Happy Birthday Little Man!!!

This week was the best week of our lives. We celebrated LJ's first birthday!!! We had so much to be grateful for. We could not believe how fast time has gone by, and could not help but remember that only a year ago we were at the hospital praying for our little guy to live and to do well. Today that is all in the past, we have a healthy little boy that is full of energy and that definitely keeps us on our toes!!!

We are very happy because we have been able to finally see lots of progress in LJ's eating. We are down to three bottles a day via g-tube, and the rest he takes by mouth, I think he is now taking 50% of his feed orally. I have been very strict in his eating habits, and this has caused a large amount of stress on the both the baby and myself, but after four long weeks of struggling, crying, and lots and lots of messes, we are finally heading towards the end of the baby's g-tube feeding!!!!

We had a small birthday party. There were just a few kids, but we had a pinata, and cake, and celebrated it like we do back home, and the best part of it we were here at home. We had my mom and sister come from the States, and also Jorge's mom, dad and his brother Daniel, with his girlfriend Fabiana!!! We had great grandmothers, and great uncles and aunts, cousins, many many family members celebrating with us the miracle of life.

On Sunday, Jorge had his first Halloween. We dressed him up like a monkey. He was not thrilled with the outfit, but he looked just so cute. We are in Maracaibo, the temperature here is very very warm, so I just put him in his suit for pictures at home, and then took it off. I thought we would be either in Colombia or in Houston for this, and thought that the weather would be cold, so bought a very warm costume. At least I was able to get some pictures!!!!!

We also realized that on Friday, it had been a year since we baptized the baby at the hospital, and that for the first time we were able to take a picture of the baby with his godparents. Since the baby had his first surgery 5 days after his birth we had to do a quick baptism ceremony, and the godparents were not able to come, since the baby arrived 9 weeks early!!!!!!!!

We have been lucky enough to find helpful hands along the way, to make Jorge's recovery fast and as easy as possible on us. We know he will not remember any of this, and we are grateful for that, but for us, even when we know it could have been a lot worst than it is, sometimes it seems like we cannot take it anymore, and then just like that something amazing happens, and it seems like its a breath of fresh air to help us keep on going!!!!!

We still have no idea as of when we will be returning to Houston, but we sure miss it!!!