Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

It Was More Like a Zoo Than a Circus!

Last Saturday Abigail had a double birthday party with her little cousin, Brayden, whose birthday is four days before Abigail's. My sister, Bethany, had been planning a circus-themed party, and we jumped on it when she offered to let us tag along. But as you can imagine, with friends and family from two different families there, we had the potential for a seriously packed house! Thankfully, the party was at Bethany and Bailey's house, and they have 60 acres that we could spread out on! Brayden's birthday is Nov. 8, Abby's is Nov. 12, and the party was held on my dad's birthday, Nov. 15. Here is my favorite picture of the birthday crew...

Between Bethany and me, our parents had five grandchildren in less than 3 1/2 years...and here are the sweet munchkins:

Jack and Brayden are two years old (they were born six weeks apart), Abby is 4, Isabel is 10 months, and Emma (who got confused and thought it was Easter) is 7 months old.
I'll leave you with one last shot of our precious angel...

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Four years ago today...

As Josh put it earlier, today is our fourth anniversary of becoming parents! We started the day with a pretty rough rendition of "Happy Birthday" (I have a vicious cold, so it sounded a bit like a chorus of frogs) and the birthday breakfast of Abby's choosing. Did she jump on the offer of cinnamon rolls? What about homemade blueberry muffins? Waffles?


No, she chose cold cereal and milk. And yes, that is a candle propped up in the middle of her special breakfast!

You want to do WHAT?!?

We had Jack's follow-up appointment yesterday with the pediatric immunologist at UAB. I'll start with the best part...all of his labwork from our last visit came back normal (yes, all $2500 of it!) That was a huge relief since the doctor had some concerns about a potentially serious disorder. He said that Jack's history and the negative lab results for other conditions lead him to believe that Jack has a cellular immunodeficiency. Here's where I'm a little foggy. We know that he has an IgG deficiency...I'm not sure if this cellular issue is in addition to that or if it's a subcategory of that. Regardless, he explained it as an overall inability to fight off viral infections effectively.

His recommended next course of action was this: he would inject Jack with a cocktail of 23 viruses, bring him back in 6 weeks and run extensive labwork again to see how his body reacted to each of the viruses.

Are you having the same "WHAT?!?" reaction that I had?


Josh and I were already feeling super-uneasy about this plan, but when the doctor told us there wasn't really anything we could do about it even if he was diagnosed with this problem, we graciously bowed out of the "please-use-our-son-as-a-human-guinea-pig" plan. I say that in jest...I know that the doctor was doing his best to get to the bottom of Jack's massive string of illnesses, and we are grateful for his expertise and dedication. But this was way too invasive and aggressive for our comfort...especially when it led us down a dead-end road with nowhere else to go!!

As it stands now, we will go back to the immunologist on an "as-needed" basis as determined by Jack's pediatrician. The immunologist reiterated that Jack will most likely continue to be ill for the next several years (and possibly beyond).

But we have been amazed at the improvement in his health over the past few weeks. And we find it no coincidence that this change has begun to take place as so many people are praying for little Jack.

God isn't limited by a medical prognosis!


I'll probably put another post up later today or tomorrow because a very special someone in our house turned FOUR today! Pictures to come...

Love,
allison

Monday, November 3, 2008

The 25 Days of Daddy

Abigail started a cute little saying a few months back. On Saturday mornings now, she wakes up with a big grin on her face and announces that it's "Daddyday" (instead of "Saturday")! Well, today was the first day at the end of a long string of 25 fun and wonderful Daddydays.
Now don't get me wrong...had I been given the choice of how to enter into such a time period, I probably would have chosen this:
Josh would have achieved exceptional numbers at his office (which he did); he would have been commended for his hard work and rewarded with a month of PAID vacation.


But that didn't happen.

But regardless of how or why we got on this path, we've had a really great time walking down it. We've gone for leisurely strolls, enjoyed picnics outside, played chase with the kids, watched movies, and laughed until we've cried (have you seen "Evan Almighty"?!?) This has been such a sweet time for our family! As Josh put it, this has been tons of fun...the pay just hasn't been that great! :-)

Josh had a great first day at MedJet. He was warmly welcomed, and he learned more than he's probably ever taken in at once (or during a whole year if we're talking about our college accounting class!) And just three more weeks until he gets a paycheck! :-)

As for me, I've had the opportunity to do photos of a few big kids, little kids, and little-kids-to-be lately. Here are some of my favorites: