Some cute new videos of the girls...

Chris took some videos of the girls the other night so I'll post them and you can see Madeline and Hannah "in person".

Hannah loves singing amazing grace. So I tried to catch her singing it at dinner the other night. Unfortunately she also thinks it's fun to whisper the words (which actually turns out to be an exagerated mouthing of the words with absolutely no sound) so you can only hear her singing the first half, but I was cracking up. Here are the words, in case you want to follow along...

Amazing grace how sweet the sound
that saved a wretch like me
I once was lost but now am found
was blind but now I see




And here is Hannah singing "I love you, a bushel and a peck".

lyrics:
I love you
a bushel and a peck (a bushel and a peck)
and a hug around the neck (a hug around the neck)
and a barrel and a heap (a barrel and a heap)
and I'm talking in my sleep about you, about you...

Hannah enjoyed making that last line her own :) so sweet!




And one more - this is something we heard some little ones saying a few years ago and we thought it was so cute, so we've passed it on to our girls... I'll post the words in case they are hard to understand...



What ya doin?
Eatin' chocolate
Where'd ya get it?
The doggy dropped it
Where'd he drop it?
In the sewer
What's it taste like?
Cow Manure

Woefully Behind...let's catch up...

First of all, thank you so much for reading through my LONG posts while my dad was sick. Writing is therapeutic for me and I appreciate so much the prayers and encouragment we received!

Update on my Dad:
My dad lived with us from my last post until August 7th, I think it was about 2 weeks. He's gotten much stronger. He says that his infection is healing up nicely. He was anxious to be in his own home and with his dogs. He still has some lifting restrictions but he can drive. My dad will need to come back to Tulsa around the beginning of Sept for a CT scan to measure his abdominal anneurism and Dr Parmley will determine whether surgery is needed on that. If so, they'll want to schedule the surgery really soon. My dad is facing some really difficult financial situations so if you're continuing to pray, please focus your prayers on that concern.

We moved into our new home without a single problem! We enjoyed taking walks around our new neighborhood while my dad was with us. Madeline has a new best friend, Aly. Aly is 6 years old, in 1st grade at Madeline's school, and she lives right across the street from us. The girls argue like sisters but really love to be together. And every time the doorbell rings, Hannah shouts "Aly's here!!!" and runs to the door. We were served dinner by some other neighbors across the street and the neighbors on either side of us are wonderful and kind as well. We are so grateful for this new home and safe neighborhood to raise our girls!! Unfortunately we've been so busy doing daily life that we haven't taken pics of the new house but we'll do that soon :)

Madeline completed her treatment for Erlichiosis. She had blood drawn last week to make sure that her liver function has returned to normal and we're still waiting on the results. Madeline also started KINDERGARTEN last Wednesday! I think I want a whole post devoted to her first days in big school so I'll save that post for later.


I have SO many pictures to post now, it's hard to decide where to start! Here are some pics of the girls in front of our new fireplace. I'll create some slideshows for the events we've attended later.

MY DAD IS HOME WITH US!

After a long, ridiculous ordeal last night (my Dad and I sat at the hospital from 330 to 7 waiting for discharge papers to be processed) my Dad ended up staying at the hospital one more night and he was discharged TODAY!!!! What a LONG 20 days this has been (long for me, WAY longer for him). He will be staying with us for 3-4 weeks while he recovers. A home health nurse is coming to check on him and provide wound care for the infections three times per week. He's got a couple of follow up Dr appts here in town and in 3-4 weeks he will likely be released to his good old independant way of life. WOW! I'm trying to figure out a day soon, possibly tomorrow, when I can take him out to his place for the day just to feel normal again and spend a few hours with the dogs. On Sunday we'll be loading our UHaul and on Monday we're closing and moving!

Madeline is my newest little concern. Last week she was diagnosed with strep. But she kept getting worse on antibiotics so I took her to the Dr yesterday. Her Dr pricked her finger for some blood and took a urine sample, then called us back to the office to have blood drawn from her arm. She found in the first round of tests that there is billirubin in Madeline's blood and urine, which means something is going on with her liver. This doesn't automatically mean that it's something major, we just have to wait and see. We'll hopefully hear results of the blood test tomorrow. Not sure that life can get more hectic than it's been in the last few weeks!

Having my Dad home with us will be nice. I know he'd rather be at his house, but I've gotten used to seeing him at least once a day and I'm not quite ready to let him go yet. I just hope he can be comfortable with us for a while and then return to full health at his place, where he longs to be!

Thank you for praying us through this everyone. Your encouragement and care is of great worth to me!!

Update on my dad 7/20/09

We thought my dad was coming home to us today. But my dad's infections have worsened and he was running a fever this morning so the Dr decided to run some more cultures, change his IV antibiotics and keep him for a while longer. We were both really disappointed but I'm also relieved that they aren't sending him home before they have a handle on the infection. I was with him today while the nurse cleaned and changed the dressing on the infection in his incision and it looks horrible. It's an open wound nearly the size of a golf ball in diameter and it is deep. I'm praying that the cultures reveal which bacteria they are fighting and that they can find the correct antibiotics for the job.

My dad's mind is much clearer. He is no longer having hallucinations which is a HUGE relief. He is still forgetful though. Yesterday he told Chris and I that no one answers his questions and no one has told him why he's in the hospital. I explained his condition in depth and he actually had to look down at his chest to see if the incision was there. This was after 16 days of hearing a few times a day about what happened to him. He also seems to forget often that when he does discharge he'll be staying with us for a while. He plans on going home to be with his dogs and he looks pretty disappointed when I tell him about his restrictions. But with his forgetfulness, I don't feel comfortable sending him home to manage his own medication. So I'm hopeful that after a few weeks of staying with us, he'll be better able to remember his meds and handle his own nutrition.

I have THE most amazing friends. So many people have joined us in prayer and called, texted and emailed to check on us and encourage us. Two of my dear friends here in Tulsa came over on Saturday night and helped me pack up nearly every item in our house. They were a bit ruthless and I'm grateful for that (HA)! We're living on paper products in the kitchen and we've been so blessed that they took it upon themselves to organize meals for us this week so we don't have to worry with cooking dinner. Many of our friends also joined together the first week that my dad was in the hospital and they gave Chrissy and I each a $50 visa giftcard for anything we might need. I know Chrissy appreciated the money to assist with gas for driving back and forth from KC. And I was able to use the money to buy many quick meals while staying with my dad through meal times. I also was able to buy him his first requested meal from outside the hospital - Steak and Shake! Last night, two of our close friends had arranged for a sitter for their children and they chose to share their night out with us! The guys went to see Transformers 2 and us girls went to see the Proposal (which I loved!) The laughter and carefree-ness was much needed and SO very appreciated!

My family has been an amazing support as well. I'm able to talk to Irene (my mother in law) several times per week to gain perspective, share funny stories or share my sadness. She is willing to be here at a moment's notice and she took our girls to her house this weekend so we could do some packing, work and prepare to move my Dad to our house. My mom's brothers and sisters and her best friend of many many years have been amazing as well. Even though they are in St Louis, I have talked with all of them several times and been so encouraged by them. They truly care about my dad and about our well being and just knowing that they care has been a great strength for me.

So thank you to all of you!!! We'll get through this and I pray that God will be glorified in it all.

Update on my dad 7/17/09

I went to visit my Dad again today and his mind is MUCH MUCH clearer than before. He remembers vividly his hallucinations and he's able to laugh at most of them and realize that they weren't true. He wonders what Uncle Ralph thinks about the fact that my dad thought Paul Pierce was assigned to be his sitter a couple of nights this week :) He still has a few areas of confusion but nothing major anymore.

The doctor wants to continue to treat my dad's infections over the weekend and will re-evaluate for release on Monday. My Dad has a 6 week driving restriction (we've got 2 weeks down, 4 to go) so I think he'll be staying with us until he's able to drive himself, which is just fine with me! I've gotten used to seeing him every day for the past 2 weeks and am not looking too forward to the lapses between visits that we used to have. In fact, I'm going to be working on him to move closer to us, but we'll cross that bridge later.

Jen

quick pic of my pretty girls...

Hectic Lives...

Here's the latest on all fronts of our lives:

** The psych dept at St Francis finally is aware of my dad's recent mental state. They ordered labs and discovered that he has infection in one of his incisions and in an old IV site so he is being treated with antibiotics. They have also started him back on a medication that he has taken for years but hadn't had since he was checked into the hospital. They are treating the hallucinations as well. If they can get the infections cleared up and his mind back to normal, he'll be discharged. We're hoping this all happens sooner than later.

COOL STORY ABOUT MY PRAYER REQUEST THAT I COULD BE A STRONG ADVOCATE FOR MY DAD: Wednesday I went to visit my dad on a break from work, then returned to a somewhat stressful meeting. I had a few moments to myself before my next client showed up, so I closed my door and just sat down and cried. I felt completely overwhelmed because I had been with my dad Tuesday night when a psychiatrist came to check in on him and he had sounded completely lucid - he told her that was aware that he had been hallucinating and confused but that he's got it all straight now. Then as soon as she left the room, he started telling me some of the things going on in his head. His thoughts must have been terrifying and he believed them to be true events. I couldn't reach the psychiatrist to fill her in and I felt like I was failing at my "job" as an advocate. So...back to Wednesday in my office crying and crying...my friend Jennifer left me a voice mail and she wanted to share a verse with me. Here it is:

Job 16:19-21 Even now my witness is in heaven; my advocate is on high. My intercessor is my friend as my eyes pour out tears to God; on behalf of a man he pleads with God as a man pleads for his friend

Jennifer and I hadn't talked in days and she didn't know how I was struggling with feeling like I was the only one at that hospital who cared that my dad's mind was playing horrible tricks on him. The verse was so timely and was a complete reassurance to me that the holy spirit is the witness of all that I'm seeing, He is my advocate and He is pleading with God on my behalf as I sit here and plead on my dad's behalf with eyes that are pouring out tears to the One I trust. Oh how I love when God speaks to us in such a tangible and timely way!!!

** We are scheduled to close on our home AND the one we're purchasing on July 27th - one week from Monday!! The glitch we ran into the other night has been resolved and we're hopeful that there won't be anymore. I told some friends the other day that moving is on the bottom of my priorities right now - if we're supposed to move then God is just going to carry us right on into that house. Otherwise, we'll stay here. I could take it or leave it at this point :)

** Madeline has had a rash for 2 days and this morning it was worse. She wasn't feeling bad but we decided to take her to the Dr this morning and found out she has strep throat. How do you have strep throat and not complain of any symptoms?? She can be such an easy going child. We've got antibiotics for her so she will be on the mend soon.

** Hannah is hillarious. She is speaking in full sentences all of a sudden. The first truly long sentence I heard her say was "I need a kleenex for my booger". Isn't that endearing? :)

I've got to post some pictures soon - my blog is looking much too word-y and not nearly enough picture-y these days. Sorry if you're not much of a reader, I'll try to make it all more colorful soon.

Continuing to pray for my dad's mind and for the infections to clear...