Isn't He Just Wonderful?

Guess who's coming!!!

Tait will be arriving at our airport in exactly eighteen hours and fifty-four minutes!!! Oh, excitement!

A Happy Baby!

Today, Katelyn Grace was the happiest she has been in months. What a blessing! The osteopathic treatments really seem to help her more than anything else, and we're also following suggestions given to us by a nutritionist. We believe we're starting to find the answers we need for our little baby! Pray that this relief - for both her and the rest of her family - lasts!

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Edit: We got home late Monday night. Somehow, I forgot to mention that vital information in this post.
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The Evacuees

The original plan was to stay with my aunt Sharon here in northern San Diego while we were here for osteopathic appointments for Katelyn Grace. But I'm writing this from a hotel lobby in the same city. If you've been watching the news at all, you can probably guess why. My last post mentioned that we could see and smell the smoke from the Southern California fires. Before we went to bed, we could just barely see a red glow behind the hills. We didn't think too much of it, and headed to bed. At 3am we got a call informing us that we should keep close tabs on the approaching fire. At 4am, Mom and I headed out to fill up the van and found out that the fire was only a couple of miles off, heading our way. We returned to the house, packed up some essential items, loaded the car, and headed out through the thick smoke.

Before we left, I looked out the back window and saw flames and emergency lights on the next hill over, less than half a mile from my aunt's house.

As we pulled out of the driveway, three police cars raced onto Aunt Sharon's street. Three policemen jumped out and started banging on doors, telling everyone to get out. We were so thankful we had more notice than that and had a couple of hours to pack things up!

The smoke was thick, and traffic was heavy from a portion of the half million people who were eventually evacuated due to the fires. We drove to Oceanside, fifty miles north of San Diego, and stayed several nights in a hotel. But there was another fire east of there, the air quality went down, and everything was covered in a layer of ash. The next town over was evacuated, and we eventually ended up moving to another hotel here in downtown San Diego where the air quality is better, and we are closer to Katelyn Grace's osteopathic appointments.

So here we are. Not exactly what we had planned for our trip to San Diego.

If you've been watching the news, you probably know that the Witch Creek fire was the most severe and threatened the most houses. You may also have learned that Rancho Bernardo was the hardest hit area from any of the fires. In that one area, 700 homes were burned to the ground, and other homes and businesses were damaged.

My aunt and uncle live in the heart of Rancho Bernardo, less than two miles from where the fire jumped I-15. Two homes just up the road from them were burned to the ground. And remember that hill I saw the flames on as we were heading out that morning? When Uncle Bob and I went back to the house to check for damage last Thursday, I noticed that there was nothing left standing on the top of that hill. It had all been burned except for a few small bushes and a single palm tree.

Thankfully, my aunt and uncle's house was untouched, as were many of the homes around them. We can't understand how in the world these fires work. You drive down a street; everything looks perfectly normal. And then, all of the sudden, you see a blackened tree. You drive further; everything looks normal. Out of the blue, there are the charred ruins of someone's home. Drive a little further, and everything is normal. Then there's another burned fence or car. It seems inexplicable.

We can't go back to Aunt Sharon's house just yet because the air quality is bad and the house still reeks of smoke.

The Lord has led us to just the right hotels where we can get good deals. We tell the people there that we are poor refugees, that we have a little baby with us, that we need a place to stay for the night, and their hearts melt. : ) I'm just kidding. But the Lord really has directed us to the right places, and people have been very kind.

Back home in South Carolina, we're fairly used to dealing with hurricanes, and have had to evacuate for them once or twice. But wildfires are a completely new experience for us. Not exactly what we had planned on for our trip to San Diego.

Mom, Katelyn Grace, and Me [Lauren] in San Diego...

I can look out the window here at my aunt's house and see the smoky glare from the Southern California fires. Even though the closest fire is - as far as we know- about thirty miles away, we can still smell the smoke, and our eyes sting and water. Everything is extremely hazy, and this afternoon we couldn't see the nearby hills behind Aunt Sharon's house. The sun was a blazing red behind the smoke.

Things are going well here, I suppose. We are desperately praying for answers for Katelyn Grace. She has some respiratory problems - which the smoke from the nearby fires is not helping. Something - we don't know what - seems to be terribly bothering her much of the day, but she has been sleeping better at night, normally waking up only twice. Unfortunately, she's still on South Carolina time, and gets up between 4:00 and 5:30 each morning. Poor Mom!

Please pray for us here. We need to figure out what is bothering our precious little baby!

Blessings,
Lauren

A Glimpse Into Our Everyday Life

Hello!

Here are a few everyday pictures from the last few weeks.

Sisters

Please excuse the sunburn! : )

Lunch break in the middle of some wedding shopping with Aunt Dottie

Pop and baby

Ready for a walk - or stroller ride - in the frigid 61-degree weather :D

What a little angel!

This is just a very "Leslie" picture!

It was cool enough to eat dinner out on the porch the other night! Outdoor dinners are always so nice!

A southern October:

Let's see ... We went swimming at the beach last Sunday. The pool around the corner is still open. It got just about up to 90 degrees several of the last 7 days.

Finally, we're getting some frigid weather! At least, it's supposed to get down to the lower 50's tonight....

Alaska will be quite the switch! They had some snow flurries today!

I'll put up a better update when I get the chance. And I need to get some more Alaska posts up. All in good time.... Mom and I [Lauren] are leaving early Monday for San Diego for some doctors' visits for the baby, and won't be back until around the end of October.

As always, thank you for your prayers!

~Lauren, for the whole family

Our New Home

Yesterday, Tait started work on our new home! It's on a one-acre lot just a mile down the road from his parents' house - plus a half-mile driveway. : ) It is surrounded by several big parcels of land, so there's not much chance of someone building right smack dab next door to us. There is an old, rundown house on the property already. He's planning on tearing that house down most of the way, and building on that foundation for our own house.

He has done so much work towards getting this property! I feel very blessed to be marrying a man who takes the responsibility of providing for his family very seriously, and I am sincerely thankful for him!

When Mom and Dad and I were in Alaska in July, we went out to look at this property. Tait hadn't put an offer in on it yet, but he had had his eye on it for quite awhile. It's just beautiful!

A fresh bear print at the back of the property

:o

Alaska in Pictures, Part 1: Our Arrival

Hello!

Two months after we returned from Alaska, I'm finally sitting down and sharing a glimpse of the beauty and splendor with all of you. Over the next few weeks, I'll be posting pictures and notes of all sorts of experiences, from a fishing trip in the middle of nowhere, to the proposal in ... well, that was in the middle of nowhere, too.

My pictures are mostly of places, but I did manage to get a few of people, too. Comments, as always, are welcomed and appreciated. Oh, and in case you haven't guessed, the best way to score brownie points is to say something nice about my wonderful husband-to-be, or Alaska.

Mom and Katelyn Grace in Seattle airport, waiting for our flight

Katelyn Grace and me at the gate ... on our way to visit Alaska for the first time!

Several hours later ... my very first glimpse of Alaska! ... somewhere over the Kenai Peninsula

What beauty!

Back in July, I discovered a few webcams that gave me a little preview of Alaska. One of them pointed towards Mt. Susitna (which recently got some snow on the top!). Imagine my excitement when I recognized it from the air! We couldn't have had better weather conditions flying in!

The instant we touched down on the Alaska runway : )

My first glimpse, out of the airplane window, of a few of the mountains surrounding Anchorage

We were met at the airport by a wonderful young man holding a jar of gorgeous flowers. Who could they be for, I wonder?

I need to give Esther (one of Tait's sisters) credit for growing these beautiful flowers in her garden!

Someone else who was there to welcome us

After 9:00 at night

Soon we were off on the 60-mile drive from Anchorage, through Wasilla, to the Zimmerman's home. Much to Esther and Ashley's amusement, I took about a hundred pictures of the mountains on the way to their home. ... The first of well over a thousand pictures during our week's stay.

More to come!

Making a "Moose" of Things

Isn't that just the cutest bib? (Yes, I'm slightly partial to anything having to do with Alaska!)

We recently started feeding her "solid" (I'm using that term loosely) food! What a big girl she's getting to be! Eight months old on October 2!

She is still having seizures, although they are only happening once or twice a day. Please keep praying!

Much To Be Thankful For

Katelyn Grace was seizure-free today for the first time in well over a month!

To give you an idea of what an improvement this is, her worse day was last Wednesday, the 5th. She had seizures at 2:20am, 4:20am, 6:20am, 8:20am, and then randomly throughout the rest of the day, making a total of about seven or eight.

The Improvement

We saw an osteopath in Atlanta later that day, and things have gotten better since then. At that time, we also started a few other remedies, so it is hard to pinpoint exactly what single thing or combination helped the seizures. We just want to get rid of them! For the next week, she had two seizures a day: one soon after waking in the morning, and another around 6:00pm. Then, she started missing either her morning or evening seizure. Today, she didn't have one single seizure! We don't know what will happen tomorrow; she could have more, she may not have any at all.

The Seizures

Each seizure - or set of seizures - lasts about three or four minutes and consists of between ten and thirty individual absence and salaam seizures. She gets a glassy look in her eyes and doesn't respond to her name or to visual stimulation (absence seizure). Then her head goes back and there is an involuntary sudden contraction of her arms, legs, and head towards her middle (salaam seizure). She'll go back to normal and fuss for a few seconds, then she'll get that glassy look in her eyes and her head will go back again.... The first few are rather mild, but they grow more violent towards the middle and then slack off towards the end.

The Medical Opinions

The doctors say that these seizures are not enough to cause permanent brain damage at this time, but while she is having seizures, and while her brain is "spiking" abnormally in between, every two to three seconds, that area of her brain (which is quite small) cannot do what it needs to be doing. Also, it is not good for her to develop a pattern of seizures.

Thank the Lord!

We are so thankful that she is developing well in spite of everything. Many special needs children are unable to move at all for the first years of their lives. Others spend days, months, even years in the hospital. Yes, we have much to be thankful for!

Her Development

When she turned six months (she is now seven-and-a-half months!), we took her to the Down syndrome clinic at MUSC to check her development. They asked Mom countless questions about how she responds to this and that, tested Katelyn Grace's tracking abilities, and had her grab various objects. In so many areas, she was ahead of even "normal" babies! Her muscle tone was at 4-1/2 months, which is still ahead of most Down syndrome six-month-olds.

We believe that the hours and hours we are putting into her therapies are paying off!

Katelyn Grace is such a happy, contented baby, and is only fussy after her seizures or when her allergies (which we're still trying to figure out) are bothering her. She recently discovered that she has an extremely loud voice, and has been putting every ounce of her strength into ear-splitting yells and shouts. She loves "talking" to us! One of her favorite things is for one of us to take her into a quiet room, lie on the floor beside her, and just talk quietly to her as we play with her hands and tickle her feet. She watches and listens to us intently.

Thank you!

Thank you so much for your prayers for Katelyn Grace. It is such an encouragement to Mom, especially, to know that people all over the country - all over the world! - are praying for our precious little baby.

Please continue to pray daily that she would continue to progress and for wisdom for Mom and Dad. Thank you all!