{"id":114,"date":"2022-01-13T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-01-13T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cota1.wpengine.com\/cotaforpeterh\/2022\/01\/13\/winter-update\/"},"modified":"2022-01-13T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T00:00:00","slug":"winter-update","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforpeterh\/2022\/01\/13\/winter-update\/","title":{"rendered":"Winter Update!"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Happy fall and winter!&nbsp; It&#8217;s been quite a while since my last update.&nbsp; As they say, no news is good news, but quite a lot has been happening these past few months.&nbsp; Most of it leaves my brain unfit for composing anything worthy of publishing, however.&nbsp; Life is busy and crazy and we are grateful&#8230;but, boy, does it make me tired sometimes!&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Click here for our CaringBridge, where I have posted some pictures:&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.caringbridge.org\/visit\/peterhernandez\/journal\/view\/id\/61e03f4695ae333b44280a68\">https:\/\/www.caringbridge.org\/visit\/peterhernandez\/journal\/view\/id\/61e03f4695ae333b44280a68<\/a>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>All three of our kids have the first semester of school under their belts.&nbsp; We heard great reports from all their teachers after the first quarter.&nbsp; Peter goes to preschool three afternoons a week and language lab for an hour on the other two days each week.&nbsp; He loves school!&nbsp; However, he had kind of a rocky start.&nbsp; Because of the reality of our lives, Peter has basically been with me (or a family member) every second of the day for the past few years.&nbsp; Therefore, it was not a surprise, but was nonetheless heartbreaking, when he had a hard time being dropped off.&nbsp; For the first few weeks, he cried every time I dropped him off, although he did go willingly with the teacher.&nbsp; He became more comfortable every day and now he loves to go!&nbsp; Peter is a very young three-year-old and has some things to work on, but he has been progressing.&nbsp; His teacher commented that he wants to learn and work hard and wants to obey, although he&rsquo;s a little bit ornery as well.&nbsp; Several people have commented that his speech is becoming more clear and his vocabulary is increasing.&nbsp; He uses complete sentences on a regular basis.&nbsp; His personality seems to be a blend of his siblings&mdash;friendly but not quite as outgoing as Michael; curious and observational, but doesn&rsquo;t stand back and watch before participating quite as much as Aurora did at his age.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Since I last posted some significant anniversaries have past:&nbsp; September 17 marked three years since Peter&rsquo;s first open-heart surgery, and October 12 was three years since Peter&rsquo;s cardiac arrest and second round on life support.&nbsp; November 1 was the anniversary of being listed for transplant.&nbsp; Next month is Heart Month and the 3<sup>rd<\/sup> anniversary of Peter&rsquo;s transplant.&nbsp; Every day we are aware of what a miracle we have living in our house!<\/p>\n<p>Here are some other happenings:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Michael began playing cello this fall and is enjoying it so far.<\/li>\n<li>He continues to invent Lego, Magnatiles, and Snap Circuit creations daily.<\/li>\n<li>Aurora began orchestra and has been enjoying it. Her violin playing is quite beautiful.&nbsp;<\/li>\n<li>The big kids joined 4H.<\/li>\n<li>Aurora got braces!<\/li>\n<li>Aurora participated in robotics through our school.<\/li>\n<li>Peter is in love with Paw Patrol and inherited quite a collection from his cousin.<\/li>\n<li>Christopher continues to balance growing his business, teaching two classes at our school, family life, and his college classes. He is on track to complete his degree in a year.<\/li>\n<li>I have been enjoying teaching literature and library classes.<\/li>\n<li>On a sad note, my mom passed away after a long battle with Alzheimer&#8217;s.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Most recently, we connected with Brittney, the mother of Peter&rsquo;s heart donor, who was a sweet little boy named Arkaydin.&nbsp; We pray with Peter daily for our donor&rsquo;s family, and it has been a blessing to share about well Peter is doing.&nbsp; In fact, Brittney, Christopher, and I (and all three of our kids, off and on) participated in an interview regarding our families connecting.&nbsp; Here is the link to that story: <a href=\"https:\/\/journaltimes.com\/news\/local\/two-families-one-heart-how-the-tragic-death-of-a-baby-in-racine-saved-the\/article_935a4db3-0648-53f7-9e95-1060979223d5.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook_Racine_Uncovered_News&amp;fbclid=IwAR0LtmCGuQk46vSe9cdstgYv8z_Yj5O2r89WBX3sUJy_k8vBHqH2tdQPH2k\">https:\/\/journaltimes.com\/news\/local\/two-families-one-heart-how-the-tragic-death-of-a-baby-in-racine-saved-the\/article_935a4db3-0648-53f7-9e95-1060979223d5.html?utm_campaign=snd-autopilot&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_source=facebook_Racine_Uncovered_News&amp;fbclid=IwAR0LtmCGuQk46vSe9cdstgYv8z_Yj5O2r89WBX3sUJy_k8vBHqH2tdQPH2k<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Brittney is in the process of raising money to purchase a headstone for Arkaydin&rsquo;s grave.&nbsp; If you feel led, please consider donating: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/arkaydin-stone?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=p_cp%20share-sheet&amp;fbclid=IwAR39BkfkxCbpxWuhlDvW9_3j0zU3wsDNlb94SMVya7OgajZ5mL4vll3O4J0\">https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/arkaydin-stone?utm_source=facebook&amp;utm_medium=social&amp;utm_campaign=p_cp%20share-sheet&amp;fbclid=IwAR39BkfkxCbpxWuhlDvW9_3j0zU3wsDNlb94SMVya7OgajZ5mL4vll3O4J0<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As always, we thank you for your prayers!&nbsp; I know many of you have prayed for our donor family and we thank you for that as well!&nbsp; Please continue!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Happy fall and winter!&nbsp; It&#8217;s been quite a while since my last update.&nbsp; As they say, no news is good news, but quite a lot has been happening these past few months.&nbsp; Most of it leaves my brain unfit for composing anything worthy of publishing, however.&nbsp; Life is busy and crazy and we are grateful&#8230;but, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-114","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforpeterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforpeterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforpeterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforpeterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforpeterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforpeterh\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}