Lynn Howard

Hope everyone had a great 4th of July. We celebrated Independence Day with a family reunion. We have been going to this reunion since I was a baby. It began about 45 years ago. We have only missed 1 year back in the 80's. We had the best time. Ethan went to the Splash Pad with his sister and cousin (it has sprinklers and water spouts coming from the cement pad similar to the Olympic water park in Atlanta). He had a total ball. He was skittish at first but warmed up to it and started running all around. I was very surprised. We stayed there about 1 1/2 hours and when we told him it was time to go he cried and cried. I had to carry him out. We really enjoyed seeing our family and we ate a lot, too. Ethan also really enjoyed going to the playground; he loved the slides. He wore his CDH shirt. He had one with his ribbon picture but he threw up on that one so I put his blue "I am a CDH Survivor" shirt on. Most everybody knew he went through something when he showed up in 2009 with oxygen and then with the O2 again in 2010. But several people asked me what the saying on his shirt meant. When my husband and I explained exactly what happened to him, they were surprised. They had no idea he fought that hard for his life and what a miracle God performed. We can't wait to go back next year. Hopefully he will be eating then. He had a great time running (trotting) around with all the kids.