Quick update and prayer request...

Quick update on Grace's two appointments this week and a prayer request...

-Grace had her liver ultra sound on Wednesday and it is with great praise that the spot on her liver has shrunk substantially!  The spot is now less than the size of a dime and they are assuming that it's calcification from the TPN (Grace didn't get to eat for the first 3 weeks of her life, so to keep her body functioning they gave her whats called TPN, which is comprised mostly of dextrose/sugar) that was accidentally dumped into her liver when the central line from her umbilical cord migrated and lodged itself in her liver, dumping everything they were giving her (TPN, various medications, etc) into her liver.  The best news is that we are going to follow up with them one more time in a year and then (Lord willing) we shouldn't have to follow up with the liver specialists anymore. It's so exciting to scratch one specialty off the list, now we pray that we don't need to add any in it's place :-).

-Grace had her cardiology appointment on Friday and again we were amazed and grateful that she did great for an unseated echo (watching Clifford the Big Red Dog certainly helped)...

It is again with great praise that her cardiologist said that "her echo looked great!"  Which means that it is unchanged from the last echo 3 months ago.  I was convinced that the gradient across her valve was going to be a lot higher and that we were going to have to head to Boston soon, so when those words came out of her mouth I couldn't help but exclaim "praise the Lord!!!"  Her gradient last time was a 9 and this time was between 5-9 (so they call it a 9), which is such fantastic news.  In general, our Dr.'s in Boston say that a gradient of 12 is when they start talking about going in to dilate the valve.  I have no idea how long it will take Grace to get to a 12 (could be our next cardiology appointment or in 6-9 months or more for all we know), but we are grateful that it looks like it will at least be when the big kids are back in school, which is a blessing because it means that they will be busy and somewhat distracted from focusing on their looming fear of Grace having to go back to Boston.

Look at this big girl at her Cardiology appointment!!!

Thank you SO much for your prayers!!!

PRAYER REQUEST...  Lord willing we leave for Family Camp tomorrow (Sunday) and as I mentioned before, the enemy gets very busy just before Family Camp, this time has proven to be no different :-/.  Will you please pray that nothing gets in our way of attending and enjoying Family Camp in any way shape or form?  I have to CONSTANTLY give God the fear that someone is going to get sick or hurt just before we go or while we are there.  We truly covet your prayers, thank you!!!

For those of you not on Facebook, here is what we've been up to as we go through closets to put together outfits for "theme nights" at Family Camp...

Dressing up our Gracie Doo in everything we find!

Here is Abigail on the left (she's 3 years old there) and Grace on right (almost 3 years old)!

-the kids had their 2nd swim meet on Monday evening!  I absolutely love that there is a team photographer at every meet.  It is such a treat to see so many great shots that he gets of the kids each week.  Here are a few from this week...

Grace's sassy face...