Thank You

Where do you begin with words, when words will never do justice to what you are feeling? I do not know if this will even begin to explain the range of emotions that Hannah and I have felt over the last 10 weeks. Or if it will even come close to letting you all know how thankful we are. Thank you for your comments on my writing. But, for once I am failing at writing what I want to say. That being said, here's a lot of things...

In case you may not know (or just want to re-live the excitement), January 23 was any normal day for us. I went to work. Hannah and I had planned to go to a Mars Hill basketball game that night, but we decided to stay home and ended up trying to nail down what we were going to do to his room. Around 5:30 a.m. on January 24, Hannah punched me and said, “Joel, I think my water has broken.” And of course, my bleary-eyed, half-awake answer was, “Are you sure?” So, we called the hospital and they said come to the ER. Well, to make a long story short, we: went to ECM, stayed for about 3 hours, put Hannah in an ambulance, I drove the longest drive ever to Huntsville, called all important people, spent the day in labor, and by 9:32 p.m. we had the new love of our life. We finally got rid of everyone but the grandparents, and Hannah and I finally ate supper together (cold/reheated McDonald’s and Burger King). We knew we had made it, but we weren’t sure what we were in for.

Since that night, our little baby boy has become one fat, big baby boy. We’ve gotten to know Huntsville better than we ever thought we would. We think we know enough to be practicing LPNs. And we have been truly reminded of just how blessed we are and how many people love us. We have tried to make a note of the gifts and cards and I know Hannah has already sent out several thank you cards. But, somehow none of that seems to do justice to the blessings we have received. Even if you get a card I still don’t think we could say thank you enough. We will spend every day of the rest of our lives reminding Clayton how many people were praying for him, pulling him through. It has been amazing.

I consider myself knowledgeable enough about technology to be dangerous. I can do more than the average person, but still manage to mess some things up. I wasn’t sure how I was going to start him his own webpage, but I finally put several ideas together and we came up with the blog. I put a counter on the right hand side because we were interested to see how many hits it would get in a day or over time. Now, any normal statistician would probably say the numbers are a little skewed based on the average number of times that one particular uncle checked it per day, but the counter was just one more way for us to see how many people were thinking of us.

We could not have been in a better place. Even though we don’t like Huntsville anymore (just kidding), we have been completely pleased with the hospital. Our nurses have been fabulous. They have been our family for two months. We have made many new friends and we were actually kind of sad to leave them. But we have many addresses and phone numbers with promises to update. I am working on a letter to send to the hospital thanking them and giving credit to the people who have helped us get to this point today.

We don’t know how to effectively express the way that we feel now that this is over. Your thoughts and prayers have pulled us through. It was heartbreaking to see so many families going through some of the same things we were without a support system. We have been so blessed to know so many people and have so many helping us out in anyway possible. Continue to pray for us. As has been said, we will not be up to any visitors for several weeks. But you better believe as soon as he is well, he will be making the rounds. I will for sure update with the any new dates on the Clayton Danley World Tour. We are so thankful for where we’ve been and where we are now. God has blessed us beyond compare. Kiss your kids. Tell your family you love them. And even when the car needs fixing or your boss is a pain or your frustrated with the people around you, remember: God is good and He is good to those who love Him. We are a blessed people and the trials of this life are but for a short time. We love you all deeply and your generous spirit will not be forgotten.

With all the love we can begin to give back,

Joel, Hannah, and Clayton (5 lbs 10 oz)

P.S. Oh yeah, we are home finally. We made it around noon on Wednesday. I didn't get the basketball goal up in time, but I did have the baseball and gloves ready (j/k). I will try to update this in the future, but I make no promises. Right now, we are all surviving. Life will never be the same, but what fun would that be? And, hey, that's the way we like it.

Picture Time

Man you guys are so demanding with this blog thing. You teach people a little about technology and they go crazy. Or maybe its the little kid that is making you all crazy??? Either way, I promise this is the last post before the final one. And everyone is pushing for a continuation of this after he gets home. Man. What do you guys want? A TV show? I'm thinking the "The Clayton Show" you know, kinda like the truman show. Anyway, Hannah wanted to say a few last words before we make it home so...enjoy.

P.S. This was when he was getting his picture made in the unit. If you want to see it, go to the Huntsville Hospital page and click on Babyface and then his birthdate (01.24.06) or you can find the grandparent/aunt/uncle/great-grandparent closest to you.

My Little Dream

I am finally going to be a “real” mommy! I could not be any more excited to get him home with Joel and me. Life has been anything but easy the past 2 months for us, but we have done remarkably well considering all that we have gone through. Clayton is simply beautiful and such a good little baby. He only cries when he is hungry and it is the sweetest little cry I have every heard (wonder how long I will be saying that). I got to rock him to sleep for the first time on Tuesday. My heart was so full it could have exploded. We have been getting his room ready for him and getting the house ready for us. Joel and I can not wait to be home again. There is nothing like your own bed and shower. We have come to appreciate so much these past months.
Joel and Clayton are my dreams come true. I have always wanted to be a wife and mother. Another one of my dreams was to be a famous singer, but I always said if that did not happen I would be completely satisfied singing my babies to sleep every night. I am now getting to sing Clayton to sleep and he loves it. To see him look at me and I know he knows that he is loved and safe in my arms. I am blessed beyond measure.
I could not thank all of you enough. You do not even know how much Joel and I depended on your messages. It was so wonderful to sit and read those every night. We know so many of you have prayed for our family. For that we are forever grateful. We have so many people who love and care about us and it has been overwhelming. I see parents of babies who never have one person come to visit. They are completely on their own. I don’t know how they do it. We have been truly blessed!!!!! Please continue to pray for us as we begin our life together at home with a baby! You may not see Clayton and me for a while. We are okay but he has to stay healthy. I am not going back to the hospital with him. I am going to be one over protective mom please be patient. You will all get to see him. I love each of you. You will never know how much you have meant to us.

Joel, Hannah, and Clayton (5 lbs 4.1 oz)

Almost There

Now that is a man who likes his bath. Last Thursday when Hannah got ready to give him a bath, his nurse told Hannah that she could put him actually in his tub to rinse him off. And he was so hungry that we had to give him his pacifier so he could suck on that. But he loved it.

I said I wasn't going to update again, but I wanted to let you know what our plans were (oh yeah, and we had one complaining uncle who wanted more pictures). But we talked to the doctor Tuesday and we decided to come home next Wednesday. He is going to have to come home on oxygen which is ok. We will just have to drag around a tank and a monitor for a few weeks. Have no fear, I'm sure Hannah will decorate it to match his clothes. That also means that we have to take an infant CPR class and room-in at the hospital before we take him home. So, we are going to do all of that Tuesday and be home for good on Wednesday. Hannah and I are going on one last farewell tour (Florence-Wed, H'ville-Thurs, Dunlap-Fri, Florence-Sat, and H'Ville-Sun-Wed) to make sure we are ready for him.

We know you all are excited to see him, but he won't really be up to visitors for several weeks. Trust us, as soon as he is well, he will be making the rounds to visit. But, for a couple of months he and Hannah will get to be hermits. We hope that you will understand because he is still little and very sensitive to sickness especially from visitors. We do have an appointment with the federal government to come and de-germ our house. Just kidding. Thank you again for your prayers and good thoughts. We are a little nervous, but really, really, really excited about getting him home. We will see you soon.

Flo-town bound,
Joel, Hannah, and Clayton (4 lbs and 13 oz)

P.S. Don't forget to check back next week for one final post.

Momma, I'm coming home...

We're almost there!!!!!! In case you haven't heard, we might get to be coming home soon (the Ozzy reference above is for T-Pop and Pops). Or, in the case of my wife, who in her excitement, urging me to share Wednesday night in class said, "Tell them our good news!!!" You should have seen the looks on their faces. No. We are not pregnant again. And although we hope to have several brothers and sisters for Clayton in the future, that time will be...well, in the future. The distant future. Far off future. Galaxy far, far away kind of future.

We are very excited about getting him home. I have the glove and ball ready to go. Just kidding. Monday will be the day to see if we bring him home this week (which will mean with our own, personal, lovely oxygen tank to drag around) or later, maybe next week (without oxygen). I hope that you guys are still checking this, even though I haven't done it in a while. Please tell others in case they have given up on me. Life has been just a little strenous with the travel. Anyway, I will not plan on writing again until we have him home, soon and very soon. Please check back from around Thursday on. Hopefully by then we will have good news and ONE LAST good post to say thank you. I will save those words till then. We do thank you and we do love you.

Seeing the light at the end,

Joel, Hannah, and Clayton (4 lbs and 10 oz, oh yeah, fatboy)

P.S. The picture above is from either the second or third day of his precious, little life. Tune in next time to see how far he has come and just how blessed we are.

You're getting very sleepy...

We decided that he looked like he could hypnotize someone in this outfit. We decided against spinning him around to see if it would work though. It is straight from the great country of New Zealand. Hannah put it on him, but he was almost too big for it. Go figure. We weren’t sure if we would ever be able to say that. If you haven't seen him in a while, you can really tell how much bigger he is. I'm always so very excited to see him after the weekend. It is good to be home again though and I am working on "boy proofing" the house.

He had a good weekend and a pretty good start to this week. Starting around Sunday, he started taking his bottles better, so Mrs. Naomi started giving him one every other feeding. So far he is still taking those well. Sunday night he weighed 3 lbs and 15.8 oz. We were very excited that he might be pushing past 4 lbs tonight, but this morning his doctor decided that he needed blood. He did get blood this morning along with another dose of lasiks. The plan is that his new blood and new energy will help him get off his oxygen for good. Then maybe he will keep getting better at eating and we will be home soon!!!! Keep praying for us as we see are starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. We love you all and WILL see you soon.

Finally at the 4 mark,
Joel, Hannah, and Clayton (4 lbs and 2.4 oz YEAH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

Oh what fun, it is to...

So now you know how he really feels about bath time. He's about as interested in it as he is his bottles. You can also see how he always manages to pull his nasal canula out of his nose. His evil twin Jacob is now up to 4 lbs and 6 oz. So we have some catching up to do. Mr. Jacob is also taking all of his food by bottles. The challenge has been thrown down and our son...yawns. Pure excitement. Sort of like today when he fell asleep again while Hannah was trying to feed him a bottle. Oh well.


So I know that I've fallen behind again with our updates. But in my defense life has been pretty crazy around here. The road between Florence and Huntsville has been often traveled. Needless to say after being gone for two days, we were glad to see him again last night. We are so looking forward to the day when we get to go home. Thank you once again for your thoughts, comments, stories, laughs, antedotes, smart comments, sarcasm, and most of all prayers. We love you all.

Growing by leaps and bounds,

Joel, Hannah, and Clayton (3 lbs and 12.3 oz, that's right!!)

Catching up...

I know, I know. I can feel the mob rising up because they have not been able to get there "Clayton fix." It has been a few days, but things have been even crazier being at the hospital and then traveling between H'ville and Flo-Town. But I am writing this around 10 on Tuesday morning. We are in Florence for today and tomorrow. Hannah has her 6 week checkup today. Who can really believe that it's been that long?? But when we left last night, he was doing just fine. It was bath night and he was better behaved again. And then the picture on the left is of his main night nurse, Mrs. Naomi, feeding him a bottle. He did pretty well, but Lisa said he fought her yesterday morning when she tried. So, she told on him and got him in trouble. But after eating and bathing, when we left last night he was one tired little pup.

His breathing is still going okay. We're not pushing him too far too fast. Some days are better than others. His weight gain is still good. And the bottles are doing so, so. The other picture is of the toys that Lisa bought him and Jacob. One is a train and the other a fire engine. They are really long lost twins. They are the two coolest dudes on the block. Plus they are now sharing an apartment. Thank you for your continued support and prayers. And seriously, thank you for your dedication to this blog. Several people have told me how they check it every day. And several have said that they let everyone in their office know what is going on. I would love to sit down one day and see how far this reached and how many people. It is a true testament to the beautiful nature of the Lord's church and how He intended for his people to work together. God is good and He will bless those who seek Him. Have a great day!!!

Clean as a whistle,

Joel, Hannah, and Clayton (now weighing in at a whopping 3lbs and 8 oz even)

Feed me!!!!!!!!!!!

This picture is going to be the new PSA for hungry children. Look at him. No one will feed him, so he has to resort to a blanket. Isn't that just pitiful? Really this is a picture of a child who has just had a bath (which he handled with a better attitude) and is ready for a full belly. One of the things he has been doing well is waking up a little before feeding time and then sucking on his pacifier, his fingers, my fingers, a blanket, or anything else in the general vicinity of his mouth. His nurse fed him a bottle at 3 am this morning and he didn't take it well, but did better when Hannah fed him one at 3 this afternoon.

We want to say thank you to everyone who has continued praying for all three of us. We are still hanging in there and longing for the day we get to all go home together. Please continue to pray for us as we are doing more traveling between H'ville and Flo-Town. We are enjoying every second together as a family. Hannah discusses how American Idol is going and I discuss the ins and outs of Tiger's swing change. We all love each other and that keeps us going. BUT, we love you all too and owe you so much for your prayers.

Getting pop culture ready,

Joel, Hannah, and Clayton (3 lbs and 3.6 oz)

P.S. Thank you for your prayers for our nurse Holley and her husband. They are still finding more out from the doctors and are in great need of prayers.

Fat and Happy

Ok, so he's really not "fat", but he is happy. This will probably be one of my favorite pictures. My two favorite people. This was taken right after feeding time...Clayton's not Hannah's, j/k. He decided to turn difficult at feeding time for Hannah, so she fed him some and the nurse finished. Then Hannah burped him and got to cuddle him for a few minutes.

Our eye test went fine. The nurse told us the doctor found everything to be normal, at least until later when he may become blind like some members of his family. Seriously he is still hanging in there. Our oxygen was down lower yesterday than ever before, but it will probably still be a while before he gets to come completely off of it.

We do want to thank you for your prayers for us and also solicit them for someone else. One of Clayton's nurses, Holley, just found out that her husband found cancer. They are going to have to do some surgery to remove lymph nodes close to his kidneys. Anyway, they are both 24 and wanting to have kids one day. Please pray for this family and for all of the nurses that are taking care of us... and Clayton.

Already fine-tuning our afternoon nap,

Joel, Hannah, and Clayton (3 lbs and 3 oz)