Olivia spent all of November in the hospitial after getting a viral infection in her lungs but, shes home now and we are enjoying our first Christmas together. Merry Christmas to all of our friends on MMT.

Merry Christmas Carlos! She's beautiful, and congratulations.

Merry Christmas...May God bless you and your family, and help give you guys the peace you deserve. ! I came across this quote today, so I thought I would share it...

No, God knew before you were born that you would be here in this moment. He planned to get your attention for just a few seconds so he could say this to you:
“I’ve seen every hurt in your life, and I’ve never stopped loving you. You matter to me. I love you more than you will ever know. I made you to love you, and I’ve been waiting for you to love me back.”

God is saying, “I want the rest of your life to be the best of your life. I’m with you, and I’m for you. I want to save you from your past. I want to save you for the purpose for which I made you. And I want to save you by my grace. If you’ll let me do that, I will give you peace with me, peace of me, and peace with other people. But you have to open the door and receive the Christmas gift.”

Very true, thanks man

Dang I Love them photo's !!!! The second one .... where Mom is kissin' Olivia ..... that is pure beauty in it's true'est form .... Thanks fo sharin' ..... May God Bless ya'll in the ways only He can provide ....

Yeah Brooks they came out nice. Thanks man

Glad to see things looking up man, Hope this new year is good to your family.

She is a very beautiful baby girl, I am glad to hear things are better for Olivia. She will remain in my prayers and i wish you and yours the best.

Just an update guys, Olivia will be one on March 6th. I dont know where the time went, hard to believe she has only spent about three months of that year at home with us. If any of you are in our area on 24 march you are more than welcome to come celebrate with us. That goes for you to Woodduck224 and Brooks! There will be a jumper for the kids so bring em with you. This pic is from yesterday. Olivias first cupcake, with a little help from Jaxson. Thanks again for the prayers.

Really appreciate the invite carlos will see if we can make it. I am glad to see all is well. I don't think my lil one is quite big enough to jump yet. I will bring him along for the visit if we can make it thanks again bud.

just seeing this post for the first time pal,,,

well im happy that all is well and you and your wife have one beautiful little girl! God bless you guys...

Beautiful Girl she is !!!!

BigHugs from Brooks !!!!

Well Olivia started having issues thursday night and friday morning they admitted her to the lake which caused us to have to cancel her party on saturday. Shes still fighting a fever and her airway is a little raw but at least by now we are better at recongnizing the issues and how to treat. Hopefully she wont have to be hear too long if they arent having to try and figure everything out. Our apologies too anyone that came by due to us not getting word to you. Thank you for your thoughts

Prayers for you and family. I hope she pulls through with flying colors. Just remember to keep God first and keep the faith bro. Absolutely is breaking my heart to see this baby goes through this now. I had ups and downs and hospital stays with my first one, and it will just run you down, but ya gotta keep fighting. Tell Momma were all thinking of her too, and give that sweet baby a kiss for me, and keep us updated.

Brandon

Hey guys, Unfortunately it has been a while since I have been on here. We havent been on the water this year so I have not been playing with the boat. It is that time of the year where we look back and think of all we have to be thankful for. That being said I wanted to take a minute and share a couple of recent pictures of Olivia with those of you who kept us in your prayers and thoughts. Olivia weighed in at just over nineteen pounds this past Wednesday and we are looking forward to breaking the twenty pound barrier. We have an appointment on the 14th and hope to hear some good news about her airway and maybe being able to remove her trach. Either way I am pleased to say she has not let anything hold her back, shes wide open all day long. One of the things I enjoy most these days is watching how she is fascinated by the smallest things. There have been ups and down but in the end we were truley blessed. I hope you and your families are well and that you all have a Merry Christmas. Thank you

Great !!!

Thanks fo the up-date and please give her a hug fo me !!!!

That's great Carlos. We will continue to pray for y'all that all goes well thanks for the update. Happy hollidays to u and ur family!

I'm just running across this thread. I'm glad things turned out good for you and your family. Being a parent it brings tears to my eyes, and I admire you and your familys strength to handle the situation the man up above put on you all. God bless and happy holidays

Just a quick hello from us. If yall havent heard Our Lady of the Lake is doing a radiothon with 96.1 so if youre able take some time and listen to some of the stories and hug your babies tight. Olivia had to have surgery Tuesday so we are here and hope to go home tomorrow. The link is to our interview from this morning.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WurR-WGW ... 1UOz4cu8hg

Kids are one of God's greatest gifts in this ol' world. I am surrounded by girls and one little boy who got on his very first duck hunt this year.

You will be blessed.

II Timothy 1:7 (KJV)

I am just reading this thread and had tears in my eyes. We have a 15 month old little girl and I can't imagine what you and your wife have gone through. I am sorry about your loss and hope that Olivia continues to get better every day. God works in mysterious ways sometimes but always trust in him and he will take care of you. Prayers sent your way.

Carlos ... You Rock !!! Yore wife Rocks !!! Oliva Rocks !!!!


Ya'lls must be feedin' that girl wiggle worms !!!!!


Thanks fo the update ma man ....

Carlos, for some reason this story and your little girl popped in my mind on the way to work this morning. how is everything going? I really hope yall are doing well. she's really a beautiful little girl!

Hey man, Thanks for checking in on us. I havent been on here in forever, just dont have the time. Between work, school, my gun business, and the family I stay snowed. She is doing great, spoiled rotten and pig headed. We have been going to Childrens in Nola twice a week for the last couple of months to have her airway dialated in preperation to have her trach removed. Next week we do a sleep study where she has to sleep with her airway capped and monitored. If the data from that comes back good they will let us take the trach out. After that we will still have her feed port in her belly but we will be closer. The last couple of weeks she has actually been eating by mouth and thats a big step for her. Once she gets trach out we are thinking she will be able to taste more and will eat even better. We will deffinately be throwing a party afterwards you can bet on that. Its amazing how far she has come, we are very thankful. Christy participated in the March of Dimes walkathon this year and raised over a thousand dollars for them and she has gone to Womans to talk to new parents who are now going through what we had to. The March of Dimes helped us out with some little things while we were in the hospital. We had good insurance so we were and continue to be lucky there but sometimes those little things you arent prepared for can mean a whole lot. I know Olivia has inspired us and so many others so we hope seeing her and hearing her story gives them strength. We hope all of you are doing well and again thank you for keeping us in your thoughts. I promise to leave an update soon. Here are some recent photos.

Great news. You have a beautiful baby girl. Hope all goes well with the next few doctor visits.

Thats awesome man. She looks great and good for her mom to help by talking to parents who are now where ya'll were. My hats off to you and your family, i think this is an amazing story. I hope everything continues to improve.

Cant believe I'm just now seeing this,what a wonderful gift!my thoughts and prayers are with you and your family. This has been one of the best threads I've read on here it brought tears to my eyes.I wish yall all the best!!

Hello all, Once again Im a little behind on updating you. We are at Our Lady of the Lake in Baton Rouge and Olivia just had her Trach removed. Needless to say we are all very excited and extremely thankful. Christy is walking her through the halls now and showing her off. Olivia was a little nervous at first but I think she is adjusting well. She has pulled her Trach out twice on me in the past which was not a good experience for either of us. Im guessing she remembers some of that. She has to stay overnight to be monitored and if she does well will go home in the morning to enjoy the rest of her life Trach free! The next step is to work on her eating habits so we can get rid of her G-Tube (feeding port). Thanks again for everything and I look forward to sharing more good news. It has been a very long and rigorous journey but looking back from where we are now it almost seems like it was just a bad dream. Nice to finally have tears of joy for my baby girl

Very awesome news!! Congratulations! That has to be very exciting for yall! Thanks for the update!

Great news carlos! Thanks for the updates.

Glad to see,still in our thoughts and prayers

Great to hear!

This is an awesome story. Best wishes for you and your family.

Hey Guys, Seems Im never on here as much as I want to be these days, time truly slips through our fingers. The last you hear from me my little family was doing great. A lot has happened since then both good and bad. As you know Olivia had her teach removed in September of last year and was doing great. Unfortunately we found ourselves in the ER on Thanksgiving day and were admitted to the hospital the following Monday after steroids failed to knock at the virus. She had contracted a form of viral RSV and was unable to fight it off. The next couple of hours she continued to take a turn for the worse and before we knew it she had to be intubated to keep her alive. The virus caused her lungs to fill with fluids and collapse and she required a high amount of air pressure in order to keep them open. Due to the hole in her airway not being completely closed they were unable to maintain the amount of pressure required to keep her lungs open and functioning. The DRs. at Our Lady of The Lake tried several things to resolve the issue but it seemed Olivia kept sliding back and we were losing her. During the worst of it they had to perform chest compressions to bring her back and Im not sure I can put that experience into words. Some of you know I have been in the military for well over 20 years now and I don't claim to be the "tough guy" but I like to think Im able to take control when I need to. I always imagined myself to be the one who would step forward when the time arose and be there for my daughter when she needed me. However in that moment I felt powerless and and could do nothing but look on as others did whatever they could to my daughter with us. I am unsure how long this went on but it felt like an eternity but finally she leveled out. Things continued on this way for a few days before finally one of the Drs. told us they he felt there was nothing else they could do for her and we needed to consider having her moved to another facility where they were better equipped to provide the care and procedures she required. Whats to think about right? Well Childrens in Nola refused to take her because they felt she was too critical and basically didn't want her to pass in their hands. On top of that anywhere else was too far to travel to and they felt she wouldn't last to get there. So in the end we had to stick it out with OLOL and just hope for the best. It was hard on all of us to see her this way when just days before she was up and running all over the yard finally free of the tracy that had held her back from so much. Now she's laying here with at least four IV lines on each side of her chest and an additional four lines in each side of her groin. During this time so many people came and visited and prayed I couldn't tell you how many I knew and how many I didn't know. During the incident where they were having to give her chest compressions the staff tried to escort us off the floor and well I don't have to tell you how they went over and they let it be. Anyway I remember seeing a father of another child a few beds down just standing out in the middle of the floor and staring at us. For just the briefest of seconds I wanted to run down and just smash his face in. Later after that family had been sent home that same father sent their pastor to come and check on us and pray over Olivia, very humbling. Moving forward Olivia finally stabilized but required many medications to keep her paralyzed and to fight the infection. I lost track of all that she was on but some of the strongest was Methadone, Adavan, and a form of Viagra for her heart. She finally recovered and sometime in January we were all able to go home together. Due to her her being on so many meds as well as the amount of meds she had to go through a weening phase and of course withdrawals. I do not know which was hard for us, standing by helpless while she was fighting for her life and having to hold her down all hours of the night while she thrashed and bit because she was fending for pain meds. She also had to have her teach put back in because having been intubated for so long she had airway issues again. Due to being immobilized for so long she also had to go through extensive therapy to regain her muscle control. Well its June now and she has had her teach out again for over a month. We have plans to go shopping for school uniforms as she is to start going to class for the upcoming year. She is running all over the house, talking some, and even eating a little. She still gets fed by tube for the most part but she's getting there. Oh she is also off those pain meds, thank God. Christy and I have attended a couple of fund raisers for OLOL to help raise money for the new children's hospital. Olivia was even on TV for the Miss USA competition. I shared a bit of her store on 96.1 recently, not something I enjoy doing but its hard to say no when they have done so much for all of us. We are looking forward to Olivia starting school and are trying to plan a trip to Disney World for her, that girl loves her some Minie Mouse. Anyway I am thankful for being able to share our story with y'all, I do not do this anywhere else so its nice to log in and see that its still here. Who knows maybe one day she will login herself and be able to read her entire story from day one when i first found out she was going to become a part of our lives. I sincerely hope that in some way her story touches you and allows you to feel the joy that we are so fortunate know. Thank each and every one of you for being a part of our story.

Recent photo

Tough little girl you got man.

Awesome!!!! I have to admit, while reading your lengthy post I was expecting the worst and was relieved when I got to the end.

Very happy to hear she stayed strong and made it through all the trials late last year. I hope and pray that she continues to improve. Thanks again for sharing, prayers sent. She's beautiful!


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