Psalm 139:13-16

"For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother's womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place, when I was woven together in the depths of the earth. Your eyes saw my unformed body; all the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

Thursday, June 28, 2012

Crawling Update Take 2

So, we didn't quite meet our goal of crawling unassisted by the time we saw our PT again.  But, Grace did the best she's ever done for crawling in PT yesterday!  Here's the proof :)  You can hear me say "Oh, wow" in the background.  Ha!  I'm very proud of my baby girl! 


Wednesday, June 13, 2012

Crawling Update

Grace did her first few UNASSISTED crawls in PT this morning!  It was a "breakthrough," as our PT said! We were so excited!  Grace celebrated by throwing a big, old-fashioned fit.  :(  Oh well.  I hope this is the beginning of her crawling on her own!  Please pray that by the next time we see our PT (2 weeks from today bc she will be out of town next week), that GRACE WILL BE CRAWLING!  We have a lot of work to do in order to get there.  Our PT told me to "shove crawling down Grace's throat".  Please pray for strength, perseverance, and motivation. 

Thank you! 

Monday, June 4, 2012

Grace is 15 months old!

Wow...time is flying by!  Our baby girl is 15 months old!  When did this happen?  I just blinked!

Grace is doing great!  She is big cousin to baby Lydia.  Her personality grows and grows with every new day.  She is silly, feisty, funny, smart, stubborn, and sweet.

She is eating like a big kid these days.  She eats pretty much everything we do.  We are still working on increasing her liquid intake and weaning her from her beloved bottles.  She still take 2 bottles a day, and we will slowly work to take those away.  She still will not use a sippy cup (she drinks from the edge of a cup), but she doesn't totally refuse it now.  This is a small step in the right direction.  We are still working on self feeding.  We are so not there yet, but I know she will learn this skill when she's ready.  For now, I just feed her like a momma bird!  :)

Grace is so close to crawling on her own.  She just can't figure out her arms.  She reaches for everything these days, so the motivation is there (finally).  The newest skill we are working on is pulling up.  She really is doing well with this, and she is getting stronger and stronger.  Our PT says we will stay with crawling/pulling up for a while.  There is a lot of development that happens with these skills, so we will hold off on walking for a while.  I can't wait to see her cute diaper booty crawling around my house!  Hello, baby proofing! 

Grace is doing great with OT.  She is consistently holding objects for 15 seconds and using both hands to hold a rattle at midline.  These were her long term goals, and they are met!  Our OT is working on her new plan of care with harder goals.  Grace is also easily putting her paci in her mouth, using both hands together very well, and transferring objects from hand to hand.  She also is getting better at not putting objects behind her.  The newest things we are working on is putting objects back in a bowl, taking rings off/putting them back on her ring stacker, and playing with shaving cream/whipped cream.

Other random facts about our 15 month old:
-she wears size 18-24 month clothes and size 5 diapers
-she loves our dog, Maddy
-she is working on saying momma consistently at the moment
-she loves her toy piano, ring stacker, baby, beads, bowl, rattles
-she enjoys watching Dora, Veggie Tales, and Sesame Street
-her new favorite game is "Ride the Little Horsey"
-she takes at least one nap a day, sometimes two
-she loves her blankie and pacis
-she enjoys bathtime and loves playing with her bath toys
-she loves "reading" books
-she recently found the edge of the bed
-she loves being outside

I think that catches everyone up on our precious little one.  Enjoy some pictures!  :)

 Meeting cousin Lydia
This was at the fetal medicine reunion.  Grace loved the Braves' mascot!
Sweet punkin

P.S.  I promise I take more pictures of my child...they are just usually on my i phone!

Lydia is HOME!

My niece Lydia is home as of yesterday!  We are so happy that our "Golden family" is all back together!

Lydia is doing well.  She will be on medications for at least a year, and several doctors following her.  But she is just acting like a regular little newborn!  This is a big change from even just a week ago when I was her nurse!

As we learned in Vacation Bible School last night, nothing is too difficult for our God!  We taught the kids (third and fourth graders) the story in Joshua 3 and 4, when the river stood still.  Of course, as always, I learned so much through the Bible story as well (maybe even more than the kids)!  In this Scripture, Joshua selected 12 men, one man from each tribe of Israel.  He told the men: "The priests will carry the ark of the covenant to lead the people.  When the feet of the priests touch the Jordan River, the waters will stop flowing and stand up to make a path through the river."

The Israelites followed the priests to the bank of the Jordan River.  As the priests walked into the river, the water stopped flowing.  The water piled up, making a dry path to the other shore.  The priests stood in the same spot until all the Israelites were safely on the other side of the river.  Joshua told the 12 men whom he had selected to each take a stone from the middle of the river.  He instructed the men to carry the stones on their shoulders to the place where they would camp for the night.  Joshua also set up 12 stones where the priests had stood.  Once the priests had crossed and stepped onto the shore, the river began to flow again.

The Israelites camped near Jericho that night.  They made a memorial with the 12 stones from the river.  Joshua told the people that the stone memorial would serve as a reminder to the people and future generations of God's power.

Joshua 4: 24 "He did this so that all the peoples of the earth might know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God."

I love that the waters stopped flowing when the feet of the priests touched the Jordan River.  God tested their faith.  I can't imagine what they were thinking.  I know I what I would be thinking.  Couldn't the waters have stopped flowing when they got close to the river?!  Our God knew they needed to experience His power in this way...their feet had to touch it.

I also love that their path was dry!  They didn't cross at ankle height.  They didn't cross by wading.  The path wasn't even damp!  It was dry!  Our God is POWERFUL!

Our God is STILL powerful TODAY!  He has taught me this over and over again, but of course the best example in my life came on March 4, 2011 in a 7 pound, 1 ounce bundle of baby. 

Every life is a miracle.  Every life is precious and helps us to know and experience God's power.

Here's another example of God's power!  This is a picture of Lydia at HOME!  Praise God!