THE WINSTEADS: April 2010

Thursday, April 8, 2010

These are just a couple of recents pictures of Braden. The other little ones are his best little buddies, who we see on a weekly basis. He LOVES him some Lila Rose and Henry:)

Braden is all boy for sure! He stands on everything and anything!! His other little teeth are finally coming through, so hopefully he'll be in a better mood! Love you sweetie:)

Monday, April 5, 2010

Happy Easter

We had such a great day yesterday! We had invited a sweet couple over from our Sunday school class for brunch. I made my mom's yummy cheese grits, pigs in a blanket and Mary Caradine brought an egg torte that was out of this world!

Braden loved his little Easter basket. He's obsessed with my cell phone, so I bought him one and he literally carries it around everywhere. I bought him some little matchbox cars too that he loves. The weather has been perfect here the past few days, so we are enjoying being outside for a change!!! Happy Easter!

As most of you probably know by now, Brad was diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma two weeks ago. It came as an incredible shock to us and our families. We went to a Sunday school party Sunday night and Brad played kickball with all of the guys. He was sore the next day and took some Ibuprofen on an empty stomach. Tuesday, he started passing blood in his urine and went to the walk in clinic. They immediately sent him to the ER where he found out five hours later that he had a golf ball size tumor in his left kidney. We met with the urologist the next day and he scheduled the surgery for the following Thursday. Dr. Locke was able to remove the entire tumor. He only had to remove 1/4 of his kidney. He will not have to do chemo OR radiation and for that...we are so thankful. We are finally back home and Brad is recovering well. Our lives have been completely turned upside down the past two weeks, but we both have new outlooks on life. We are so grateful that God has blessed us with our beautiful baby boy who just turned 10 weeks old this week. We have learned that life is a true and absolute GIFT and we will appreciate every single day we have with one another. I love Brad more than I ever have before. I've been scared, mad, anxious, and happy all at once. I am so thankful we caught the cancer at such an early stage. We have a lot of life left to live and so many more memories to make. Braden and I love you Brad...