Happy 1st birthday Xander

"In a matter of minutes your life can change forever. To never go back to where it once was and quickly thrust down an unknown path. Your life as you once knew it comes to a screeching halt as the rest of the world carries on around you. Hospitals become your new home, clinic visits your new vacation destination, nurses and doctors your new family. Tube feedings, administering medications, pulse oximeters, things that most would find terrifying soon become a way of life for you."

I couldn't have said the above statement made by another heart mom better myself!

16 hours after Xander was born that above statement became true 1 year ago today.

The nurses huddled around my baby, life flight taking him away, arriving at PCMC to find out what's going on, being brought into a consultation room, delicately given the news, hearing the Charlie brown teachers voice after they said heart, crying with my husband uncontrollably, seeing my father in law cry (first time) will forever be imprinted into my memory.

Your body tends to shut down and you then start walking in a fog, focusing only on that one area of life for a period of time. You gather all of this strength you NEVER knew you had and it stays with you forever. You look at life in a WHOLE different light and continue to as the days go by. We may have not been as prepared as some heart parents were before giving birth, but we definitely became just as strong as they did.

Xander has touched so many lives and has put so many smiles on so many faces during his 1st year here with us that he will forever be apart of them in some way or another.

We have witnessed a HUGE miracle and that miracle crawls around all over our home, getting into cabinets, pulling out all the Tupperware, lids to pots and pans, playing in the dogs water, and shutting himself into the bathroom.

He may have to rest to catch more energy but this now 1 year old will not let it hold him back. He has learned how to eat on his own, feed himself on his own, crawl on his own, & now learning that he can stand on his own. He has blown both of his doctors away on his ability of moving forward.

He may not be the fat baby Nick and I are so used to having, now weighing in at 15 pounds 1.2oz and 27 inches long as of today, but we already know he does things in his own timing.

Our first year with him has been a definite up hill battle but I would not change or give back the lessons we have learned, the new family we have become or the heart buddies and families we have met along our journey for anything.

I am proud to have the title of "Heart Mom" and I am proud that my heart warrior chose us as his family!

Happy 1st birthday Xander you're truly our hero!