The Pratt's Guide to Heart Warrior Parenting

/Begin Nerd Moment/ So, since I used The Lord of the Rings  as a reference earlier in my blog, it is only fitting that I continue that analogy. As we head into surgery day, we know we are walking the safest path. Unfortunately, it has its fair share of uncertainty and danger. The Norwood procedure is the most complex and precarious of the 3 surgeries Liam will need ( What is the Norwood Procedure? ). Not unlike deciding to trek through the Mines of Moria, we are confident this is the best course while also recognizing nothing is guaranteed. Will we get through the dark tunnel of this surgery? What kind of balrogs will we encounter along the way?  /End Nerd Moment/ As I write this, Logan and I are waiting by Liam’s bedside for the doctors to come and take him to the OR. I am by turns ready and wholly unprepared for that moment. After Liam is taken, we still need to take our daughter to day care- performing a normal ritual that helps with Eliza’s consistent schedule. We must ...

It’s not from a leaky toilet or a curious little girl with a hammer and it can’t be fixed by calling a handyman or contractor. This hole doesn’t have a simple solution and it’s only observable to the keen eye. It comes in the form of sleep-filled, quiet nights, the laughter or crying of only one kid instead of two. It’s in the absence of that age old cooing that every family member makes while leaning over Mom or a bassinet. This hole is Liam-shaped and it won’t be repaired for some time.  I realized while recovering in the maternity ward how much I and many others have taken for granted the ability to just leave the hospital with our newborns forever. Go forth and keep this little human being alive for the next 18 years. It’s a scary business getting in a car to go be parents with little to no experience, but how sweet it is to leave the hospital with only the worries of a normal baby to keep you on your toes. I mourn the loss of that sweet moment of stepping through the front do...

Honestly Alert: I kind of hate the song "It is Well with My Soul." It's not the words (believe it or not) or the accompanying music that rubs me the wrong way these days. It's the way in which it is sung in our churches. Someone I respect noted recently that churches in America tend to view this song as an anthem- something to be sung victoriously. And sure, there is victory in surrender and acknowledgement of God's sovereignty in the midst of intense grief, fear, and/or pain, but this song was likely written in the darkest of places under the most painful of circumstances- the deaths of the lyricist's children. Horatio Spafford's loss is undoubtedly one of the most tragic stories you'll ever hear. Of the eight children he and his wife, Anne, had together, only two survived to adulthood. As many may already know, four daughters drowned when a passenger ship crossing the Atlantic Ocean sunk- his wife was the only survivor in the family in that horrifi...