The Swarrell Life

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After last night's long post, I thought I might lighten things up with a slightly shorter post with a little bit of humor injected for good measure. I know I could use a little humor today. It's late. Too late to be blogging, by the way, since Trinity could pull an all-nighter on us at any given time. Last night Autumn went to a potluck with a bunch of gals from Young Life . That meant that Trinity and I had the evening together. We had a great time standing up and playing with her new Leap Frog Learn and Play Table . I figure that if I link to it, maybe they'll give me some money. But I digress. So there we were, just having a great time. I figured that I better take some photos of the little tyke pulling herself to a standing position. The following photo is one of the first shots of the night. I am still trying to decide if she is a) surprised, b) pooping, or c) both. You decide! Look ma, one-handed! Actually, that phrase is usually followed by a hospital visit. After s...

I hope you've set aside some time today, because there are A LOT of photos. I think there are at least a dozen. It's been a busy few days, so there's quite a bit to update. Trinity is still doing really well, she is certainly back to old habits. MOST are cute. Her eyesight remains a big question mark and we are past the 5 week mark, so we are starting to wonder if it will ever come back. We have follow-up appointments this week with the neurologist and ophthalmologist. Say that 5 times fast. We have an appointment in November at OHSU in Portland. It's never a bad idea to get a second opinion, so that's what we'll do. We continue to take it day by day, although I don't know that there is really any other way to do it. We continue to pray for Trinity's eyesight to be returned, mainly because it would give her the full life we would want for her. I know our God can do that. I just hope that's in His plan. I know it would be in mine. We are really enjoyi...

I know it's been a few days since the last Trinity update, but it's been a little busy around here. I was in Boise for a couple of days for work training and I was a little too tired last night to update the blog. Can I say that we have been the recipients of a TON of good will? Wow, the great support just keeps coming in, day after day. The e-mail, prayers, notes and cards are so awesome, it's hard to describe. The greatest though, are the kids. I get stories frequently about kids who are 5 or 6 that are praying for Trinity. A friend of mine told me her daughter reminds her, "don't forget to pray for the baby!" Another relates the prayers of her 5 year old son, how they maker her cry. It makes me cry just writing about it. We received a gift bag at church the other day from a family. Inside was a cute little bear that a little girl named Emma had bought for Trinity with her merit points at school. That's amazing. Here's the note that came with the bea...

I feel more and more that there is no way that I could have endured Trinity's illness by myself. I know myself well enough to realize that I would have spent way too much time feeling sorry for myself. But I am truly blessed to know that there are so many people in my life that are there when I need them. Sometimes I don't even know that I need them. I run into these people every single day. I probably have needed them for a long time, but lately it has simply been more obvious. I suppose that my faith operates in a similar manner, there are always things and people I need, but I am not always paying attention enough to realize I need it at all. I was talking to a friend of mine today who commented that Autumn and I had been on a bit of a faith journey throughout this process. I would agree, but not in the way that you might be thinking. I will admit that my faith in God has increased greatly through this process because he has proved in a way that is very important to me that ...

I have been sitting here for about 30 minutes trying to figure out a good title for this post. It's 11pm and I am getting nowhere. Instead, I'll write and hope that a title appears all by itself! Baker City has a Fall Festival every year with events of all sorts. Our favorite is the Taste of Baker, where you buy tokens and use the tokens to sample food from local vendors. We like to eat, so this one works out well. We packed Trinity up and met with Autumn's parents downtown, where we strolled up and down the street, sampling yummy food. We met quite a few folks who were wondering how Trinity is doing. Here she is sampling a teething ring. This one didn't cost any tokens. I love free samples! Yummy teething ring, and a cute black sock to boot! Lee and Lorna were loving the ribs! Muh girls, so stinking cute! Before we get to the random cuteness, let me first tell you how good Trinity did. She was out with us for over two hours, with nary a fuss! That's pretty close t...

It is so nice knowing that I don't have to go through this alone. My wife has been the BOMB throughout this entire escapade. I say escapade because it has been a trip from reality. We spent a week and a half in hospitals. How far from reality is that? Or maybe, that IS reality. Yup, that's what we had to do. My daughter spent 3 days on a ventilator. She had at least 4 seizures, 2 of which we captured on video and EEG. She was on hydrocodone for pain management. Did I mention she's nine months old? She spent her 9-month birthday in the same place she was born. She rode in a helicopter before I did. I learned what a central line is. I also learned that life's most painful questions don't always have answers. All that time, my wife was there for me. She cried with me, she reminded me to pray. She was absolutely stellar, even when she barely had any sleep. Today she was there for me again. I am getting to the point of emotional burnout. More and more I don't want t...

This seems to be a theme lately in our life here in the Swarrell house. Moods ebb and flow, sleep does the same. Even Trinity's recovery has a bit of the ebb and flow to it. Two days ago I was relieved and excited by the prospect of Trinity being able to see again. Today she went in to the optometrist here in town, where she exhibited no signs of being able to see at all. Needless to say, it took the wind out of my sails when Autumn told me the news. I could tell that she was having a tough time of it, so it was hard to sit there on the phone and not be able to comfort her. That's something that I have had trouble with lately, not being able to comfort either of my girls. Autumn's been so strong though. She's been having her own struggles now that she's going back to work at the hospital. There are lots of things there that are reminding her of our stay there. That would make it tough to focus on work, if it were me. We talked about the whole situation and sometimes...

That's how we have to take things these days, slow and steady. Just as each day brings vast amounts of recovery from Trinity, so does each day bring the ups and downs of a baby dealing with things that you and I can't really comprehend. So we wake up each day, sometimes a little earlier than we would like, and see what the new day brings. Well, this morning broke the mold. Autumn went in because it sounded like Trinity was waking up. She crept in to find Trinity already sitting up playing with the big tiger that hangs over the back of her crib. Without saying anything, Autumn waved to Trinity. Guess what? Trinity smiled in response! That's HUGE! All day she has been grabbing at things and going toward things in a way that suggests she is beginning to see! AWESOME! I know these pictures don't really show you what I am talking about, but I had to put something in. It's really amazing how far she has come the last week or so. She was grabbing for her binky, she ate my ...

It's been quite a week. Autumn brings up a good point in that, although we are VERY grateful simply to have our daughter with us, there are things we miss about her behavior. One of those things is sleep. On top of having one heck of a couple of weeks, our little girl is not sleeping very soundly. Well, last night she may have turned over a new leaf, but until then it's been pretty noisy. All that to say it's good to get to the weekend where we can all sleep in a little if we want to. My mom came down and stayed for a few days to help out and get a little grandma time in while she was at it. It was good for us all because we got a little relief and mom had a great time with her granddaughter. Now for the photos... Trinity has been standing up (with assistance) and is very proud of herself. One of the funnier moments is when she plopped herself down on the drum, just to take a break. I suppose you had to be there, but it's funny to see her sit on something by herself! ...

For the most part, I'm doing pretty good. I get this question a lot and when I consider everything that has happened over the past three weeks I really think we're all doing pretty good. However, I still have my moments and this morning I had one of those moments. Aaron's mom had bought some blueberries at the farmer's market and I decided to blend them up for Trinity's breakfast. Like many new parents in this digital age, I have way too many pictures of Trinity eating her first foods (the avocado pics are particularly cute!) so of course I pulled out the camera for the 'Trinity's First Time Eating Blueberries' picture. One of the things I absolutely love about Trinity is her smile. She has always been quick to smile at us, friends on the street or strangers in the store. There were certain sounds or faces we could make and we were sure to get a smile in return. As I was snapping pictures this morning I tried all my tried and true sounds but there...

Trinity is my daughter and I love her dearly, BUT there is one area that she needs to improve in. Yes, I've mentioned it before. If you haven't guessed, it's her wrestling . We have been working on it, despite the recent setbacks, in hopes that Trinity can eventually start drinking protein shakes and move up a weight class. Alas, it hasn't happened. Instead we have dropped from giraffe-class to teddy-class. The down side is that teddy-class wrestling doesn't have nearly the prestige that giraffe-class wrestling has. The upside is that Trinity has had fantastic success. Here's proof that she's got the stuff: That's right, she's still got the moves. She's even smiling the whole time. Easy win for the Trin -Monster. Also, she's pretty much making a comeback. Wait, "don't call it a comeback, I've been here for years" . If you know where that come from, then you and I are about the same age. Ha! But the point is that she's ma...