In case I left someone off the e-mail list, here's the latest with our family:
My heart is so very heavy as I'm writing this message. As I was pushing "POST" on the last blog entry about Isabel's good doctor's report, my phone rang. I knew what had happened the second I heard his voice...Josh lost his job tonight. But we know without any doubt that God is the same "good and gracious Lord" that He was two hours ago when I wrote that wonderful message. It would be dishonest of me, though, to tell you that we are teeming over with confidence, security and peace. In reality, we are battling fear, uncertainty and confusion. The one thing we are confident about, though, is that God loves us, and He is sovereign over everything that happens in our lives. Our desperate plea now is for Him to fill us with peace (Phil. 4:7), wisdom, joy in the midst of this trial, and protection against the doubts and frustrations that tend to creep into our lives at a time like this. I flipped open my Bible this afternoon as we were waiting for the results of Izzy's test, and I immediately came to James 1:2-5: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him." As I'm writing this and praying over what I say, I can feel the burden lifting from my heart. God is reminding me even now that we have so, so much to be thankful for and that joy is in no way tied to my circumstances. Happiness is wholly dependent on what is happening to me and around me; however, joy comes from within my heart. I know that God loves us, I know that He will provide for us, and I know that this will serve to glorify Him if we will let it. Please pray that we'll step aside for that to happen.
Thank you for letting me "talk this through". I think I gain clarity from e-mail...is that weird? (Angel, you'll appreciate that one!)
We love you all,
allison
Thursday, October 9, 2008
They finally called...
and SHE'S FINE!! Praise our good and gracious Lord! Absolutely no abnormalities showed up on the CT scan...no tumors, no excess fluid, no abnormal structures, nothing. She has "benign macrocephaly," meaning God gave her a big head. :-) We are so relieved and so thankful for a great result. I know I've said it before, but we have been (and continue to be) comforted in knowing that others are joining us in prayer. And this is one we can all mark off the list!! Check out the picture below to see what Isabel thought of the good news...
Just passing the time...
We called at 3:00 like the tech at the hospital told us to, but we haven't been able to find out any results yet. And for those of you who know me well, waiting patiently isn't one of my strongest qualities. So I am praying and "photographing" my way through this waiting period. Anyway, here are some pictures of Abigail I took in an effort to get a fun shot for the invitation I'm designing for hers and Brayden's dual birthday party. She keeps us laughing! :-)
Update on Izzy
We're already home from the hospital! Our sweet friend, Kerry, kept Abigail and Jack while we took Isabel for her CT scan. We got there a little before 1:00 to fill out paperwork, they called us back right at 1:00, we walked back out at 1:03, and we were at Kerry's at 1:15 to pick the kids up! They strapped Isabel into quite a contraption to keep her head still (we were so thankful she didn't have to be sedated), and the actual scan itself lasted less than one minute. As my sister said, that minute probably felt like an hour to Izzy because she was screaming the whole time, but to us, it was worth hearing every cry and seeing every tear roll down her face to not have to watch her lying there asleep from sedation! God has already answered many of our prayers about this procedure, so we're continuing to pray for the results this afternoon. Thank you so, so much for all of the encouraging phone calls and messages and prayers. We are so comforted in knowing that a whole host of family, friends and even strangers are praying for our sweet baby. I'll write more when we know more.
Love,
allison
Love,
allison
Prayers for our family
Josh and I would like to ask for you to pray for our family right now. As many of you know, Jack has been sick so much over the last year (27 illnesses and infections, to be exact), and after an immunoglobulin workup two weeks ago, we finally got a diagnosis of IGG deficiency. What we do know is that his body doesn't produce enough of this type of antibody, so he's unable to fight off a large percentage of illnesses. What we don't know, though, is exactly how this will affect him over the coming years. We meet with a pediatric immunologist on Oct. 14 at UAB, and we should know a lot more then. The treatment plan ranges from the "do nothing" approach (in which we just deal with each illness as it comes and prepare for just as many in the coming years) to daily doses of antibiotics to IV infusions of antibodies. None of these is particularly appealing to us, so we are praying that God will protect his little body and help him to finally hit a healthy stretch.
Our next prayer is for Isabel. She had her 9-month checkup today, and although she has an ear infection and four teeth coming in at once (which is making her pretty pitiful!), it was a fairly uneventful visit until the doctor plotted her growth on the growth chart. Her head has always been "up there" on the chart, but it has always been right in line with her height, so there has never been a cause for concern. Today, however, her height had dropped to the 75th %ile while her head circumference had gone significantly off the chart. The pediatrician asked me a series of questions related to family history, the other kids' head sizes, etc. and after much discussion, he referred Izzy to Children's Hospital for a head CT tomorrow afternoon. He said he doesn't expect a problem, but because her growth pattern is definitely abnormal, he is concerned. We're unsure about whether or not she'll be put to sleep, so that's our first worry, and then of course, we're anxious to get the results of the scan. Please pray for an uneventful procedure and for a negative test result. He said the best case scenario is "benign macrocephaly"...or plain old "big head". :-)
Now the other thing going on right now related to Josh's work. I won't go into details here, but we are in desperate need of provision and direction. We will hopefully know more tomorrow, but at this point, we are unsure of whether or not he will still be employed with his company after this week (due to no wrongful action on his part). As you can see from the paragraphs above, this is not a good time for us to be without health insurance...and have you checked out the COBRA rates recently?!? :-)
We KNOW that God cares for us, and we are casting all of this on Him (1 Peter 5:7), but we are also asking you to join with our whole family as we pray for these issues. We are feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. We are asking for healing for our children, strength to face what may come (Isaiah 40:31), provision for our needs (Matthew 6:25-26), wisdom (Jeremiah 33:3), but most importantly, that we will honor God and bring Him glory. Of course we want all of this to just go away and to have a wonderful job that provides for our perfectly healthy children, but if that is not the path that God leads us down, we want to be prepared and armed with grace...because His grace is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9)!!
Thank you for reading this crazy long e-mail and for joining us in prayer. We know God is listening! :-)
Love,
allison (and josh and ab and jack and iz)
Our next prayer is for Isabel. She had her 9-month checkup today, and although she has an ear infection and four teeth coming in at once (which is making her pretty pitiful!), it was a fairly uneventful visit until the doctor plotted her growth on the growth chart. Her head has always been "up there" on the chart, but it has always been right in line with her height, so there has never been a cause for concern. Today, however, her height had dropped to the 75th %ile while her head circumference had gone significantly off the chart. The pediatrician asked me a series of questions related to family history, the other kids' head sizes, etc. and after much discussion, he referred Izzy to Children's Hospital for a head CT tomorrow afternoon. He said he doesn't expect a problem, but because her growth pattern is definitely abnormal, he is concerned. We're unsure about whether or not she'll be put to sleep, so that's our first worry, and then of course, we're anxious to get the results of the scan. Please pray for an uneventful procedure and for a negative test result. He said the best case scenario is "benign macrocephaly"...or plain old "big head". :-)
Now the other thing going on right now related to Josh's work. I won't go into details here, but we are in desperate need of provision and direction. We will hopefully know more tomorrow, but at this point, we are unsure of whether or not he will still be employed with his company after this week (due to no wrongful action on his part). As you can see from the paragraphs above, this is not a good time for us to be without health insurance...and have you checked out the COBRA rates recently?!? :-)
We KNOW that God cares for us, and we are casting all of this on Him (1 Peter 5:7), but we are also asking you to join with our whole family as we pray for these issues. We are feeling a bit overwhelmed right now. We are asking for healing for our children, strength to face what may come (Isaiah 40:31), provision for our needs (Matthew 6:25-26), wisdom (Jeremiah 33:3), but most importantly, that we will honor God and bring Him glory. Of course we want all of this to just go away and to have a wonderful job that provides for our perfectly healthy children, but if that is not the path that God leads us down, we want to be prepared and armed with grace...because His grace is sufficient (2 Cor. 12:9)!!
Thank you for reading this crazy long e-mail and for joining us in prayer. We know God is listening! :-)
Love,
allison (and josh and ab and jack and iz)
Thursday, September 25, 2008
I'm way behind!!!
I'm warning you...this is going to be a super-post. I'm so far behind on blogging (as well as many other things in life!), so I'm going to try to knock this all out at once. So if you're in a hurry, you might want to come back for a visit later. But if you've got a little time on your hands, stick around to see what's been going on with the Lewis Crew. :-)
First I'll start with some updated pictures of the little ones. Abigail is three years old, and as you can see from my last post, she's having a great time in ballet right now. She is a fantastic big sister to her little brother and sister.
Jack will be two years old tomorrow, and he is learning and growing everyday. Due to his solid year of ear infections (and the accompanying hearing loss), his speech hasn't developed normally, so we have a speech therapist that works with us one day each week. He is saying several single words, lots of animal sounds, and he is attempting just about any syllable he hears. His biggest form of communication right now, though, is sign language. He is signing about 50 words independently and is learning more each day. He's signing "airplane" in this first picture...
Isabel is eight months old, and she is definitely mommy's little girl. She is as happy as can be when she's in my arms, but outside of them, she's a bit weepy. Actually, she's a lot weepy! There's not much to tell about her...she's not talking, she's not walking, she's not even crawling. She usually just sits around and looks really cute! She can roll around from her back to her tummy and back over again...is that exciting?!?
Oh wait...I'm not giving credit where credit is due. Izzy has learned something new lately. She has learned to clap her hands to "If You're Happy and You Know It..." Here are a couple of pictures of her practicing. :-)
I wasn't planning on putting this in, but I just ran across a picture of Isabel in her favorite sleeping position. I thought you might all like to see it.
Last weekend was Jack's birthday party. He is a HUGE fan of trucks, cars, trains, planes...anything that moves fast and has lights, so we had his party at the firestation. He and his buddies got to climb all over the firetruck, and they had a great time...
UNTIL the firemen dressed Josh up in the full garb...
It started out OK. Abby thought it was pretty funny, but Jack wasn't so sure...
But then Abby decided she wasn't so sure either...
It took a serious turn for the worse, though, when Josh tried to hold them!
It was nothing that a little pizza and cake couldn't solve, though. :-)
Where was Izzy during all of this? In my arms, of course!
And here's what happened when someone else tried to hold her...
I'll close with some random "flying" pictures from playing outside with Daddy tonight after work. I lightened them way up on the computer, so the quality is pretty rough because of the actual light we had. Enjoy!!
As I mentioned, tomorrow is Jack's birthday, but it's even more special because he shares his birthday with his great-grandfather (Grandpa Lewis). He and Josh recently made a trip to NC to visit with Grandma and Grandpa and the rest of the Raleigh crew. They had a wonderful time and made some priceless memories. Happy Birthday, Grandpa!!! We all love you. :-)
First I'll start with some updated pictures of the little ones. Abigail is three years old, and as you can see from my last post, she's having a great time in ballet right now. She is a fantastic big sister to her little brother and sister.
Jack will be two years old tomorrow, and he is learning and growing everyday. Due to his solid year of ear infections (and the accompanying hearing loss), his speech hasn't developed normally, so we have a speech therapist that works with us one day each week. He is saying several single words, lots of animal sounds, and he is attempting just about any syllable he hears. His biggest form of communication right now, though, is sign language. He is signing about 50 words independently and is learning more each day. He's signing "airplane" in this first picture...
Isabel is eight months old, and she is definitely mommy's little girl. She is as happy as can be when she's in my arms, but outside of them, she's a bit weepy. Actually, she's a lot weepy! There's not much to tell about her...she's not talking, she's not walking, she's not even crawling. She usually just sits around and looks really cute! She can roll around from her back to her tummy and back over again...is that exciting?!?
Oh wait...I'm not giving credit where credit is due. Izzy has learned something new lately. She has learned to clap her hands to "If You're Happy and You Know It..." Here are a couple of pictures of her practicing. :-)
I wasn't planning on putting this in, but I just ran across a picture of Isabel in her favorite sleeping position. I thought you might all like to see it.
Last weekend was Jack's birthday party. He is a HUGE fan of trucks, cars, trains, planes...anything that moves fast and has lights, so we had his party at the firestation. He and his buddies got to climb all over the firetruck, and they had a great time...
UNTIL the firemen dressed Josh up in the full garb...
It started out OK. Abby thought it was pretty funny, but Jack wasn't so sure...
But then Abby decided she wasn't so sure either...
It took a serious turn for the worse, though, when Josh tried to hold them!
It was nothing that a little pizza and cake couldn't solve, though. :-)
Where was Izzy during all of this? In my arms, of course!
And here's what happened when someone else tried to hold her...
I'll close with some random "flying" pictures from playing outside with Daddy tonight after work. I lightened them way up on the computer, so the quality is pretty rough because of the actual light we had. Enjoy!!
As I mentioned, tomorrow is Jack's birthday, but it's even more special because he shares his birthday with his great-grandfather (Grandpa Lewis). He and Josh recently made a trip to NC to visit with Grandma and Grandpa and the rest of the Raleigh crew. They had a wonderful time and made some priceless memories. Happy Birthday, Grandpa!!! We all love you. :-)
Monday, August 18, 2008
Abby's First Day of Ballet
We've tried gymnastics...we've tried swimming...and now we're giving ballet a shot. Abigail started her little ballet class today, and she loved it!! She learned all about first position, proper posture, and walking on her tippy-toes. She was so precious in her little leotard, and she had a great time. :-)
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