Home

After a full week in the hospital Preston was discharged on sunday. Things are still pretty hectic and scary but we are so thankful to be home. We have lots of new medicines, and now we will be getting sent to go see a geneticist. I am not sure exactly what they are looking for, but it may help us figure Preston and Sam out better possibly. The intestinal infection has really wreaked havoc on his little stomach, and he has had a tough time tolerating oral food and drink. He is slowly improving. And I am so thankful. This past week I was reminded over and over again how wonderful our God is. As He provided child care and support from our families and friends I was surrounded by His love. It was so hard being away from the rest of the family for the whole week. But God took care of them, and allowed them a lot of fun memories this last week. Sometimes in the midst of the trial it is so easy to get caught up in the middle of feeling sorry for myself, but then I am thankfully reminded gently that I am incredibly blessed regardless of the situation.

In the hospital

Preston was admitted to the hospital on sunday with an intestinal infection. It has been pretty rough going. Please keep him in your prayers. I will try to explain more what is going on tomorrow :-)

Still waiting....

We are still waiting for Preston's results. He seems to be in a little bit better of spirits today. He is active and playful at times and loves when his home visitor comes to play with him. We are so blessed to be a part of this program. She comes twice a week and brings books and toys to play with him and expand his mind. I love that he is able to feel so comfortable with her and that he has the attention span to listen and play with her :-) We are headed back to the doctor in a few minutes to do some more testing. Sometimes it is hard to keep a good attitude and not get discouraged. Today is one of those times. I keep telling myself that the IVIG is going to start helping him, and I just need to have faith that it will be better soon :-)

A trip to the doctor for Preston

So I brought Preston into see Dr V today since the diarrhea has now been going on for 9 days and the fever for a week. She said he looked unwell, and he has lost some weight :-( since last week when I took him. She isn't sure what is going on. His stool still has blood in it, she sent it off for all kinds of tests and studies, and was also going to be calling the specialists in Boston to see what their recommendations would be. Please be praying for my boy :-) Thanks so much! I know God is totally in control but I am anxious right now. Praying for him to feel better and be happy and growing again. His weight was 22.9 today, and was 23.4 last week. On a happier note, the kids had a snow day today and had a blast playing out in the snow. I wish I could post pictures, hoping to get my computor fixed this coming weekend. I also had the priviledge of getting to know a new friend better! It was so fun learning about her family, and the journey that God has brought her on. I am always so blessed to hear of God's faithfulness in someone's life. THANK YOU for sharing!!!!

Hanging in

We are hanging in here at our house.... Preston still seems to be fighting something and can't quite get rid of it. He has now had diarrhea for a week and two days, and has been running intermittant fevers since last wednesday.... Back to the doctor tomorrow. I was really hoping with the IVIG that we would stop doing this lengthy illness. My sister was in a car accident today :-( She slid on some black ice and slid across the road and crashed into a tree, and then another car slid on the black ice and slammed into my sister. I am praising God that she is ok, but very sore. Please be praying for her. Sam seems to be ok, but is very irritable and whiny which essentially means he is getting ready to get sick or is fighting something. My prayer is that he can fight it on his own, and not need antibiotics. And that we can make it to next weeks IVIG without real illness. Sophia is doing well. She is really loving school these days and is enjoying all her friends. She is such a doll! I am so thankful for her. She has definitely been a little naughty in the last few days but she is so funny:-) We are taking the kids to see the musical ANNIE on friday! I am so excited to take them. We usually do a production every Christmas season, at a big theater such as the Wang in Boston, or the Hanover Theater, but this year with the finances it wasn't possible. So we are taking them to a local highschool for this and I am sure they will love it:-)

Rough Week

It has been rough this week. My computer hard drive crashed. I am so upset as my pictures are all on it. I am praying that we will be able to get them off. The boys have each had some GI stuff going on that has been scary. Sam had the bloody stool and we went to GI and the plan is to change up his diet again, removing rice rye and barley for the next two weeks and see how he does. Preston has had loose stools since sunday and then spiked a temp wednesday and I of course thought that it was the intestinal infection again. I am praising God that it is not. But when they tested it there was blood in his stool. So that is scary. I am not sure what the doctor is going to do about that. He is eating pretty poorly but is acting pretty happy at times, so I am not sure what to think about what is going on. I will be speaking with GI again on Monday to see what the next step will be...

The Daniel Fast

So I have never truly fasted before. It always seemed so very overwhelming and scary and always felt like I would fail. This year our church is doing a cooperate fast, and I am joining in. So far it has gone ok. I found a blog and a website that have offered a lot of information on the Daniel Fast specifically and on fasting in general. I am super excited for this time in my life, and for developing a deeper faith and realizing what God has in store for me. I have been praying about what I would be seeking during this fast, and I am seeking RESTORATION.... In many areas of my life. I am believing by faith that God is going to move mountains in the next twenty one days. If you are curious and want some information these are the two websites that I have found tremendously helpful: the Daniel fast website, and the Daniel Fast blog. There are recipes, free daily devotionals and a wealth of information.

Wonderful weekend.... and some bleeding

Saturday we had such a wondeful day. As I have mentioned before it has been really hard for me as my siblings have moved away. I was feeling so sad for my kids, that they wouldn't be surrounded by all of their aunts and uncles and cousins. I am so thankful that two of my sisters are still around but I certainly miss my other sister and my two brothers and their families. Thankfully God has blessed us with Christian "aunties" and "Uncles" for these munchkins of mine. I have written often about the Paradis family. I feel so incredibly blessed to have Meg in my life, another sister in the Lord who is just a kind sweet spirit, who has been such an incredible prayer warrior for us. It is so wonderful to have that person that you can share faith with so deeply. We each are so thankful that God has paved the way for this friendship. Her husband Jeremy is wonderful too! These guys have just loved on us so completely. I am so thankful for each of them, and their children Abbby, Gracie, Benjamin and Josiah. We also have been blessed to get to know another wonderful family in the recent year or so, the Murphy family. Tippany blessed us so much last year with childcare when she was out of work. It was such a tremendous blessing, to know the kiddos were so well cared for.... We had an after Christmas sledding party on saturday. Meg and Jeremy have a huge hill in their backyard which Jeremy snowblowed into a cool sledding track! The kids had a blast... Well Sophia was very afraid but she did manage to go down once :-)

After Sam's severe belly pain last week I have been anxious about what was going to come of it. Well this weekend it would appear that he is having bloody stools again, not a huge amount but there is some.... :-( Please be praying for him. I am waiting for a call back from his actual GI doctor, not the oncall doctor....

Children's Museum

We are so blessed to live in an area where there are lots of free fun things for the kids to experience. One such thing is called the The Acton Children's Discovery Museums. Apparently the museum has free friday night admissions, kind of regularly. It is fairly expensive, so up until now I hadn't taken the kids. But I got to take Sam and Sophia and they really enjoyed it. We also got to meet our friends there, and Sam and Soph just love Alex...

There was even a Children's Theater group that sung some of their songs from the play they are doing right now, "Annie", Sophia was so excited to pose with these girls

Cousins

I am so thankful that my sisters Deanna and Doreen are still here. Family is so important. I have so many memories of playing with my cousins from when I was a little kid. All kinds of sleepovers and singalongs, and walks in the woods with my grandfather. Baking with my grandmother etc etc. I am so sad that DJ, Lyndsea and their son Trenton live so far away, and that Denise, Ron and their children, Davion, Dasanee and Danee are so far. It is sad that our kids don't get to see each other often. But thankfully we do get to see Doreen's little boy Darius. We just love him! He is so fun and he and Preston are about the same size even though Darius is already two. The other day Darius came to play while his mommy was at work...

IVIG for Preston and severe belly pain for Sam

Today was quite the day. Today was the first day back to school for Sam. He got up well this morning and we made it to the bus stop just fine. Then Sophia, Preston and I went to my mom's so Sophia could spend the day with her. Then Preston and I headed into Children's for his IVIG. He was so serious when we arrived. I didn't expect him to remember from only being their one previous time. But I think he did. He would not smile AT ALL initially. He was so very sad when they put the IV in, but they got it on the first try. And they gave him tons of toys to play with so he did have fun. And it all went well. He took a nice little nap and all went fabulously.

We got home just in time for me to make dinner. Sam was a little irritable but was only complaining that he was hungry so I didn't think too much about it. He ate dinner really well and then was in excrutiating pain. He was like writhing in pain on my couch. It was awful to see. He did that before when he had the eosinophilic colitis, and I am prayign to God that it isn't coming back :-( I ended up giving him some papaya enzymes and it seemed to help. The GI doctor on call said it could be a colitis from the description I gave her, but I am praying it was just some fleeting hting

A look back at 2012

So every year I try to make a montage of some of my favorite pictures from the past year. Well this year there are TONS!!! So this montage is long, but there are some gorgeous photos of my family. I am beyond blessed and so very thankful for how richly God has blessed us in 2012. I look forward to 2013, with the hopes that the boys will have increased good health, that there won't be hospitalizations, that my back would be healed, but most importantly that our lives will be a testimony to God's greatness, that our lives will lead others to the desire of wanting to know and serve Him. Happy New Year everyone!!!

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