Doctor's Appointment

Well we had a doctor's appointment this week and it was not the news we wanted to hear.  I still have complete placenta previa.  My doctor said it is unlikely to move at this point (I'm 24 weeks).  I will go back to him at 32 weeks to check on it again.  We were SO disappointed to receive this news.

Baby Micah is 100% healthy though!  His choroid plexus cyst is gone and they all enjoyed looking at all his perfectly healthy organs!  It was fun for them to talk about how good everything with him looks.

Just wish my placenta was more cooperative.

I'm posting this (maybe too much information?) so that you can pray specifically for Micah and me.

Please pray
-that the placenta would MOVE!
-that I will have NO complications (no contractions or life threatening bleeding)
-that Micah will make it to full term (having a premature baby is a possibility with PP)
-that I will be able to work the remainder of this pregnancy
-for Chad and Grace as they continue to cope with this new normal
-for me emotionally, as I am struggling with worry, fear, and the feeling of being robbed of now two pregnancies
-that I will not have to have a hysterectomy (also a possibility with PP)

I'm so sorry if that is too much information, but I really want you to be able to pray specifically for these things with us.  I am trying to move past the worry and fear and focus on enjoying the pregnancy, as well as the fact that Micah is HEALTHY!  Praise God!  Thank you for your prayers!

God's Hand

Wow-it's been a long time.  A lot has happened since I last posted.  I've been meaning to write this post for a while, and I hope I haven't forgotten anything I wanted to write.

On one of the Sunday nights before Thanksgiving, our small group at church talked about things we were thankful for over the past 12 months.  The thing that popped into my head was God's hand.  I am so thankful that I have been able to see and feel and experience God's hand in such evident ways over the past 12 months.  And really specifically, over the past 5-6 months.

It really starts with getting pregnant with baby number two.  We really wanted to wait for the perfect time (and by perfect, I mean God's time) to get pregnant with baby number two.  Life is so different than we thought it would be, and we really had to consider what was best for our family, and really Grace specifically.  Without going into too many (personal) details, we really feel like KNOW that God created this little life at the perfect time.  We are so excited.

Speaking of my pregnancy, we are also so thankful that this baby is HEALTHY.  Oh, and this baby, I guess I should refer to by name - Micah James.  We will call him Micah.  I still can't believe that he's healthy sometimes, even though I almost felt entitled to have a healthy baby after having Grace (even though I knew that wasn't true/right).  We have truly seen God's hand in the healing this has brought to us.  Especially to my heart.  Wow, it is healing right before my eyes.  How precious is it that God knows how and wants to heal us?

Also speaking of the pregnancy, ever since we found out about the placenta previa, I have been on medical leave from work.  That has been a huge stress for us, just thinking about the possibility of me having to be off the rest of the pregnancy.  I have a lot of paid leave time built up, but not enough to cover the rest of the pregnancy.  Plus FMLA only secures your job for 12 weeks.  So thinking about this possibility, as well as the possibility of maybe not having a job to return to, on top of the financial stress this caused was almost taking the breath out of me at times.  Well-enter God's hand.  After four weeks of being on leave, my doctor lifted my restrictions so that I could return to work!  I go back for an ultrasound next week, and I hope that the placenta previa has completely resolved!

Ok, so I should also talk about our recent move in this post too, because God's hand has been ALL OVER that.  We listed our old house (an 80+ year old house in not the most popular area of Jackson), and in less than a week, we had an offer!  And it was a good offer.  We held our breath as the process with our old house was underway hoping for no major complications (an 80 year old house ALWAYS has complications...we've lived with them (and paid for them) over the past five years that we lived there).  We also started the process of finding our next house.  God lead us to the PERFECT house for us, and within the next week, we made an offer and it was accepted!  Also - this house is in an awesome area with an awesome school district with an awesome special education department.  The whole process from start to finish took a little over a month!  That is just not typical in today's market.  God's hand.  Also, on the day of the closings we had our first kink in the whole process and were told we may not be able to close on the new house or move into the new house until the next week.  I held back tears until within only a few minutes the problem was solved, which according to our realtor normally would not have happened.  God's hand.

Also, we have seen God's hand through the health problems of several close family members over the past month.  I don't want to go into details to protect the privacy of our family, but wow-God has been at work.  He is so evident and real.

And of course (and probably most obviously) we have seen God's hand in Grace's life over the past year.  She has made amazing progress with her development, and is just such a cool little girl.  I am blessed to be able to witness miracles in her everyday.  I am so blessed to be her mama.

I'm going to end this post with some updated pictures since my last post.  :)

 Halloween - Grace was a puppy :)

 Laps for Little Ones - Grace's school's big fundraiser

 Christmas card pictures

It's a..........

B O Y !!!!!!!!!!

We are SO excited to announce our second baby is a HEALTHY baby BOY!  God has blessed us so much and we are PRAISING Him for our newest blessing!  

Baby boy does have a choroid plexus cyst, but our doctor said not to be concerned at all or loose any sleep over it.  He said it should go away, and they will check later in the pregnancy to make sure it is gone.  Everything else was PERFECT!  We are SO thankful!

Right now, I have placenta previa.  We will go back in 6 weeks to see if the placenta has moved, so please pray with us that it will!  There will be further concerns if it doesn't, but we TRUST our God, and know He has His hand on us!  

THANK YOU for rejoicing with us!  We are blessed beyond words!

Overjoyed

I finally got the courage to listen to the CD of the prayer service our precious church family had for us the night before Grace was born.  During that service, our pastor lead us in scriptures, and he prayed and praised God for His faithfulness and His power.  We also praised God by worshiping him in song.  This service followed a day of fasting and prayer from our church family.  They chose to go without food all day.  They faithfully came to the church and prayed all day for Grace, Chad, and me. They are beyond precious to our family.

The emotions of that time in my life come flooding back.  I felt so desperate and helpless, yet God blessed me with such peace and strength.  He carried me during that time because I was so weak.  I am so thankful for His love and grace in my life.

As I sit here and worship and listen to this service, I am distracted by a busy toddler crawling in circles around our house and getting into things she's not supposed to.  She is singing along with the music as she plays.  And my heart is overjoyed.

I love this picture.  It makes me think Grace is praising Jesus.  She certainly has with her life.  

Announcement

Grace has an announcement.

World's Best Sis

Baby 2014

13 weeks

She is going to be a big sister!  We are due March 31!  Please join with us in prayer for the health of this precious baby.

Fundraiser

I'm reaching out to all you blog friends to help support Grace's fundraiser for school!  November 2, we are having our BIG fundraiser (by big, I mean the big goal is to raise $100,000 total, meaning $4,000 each per family).  $4,000?!  Is this possible?  I know that God has blessed Grace's school, and that His hand is on it and in it and He is the only reason it exists.  The Little Lighthouse Central Mississippi

So, if you feel lead, please assist us in our fundraiser!  We are about 1/4 of the way to our goal.  We have several ways you can help...

-you can donate directly to the school by using these secure sites:
          http://www.firstgiving.com/fundraiser/giveforgrace/lapsforlittleones5kandfunrun
          http://www.llhms.org/fundraising/funds-for-grace/

-you can go to this website http://www.llhms.org/fundraising/2nd-annual-laps-for-little-ones-5k-and-fun-run/ and register for the Laps for Little Ones VIRTUAL 5K ($20).  This is a virtual race, so run/walk/crawl where ever you are whenever you can.  You can even complete this race on the treadmill.  No proof is required of completion, but feel free to post your photos to TLLH Facebook page (The Little Lighthouse - Central Mississippi).  TLLH will mail you a race day shirt to the address you supply.  ***Be sure to select that you are running in honor of Grace!

-you can "like" The Little Lighthouse - Central Mississippi on facebook and purchase a Laps for Little Ones 5K tshirt (again, be sure to specify you are supporting Grace)

-you can "like" our fundraiser page "Grace Creations - Handmade Photo Frames" on facebook and purchase a photo frame that Chad and I are making.  ALL proceeds go to our fundraiser.


If you are still reading this blog post, thank you!  We love you too!  :)  Our main goal for our school is to open a fourth classroom to serve more children.  We currently have a lot of children on our waiting list, and I know what that feels like!  Let's not make these children wait any longer than they have to!  They deserve to attend TLLH and learn and grow and develop!  Most importantly, these children learn about the God who created them, perfectly and beautifully!

THANK YOU!!!  We do truly love you and are so thankful for your love and support to our family!

This is Grace and her amazing teacher, Ms. Beth!  

First Family Vacation

We had our first family vacation in August in Orange Beach, AL.

The weather wasn't 100% perfect, but we enjoyed our get away.  We enjoyed time on the beach, shopped a little, napped, and just spent time together as a family.  We ate at The Shrimp Basket, King Neptune's, and Shipp's Harbour Grill, and it was yummy!  Grace loved sleeping late, eating cinnamon rolls every morning, taking long naps, and the ocean waves crashing on her!  

Update on Miss Grace

Grace had her surgery yesterday to have tubes and her tonsils and adenoids removed.  Other than some intense crying in the PACU, she has done GREAT!  I am so proud of her and happy to say she has done MUCH better than expected!  We stayed overnight in the hospital, and got home today before lunch.  She is refusing to drink willingly, but she seems happy and mostly pain free.  She is playing with her toys like she missed them so much!  ha

Thank you for your prayers for her!  We still have a road to recovery in front of us (after this surgery...the triple threat as some of the nurses call it...it's usually worse several days after surgery), but I hope she continues to improve each day.

Back to School

Grace started back to school August 12.  Sorry for the delay in posting about it and her progress over the break.  We have been SO busy!

Can you tell she is still not a morning person?!  This picture was on her first day of school.  During the break she had gotten used to sleeping until 8:00 or 8:30 when I was off.  For school, she has to get up by 7:00!  She does not appreciate the early mornings!

The week before Grace's first day back, she had Meet the Teachers!

Rockin and rollin at school!

I LOVED the new bulletin board!  It says "We Bee-long to Jesus!"  Yes, you do, baby girl!

And I just thought these pictures were too cute!  You can see some of the progress she made over the break in the last picture.

So, for an overview of her progress during the break...
-She continues to do better with the "W" sitting position, although she will still sit this way.  She usually responds to our correction "sit pretty".
-She is doing great with pulling up.  We finally figured out that she had a hard time pulling up with our hardwood floor, so we borrowed a tile from our PT that has more grip to it, and she can do it easily with that!  She still doesn't do it totally on her own will, but she CAN do it, so I'm just waiting on the right motivation for her to do it all the time.
-She is doing GREAT with her walker!  We are giving walking a purpose (walking to her high chair for meals, walking to her room to play, etc).  She is able to walk fast!  And she loves it, so we are so proud!
-She can finally HOLD HER STRAW CUP!  This was probably one of the biggest accomplishments that we've made recently!
-We are still working on handing objects on request...
-Ok, so we haven't done much with weaning from paci's.  She still uses it some at school, and she definitely crawls to her crib and gets them out when she wants to at home.  I try to keep them put up so she can't get them, but then she crawls to her crib and gets mad that they're not there ha!  Oh well...we will continue to work on this.
-She is imitating more and more sounds!  She "sings" songs and makes animal noises, and says a few words.

We recently went on our first family vacation to the beach!  We had so much fun and made some great memories!  I will post pictures from it soon.

***Grace is having surgery next Tuesday, September 3.  She will be having ear tubes put in and her tonsils and adenoids removed.  I am NOT looking forward to the recovery period, but I know the end result will be worth it!  Her most recent hearing test was normal, but it was at the lowest end of normal, and our ENT said her ears look bad.  She has chronic fluid, which is affecting her hearing and in return her speech.  Also, Grace snores every night, and when she is sick, she is having some sleep apnea.  Our ENT said her tonsils and adenoids are definitely contributing to this (her tonsils are BIG).  So, the end result (I hope) will be better hearing and improved speech, as well as improved sleep.  Please PRAY for Grace (and Chad and me) as she has surgery and we all go through the recovery!***

Break Goals

Hi!  I wanted to post a list of the goals I have for Grace over our next four week break from school starting next week.  Actually, Grace is technically getting a five week break because she was out this past week for being sick.  :(

Long story short, she wound up having a viral infection that caused her tonsils to become very swollen, on top of an ear infection.  After two trips to the doctor and being on an antibiotic and a steroid, she is finally feeling a little better!  We are all tired of her being sick.  It's been a long week.  Grace had to miss her end of the year program at school, and we missed seeing her friends graduate.  I was so heartbroken we had to miss this big event.  :(

Back to our goals.  I find it easier and less overwhelming to have short term goals to work on over a specific period of time.  Also, I like to take that time to focus on working on specific long term goals.  I just think it helps me be more intentional with our time throughout the day.

Here's our list, so you can know how to specifically pray for Grace over the next four weeks.  :)
-continue to work on getting out of the "W" sitting position
-focus on pulling up (pulling up boot camp as our PT says)
-work on walking with our walker
-work on learning how to hold the straw cup
-do lots of hand over hand activities/work on handing objects on request (ex. "give ___ to mama/daddy," coloring, pretend play with baby, shape sorter, puzzles, etc)
-weaning pacis (only use when sleeping or in public as needed)
-imitating more sounds

We are also going to play with her new wagon and go swimming a lot, and we have a few arts and crafts projects I want to work on.  Grace will also start back with aquatic therapy next week.

It's going to be a busy, but focused next four weeks.  Please pray with us for Grace to continue making progress toward her goals.  We are so thankful for your prayers!

Walking (Almost) All by Herself

Ok I shouldn't say she is walking all by herself, because of the obvious use of her walker, but she is walking WITHOUT the help of Chad or me.  So that counts.

Pictures of My Hero

Here are some pictures from Saturday:

 Her super hero cape made by her Mamaw Rita

 Her super power is that she can steal your heart!

 The princess mobile

Some of her #1 fans!