New Years Eve

New Years Eve has brought with it a mixture of emotion. When reflecting back on this last year it is honestly quite overwhelming. The Lord has brought us through so much and given us so much to be thankful for. It has also been incredibly hard. We are thankful tonight to have a picture of the 7 of us celebrating together, reflecting together, going forward together. We are hopeful that in this New Year the Lord might restore Daniel's health. So from all of us, "Happy New Year!" and thank you for praying us through the highs and lows that 2010 brought into our lives. Thank you for continuing to pray for us now.


We are also ringing in the New Year with my mom, dad and sister...


And here are some pictures Brent took of Daniel and I...




In just a few days we will celebrate Daniel's 1st birthday! That is a GREAT way to start off 2011! :)

God Bless you All!

Grammy and Grandpa

My mom and dad have been here with us since Christmas Day. With all of our happenings, today is the first day I started to snap some pictures of them. I think both of these are cute of them with Daniel...



My sister is here too. Tomorrow I will have to get one with her! And all of the other kiddos. :)

Welcome Home Daniel

I took these pictures from the front seat as the kids welcomed Daniel home...




One of these times I am going to get a video of these sweet reunions. I love the Daniel, Daniel, Daniel chorus that happens each time! :)

So glad to have us all home again!

Sweet Faces

Daniel is looking more like himself today...





Such a sweet face!

We should go home tomorrow. :)

Christmas Eve Picture

I forgot to put the memory card back in the camera when I went to the hospital. Daniel is doing okay. We are hoping he has a good night. Here is a picture of our Kiddos on Christmas Eve before Daniel was taken to the hospital...


Looking forward to when they are all together again.

Daddy and Me

I snapped this picture before leaving the hospital tonight...



Daniel is much more like himself and doing a lot better. Always a happy boy. What a sweetie. :) You too honey...:)

If Daniel has a good night, he may come home tomorrow. Thank you for praying!

Christmas

Today is Christmas.

Not a day that you usually have to remind someone about.

Decorations, Sales, shopping, presents, parties, music fill our days and thoughts.

I LOVE all of these things. LOVE them.

But I adore my Jesus.

Today is His Birthday.

And even though our circumstances are not at all what I would have hoped for, I intend to celebrate HIM.

He brought with Him Hope.

Be brought Life.

Life Everlasting.

Until 8 years ago I never thought about Christmas this way.

I was aware of Jesus.

I knew this is what Christmas was really about.

But I did not know him as my Savior.

No matter my circumstance His life and death and life again are worthy of ALL my praise.

Though my baby might not live to see his next Christmas,

Though my sweet Daniel is in the ICU this Christmas,

I am going to choose to celebrate Jesus.

Just Jesus.

And trust him with my heart break and disappointments.

And although our savings is empty and our sons health failing, we are rich because of the grace God has extended to us through His Son.

Health and Wealth will not last forever anyway.

But a decision to trust Jesus Christ as your Redeemer from sin will last forever.

And ever.

And ever.

To Him be the glory forever.

Merry Christmas!

Celebrate Jesus.

"For unto us a child is born, unto a a Savior given and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace." Isaiah 9:6

Christmas Day

Daniel is doing better this morning. His rapid decline appears to have been caused by a virus...nothing more. He is in the ICU. It is a picture of just how fragile he is. The echo report showed his heart condition is significantly worse. It breaks my heart to think this might be his only Christmas on earth. You can be sure that we WILL make the best of it!!! Please pray for us all. Thank you friends.

Daniel is VERY SICK

Daniel was taken by ambulance tonight to Children's. He is a very sick little boy. Please pray!!!

Go Tell It!!

Here is a sneak peek of our Christmas singing at "Jackson Elementary School"...


I LOVE hearing children sing this song!!

Earlier in the morning, we were surprised with gifts from some dear friends...


After they left, the kids had a gift exchange. They had all received giftcards from my Aunty and with them we decided to draw names and buy a gift for our brother or sister. This was so fun. It is definitely a tradition that we will continue. The kids were SO excited to shop for the person they drew. And of course they were all excited to open them this morning...


As mentioned before, Lizzy LOVES the game of Sorry! Our game had been around awhile and the cards were in pretty bad shape. A couple of the pieces were missing too and so she was SUPER excited to receive this new Sorry! game this morning...


And we were surprised to see how well Daniel did digging into the present opening! I guess he should, he is almost ONE!! :) Tomorrow night will be so fun...


Merry Christmas! And GO TELL IT!! It's Jesus' birthday!! :) Hope you have fun celebrating!

Home Sweet Home

We had another family reunion today and once again I wish I could have captured it somehow. It is hard to do when you are in the middle of it. The kids and I pulled up to Children's in the van and the eruption that occurred when daddy and Daniel came through those doors was deafening!! :) Daniel's reaction to it was priceless. Smile from ear to ear and feet a kicking! So precious. And again bittersweet. We wouldn't have these sweet reunions without the bitter times we are apart. I really love how they love each other. Here are our five kiddos together tonight on the couch...



Thank you Jesus for each of them. Treasure. Pure treasure.

Another Ambulance Ride

This afternoon Daniel headed to Children's by ambulance again. He awoke from his nap with bad blue spell. The paramedics that arrived were some of "the original" crew and many of them have been to our house multiple times. Today's crew was especially nice. While I talked with Dr. W. and packed up Daniel's things to go, some of the men sat on the floor and played duplo legos with Daniel and my big boys. Such a blessing to have such wonderful, caring people at every turn. The Lord truly has taken good care of us with these people. Today's picture is of the ambulance in front of our house...it was kind of strange that I took a minute to snap this picture. But now I wish I would have got one of the paramedics playing with the kids. Bittersweet. But it is nice to know that people care.


Please pray for our sweet boy. We are hopeful that he will return home in the next day or two. We want to be home for Christmas.

Being My Sweet Self

Our internet was not working right for a couple of days. That is why I hadn't posted, but thankfully today we are up and running again!

Daniel has not been feeling well and had a really big day today at Children's. BUT he was still being his sweet self tonight before going to bed. So typical of our Little Buddy...






Such a sweet, sweet boy. Daniel, you have changed my life forever.

Sleeping In My Own Bed

Daniel has a double ear infection. He was miserable, but is feeling much better today. And we are so thankful that this was all that was causing his fever, because it means we get to sleep in our own beds. Daniel loves sleeping in his own cozy bed...


And we all love having him there.

Well for some reason the upload is not working tonight...so I will have to add the picture tomorrow.

And on a side note...today I learned "flying by the seat of my pants" how to put Daniel's "g-button" back in. He pulled in out while I was feeding him today. Another thing to add to the list of "things I would have never imagined doing but Jesus led the way". And it was a great success! :)

ER

Daniel is running a temp. So we are headed to the ER for blood cultures, urinary cath (for UTI) and various tests. Please pray for us. This little guy is going to go through much again today. We may be admitted...we'll see!! Please pray!!!!

Sleepover With Sweet Friends

We are blessed to have the company of some sweet friends tonight. We are having a big Sleepover...


And a Big breakfast tomorrow! :-)

Saying Good-Bye to Aunty

Today we all gathered on the sofa for a group picture before taking Aunty Kathy back to the airport. We were blessed by her company and enjoyed a fun filled 6 days with her. As much help as she was to us, having the company was the biggest blessing to me. Here we all are...


After we took a few "nice pictures" my big boys said it was time for funny faces and here were the results...



Oh my. That's about all I can say. :)

The Rainforest Cafe is near the airport and so before leaving Kathy took us out for a fun lunch "at the jungle". It was yummy and noisy. You can see from the pictures below that Abby was not a huge fan of the noise. She pretty much had her hands over her ears the entire time. They left her ears only long enough to put some food in her mouth or take a drink of her soda. She is sweet.




It had been nearly 2 years since we had been to the Rainforest Cafe, so it was a nice treat and VERY much enjoyed by us all.

On the way out the girls got to take a picture with a Texan Santa. I don't know where his cowboy hat went for this picture...but moments before I assure you he was wearing one!


Thanks for a fun visit Aunty!! Come back again soon! :-)

Sammy and Daniel

Tonight Sammy and I had a fun time giggling together as Daniel pulled the "stick out your tongue whenever you see the camera" tricks again. Oh it had us laughing together. I still think we ended up with some cute pictures of these two boys...






Love you boys!

Lizzy and Daniel

Lizzy has always had a special connection with Daniel. She sang and talked to my belly the entire time I was pregnant with him. And has mothered and smothered (in a very loving way :)) him his entire life. Tonight Daniel had both Lizzy and I in giggles as every time he would see the camera he would stick his tongue out. Like this...


And this...


And again here...


We did get some without his tongue out, but the memory of the giggles is as sweet to me as anything. Lizzy has such a precious giggle. And mine...is...well...loud. And memorable in its own way! :) These two are quite the pair...





And I love how they love each other.