Thanks!

Hey all, tomorrow is back to the doctor day for Andrew. The picture to the right is his plea to mom asking her not to take him back to the people that stick him and poke him a lot.

Kelly and I wanted to use this venue to thank everybody that has helped us out this week. From people dropping by to let Murphy out while we were in the hospital, to those of you that have been generous enough to make meals for us and drop them off. We even had a family member take the chance to plant flowers in our front planter. Kelly and I would also like to thank people for all of the calls of support and advice. We wish to say thank you to those of you that helped us get Andrew's room ready in such short order. Kelly and I also wanted to thank the teachers at our schools picking up where we left off. We understand how busy the end of the year is at school, and cannot thank you enough for not only educating our children in our absence, but also for taking on our administrative duties as well.

The challenging part of doing thank yous this way is that you tend to forget something or someone. We know how fortunate we are to have great friends and family like yourselves.

Arriving Home

Home at last. After some more tests, and comments too numerous to count regarding how cute Andrew is from hospital staff, we departed Mercy Hospital for home.

Upon arriving came our first "real world" test for Andrew...Murphy (our golden retriever). The two became acquainted and quickly went about their separate ways. You can tell they went their own ways as I don't even have a picture of the two of them together. So you will have to take my word for the fact that they were in the same room as one another for at least a couple of minutes.

We took a walking tour of Andrew's new home. From what I could tell he was content with the accommodations. Quickly after the tour it was nap time. Mom and dad scrambled around the house making sure everything was where it was supposed to be.

Soon after Andrew had his first visitors, the Hilfers. Chris, Lisa, Jess & Katie came to visit. Murphy even got a visitor as Charlie (the chocolate lab) came to play too.

Well, it's off to bed. Wish us luck.

Some Pictures of Andrew

Here's our first family photo. If all three of us look tired, it because we are. I would say mom and Andrew worked a lot harder than I did, but in the end we were all relieved that everyone was feeling well.









It seemed like all night (and into the next day) doctors, nurses and anybody in a semi-foul mood took the chance to prod, poke and measure Andrew. He took it all in stride right up until they put him on that ice-cold scale to weigh him. It was at this time that Andrew took it upon himself to display his displeasure with the process.




Andrew still seems to enjoy hanging out with mom and dad...and they love it! We have had a few chances to just talk and get to know one another.




Andrew, Kelly and I wanted to say thank you to everybody that has stopped by or wished us well. Kelly and I feel blessed to have Andrew, he is truly the most incredible thing we have ever laid eyes on. All three of us feel very fortunate to have caring family and friends like yourselves.

We took pictures of nearly everybody that has come in to visit Andrew. I am not omitting your pictures due to quality or content, but rather we will attribute it to permission pending. If you frequent this page and do not object to having your picture up here, just drop me (Kevin) an email telling me that it's ok to have you and yours on the web. I just didn't want to surprise anybody with their pictures on the web.

We hope to post again soon.

- Kevin (a.k.a. Dad)

Announcing Andrew John!

Andrew John Oldenburg
Born: 5/25/2008
At: 4:53 pm
20.5 inches
6 lbs 12 oz

Andrew arrived with a big bang. There were tornadoes just a few miles away, skies poured inches of rain, and hail fell when Andrew gave us his first cry.

He was greeted by a number of family members brave enough to challenge mother nature. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins all had a chance to meet their newest family member.

Andrew and mom are doing quite well. He slept a good deal of the first twenty-four hours, but after his 9 o'clock feeding Monday night, felt the urge to look around and get to know mom and dad a little better.