Crossing our fingers...

If all goes as planned Thursday will be the big day. The day Brylee FINALLY makes it home. I'm so excited, anxious, but also a bit nervous because my life/days are about to majorly change. Today & tomorrow will be busy days, but we are almost there. Back to Atlanta tomorrow and tomorrow I will room in with Bry and take over her care at the hospital. Then hopefully we will be released around noon. Pray for us.
My hubby & son-in-law Dylan have been sent down south to help with the storm/damage. They were told to pack enough clothes for atleast 2 weeks. I am thankful that they are willing & able to go and they need the work, but I sure miss them and 2 weeks seems like forever. I sure was hoping my hubby would be home to help transition Brylee here. It's something about having him here that makes me feel stronger & capable. Please add them to your prayer list.








 


Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,and he will direct thy paths. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Update on the babies...

Just stopping by with another update. We've had 2 of our foster babies in the hospital this week at 2 different hospitals. Brylee has been there for two weeks to be weaned from her ventilator and for us to be trained on her equipment so that she can come home. She is doing great but ready to get out.
 We were going to finish everything on Friday, but Friday morning BB woke up with a 102 fever. I took him on to his pediatrician and they told me to go ahead to the ER with him. At the ER they ran tests and found his white blood count was way to high, he had a 103 fever, a heart rate in the 200's and a pulse ox that dropped down into the 70's -80's. They told me he needed to be hospitalized at Children's in Atlanta, because he was really sick. We tried to get him placed in the same hospital as Brylee, but that hospital had no beds. They then called the other Children's hospital in Atlanta and they said they were full too. They told us they would need to fly him to Birmingham or Chattanooga to an ICU unit. So we waited to hear back from those when Atlanta called back with a bed available. They took him by ambulance to Egleston Children's. It seems Blaze had caught a cold and it went to his lungs. He had double pneumonia & a flu type virus. We got released last night and he is sooooo much better. We are glad to have him home, but we are sad that we didn't get our classes in so Brylee could come home too. She is still in Atlanta. It's been a trying time for all of us. We've for sure had to work together as a family by rotating shifts, etc.
The hospital said this is the earliest they've seen the flu season start and they can't imagine what fall & winter are going to be like, because all of our hospitals here in GA are full of sick folks. It does concern me with two special needs babies and we are going to have to work extra hard to keep them well.
As for this week, our goal is to get everything done for Brylee. Please keep our family in your prayers.









Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,and he will direct thy paths. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Update on Brylee...

Just stopping by with an update on Bry. Brylee has been off the ventilator for over 24 hours now!!!!! If she keeps this up she will come home with out it!!!!! That's one less attachment...yay!!!!! We are soooooo very excited!!!! I have so dreaded that thing coming home with us. It will be wonderful if she continues to do well and we can leave it behind.
However, she hasn't been eating very well and they are concerned because she is so small, so they hooked her back up to the feeding pump, and they have her on 10 hours on and the rest of the day off. I can handle the feeding tube,although I hope she won't bring it home.
So when will we be home? Honestly, I really don't know. We hoped it would be this week but it's not likely. I asked the nurse today how many more classes did we lack and she said at least 6 hours worth. What!!!!???!!! I really think she is mistaken. The teacher wasn't there today, but I think she has forgotten what we've already done. Maybe they haven't credited us from Friday- Sunday. These classes were suppose to take us *ONE* day and we are now in to day 8 with no end in sight. Brent can't take any classes until Friday and even if we get them done Friday we still have to room in at the hospital for 24 hours. So most likely we won't be home until next week.
Please continue to remember Brylee in your prayers.






Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,and he will direct thy paths. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Little Man...

Carter says, "Hey" everybody!

He is learning new

words every day.

He is on the move now.

Carter is a laid back little boy

and a BIG time mommy's boy.

He loves kids, especially Jacob

and he adores his Uncle Jon.

He is doing really good.

He's still little for his age

but he's catching up

and size seems to be the

only thing

that prematurity has

 left behind.

Everything else is on target.

He has 3 teeth.

He

Loves animals.

Loves to eat.

Loves being outside.

He is for sure a miracle

and a blessing to everyone

that knows him.

~~~~~~

PawPaw & MeMe love you

Little Carter Man

Bigger than the sky!

Miss Addie Grace...

Is she a cutie pie or what?

Adalyn is 6.5 months now

and growing like a weed.

Precious, precious baby.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,and he will direct thy paths. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Sweet...

My Hubby spent the weekend with us in Atlanta. It was nice having his company. We were hoping to finish more of our schooling, but everything was so busy in the unit that we were only able to finish vest classes.

Bry had started vomiting over the weekend but they think it may have been from the calcium they gave her in her G-tube or the pediasure (both were new). We think she may be lactose intolerant, so they are going to change up things today.

I think it may be next week or the next before we get out. They told us that we had to have the wiring in our home checked (to make sure it is safe for the equipment) and we have to have a safety sweep of our home, pretty much the same thing we already do for DFACS, but we've got to have it done for CHOA.

This little girl has kept us busy, but she is worth it.

Bry is 32 inches tall

and she weighs

20.3 lbs.

She's a tiny little girl with a

great BIG personality.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,and he will direct thy paths. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Just an update...

Just stopping by with an update.
Monday was Jacob's 11th birthday!!!!! So hard to believe my own baby is the big one one. Time has a way of passing us before we even know it. I asked Jacob what would be like to do for his birthday(since we really don't do parties at his age) and his answer was that he wants to go to the mall and buy shoes. He said, he would even pay for them. I thought that was sweet of him, but he don't have to do that. That will be our gift to him.  I wasn't able to take him on Monday because I had so much going on, but hopefully this weekend we will be going birthday shoe shopping:) I sure do love my crazy, wild, rambunctious, and loving little man.  We've not had a dull moment in 11 years:) What a blessing & joy he has been.

On Monday, our baby foster (BB) had his hearing aid consultation at Children's. We didn't think they would fit him for aids, but they did. They have said they probably won't make any difference because he is profoundly deaf, but the aids will keep the nerves alive in the ear until hopefully something new comes out for the hearing impaired.

As soon as I got in from Atlanta, I got the call on our newest foster. We've been knowing she was coming for several weeks. It was just a different process getting her here, since she is a family friend and not a child abuse case. She was placed with her aunt & uncle last year and they surrendered their guardianship to allow her to come here. We will be taking over her care. To make a long story short (because my time is so limited), our Brylee (that's her name) was in an accident a few months back and suffered a spinal cord injury. Due to her injury she lost the use of her limbs and had to have a feeding tube & trach. Well, she has majorly improved. She is starting to use her hands again and can actually feed herself. She is moving her legs with no problem and hopefully very soon she will build up her strength to learn to stand and walk again. She still has a G-tube, but she doesn't use it anymore for feeding. She eats every thing by mouth now. She still has a trach, but it's really only used at night to help her breathe. However they are trying to wean her off of it. So they hospitalized her at Children's on Monday to start that process and yes that's where I've been. She still has a ways to go, but every day she does something new and her doctors are very optimistic that one day she will do pretty much everything she done before the accident. Please add our Bry to your prayer list.

Well, that's all I have time for today. Please keep our family in your prayers.







Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,and he will direct thy paths. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Update on baby BB...

Yesterday, I took our youngest foster BB back to Egleston Children's hospital to have an ABR test done. This is an audio brain response test. It it used to determine hearing/ hearing loss in a child. The results were not good. As expected, our baby is profoundly deaf in his left ear and may possibly hear some (moderate loss) in his right ear, but that would be all ,and they expect he will loose that within time because that is how CMV works.

He will go back to Atlanta next week to see another doctor. That doctor should be able to tell us if anything can be done to help BB. We've been told by two other doctors that most likely hearing aids will make no difference and he is not a candidate for implants, because of his health condition.

Overall, BB is doing well. He is doing much better than most of the CMV babies I've met. We are thankful for that, but we know we have a long road ahead of us. Please continue to keep our precious baby in your prayers.

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,and he will direct thy paths. ~Proverbs 3:5-6

Pics from our mountain trip...

These are a few pics from our trip to the mountains:)

We took Bailey & Jacob with us.

And they call these things trophies...lol

She wasn't to sure about the elk:)

She called this the hot pool:)

One our our favorite places!!

A trip back in time...

Most of the graves were dated in the 1800's.

Some were so old you couldn't see a name or date.

We always leave a note behind:)

It was a much needed vacation

and we had a good time:)

Trust in the LORD with all thine heart;and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him,and he will direct thy paths. ~Proverbs 3:5-6