stepping out of the hospital room at 4 in the morning calling my parents, Mary Jane's parents, and Emily and Paul (who were getting ready to take a train into town for very different reasons) and trying to keep it together enough emotionally to get the sentences out....maybe...just maybe men and women are not so different about these emotions. They both have them, but they experience these emotions differently, they handle them differently, and they have different triggers...but I digress)

Anyway, the girls decided to celebrate the anniversary their own special way. As Mary Jane got up to get out of bed Parker started screaming bloody murder, which scared the dickens out of Emma Jane, who decided to join the chorus. So...much like a year ago I was woken suddenly out of a deep sleep and found myself running into another room. And much like a year ago this marked the end of any sleep Mary Jane or I got for the rest of the day, and much like a year ago it was all Parker's fault (the stinker simply would not go back to sleep)

But unlike a year ago,

I had two beautiful, healthy, cute beyond words, baby girls to hold and comfort.

Unlike a year ago, I shed no tears, because there was no concern they would die.

And unlike a year ago it was easy to see the hand of God in all that He had provided for us, last year we knew it was there, we walked in faith, but this year we look back and thank Him for His mercy.

As I finish this post, getting ready to get them up for the nightly feed, I am overwhelmed by how blessed we have been. All the uncertainties, all the questions, we were asking one year ago, were answered by mercifully. Thanks be to God.

Land of the Cleves Part I: The airport

Since we are naturally gluttin' for punishment, we decided to continue are streak of traveling while we can (AKA before classes start). And since it had been more than two years since we had made it to my home (Cleveland) we decided a trip to Cleveland was in order. Unfortunately we quickly came to the realization that driving all the way to Cleveland was just plain out for the girls. So we flew. Yes we braved an airplane. We were pretty nervous about it, but the girls did really well. It's a short flight and just when they were starting to get antsy we arrived.

most uncomfortable rocking chair ever!

"I'm supposed to be napping"

"I want to be napping"

Actually, the only negative thing about the whole plane experience was the boarding process. All my life I have watched as those with special needs or wee little babes get to preboard while the rest of us shlubs dutifully wait our turn. Often I have looked on with envy thinking, if only, if only I didn't have to fight for a spot in line, just to get a seat, if only I could leisurely board the plane with the special blue boarding pass and the status of being known as a "preboarder"

All too frequently over the years I have seen other, undeserving, people try and worm their way into the preboard group. But I have just patiently waited, for I knew a day would come, a day when I would have a wee one and the coveted blue boarding pass would finally be mine. But alas it was not to be, because while I have multiple wee ones the aviation industry no longer cares about my boarding plight. Our "special status" comes after the preboards, and after the the first group of 60 people...then...we can board. Curses! Foiled in my life long ambition. Turns out I am going to need to be in a wheel chair or on oxygen to get the coveted blue boarding pass....and here's the thing. While I looked forward with eager anticipation to the day when I would have wee ones, I do not look forward to a day when I am in a wheel chair and on oxygen.

Oh well, considering that was the only thing to go wrong getting there, I am sure you can tell, it went smoothly. Thanks be to God!

An odd weekend...

...we were all together!

It was pretty awesome. For 48 hours Mary Jane and I were together. It was crazy. The craziness quickly went to our heads. On Saturday we suddenly felt brave enough to face the outside world. That's right....we left the house...with the girls. Sure we considered going out just the two of us, but while Emma Jane does seem to be pretty responsible she still can't quite dial 911 in case of an emergency. She gets stumped after the first 1. But can you blame her? Two 1's is pretty tricky.
So we took them with us.
First we drove through the Starbucks drive through...cause we need some liquid courage to make it through the rest of our errands. Next we went to the dry cleaner where Mary Jane waited in the car as I went in to get the dry cleaning. Things went pretty well for me, but it must have been tough in the car because all of Mary Jane's liquid courage was gone by the time I got back. With this harrowing experience over and all seemingly having gone well we went really nuts and went to Target. Now Target was a significantly more tricky expedition. In order to accomplish this feat we actually needed to take the girls out of the car and into the store with us. It was a surreal experience. The building was filled with people, and none of them stared at us, none of them cared we had twins, none of them seemed to even know who we were. It could be the first time in five months we have been in a place like that.
Fresh from our Saturday victories we decided to take life by the horns and threw all caution to the wind. We went to Church. It turns out that Church, while also a building full of people, really has nothing in common with Target. Target was filled with people who didn't know us, while the Church was filled with people who did. At Target no one cared that we were there, at Church every one was shocked to see us there. Shocked in a positive way. Here we were amongst a group of people who have been feverishly praying for us for five months. It was really great to see all the love people have for our two little beautifuls. This was just a first time to Church, so we kept things simple. We really didn't want to overwhelm the girls so we didn't pass them around. We were just happy they made it through the service without any breakdowns. But it was still great to worship as a family.

I would keep blathering on for a while, but it's time to feed the girls.
How's that going?
Not so great. For some reason Emma Jane has been giving us a lot of trouble when it comes to eating, and Parker has slowed down to. If you are looking for a way of praying specifically that would be a great place to start. Thank you for your love and concern.

quickie

Parents = tired

kids = okay

Parker = better today but still watching...needs to poop

pictures = family portrait from Sunday

A word from our sponsor:

Note: Yes this post is long. But you get a prize for reading the whole thing.

In the past Mary Jane and I have always tried to stick with the "we" when writing posts. Keeps things unified and what not. These last couple days though that has been thrown out the window. That said I thought people would like to hear briefly from Mary Jane:

Hi everyone. I wanted to first say thank you to everyone for all their kind words, thoughts, and prayers over the past several days. To say that Jason and I have been living a nightmare is an understatement. However, we do have two very tiny beautiful little girls now. Mary Parker and Emma Jane were born on August 30th at 1704 and 1705. They weigh 1 lb 12 oz and 1 lb 13.5 oz respectively and were both about 13 inches long. They are in the NICU now where they are gonna spend a lonnnnnnnnng time... hopefully. I just wanted everyone to hear from me that they are doing okay and Jason and I are taking it one day at a time. It is very surreal to be the patient/parent and not the nurse.

We appreciate your continued prayers and support!
Mary Jane

All that said, let us try and answer some frequently asked questions (I've now been told that it is obvious a man is writing this because there aren't enough details...so Mary Jane and I are going to tag team this)

Who? Mary Parker Broge was born on August 30, 2008 at 5:04 PM She weighed 1 lb 12 oz and was 13 3/8 inches long.

Emma Jane Broge was born on August 30 2008 at 5:05 PM She weighed 1 lb 13.5 oz and was 13 3/8 inches long.

How? This was an emergency c-section which took place because

a) Parker's sac ruptured Thursday morning at 3:00 am

b) Parker's placenta abrupted Saturday afternoon

c) Turns out Parker had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck which, due to the lack of fluid, could have been a real problem. (are you noticing a pattern here? Parker, Parker, Parker. That girl is already in trouble. Well you better believe we are nipping that one in the bud. I have grounded her to her isolette until she learns to behave (about three months))

Expected length of stay? Two-three months. The babies were 26 weeks and one day old (14 weeks early) The original due date was December 5th. We always said we figured they would come some time in November. For now, figure that if everything goes smoothly they will come home by their due date (Dec 5).

So are we out of the woods? No. This is going to be a day by day sort of thing with many ups and downs. This is pretty much what we were worried about when her water broke. It wasn't the getting them out that would be the problem, its the keeping the healthy so they can develop. Mary Jane's new mantra is "it's a marathon not a sprint"

What are the hurtles to overcome?

Now that's a question. A question with such a long answer I don't know where to begin. A lot could happen. Every major system in their body is still developing and was not designed to be outside of the womb this early. That said God has allowed developments in science which are truly amazing, but at best, these are just trying to psyche out their bodies into thinking they are in the womb and let the body grow and develop the way it should. Ideally the only thing Emma Jane and Parker should be doing is growing, but suddenly they have to eat, breathe, regulate their temperature...etc. It's pretty stressful when your less then 2 lbs.

What could happen?

Just about anything. Frankly, they could very easily still die, or it is possible they grow up and live perfectly normal lives. There is an increased risk for all sorts of developmental problems ranging from Asthma, to Cerebral Palsy. As you can see the unknown factor is high here. This is in the hands of the Lord, and we have no choice but to take it day by day.

How are they now?

Pretty good. Last night Emma Jane was breathing really well and they were starting to think about taking her off the ventilators. Parker on the other hand was needing to go up on her vents. Today things are the exact opposite. They are now talking about taking Parker of the ventilators and Emma Jane is needing to go up.

Turns out Emma Jane has a heart murmur. This is almost certainly caused by a PDA (turns out that is not a Public Display of Affection, nor is it a Personal Digital Assistant. It stands for Patent Ductus Arteriosus.)

Short explanation of this (medical personnel reading this please forgive my attempts and making this an overly simplistic explanation)...there is a hole in the heart which is natural and helpful when developing in the womb. As a part of development it closes right after birth. Emma Jane's just hasn't closed yet. There are a number of ways to aid in this. The first two, which work a vast majority of the time, are medicines (the first is simply to give her ibuprofen...that just floors me), the third would be surgery...but we are still a long way off from that worry.

Can we visit?

Not quite yet. Mary Jane gets discharged on Wednesday. We need the rest of this week to get settled into this new pattern of life. Mary Jane is still healing and will be in some pain for a while (all those out there who have had a c-section can empathize). Your e-mails, phone calls, and posts are greatly appreciated.

Can we help?

Yes.

How?

Well, prayer is still the best thing. We still have family here this week to help. Starting next week we may have more needs. Don't worry, we'll be more then happy to accept help. We're going to be needing it for a long long time. We always figured we would need a bunch when they came home and that probably won't happen until December, but we are likely to need a bunch in the months leading up.

When can we see pictures?

Well, just because you were good and read the WHOLE post, how about right now?!

Jason holding hands with Parker right before she was wheeled out of the OR and down to the NICU

They stopped on the way out to let Mary Jane hold hands with Parker

Emma Jane peering at momma as she is being wheeled out of the OR. Note: In any of these early pictures it is easy to spot Emma Jane. She's the only one who can open her eyes. Parker's eyes are fused shut.

Parker resting. (this is before she got under the bilirubin lights)

Emma Jane resting. The head thing is to protect her eyes while she is under the biliruben lights.

Jason helping to lift Parker as they change her bedding in the isolette

Reuion...er reuNion

Life continues to go well for all "four" of us. All signs suggest the babies are doing well.

We went to Chattanooga the other weekend so Mary Jane could attend to her 10 year high school reunion. Much fun was had by all. The day started off with a picnic downtown at the park. Some people packed elaborate lunches. Others brought...Chik-Fil-A.
That evening everyone met at the Winkler's for the "official" event. We arrived early (although not as early as some) to help with the setup. It was decided by someone, no one has exactly claimed this idea, that it would be a good idea to send some of the husbands to the area where people were parking to direct traffic. There wasn't enough room to park near the Winkler home so people were given directions to a near by area to park and the plan was to shuttle them back and forth by car. And a very good plan it was too. The men were sent to do the directing and shuttling without a second thought by anyone. Jason, Paul, John, and Nelson all left along with a bag of chips and some home made salsa. It was only after they were in place that it was realized that none of them were actually members of the high school graduating class. They were just four strange men standing by the side of the road (Nelson wearing a T-Shirt with "Reuion" scrawled in sharpie on it...it was realized to late a letter was missing and an extra "N" was scrunched in amongst the jumble of letters) flagging down cars and asking if they were part of the reunion. Actually, Nelson and Paul flagged down cars pointing at Nelson's T-shirt and then pointing at the parking lot. John Calvin drove the car back and forth. While Jason walked up to people getting out of their cars and asked "Are you here for the reunion? Hi, you don't know me. My name is Jason Broge, my wife is Mary Jane Broge, she would have been Mary Jane Hendrix when you knew her. I'm sorry to say there is no boat, but someone is shuttling people to the Winkler's. If you want to wait here for just a moment he will be right back." Well...truth be told. That isn't quite what Jason would say. He actually began with, "Are you hear for the CCLS reunion? Hi, you ...." The problem with this was that it was not the ccLs reunion. It was the CCS reunion (no L), so people would look at him very strangely (which is nothing new for Jason so it took him a while to realize something was wrong). Now the mistake was easy to make and should be forgiven. Jason was (until his vicarage started a month ago) a fieldworker at Webster Gardens Lutheran Church. The school attached to this church is CCLS (Christ Community Lutheran School). Naturally Jason is used to saying CCLS and found it easy to slip into. Eventually someone took pity on him and said..."do you mean CCS?" To which Jason paused and said..."uhhh...probably"

About an hour after the party had started the boys began wondering if they had been forgotten about and made inquires as to whether they could come back to the Winklers. There is some disagreement amongst the wives as to whether they had "forgotten" their husbands...but Kim gets points for sending John back to the husbands with snacks.

After all this one might start to think the whole party was a debacle, however that would be a mistake. A great time was had by all. Mary Jane got to catch up with friends she hadn't seen in a while and Jason got to see a slice of Mary Jane's life from before he knew her (which he always likes doing). Jessica planned the party perfectly and the food was provided by the Winklers...and was fantastic. We could go on and on but...well you've put up with enough rambling already.

The next day we attended Mark and Teela's shower. This was a great chance to see a lot of Mary Jane's family all at once, as well as support Mark and Teela (something we are always happy to do)

All in all it was a wonderful weekend back in the "Noog"