Roller Coasters, Nursing Homes, Kisses and More

Alright to all my faithful followers, I send my deepest apologies for the lack of writing over the past few weeks. Our life has been on a bit of a roller coaster ride from every angle.

I will start with the most important update...SAMANTHA GRACE.
I have to say that these past few weeks she has been at the front of the roller coaster ride. We and her doctors are at a loss for what her body might be going through besides the normal things that 1-year-olds go through. We have experienced some of our lowest lows and highest highs in quite some time since diagnosis. Unfortunately, last week we also experienced one of our first at-home-scares. SG had a "Degree 2" seizure. (This type is one where the patient is unresponsive to one's name being called and stares with glassy eyes into space, much like day dreaming but unresponsive.)I was so thankful that her preschool teachers noticed a change in her demeanor and came and got me immediately.

The mystery of the seizure is that it occurred when she was overly high (472) not low, which is usually when one occurs. This is one of many mysteries to her endocrinologist. In addition to the occurrence of the seizure, Dr. L doesn't know why we can't get somewhat of a leveling or consistency to her Blood Glucose levels. In less than a 24 hour period her readings were 223, 411, 412, 107 & 82. This has been her story for over 5 days.

We are still waiting to hear from our Insulin Pump rep. in Birmingham to see if we are going to get the pump without a "fight". The good news that I owe a HUGE thanks to a wonderful church member is that our "special" insulin will now be able to be filled here in Montgomery! PRAISE THE LORD!!!

On a much lighter note...Samantha Grace has had quite a few new life adventures. She has now joined the in-home ministry visiting team. She went to Wesley Gardens with her Godmother and Aunt Phyllis becoming quite the hit with all the people there distributing kisses to all of the residents. Mr. Harwell, a church member, drew a picture of a puppy for SG. They had quite the fun-filled day enjoying a nice lunch at Panera afterward followed by an elongated nap.

SG has also officially started preschool! She is enjoying the playtime with other children and all the wonderful attention that her fabulous teachers give her. I am enjoying being able to witness all her interactions (I am the assistant director at the school.) as well as the fantastic naps when we get home!

We have enjoyed traveling to a variety of destinations as of lately for some quality family time. SG experienced her first Montgomery Biscuits game this week supporting Juvenile Diabetes all the while. We are looking forward to visiting Ama and Papa this week to celebrate Papa's 60th birthday! SG will be able to see a HUGE baseball stadium this week and her first Atlanta Braves game as well!

As a family, we continue to thank our Lord for so many of you that have and still are praying for us. As you can see by this entry, just when things appear to be stabilizing we are thrown another curve ball. Our continual prayer request is for stability. Along with that we are still praying for the decision makers of BCBS of Alabama that they would see our need for the pump. Finally, we ask that you would pray that the Lord would pour large amounts of wisdom in some medical and other decisions that will have to be made in the near future.

The Votes are Needed

We all could use a little extra cash in our pockets these days right?! Well, my sister and brother-in-law have found the perfect way. They recently went to Panama City on vacation and, as we all do on vacation, took several pictures. After returning home they found out about a contest with their local newspaper, The Tennessean, and their photo has been picked as one of the top 20 photos. Now it is up to the readers to vote on the top picture. Right now they are in 2nd place so that is where you come into play! Click on this link and vote for picture number 6. If they win, they will take home that extra cash. (I am hoping a get a little split for publicizing all of this Justin and Rachel! HA! HA!)

I will post a little later today about other things going on in our little world. Have a great day!

Heavy Hearts

Dear Friends and Family:

Joshua and I come to you this Lord's Day with heavy hearts. We found out just before bed last night that a dear couple in our Sunday School class lost their twin girls during birth. The couples names are Ashley and Barrett. Our entire class is deeply saddened by this loss. Joshua and I found ourselves unable to sleep last night not knowing how to best minister to and pray for this couple.

For we know what it is like to sit at the feet of Jesus and pray that he spare the life of our child, but this is a loss that has deeply impacted us. We found ourselves drying tears during church as our pastor beautifully intertwined their story into his sermon about going through the storms in life.

I write to ask for your prayers. This is a couple that will need deep prayer even weeks, months and years from now. I thank you in advance for all of your prayers. Also, if you feel compelled to give to this family in the manner our Sunday School class has chosen via monetary gifts to purchase frozen meals for the future, please contact me via e-mail.

In His footsteps,
Carri

THE Pump and Magic White Sauce

So I have been composing this update for four days now, but it has yet to be "penned" onto the actual blog site from my head. I have to give all credit to Daddy for coming up with the title for this entry. It came to him over our weekend trip to Grandbo and Mimi's house with the events that took place. Details later...

For so many who have asked either in passing, on the phone, at church, etc. for a medical update it goes a little something like this...Samantha Grace is doing fabulous! She has now been sickness free (minus our current yeast infection due to the antibiotics we just came off of a few weeks back)for almost 2 1/2 weeks! Mommy cannot express how relieved she is not to be using the nose syringe, not giving insurmountable doses of Tylenol/Motrin, not purchasing or giving antibiotics, steroids, and, most of all, not giving an extreme number of extra shots every day!


(Being a typical toddler enjoying...OREOS!)

SG's blood sugar numbers are still unstable; however, as we have explained before this is to be expected with a toddler. For example, last night she played non-stop over at her Godmother's house from 3:00 - 8:30. Therefore, she had a low blood sugar reading prior to bed, but no sweat, especially for Samantha Grace because this means she gets to go to her "special" drawer in the fridge and pick out a mini Juicy Juice box. (This is one of her favorites! And she can drink out of the juice box all by herself. One shall not try to help her because she is Miss Independent!)

The exciting news in her medical world is that she is in the working process of getting an insulin pump. Which means her set eating schedule will be no more. (Can I get a HUGE AMEN!?) However, it does mean that our trips to Birmingham Children's will be more frequent for the next few months for check-ups and more education classes. A LARGE prayer request right now is that the insurance company will approve her for the pump despite only being on the shots for 3 months. We should know something in 2 -3 weeks. If we don't get approved right now then we will wait until November (our 6 month mark) which still is not bad. We are just excited to reduce her injections, not blood sugar testings, to only 2 or 3 a week from 30+ per week. The other good news is that once we pay for the pump (our copay) then all of her equipment will be completely covered by insurance no more out of pocket expenses!

(She thought it was funny that she got OREO in her hair!)

Now onto Life news...
Since my last entry, we ventured to Nashville for a quick weekend get-a-way. We were able to spend time with Mimi and Grandbo. We also visited Daddy's grandparents who will be celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary later this month, which we weren't going to be able to attend due to prior engagements at home.

We discovered, over the past few weeks, that one of the best ways to insure that SG will eat is to have something to dip her food into (i.e., ketchup, mustard, etc.). Well, since ketchup is pretty high on the sugar count, I explored and found that sour cream was really low on the carbs (1g per 2 tablespoons for those of you who are interested). Well, lets just say we now refer to sour cream at our house as the "magic white sauce". She loves to not only dip her food into sour cream but to eat it by the hand fulls. Hence, this week she was eating a cheese quesadilla and dipping it into her sour cream in Daddy's office. I turned my back to talk to Mr.Chip and Daddy, turned around, and found Samantha Grace's entire hand digging out a scoop of sour cream! Pictures below tell all...




She also enjoys applesauce and sugar free syrup as her dipping sauces. She also knows how to say the word "dip" and will say it as she is dipping her food. Quite hysterical!

This week we also found out that our sweet friend Ruthie Grace was going to be having some surgery. (She is only 2 months old.) We were quite shocked but we also knew that this surgery was probably going to have to come sooner or later. I am glad to report that she made it well through surgery. And after talking to her Mommy this morning (Dr.M), she is doing great. She woke up about 11 PM last night talking up a storm. They are actually on their way home from Birmingham as I am currently writing my fingers raw. (Whew! What a week off of the blog will do to you?!)

We also found out that Ruthie Grace will not have to have hip surgery. She has hip dysplasia and has been wearing a harness to help "heal" it; however, if the harness did not work its magic surgery was going to have to be the next option. But this is a HUGE praise that the harness was once again proven faithful. (We have another friend whose baby wore the harness as well and it worked wonders too!) HUGE praise this week!

I close this week asking, again, for prayers for Samantha Grace's continual good health. Also, that the health insurance company would see the need for SG's pump and approve it without any hesitations. I ask, in advance, for a smooth transitions as we experience some new changes with medical and other needs. Lastly, I ask for prayer for Ruthie Grace's healing process. It might be a long road but it is definitely one that God is in complete control of every minute.

Prayers for Jack

As so many of you who read our blog have been and are still praying for Samantha Grace, I ask that you lift prayers for our good friends that Davidsons. Their 2nd son, Jack, born on April 1, 2009 was admitted to the hospital today.

I don't know all the details except that he had stopped breathing for some time. I will try to post updates as they come available. Below is a picture of precious Jack and his big brother Jay just after Jack's birth.

We want to Pump You Up

So I know it has been quite some time since I have posted, almost a week, I think, to be exact. After our trip to Ohio (Daddy and I led worship for an international conference), life returned back to "normal" with a few added excitements added to the mix.

I have to brag but since we left and since our return home, Samantha Grace has been viral, bacterial, you-name-it infection FREE! This has been a huge praise for she is able to breathe comfortable, play without inhibitants and most of all not take any extra meds that play with her blood sugar levels. Since the discontinuation of her steroids from Croupe, her blood sugars have stabilized themselves into a more normal routine for the past few days! The Lord IS good!

We have been enjoying our week of "normal" by playing with friends who are visiting from South Korea. It has been a joy watching SG interact with older "siblings" and just to the shear addition of multiple warm bodies in one house! She absolutely loves the additional baby dolls that the girls brought! (Thanks Mary G for sharing your dolly with SG!) I have enjoyed catching up with our friend Jenny and exchanging favors despite a 13 hour time difference once they depart us!

We enjoyed a short overnight visit, as well, by SG's Auntie Ray-Ray (Rachel) and Uncle Justin. They were passing through on their way to the beach.
Daddy, Samantha Grace and I are excited to be returning to Birmingham later this week. Daddy and I will be attending a class on insulin pumps. I know this probably doesn't sound too exciting to the common man, but this will, hopefully, produce less tears throughout the day. If you are curious as to what this

We will continue our trip north up to Nashville to celebrate Josh's grandparents'
60th wedding anniversary. And, of course, for SG to be spoiled rotten by her grandparents.

As we look froward to soon embarking on another road trip, we pray that SG maintains good blood sugar levels. A lot of times just the minimal amount of stress of sitting in her carseat for long periods of time can cause her sugar levels to do crazy things. We also pray that we don't "pick-up" any new bugs in TN. Daddy and I are surely enjoying a "bug" free little girl.

As for now, here are some pictures from our trip to Columbus, Ohio.


Above: The COSI or to all of us...the Science Museum. It was pretty cool! It had a unicycle suspended mid-air through the middle of the museum that you could ride. SG thought that was great fun to watch!


Above: The Columbus City Scape. It was a pretty city full of lots of hills. We had great walks each day! One of the big things I love about large cities...walking EVERYWHERE!

Below: A Greek restaurant in town. AWESOME! There was also a HUGE Greek church that was an entire city block long and deep! It made some of the large churches in Montgomery look like peanuts!


The picture above is of William McKinley (25th President) who is one of my distant cousins. This picture is for you Ama.

Samantha Grace had so much fun in Columbus that she slept the entire plane ride back in our laps. The way she was laying did not allow us to use our tray tables, hence the peanuts on her dress.

Thanks again for all of your prayers! We continue to be healthy and living the life a true 1-year-old!

So I started writing last saturday but I got a little overwhelmed packing for a week of travel and never finished. I bring all good news thus far for the start of this week.

Daddy and I decided to keep SG out of the nursery this week since she was still getting over her sickness and knowing that we would be going out of town for an entire week. For those of you that are parents know that it is NOT fun traveling with a sick baby. I bring a report that our strategy worked! We not only have ridded ourselves of all our stuffy nose, but we have remained well thus far into our trip.

We had a very smooth plane ride to Columbus, Ohio. Samantha Grace was a gold star passenger sleeping the entire flight to Ohio. Upon our arrival we discovered that SG's coveted lovie took a bath in grape juice. So she was beginnng to smell like an addition to the communion elements! Thanks to the nice people in our hotel we were able to give Bunny a Woolite bath last night.

This morning we ALL enjoyed sleeping in way past our usual wakeup times. We then took advantage of Starbucks free pastries for breakfast and discovered Ohio 's version of the Curb Market in Montgomery. Except here it is called the pearl market, like a hidden gem in Columbus. We enjoyed sampling some scrumptious fruis and veggies and found some sweet trays that we will be bringing back home for our sweet tooth friends. There was even one bakery that was featured on Bobb Flay's Throw Down challenges there too!

SG's blood sugars have been leveling out since our arrival. From getting over the steroids that were in here system, the antibiotics and just the fact of being sick has sent her numbers all over the place. But I have to say she has beena trooper through all of it.

Please continue to pray that Samantha Grace will continue to stay well even after our return home. Also pray that we will continue to have somewhat of a leveling of her blood sugar numbers for a few days.