Quick catch-up

I haven't posted in awhile, so here are some photos from the Auburn vs. Florida weekend:

 I must say, our tailgate is pretty awesome:

My brother and Katie:

 I love an Auburn sunset, especially over Jordan Hare Stadium. I stole this photo from a friend's facebook page:

Campus looks lovely in the background of the stadium:



Dad's 60th birthday celebration

I had such a fun weekend! My dad's 60th birthday was 9/26, but with all of the recent craziness (death of his father, Paige's heart transplant), we had to postpone the celebration. My brothers and sister planned a weekend full of Atlanta excitement. Our spouses were unfortunately tied up for the weekend (Kellye with Paige, Andrew in Arkansas with the boys, and Harrison hard at work catching up on grading and lesson plans), so it was just the 'Cunningham Originals.'

Friday kicked off by visiting Paige at her home. It was so nice to see her in the comfortable surroundings of home. She looked great; just a little fussy on some of the new meds. As long as she was in her dad's arms, she was content:

From there we picked up my parents from the Omni Hotel/CNN center. Nate booked them a couple of nights at this nice hotel. We had drinks at Meehan's Irish Pub:

 and then went to the Sundial for dinner. The Sundial is the rotating restaurant at the top of the Westin hotel (on the 72nd floor). The views of the city are phenomenal! We had a fantastic dinner and feasted on some incredible desserts. In 1993, I had my first slice of cheesecake at that restaurant, so I had to try it there again. It did NOT disappoint!

On Saturday, we met my parents at the Georgia Aquarium and spent several hours checking out all of the cool exhibits.

We had lunch at Der Beirgarten on Marietta St. Their version of Oktoberfest was going on during the full month of October, so we wanted to check it out. For lunch, it was pretty tame, but we enjoyed sitting on the deck eating bratwurst, knackwurst, weisswurst, Reuben rolls, and goulash. Everything tasted nice with a tasty Hefeweizen. Aren't they cute?

From there we went to the Sweetwater Brewery for a tasting and a tour. I LOVE me some Sweetwater Blue! For just $10, they gave us a souvenir glass, tickets to sample six beers, a tour, and live music.  The tour was pretty wimpy, but worth the value.

We had dinner at Stats, where we also watched the Auburn game. The game didn't end well, so I'll leave it at that. We had such a great time spending the weekend celebrating with our dear ole dad. Happy 60th, Dad!

Paige has a new heart!

The Cunninghams, immediately prior to Paige's transplant:

Our precious, nearly 11 month old niece had a heart transplant during the early hours of 9/30/11. Paige was only on the transplant list for 16 days before receiving word (late afternoon on 9/29) that she'd been blessed with this opportunity. Surgery only took about 3 hours, as opposed to the expected 6-8 hours. She was only sedated on the ventilator for a few hours before waking up (as opposed to the expected 72 hours...such a strong fighter). Today, her IV cardiac meds (Milrinone and Isupril) and oxygen were discontinued, and she was moved into the cardiac stepdown unit. We are so thankful and amazed at her progress. Thank you for all of the prayers; God is good! Please continue to pray for the donor family, Paige's successful recovery and acceptance of her new heart, the parents (Nate and Kellye ), and the mini-Cunningham's in Kellye 's belly! We'll know this week if Paige is going to have little brothers or little sisters!

Here's a photo that I took of Paige today in the hospital (2 days post-transplant:):

She's a little groggy from the pain meds :-)

Here's Kellye's latest CarePage update from today:

Paige is doing so well! As soon as they brought her to the floor, they took her off oxygen (so she could lose the tubes in her nose) and they removed another one of her IV lines because it didn't seem to be flushing well. So we're down to 1 IV line in her right leg and the Broviac catheter, along with the chest tubes, of course. They will closely monitor the chest tube drainage over night but hopefully those will be removed tomorrow.
I feel like Paige had a better day today than yesterday as far as her pain level. Yesterday, she continued to receive morphine because she would get so agitated and upset, and there was no real calming her down. Today she did not receive any pain meds until after being moved the the CSU (Cardiac Stepdown Unit).
On tomorrow's schedule she should have a chest Xray, an echocardiogram, and labs. All of these tests determine how Paige's new heart is doing and how her body is adjusting to her new heart. We are constantly praying for no rejection or infection because these can pose major setbacks in Paige's recovery.
We are so pleased with how quickly Paige is "jumping these hurdles" to quote Dr. Mahle. At the same time, it's a little scary because Paige has always been the "slow and steady" baby that takes a little while to adjust but eventually she gets it. Apparently with her new heart, she is just taking off and instead of the tortoise, she just might be the hare!
It appears our discharge date may not be too far in the future and she received her heart less than 72 hours ago! Our God is an AWESOME God! We continue to praise and thank Him for the precious gift of Paige's life and all the blessings He has showered on us -- including you (our fan base!) who constantly lift us up in prayer. Y'all are AMAZING!!