Children's Christmas Parade 2009

The Children's Christmas Parade has been a tradition and something that Grace has always looked forward to going to watch in downtown Dallas the first Saturday in December. This year was extra special because Cannon got to come with us! He was asked to be a jester (as part of his playbill group from school) at the Christmas Breakfast that benefitted children in need at the Adolphus Hotel. We surprised the kids by spending the night at the hotel the night before and had a fun 24 hours there! God is so good! Who would have known that the very next day is when Grace got so sick. Here are a few pictures of our fun time at the hotel, at the parade (where we saw Selena Gomez!!), and where Cannon is entertaining kids!

Grace with Lily from Lily's Purple Plastic Purse

Grace at the parade

Grace!

Gotta love our hats!

On parade route....Cannon was freezing....it was in the 20's!

Cannon and friend

Cannon with other jesters greeting for breakfast. He didn't like me taking pictures!

Snow Day 2009!

Grace's 3rd grade class presented the musical, Snow Day, the first week of December. (I know I am a little behind in posting this...) This same musical, Snow Day, Cannon's class sang, four years ago, so it was really sweet to watch again. Even more magical was the snow that fell that morning! Grace's role was a school kid and she sang, danced, and played her instrument beautifully! We were very proud of her! This was all just 3 days before she got so sick... Here are a few pictures of the day!

Grace in front of window as snow is falling outside!

Grace and good friend, Lily

Grace and her class

Grace and class on stage!

Pictures in the hospital December 2009

Getting ready to leave hospital today...worn out.

Thursday, Dec 10th....Happy Bday Taylor!!!

Passing time in the hospital......Playing school...Grace's favorite pasttime!

Another favorite thing....reading!

Grace....can we leave yet???

Praise God, WE are HOME!!!

God is good! and not just because we get to go home but because He loves us enough to take us through another storm and care for us all along the way! Never leaving us or forsaking us.

Thank you for your prayers and faithfulness to our family! Her tests were fine and so drs decided to send her home and we will monitor from here.

Love,

Carrie

Friday midmorning update

Keep praying....right about the time I sent the last update, Grace began having blood in her urine. She will have some additional tests to see what could be causing this. Grace is sad that this changes our plans yet is so tired she curled up and is sleeping.
I look to my favorite verse for Grace to find comfort.
"I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be. " Psalm 139: 14-16

Love,
Carrie

Friday morning update

Thank you for your prayers! We feel them. We had a nice evening last night. Taylor's 25th bday was yesterday and so we had an impromptu celebration for him down here last night. All 5 of us. It was wonderful. Grace slept all night and held down her breakfast this morning and a water bottle without getting sick! Her IV has been stopped to see if she can maintain her fluids and not get sick this afternoon.
If all goes well, we could be home by late this afternoon or sometime tonight. We are praying!
We continue to be grateful for God's faithfulness in His Word that comforts us, for His love/forgiveness/mercy/grace/ that He gives to us, in His Spirit that groans with us, in our friends that He has given us to walk this road with us, and most importantly in the great sacrifice that He made for each of us.

"If we died with him, we will also live with him;
if we endure, we will also reign with him.
If we disown him, he will also disown us;
if we are faithless, he will remain faithful,
for he cannot disown himself." 2 Timothy 2:11-13

We love you,
Carrie

Thursday update

Another day is almost over and things are about the same around here. Grace's body is slowly responding to fluids. It has taken 5 bags of fluids so far to get her little body hydrated and it is still being pumped in. She is still sick but that has slowed down a little this afternoon. I pray that it continues and we are able to go home soon.

Thanks for the continued emails from each of you as I am growing weary yet continue to be encouraged and lifted up by your faithfulness to us.

Grace remains steadfast in her zest for life, her happiness, and her overall disposition. I wish I could be more like her. Although our room is smaller than a postage stamp, she finds ways to entertain herself and make me laugh. We spent yesterday evening making out a list of our blessings. Boy, we have a lot to be thankful for! Our room has a window that overlooks the landing pad for the careflights for Childrens. We watched several flights come in last night...some of these patients and families looked shell shocked. I am so thankful that Grace is so comfortable here because this is all she has known for 9 years. We have seen so many children who are so frightened as their worlds are being turned upside down. I tell you all this because I want you to stop what you are doing (you know the crazy days of December where you are running around checking off everything on your list) and go hug your precious children and your families. Life is too short to
miss out on the sweet part.

Thanks again for loving us.

Carrie

Wednesday update

Faithful Friends,

Thank you for all of your emails and encouraging words. It was a very long night last night. And so we were carried by each of you Grace is struggling today and that fighting spirit is in full force.

Her labs and tests are back and just as we suspected her numbers are off, but much more than was suspected yesterday. Her poor little body is going to need a lot more fluids and treatment than we had initially been told and so our stay will be longer.

Please pray for Grace's body to respond to treatments and to heal, for her to feel loved, and for us to be a shining light down here and not give in to tiredness or lack of patience.

Thank you sweet friends,

Carrie

Back in the hospital

Please pray for Grace. She was admitted to the hospital last night after several days of fighting a stomach bug. Even though she seemed to be doing pretty well at home, her little body couldn't fight the bug and she got too dehydrated. For Grace, this means needing IV fluids to restore fluids to her body, to help her bladder not get infected, and for her kidneys to start functioning properly again.

She handled being admitted to the hospital and what that means with the several IV pokes, the tests, the being woken every hour last night, and just the pure madness of a night in the hospital with true grace and patience. I always marvel at her inner strength and tenacity. God gives us exactly what we need!

Today has been a little harder of a day for all of us. Grace continues to be sick and she has had a harder time dealing with the reality of being here at the hospital today. Please pray that her body would heal and that we would be able to go home soon. We thank God for the little girl that He has given to us! She is amazing.....

Thank you for your prayers,
Love,
Carrie