A lot has happened in a month

I can't believe it's been a month since I have posted anything. I have had several people find me and ask me how Grace is doing and say, "I've noticed that you haven't written anything on the blog and so things must be good." In many ways, that is so true. Overall, Grace is doing great! To look at her, she looks great! She is happy and still hasn't gotten sick since the beginning of the school year and that is such a praise! She even had perfect attendance at her school for the second six weeks! She loved that because it is so rare.

Four weeks ago, we celebrated Pumpkin Day at Grace's school during the day, which meant that Grace had to decorate a pumpkin. It's a huge event at her school and something she loves to do. The next day was Halloween and our new block threw a block party that was a blast! Grace had so much fun! You will see as you look at her picture in the next blog that many people didn't even recognize her. She was Gabriella from High School Musical and wore a black wig. It was quite a contrast from her blonde hair! There were times that I even did a double take. Cannon spent the weekend at Pine Cove with our church and in true Cannon form he was his favorite character, Jim Carey. The next time you see him, ask him to do a line from one of his movies, you will crack up.

Kevin and I celebrated our 11th anniversary on Oct 30th and were looking forward to our fall getaway a week later when God had different plans for us. I had not been feeling well for a few days but had been ignoring it. Things finally got so bad and when I couldn't climb our stairs, I called our good friend Matt who is an ER dr and he helped us out. I ended up having my gallbladder out and had an extended stay in the hospital...was told that besides needing my gallbladder out I was just plain exhausted. Needless to say, we missed our trip to Italy. But, God never holds anything good from his children. I am thankful that I got sick here and not overseas, that God slowed me down and gave me some time to rest and do some thinking, and that we were surrounded by family and friends that could care for our family. It's been 3 weeks since my surgery and I am still running low on energy and my stomach still hurts pretty bad by the end of the day. Of course, I am not very patient, but am trying to work on this. I am also having a hard time eating normally and so I have lost a considerable amount of weight, not something that I needed to do.

Meanwhile, Grace has had 2 more rounds of monthly injections down at Children's. This last one was really hard on her. She was sore for several days and it reminded me of how hard this is on her and how brave she is. The drs believe that these injections are helping and so we are going to continue them and pray that there will be times that they don't hurt Grace as much. She is also still requiring medical procedures every 3 hours round the clock and so my sweet husband has been carrying the load on this and has been waking up every night to care for Grace. We have also met with her urologist regarding her bladder and kidneys. Although she has the appearance of things looking stable on the outside, he believes things on the inside regarding her spinal cord are beginning to start to deteriorate yet once again. This was very hard news to hear because she has been so healthy and she looks so good. He has recommended a less invasive day surgery and also some medicine to help with pain and nerve issues surrounding her legs. For now, we have opted for the medicine and are praying through the surgery aspects. The medicine is quite experimental in children and so it is something that we are monitoring very closely and have prayed about for over a year. All of this is just a reminder of how fragile her little body really is and how blessed we have been this fall because she has remained so healthy. As far as her kidney goes, we will wait until end of Feb to have an extensive test to see about the function of it.

This past weekend, we took advantage of Grace's health and spent an overnight at the Gaylord Texan. We enjoyed all of the Christmas festivities that they had available, meeting Santa, looking at lights, saw the ICE exhibit, and enjoyed each other's company. It was great to do this with Grace feeling so well, and even then with all of the walking we did, by the second day, she began looking at Kevin and with her great big smile she would say, "Daddy, could you carry me, my legs hurt." In these times, I have to guard myself from becoming anxious and worrying about whether this is the beginning of yet another retethering of her spinal column as the urologist is suggesting. I continue to pray through Phil 4:6-7. We also enjoyed some much needed R and R. It did our whole family good. We had some great family time and got lots of sleep, which we all needed and enjoyed some time with my brother and his family.

The week ahead holds many exciting things for our kids. Grace is busting at the seams as her grade will be performing Snow Day the Musical. She has been singing and dancing for weeks preparing for it. Cannon will be involved in the Shakespearean Feast at his school and is excited about it too. It should be a fun and busy week around here.

As always, we covet your prayers. Please pray for Grace to remain healthy and pray for her spinal cord, bladder, and kidneys. Pray for her little spirit to be able to withstand all that it has to endure from shots, to medicines, to medical procedures every 3 hours around the clock, to pain. Please also pray that I would regain my strength and be able to eat again. Pray that we would allow God to take these burdens from us and carry our loads. Lastly, pray that our family would be a light to others during the Christmas season.

Thank you sweet friends!

Love,

Carrie