I just can't get anything done today!  I'm too giddy!  We had an awesome, relaxing Easter Brunch this morning... the speaker was funny and sweet, just talking about God's faithfulness thru dark times (appropiate!).  
And Peter's report... I'm just still so excited and in awe of God's answer & kindness.  
And my friend, Kari, is pregnant for the first time with TWINS!
And Jessica is gonna have a baby soon!  Oh, I just CAN'T WAIT to meet her and snuggle her!
The days are longer, its springtime!
Such exciting times.
I really wanted to upload pics from the weekend of Paw's Birthday (we love him!) but can't find my camera and I'm too giddy to concentrate on finding it.... 

"Thank you, Lord!"

Those are the words I am breathing!  I lay on the couch Friday afternoon trying to take a quick nap, my heart raced with excitement and those were the words on my mind with every.single.breath., over and over.  I was unable to sleep Friday night either, just full of joy and giddiness!  Here is the battery of tests that Peter has had over the last 2.5 months....
(I am so proud of my little man and his bravery!)


EEG (x2)
MRI of his brain and L-spine
lots of "chemistry" and more routine labs
expanded newborn screening

organic acids 
urine creatinine disorders panel

SCN1A Gene Test

lumbar puncture to check for:
~CSF lactate 
~CSF amino acids 
~CSF neurotransmitters 
(Plus, add to that...  2 hospital admissions, 4 ER visits, one ambulance ride, one surgery with  pinning, one arm in a splint/cast for 4 weeks.)


ALL OF HIS TEST RESULTS HAVE BEEN NORMAL!  We so praise God for this and just rejoice with great delight!  It has been a HARD 2.5 months... our souls have felt in anguish.  After his most recent normal test, a great meeting with genetics and neurology, and just seeing how well he's been doing for a couple weeks, we are just delighted!  We thank God so much for His mercy and sweet answers to the prayers of MANY.  We are so thankful.  Thank you, Lord.  We can't thank You enough!


In the Tuesday morning Women's Bible study that I do, we have been going thru the Psalms.  Its been good, and a little too close to home for comfort, freeing, comforting, hard... yes, all of those.  Most recently we've studied Psalm 88 & 130.  I don't think I've EVER read Psalm 88 (and sorta glad I hadn't).  Our study title for it is "Dark".  It says things like "For my soul is full of troubles, my life draws near to Sheol (the grave).  I am counted among those who go down to the pit; I am a man who has no strength" (v3-5) and "I am shut in so that I cannot escape; Every day I call upon you, O Lord; I spread out my hands to you." (v8-9) and "Is your steadfast love declared in the grave?... Are your wonders known in darkness" (v11-12).  Unlike other Psalms, it doesn't then end sweetly and tie things up in a positive way.... I can hardly bear to type it so here's a link. This was hard to read and study during a hard time.  But the thing we talked about is that this writer is still engaged with the Lord.  This writer is still acknowledging his relationship with the Lord, even in his extreme distress, rather than ignoring that.  We see that we aren't alone in our laments & distress but rather God chose to put these in His Word, to show us how honest we can be with Him.  


Psalm 130 is about waiting.  Waiting is hard because we are not in control.  We talked about how in waiting, a way to worship is to repent, not from a particular sin, but from self (my control) instead to trust Him.  Again, we talked about being engaged with the Lord during our waiting, like "watchmen wait for the morning".  As I "watch" and think about what the Lord has done during all of this (our waiting), one theme that my heart sees is how He has expanded my love for our family.  At the start of this in January, I felt sure that we might be "done", we might be a family of 4 and the Lord had made me content with that (which is a praise, I am not often content, and it has been a prayer of my heart... to live where we are now, not just dreaming of what will be).  But after the pregnancy and miscarriage, and after knowing that Peter is being worked up for genetic issues so that may mean we need to be "done", I feel like God has both increased my heart for my own children (the 3rd pregnancy we had!) and for adoption and just thinking of the possibilities that could be... seeing others stories of adoption unfold, reading Choosing to See (I still haven't read the ending, not sure if I will right now).  None of this is written in stone, I am just trying to reflect on what God has done in our lives thru this trial.  I am thankful, I feel like He has increased my JOY.  Thank you, Lord!  You have been good and merciful to us.  And I am thrilled that he has shown us promise of good health, we also thank Him that our eternities are secure through Jesus' blood on our behalf (and we beg Him for long life on earth!).  O Lord, we thank you.  Today we especially thank You for our Pete and our Lily, who we ADORE, ADORE, ADORE!!!  Thank you, Lord!  (Now I just need a bigger house for my future children!... hehe! ;)... honesty!)

love

We've had such a fun couple of weeks.  There hasn't been much (any!) real cooking or serious cleaning (just the necessary- laundry, dishes),  instead we've just been huggin' and playin'!  It's amazing what sickness makes you happy to lay aside.  We are thrilled to all be together and doing well.  Each day after naptime, we spend at least 30 minutes just hugging and snuggling!  It might be my new favorite time of the day!  My heart is full & my physical affection tank overflowing!  I couldn't interrupt the moment to grab my camera but my cell phone was nearby so the pics are poor but oh so full of love!

One on each shoulder... does it get any better?!

Then I found the flash...

Peter's sweet face against mine is too sweet.

We've also loved the warmer weather and have played outside.  :)

(these two pics are old but from my cell phone- I love them!)

looking for the cat under a bush

Is she not a doll?!

 We've had lunch outside several days!

Peter wanted to share a chair today (not surprising!- love him!)

 "Look up Lily!"  Peter's my monkey (with dried boogies on his nose)!

 Can I say I love this stage of "managing" them together... its so nice that they can do a lot of the same things since Lily isn't a "baby" now... and they so enjoy being together... even better!

 they are having a little conversation below

Our other new favorite after naptime activity (since its light so long now!) is going to the pool parking lot to ride and "exercise"... Peter's been riding his scooter and...

 pedaling his tricycle.

Its been a lot of fun to soak up some rays and know that he's working out his legs for "big muscles"!

longest sentence yet

Lily was eating her breakfast of oatmeal this morning and Peter joined her half way thru to eat his oatmeal.
Lily's bowl was 2/3rds gone but after Pete joined her, she pushed her bowl over to me and said, 
"I unt cin-min in it!".  She is a little copy cat of her brother's ways.  :)  (He hadn't asked for cinnamon but she knows that he often gets that in his oatmeal.)  Too cute... we are often impressed with her development!!  She is too cute and such a little doll!!  Every day we are thankful for our babes!


BTW- Lily is 21 MONTHS OLD today!! What?!  My baby is growing up toooo fast!  You bring us such joy, sweet girl!

a weekend to ourselves

Mike and I have had a weekend of rest.  My parents took the kids to the river house and we've had the weekend to just be without an agenda (except a race).  

Blair and I did the 10K yesterday.  We had planned to run it but then with everything that's happened recently, plus the required rest period in March, we decided to just walk it.  But yesterday morning, we had a moment of motivation so decided to run as much as we could (we ran 2 miles about three times in Febuary!)... and we ran ALL OF THE RACE!  This might not be a big deal to others but I'm so not an athlete (Blair has done a half marathon!).  We were proud of ourselves!  Our time was 1:23 so a 13 minute mile.  But we did it (no walking!) and it was a lot of fun!  And so fun to spend the morning with Blair!!

Mike showed his stuff as well and did it in an hour!!  He hadn't trained since Feb 21st!  

We've enjoyed a leisurely time since then without plans... some shopping, eating, the VCU game, church, eating, shopping and just being together in quiet.  Its been calming and nice!  We miss the kiddos though and can't wait to see them in a few hours!!

Colorado

We had a great much needed get away recently to Colorado to visit Uncle Will and Aunt Emily!

Mike was super-dad and had both the kids sit with him on the plane

 while Holly and I got some good cousin time in our seats behind them!  :)

 Lily learned all about air-panes from Paw

 The kids did great and slept on both of the long legs of the trip.

 Then we rented a Suburban and all 8 of us piled in it!  Peter and Lily were hand-holding...

 and iPhone movie watching partners for the trip!   

 After leisurely making our way up to Steamboat, we arrived 18 hours after we'd gotten up!

Emily and Will had treats for the littlest loves... (i took these pics from them)

(love the camo paper!)

 

 a PURSE... with LIPSTICK!  (Lily LOVES the lipstick... sweet girl!)

On the first day, the adventurous ones had a ski outting.  

Emily and I had a girly outting (sounds more fun, huh?!)... lunch, manicures, shopping and margaritas!!  

and I got new boots to show off to my man...

Willie and the kiddos thoroughly enjoyed their time with each other!!

 Lily and Glenda got to be good buddies!

Lily was really fascinated with this area at the bottom of the steps so Glenda played their with her often.

Lily liked to imitate the way Glenda was sitting ;)  So sweet and cute!

We declared Glenda our private preschool teacher for the week.

And Holly ("ha-dee") was added to the list of Lily's favorite people.

 Will and Emily took us on an amazing trip to Glenwood Springs.  It was an awesome, beautiful drive thru a canyon that follows the Colorado River.  I felt like I was in an IMAX movie!  Emily has more pics on her blog.  Lily came to love tun-nels & ask for them!

We hung out by the amazing Colorado river in Glenwood.

 Our whole gang of 10!

Then, as Emily put it, the grown ups took the little kids back home so the big kids could have an outting all our own.... dinner and a blue grass concert!  Thanks Will for arranging that!!

Emily and I went snow mobiling and snow shoeing one day.  It was my first time to snow shoe and I loved it!  

Mike was amazing Dad and enjoyed the kids a lot!  It was a great break for me and really sweet to watch.

On our last day, we headed up to Steamboat and got to see coal go by on the train!!  It was coal from the mine where Uncle Will is an engineer!  Peter was happy to see so many "coal cars" in real life after reading about them... and how cool that HIS uncle put it there!!!

OK, last hit from the trip, and oh was it a hit...  we promised that we wouldn't post but I have to (there's a ridiculous one of me too!)... the Wii and "So you think you can Dance"... I won't say anything except that the laughter was so therapeutic!  

 Thanks Will and Emily for giving us so much of your time & being great hosts.  Thanks Mom and Dad for treating us!  XOXO!