SWEET words

Elleigh: "Hey Lizzie, what do you want to be when you grow up? Do you want to be a Dr?"

Lizzie: "No"

Elleigh: "Want to be a teacher?"

Lizzie: "No"

Elleigh: "CEO?" (I am sure Lizzie knew what this meant-ha!)

Lizzie: "No"

Elleigh: "Firefighter?"

Lizzie: "No"

Elleigh: "A mommy?"

Lizzie: "Uh huh, A MOMMY!!!"

SWEET, SWEET words to this mommy! I need to remember those words everyday at every minute because I am her example as a mommy all day, everyday. That's a lot of pressure! I long to be a mommy my girls want to be!

Celebrating with my best friend, fun with the girls, and blessings!

Oct. 19th was our anniversary and we celebrated on Friday night. First, we went to the mall to pick up a few things. Going to the mall with no children was an experience. We got things done much faster! Aaron is not a shopper but neither am I really so it didn't take us long. We finished up and went to see Fireproof. It was really good and reminded me of how much work it is to be married but how rewarding it is to put a lot of effort in it and what can happen when we don't. The world tells us that marriage gets boring after a while, and when it gets tough just get out, or you just live unhappy. I am proud to say that our marriage is definitely not boring and I love him more now than ever before. Has it been tough? Yes! Is it a lot of work? Yes! Do we have problems sometimes? Yes! However, the more experience we get at this the more we learn to work through the problems and to put tons of time and effort into our marriage. It is far from perfect but it is worth every struggle!

Elleigh took this of us before we left for our date (in the minivan!) I think it is funny that he has a pen in his shirt pocket in this picture. He has always done this and it is probably the only thing he still does that drives me crazy (oh and leaving cabinets open!) I don't know what my deal is with the pen in the front pocket. Weird I know! I still love him though! Then we went to Texas de Brazil for dinner!!! YUMMMM!!! We should still be stuffed. It is great and a wonderful place to go on your anniversary. Sign up on-line and they send you something for your anniversary so that 2 dine for the price of 1 (you know I am all about a deal!). We are not sure if they always do this but also they gave us dessert free since it was our anniversary. I did not take this picture but it was on-line and this was the view from the table where we sat. We love Texas de Brazil!!!
We left there and walked around downtown for a while. We needed to walk a lot! We love downtown. It is such a neat, fun place. Then we headed to Starbucks! No date is complete for us without Starbucks. We were so full that we only wanted water. That is a first for us. I still can't believe it! But, we like to go in and unwind and talk and get geared up to head back to the girls. It was a wonderful night!!!


High School Musical 3 premiered this weekend so I took Elleigh and Sallie to see it. OK, I must admit, I really like it too. It was great to spend time with Elleigh and Sallie and A was able to spend time with Lizzie and Millie. It is hard but we try to spend time with them separated at times. One on one time is really difficult because of time issues but even dividing them 2 and 2 makes a big difference. They get to get a lot more individual attention. The movie was good. Sallie is so funny getting all into it!

This is what was waiting at the parsonage on Saturday. All of this, plus a big set of dishes, glasses, and silverware. It is a lot of stuff! We should be set there with staples for a while! They are so good to us! God is so good!

(Aaron took this with his phone so it is not a great picture but you get the idea)

Her Story (Part 3)

We brought our sweet baby girl home and it was scary. Like most parents we listened intently to her breathe but our senses were heightened even more. We really had no idea what was “wrong” with her so we didn’t know what to expect. Of course, we knew some of the more obvious issues but not everything. I can’t tell you how much time I have put into trying to decide exactly how to write this portion. I tried writing it in chronological order and it skipped so much and was overwhelming to try to keep in order so then I decided to just take it one issue at a time. Basically the genetics and chromosome testing came back normal. Normal meaning that they did not see a specific problem with her genes or chromosomes and that her defects did not fit a certain pattern. It was a long wait and I can remember exactly where I was in our house when I got the phone call with the results. I was relieved yet I remember saying, “so what now?” If we don’t have a name for this then how do we know what to expect. I learned a lot about syndromes and disorders. The geneticists look at a set of birth defects and say whether or not they fit a certain pattern (named syndrome or disorder). If they do, you are diagnosed as having that if not then it’s a matter of whether your case is interesting enough to study. They told us that one day there might be a Sallie syndrome. Different doctors have speculated on what they think she might have but no real conclusions have been made. When she was younger we felt after a while that some of them were just enticed by the fact that it was a challenge to find out “what was wrong.” We asked if there was anything that could be done to help her with all the syndromes that were mentioned and we were told no so we said leave her alone. Our ENT who we love dearly and we know has Sallie’s best interest at heart feels that genetics might be able to find something now. He said that sometimes as children get older disorders can be more easily identified and therefore we might know through that how to best help her. We talked with our pediatrician who is really a no nonsense kind of man and we knew he would not want us to do something with her that would not possibly benefit all of us and he agree with our ENT. So, all of that to say we go back to genetics in a couple of weeks. I can’t tell you what this means for me. I will do anything in this world for her but I got so disgusted with the whole genetics deal that I thought I would never go back but we have the appointment now and we are going. We may not learn anything new and that is fine and if we do then that is great as well. Please pray for me. The closer this gets the more scared I get. I get lots of thoughts in my head about what we may find out and I need peace about this. So, since we don’t have a name for what is “wrong” she is labeled as having isolated birth defects. They are all midline (meaning midline of the body) but that still really does not tell us anything. When I was pregnant with Lizzie my OB/GYN sent me to meet with genetics because of Sallie (you can imagine how thrilled I was). We went over everything and she mentioned that the problem could have been that my cord with Sallie was only 2 vessels and it should be 3 and that possibly the defects were caused because there was not enough blood supply to her at the time those particular organs affected were being formed. However, she is the only professional we have talked to with this opinion so… Back to the isolated birth defects.

1) Hypothyroidism: At 7 weeks blood work confirmed that she did have this. She was put on medicine and her levels were monitored closely to adjust dosages for the first 3 years at which point the endocrinologist released us back to our pediatrician for him to monitor. At age 4 her levels tested normal and we took her off the medication. We have lab requests now for them to check her levels. We will always keep a check on them to ensure they remain in the normal range.

2) Unilateral Kidney: Her one kidney functions fine and we try to do everything possible to protect it. In the past couple of years she has had some problems with UTI’s and within the past year we discovered through testing that she does have some urinary reflux but it is not major. Once again, it just has to be monitored.

3) Bi-cuspid Aortic Valve: The aortic valve should be tri-cuspid (meaning 3 branches) and Sallie’s only has 2 branches. This was monitored very closely for a while. She was also born with PDA and a heart murmur both of which corrected within the first year of her life. As for the bi-cuspid aortic valve we have been told that she should not have any problems with it until possibly when she is older and her heart is having to work harder and this issue causes it to have to work even harder. She does have to have antibiotics before she has any procedure done to prevent infection in the heart. Sallie’s first surgery was at 4 months old and because of her heart and other issues we were told that she was in the highest risk category for anesthesia. The day they took her from me was for sure the most scared I have ever been. Anesthesia would not take her in until her cardiologist came to the room, did an ultrasound and said she was good to go. Handing your baby over to strangers is an incredibly tough thing to do but really tough when they are making sure you understand that she is at a great risk. Praise God she has always done remarkably well with anesthesia. The only problems we have had is stabilizing her oxygen levels after surgeries and this is mostly due to the fact that she gets so upset until they get her back to us and then her levels get all messed up and she will generally have to have some breathing treatments to get her back to normal. We are quick to tell them to get us to her as quickly as possible and we will all be better off and we have been very fortunate that they listen to us and get us back there so we are with her when she wakes us. We are currently waiting on an appt. with a cardiologist here just to have her heart checked and make sure things are still the same. They are waiting on her complete history before scheduling the appointment. We are professional “waiters”.

4) Cleft palate: We went to what is called cleft clinic a lot. We would go over feeding and the plastic surgeon would monitor the palate to decide the exact time it needed to be repaired. Let me add here the difference between cleft palate and cleft lip. Cleft palate is a whole in the top of the mouth. It can be of the hard palate or the soft palate or both. Sallie’s was of both. Cleft lip is the slit or whole that is seen on the lip or outside of the mouth. Sallie’s was only palate, not lip. You could not look at her unless you were looking inside her mouth and know she had a cleft palate. Feeding was a major issue for her. Like I mentioned before we literally forced every drop of formula into her. It was awful! Some cleft babies do not have tons of feeding issues but Sallie also had major reflux and the combination was not a good one. Most do not do well with baby food but she did much better with baby food than liquids. Her palate surgery was at 9 months. She had already had several surgeries but this was one of the longest and worst. Her tongue was stitched to her mouth for a while which was completely frustrating for her and us. She healed nicely and fought well though (in true Sallie fashion!) I feel I am saying this about each issue but we are also waiting to see a plastic surgeon here because there is a possibility she will have to have more palate surgeries. Our ENT wants us to see who he thinks is the best around so he is trying to get her in sooner as opposed to later. We should hear back in the next day or so. We have to ensure that her palate is in the best possible condition for speech. We are unsure how much they can do but we want to do all we can. Once again, please pray.

5) EARS! I take a deep breath because this could possibly take the rest of my life! At 2 weeks old Sallie developed her first ear infection and except for a few days in between had one non-stop until she was about 4 and then off and on for another year or so. It would be bacterial and then we would do antibiotics trying to combat the bacteria until we had yeast (in the ear) then we would be fighting that. We did lots of injections for the infections. We went into the hospital on several occasions for irrigation a few times a day and to do IV antibiotics. At one point they put in a central line and we did meds at home 2 or 3 times a day. I look back at that and it really seems like a dream. She was 2 and had to sit still for hours for us to run the drugs several times a day. We started out at 3 times a day meaning we had to get her up in the middle of the night to run them. The good Lord, that is all I can say. It was not us, because we don’t have that kind of stamina. While on the first antibiotic through the central line she had an allergic reaction. So scary! Our Dr was 2.5 hours away and we drove over 100 mph the whole way to the ER. We stayed on the phone with them most of the way there. Thankfully her breathing remained OK. We changed meds and continued through the line. Her first set of tubes was at 4 months. I can’t tell you how old she was when she got the next 7 sets of tubes. The day they did the first set of tubes (4 months) they also did what is called an ABR (Auditory Brainstem Response). It is a more specialized hearing test which is done while they are under anesthesia. It measures brain wave activity in the auditory centers of the brain. Even though we had already been through things I never dreamed I would I just had convinced myself that she was not hearing impaired. Why do we do that? Why do we tell ourselves those things happen to other people? I admit that because I noticed that she did not respond I would do things when we were at home alone to try and get her to respond. I remember dropping cookie sheets on the tile floor in our kitchen to try and get a response. However, I still thought it was the amount of fluid on her ears and refused to believe she was hearing impaired. The audiologist (John Wright-love that man) returned to our room that day after doing the test to tell us that she was indeed hearing impaired and everything after that was pretty much a blur. Dr. Hill (our ENT who we also think so much of) came in there with him to answer any questions and for comfort. I really did not absorb anything they said that day. He told us to let it all sink in and to call him the following week. I called him and we went back over everything and he said you do know that insurance doesn’t cover any of this. What? My child was born hearing impaired and insurance is not going to cover it. I could write a book on this topic alone but I am going to move on now. Really, you want me to move on! We made our first appointment with John and went in to be fitted for aids. Hearing aids on a 4 month old-a teething 4 month old. They stayed in her mouth much more than her ears. Talk about getting people’s attention. That’s another topic in itself as well! Because of the horrendous infections described earlier she could not wear her aids most of the time. The aids made the infection worse. We knew we had to get the aids on her consistently. She is not a candidate for cochlear implants because of the type hearing loss she has. She is a candidate for a device known as a BAHA but insurance will not cover the cost of the device or the 2 surgeries that are required to install it. However, we know we serve a God that will somehow make it possible for her to have this if we at some point determine that is what is needed. She is doing well with her aids now so we are continuing with them. At some point in battling the infections, the Dr found through a CT scan that the infection had actually gotten into her mastoid area. This is the area behind your ear and next to your skull. The only way to get to this area is to open up the back of the ear and go in. So, we went in for surgery for him to pack this area with antibiotic saturated gauze to try and get rid of the infection. Once Dr. Hill got in there he realized that not only was there infection in there but there was also something called cholesteatoma which is benign skin growth. However, left untreated it would affect the facial nerves and eventually the brain. He removed everything he could that day. He told us that if even one cell of it was left he would have to go back in. He went back in 7 more times. These were very long surgeries. Anywhere from 4-6 hours. He had to be very careful to not cause any further damage and it is in a very risky location because of all the nerves. He was trying to prevent her from having what is called a radical mastoidectomy. One of my biggest concerns in moving here was the relationship that we had with Sallie’s doctors. They loved her and us and they knew where we had been and the thought of starting over scared me a lot. We first went to an ENT here who specialized more in sinus issues. Sallie did have sinus surgery at age 2. Her sinus cavity was completely impacted. She still has some sinus/allergy issues but that surgery helped her so much. So, we really did not need him. However, he knew just who we did need. The Dr to see-Dr. Bauer. He is wonderful! After seeing him for a while he told us it was time to go back in and see what was there. He agreed that it was best to avoid the mastoidectomy if possible. He went in and cleaned out as we had in the past. The next time we went in to have this done, she was not in for long and they called us to tell us to meet Dr. Bauer in the consultation room. Once again, scared to death. We have no family there with us. He told us that he could try removing the growths again but that it was much worse than he thought and we needed to make a decision. We trusted him and we asked him what he would do if it were his child and he said as hard as it would be I would do the mastoidectomy and with that we told him to take everything out of her ears. The open up the canal really wide and take it all out. Wow, not an easy thing to do. I am not sure that Aaron and I were able to even talk about it for several days. When we took her back for post-ops we set a date 6 months later to go into the other ear and if that ear was the same that he would perform the mastoidectomy on that ear as well. I have to stop now and say I am so thankful to be a child of God. I am writing all this and I am re-living all this and we made it through all this not because of our strength because I can assure you we are not that strong but because of HIM and one day HE will make her whole and for now she is the way He intended her to be and we accept that and praise Him for choosing us to be parents of such a special little girl. As much as I wish I could, I can’t but I know who can and I am so thankful for that. There are lots of things in this world that we can handle and we can make right and I am one of those who tends to think I can do it and God has taught me that I can’t fix it all. I have to trust in Him! I have to rely on Him! So, she goes back in 6 months later and he does the mastoidectomy on that ear as well. We really felt that all our years of battling that were in vain but we do not feel that way anymore. She has not had one infection since that last surgery! Praise God! Now we go in every 6 months to a year to have her ears suctioned while she is under anesthesia because the canal is open and there is nothing in there and everything gets in there. All of this is why she has never been able to wear her aids consistently and therefore develop speech. It takes a child hearing at a normal level 9 months to a year to speak their first word (of course we know this varies with all children) and then you factor in the amount of effort it takes to hear with hearing aids and the fact that it is not as clear as what we hear and it takes a while to develop speech. Also, as I mentioned she has the cleft issue which also hinders speech. Where are we now? We are trudging along at a very slow pace and hoping for progress. We are anxious to see what the plastic surgeon says about her cleft because it is so critical in speech. Also, along the way she had some reconstructive surgeries done to the outside of her ears. This was in order for her aids to fit properly. Because of the amount of surgeries she had following that one of the ears is was messed up again so we are going back to another plastic surgeon to take care of that. This will not be the same one as the one who treats her cleft because they all have different specialties.

So, we wait and see what the future holds. Sallie is so strong. She may be little but she is a fighter and she is mine and I love her just the way she is! She has taught me so much!

Still to come-“Things we have learned” and “Things we wish we could change”

2 packages in 1 day!!!

We love and miss our family and friends so much but living far away brings lots of goody boxes and sweet cards just to say we are thinking of you and praying for you and we miss you. We love to dig in and see what fun stuff we have been sent. Sure the stuff is great but more than that is the love that was put into sending it to us! I am always overwhelmed to think others love us that much! Friday I was very homesick and then the packages started coming in and I was reminded of how blessed we are to have friends and family all over the world and how much they all still love us and think of us even if we can't see them like we want. The first package was from our dear SWEET friend from AL Mrs. Abbey. Her goody boxes are great!!! She collects various things for us and then sends it all in one huge package and it is so fun. We are all like kids at Christmas and she sends us all something! Abbey is one of the most caring people I know and I know how much love goes into this and that is very special. We love you Mrs. Abbey and thank you for always loving on us! The next package was from Grandy and Nanna and Nanna is having way too much fun bargain shopping for her girls again! Lots of cute outfits for next year! I know how much joy it brings Nanna to shop for these things and be able to send a package. We love you and miss you! THANK YOU!

I know they would both love to be able to see the girls opening their goodies so this is the next best thing!

Our package from Abbey!All the goodies that were inside!We share EVERYTHING (including the suckers from Mrs. Abbey)!The girls tearing into their package from Nanna and Grandy. Look at all those clothes!!

Fall is in the air... for the moment at least

The weather is so nice today! I love fall and so far we haven't had much of it this year but today I have a glimmer of hope.

We went all day without the AC! Praise the Lord we might get a break on the power bill!

We had breakfast for dinner (something we only do in the fall and winter)!

We followed dinner/breakfast with a cup of coffee and didn't get hot while drinking it!

Weather forecast says coolest air of the season!

I dressed the girls in their warm PJs!

Nothing like a freshly bathed child in warm snuggly pjs!

Millie's pjs say it best-COZY!!!

I may be ready for mums and pumpkins now! I know I am behind but I needed the cooler weather to get me in the mood. However, being we are in Texas, it may be 100 degrees in a few days and then next week we may have an ice storm but for now I am enjoying the cooler air!

WII love it (and WII are a little sore!)

Elleigh saved her money to buy Wii Fit and we finally found one in stock! It is a lot of fun and a workout! We have all enjoyed the Wii so much and now we can exercise and have fun and laugh at each other. Elleigh said the Wii trainers were like Bob and Jillian on Biggest Loser! They are not that bad! Elleigh just asked me what time I was working out this afternoon. She was up this morning at 6:30 to do her work out!

It makes me smile

Aaron usually cooks dinner on Friday nights. A couple of weeks ago I walked in the kitchen while he was preparing fajitas and I was able to take this picture. This is a common scene in our house. I love it! All my girls assisting daddy (Millie looks like she is trying to get into something)!

Our home away from home away from home

Confusing I know but we have lots of homes and are so blessed by them all. It is such a blessing to be able to meet so many different people who are all so different and a special part of our lives.

Saturday night was our first night to spend in the parsonage at the church where Aaron is now interim so I thought it would be neat for all of our friends and family to be able to see our home away from home away from home. It is a lot of hard work to get us there and back with the packing, etc. but it is a nice break from the normal and hopefully it will get easier. We took a good bit of stuff over there this weekend and from now on it should just be mostly our clothes to take with us. The parsonage is a good size and is in the country so it is nice and quit and lots of room for the girls to run and play inside and out. They have gone above and beyond to make us feel "at home." They had comfortable beds set up for all of us and had cleaned really well and had the carpet cleaned. I can't tell you how many people told us to make a list of anything we need while we are there and they will get it for us. They offered to keep paper goods there so we don't have to worry about washing a lot of dishes. We have already been so blessed. They love on our children. God is GREAT!

The services went really well on Sunday. We went to our aged Sunday School class and it was neat to be a part of that. They were intimidated by us being in there. We thought that was funny (intimidated by us?) and quickly told them NOT to be intimidated by us. They are a very conservative group and we love that. It is becoming harder and harder to find groups of Christians who are truly conservative. Worship was great and we had a couple who visited last week come back this week and joined. We had a lady and one of her sons visit last week and they were back this week along with another son. We also had another new couple visit this week. Aaron is LOVING being able to preach each week. Something that actually adds to our schedule has brought so much peace as well. Once again, God is GREAT!

Small Texas towns are really similar to Alabama towns. After church one of the ladies took us to eat at one of the local diners and the windows were decorated with footballs that read "Go Panthers." Elleigh said, "they really must like football here." We felt right at "home"! That along with the fact that everyone in the restaurant turned around when we walked in the door trying to figure out who we were!

We go through lots of small towns and they all look so much alike. I can't remember now which town this is.

We actually see a few hills along our drive. We are not used to seeing those around here.Lots of cows. Also, makes us feel at "home" We have lots of farmers and ranchers in the church so we asked the difference because in AL we just call them all farmers. We were told that if you have cattle you are a rancher. Makes sense. Plus, it just sounds more Texan to say Rancher!I cannot tell you how many pumpjacks we see along our drive. Also, those are sunflowers in that picture as well and they are very abundant. Lots of cactiWheat fields for miles and miles. It is just being planted now. The sign for the church. It is "A Caring Country Church"The outside of the sanctuaryA in the kitchen at the parsonageThe girls in the dining room with a fellowship hall table-works for us.The little girls in their roomEll in her roomThe parsonage actually used to be another church years ago (Assembly of God I think they told us) so the living room/sanctuary is huge and has big vaulted ceilings.

My babies before church

Her Story (Part 2)

Finally, part 2! I can’t tell you how much energy it takes for me to write this. Some of it I will never forget, some of it I have to try really hard to remember exactly what happened which frustrates me, most of it I re-live, and a lot of it I cry through but I am going to get it all done!

Continued from here

So, she was whisked away to the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. She was unable to breathe on her own she was vented and placed on oxygen. She weighed in at 6 lbs 7 oz so she was big to be 5 weeks early. Aaron was able to go down and get updates on her and finally at around 3:30 am I was able to go down to the NICU to see her. I waited over 6 very long hours to get to see her but I was determined I would not go to sleep until I laid my eyes on her. We were unable to hold her of course. I remember entering the NICU and she was covered in tubes and wires and it did upset me a little but I was just so glad to see her. Looking back now I keep thinking of what was going through my head at the time and I am not really sure. I think I was so happy that she was alive that nothing else mattered at the time. I have to add here that the entire NICU itself is an experience which is very overwhelming. That night there were some very critical babies in there, at one point she was beside what they referred to as a heart baby (a baby with major heart complications), once there was a baby who had been there for months and months and no one had been to see her (which was not that uncommon), once she was beside a baby with some form of dwarfism, a baby that weighed 13 ounces at birth. You simply cannot grasp just how much of a miracle it is when everything works as it should in our bodies until you have been a part of something like this and see just how many things can be wrong. It is amazing! Later that morning Aaron went down to see her and they had drained the fluid from her lungs and tried to take her off the vent but she was not ready yet but the news that morning was promising. She was undergoing lots of tests that morning. In the afternoon Aaron took me back to see her and the nurse (Stephanie was her name and she was wonderful and I can still see her-she called her Mustang Sallie and she had made a bow for her hair) told us that they had some results for us. Stephanie got one of the doctors and he told us that she had a cleft palate, one kidney, several heart defects, that the sutures in her skull were fused together and that in order for her brain to ever expand she would have to have surgery to hopefully create space in there, and that it appeared she had some type of genetic disorder or syndrome. My heart aches just thinking about sitting there that day and being told this news. I simply cannot describe the feeling. What? I didn’t do drugs, I didn’t drink, I didn’t smoke, I took care of myself, there was no family history of anything like this. How could this happen? What did I do to cause this? I cannot tell you how long I dealt with the question of what did I do to cause this. I was certain that I had to have caused this. Praise God that I have been set free from those thoughts that tormented me for so long! When I finish her story I plan to do something on the things I learned most but I have to say this now. Never think you are exempt from things like this happening. It happens every day to people just like you and me. However, also do not live in fear that it will happen to you. God has a plan for every one of us and our children (even those we do not consider “complete”-we are all “complete” in HIM). Sorry for the digression! Stephanie stood beside us with a box of tissues in hand, patting us occasionally. I remember the doctor asking, “do you have any questions?” I often wonder if anyone has any questions at that point. I do think Aaron asked a few things but it is kinda hard to think in that situation. We came out of the unit and both my sisters were sitting there waiting on their turn to see her. I guess we somehow told them what we had been told and Aaron wheeled me back to my room on what felt like the longest journey ever. My dear sisters held it together for us and they would do so many times from that point on. The remainder of that day we spent crying and telling the rest of our family and friends what we had been told and praying. They of course assured us that we would all make it through it together and would do whatever it took for her. The next morning A went down first thing to see her and the Drs were making their rounds and they told him they had done another test and that it did indicate that there was movement of the sutures in her skull and also they were able to remove the vent and she was now breathing on her own. Praise the Lord! That same day when A and I both went in to see her, the geneticist was examining her. Not sure what it was about that but I did not like it. Why was she looking at MY baby? I mean I knew why but I just can’t explain the feeling. I felt like my child was some specimen and I just had a hard time with it. Keep in mind I was less than 48 hours postpartum (very emotional and still on the magnesium to make sure my blood pressure stayed Ok). She told us that she did not know what Sallie had but that it did not appear to be Downs to her. They did the genetic and chromosomal testing that day and told us we would have to wait for 6 weeks. 6 weeks that felt like 6 years. At some point that day (I think it was that day. I know I was still in the hospital because I can still see myself lying in that hospital bed and the Lord revealing this to me). From the time they gave us the news about her health, I kept thinking it is just not supposed to be this way. I verbalized it, I thought it to myself over and over and over and finally the Lord said to me, “I never told you it would all be great. I never told you things like this wouldn’t happen” To this day, I feel so strongly about this. The Lord does not promise us our lives will be like we think they should or desire them to be. We are promised trials as Christians. “Beloved do not be surprised at the fiery trial when it comes upon you to test you, as though something strange were happening to you.” I Peter 4:12 I had no idea how much our faith was going to be tested over and over again (and continues to be). My Dr came in that night and told me I would be dismissed on Sunday which brought a whole new set of emotions and decisions. It was much easier being right there in the same hospital. Where did we go from here? That Sunday night we stayed in a hotel and both my sisters were with us. We ate at Chili’s (also where Aaron and I ate on our first date-it has a special place in our hearts!) that night and I remember feeling like I was in a dream. I was sitting in Chili’s eating and my newborn was in a NICU. I couldn’t eat, I couldn’t think, it was just strange. We had no idea what we do from this point on. We obviously couldn’t stay in a hotel every night. Our home was 2 ½ hours away and we had been told that she would probably have to stay for about 6 weeks. We got settled in (as settled in as you can get under the circumstances) and Aaron told me he had to go back to the hospital to check on her. He had always been a wonderful father but he took fatherhood to a whole new level when it came to Sallie. I admit, I was very intimidated by her and I felt really guilty about being that way. He just embraced it all so much better than I did. I will share more on this later but he is always the one who has it together when we get bad news about Sallie and I fall apart and later he falls apart and by then I have it together. God knew just what He was doing when He put us together! The next morning his mom called us to tell us that she had been able to get us in at some townhouses that were a few blocks from the hospital. The Baptist Association in that county operated a floor of that building. Aaron’s mom worked for the time at the AL Baptist Children’s Home and through connections was able to get us in to one of the townhouses. It cost us $12 a night. That is such a wonderful ministry. Individual churches are responsible for the upkeep and they do a wonderful job. There was scripture everywhere you turn and my healing (emotional) really began there. At this point, we had been taught how to feed her with the cleft. We had special bottles that you squeezed the formula into her mouth. She had reflux terribly and she screamed through every single bottle we ever gave her. Only by the grace of God, did she thrive. We forced every drop down her and she threw up most of that (every time). We spent our days at the hospital and after her 1O o’clock feeding we would go back to the townhouse and then Aaron would get up to go feed her every 2 hours. I remember saying, “baby, you need to rest” and he would say, “she needs me more.” Now you know one of the many reasons I am so crazy about him! They did vision tests which were good, and they did several hearing tests and she failed them all but they told us this was not completely uncommon and we would have to wait and see what happened. After a week we were told that we could do everything she needed at home and that we would be released. We were so thankful! What we thought would be 6 weeks was 1 week. Something to be very thankful for in the midst of so much uncertainty. So, we headed home with a baby we had no idea what to do with but love, a stack of appointment cards for the first set of what would be hundreds of doctors appointments and to wait for her genetics and chromosome testing to come back.

Neat Website

I found this website that you can turn your photos into sketches for free. The address is http://www.dumpr.net/. These are the only ones I have had time to play with but I wanted to share. I uploaded a couple that didn't really look good as sketches so you kinda have to pick and choose a little. Enjoy!