Happy New Year!

S~I always find this time of year a little interesting, everyone stays up late to watch 11:59 turn into 12:00. Even though that happens 729 other times throughout the year, for some reason this one allows everyone to stay up late and party, or eat too much fried turkey. So anyway we have started a new year. Taking a look back at last year is always kind of fun, we moved into a new house, Clare got her last Cath performed, Jamie has continued to grow and astound us with all that he can do, we welcomed two new family members ( Jack Sparrow and Midnight) we began waiting for our next family member (Simon), we left our church and joined a new one, said goodbye to a friend as he moved to another country, and we found new challenges with Clare as we got over old challenges. I am looking forward to this year. We are now settled in the house, so we can begin doing those little projects that we have been talking about, I am settled in my job so things are coming more easily, we cannot wait to see Simon Joseph come into this world (and we pray that he is our healthy one!)

Clare has also decided to make use of the New Year...it may be too soon to tell but we think the Eating Strike may be over. Starting New Years Eve she ate several bites of pizza and 1/2 of a banana, the next day she ate more banana some of Jamie's breakfast hot pocket and for lunch she ate more pizza, and for dinner she ate some White Cheddar Pasta shells. We are not sure yet whether or not too say the strike is over..we are a little too conservative for that I think. Her personality and energy levels seem to be back as well. We thank you all for your prayers and support. Teresa and I said that in many ways this food strike was more difficult than any of the heart issues (except for that one night in the ICU right after her open heart). We feel this way mainly because there was very little we or anyone else could do. It was all up to Clare!