Just from the Heart!

I had every intention of catching up on some blogging today and neither computer is cooperating. Our memory stick drive isn't loading and the laptop won't connect to the internet. So I have some beautiful pictures of the three little ones that will just have to wait another day. Therefore, since I find myself with a few quiet moments, I'll just do a heart update!

Everything is pretty normal right now. Megan is falling into a good routine and is extremely joyful during the day. She is showing us glimpses that she may soon be sleeping through the night. phew.... I love this stage of a baby's life. Everyday is exciting to them. They are constantly learning new tricks. I keep her baby calendar out on the dining room table so I don't forget to write things down. She is so smiley, and after all the tears she started with, it is such a welcome sight.

Erin is almost done with Kindergarten and I just can't believe it. I've saved all of her papers from the year in folders and now I know with the end of the year approaching I need to have a plan for what I'm going to do with all of them. I don't know how to weed through them all and what to keep and what to let go. I am surprised at myself and how "hands-off" I've been with Kindergarten this year. I guess all the other circumstances didn't allow for me to be super involved. She is brilliant I must say and continues to amaze me with her artistic creations.

And then there's Anna, whose vocabulary is increasing daily. She is uttering 2 word phrases and will repeat just about anything we tell her to. She really has shown great improvement in her acquistion of words, her difficulty still lies in articulation. She'll continue speech therapy 2x a week through the summer and then we'll have a plan in place for the school year. We have enrolled her in Atlantic Shores where she'll attend preschool 3 days a week and receive speech therapy. The public school system will also give her speech, we just don't know how frequently yet. I struggle to know if she can handle preschool, but we feel it will be to her benefit to try.

Anna continues to be my "walk of faith" as one friend described her. I have to daily choose not to worry about her and the future. I simply struggle with not letting her disorder define her, yet not being in denial that she is going to be different. I joined a facebook group for Velocardiofacial syndrome, and while it is encouraging to meet people who have this disorder or have children with it, it is also very overwhelming. There is no one set picture of this disorder and it's scary not knowing where Anna will fall on the spectrum. I also struggle with how to pray. I don't know whether to ask God to take it away completely, or to just not make it too bad, or to just let me have it and give me the strength to get through it. I truly believe God could heal her, completely repair the 22nd chromosome, but at the same time, I don't think that is His plan. I guess we'll just continue to take it one day at a time while He unfolds her life.

I know that I don't even know some of you that are reading these posts, or don't know you very well. And I also know that some of the people that are closest to me are reading this as well. Whoever you are and wherever you are, I hope that you will understand my need to write these things out and just share my heart sometimes. I love to write and sometimes just putting thoughts down help me work through them. I don't think my lessons from Anna will ever be complete and so you may often hear repeating struggles. I hope you can see that it is me being very transparent and allowing you to share in my journey, victories and defeats, hopefully, more victories! To God be the glory - He is Mighty to Save - He can move the mountains!

Erin's Baptism

On Sunday, April 18th Erin took a very big step in her walk with Christ. She was baptized at Atlantic Shores. We are so thrilled that she has made the decision to follow Christ's example and be obedient to Him. She truly has a heart for the Lord and a heart to show others Christ. She is a walking blessing and extremely blessed. The Lord shines His face on her daily and I know it is because of the love she has for Him in her heart. We pray she never forgets the committment she has made to Him and follows Him all the days of her life.

Erin and Mr. Casey, a very special friend that we are privileged to have as a part of this special day.
Praying together before the big event.

Waiting for Pastor Wall to introduce them.

Listening to Pastor Wall.

Taking the big dip.

Celebrating at Red Robin

MawMaw, Erin and Bobble

Baba, Erin and Papa Joe

Anna, Daddy, Erin and Mommy

Bobble explaining the Baptism Candle to Erin that we will light every year on the anniversary of her baptism.

I gave Erin one of my Precious Moments Bibles from when I was a little girl.

Daddy persuaded Erin to have an ice cream cake - didn't take much persuasion.

Anna's MRI

Despite the sad face, Anna did very well with her latest procedure. She had some trouble coming out of anesthesia, but found it amusing that she could lay on the couch and watch Little Einsteins as many times as she wanted!

The MRI did show that she has small optic nerves. We met with a neurodevelopmental pediatrician the day after getting that diagnosis and he felt that if we had little concern over her vision, which we do, than she probably will be just fine. He thought that if it was a significant impairment we would already be able to tell.

That doctor also evaluated Anna's development thus far and was very pleased with her. He felt she received and responded to information very well and did not show a significant delay. Of course, her expressive speech is delayed, but we all feel with continued therapy it will improve rapidly. We felt so good after leaving this appointment. He told us to treat Anna normally, send her to preschool and do everything the way we did it for Erin. It was so nice to have a good doctor's appt. We look forward to more of those. Thank you Lord!

How Big is too Big?

If the bow is bigger than the baby's head...is it too big?

A Trip South

After several failed attempts, we finally planned and executed a trip to Atlanta to see our good friends the Judds. Erin and their oldest son Anderson were born exactly 2 months apart and were best friends from the beginning. They moved down to GA a year and a half ago and although they have been able to visit us here in VA, we had not made it down to visit them. So we finally conquered it and it was such a good time. We left on Easter afternoon and stopped for the night in Raleigh with our good friends the Williams. They always open their home to us, even on holidays. The next morning we loaded the girls back up and treked over to Charlotte. Megan got to meet G.G., PawPaw and Aunt Carolyn for the first time. After a visit and lunch, we got back in the car and headed for Georgia. We arrived at the Judds about 5:00 and then met Dr. King for dinner at Outback. Again, a new face for Megan to meet.

On Tuesday we spent the whole day with the Judds. Erin and Anderson played outside for hours together and I could tell she was just in heaven. Carter and Anna came and went inside and out and also had a great time being together. On Wednesday, Joe took the big kids to Fernwood museum, the GT baseball fields, the Varsity for lunch and then we all met up at Stone Mountain.

After a tragic hour of losing Anna's beloved bunny, all was well for the laser light show when a super nice Ms. Gina found the missing bunny. We could all relax and enjoy the show.

On Thursday we had planned to head back throughout the day, but since Megan made it quite clear she prefered to not be in the truck, we delayed our departure until late afternoon. We were thrilled to be able to hook up with our friends the Andrews that we knew from our time in Ft. Myers. They're the kind of people that it doesn't matter when you last saw them, you always pick up right where you left off. We spent the afternoon with them and then hit the road and arrived home at 2 a.m.

We couldn't have enjoyed our Spring Break more. Erin said within 4 hours of leaving Anderson that she already missed him. We're so thankful for our friends the Judds and the time we got to share with them.

Easter Sunday

I'm just going to let the pictures speak for themselves!

Huntin' for Eggs

We had such a blast at the Jackson's Easter Eggstravaganza. Erin was the only older girl hunting and racked up 42 eggs. Anna was so cute with all the toddlers looking for eggs. She would have stopped at just 1, but then she realized there was candy in them. Next year we'll have a third little one out there toddling around!