My Nephews

I have 2 younger sisters, Rachel & Anna, who both live in Texas. Anna, the youngest, aka Aunt Boo, is not married (yet, uh hum, Daryl, time to propose already), but has built a brand new house that she & Daryl will be moving into this summer. My other sister, Rachel, the middle child, is married to Uncle Richie, and they have 2 boys. We do have an older brother also, Daniel, who is divorced (a good thing), and has two adorable kidos, a boy (Stephen) & a girl (Linnea). You may be asking why I am telling you all of this? Before I launch into this post, I just thought you should have some background information on my siblings and our kidos. On a side note, Rachel & I are convinced that no matter how many children we would have, she would always have boys & me girls. Hence, I don't have an overwhelming desire to have a boy because my nephews (all though far away) are very special to me.


This is Gavin Pierce, he was born in August of 2009. I haven't met him yet in person, but am looking forward to meeting him this fall. I hear he is a very sweet natured baby, always happy, and he does coo affectionately at his Aunt Sarah on the phone. I am also planning on getting Skype set up for my Houstonian family so that we can "see" each other more regularly.


Mister Gavin in my parent's backyard, Gram & Pops, riding in his wagon. He has such twinkly little eyes that he got from his dad. All of us Laughlin kids have giant eyes and he is the first grandbaby to not have these. We think that is a blessing, see next.


Gavin with his Aunt Boo! The whole reason I decided to do this post was to ask for prayers for my youngest nephew Gavin. He was diagnosed just a couple weeks ago with a very rare (like one in a million) congenital anomaly called Morning Glory Disc Anomaly. As you can see, his left eye is crossed, and he is also mostly blind in that eye. There is no cure for this. They have started him on wearing a patch on his right eye to strengthen what little sight he does have on the left side. He hates this, as you could imagine, going from seeing just fine to barely being able to see & not being able to understand why would be very upsetting. We know that God can heal all & provides miracles everyday. We are thankful that there are no developmental issues associated with this and that he does have sight. Of course, Nurse Aunt Sarah did as much research as she could and guess what... there isn't much of anything on this because it is so rare. The most I learned was on a message board for people living with this disorder.

So here is what I need from you... Prayers! I know that God has wonderful things in store for this little one and I also know that God never gives anyone more than they can handle. It breaks my heart to think that he may get made fun of in school, because let's face it, that's what kids do. I pray that God helps the doctors he sees have the knowledge to give him the best treatment available, and from that that Gavin has the best possible outcome. I also pray that God gives Gavin the strength in life to stand up to those who don't understand and therefore say hurtful things. Most of all, I say thanks that he has sight in his right eye & that so far there are not any other comorbidities associated with this that we know of. I feel very blessed that Gavin is a part of our family and is a happy, healthy, normal baby boy!


This is Ethan Nicholas, Gavin's proud big brother. He is and has always been a character. He wants to be just like his Pops! He is wearing a pair of cowboy boots that belong to my dad, the only pair that he is "allowed" to wear. Ethan is also very mischievous, he wants to do grown up things just like "Pops"! This gets him into trouble a lot! And although he is almost 5 years old, you can't take your eyes off of him or you never know what you might find.


He is ALL boy! Like I said before, whatever Pops is doing, Ethan is doing too. My mom said that she wouldn't put it past him to try and use one of my dad's power tools that he has seen him use, so for that reason, my dad only works with these when he is not home or out of sight.


Mister Ethan being his normal goofy self. I wish I had a picture of the face he makes when he knows he is being mischievous. I am sure I do somewhere; or Mom send me one if you are reading this, you know the face.

Anyway, these are my precious nephews and as close to sons as I will ever have. Thanks for letting me share my extended family with you! -SR


Thanks Aunt Boo for sending me this one of Ethan when he was 3 years old. This captures that infamous mischievous face he makes perfectly. What a pumpkin!