{"id":1758,"date":"2009-06-10T14:35:48","date_gmt":"2009-06-10T19:35:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/?p=1758"},"modified":"2009-06-10T15:40:39","modified_gmt":"2009-06-10T20:40:39","slug":"enjoying-the-moments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/?p=1758","title":{"rendered":"Enjoying the moments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">A couple of months ago I began a post, kept it in my draft file and deleted it after a week or so.\u00a0\u00a0 The post began &#8220;I&#8217;m back to that place again.&#8221;\u00a0 It was another venting session that allowed me to let go of some of that anxiety I had been facing about Mary Clare&#8217;s upcoming surgery.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">With her second birthday approaching, the realization of another open heart surgery overwhelms me.\u00a0 Occasionally,\u00a0 I sit at my computer late at night and research, read, and cry all over again.\u00a0\u00a0 It has been a while .\u00a0 I would even dare to say that within the previous year there were many days that her little half-heart didn&#8217;t cross my mind.\u00a0 Lately, however, I&#8217;ve been feeling exactly like I did when I was pregnant with her. \u00a0 Scared.\u00a0 Over the past two years, I have spoken to so many other heart moms; other scared moms who only want to hear answers, grasping for support, seeking\u00a0 encouragement, and I find myself trying desperately to listen to my own advice as I, myself,\u00a0 am right back to that place again.\u00a0 I loved Mary Clare with every ounce of my being before she was born and it was excruciatingly difficult knowing she was inside of me, perfect and healthy, but would endure so much once she was born.\u00a0 Again, she seems so perfect and healthy and I know that I must let it all go and pray that God will return her safely to me.\u00a0 Letting go and loss of control is a bit difficult for me, anyone would tell you.\u00a0 It is especially difficult now when I can close my eyes and see her sweet, chubby\u00a0 cheeks, mass of messy, yellow curls and hear her tiny two-year-old voice saying, &#8220;Wov You, Mommy.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: justify;\">We have an appointment on June 24 at MUSC, three days before my sweet Mary Clare turns two.\u00a0 We were told in the beginning that she would have her third surgery between the ages of 3-5.\u00a0 The time is quickly approaching, as the past 18 months and three days since her last surgery have seemed to fly by.\u00a0\u00a0 People tell me often that they don&#8217;t know how we do it.\u00a0 How we face knowing that our baby lives her life with only half of a heart.\u00a0\u00a0 Honestly, I don&#8217;t know how we do it either.\u00a0\u00a0 I&#8217;m humbled when I stop and realize that we do in fact have her here with us when so many other heart babies now dance in heaven. \u00a0 I&#8217;m certainly no hero.\u00a0 Mary Clare is the one who endures so much.\u00a0 Seeing her is all that I need to continue on.\u00a0\u00a0 She is my miracle and everyday, however difficult at times, we continue on and strive to just let go and enjoy every single moment.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a rel=\"lightbox\" href=\"http:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mary-clare-june-09.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-1759\" title=\"mary-clare-june-09\" src=\"http:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mary-clare-june-09-178x300.jpg\" alt=\"mary-clare-june-09\" width=\"178\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mary-clare-june-09-178x300.jpg 178w, https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/06\/mary-clare-june-09.jpg 432w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 178px) 100vw, 178px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A couple of months ago I began a post, kept it in my draft file and deleted it after a week or so.\u00a0\u00a0 The post began &#8220;I&#8217;m back to that place again.&#8221;\u00a0 It was another venting session that allowed me to let go of some of that anxiety I had been facing about Mary Clare&#8217;s [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1758"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1763,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1758\/revisions\/1763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1758"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1758"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.babypennington.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1758"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}