Pictures!

P & Miss Cathy playing in B's parents' backyard!!

Mimi got Miss P a pair of Hello Kitty snow boots!  No snow here, but she loves the boots!!!!

This smile melts my heart!!!!

Saying, "bye," to Pa before he left for Africa!!!

Wearing Miss C's boots!!

                                                                                                                                           

Getting all of the leads placed on my head when we arrived at the hospital.

HOWDY!!!

All finished!

Little Miss P visiting Mommy's room!

Snuggles with Mommy!!!  I love this sweet girl!!  She brought such joy to her Mommy's heart with her visit yesterday!!!!  She also put smiles on the faces of the docs & nurses!!!

We had a special visitor today, too.  This is Visa, she is a service dog that stopped by to visit because they told the Service Dog team that we are dog lovers!!!  She was a little sweetie!!!

The City of Brotherly Love

Another hospital, another stay in the Epilepsy Monitoring Unit (EMU).  Usually, we go to the hospital to stop M's seizures.  This particular trip is much different.  The goal?  Seizures and lots of them.  Not what we necessarily want, but Lord willing what is needed to help provide better insight towards a possible surgical solution for M.  We ARE only in the beginning stages and still have a lot to learn. 

We checked into the Hospital yesterday afternoon and today has been a productive day...As of the time of this posting M is at 9 seizures so far for the day.  The good news is that our lead doctor feels that enough information has been collected and we will be visiting with him next week to get his interpretation.  A few more tests need to be conducted before we can officially leave, but this trip is for the most part going as expected. 

What a journey.  I don't think we quite realized our accumulation of EMU visits but we have spent months and months in several EMU's, including Memorial Hermann in Houston, Baylor Dallas, the Mayo Clinic, and now Jefferson Hospital.  Our trips have also included consults with the Cleveland Clinc and Johns Hopkins.  It really has been something to share our story with others.  But, God is still the hero and He alone is due all the glory and credit for this journey. 

We did have a special visitor today!  Our little Critter came up today to the EMU!  SSSSHHHHH!  What a sweet Mimi she has that was willing to make the drive with Critter and have the opportunity to love on her while here in the hospital.  It was such a special time and obviously great to still love on our little girl while in a different environment. 

So, we'll post more later.  Please pray for the wisdom of all those involved and that there will be clarity in exactly what is supposed to happen from our time here.  Today has been very exhausting with all the visits and consults and the seizures.  May the Lord continue to proctect M and provide wisdom, understanding, and answers. 

Sweet Memories

Some of my most precious memoriesas a child are of sitting with my Grandaddy and watching football!  I learned to love football because of him and all of the time we spent watching the Dallas Cowboys together.


Tonight we were able to capture a precious moment like that with Miss P and her Pa.  I hope she creates many more special memories like this.

Miss P watching football with Pa!

Then she moved in to watch the Amazing Race with Mimi & Pa.

Such sweet memories! 

                                                                                                                                           

Miss P did very well on the plane yesterday!  We were in the bulkhead and so she got to sit on the floor and play!!

She thought she was such a big girl!

 

Then she ate lunch in my lap!!

You can see she was having fun and Mommy was exhuasted!!

She loved looking out the window!!!

This is a girl after her Daddy's Own Heart (lovin' planes as much as she does)!!!

 

 

Then it was time to take a nap, but it's sure hard to get comfortable on a plane!

So, I'll stand in Daddy's lap and wave at everyone behind me!

She met a sweet friend from Canada and tried to snuggle with her, too. 

Miss P tried so hard to sleep on the plane, but just couldn't get comfortable.  Within about two minutes of us pulling out of the parking lot at the airport, she was asleep in her car seat and slept almost the entire way to B's parents house!!!  Please pray for her to adapt well to a schedule while here.  She has a great schedule at home that she does so well with...however, she is very thrown off with the time difference.

B's Nana is having a heart catheterization tomorrow.  So, please send up some extra special prayers for her protection and the doctor's wisdom! 

A picture is worth...

There really aren't adequate words for what we experienced last night!

Yesterday was B's birthday!  His favorite spot is Pappasito's.  So, Mom took us all for dinner.

B loves their salsa.  He goes through so many bowls it's amazing!  They never quite believe him that he'll go through it as quickly as he does.  Well, we called ahead  last night and they believed us!  His spot was ready, tons of bowls of salsa waiting to be devoured by him.  However, what we weren't expecting was....

Yes, you are seeing our 21 month old eat just about as much salsa as her Daddy!  She could have cared less about the chips, she just wanted the salsa.  She was grabbing huge scoops and eating them off the chip.  Then, we pulled out her fork so that she could eat her meat.  She could have cared less about the meat.  She scooped up the salsa with her fork!!!!

Did I mention that the bites that I took had my mouth burning?  It was spicy salsa.  My Mom coughed/choked with a few of her bites it was so spicy.  However, our little angel LOVED IT!!!

Not being able to get out and drive, I was worried that the gifts I found for B weren't exactly what he would have wanted for his b-day!  If you had seen the smile on his face and the pride beaming from this father, you would have seen that this was the greatest gift ever for him...his very own salsa eating buddy!!!!!

Really?  chicken?  That's it?

Here!  Dip it in this and it's worth it!!!

How about some more?

She never really touched her milk at dinner.  Ummmm...this is spicy, the milk should help.  Would you like your milk, Miss P?

"No thank you!  Salsa will be fine!!!"

I think she almost finished two bowls of salsa!!!

Finally, his b-day dessert arrived.  He's coaching her on how to help him blow out the candle.  Can you see the pride and astonishment in his eyes, though?  He's still overwhelmed with joy that his little girl loves salsa as much as he does!!!!

Happy Birthday, B!  We love you!!!

FOUR MORE YEARS

Well, it is almost election day...Praise God!  But this time it is different.  Four years ago today Princess went into SURGERY.  While America had an important decision at hand we here at the Foxhole had an additional weighty decision on hand.  I still remember the day very well.  We had just slept off a fun night with friends and family as we did a hair cutting party and Princess and I both shaved our heads in preparation for this day while at Memorial Hermann Hospital. 

We weren't expecting her surgery to be until a little later but very early we were awoken as the staff came to take Meredith back to surgery... Here is the post from this time...

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Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Surgery

Well it was quite a wake-up today. About 5:30 this morning, we heard from the surgeon's resident that surgery would be at 9:30. However, we we whisked away at 6:30 and headed in to the surgical unit. Please pray over these next four to five hours as M is undergoing surgery. We will continue to post and update as events unfold. Also, I will be posting pictures later this morning of our "Buzzfest" to benefit Children With Hair Loss.

PS- Two friends that were with us last night at the Buzzfest are about to deliver their first kiddo. Please lift A and L up in your prayers. She was not due till Nov 16. Ironically, it was M's nurse Mary that told them to get to the hospital immediately to see about delivering. So...they have been at the hospital since last night. I know M will be very excited to hear of the days events when she is back with us later today.

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So today, is eerily similar.  This time we are facing an important decision for America and tomorrow we will learn what direction America has chosen to follow again.  Additionally, while we are not waking with Physicians coming into our room, we do have luggage packed and we are on our way to Pennsylvania to determine if we can move forward with surgery again, but this time going further trying to eliminate Princess' seizures. 

So please be prayerful for our trip that our time in the hospital will be fruitful.  That the new team of doctors and physicians we will be meeting will be able to bring this 6.5 year journey to a close.  As some of you have been following, just in the last two months, Princess has experienced a dramatic increase in her seizures is upwardly approaching an average of 5 to 6 seizures per day.  Additionally, we are beginning to see even more some of the seizures devastating effects.  

Be looking for more in the coming days!

Au Pair

Webster defines au pair as:
 
a usually young foreign person who cares for children and does domestic work for a family in return for room and board and the opportunity to learn the family's language 

We define an au pair as:

A BLESSING!!!!

As most of you know, our community stepped up after Miss P was born and took two shifts each day to help care for her.  It has always been risky for me to be left alone with her due to the seizures and her crying was always a huge seizure trigger.  Well, many of you prayed and the Lord answered your prayer that her crying does not seem to be too much of a trigger anymore.  Many sounds are triggers, but the Lord has allowed me to hold my sweet angel when she needs her Mommy.  Thank you, Jesus!

So, we had so many amazing people come and take shifts the first six plus months of P's life and love on our sweet girl and help me care for her.  Then, after the Foxhole Relief weekend, we were able to bring in a few nanny/babysitters that were wonderful!!!  We loved them so much.  However, if they worked 9-5, B couldn't go to work until they arrived and had to be home before they left (since, again, we couldn't risk me being alone with her).  This allowed B more of an opportunity to work, but he wasn't able to do much of what was needed for the business.

So, in walks my cousin.  She tells me that we have to consider an au pair.  They had one for their family and loved her.  However, I just made the assumption that there was no way that we could afford such an option.  We were struggling to afford a nanny/babysitter and so how could we afford something that had a french name?  Doesn't that make it more expensive?  Surely we can't afford that...As well, they live with you.  So, now I have to buy more food, utilities increase, etc.  It just didn't seem feasible.  Then, she pushed some more for us to consider it.

Once we did the math, we found, among many things, that we would actually pay less to have an au pair than we would for a nanny and she could work longer hours.  We started to truly see the benefits.  My cousin continued to tell me amazing stories that kept softening our hearts to the idea.

Then, came our trip to the Mayo Clinic in February.  It was a rough trip, but while we were there, we had the opportunity to have a Skype interview with a possible candidate from Brazil.  To keep the story short, we loved her and now that she's been living with us, in America, for seven months, we still love her!  She is an amazing blessing!!!  Miss P is crazy about her and so are we!!!

So, without further ado, meet Ms. C...a gift FROM the Lord THROUGH each of you that participated in the Foxhole Relief Project. 

Ms. C with J & her kiddos.  J is one of the two that created the Foxhole Relief Project.

Again, Ms. C is such a blessing and we love having her as a member of our family!!!