Weekend Update

Things are still going very well here at the Petska Homestead.

Being that it is a Saturday and I am home, Mommy is getting a much needed day off, and was able to leave the house and get some things done today.

Braden has been behaving, but a little lazy with his eating. It is definitely nothing to worry about at this time though. He has been very awake and alert when he is usually asleep during the day. He has started cooing a little and doing more smiling too.

On Tues. the people from the county's 0-3 development program are coming over to evaluate him and see if he needs any additional help to get him caught up to where a 2 month old should be. We know and expect him to be behind in some areas, especially neck strength, seems he has had literally zero belly time due to his incision. So we are looking forward to this, to see where he stands, so we can get to work on getting him up to speed with other 2 month olds.

In addition to an update I would like to acknowledge and thank all of my students, colleagues, members of Multimedia Journalism classes, and the HEA for their fundraising efforts and donations.

We would also like to thank the Richmond-Burton NHS, students, and staff at RBCHS who generousley contributed a donation in Braden's honor. We were overwhelmed with emotion when the check was presented to us last night. This will definitely help us out with Braden's medical expenses.

And finally...(this is a long blog today) we keep taking steps towards organizing our charity. Steph's cousin Terri is helping us with this process. We are going to call the charity "The Heart of Gold Charity" or something close to that. Our main focus of this will be to provide help for families in our same situation that may not have the same resources or support that we have received. We will also use the money to pay for Braden's medical bills and make donations to organizations that have helped us (Herma Heart Center, Ronald McDonald House, etc). Down the road, we would also like to set up scholarships for students that plan to go on to college to become nurses or doctors. We know that many of you have generously offered to lend a helping hand with our situation. Some of you have already helped us, and we thank you. The charity will be set up, so that anyone who is interested in contributing to the above causes can do so.

Thanks for checking in,

Rich and Steph