Prayer for Kate

I wanted to write a quick note, for those of you who read this, please keep Kate in your prayers. She had really bad strep throat 2 weeks ago, took all her medicine, and it went away. Then about 24 hours after that medicine ran out, she started wheezing coughing a lot!! So yesterday, we went back to the doctor and b/c she was wheezing and the doctor said she has asthma, and put her on 5 medicine, and wanted us to come back 24 hours later for a follow-up, hoping the wheezing would be different/gone due to the medicine. So this morning back to the doctor we went, and the wheezing was still there, so they had her do another breathing treatment, and then they sent her to get a chest X-ray to make sure it wasn't pneumonia. We just got the call and it's not pneumonia, PRAISE GOD!! This is something she can grow out of, and I'm believing she will! Please keep her in your prayers as we go through this together. I have a lot to learn about, b/c I know nothing about asthma. But I'm going to learn. Thanks for all the extra prayers!

Daddy/Daughter Dance 2009 ~ Valentines

So the girls got to go to the Daddy Daughter Dance this last weekend, and it was GREAT!! We went to the Little Elm Dance this year instead of the Frisco dance, which Kate and Daddy did last year, hoping that Kate would have more friends at the dance (b/c this is the school district she's in), and she did! We didn't want to spend the extra money on dresses and hair this year, so we used the fancy dresses that Grandma Lorel bought the girls for Aunt Mary's Christmas wedding this year. I did their hair, and makeup, and sparkles. Chris took them out to eat, then off to the dance they went. Hailey was very excited to go this year, b/c she was too young last year. Hailey was a bit nervous going with her cast on b/c she wasn't sure how much she'd be able to dance, but it turned out great! Once they got there, they got pictures taken, and then Kate was off to socialize with friends. She's a little social butterfly! Hailey danced with daddy, and has a great 'cast-dance' move. They had an amazing night, and it was a great time for all of them. Next year Chris said we'll have to do 2 different dances, b/c it's hard to slow dance with 2 girls. Before they left, Kate helped Hailey spice up her lip-gloss, it was precious. She wanted her to look perfect! And they both did! Finally, they are off to the dance riding in daddy's car, and all thumbs up. It was a great Valentines Memory for us all! The next day Chris and I got to go out kid free for 8 hours, thanks to Grandma Robyn, who watched the girls for us. We also had a great Valentines together.

Cast Day

Today was cast day for Hailey. I thought I'd post a bunch of pics to tell the story. As we were driving to the hospital, she told me, "Mommy, I'm ok, I'm not scared, b/c I'm not getting any shots, so I'm ok", it was so cute. The first pic is of her right before her X-rays. Then she got to let her leg breathe for a few minutes, I know this felt good for her. As you can see she's wearing headphones in most of the pics, she had her daddy's I-pod and was watching Peter Pan through most of the appointment. Here she is starting the process. She was SO brave! You'll have to excuse the undies in the pics, but it's just how it ended up. This next pic is SO cute, I LOVE it, but her eyes are closed, but I still had to put it up, she did such a great job! Then she had to pick out her color, and that was an easy choice for her. I was surprised with how many choices there were, but she went with her favorite, Purple! Even the doctor said she did great, she sat so still, and just let her do her thing, Hailey made it seem easy, and even a bit on the fun side, she just about smiled in every picture....she's GREAT! Then it was all over, and back home we went, it went very smoothly, and we are just happy that the countdown is on. I'll end this post with this last pic, she's doing a good job, and handling everything really well for a 3 year old. Continue to keep her in your prayers as we push through these next 4 weeks. We are looking forward to this Friday, the girls are going to a Daddy Daughter Dance, and it will be interesting with a broken leg. I'll post pics from that event next week. Thank you everyone for your support!

Hailey's broken leg

So the updated news on Hailey at this point is that she gets her cast this Wednesday. Please keep her in your prayers. On Wednesday they will take more X-Rays of her leg and depending on how it all looks at this point, she might be able to walk on her cast, but if it's not where they want it to be she will still be immobile, so please be praying for her(and us)! She's a VERY active child and this has her activity level basically to nothing. She has a lot of pent up energy that she needs to get out, so we are trying our creative ways to entertain her. Here are some recent pics from this weeks adventures. This is one of her wanting to scoot around and play, but sorta gave up and just stayed there watching her sisters instead.....poor thing (at least she's still smiling)! This is another one of her, after she learned how to scoot around, we took her to the library and let her play with the puppets, this was fun for her.So once this whole process started, I began searching for a child's wheelchair, but had a very difficult time finding one. So then I started thinking of other options to carry this child around for at least the next week, and I thought of a wagon, so we have been borrowing my sister in laws wagon, and it's been great! Here she is helping me do the laundry with her wagon. She's been a trooper throughout the whole process, and we are very proud of her. She wakes up every morning saying, "can we take this off now" it's very hard for her to understand that it takes a long time for bones to heal back together. I will continue to keep you all posted as we go through this adventure. Thanks for all your prayers and support. A quick update on the other two, they are doing good now. Kate was home from school with really bad strep throat, but the medicine we got for her turned her around really fast, and she's doing great now. Brooke just cut 2 new teeth, so she's been dealing with that, but now they have come all the way through, so we are happy about that. At this moment, Kate and Brooke are both doing better and are helping me keep Hailey occupied the best we can.

Life's twists and turns

So it's been a few busy weeks lately, and we seem to be riding a roller coaster up and down. God has really been doing a work on us, and it's just amazing to see what He might put you though so you can become better. As most of the world, the economy has struck us pretty hard, and times are tough, but we are pushing through to the best of our abilities and trying to stay very focused and positive through it all and believe that God has a bigger plan for us on the other side of all of this, that we just can't make sense of yet. I know that you have to go all the way down before you can go all the way up, so Praise God, I think we've just about hit 'all the way down' (I can't imagine any lower really, but who knows what God still needs to teach me) and we are SO ready to start moving 'all the way up'!

Our latest news, and I will try to keep everyone posted as we go through it. Last night, I went in to work to fill in for the secretary who called in sick. Chris called me a few hours into my shift saying that him and all 3 girls were jumping on the trampoline together (he's such a GREAT daddy), and then Hailey fell and grabbed her shin, and wouldn't move and wasn't acting like her normal self. So of course he took her inside and tried to comfort her and help her calm down, but it wasn't working, so that's when I got the call. We called her doctor, who wanted us to go into the E.R. to have it looked at b/c Hailey wouldn't put any pressure on it whatsoever! After juggling the other 2 kids over to Aunt Amy's house, we were headed to the E.R. with Hailey. After a very odd conversation with a lady in the waiting room(that's a whole other story in itself), we finally got seen. She got checked out by the doctor there, and they couldn't tell by just touching it, and Hailey was being SO shy that she wouldn't even talk to them or tell them what or where it was hurting. So they came to take an X-ray, expecting to have to take a few more after looking at the first one, but they needed no more......there it was a Tibia Fracture. Basically, she broke her leg. So long story short, she is now in a splint, and scheduled to get a cast next Wednesday after the swelling goes down. It's NO fun for her, and it's especially hard, b/c she is our most active child and this has her down to basically zero movement. She's can't move her leg at all on her own, and she can't walk, so we have to carry her everywhere, and move her leg any time she's uncomfortable (including in the middle of the night). Put that next to still caring for 2 other children, and it's non-stop. Please keep her in your prayers as she gets used to this whole process, b/c she still has a long road ahead of her. Like I said earlier, I will keep you posted as we lean more, and I'll try to get some pics up soon.