Gracie is doing so well that she graduated from the Intensive Care Unit (they are just waiting for a room to open up on the pediatric floor to transfer her over). The doctors just stopped by and actually said that she could go HOME tomorrow, to which Annie almost wet her pants. We don't feel totally comfortable bringing her home tomorrow, but maybe after getting CPR trained and learning about her Pulse-Ox machine, we'll feel ready to go. We couldn't be happier with her progress. Although Read More

First for the Gracie Update: We began last week with a bed full of wires and now, as you see, Gracie has shed most of her support and is doing great. The big steps in the past few days have been the removal of her breathing tube and RA line on Friday morning, and the removal of her chest tube and arterial line on Saturday. All of these are big steps on the road to recovery. The only hiccup has been the withdrawl symptoms Gracie has had from the pain medicine she was on during recovery. The Read More

Annie and I consider ourselves observers. We observe everything we can...smells, sights, people, accents, our children, personalities, and of course our favorite...idiosyncrasies (ours and others). We love to find patterns in things and anticipate things, maybe to a disagreeable fault. Over the past two years, amidst our various crazy times we have observed a pattern that is now unmistakable...it's called The Crash. Most of you who are more intelligent than us probably already know about the Read More

Super proud of our little girl! Read More

- Reverse Culture Shock. Last week we discovered Onesty pool at Meade Park in C-ville. It’s a great place for kids, but a strange experience after living in Iceland for a while. In Iceland there is a lone pool monitor in a tower with one-way glass. When you walk in you think, “wow it must be my job to watch my kid.” Which is wonderful because then your child can ride the big slide even when they’re two years old. Here in the grand republic the pool has one lifeguard per child and security Read More

First Off, I have neglected to give all the essentials details that people ask for when a baby is born. So here goes, Gracie Kane Garman was born at 11:09PM on August 9th, 2010. She weighed 7lbs. 3 oz (that's 3.25 kg for my Icelandic friends) and was 20 inches long.The doctors have scheduled Gracie's surgery for Tuesday at 12:00PM. The surgery will take 2-3 hours and is pretty much a miracle of modern medicine. The doctors will be placing a 3.5mm shunt on ridiculously small arteries and sewing Read More

Little Gracie got to have some Grandma time today and she really relaxed and enjoyed herself.We were told today that Gracie's first procedure will be next week some time. It may be on Tuesday, but no earlier than that. She will have a Blalock-Taussig Shunt surgically installed between the aorta and the pulmonary artery, as well as a little procedure done on her atrial septum. It is the first surgery in a series of 3 surgeries called a fontan procedure. The second surgery will be at the 4-6 month Read More

Immediately after Gracie was born the pediatric cardiologist did an echocardiogram to get a better look at Gracie's heart. If you don't know what's going on you should read this first. The heart echo confirmed the diagnosis that was given for Gracie while she was in Utero. Her pulmonary valve is blocked and the right side of her heart is very small and under-developed. The doctors will be meeting together today and tomorrow to try and determine the best course of action from here. She will Read More

Gracie and Daddy will just have to a share a birthday! What a rare gift to welcome a baby on your birthday. She was born at 11:12PM on August 9th, 2010. We were told to expect here to be a little "blue" upon arrival and she may have been for the first minute or so, but she was really looking good when her mommy got to hold her a few minutes later. Right now she's being tested and we are waiting to here the results of the tests being done on her heart. Annie is healthy and of course tired, but Read More