OOPS! I forgot to alert you all to the last posting through the carepage site. So, now it's a belated wish.

Gavin has had quite a bad cough/cold, but has managed to stay off oxygen and out of the hospital! Yay Gavin! This may be a first for him! Otherwise he's doing well for Gavin. :)

We received an e-mail from the Down syndrome association yesterday. It said that they were looking for an adoption family for a baby that is due to be born in April. I don't have many facts, except that it's a boy who has Down syndrome and is from the New York area. If you know of anyone interested let me know. The mom is single and the dad wants her to abort, but she hopes to find a family for him.

Have a great day!

Love, Alicia and Family

Blessed Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving to all of you! We have so much to be thankful for this year! We are thankful for all of the support we've received from so many of you! We are thankful for our family! We are thankful for our precious children! We are thankful that Gavin is not in the hospital on this special day! Most importantly, we are thankful for the knowledge of God and all His love for us! May all of you have a wonderful day and remember to be thankful for all you have!

Love, The VW'S

It has been a quiet week this week! I'm thankful for this! Last week Gavin had 4 appointments, which included a blood draw, 3 shots and a scope put down his nose! I felt so bad for the little fella! He handled it all quite well, but I'm sure he's thankful for the quiet week as well! We are trying our hardest to keep him healthy!!! All of us have had some type of cold over the last week or so, except him. I pray we can keep it this way! Because you know how well he tolerates an illness! We've been keeping away from him if we are sick, except me of course. I just wash my hands a lot and don't hug and kiss him as much. :( We have also decided to not take him anywhere anymore except for doctor visits. We have not taken him out much in his life, but now even less. Hopefully this will keep him out of the hospital for awhile! One of his appointments last week was with an ENT. I was actually hoping that the doctor would find something wrong with his adnoids or something because he breathes quite loudly and snores when he sleeps sometimes. It was a let down when he told me that his adnoids looked fairly normal and the only thing wrong was that his tongue was slightly enlarged and his palate was small and narrow. This means we live with the loud breathing until he hopefully grows out of it. The doctor said growing usually helps the situation. Otherwise Gavin is doing well for Gavin!

Caleb has been telling us over the last few months that he wants to be a physical therapist, "Like Daddy." Then here is a conversation I had with him recently: "I decided I want to be a physical therapist AND a pastor." I told him, "That would be great! What made you decide to be a pastor?" This is what he told me: "Then I could talk in church! Now I have to just sit and be quiet!" Figures! The boy can NOT keep quiet! Oh well, at least he's clever enough to find a solution to 'his problem'! God has blessed us with this comic relief!

We hope all of you have a wonderful Thanksgiving next week! We are thankful for all of you and so much more!

Love, Alicia and Family

Gavin continues to do well, except he has been having seizures again. :( He has been totally off the oxygen for the last couple of days. This makes everyone happy! Gavin doesn't have to try to pull it off, mom and dad don't have to constantly try to keep it on, we don't have to lug the tank around and Jacob worries less about him when he doesn't see the tube on Gavin's face! Let's hope and pray that he can stay off of it!

As you may see, I've posted another photo show. The boys are sooo tired of me coming at them with a camera! I keep telling them that they'll appreciate it someday! There are a few new pictures on Gavin's carepage site too.

Have a beautiful Fall day! Thanks for your continued prayers!

Love, Alicia and Family

Gavin had a great day yesterday! He was finally able to go through the day without oxygen on. His O2 Sats stayed high enough to keep him off all day, but we put it back on through the night. We don't want to rush him. I'm thinking that after he had pneumonia we took him off the O2 too fast. His Sats were good, but maybe he just needed more time, which could have been the reason he became sick easier this time around. I don't know about this for sure, but it's worth a try! He was also more like himself yesterday. He was awake a lot more and seemed happy and more alert. Jacob kept saying how happy Gavin looked. So, it was a great day!

I also watched a show about a guy with Down syndrome. It was very heart warming! One of the things it said was that those like Gavin weren't put on earth to learn. They were put on earth to teach! How true this is! This made me cry and feel a whole lot better about the news we received recently! Gavin may never talk or walk, but I bet he will teach us more than any of our other children do! I know that he's taught us more in his short life than I ever could have hoped to know! He has a purpose! This I know for sure! I also came to a realization that maybe our family are the lucky ones! We will have it harder with all the care that we will have to give to Gavin and we may not be like the 'norm', but who says that we aren't actually more blessed by this situation? Somedays I feel overwhelmed and start taking pity on myself. I also see pity on other's faces towards us. I told my friend that I don't want pity! This weekend I started thinking that someday we may actually have pity on those who didn't get the chance to have someone like Gavin in their lives! We may say, "We're so sorry you don't have this light in your lives! We feel so sorry for you." Just because we aren't like most families doesn't mean we are the ones who weren't blessed with a easy and 'good' life! I'm starting to see a different side of this! Now I feel like we have been more blessed by Gavin and this opportunity to learn and really feel God's love a blessings than many others! Anyway, Not to brag or anything! :) I just wanted to share my turn around with you.

Also, I hate to even mention this because it seems many times I do mention something good it only gets worse, but Gavin hasn't had a seizure that we can see for a couple of days! This may not seem like a big deal, but he had been havin 2-3 a day that we could see visually! I am so uplifted by this! Thankyou Lord!!! Hopefully we are on our way to seizure free days! Please continue to pray for this!

One more thing I'd like to mention is something Caleb said to me recently. I'm a little concerned about this one! He told me that "God is going to put two babies inside you mom! A boy and a girl. We are going to name them Jr. and Sally." Now, I know that children say this stuff, but the reason I'm worried is because the day after I found out I was pregnant with Gavin, Caleb said to me, "Mom there is a baby in your belly right now." I hadn't even told Joel yet because I was going to surprise him, so there is no way he heard this somewhere! So how did he know this?! Anyway, just thought I'd share this with you and ask that you pray this does not come true!!! I really would love to have more children, believe it or not! But, I really don't want to be pregnant again and especially not with twins!!!

Have a great day! Thanks for your continued prayers and support! We really appreciated all of your comments, cards and thoughtfulness after my last update! They really helped us get through some tough days! God has blessed us with you!

Love, Alicia and Family