It’s hard to believe that six years have gone by since Haven was born. Although Parker gets most of our attention these days, she is still a very special part of our family. Parker is mesmerized by her photos that flash across the computer screen as our screen saver. It probably won’t be long before he’s saying “Haven.”

To celebrate her birthday, we got six pink carnations in memory of six years.

We also read her scrapbook/life story with Parker. He has a lot of favorite books and I’m sure this will soon be one of them!

We’re posting this picture of Haven’s fifth birthday celebration… a year late. With Parker just a few weeks old at the time, I guess we have a decent excuse!

Having just moved in to a new, stove-less house with a newborn baby, we celebrated like any semi-reasonable family would… microwave chocolate brownie cake! It’s a long cry from our pie and ice cream days in the ICU, but I think she would still be honored. 🙂

Four years ago today, a beautiful, strong baby was born to us. We remember how healthy she looked when she was first born and greeted us with a resounding cry. Haven is in our hearts and minds every day. From the bookcase in our living room full of Haven memorabilia to the pictures on our desks at work, the memories and stories are a constant reminder of the joy she brought to our lives.

Thank you for visiting Haven’s site on the anniversary of her passing. It’s hard to believe that another year has gone by without her and that she still fills all our hearts with so much joy. Thank you for helping to keep her memory alive by sharing your memories and stories with us. Haven is still a part of our lives every day… and I’m sure she still crosses your minds from time to time as well 🙂

As we all cherish our memories of Haven on this special day, enjoy this video of one of Haven’s many story times. Enjoy!

Sorry for the delay!  The site should be fully functional now (mostly).  For those of you who have been awaiting new content, we promise a new video will be available for Haven’s birthday.  We will also be adding information to the new links that you see on the bottom left and right sides of the screen.  Stay tuned…  Thanks again for your patience and your vigilance.  It’s nice to know that people are still looking in on Haven now and again.

Haven had a restful day today.  They increased her feeding amount.  She’s now up to 3 mL per hour.  Still a long way to go, obviously, but she seems to be tolerating them well.  Unfortunately, she continues to retain fluid in her tissues and the cause remains unknown.  Since she is not putting out as much as she is getting in, she is getting bigger and bigger, again.  Read the rest of this entry »

Haven had a good day today.  We’re still in a bit of a holding pattern until Monday in order to give her chest a chance to dry up.  So, we’re hoping Haven will work on shedding some extra onboard fluids this weekend.  The nurse was able to talk Mom & Dad into taking a little walk this afternoon.  The weather was nice outside.  We are looking forward to spring time and being able to someday take Haven along with us. 

Some of you have been experiencing technical difficulties today viewing HavensHeart.net. There was a glitch in the blog which has since been remedied. Unfortunately, Jeremey and Alison were not able to post the news today because of the downtime.

Expect a post tomorrow about the goings on of today including Havens surgery (which turned out well).

Thank you for your diligence in checking the site,

Uncle Justin

Haven is remaining steady through this crucial time in her recovery from yesterday’s procedures.  As is normal with such surgeries, she has been getting lots of fluids in her body, but her body has not been able to keep up with getting rid of those fluids.  So, she is getting a bit more puffy again.  Don’t worry, she’s not nearly as puffy as she was in December while she was on ECMO, but she is puffy.  It will be several days before her body will be able to catch up and start to move the fluid out.  She still is on a good dose of pain medication, but she has opened her eyes a couple of times as the sedation has been wearing off.  Read the rest of this entry »