{family//before}

just two days before isaac came, we were out taking pictures with our wonderful friend & buying gogurt.

things change awfully fast.

we haven't had any pictures of us since our wedding, so this was kind of a family shoot to celebrate two years & also to get some pictures of me pregnant still - although you can't totally tell in a lot of them.

its already funny to see myself with a belly. & at that time i couldn't imagine ever being able to lay on my stomach again...

{all photos copyright of blue kite photo  - check out his work! michael is incredible}

{& the winner is…}

CONGRATS KATIE!!!
head on over to knox's blog {if you haven't already} & pick out your toms!!!
{& by the way…i want a picture once you get them!}

i've kind of kept quiet this past week, if you all haven't noticed. when knox & kendra first mentioned doing this giveaway i was first of all, totally amazed by knox. daniel & i haven't even met him & he has spent so much time & his own money into this giveaway & he would probably try to downplay that & say it really isn't that big of a deal - but it really is, so THANK YOU. & thank you kendra for helping out this past week, too & for the crazy amount of people that tweeted about this & got the whole #babyisaac thing going. it was insane to watch all of that happening!

we are totally humbled - because i don't know if we would have given like you all have in the past. every person that donated to us is amazing whether it was $5 or $500 - just taking the time & sacrificing funds {that i know are in short supply for so many people} to do that for us means so much & HELPS so much.

isaac is the most beautiful & costly gift we've ever received - in a lot of ways. but right at the outset it helps incredibly much to know we don't have to worry about bills so much & can just take care of & love on him.

i'm pretty sure i could type for forever & it wouldn't be enough to thank you all. just know that we are beyond grateful for each & every one of you. & isaac is grateful, too.

much much love,
the colemans.

{win a pair of TOMs & more}

Source: momentumshop.ca via Mindy on Pinterest

Hello readers and friends of Mindy!

My name is Kendra Sands. I have had the pleasure of being friends with Mindy and Daniel since before they were "the Colemans in love". They are very very dear to me. I asked permission to hijack the blog today to share with you an awesome opportunity to help them out!

After reading a lot of your comments, I know that you all love Mindy, Daniel and Isaac very much...that you have carried them in prayers, and that you ache for a way to serve them.

Mindy doesn't talk much about it, but you can probably guess that the hospital expenses in caring for sweet Isaac are quite intense.

You might not have noticed, but there is a button to the right that you can click on to donate to help them out. If you have given already, THANK YOU.

An awesome blogging friend of mine, Knox McCoy, began following the Coleman's story a few months back. He has a baby girl about the same age as Isaac, so their story hit close to home. Knox came up with a brilliant idea to help them raise money for Isaac's medical bills, and also allow you to win a pair of TOMs!

So please go to Knox's blog to find out more: knoxmccoy.com.

Also, please help by spreading the word about this giveaway. Tweet it, blog it, facebook it, tattoo it on your neck, whatever you can do to help!

PS- And while I am here, maybe you all can settle a mini-debate Daniel and I had. I like to think of Isaac having a deeper, tough guy voice. That is how i make him talk when I'm around him. Daniel gives him a higher pitched, kinda squeaky voice. Like a cartoon puppy. Which do you feel would be more accurate?

{a map of prayers}

isaac's map is in place.
over 200 pins & a lot of googling cities later.

it really gives me chills just thinking of all of the beautiful people from all over the world it represents.

all we can really say is thank you.
its not really enough, but we truly mean it.

i wish we could hug each of you that have lifted up our little family in prayer, & know all of your names & say how much it means to us in person. but we hope you all feel at least a little bit of our gratitude & know you are represented in a small, but special way through this.

{home again}

as of friday afternoon, our sweet little boy came home - after seven weeks.

he was a bit overwhelmed, at all of the newness & color & the quietness of our home compared to the NPCN, but he's a quick adjuster, & i'm pretty sure he is going to like it here :)

we are so loving our time with him all snuggled up at home. & its good to just be in our home again. its been a really long time since we've been here too, except to sleep. we're starting to feel a bit more like ourselves again...

thank you for all of the prayers that have carried us through the past seven weeks, & really the last 10 months. & for all of the prayers that will continue as isaac's little journey progresses. things happened so much differently than we even thought we had prepared ourselves for, but we were reminded again tonite that even though isaac & us have a lot ahead of us that may be really hard & painful, we are just cherishing today & the fact that his body is functioning well & feel so blessed to be his parents…almost a year of  craziness with our first little boy still hasn't left us totally hopeless. maybe a little worn. & maybe a little cried out. but we will experience so much in life that now that we never would with another baby. god picked us out the perfect piece that was missing in our family of two.

leaving the hospital friday was actually a lot more emotional than i thought it would be. as thrilled as we were for isaac to be coming home, his little room was starting to feel more like home than our actual home & we have gotten so used to seeing his nurses & love so many of them, it was really sad thinking that we wont see them often from now on…

but being home is even better than i could have imagined.

we're just joining in on the sleepless parent syndrome. i'm pretty sure we even dreamt about being exhausted last night when i acutally did get a bit of sleep, but we will take the sleepless nights {mostly} gladly.

home to us almost seems free of fanconi anemia & all of the fears of what isaac's future may look like {for now} & he is just a normal, beautiful baby that just wants to be fed ALL the time. so one chapter ends & another begins.

& all i can think about right now…is how hard it is going to be when daniel goes to work & i have to grocery shop & make doctors appointments between his feeding times & all of the 'normal' mommy things that i've missed out on for the last while. & thats a nice thing to try to figure out for a change :)

{a weekend to catch up}

we spent  the first part of our weekend bustling about the house trying to get things in a bit of order because…


isaac could possibly possibly be coming home this week {!!!}


daniel spent a lot of saturday burrowed down in our crawlspace insulating our kitchen & breakfast nook {the floor was icy cold last winter} 

we've also been working towards getting my car fixed. we had a bit of a breakdown a few days ago in the parking deck of the hospital actually. smoke everywhere. {i did have a bit of a stress-fest for a few hours over it. i have to confess. but after i thought about it - it was kind of silly. theres so many other things that should be upsetting right now, so what is a bit of car trouble, really. so many other great things happened this past week, too, that i shouldn't really focus on the little bit of bad}


it really was the first time i think i've been at home for more than just sleeping in probably two weeks. & it was actually really nice to just putter around & organise things & mess around in the kitchen a bit.

so a lot is going on. we cannot WAIT to bring our little button home. i'm trying not to get my hopes up too terribly much, but it can hardly be helped.

isaac is doing so wonderfully. he's eating great & he's so much more alert now. & we had a big pow-wow with quite a few of our doctors that was really helpful & i also met a FA mom & her son friday afternoon that was SO encouraging.


thank you all, too, for the sweet birthday wishes. i was so spoiled this past week by my husband & sweet friends & a snuggly little baby. it couldn't have been a better week, i think :)

{happy birthday to me}

the sweetness that awaited me this morning at the hospital :)
my favorite baby boy with a present him & dad have been planning.
& a birthday banner from one of our sweet night nurses.
& chic fil a. also from a nurse.
they are really starting to feel like friends to us. i suppose thats what happens when you've been at the hospital for so long.

it really truly was, i think, my best birthday yet.
23 may not be the easiest of years, but i know already that it will be wonderful with my two boys by my side.

{fanconi anemia}

thats what our brave little son has.
its complicated.
its super uncommon, so there isn't an overabundance of research or awareness.
& thats why we are talking about it, now.

because our son has it & even the fact that the doctors were able to identify it this early is really a miracle in itself. our geneticist had seen a case of it over 10 years ago & saw similarities with isaac.
a lot of doctors don't even know what it is, or have never seen it before.
but he asked that isaac be tested for it & it all came back positive.

i know most of you aren't doctors, & i'm not either. i've just been living in a hospital for the last month. but if you only know two sentences about FA, this is what it is:

fanconi anemia is a rare blood disorder. it often doesn't show itself, or begin to affect its patients until school age - but everything is arbitrary. it could be much sooner, or possibly a bit later. the result is bone marrow failure {the inability to produce blood cells}. The only thing that can be done for this is a bone marrow transfusion. & also because of the problem with blood cells, FA kids are at a much much higher risk of developing leukemia or other cancers, too. FA also can come with its list of anomalies, such as kidney troubles, slow or stunted growth, missing thumbs, an imperforate anus - all things isaac has. 

it absolutely broke my heart to hear this about our boy.
i was angry & hurt. daniel wasn't there with me. it was all i could do to make it to my car before i curled up & cried. i had thought the worst was {possibly} over & this news just took my breath away.
its still hard & i would still possibly cry talking to you about it - but since the initial news, our hearts have changed.

it breaks my heart for our little boy - & honestly, it hurt too, because it broke the dream i had of this perfect little family - perfect as in not having to do with doctors & hospitals & transfusions & cancer...thats not apart of anyones plan when they start thinking about a family. & it definitely wasn't apart of mine.

but then i started thinking more about it & daniel talked me thru a lot & we prayed.
& so maybe isaac won't be 'guaranteed' the long & simple life i wanted for him. but then, no one really is. & in the meantime we can't consume ourselves with what could happen next year, or in five years, or ten because daniel & i aren't guaranteed that time, either.

we are definitely going to fight this with everything we have. we're going to study our brains out & email doctors & other families & we're going to pray every day that God heals our boy. but we are also going to just enjoy him each day for as long as we're all together. however long that is, knowing that he is the perfect boy for us & we're the perfect parents for him. & that the situation hurts - but we won't let it steal our joy in isaac or our joy in life.

this is kind of heavy.
& honestly, this is way worse than anything we had even expected. we had debated as to whether we wanted to share this with people on a really wide scale. but FA doesn't limit isaac or us. it doesn't change the wonderful plans God has for this boy & we definitely still are in need of prayer & we want people to know how they can pray for isaac.

this is going to be a long journey for the three of us & there are about a thousand questions we have, but we'll make it through & we'll keep laughing & loving each other & our son & our Lord.

much love to all of our friends - to the ones we've met & also the one's we haven't.


"Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, & yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? & which of you by being anxious can add one cubit to his span of life?….Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Let the day's own trouble be sufficient for the day"


Matthew 10:26-27;34