Our New Journey!

"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well." Psalm 139:14

On the morning after Nelson's debut into the world, we found out that our precious baby boy was born with clubfeet. What is clubfeet you may ask? This is a condition in which the foot points downward and inward. This occurs in approximately 1 in every 1000 births and is two times more common in boys than girls. As we have said many times in the past couple of weeks, we are so thankful to live in America in this day and age where this condition can be corrected and our precious one will be able to walk! Something you don't think about every day to be thankful for!

We got three full weeks in of cuddling our precious boy's legs, feet, and toes...and then last week he got his first set of casts on! They are the cutest things!! We will go each week to get new casts and after 6 weeks or so, the position of the feet should be corrected. The next step in the journey will be for Nelson to wear these adorable shoes with a bar in between them (called the "braces) and it's very important that we as parents are diligent about him keeping these on for around 23 hours a day so that they will hold the corrected feet in position. Brandon has joked with me that "who could be a more disciplined Mom for Nelson than the one who still wears her retainers, after getting braces off in the 8th grade for her teeth!"

It's been amazing to hear people share with us that they had clubfeet, or their sister, husband, etc did...it's apparently more common that we first thought. It's been encouraging to read about different all-star athletes that were born with clubfeet and now you would never even know. God is so into all of the details - even down to the fact that one of our good friend's moms was delivering dinner the other night and shared with us that three out of her six children had clubfeet. At first it seemed very overwhelming to process being first time parents and then facing the fact that our sweet little one will have to wear casts and braces on his feet and legs...but it's been amazing to see how the more information we have learned, the more at peace we are and the more encouraged we are that this is "short term" and the road the Lord has marked out for us to be on. 

We are excited to share this journey with you and look forward to hearing from any of you that may have had clubfeet (as a child) or have walked this road with your children (as a parent). We know that there is fellowship when we walk in the light - and we look forward to, Lord willing, being vulnerable with you about the ups and downs...because we know that people can relate to that! And please join with us in prayer that the Lord will use us and our story to be a blessing to others. If there is a doctor, nurse, office worker, etc that doesn't know the Lord...may we be a "bright spot" in their life when we're in the doctor's office each week for our new casts. Only the Lord can see the bigger picture! We know that our story is just a small part of the bigger story - we're just thankful to be part of HIS story! 

We have included two pics below so that you can see from us how adorable Nelson is in his casts! We have heard we may want to keep him "covered up" when we're in Wal-Mart though (!!) so that we don't get feedback from the peanut gallery...asking how our newborn child already got hurt! When in fact, he is in no pain at all and has NOT had a sports injury at the big boy age of...four weeks! 

Chillin' with his best bud, Crawford, at Pinkberry...after his first casting! 

These are the cute 'lil leg warmers we got to put over the casts...help keep the casts clean throughout the week!