One Year Ago...

Our little boy became very sick
We sent him to surgery to repair a diagnoses of Intussusception
We thought the thought of 4 days in the hospital was an eternity
We watched our baby grow weaker as the night progressed
We were on our way to Children's Hospital via Ambulance
We watched our baby stop breathing as we approached Children's
We watched our baby go back to surgery...again, and again...
We watched the miracle of what we see today in our healthy, happy boy unfold before our eyes.

"Be still in the presence of the lord and wait patiently for him to act."
Psalm 37:7

Thank you to everyone for praying for our boy. As you can see, our little miracle is doing great!

Just a Boy at Heart.

Sorry for the delay on updating the blog. But as you can see from the video below Kade keeps us busy laughing as he discovers adventures and thrills around every corner. These days we spend most of our time chasing after him while finds new things to climb on and get into. He is just a boy at heart.

A few weeks ago we visited the UNL Stadium for a wonderful tour and lunch put on by UNL Dance Marathon. Dance Marathon is a wonderful group of University of Nebraska students that raise money for the Omaha Children's Hospital. During our time at Children’s we were approached by one our daycare teachers about Dance Marathon. She told us that she had been following the blog and was involved with a group of students that raised money for the hospital by dancing for 12 hours straight. After all we had seen and been through at Children’s Hospital we knew that we wanted to get involved and give back. UNL Dance Marathon works with families that have spent time at Children’s to help the UNL students understand the need and reasons behind the fundraiser. Back in October of last year we were paired with 2 Family Representatives that got to know us better and help us in the process. The UNL tour was an great opportunity to talk to other families that have spent time at Children’s and hear amazing stories of what wonderful things they can do. If you would like to know more or get involved you can visit the UNL Dance Marathon website here.

http://dm.unl.edu

The dancing starts on February 19 at 8p.m. and goes till 8a.m. That night we will get to share our story with a very large group of UNL students that will be dancing for 12 hours straight at the Union Ballroom all to raise money for a great cause.


God's Blessings

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!

Dear Family and Friends,

This past year has given us the chance to learn a lot about ourselves, our family and our faith. Everyday gives us more reason to be thankful than the day before. Daily, we think of all of those who touched our lives in some way this past year, be it and old acquaintance, a new friend or our loving family. Our hope for the next year is to touch your lives in the same way you have touched ours in our time of need.

We want to express our family’s gratitude to all of you. Our family, friends and co-workers were such a blessing this past summer while Kade was ill. We could not have gotten through our terrifying ordeal without all of you, and we are eternally grateful for you all.

To the wonderful staff at Children’s Hospital, thank you for saving our son’s life. Your passion, skills and knowledge came through everyday, and we knew that you were doing all that you could to make sure that Kade came home again. Thank you for being honest with us during those times of uncertainty, and including us in decisions. You all will always hold a special place in our hearts.

To the Rainbow house for giving us a home away from home, and for providing us with a meal, a hug or a prayer when we needed it most. Hanna remembers her books from the cart, and the playground where she didn’t get much time to play. Thank you for being there for us.

To Dr. Russell and Complete Children’s Health staff, thank you for being so dedicated to our family. Your gifts, visits, and phone calls showed us that you saw Kade as more than a patient. We look forward to the coming years with you as our physician. We also want to extend a thank you to all of the wonderful therapists at Madonna for their work with Kade.

As 2010 approaches, we enjoy watching both Hanna and Kade thrive. Hanna is busy growing into a young lady. She is definitely her own person! She is already excited to be turning 5 in April, and starting Kindergarten in the fall.

Kade is now 16 months and healthy as can be! You would never know that he was so sick unless you see his scars. He is walking, eating well, babbling, and developing on track like the rest of his peers. He is beginning to hold his own when Hanna “loves” him a little too hard or just plain teases him. He has even instigated a couple spats when Hanna has something he wants!

In closing, we want to say thank you again for everyone’s generosity, and prayers for our family. We hope that you feel as blessed as we do, as we celebrate our Lord and Savior’s birth, and in the coming days of 2010.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year,

Troy, Allison, Hanna and Kade Loseke

Walking

Kade is offically walking! He is so cute with his new found freedom. He continues to eat well, and is on a good growing curve. He is also starting to talk a little, mostly saying Da-da and Ma-ma, both of which are beautiful sounds to Troy and I. Attached is a photo of Kade chillin' at his uncle lodge. He was quite relaxed until Hanna came and pounced on him :-)

Well Bust My Buttons...

Kade no longer has a button!! Yes, we have a button-less boy. The surgeon removed it yesterday and all is going well. It is only covered with some gauze and a Looney Toon band-aid. If by chance the skin doesn't close up by Monday, we will have to go in and have them place a stitch in. It is not leaking like they said it might so we are thankful that!
Kade still is hesitant about walking. He will take steps, but then drops down and crawls. He does have bruises to show is willingness to climb though. He is always so proud when he reaches the top of whatever he is conquering!
We had fun over Halloween, Kade was Roo from Winnie the Pooh and Hanna was a bride. We attended a gathering at the Omaha Children's museum that was hosted by a group called Dance Marathon. It is a group of college kids that have a 12 hour dance marathon for Children's hospital. It was fun to play and meet other families and hear their stories. The event will be held on February 19th, but the have gatherings every other month. Our favorite Surgery resident, Dr. Worth met us at the museum and she was so happy to see how well Kade was doing. We are thankful that our encounters with Surgeons are strictly social these days!!
Keep checking on us and I will try to post every now and then!
Thanks again for all your prayers!

Routine

Sorry for not posting for a while. I have been back to work full time for the past couple of weeks, and we are adjusting to our old routine, which we are so thankful for! Kade is doing exceptionally well with eatting! So well that we have not had to use the feeding tube at all this week. The surgeon said that if we do not use it for 3 weeks, we can take it out! Last week we did have to go back up to Children's to have the surgeon look at the area around the button. Troy and I noticed it was hard and something was almost poking through the skin. Turns out it was a stitch that had come undone, and it was nothing to worry about it would eventually dissolve. The surgeon stated that if we saw something blue poke through the skin we could just trim it...I said that we would just come back for him to do the trimming!! So far nothing has poked through and the area is getting softer.
Hanna was not happy when we pulled into the garage at Children's. The first words out of here mouth were "What are we doing here!?" I explained that they wanted to look at Kade's button and that we were ALL going home together TODAY! She accepted that and we were off. She didn't skip a beat when it came to the elevator, and was all over the Drs and nurses when we stopped by the PICU to visit. Everyone was so excited to see how well Kade was doing, and Dr. Trempher got a snapshot with his iphone.
Kade is doing very well at daycare, and Hanna just loves him to pieces every chance she gets. Kade has taken a couple of steps for us, but still perfers to crawl.
I will try to post weekly, but as the saying goes, no news is good news!
Thanks for checking on us!

October 5

Kade is still doing great with his eating! He struggled with drinking a little, but has overcome his initial reaction to automatically spitting it out. He loves to feed himself, but has also become more accepting of being spoon fed, which really increases our food options! He was eating a lot of peaches, bananas and puffs for a couple days until I was able to feed him regular baby food with a spoon. We are working on decreasing the need for tube feeding during the day, which allow for more freedom to move around.
Speaking of moving around, Kade has taken a couple steps!! He is definitely getting brave, and he has the bumps and bruises to prove it! He has a lot of friends as daycare that are walking, so I hope that helps encourage him.
Kade will start going to daycare 3 full days a week. I am back at work and enjoying getting back to our regular routine. Hanna is really happy to have here brother back at "Hearts" with her. Their classes are outside at the same time, so they get a chance to interact with each other.
We are looking forward to a month without Dr appointments! Our next visits will be in November when we see the surgeon for our followup, and Dr. Russell for Kade's 15 month appointment. Thank you for continuing to check on Kade's progress!