Thomas' first day of pre-K

Today Thomas started Pre-K. He was excited but not nearly as excited as I was! It really didn't phase him. He wasn't nervous or sad when I left. He just went right in and started playing. He went to the same school last year so I think that helped.

I love this picture...Lily just adores her big brother!

She missed him this morning when we dropped him off. She would look at his seat in the car and say, "where bubby"?

My big stud walking to the car...

Once we got to school he was too cool for pictures!

He was not very interested in me anymore...ready to start his day!

He had a great first day. Thursday Lily will be going for her first day too!

First, thank you all so much for praying for Lily's appointment on Thursday. They were definitely felt. Overall it was a a great experience from the moment we got there until the moment we left. It was a really long day but Lily did great.

I really like the new GI doctor. I felt like he was thinking outside the "reflux box" which is all I wanted someone to do. He also is not an experimental medicine pusher which I also agree with and like. He had several different theories as to why she is vomiting so much but our next step is for Lily to have an endoscopy on September 15th to check for eosinophilic esophagitis. To find out more about it click here. I am not very good at explaining it.

Her appointment with the high risk developmental clinic went amazing. She saw a child psychologist who did several types of testing to see what developmental age Lily was currently at. It wasn't a big surprise that Lily passed with flying colors. Several times I was actually moved to tears watching her to see how God not only allowed her to survive her early arrival but how He has grown her and developed her in such a way that the ONLY explanation is that she IS a true miracle of His work. The doctor said she had never seen a child born as early as Lily and score as high as she scored. On all areas except for one she scored in the 95th or 98th percentile and was scoring at a 25 month old age instead of a 19 month old which is her corrected age right now. I say this not to brag about my smart child but to share His great work in her life! God is so good!

What a day...thanks for your prayers. We will definitely keep you posted after the endoscopy. Have a great Labor Day!

"I will give thanks to the Lord with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders.

I will be glad and exult in You; I will sing praise to Your name, O Most High." Psalm 9:1-2

Heading to Duke...

Tomorrow we go to Duke for the first time to see a pediatric gastroenterologist to hopefully start getting some answers. I have been waiting for this appointment for forever it feels like. I am sooo ready to have some sort of answers as to why Lily is continuing to vomit so frequently. After another vomiting episode last night that woke her from sleeping, Greg and I sat down and just felt so sorry for her. After so many of her vomiting episodes we are just angry and frustrated and just so over it all that I think we forget how awful this must be for her and her little body. I mean last night she had been asleep for almost two hours and woke up wining and moaning and within a couple of minutes vomited up everything still in her tummy and right away she was feeling much better and went back to sleep. How awful she must have felt to be woken up by that...

So in the midst of me anxiously awaiting this appointment, God has been teaching or at least trying to teach me that I am putting too much expectations on people to meet my needs instead of simply relying on Him. He alone knows my every need better than I do and yet I am putting so much faith in this doctor that I haven't even met and hoping and almost begging that he will give me answers when God has been with us and with Lily from her tiny beginning and is and has done amazing things with her.

Our past two sermons have really hit home with me and I felt like God was staring me in the face trying to get my attention each Sunday. Two weeks ago is was from Mark 8:1-21 and it was about ten lies that Satan wants us to believe. Several of them I realized I have been believing. One was that Jesus doesn't care. In my most frustrating moments and darkest places I almost start to believe that. I think where is God, why isn't He answering my prayers and healing Lily of this one last issue. Which brings me to the next lie that Satan wants us to believe is that Jesus is just one miracle after another. God didn't want us to be in love with the gifts He is giving us but be in love with the Giver. I think we saw Him heal Lily in the Nicu time and time again and I just felt like he should do it again when I want it. But I am realizing and learning through our sermons that He doesn't instantly heal because He wants us to dwell in Him and not wander. Instead of me putting so much hope in a doctor or in different therapies etc, I need to go back to the One who is hope and who so graciously and lovingly never leaves me even when I try to leave Him and whose Word is full of all wisdom and direction that I will ever need. To hear the full sermons click here. The sermons I am referring to are from 8/22 and 8/29.

So what I am trying to say is that I know God is with Lily even in her sickest moments and even in my most frustrating moments. I know that the same God that has healed and grown my tiny 1lb. 6oz. baby girl will continue to do so. I know that even though He has healed her/us in the past our lives aren't free from suffering and aren't' going to be perfect. He heals us in a way that we have to stay with Him and if we abide in Him and keep coming back for "His touch" Jesus will finish what He started.

Please pray for tomorrow that the doctors will have compassion for Lily's quality of life and will have full understanding to the depth of her problems. Pray also that even if we don't get any answers or hope for answers that I will continue to trust The Healer and know that He is in control and will heal her in His timing.

Our neighbor down the street gave Thomas a big boy bike recently. Thomas has been riding a skuut bike and is amazing on it. Our hope with him riding the skuut is that he wouldn't have to use training wheels. Here is his first attempt at riding the big boy bike. He did great but it is still a little too big for him.

Thomas loves to dance...and we love to watch!

First family hiking trip...

These are some pictures from our hiking trip to Hanging Rock State Park. It was our first hiking trip with the kids. They loved it! Thomas had a blast seeing all the water falls and loved using the map to tell us which way to go! It was beautiful and only took us about 40min to drive there from our house. We are looking forward to more trips like this.

You might notice in some of the pictures that Thomas is soaking wet. Right after hiking to the first waterfall, Greg slipped on a rock with Lily on his back hitting Thomas and causing him to fall into the freezing cold water. I of course was trying to get a picture of all of them and couldn't get to Thomas fast enough! He fell just perfectly in between two rocks and wasn't hurt at all. It scared us all but Thomas handled it perfectly and within a few minutes was ready to go back into the water! What a trooper!

Lily update...22 months

This video is only a glimpse into how wild and crazy Lily and Thomas get when they start playing together. This activity of chasing each other around the house happens after every meal while I am trying to clean up. They both love it and laugh and scream the whole time. However it usually ends with someone (usually Lily) getting hurt. Imagine that!

I wanted to update you on Lily. It has been a while since I've talked about her and her progress. I wish I could say that the vomiting has stopped or at least gotten better, but unfortunately it hasn't. I will say that her random episodes of vomiting are fewer now which is good. At least now we are learning the warning signs and can sometimes make it to the toilet or trash can or just avoid getting it all over ourselves. She mostly now vomits when she gets hurt, scared, really upset and when we leave her, like at nursery. This is the third Sunday in a row that she has vomited at church! UGH!! But it is also totally affecting her sleep. We can't just put her to bed and let her cry because she will throw up. So nap time and bed time now are very stressful.

She is still on Prevacid and after trying another medicine and after several months with her current GI doctor, we decided it was time to move on. She now has an appointment with a pediatric GI doctor at Duke. I know this is probably where she should have been all along since it is very comparable to where she was in Houston and they are used to dealing with preemies like Lily. So I am anxious for the appointment which isn't until August 30th. So for now we just hope and pray for a few vomit free days!

She has quite the personality these days. She is very independent and stubborn! She climbs anything and everything. I will be doing the dishes in the kitchen and turn around and she is on top of the kitchen table, or climbing the shelves in the pantry, or climbing in anything she thinks she might can fit in. She loves playing outside and loves watching her big brother Thomas and wants to do everything that he is doing. She can climb the rock wall on the swing set and climbs the monkey bar ladder all the way to the top! She absolutely has no fear with anything. Even water. She loves being in the water and will just jump right off the side or stairs ready or not! She is really funny. She will try to say or do just about anything you ask her to. She loves making you laugh and will continue to force her funny little laugh if she sees you are laughing! She absolutely loves playing in the dirt and mulch! The dirtier she is the happier she is! Greg asked me yesterday if I thought she would every play with dolls! Who knows. She is truly her own little person!

Slide show of our trip to Lake Martin

Our last stop was to Greg's parent's beautiful home on Lake Martin. We were excited that we got to pick daddy up at the airport on the way there. We love going to the lake and always have such a great time there. It brings back so many special memories especially since we were married there! This was Lily's first time to really get in the lake. She loves the water but really wanted to get in without her life jacket! Both kids loved the boat and Thomas really loved driving the boat. We enjoyed spending time with Greg's sister Leah and her two precious boys, Owen and Ethan. It was so much fun watching all the kids playing together. We also got to see a lot of other extended family which was great. Thomas, Lily, and Greg went to the farm in Goodwater, AL and the kids got to ride a little horse named Buddy! Thomas loved it but I think Lily was more interested in the dog! We all had a great time and were sad to end our trip to Alabama. Looking forward to seeing all of our family again soon!

Slide show of our trip to Hartselle, AL

So, our next stop in our three week vacation was to Hartselle, AL to visit my mom, step dad, and sister Shelby. We had a great time and enjoyed seeing my great-grandmother who Lily is named after and seeing my Granddaddy and step grandmother, and my aunt and cousin. The kids had a lot of fun swimming, eating yummy food, and playing with the cats and dogs. Thomas was super spoiled with a lot of one on one attention from my sister and mom! I also got to get out and do a little shopping in the cute downtown shops. Thanks Gran and Papa Carl for a great visit!

Slide show of our beach pictures. Press play to get it to start. I couldn't figure out how to do a normal slide show so I had to do it as a movie! Whatever works, right?

So, it has been quite a while since I last updated the blog so I have lots to catch up on. For now, I am going to start with the most recent. About a month ago the kids and I took a 3 week trip to visit family in Alabama while Greg traveled with work for a couple of weeks. We started our vacation at the beach with my dad, Leigh, my sisters Leslie and Allison, and my sister Lauren and her 4 kids. Needless to say our condo was quite crazy with that many kids! We had a great time and Thomas and Lily loved catching up with their cousins. Lily LOVED the beach and ocean! I was super excited that she seemed to have taken after me with her love for the beach! Her first day in the sand she did a belly flop right into it and starting moving her arms around like she was making a snow angel. Thomas loved the ocean and liked to build sand castles but he is a lot like his daddy and really didn't care for the sand to be anywhere but on the beach! :-) We missed daddy but loved hanging out with Nana and Pop and my sisters and nieces and nephews.

My next blog will have pictures from our next stop in Alabama!