Brent's Home Visit yesterday (4/25/10)

UPDATE ON BRENT FROM MINGIE AND ED

Hello everyone,

What a beautiful day it was today! We were allowed to bring Brent home today for a trial run. We picked him up from St. Jude hospital after breakfast and were to have him back promptly no later than 8:00pm. We returned to the hospital at 7:59 pm. LOL Exactly one minute to spare!

It was so great having Brent home today with his family and we are now looking forward to Friday, because he will be coming home to stay.

Brent no longer has restrictions regarding his diet and really enjoyed Mingies spaghetti dinner tonight. Her sauce is the best!! Brent continues to work extremely hard during his therapy sessions at St.Jude as part of their in patient rehab program. We have a meeting with the doctors on Wednesday, at which time we will discuss the best options for Brents out patient therapy following his return home.

Brent continues to improve daily, but the doctors tell us that he suffers from a condition known as Aphasia. The doctors say that with continued rehabilitation a person can improve to the best of their ability. Brent is walking at times, with the aid of a walker and a guide person, but we are told now by the doctors, that his difficulty walking is not a physical issue, but rather is a result of the injury to his brain. His right side is still improving, but he does have issues with motor skills and has impaired vision in his right eye. When he returns home he will require 24 hour care.

Despite these challenges that lie ahead we feel extremely blessed to have our beautiful son with us and are so excited that he is coming home. Upon his return home our Family will request that friends who would like to visit Brent please call first. We know he is very excited to see ALL of you.

We wanted to thank you ALL for eating at Baja Fresh on Tuesday and for continuing to Love, Pray for and support our Family in so many ways. We also are hearing of so many things people are doing behind the scenes and we THANK YOU from the the bottom of our hearts. Your efforts of kindness and generosity to our Family are greatly appreciated. We truly hope this message finds you ALL in good spirits. May God Bless ALL of you!

Love Always

Ed and Mingie oxox

Brent's AMAZING progress

I am so thankful for the wonderful visit I had with my nephew Brent today. He is truly amazing! There is no question that God has truly blessed our family. I honestly, do not have the words to express how blown away I am by his tremendous progress. His beautiful smile, the sparkle in his eyes and the happiness in his heart today moved me to tears. I could barely drive home I was so emotion filled. I will be forever humbled and amazed by his miraculous road to recovery. What an inspiration!

Brent was transferred a week and a half ago to St. Judes in Fullerton where he is being treated at their Regional Brain Injury Center. Here is the post from Ed on Brent's 2nd day at St. Judes.

UPDATE ON BRENT - 4/15/2010

Hello everyone,

The transition to St. Judes was a very smooth one for Brent. I think we were more nervous about leaving the care of CHOC than he was, at least I know I was. The team at CHOC is our Family now and leaving our new friends was not easy, however it was time for Brent and our Family to move on to next phase of recovery. We will certainly keep in touch with our new friends and update them on Brents progress.

The team at St.Judes is working with Brent daily and he continues to improve. His verbalization is improving and he is able to use his right side more each day and is getting stronger. He has even walked with the aid of a walker, during Physical therapy. Day by day Brents determination is very evident as he regains his independency and he continues to work very hard towards his goal of coming home. We do not know yet when that will be, but we will expect that after Brent comes home, he will then participate in an outpatient rehab program for many months and a educational program designed for brain injury patients. where he will continue to improve his reading, writing, understanding and problem solving skills. We are very encouraged with his progress and THANK YOU ALL for your prayers and SUPPORT during this time and we Thank God that Brent is here with us.

Whatever Gods plan is for Brent and our Family, we will continue to follow His lead and let Him guide us in our lives. May God Bless ALL of you and yours, as he has done and continues to do for our Family.

All our Love

Ed and Mingie

Excited and Inspired

That's what I am right now! I love it and it makes me not able to sleep - not that I ever go to sleep before midnight. I attended a meeting tonight that was essentially establishing the frame work for a new parenting forum that will be run by four super amazing teachers/mentors. It's going to be on Thursday nights (whoo hoo - a night out!) and it will be a specific topic each week.

Here's the mission of the new group:

The mission of the Long Beach Parenting Forum is to create a supportive and educational community for parents to discuss and share the joys and trials of parenting, based on weekly topics and guided by parent educators.

It may sound silly to be so excited about it but I really am. I was lucky enough to attend a parenting class on a regular basis with Benjamin before I was pregnant with Annabelle. It was a weekly parent & child class. The first part of the class was observation then group discussion and it always ended with outdoor and sometimes water play. It was great! I found it so helpful - it helped me to see (find) the daily joy in parenting. Each week I would leave renewed and excited to try out a new parenting techniques or just get back on track to becoming the parent I wanted to be. That's actually (sort of ) the title to the book we used. It's a great book and I highly recommend it.

This class Benjamin and I took was taught by one of the ladies that will be facilitating these Thursday parenting forum. She is really great and it was wonderful to see her tonight. I hadn't seen her since I left her class right after Thanksgiving 2008 (when I got pregnant with Annabelle). It was great to reconnect. It's also nice to be part of a community of mother's who care so much about one another that I didn't have to explain where I had been or why I had sort of dropped out of society for a while. She knew a lot about Annabelle and the journey we have been on this past year. She's excited to meet her and is happy that I will be attending the parenting forum.

Another of the facilitators was Jack's former preschool teachers at LBCC. I absolutely adore her and am super excited to be able to see and learn from her on a regular basis. She is a good friend, great listener and mentor.

It was a good night tonight. I love really being a mother. I am so blessed to be a stay at home mom and although some days can be really challenging I wouldn't trade them for anything. I am so thankful that I get to wake up each day with my beautiful babies and snuggle them. I am so thankful that I get to play with them each day - all day! I am so thankful that they love me the way that they do. I am so thankful for each of my children and their uniqueness!

For me, I know this parenting forum will help me in many ways, one being to slow down and focus on my parenting style - what it is and what I want it to be. It will help remind me that my Jack & Ben are typical, happy, "wild" little boys. It will help me to parent each of them individually based on their individual personalities and needs. It will bring me back to that community of mom's who I share the same parenting values with.

Well, I am still excited and inspired but it's almost 12:30 am now and my "typical, happy & wild" little boys will be up early looking to play with their mommy so I better get to bed.

I wish you all a wonderful day with your children tomorrow. I was reminded of the Glad game (from Pollyanna) from an online friend this week - we played it today and it was fun! If you read this post (and have an extra moment) I'd love to hear from you - What are you glad about today? What do you love about being a mother?

It was a fun GREEN day!

We started off the morning with some St. Patrick's Day themed breakfast

Jack thought breakfast was pretty cool!


Although, I was unable to turn Annabelle's milk green (mommy's milk only comes in one color). I did give her a GREEN sippy cup to try. The cup is literally twice the size of her whole hand so she isn't doing very well with it yet, but, she likes to play with it.


Jack really enjoys doing any art project that involves glue. Seriously, who doesn't?

The boys had fun gathering their "supplies" from the backyard. They actually cut he grass with their scissors - so cute!

Benjamin was VERY proud of his pile of greenness! Here is the finished product ~ a super cute shamrock made of natural materials (grass, leaves, dirt and I think a bug or two)


Annabelle was having a blast playing on the floor


Looking oh so cute!

After a fun morning at home Jack went onto school from 12:30 - 3:30. When Ben, Annabelle and I picked him up he was super excited to learn that we were headed over to our friend Miss Cathy's house to play. FYI - she doesn't go by Miss Cathy, Miss and Mr. is how we encourage (strongly) the children to address adults.



A little splashing in the water to stay cool

Click HERE if you want to see what Annabelle got to do after her fun, GREEN day in the sun.

So behind!

I am so behind on posting that I think I might just start posting pictures. I have no idea how people stay on top of this. I LOVE reading other blogs and am so impressed by their timeliness.

I am just going to start posting our family "moments" and the pictures and hopefully I will add more details about them later (dreaming!!!) This is what I would do with scrapbooking. I'd leave spots for journaling, but never would go back. So sad, because sometimes you really need those details. My memory sure isn't what it once was (ha ha). I'm getting old!

I just want to get up to date!!! I want to live in the moment and I can't if I'm always blogging about last month.

Ok, blog rant is over.

Update on Brent - 4/8 & 4/13 (emotional & exciting!)

Here's the latest on our nephew Brent. He is such a fighter and an inspiration!

UPDATE ON BRENT FROM MINGIE & ED - April 8, 2010

Hello everyone,

The days go by faster than ever before! God continues to answer our prayers and Brent is progressing daily. He is very determined during his therapy sessions with the wonderful staff of CHOC and Mission hospital. Mingie and I would like to thank our parents for spending so much of their lives the past two months supporting Brent and counseling and caring for Mingie, Eddie and myself. Keith and Amanda have also been amazing! Papa Sirignano tells Brent that he is his hero. Papa continues to encourage Brent to use his right hand and Brent continues to work hard to please his Papa. Its very touching to witness this special bond. We are very blessed to have such caring and loving parents/grandparents in our lives.

It is clear to see that Brents conditioning and competitive spirit prior to the accident is playing a huge role during his rehabilitation sessions. Being part of the ET basketball program and years as an athlete are certain to help Brent with the challenges that lie ahead.

A HUGE THANK YOU to ALL who have supported our Family with prayers, meals, fundraisers and very touching messages and more! Your Love and support of our Family touches our hearts and though we may not have contacted you personally, or replied to a message, we know who you are and we will see you again and cant wait to give you ALL a big hug.

May God bless you and yours with good health and happiness.always!

Love Ed and Mingie, Eddie

___________________________________________________________

UPDATE ON BRENT FROM MINGIE & ED - April 13, 2010

Hello to ALL of you Brent supporters,

Mingie and I and our Family are extremely happy to report that Brent is continuing to make progress. After Brent passed his swallowing test and got a taste of real food It didn't take him him long to remember how to eat. He is now transferring from the bed to a wheelchair and eating real food. The G tube has been removed. He remains in the care of an amazing team of individuals at CHOC, at Mission hospital.

Brent is also talking now. He had mouthed the word mom prior to speaking, but his first vocalization happened when I mentioned Mariahs name and he responded by saying "Mariah". "I said yes, Mariah thats right" and then he held his hand up to his ear simulating a phone call and said " call her". I about fell out of my chair scrambling to get my phone. We called Mingie first and when she answered Brent said in a very quiet voice "hello this is Brent" and of course Mingie was overcome with happiness. To hear his beautiful voice again was the sweetest blessing ever. Mariah called when she heard of Brents request and spoke to Brent. It was quite a night. Thank you for returning our call Mariah! You always were and always will have a special place in our hearts and of course in Brents.

We transport him from his room in the hospital, in a wheelchair to therapy and he is working very hard to regain his strength and motor skills. His right side is improving, but is still much weaker than his left side, but he is working hard daily to improve. Please pray for his right side to continue to heal and for him to walk again on his own.

The doctors have told us that even bigger challenges lie ahead with many months and or years of therapy that Brent will require to relearn many skills, however, we feel VERY BLESSED right now that Brent is back with us and would like to THANK ALL of YOU from the bottom of our hearts, for your MANY MANY.....prayers and especially THANK GOD for answering our prayers!

Love Always,

Ed and Mingie and Family

Two Peas in a Pod

I love that Benjamin and Belle love each other as much as they do.
He's really quite gentle with her for a 3 year old.
He loves to show her how things work.
He enjoys laying on the floor and talking with her.
She thinks he's super funny and of course she loves the one on one attention from him.


March 13, 2010



March 25, 2010

I was cooking dinner and I walked around the corner to find the two of them like this. He was actually trying to teach her how to use his video game - so cute!

April 1, 2010

Their bond grows stronger every day and I couldn't be happier about it.

Update on Brent from last week

Brent continues to amaze us with his strength and determination. We had a wonderful visit with him last Sunday (3/28) but because Jack has been sick and there are some new restrictions we haven't been back to the hospital. However, we continue to get good daily reports from my sister and Ed as well as from my parents. Here is an update the Ed wrote last week.

A message about Brent from Ed and Mingie

Hello everyone

Since our last update Brent has now passed the swallowing test and has been introduced to more soft foods. A true blessing!! Thank you for your prayers!

On Sunday afternoon Mingie and I stopped by the fund raiser to say hi and boy what a joy it was to see EVERYONE. Thank you so much for taking the time to come out and support our Family.

We then headed back to the hospital to be with Brent and he got a visit from his cousins Jack, Benjamin and Annabelle. Brent has a special bond with his cousins and they made Brent very happy. It was very special to have them there and we all felt the Love between them.

Well thats it for now. Have a good week, God bless you ALL and please continue to pray for Brent's speech, the recovery of his right side and for our Family to stay strong!

Thank you ALL so very much for EVERYTHING!!

Love Ed and Mingie

Dyeing Easter Eggs

The boys and I were really excited to get started. Dyeing the eggs is always so much fun. I unfortunately got busy with Annabelle and didn't get to do any, but the boys and Branden had a lot of fun.

I'm tempted to get another package and dye some just for fun.
Maybe Branden and I will dye them after the kids go to bed. Shh...don't tell the boys.

Happy Easter

May the beauty of the season
surround you...

The miracle of Easter
inspire you...

And the joy of the Lord
dwell in your hearts all year.

Little boys love hats

Especially if they are their daddy's hats

togetherness - March 13th

After a fun morning, what's better than spending the afternoon hanging out on the couch with your brother and sister.

.

Yes, as if you couldn't tell - they are watching TV in the picture above. It's amazing how they turn into little zombies when the TV comes on. This particular show was Go Diego Go. I actually think Annabelle liked it.