Stephen's Journey: Birthday Pictures

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

Birthday Pictures

Stephen's birthday was a good time had by all! We celebrated his actual birthday on the 4th with cake and pizza with Nonnie and Papa (Billy's parent's) and then had a fire truck birthday party on Saturday with lots of family and friends and all of Stephen's buddies. Despite the miserable weather, it was a really nice day and the best part of all…the local fire station came by with a fire truck for the kids to see!!! They were all so excited and it was definitely the highlight of the day!! That and the cool F-150 power wheels truck Stephen got for his birthday from Nonnie and Poppa!

2 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 15, 2014 at 6:42 PM
WOW!!! That truck is awesome!!!! Stephen is positively enjoying himself....Wonderful!!!

Love,
Aunt LuAnn and Uncle Dick
ReplyDelete
Replies
AnonymousJanuary 22, 2014 at 10:42 AM
All the children were having a wonderful time --- great party Mommy & Daddy. The AWESOME local firemen came with fire hats, a bag of materials for each, and Stephen could not stop waving and watching them!! In spite if the rain, they were wonderful to help celebrate our little man's benchmark of three years .... and many more to come!!!!
Love ..... Mimi and Poppy
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Our Crazy Kidney Life

As many of you already know, our son Stephen, was born with a very rare kidney disease called Autosomal Recessive Polycystic Kidney Disease (ARPKD). When the disease was discovered during my 27th week of pregnancy, Stephen was given a less than 1% chance of living more than a few hours past birth. He was to have such severely underdeveloped lungs that the doctors said he would likely not even take one breath. However, on January 4, 2011, we were granted our 1st miracle - and Stephen came into this world crying (and breathing!) and fighting for his life with fierce determination. At 6 days old he had BOTH of his kidneys removed and began peritoneal dialysis. Stephen came home from the hospital when he was 59 days old requiring 12 hours of dialysis every night as well as enteral (feeding tube) feeds during the day and overnight.

On May 9, 2013, we were granted our 2nd miracle, in the form of a new kidney from an extremely generous friend. Stephen received a kidney from a non-related living donor at the Children's Hospital of Philadelphia. He spent 13 days in the hospital recovering from his big surgery and ever since has been living life the fullest! His life is still a delicate balance of medications and weekly lab work, but he's an extremely vibrant, loving, active 2.5 year old.

This blog is Stephen's journey told through my eyes (his mother's), thoughts, and emotions, with extreme highs and lows. But there's no way we would be where we are today without all of the support, thoughts and prayers from our family, friends, and readers! Thank you!!