A Note From Mom

Hello everyone! I just wanted to share an encouraging e-mail that we got from Mom today. We are so thankful that great things have come of her extended absence in California! We'll be updating more on Katelyn Grace's progress and the decisions that are being made.

(Sorry the whole link won't show up; it's too long.)

http://homeopathy-homeopathics-remedies.naturalhealthdoc.net/homeopathy-homeopathics-Introduction.htm

Praise the Lord!  Katelyn Grace slept 8 hrs. last night
and is actually taking a good nap without me holding her right now!
Poor little one's system has been "revved up" too much
for her to be able to sleep properly
with the overdose of thyroid medication she was on.
The trip and expenses out here have been worth it 100x over
just to discover what this was doing to her body (and to her mother!).
God is answering your prayers!!
The above website has a short explanation of what
homeopathic medicine is and the difference between
this and allopathic (conventional) medication.
Love, Wendy

One More Week ...

Mom and Katelyn Grace will be home in exactly one week!

Although Mom is flying into Atlanta on the 15th, she will be staying there one more day to see a doctor for Katelyn Grace. Dad and Shannon are going to meet her on the 15th, and will take her to the Wednesday morning appointment. Then ... HOME!

Happy "Birthday"!

Katelyn Grace is 3 months old today! She's already lived a quarter of a year. Our baby is growing up oh! so fast.

In honor of her birthday, I wanted to share some of the progress (therapy-related and otherwise) she's made since leaving home three weeks ago.

1. The day before she and Mom flew to San Diego, she smiled for the first time! Shannon and Mom were the only ones privileged enough to see her flashing one of those gorgeous smiles before Mom and Katelyn Grace were whisked off to the West Coast.

2. She's rolling over! Mom and Aunt Sharon looked up when non-Down-syndrome babies usually roll over, and Katelyn Grace is at the head of even those babies! Once, when Mom couldn't get to her quite quickly enough, and she was crying, Katelyn Grace turned from her back to her tummy and immediately stopped crying. "Hey," she seemed to be thinking, "I can do this!" So she rolled herself once again onto her back. Then back to her tummy. Back and forth, back and forth. She was just so pleased with herself!

3. The people who stepped us through the neurodevelopmental therapy process for Katelyn Grace said that "tummy time" is essential. Katelyn Grace is now doing some major push-ups that any baby would be proud of!

4. She's talking more. I hear her just goo-goo-ing and cooing over the phone. So precious!

5. Tongue thrusts are very characteristic of Down syndrome babies, and Katelyn Grace is no exception. However, since Mom has been working with her with the neurodevelopmental therapy, stimulating her, the tongue thrusts have decreased significantly!

6. Down syndrome babies have smaller sinuses, so Katelyn Grace's sinuses were not draining properly. Sometimes this kept her awake at night or made her cranky during the day. Mom reports that her sinuses are now significantly clearer!

Please keep Katelyn Grace in your prayers. Pray that she would respond well to the treatments.

Mom is also in need of prayer. Just being away from her family is hard enough on her. She's also having to make many, many decisions. Please pray that the Lord would give her wisdom and discernment.

We thank the Lord for our precious baby!

Grungy Yark-Work Day

One of the things I have really missed this spring is all of the nice flowers Mom always plants around. Yes, we have a few perennial plants that are blooming beautifully, but it's not the same as normal. Because of taking care of the baby, being out of town, and all of that busy-ness, Mom hasn't had a chance to work in the yard very much at all.

So, we planted flowers today! It was a beautiful day: only about 90 degrees, low humidity, sunny, slightly breezy....

Who needs a bath when you've got a hose?

This vine just showed up; I don't know where it came from; maybe Mom planted it last year. None of us had ever noticed it ... until it started bringing forth these gorgeous flowers! Now, if only we can keep Paton from eating them....

Take Heed

This is what happens when:
1. you allow your at-times-rather-mischievous mother to feed you chocolate tofu pudding
2. you are comparatively helpless, with your hands full of Katelyn Grace
3. and you have two younger sisters who dive for the camera as soon as they see that their older sister's dignity has been significantly - but, thankfully, only temporarily - damaged
... although, since I'm posting the pictures, I'm not quite sure how "temporary" the damage is.

Gross, I know. It took some serious persuading and frequent reminders to get me to put this up here. I know I'll regret it tomorrow.

"I can't believe you're taking pictures of this."

"Is it gone?"

"Here. Have a napkin."
Note: That is Shannon's hand, and my face is on the other side of the napkin.

By the by, we do not condone the consumption of chocolate tofu pudding. Our trying this at Whole Foods was merely an experiment.

Missing Katelyn Grace

I've had a terrible wave of Missing-Katelyn-Grace-ness come over me the last few days. To think that she's all the way out in San Diego just smiling all of her adorable first smiles, and I'm not there to see it. It's almost enough to make me want to FedEx myself out there.

In honor of Katelyn Grace's two-month-three-week-and-one-day birthday, I decided to put up some of my favorite pictures of her, taken in the last two days she was at home. (Any excuse to put up pictures of the little princess will do!)

And so begins the delicate process of cutting a baby's fingernails.

But Katelyn Grace is completely relaxed and contented, as long as her mommy is holding her!

Katelyn Grace loves lying on my pillow. Sometimes, while I'm working on the computer, she'll just lie there, looking around at all of the bright colors, for half an hour. The night before she left, she and I had a little photo-shoot....

vv In her cute little carseat, ready for the trip to Atlanta! vv

My two all-time favorites:

So precious! We miss you, our darling little sister! Please come home to us soon!

A Recommendation

Please read the first comment to "Heartbreak and Blessing." Again, you will be blessed. Thank you, Michelle!

Our Thanks Goes to Dad!!!

We are so thankful to Dad for everything he does to enable Mom to homeschool all of us. I know it's not always easy. For the past few days, the four of us (me, Leslie, Austin, and Shannon) have been racking our brains to think of what we could do for Dad.

Yesterday, Dad received a mysterious phone call from me, in which I asked if he wouldn't mind giving us his Friday evening from 6:30 on. The answer was yes. His questions about what, where, and why, were met with ambiguity and vagueness. No, he needn't worry about getting dinner beforehand. No, we weren't going out to Grandma and Pop's. Well, he'll just have to wait and see.

Tonight, we all donned our "church clothes," (as they are termed here in the South) and headed to the downtown waterside for a nice walk and talk. Then, it was over to California Dreaming, one of Dad's favorite restaurants, where we treated him (and ourselves!) to a dinner of babyback ribs, delicious salads, and wonderful potato soup. (By the by, not everyone ordered all of that!)



We love you, Dad! You are appreciated so much! Thanks for your commitment to your family and your desire to stand up for what is right no matter what the cost. Thank you for reading Scripture to us in the evenings after dinner. Thanks for all of the interest you take in our music and for the wonderful encouragement you give to us each and every day. Thank you for your hilarious, entertaining sense of humor. You have the quickest wit of anyone we've ever known! Thanks for instructing us in such a wide variety of subjects, from how to shoot a .45, to how the judicial system works, to what kind of life Paul the Apostle led, to how to cook steaks to perfection, to the history of the Watergate incident. You're wonderful!

Proverbs 4:1 - Hear, ye children, the instruction of a father, and attend to know understanding.

Thanks, Dad, for everything! We love you!

The South....

... where people think little of alligators sunning themselves within feet of bike paths.

Heartbreak and Blessing

The following was originally posted on my blog, More Precious Than Rubies.

* * * * *

Jessica Weatherford lies small and helpless on the opertating table, staring at a blue surgical sheet hanging inches from her face.

It blocks her view of the Caesarean operation on the other side, as a doctor delicately reaches for her baby.

A baby Jessica's been waiting for.

A baby she prays will live long enough to hold in her arms.

So begins one of the most heartbreaking stories I have ever read. This is a story of a young couple who experienced the unthinkable: the joy of finding out they were soon to be the proud parents of a baby boy, and then the sorrow of discovering that their first son would never live to see the outside of a hospital. You see, a severe disability, Trisomy 13, made it certain that little Zeke would not survive more than a few minutes - if that long - outside of his mother's womb.

But this is also the story of God's faithfulness and a mother's love. While most parents would have chosen to abort their child, Dave and Jessica Weatherford knew that God had a plan for their son's life, however short He saw fit to make it.

Psalm 139:13 - For thou hast possessed my reins: thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.

I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.

As I read of this couple's struggles, their hopes, plans, and faith, tears streamed down my face. Theirs is a heartwrenching story. But I received a tremendous blessing from reading of God's faithfulness through every trial.

Their story gives a whole new meaning to Psalm 139. God has a plan for every life, even that of a severely disabled baby who lives for only 35 minutes outside of his mother's womb.

You will cry as you read of Jessica taking her baby in her arms, whispering, "Hi. This is Mommy. I love you."

But I can assure you that you will be blessed as I have been.

Part 1: Zeke's Gift - Love to Last a Lifetime

Part 2: Zeke's Gift - "Hi. This is Mommy"