THE ADVENTURE CONTINUES... :)

Just wanted to share....  :)

GREAT NEWS:)

This afternoon Levi enjoyed some delicious strawberries after his test at the Hospital... 

And there was cause for GREAT celebration:):)

His results from his sweat test at the hospital this morning were all normal.  

We are praising God for these GREAT results...

As most of you know Levi's biological father passed away from Cystic Fibrosis 4 years ago... We knew that there really shouldn't have been a way that he would be positive for CF because his biological mom tested negative as a carrier... But strangely, I had read in some info from my OBGYN when I was pregnant with him that there can be false negatives...

So given his sickness and nasty cough for the past 6 weeks... the Dr. thought it best to test and just be absolutely sure. We were totally game because the thought had crossed Greg's and my mind repeatably over the last month during the rough nights that Levi has had.

Our donor mom was so sweet to call yesterday morning and share some more info on her testing with us... It helped set my mind at ease:)  

We are so thankful for your prayers... It means so much to us... We are praising God for this great news for our little guy!

Prayers please...

Love this precious little guy... and all his crazy facial expressions:)

Isn't he Yummy?

Hi friends, we had a really exciting meeting this past Friday morning in our house...The whole crew was involved:)   I will share more on that soon I hope...

Right now, I want to ask for your prayers for our sweet little man Levi... He has had a bad cough for an unbelievably long time... Literally after 3 Doctor visits and one trip to the ER he is finally on an antibiotic and had some breathing treatments and he is so much better and happier... (I am not a big antibiotic user... but when needed... BRING IT ON!!!)  So we are so very thankful that he is much more like his normal happy self as of late...

All that being said, he will be having a pretty serious medical test done tomorrow and we would love your prayers for him... We are praying that everything will turn out fine and that God's will, will be done in his sweet precious life...

After losing Samuel, we can't help but look at things differently... and I have to be completely honest is saying that I have had a fair amount of fear over this in the past months.  I know that fear is not from the Father so I am continually handing that over to Him whenever I have had these fearful thoughts pop into my head... but it is hard at times...just being real...

Thanks so much for joining us in prayer for our little miracle man Levi!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO MY HOUSTON:)

 Rocky Mountain National Park May 2012

 When we were out west a month ago, this is how my honey and Hopie walked for miles upon miles... Hand in Hand:)  They were a team... And with Greg's encouragement, that little girl hiked like a little trooper:) I was amazed:)

I remember back when Greg and I met in college, I think every single person on campus knew him as Houston... me included... When we started dating 2 1/2 years later and he wanted me to call him Greg, it seemed soooooo strange... He was Houston to me:)  (Funny, my sister-in-love Janie still calls him Houston:)... I love it!

We are so thankful this Father's Day that God chose to make us a family and that He choose to put Greg at the helm of this crazy vessel:)

 I am so blessed to have him as my husband and father to our kiddos:)  We have come a long way from the days of our premarital marriage counseling when I wanted 4+ kids and he thought:) he wanted 2:)  And... we still have a long way to go:) God has an amazing way of refining, growing and changing us... Not an easy process... but it sure if much nicer to walk this beautiful, yet challenging journey together...

  
Happy Father's Day Houston:)

I love this girl!

I saw these pics that Louis had taken of sweet Baby girl a couple of weeks ago... 

and my heart swelled with joy...

and thankfulness that the Lord choose us to be her parents...

How did we get such a special gift??? 

He is so good to us...

Back from a busy 2 day conference...Lots on my mind... lots to share in the coming days...

Relay....

Some of the luminary bags...

All the relay walkers from our church... Cancer survivors in the purple shirts in the middle...

My survivor and our baby:)

The released butterflies right before the walk began and later Hopie got to hold one:)

Our Luminary bags in memory of Greg's grandpa and in honor of my hubby...

The relay for Life was great... up until about 12:00 when the lightning rolled in and they had to shut down the event.  I was amazed at how quickly we got our churches area taken down... Everyone really pitched in and it was so nice to see:)  The boys and G rushed to take down the pop up camper... ( So our very first night in the pop up wasn't exactly a success, although I did have Levi down...  But Hope was so jazzed she was literally rocking it from the other side while I was putting Levi down and she was still awake when we had to take it down  at midnight... that little pumpkin doesn't want to miss a thing. )  

It was a great night before the storm came in.  The Survivor dinner was really delicious.  I can't believe Greg has been cancer free for 20 years.  When he was diagnosed just 3 months after we started dating I never could have imagined the journey the Lord would take us on as a family.  I continually praise God that He saw fit to heal Greg and allow us to have a family!  Back then we didn't know if that would be the case...

Life is such a gift... and something we are not guaranteed will last long here on earth.  At the relay they do a great job of honoring those who have passed, have fought the disease or are still fighting the disease.  I think my favorite part is the survivor lap... Seeing all those courageous people bravely making the first lap of the night... I love it!  

She is almost 1/2 my age:)

Meet my sweet friend Katie...
She is almost 1/2 my age...

We share a bond most friends would never want to share... our children are sharing Heaven with the God of the Universe...(Sharing Heaven with the God of the Universe is AWESOME!  We only wish we could have had more time with our babies before they got to meet their Savior... that is the hard part as mommies!)

I will never forget getting a phone call last August while I was on the road to meet a friend in Kansas... This couple from our church had a college age daughter, this young daughter's best friend was in labor with a baby girl, Emily, that would be born still... She was only 21 years old...

My heart was immediately broken for her...
How would she handle this at 21??? How did I handle it at 37?  She was about to meet her baby girl face to face for the first time... but nothing about it would be as she planned...  It would be a beautiful but gut wrenching and traumatic time....

They gave me her phone number and I called her the night before Emily's funeral service... She was expecting my call... When I told her who I was, through tears, her first words were, "How do you do this?"  We cried together and a friendship started to form...

I met Katie face to face at the funeral for Emily the next day...


God has been so sweet to allow my friend Katie and I to get to know one another.  (Isn't she precious??) Although, I wish we would have met under different circumstances.  I am so thankful that the Lord gives us people to walk this journey with us... especially people who understand it first hand.

 She only lives about 5 minutes away... so tonight we went for a run/visit:)  Even though, I could almost be her mom... my time with her is so special to me.  We share the most intimate of heart wounds... the death of a child... and no matter what age you are, when you are a mom with one of your children in Heaven... there are things you deal with or think on a daily basis that not many would get... So to be able to share those thoughts and feelings with someone and not have them judge you or think you might have just lost your mind is a gift.

She is beautiful, inside and out... funny... honest...she doesn't mince words... so open and supportive of me, our family and our life! I love her!  My whole family does!