Turning 2

Time flies when your having.... You can fill in the blank. For us it could include a multitude of things that have encompassed the last year of little Samantha Grace's life, or shall I say now, "big" girl Samantha Grace's life. She has proudly known that this week was her birthday. She knows she has turned two (I think partly because that is her favorite number right now), and she has loved all of the attention she has gotten. But who wouldn't?! I have included some of the minor celebration pictures from this week thus far and a couple videos. We will have BIG celebration this weekend with family and close friends. This celebration is almost two fold for us, not only a celebration of her birthday but also a celebration of life. For only two and half weeks after her first birthday was she Life Flighted to Birmingham with a looming diagnosis of her diabetes. (More on that milestone to come at a later date.) Praise the Lord for he IS good!

Pet Pig

Today in our first day of, literally, Hot 'Lanta, we ventured to the Atlanta Zoo. My parents have lived in Atlanta for over 6 years and I have yet to go to the zoo, so this was as much an experience for me as for SG. We started off our day with a visit from Mr. Meerkat.

She wasn't too keen of visiting him by herself but was A-okay with Mommy. She even blew him kisses as we walked away.

We then ventured into the African jungle where we visited the very dirty elephants, zebras, girraffes, and rhinos. We even saw the mommy and daddy lion on top of "Pride Rock".



Following our African journey, we went further into the jungles to find the monkeys and gorillas. The gorillas and monkeys proved to us that spring has sprung and love is in the air. Wow! They were active! SG thought they were hilarious and kept askin if she could hold them.




After leaving the frisky monkeys, SG had the priveledge (I don't think she would have classified it as that, once you see the picture.) of being up close and personal with the largest Kamodo Dragon I have ever seen. She was okay with it until it literally was face-to-face with her. The only thing separating her and the dragon was the plexi-glass. We told her it was the Goldfish on her tray that he wanted.




Finally, and possibly Mommy's favorite, was the introduction of the Panda Bears to SG. She had never seen and/or read about a Panda Bear before. Her comment,and I quote, "Eww, Mommy day (they) are dirty. Take bath." Yes, SG is quite an observer when it comes to dirt. She can find the tiniest speck of dirt on you or her and insist on cleaning it right away. She is not really the dig in the dirt kind of girl, despite her love of playing outside.

Above: Female

Above: Male".

Oh, wait, I almost forgot SG's favorite. Her favorite part, by far, was the petting zoo. One would have thought she lived on a farm with how comfortable she was with "herding" the goats and sheep, telling them where to eat and navigating her way between the sleeping pigs to get to the one she really wanted to pet. Quite funny! We had to beg and plead with her to get her out of the "farm".






All in all it was a great day at the zoo. We all left completely exhausted!

A Huntin' We will Go

Today SG experienced her second "real" Easter Egg Hunt. This one was quite larger than her preschool hunt so at first it was a bit overwhelming. I have to say, though, that she even helped Mommy and Daddy "hide" eggs before the kids arrived and didn't try to open or take any of them. She thought it was hilarious that we were throwing them across a huge field.



She did not let us down today with her hunting skills. She came away with a basket full; however, I think overall she was more interested in the playhouse that our friends had outside. (She is obsessed with playhouses, yet it puzzles her why they don't have real running water in them.) She was very much in her element at our friends' home, for they have a ton of land and she could run for miles outside and not grow weary!



So far our Easter festivities have been a blast! It is so neat to see SG so full of life, especially looking back almost a year ago at the little girl we had. Such a huge change and blessing! We look forward to celebrating our risen Savior with our church family tomorrow and then Mommy and SG will be taking a mini-vacation to visit Ama, Papa and Uncle Wade. (Pictures will come soon!)



For now....HAPPY EASTER!


"But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us...Not only is this so, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ whom we have now received reconcilation." -Romans 5:8,11

An Afternoon

We thoroughly enjoyed our Good Friday service this afternoon. SG and I got to sit with Miss Carol and Mr. Vance. I think this allowed her to make it through almost the entire service! I was completely impressed. After the service, we treated SG to a trip to the playground. I think she was more bemused by people watching than actually playing on the equipment. (Plus a lot of the equipment was extremely warm due to the 80 degree temps.)

Much like yesterday, the outside air is proving itself to take a toll on our little one.

I, like one of my college friends, love pictures of sleeping children. There is just something about the sweet innocence of little children sleeping, no matter what they may have done or acted like previously in the day. PEACE!

All Tuckered Out

Discovering a World of Joy

Over the last few weeks, our family has been discovering so many aspects of JOY that I think had been hidden due to our busy lives. Yet as we continue to be extremely busy, the Lord has been amazing in revealing his awesome power!

In addition to reveling his unthinkable and undeservable JOY, we have been enjoying watching Samantha Grace experience her 2nd Easter festivities. She has been "practicing" hunting Easter eggs at a variety of friends' homes. She was able to show off her "talent" today at preschool...All I can say is that I hope this is not a sign to come. (She was such a Hoarder.)

enJOY the amazing wonders of a 2-year-old's first egg hunt!

Trying to truly figure out what the heck is going on.

Checking out her loot and making sure no one has taken anything.
(She was a little possessive about her eggs!)

"I know I saw a piece of candy in here somewhere..."

"Where did it go?"

Happy Easter!

12 --> 9.7 --> 7.6!!

So the numbers to the title of this posting might seem like a puzzle to you, the reader, and I honestly don't blame you for staring at them for a while trying to figure out what the "catch" is to the final solution. Well, the good news is that those numbers are and are not a math equation.


It does take a math equation, I suppose, to come up with these numbers but it also takes amazing skills on SG's parents, grandparents and caretakers to get these numbers. For those numbers represent an "average" of a 3 - 4 month time period of blood sugar readings (to put it in easy to understand terms). For a non-diabetic person you want your reading somewhere between 4-6 in a non-fasting blood sugar reading; however, for SG we are just happy to have anywhere below 12, which is where she was when she was diagnosed. (The longer at the high end of the spectrum the more long term effects she will have on the rest of her systems.) So upon receiving the wonderful news, that her A1C level (that's the average I mentioned before) had gone even lower from 9.7 at her last appointment to 7.6, I thought Dr.L and Mommy were going to cry. Mommy couldn't wait to call Daddy with this wonderful news.






Following our good news, we developed some new strategies to try and keep her levels from peaking and bottoming so much due to a toddler appetite lately (and the beautiful weather). Fortunately for SG, she will have the best diet of anyone in our household, for her doctor has restricted refined sugars (i.e., cakes, cookies, candy) for emergency situations only since these seem to be the main triggers for extreme highs into extreme lows no matter how we dose insulin. Dr.L also recommended a more organic/natural diet to avoid processed refined sugars. So needless to say, Mommy and SG had a little field trip to Whole Foods while in Birmingham. (Mommy didn't mind because it is one of her favorite grocery stores!)


On a non-medical note, we were so excited to celebrate Daddy's 30th birthday for almost an entire week. We spent some time with Mimi and Bobo over spring break, and Mommy and Daddy were treated to a night out on the town to the Schemerhorn Nashville Symphony Hall and a night in downtown Nashville. Needless to say Mommy and Daddy had a blast! Below are some of our pictures!

We also enjoyed getting our "fix" of motorcycle riding in the beautiful sunshine. We also took SG to the Nashville Zoo. She had so much fun! Pictures explain it all!

We are looking forward to Easter and her first true Easter Egg Hunt! (We have been practicing!) She is proving to be an excellent hunter! SG and Mommy look forward to a short trip to Atlanta and then a visit from Ama in a few weeks! We are also anticipating turning....2! (Time sure does fly!)

We cannot thank our readers enough for their unending prayer support over the, almost, last year! It sure has been quite a journey and each new day proves to be a new adventure only blessed by God!