Counting more blessings!

It is such a dream come true to have so many posts of good news to blog about. One year ago we were in the hospital hearing the first news of Ivy needing a new heart. I was planning her birthday party, a special celebration honoring our baby girl, our hero, and rejoicing of the incredibly difficult year she had survived. Then like a ton of bricks crashing down, she gets this uncontrollable edema in her belly and her echo shows extreme decline in heart function. We were admitted straight from our doctors appointment. For the second year in a row I found myself in the hospital for our daughter Cassidy's birthday and for the second year in a row we made it out of the hospital for Ivy Joy's birthday by just the skin of our teeth. We would celebrate on her special day and then we would head to Stanford to start transplant evaluation.
Fast forward one year...
I am planning Ivy's 4th Birthday!!!! She turned 2, she turned 3, and now, she is turning 4. I know, it seems silly, but these years are huge miracles and even more so, they are gifts! Today we spent 3 hours with our cardiologist. We discussed all the details of her Cath last month. She had her scheduled Echo. We made some med changes. And we marveled in the miracle of this child! She is GROWING!! I mean really really growing! She has a pretty full face that could use some diuretics right now and we did start those today, but her body, it is real growth!! Not water... it's real baby fat and 1.5 inches of new height!! She is active and happy and just such a ball of fun!!! 
Her heart function continues to show improvement. And as long as it stays on that curve, even if it is a slow traveling curve, it is awesome. Her increased Pulmonary Hypertension is concerning, but they still feel that as her heart function continues to improve, so will her lungs. They have decided to keep her on her current PH medication, increasing the dose as she grows. WE ARE REJOICING!!! THINGS ARE SO GOOD! 

On to Easter :) The hunt! Ivy's pants were falling off. They were a sweet hand me up from a friend who's daughter wore them like 30 years ago (not kidding!) Isn't that amazing? They are a 12 months but the waist was just too big so she looks like she has no feet in this picture. 

 Lexi as an egg head! She found all the big eggs and said, "Daddy, you can find the rest, oh, and good luck!" 

                                                     Her squishy face!

 Ellie, my oldest daughters dog. Sweetest doggy ever! Loves coming to our house and playing with the littles.

 Thank you everyone for continuing to pray for Ivy's health. We love you all!

MIA

April is a crazy month in our house, thus the lack of posts. To all who have so sweetly emailed me, we are doing excellent and here is a tiny peek at some of the fun going on.

The littles are doing great in school finishing up the school year. Both of Ivy's teachers have told me that Ivy seems to have more energy and less need for rests and snacks than they have ever seen from her. This makes us so happy!

The sweet wee ones had a fun date with daddy at school last weekend. Since there are 2 children at the same school they even got to bring ~bubby~ (big brother Brady) along for the date!

              
        Daddy being smothered with kisses by his          sweet little treasures!

               
This boy LOVES his little sisters BIG!!!! He would do anything for them. In fact he does... They own his heart!!!

 Our sweet Cassidy turns 18 tomorrow. I can hardly believe it! My tiny little girl with long blonde ringlets and ruffly dresses has turned in to a beautiful young woman. Her prom was last weekend and her sisters told everyone that Princess Cassidy was going to the Royal Ball. 

 Here she is with her best friend, Miss K.

               

           And with the very lucky Prince R

We will be wrapping up our school year before we know it. We are excited to celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior this Sunday and hope that you are too! We have several more dance shows and competitions, 2 more birthdays, graduation and then... It's SUMMER! The Sammons house has one more kiddo starting college, and one starting kindergarden next school year!! 3 of our kids are going on mission/serving trips out of the country this summer. Rylee, our soon to be 21 year old is heading to Fiji for 2 weeks and Brady and Cassidy are going to China for 3 weeks. I am so excited for all of them!!!


We see cardiology for Ivy's regular echo and check up next Tuesday. I think we will be discussing moving forward with a stronger PH med for Ivy. Tracleer-Bosentan is what I think they are considering. I'm not going to even think about it until it is really time. We are very comfortable in our current routine but we will change whatever we need to, anything for our little firecracker!!!

So, life is good! Hard work, but very very good! We do not take one single good day for granted! 

And this is the promise which He Himself made to us: eternal life. 1 john 2:25