I don’t think our family has enjoyed itself more celebrating Rudy’s birthday this year.  The Heart Walk was such fun because it demonstrated the community that has surrounded us.  To give an idea, we bought sixty Rudy-Blue balloons to hand out to our walkers…and we ran out!  After all the activity on Saturday, Rudy’s actual birthday passed rather uneventfully.  As the schedule turns out, Rudy doesn’t have school on Mondays which serves him well as he usually sleeps in after weekends full of sibling fun.

It had all the makings of an uneventful, mellow day (and pretty much was) save for the last-minute call for his monthly visit to the lab.  Turns out the only phlebotomist who can get to his veins was in so they called to get it in.  I guess the birthday treat is that it only took her one stick, but I’m not sure Rudy saw the upside.

Amidst all the activity that goes into celebrating Rudy’s birthday (it always falls on a really big week for us  with the Heart Walk and the Rescue Mission’s “Back to the Bayou” Benefit), I try to take some time to go back four years into the blog posts to get a reminder of how far he’s come.  Amazing how quickly all the emotions of the first week of his life can come back. (If you’re interested in walking down memory lane, click here)  Forgive me in advance if we publish a few more looks back this week.  The memories of it all (especially surgery day) are so visceral that even now they require some processing.  Rudy’s come a long way and we’re so glad for the many people who have walked with us–whether you were there from the beginning or joined us later on.

The emotions of his diagnosis and birth were evoked even more yesterday as we learned the story of Greg and Kara Olsen of the Carolina Panthers who are right where we were four years ago.  Praying for them as they walk the HLHS journey.  You can watch their story here:  video-heart-of-the-matter