Stellen's in trouble---please pray.

Please pray for Stellen. MckMama just tweeted that Dr. B has said that Stellen is "in bad shape." It's been a very rough night. Please pray that's Stellen's super fast heart rate would slow (he's been in STV for over two days now), for strength and sanity for MckMama as she's in the fight of her life right now, and for wisdom for Dr. A and Dr. B as they work to find the solution to help this precious baby.

Tear Jerker

Ok, for those of you already in love with Madeline, you'll want to read these two posts by Rachel Coleman. Some of you may have little ones who watch Signing Time--that's her! She has one profoundly deaf child, and one child with spina bifida, hydrocephalus and cerebral palsy.

All I can say is "Wow." And I pray God will give me the strength and the courage to do the same.

Strong Enough to be Your Mom, Part 1

Strong Enough to be Your Mom, Part 2

A Big PTL* Moment

*Praise the Lord

We heard from Madeline's pulmonologist today with results for the sweat chloride test done on Tuesday. WITHIN NORMAL RANGE. No more testing for cystic fibrosis necessary. I really think God helped me not to worry too much about it, hoping that it was just a routine. I had looked up the test, though, just so I could tell Dr. Tuchscherer (family doctor) what test they were running, and when I saw the possible indicators of CF, I felt an "uh-oh," big time. Feeding issues and respiratory insufficiency were common issues with CF. At any rate, no need to worry! God is good.

Madeline's Birthday Party

Although dearest Alyssa had to work on Friday night, Jed was a good sport and came over to Maddy's little party for her first birthday. He even captured a few highlights on his dvd camera, edited and put it together for your enjoyment. (Let's here it for Jed!) And since my camera is on the blink, LISA* let me use her camera to take pics. I'm hoping that by my excessive hinting here, she may just drop her millions of things that she's doing for her lovely family and send me some of the pics so I can satisfy my waiting audience.

So without further ado. I present to you: Maddy's BDay, by Jedidiah Hutchison.

[Ok, for some reason, it's not letting me embed this to the post, so just click on the link!]

http://vimeo.com/5683767


*I have to put LISA Bryant's name in caps like I did when speaking of Lisa Sommers on FB, or else I'll never hear the end of it. Both LISAs are very special friends. Now do I know what side my bread is buttered on or what!

Big surpise for me!

I do believe that my dear hubby does an incredibly good job at surprising me! Last week, he told me to block off yesterday and today. After "fussing" that I at least needed to know what was happening to the kiddos and what to take with me, he relented and told me that Janet Leeder (my pastor's wife) came to me a couple months ago, told him that she would keep the girls overnight this week (Pastor was gone to a revivial meeting in VA). So last week, she came to learn the cathing process and how to drop a feeding tube. Since she works with (big) kids with moderate to severe disabilities, I knew that Maddy would be in very good hands for an overnight visit.

Glen would not tell me where we were going, and I assumed that we were going to Indy for a concert or something. Yesterday, when we were dropping off the girls, Janet asked me if I knew if we were going north, south, east or west, and that she hoped I had a book, because we were in for several hours in the car. I had a bag full of books, and took advantage of the down time driving, since I'd missed my swing time that morning (I've been spending an hour or two on the swing each morning before the kids get up. I'm going to add my reading list to the sidebar after this post).

We went clear to Cincinnati. We checked in at a Sheraton Hotel, very nice and very comfortable, changed clothes and headed out for dinner. He had picked out Montgomery Inn, and I so enjoyed my bbq ribs as well as duck with orange sherry sauce on the side. Mmmm.

Then we were off to downtown Cinci to the Arnoff Center. I had no idea until we were walking in what we were going to do. A musical, performed by a company touring the nation right now (I don't have the info in front of me). It was very funny, very well performed, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself!

When we were done with the show, we sat in Fountain Square with Graeter's Ice Cream, just enjoying the city, the beautiful night and fountain.

We're back....gone just over 24 hours, but it was so much fun to have a evening full of surprises!

Thank you, Janet, for making this possible for us!

July Birthday Girls

Last week was Carli's 6th birthday and tomorrow is Madeline's first. I can't wrap my mind around either!!

Last Tuesday, we spent the day in the park celebrating Carli's birthday. My dear friend LISA Bryant (there, did that make you feel better, Lisa?) took some pics for me. And then while some of the kiddos were playing in the creek, I stole her super-awesome camera and snapped some shots of Maddy. I wish I would have had the presence of mind to just whip her NG tube off her face first, because they turned out just about good enough to frame! She love laying in the grass to cool her sweaty little self.

Hopefully there will be more soon!