Happy Independence Day! The 4th of July has been a memorable one for Austin. Today Austin became “independent” of the ventilator he has been attached to for the past week. The Bionic Man will be on oxygen for the next few days to regulate his breathing, but the doctor gave him an “A” for extubation.
As Austin continues to recover from the operation, the nurses will be assigning Karla and I some of the responsibilities associated with his care. Today I was told that it would be very beneficial to Austins development if we were to start changing his diapers. This is very exciting news!
Happy 4th of July Austin! You all are in our thoughts and prayers! We love you!
The Taylor Family
Happy 4th of July Austin! You are all in our thoughts and prayers! We love you!
The Taylor’s
Hi Cox Family,
We have been reading about Austin on a regular basis and we are so happy for you all that he is off the ventilator. I am sure that he is so pleased to have his Mom and Dad be able to hold him again! What a perfect Independence Day!
You’re all in our thoughts and prayers.
Love
The Egberts
Hey Austin, Karla, and Barry
Love the 4th of July pictures and narration by Barry. You do a great job. Can’t tell you how many times people have asked about Austin. He’s the talk of the town. So glad things are going great. Will see you all again soon.
Love
G & G Morley
Austin…We can’t wait to meet you. We pray for you every night at dinner. You are awesome!
Your new buddies…Jacob and Kody Moyer
Hi Austin, We love you! You are so cute. We hope to meet you soon so get better! We made you a little present that we are sending to you tomorrow (sorry for the delay, but Aunt Lisa went out of town). Grace is having a sleep over at my house and we just watched your video again…we love it so much!! Love, your #1 cousins, Hannah and Grace
Austing – Dad and Mom showed us some video of you opening your eyes. Although it is not your first time doing this, it is the first time that many people had a chance to see you do this. I think you were trying to see if the camo clothes were on you yet!
Keep on steadily improving. You amaze us all. Dad and Mom really are glad to see you mess the diapers (many parents don’t say that) so don’t be afraid to be an extremist in this category!
By the way, I hope you don’t mind but you were talked about a lot this weekend regarding how much of a champ you really are. Keep it up Champ!!
Love from us all….
Kae/Cole/Kari/Chris
Carla,
I’m Julie Snyder, Paula Arntsen’s friend from high school (not sure if you remember me or not
)… I actually found out about Austin from a woman who is the leader of the mom’s group I attend in Milwaukee. Her name is Barb McCabe. I just wanted you to know that all of you are in my prayers. While my daughter was in the NICU, the following prayer is what got me through: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time, accepting hardship as a pathway to peace, taking this sinful world as it is and not as I would have it, trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to your will, so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy forever with you in the next.” Amen. I will continue to pray for all of you. GOD BLESS and please remember ‘this too shall pass’ 
!!! – Julie