Getting Ribbons in Her Hair!

What a brave girl we have. She not only had blood work yesterday and gave 6 viles of blood without even wincing, she sailed through the EEG with no fears... thank you Lord for giving her peace. She was gob smacked for sure and it took everything in me to keep her awake until we could get in here but she made it!

Chillin with her dvd player (what a wonderful invention!). This girl was already ready to go while watching her new favorite movie, "Air Bud". We started her on Atavan last night and it did knock her OUT! We gave her the first one at 7:45 p.m. and she went to bed thirty minutes later. She went to sleep without any seizures but was having small ones again by 2 a.m. Her body was still so knocked out that her body wasn't jerking... only her head and eyes... it was crazy. So at 3ish a.m. I needed to give her another one but I was afraid we'd knock her out too long and she was supposed to be sleep deprived for the EEG today so I gave her a half. Well, she continued to seize and so I just got her up at 5ish for the day. Well guess when she sleeps with no seizures...? Of course, during the EEG where a seizure would have been a great thing to catch. Even though she didn't have a seizure, there was a LOT of craziness going on with many spikes and several "events". So my prayer is that God allowed what the doctors needed to see to happen without her going into a full blown seizure. We'll keep you posted. She had 12 to 13 last night and of course she had one of the way home from the EEG in the car today! I think they need to make squish balls with the word "seizure" on them for moms to grip and squeeze... a punching bag would be nice too!

Love to you all, thank you for your prayers and your love. Please pray for Don. He's been in upgrade training to become Captain of the plane and his check ride is on Sunday. Pray he can remain focused and have peace that Abby and I are in the Lord's arms and just get through the next few days and nights. Love, love, love to you all!

January 30, 2007

Abby continues to get worse each day. Last Friday we went into the neurologist and started the anti-seizure medication, topamax she was on when we started glyconutritionals. Sunday night she had 16 seziures and last night she had 22. Her seizures are starting soon after she goes to sleep now and she is clustering early, last night she had a cluster of 6 by 9:00ish. We gave her the diastat and by 1 a.m. she was seizing again. By 4 a.m. she had clustered again with 6 and so I gave her diastat again and then she was seizing again by 6 a.m. Her speech is starting to slur already and she has been tripping over her right foot all day (the right side is most affected with semi-paralysis after the seizures).
We went to the neurologist again today and are going up on her medication quicker than we initially planned. We are also going to try a new kind of valium tonight that we will give her right before bedtime in hopes that it will keep her from seizing.

Your prayers are covetted. I will continue to give glory to our God and Father who has brought her back from the depths of darkness before and I call on him and beg Him to show His Almighty hand in her life again now. In Jeremiah 29, the Lord declares, " For I know the plans I have for you, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me and I will listen to you." It is this scripture that I bring before Him and ask you to as well. We are coming to Him and we are praying and we are speaking His word.
"Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name, you are mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk through the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze." Isaiah 43
We are passing through the waters and the river is pulling hard. We are in the fire and the heat is almost unbearable. This is our prayer, that we are reminded daily that He is with us and that Abby is in His hands. That we will not be forsaken, that His adacious power and faithfulness will be seen in her restoration again. Nothing is impossible or too big for our God and we are crying out to see you.

Hello...

Hello Friends. Here is Ms. Abigail Grace with her Star of the Week Poster for school. She was so excited to the week's Star Student and her poster was outside her classroom in the hallway all week. She also was class leader on Tuesday, her favorite thing to do, and did a wonderful job.

After not being able to shake her head cold for a week, I took her to the doctor and she had strep throat. Our doctor was amazed Abby has not been sick since 2005. She was laughing at how short Abby's pediatrics notes are... if only she could see our section in the neurology department!

Speaking of neurology, Abby seems to be getting worse and at a quicker rate than we can really believe. Our hopes of a mid-morning a.m. snack helping have gone out the window. She pretty much is having seizures every night, two, three and last night five in number. They are not only growing in number, they are getting harder and uglier. We are calling today to try and get her on anti-seizure medication as soon as possible.

I will speak from my heart here. The meds never worked in the past. It is our plea and soul's hope that they might work now in conjunction with the glyconutrition. Why the glyconutrition all the sudden doesn't seem to work is a very sad and unanswered question we are facing.

I am struggling to a depth that is hard to put into words. Seeing Abby go through this again every night and seeing it get worse before our eyes and seeing the pain and panic in her eyes when she can't talk or move her arms right after a seizure is catipulting me back into a depression and state of spiritual warfare and anger that I prayed I would never see again. The darkest days of despair are all too familiar and I am panicing. I don't want this battle. I can't handle this battle again.

I feel selfish to even talk about myself when Abby is the one whose health is back on the balance. She needs prayer... courage and peace and energy and rest... real rest. I need prayer. Prayer for strength and energy... courage, hope and faith.

Thank you. Thank you for your friendships, for your concern and for your love and prayers. Please keep our family in the Father's ear. Please plea for guidance and wisdom and for healing.

The Latest Accessory!

Abby got a very "blue" berry sucker from the bank today and was thrilled to see that her tongue now matches her shirt! She keeps sticking it out and looking in the mirror... too funny. SO of course she thought we MUST take a photo for our blog!

I got up with her at 2:45 a.m. this morning and gave her a snack of apple slices, cheese, crackers and apple juice. I also gave her one of her glyco vitamins and she got through the night without a seizure. So I am going to keep up with this for a while and see what happens. Since her disease has to do with her body and the lack of ability to properly retrieve and distribute nutrients, we are wondering if 11 hours from dinner to breakfast is just too long for her to do without food. So this is our hope. We would much rather do this than revisit anti-seizure medications. We'll keep you posted. Thank you SO much for your prayers and love.

Abby update:
Abby has had seizures the past three nights. Last nights was very ugly and hard. They are happening between 3 and 4 a.m. So tonight, I am going to try and wake her around 2:30 a.m. and give her a snack and juice. The hope is that food/nutrition in her body at that time will help her not have a seizure. So we're going to try that until we have her EEG on the 31st. We are also praying about trying an anti-seizure medication in combo with the glyconutrition. Your prayers for her are so much appreciated.
I am having two moles taken off tomorrow morning. They have scabbed several times in the past 6 months and so they will be biopsied. I'll keep you posted.

Seizure Update
I have slept with Abby the past two nights and she has not had any seizures. I slept with her from December 26th to Jan 1 and in that time, she had seizures two of the nights... one on one night and three on another. I plan to sleep with her the next three to four nights and will keep you all posted. Thank you for your continues prayers, love, and encouragement.

Celia Comes Home!

Last Wednesday night, we had the priviledge of meeting Celia Augusta Lane as she arrived home to the United States with her mom and dad, Julie and Ed. They are friends of ours from Richmond. I met Jules online on an adoption support group with our adoption agency, World Partners, as we were both waiting for referals from Kazakhstan. We went in April of 2003 to get Abby and they left just a few months later to get their son, Ethan. Now they have been blessed with precious Celia from Guatemala. They had a connecting flight in Atlanta on the way to Richmond and after much time in customs, we just got 10 minutes with them. Jules is a dear, dear friend... love you Jules and hope to see you soon!!!!

Here we are with Jules and baby Celia. What an angel she is! Abby was about to pass out from exhaustion!

Thanks G-Mom and G-Dad!

This is another thank you note for G-Mom and G-Dad Haughton! They gave us a generous gift certificate to Target for Christmas and I went shopping for Abby! Her foot has grown again and she needed new shoes... again. So she has on her new "Hello Kitty" school shoes and we got another pair of our favorite Target tennis shoes. I have bought this little shoe in four sizes now! It is the same tennis shoe she started walking in again and so maybe they are sentimental. Anyway, we also got her two pairs of pants, an adorable skirt, and a dress for Spring. And I got myself the "Keane" cd I have been wanting. GREAT CD.

I LOVE this picture. She was miffed with me about something (imagine that) and WOULD NOT SMILE. I threatened her with returning her shoes for being ungrateful and THIS is the smile I got! This is classic Abby tude! Thank you again G-Mom and G-Dad... love you guys very much!!!

Again, I realize I am publishing these backwards. Oh well , what can you do. Anyway, this is Abby's lifeskill award. Read below and you'll understand. She is doing great and is now getting another 30 minutes of resource time after lunch to work on math skills. We continue to be so blessed at the opportunities given to her and how she continues to progress. She just received her second report card and has come up in everything except self-control... she got an NI in that one.

Abby's Award

Abby started the new year off with a Lifeskills Award. Two children are picked from each class, every nine weeks, and are given awards for above and beyond achievements. Abby's award was for effort. Her precious teacher, Ms. Osborne, almost cried as she told me how moved she is by Abby's 150% effort each and every day! This picture is of her walking into the gym with her class. I was against the wall and she didn't know I was there. It's a surprise to the children when their name is called. Abby came in with her hands in her pockets, all big and grown, too cute.

Abby's Cafe

Abby spent most of the day on Christmas playing "Cafe" and feeding her babies (and us) all kinds of creations. Wearing her new apron and serving her new food, on her new dishes, Abby's Cafe was in business in no time! Favorite menu items were mac-n-cheese with lettuce, cold cereal, hot dogs and of course... cookies.

Grandaddy and Abby

Grandaddy was here to share Christmas with us and it was so nice to have him here. Hopefully he's coming back in February to share his birthday with us too! Grandaddy always has cool presents for Abby and this year it was a keyboard (mommy likes playing with it too!). The best part is that it has a microphone and Abby loves to sing "Happy Birthday", "Jesus Loves Me" and "It's a Small World". We love it too! Thanks Grandaddy!

Soccer Pillow

Grammy made Abby a pillow with a beautiful needlepoint of an adorable girl with a brown bob, big brown eyes and a soccer ball. It looks just like Abby and she loved it from the moment she opened it. It was one of her favorite Christmas presents. Thank you Grammy.

Trees in Winter

I think trees are the most beautiful in Winter. Fall brings great color, Spring brings sweet blooms of promise, but Winter brings to light the tree's soul. The intricate detail in the twisting and turning of branches is truly the tree's true identity. When covered in leaves, you see the outline of a tree. When bare, you see her heart and soul and it is amazing and beautiful. This is one of my favorite trees in Winchester. It stands out in a field and is so majestic and graceful and full of years and years of history. If only she could talk. So here she is. I have another favorite tree on the way to our lake house in Alabama and I will photograph her soon. I love taking pictures of trees. They are one of God's greatest and most beautiful creations.

December in the Park

It's December, in Virginia, and we are outside at the park without coats! I do love cold days, I do love an occassional snow, but I love sunny mild days of winter the most! We went bowling for Derrick's birthday and they wouldn't let us bring a cake in for him. So we went to the park!

Brutie Love

Brutis, my parent's dog, LOVES Abby. He mopes around for days after we leave and looks out the window for her. Abby LOVES to pester Brutie. And he is very easy to pester since he is the official "freak" dog. You walk in the room with a balloon, he runs across the room, hides behind a sofa and peaks around the corner. You move a chair across the floor, he has a mini-heart attack and claws much hated gashes into the hardwood trying to get out of the room. So all Abby has to do is hold out a toy and start walking towards him and the chase begins. This was a precious captured moment of Brutie love. I think Abby had some jelly on her face from breakfast and Brutie was just trying to help her out.

A lotta love

I love having pictures of my sister and I with Abby. I am not sure why, exactly. It may be because they love each other so much, because I love them so much, because Cynthia and I are close... anyway, it's just a portrait of a lotta love and I love it... and them!

P.S. Am NOT loving the haircut! (mine)

Christian's Dedication

While we were in Winchester after Christmas, Christian, my nephew, was dedicated. He is the cutest thing in the world and I was so excited to be there. John Morrison, a very special family friend, did the dedication and that made it all

the more special. As Daniel and Rachel walked up there with him, I still just kinda was hit with awe that my little brother is a father. STILL trips me out! Christain had on overalls and a bow tie with knee socks... Cynthia and I thought he looked like a yoddler (sp?). Then we had a hard time trying to stop laughing at the thought of him yoddling... it was early.

"Oh Christmas House"

The house my parents rented before building their current house is now Winchster's Theme House. They are the ones who go ALL out at EVERY holiday. We HAVE to ride by at Christmas just to see the glow from the front of the neighborhood! They have about 100 snowmen and they are all clustered together. They have about 100 Santa's... and they are all clustered together. There are several sleighs and several nativities and "several" Season's Greetings. This is just one side of the three sides that are decorated! Mom just prays that EVERYONE knows she no longer lives there! I think it is kinda sweet they want to share so much cheer... they HAVE to own a huge storage unit. They do this same thing at Halloween with massive amounts of gravestones. Abby loved it and it is a new tradition... Kudoes to them for being FESTIVE and sucking up the massive electric bill!

"BLOG BRAIN"
I have not blogged in almost a month now and I have posted the following posts in the wrong order. Trying to remember how to post them "backwards" so they read forward is just too much for my blog brain this morning. I am just overwhelmed with how much catching up I need to do.

My precious friend, Alethea, and her children handed out presents to the men after they received their food. Hundreds of people filled shoe boxes with items and wrapped them. As I watched them walk over with their plate in one hand and take their box in the other, I was just so humbled at the knowledge that "this" was their Christmas. I pray they felt the Lord's presence and blessing for He was truly there with us.

Christmas Eve morning, Don, my dad, Abby and myself went downtown to serve food and hand out presents to the homeless. It was a very neat way to start Christmas Eve. Heidi, a friend at church, has started this ministry, and a group of people go down every Sunday afternoon to hand out clothes and other staples. Many people from our missions trip last May were there and it was amazing to share it with everyone. It was my third Sunday there and it was very special to recognize several people. It was Abby's second Sunday and she handed out candy canes! My job was to stand at the line and mark everyone's hand with a symbol to show they had waited in the line and not cut or come back for seconds, thirds, ect... It was simply amazing to me how PATIENT they stood in line waiting to be fed. After a couple hours and hundreds of people, I marked my last hand and weall cheered and praised the Lord that there had been JUST ENOUGH FOOD!

This was our third annual Christmas Eve Party. My dad was in town and it was so nice to share it with him. It was a smaller group than the past two years. Christmas Eve on Sunday seemed to make it busier for a lot of people. After our intimate gathering of friends, we went to church for a wonderful Christmas Eve service.

Santa's on his way!