As Promised...

Well, I finally have some pictures and videos to share! Thank you to my wonderful hubby for staying with SueSue while she is napping so I can spend some time on the computer:)

Therapy is going so well. We have already seen an improvement in Suzie's posture and extension in her right arm. She is starting to stand much better as well, not leaning on furniture as much, although she still isn't standing on her own. We are so thankful for the great service she is getting.

She is chatting a ton too! Here are some of her new words: Mommy (instead of Mama) and Daddy, walk, yuck, neigh (horse sound), shoe, sock, play, go, Mary (her video), hippo, bath, two. She is so social...all the therapists know her because she is always saying "hi" to them.

Let me quickly paint a picture of what it looks like every time I go to the store with Suzie. Suzie says, "Hi....hi...hi....hi...hi" to everyone she sees. Even if they say "hi" back, she just keeps chatting. Then they will say, "what beautiful red hair! Where did she get that hair from." I will tell them that neither of her parents have red hair, but she has an aunt on Daddy's side with it and a great-grandma on Mama's side. Meanwhile, Suzie is persistently saying "hi" the whole time:) I can't remember the last time we were out where this did not happen...seriously.

We had so much fun painting the youth room with the kids last week. Here are a few pictures. The whole room was painted in the blue that is on the top. We added the orange on the bottom, the white stripe, and painted all the door jams and border on the whiteboard white. We think it turned out pretty well!




This is what happens when I let Suzie feed herself...

Now we're just hanging outside with our neighbors and enjoying the sunshine!



Suzie is frequently doing more of the correct crawling rather than army crawling. She is so fast combat crawling though, it's no wonder why she prefers it!




Here's a video of Suzie in her big girl pigtails doing her favorite thing ever...watching a video of Mary Rice Hopkins.

And here is is kissing her baby...so sweet!


Thanks to all for your prayers and encouragement. We are so blessed!

Prayer Request

Okay, okay. I know that I have not been faithful to blog since we moved. We opted to save $50/month by not getting internet in our home since the church is just steps away. However, it does make blogging, emailing, and other internet functions much more difficult. I do have a few new pictures and videos to post but Suzie is going to wake up any minute and I need to let Kyle get back to work. However, I did want to post a prayer request while I have a few minutes.

I took Suzie to the eye doctor on Tuesday for a bi-annual check-up following her laser eye surgery. (On a side note, our appointment was at 8:45am so I naively assumed we would be able to make it to Suzie's 10:30am therapy, or at least her 11:00am session. Not the case. We finally left the office around 12:30pm. Officially goes on record as Suzie's longest doctors appointment to date. And she has had a lot!) Anyway, the good news is that there are no concerns about her ROP at this point meaning the surgery did exactly what it was supposed to do. The sad news is that the doctor is concerned that she might not be using both of her eyes properly. We have noticed for some time that that occasionally it seems like her eyes are looking a slightly different direction for just a moment. We really didn't have too much concern because it is so subtle and she seems to see everything just fine. But the doctor thinks that her brain might be shutting off one or both eyes for a time. He asked us to pay attention to try to determine if it is one eye or both eyes and the frequency it occurs. He wants to see her in five weeks to see how she is doing and mentioned the possibility of patching one eye or even doing muscle surgery on one or both eyes. After watching her more carefully for the past few days and getting her therapists perspective, it seems like her left eye is the eye that is affected. 75% of the time, she is looking with both eyes correctly, but the other 25% of the time, her left eye will drift a little too far to the left and have to correct itself, which it does after only a second. The therapist suggested that her left eye is just slightly less controlled and is more affected when she is tired. The prayer is that we would be able to get her to strengthen her eye muscles without surgery. Please continue to pray for our family!

Another prayer request would be how the new health care reform is going to affect Suzie, and of course so many others! It has been a good week for me to lay my requests before the Lord and know that He is in complete control over every detail of our lives, even our government. He has provided amazingly for our little Suzie thus far and we can trust Him to continue to do so. Suzie is on medicare so there is concern that she might lose her insurance all together, and if not, most likely she would lose the amazing coverage that she is getting especially in regards to therapy. There is a also a concern that should she have a shunt malfunction and need emergency surgery, she might not be able to be treated in a timely manner. These are the specific requests that we are bringing before our God right now even though much of this may not be an issue for several years. Of course we are also praying for all the unborn children as well as the elderly and many others. We are so thankful that we can trust in a good, sovereign, loving and omniscient God in these times! Thank you also for your prayers!