I just wanted to get on and encourage everyone to continue following God's story through Stellan. The work that is being wrought in the Lord's name right now is pretty amazing, and even though Stellan has not been healed yet, God has been preforming some pretty awesome miracles. So please continue to lift up this precious little boy and his family, doctors, nurses, friends and strangers who have reach out to them, in prayer.

My heart has been very heavy this entire week for this family, so I have been spending some much needed special time with the boys in prayer and generally just loving on my family. Hopefully next week I will be up and running again in the blog world, but for now I am going to go enjoy being with my family.

Love you all!

Updated! Pray for baby Stellan!

*Update from Mckmama*

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." II Corinthians 4:17

These troubles with Stellan feel to me to be far from light and momentary, yet I do understand, that in the very grand scheme of thing, they are exactly that. On one hand, I am very not okay with what is happening. That is hard for me to explain at the moment. This are heading quickly in a direction I do not want them to go. Yet I also have a sweet peace that God is okay with what is happening, and I am going to choose to let the be enough for me.

Be sure about this: God has good that He wants to bring from this. That He will bring from this. That He is bringing from this.

What's been happening from a medical standpoint:

The pediatric cardiologists are meeting with us regularly here in the PICU. They are the ones making Stellan's care decisions at this point. They have backed off on the beta blockers and are continuing with Amiodarone in his iv. His heartrate has been flip flopping down into a slow, normal, sinus rhythm on and off this afternoon, and then it bounces back up.

There are other times when Stellan's heart goes into an irregular rhythm, skipping beats, or having longer gaps in his heart rate pattern.

Stellan needs a new iv. The one in his hand is okay, but it's getting puffy and has been occluding. With the kind of meds he's getting, the doctors need a second option available to them. Numerous folks, including "the best" gal from the iv team have been working on him to get a new line started. Two failed sites in his scalp later (his arms had already been poked to high heaven last night and today), and they finally got a very tiny one in his foot, but it's already occluding. There is talk of having to put in a central line (they'd have to put him to sleep and, from what I understand, it's a small surgery to place a more permanent line somewhere into Stellan), but that's not a for sure thing at this point and not something I am entirely familiar with.

As he flips in and out, he's getting a bit weary. He's kind of manic and restless and his blood pressure is doing odd things.

I am at his bedside now, and have been for most of the day, but did get a much needed nap and shower this afternoon. His nurse has him now while I type this. Prince Charming is going to be coming down shortly and my girlfriend Shanel is bringing me Chipotle. I have been starting to read through the kind and sweet comments you all are leaving, as well as your emails. Thank you for praying for us and for the many of you who are spreading the word about Stellan using your own blogs, or your prayer chains at church, or your MOPS group. My own MOPS group is rallying around us, too, and may be able to help with child care for our other MSC this week. My mom is planning to drive up tomorrow to be with me and Stellan in the hospital.

We have a long road ahead. The cardiologist is already talking about some pretty big things, but for the time being, we are simply looking for a 12 hour period in which Stellan's heart would stay in a normal rhythm.

"For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all." II Corinthians 4:17


Hey guys, please lift up Stellan in your prayers along with his family. Right now I am to emotional and teary eyed to post myself what is going on so please click on Stellan's name and it will bring you to his families blog. This family and their youngest son is very precious to me, I have been praying and following their blog since before Stellan was born, and he was in fact born on the same day as my niece Maia who also has a heart condition. You might remember this post announcing both their births.

Prayer warriors please start praying with me!


I am updating with this message and prayer from Angie Smith's blog regarding Stellan. She is another amazing woman of God whom He has chosen to use, the words He pours out of her hands always bring me back to my knees in wonder of our great God. Please pray these along with us.

The God of the universe is neither surprised nor threatened by this turn of events. He is the Great Physician, and I am asking you to beseech Him this morning on behalf of this baby boy we have all come to love.

If you feel comfortable, I would love for us to be praying these verses together today as we call out. God hears the cries of our hearts, and I am begging Him to intervene, to calm Stellan's heart, and to bring the peace that only He can bring. I can only imagine the power of the heavens being stormed by thousands...

1 Praise the Lord, O my soul;

all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

2 Praise the Lord, O my soul,

and forget not all his benefits-

3 who forgives all your sins

and heals all your diseases,

4 who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion,

5 who satisfies your desires with good things

so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's

(from Psalm 103)

1 Blessed is he who has regard for the weak;

the Lord delivers him in times of trouble.

2 The Lord will protect him and preserve his life;

he will bless him in the land

and not surrender him to the desire of his foes.

3 The Lord will sustain him on his sickbed

and restore him from the bed of illness...

(from Psalm 41)

Lord Jesus, I know Your power. You are great like NO other. We will not cower in fear, nor will we let our thoughts consume us. Our Jesus is still the same....He is still the same. We are praying from a place of confidence, and with the belief that you are able. Heal him, Abba. We will give You all the praise...

Thank you, friends.

Angie

Dashing boys

Now that we seem to be over our sickness the boys and I have gone back to spending most of our time in the back yard or at our favorite park. It is so nice to be outdoors! There is nothing like fresh air that can wash away that dreary depressing feeling of sickness.

Today we met up with an old friend of mine from High School, so far the only one I can find that still lives in the area :) She is also the only one with children, three daughters to be exact. It was so nice to be able to catch up with her and get to meet two of her children. Hopefully we will get together again sometime next week





On another note please be in prayer with us as we near the next phase of our military life. Next week after his 10th exam Joseph will get to choose orders. At this point we are being told that all the orders except one or two will be to the same location and that the other two are to the locations that we are praying for. Both are on the opposite ends of the country of each other, so getting one over the other is a big deal. Right now Joseph is ranked at #1 in his class, meaning he gets first choice of orders, but he could lose that placing next week after exam 10 depending on his score. Please pray that Joseph and I would not let this rule our thoughts and emotions for the next week, that we would let go and let God. We know that He will get us to where He wants us regardless of what happens. We just need to except with a thankful heart whatever that may be. I am also in need of some prayer as this waiting and not being able to plan right now thing has been driving me insane. See there is so much to be done before Joseph graduates, like buying plane tickets, holding hotel rooms and planning a trip home, and packing us up again, that are just not possible right now. Oh how it rankles me to not be able to just do it all!

So ya, I need prayer.

All right ya'll,
Until next time.

I love cloth diapers and I cannot lie

*Blogger is being special right now and will not let me write without all my text being underlined* * well almost all of it*

One of these days I am going to have to do a post about my journey through cloth diapering, because well I love to do it and I have tried almost every type. But for now I leave you with some pictures of some of the recent diapers to come and live with us.

Some pretty new fitteds from BuggaBuggaBoutique

Two Sposoeasy All-in-Ones (AIO)

And the boys who were them...well Conner is in the process of potty learning so really its just Brooks. Who wants to leave out a picture of my big boy though?

Sorry guys, I don't really have anything fun to say, just popping in to say hi! We have all been suffering from winter sickies and are finally hitting the road to recovery. Soooo I have absolutely nothing exciting to blog about, unless you want to hear about snot and what not... I didn't think so!

Babies don't keep

I came across a poem written by Ruth Hulburt Hamilton in 1958 today on Mckmama's blog. Its one of those poems that quickly spoke right to my heart and brought tears to my eyes. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Song for a Fifth Child.

Mother, O Mother, come shake out your cloth,
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing, make up the bed,
Sew on a button and butter the bread.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking.

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue,
Lullabye, rockabye, lullabye loo.
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
Pat-a-cake, darling, and peek, peekaboo

The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo
Look! Aren't his eyes the most wonderful hue?
Lullabye, rockaby lullabye loo.

The cleaning and scrubbing can wait till tomorrow
But children grow up as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down cobwebs; Dust go to sleep!
I'm rocking my baby and babies don't keep.