365 days until Double Digits

Jadon woke up early thanks to the end of Daylight Savings. He called Ember right away to ask when they would be here so that he could get started with the birthday festivities. Ember, Grandma and Kalina arrived around 9 AM with one final birthday present from us. We enjoyed a lunch with Grandma Sladek of homemade pizza before she needed to head to the airport to go home. We were so thankful that she was able to help us over the past week. Next to arrive is Uncle Frank (Ember's brother) tomorrow.

Jadon's birthday party was a bit more chaotic than we anticipated. The location worked out perfectly, but there were lots of energetic kids to keep Jadon entertained. Around 45 minutes after the first guests arrived, Jadon decided to show off in his walker. He was standing in the walker for around an hour and running up and down the hallway. Kalina was also ecstatic to have so many people to chase and entertain. She gave herself a bit of a rug burn from scooting around on her bottom so much. Jadon wanted to have a few activities planned so we set up a bean bag toss station, a bookmark making area, and a game from Jadon's imagination called "Pin the Screws on Jadon's Back", which is played like Pin the Tail on the Donkey. Jadon had a great time and was surrounded by friends for three solid hours. Thanks to all of you who were able to make it.

Our friends from Mount Vernon, the Hamminghs, joined us for dinner. They brought Jadon a pizza from Uncle Peteza's for his pre-op meal tonight. He gobbled it down in no time. The Hamminghs also brought a light saber for Jadon bringing his total to 3 full size and 2 mini's. I see many light saber battles in our future with that many weapons lying around our house. Jedi Jadon got started tonight with a battle with Jack, Josh, and Kalina.

It was a blessing to have everything going on today to keep Jadon's mind off tomorrow. We continue to marvel at how calm he seems even now that the last friends have left and it is just the two boys hanging out. He was really excited tonight to learn that he could borrow the first two season of Star Wars Clone Wars on DVD from the Hamminghs because he is looking forward to having lots of time to watch TV over the next week. He shows no evidence that the painful recovery from back surgery is troubling him.

Please be praying tomorrow for a successful surgery and a speedy and complete recovery. Please pray also for rest for Ember. She left the hospital with a mini-van full of the items Jadon and Kalina have accumulated here over the past month. She expects to be up until midnight or later unpacking and organizing everything. We expect an early start tomorrow with the surgery scheduled to begin at 8:30. We will post updates a frequently as we can over the next few days.