Big Day!

Well, today is a milestone in our home. Luke has officially been home as many days as he was in the hospital!! Today is his 130th day at home. I know it might seem strange to count the days like we do, but somehow going through an experience like this makes you appreciate every- s-i-n-g-l-e- day.

Things are going really well in the Lundgren household!  We just enjoyed a great visit with my parents.  Dad was here two weeks and mom stayed about four weeks.  The highlight of their time here with us was traveling to Pennsylvania to visit my mom's family.  We recently bought a 2007 Toyota Sienna mini van and decided to put it to the test and make our first road trip as family.  The six of us loaded up and ventured out on the 17 hour journey. Of course, with two little ones, you have to stop A LOT so all in all, it took us more than a day to get there. Luke and Caleb are amazing travelers!! They did so great!!  (That's good to know, considering they'll probably be doing a lot of traveling in their lifetimes.) Anyway, we really, really enjoyed time with my extended family.  With so many Italians in one room, you're bound to have a lot of fun! 

I wanted to give a quick update on little Luke today.  I blogged about a month or so ago about several things we are praying really hard for these days. One of those areas of concern is Luke's eyes.    We were told back in February that Luke's right optical nerve was about 60% the size of what it should be.  The doctor didn't have any hope that it would grow to a normal size, but told us the small size may or may not affect Luke's vision. Andrew and I have been really concerned about Luke's eyes since about 4 days after we brought him home. Those of you who have been able to interact with him in person will know what I'm talking about. He struggles to focus, track, interact with those around him.  Well, we went back to the eye doctor on May 13th.  The doctor told us that BOTH of Luke's eyes have normal-sized optical nerves!  He admitted that on his report he stated otherwise back in February and couldn't really give us an explanation, but "somehow" (in quotes, because we know it's God hand on Luke!) things are normal now. Luke does suffer from a condition called nystagmus. This causes his eyes to be very jittery, making it hard to focus. There is no treatment for nystagmus, but it does often improve, although the doctor could give us no guarantees of that of course.  Another concern is that both of Luke's eyes have some crossing going on. The doctor considers him a good candidate for surgery to correct the crossing.  This would be outpatient surgery and would be done after Luke is one year old. Overall, the eye doctor is quite hopeful that Luke will have pretty decent vision, but as with most everything in Luke's little body it's a "wait and see" situation.

All we know, is that each day, his eyes seem to be better....better in the sense that he can focus better, hold his gaze longer, track better, etc.  We really thank God for this and thank YOU for praying!

I'll post more info later about upcoming Dr. appointments for Luke and other things that are going on with him. He's a sweet little guy....smiling and laughing and making our home a really happy place!  I'm uploading a short little video of Luke.  Again, for those of you who have spent some time with him, you know how awesome it is that he's actually looking in my direction and watching my hand, etc.  Just wanted to show you how much he has improved! Thank God!!