Family Camp to fever...

I was so exhausted upon our return from vacation last weekend that I didn't go anywhere near the blog, so here is a two week update...

We went to Pine Cove Family Camp for the 4th year in a row and I'm learning that it only gets better as the kids get older because they can not only do more activities, but the way that the counselors are able to pour into/disciple them is pretty incredible!  For those of you who are not familiar with Family Camp, the best way I can sum it up is that it is the only vacation that you can go on where your  children, marriage, and family as a whole will be fed spiritually, while having a ton of fun in the process!  Family Camp acts as a reset for our family each year.  We come back filled up, priorities recalibraded, excited to continue our daily family and individual devotionals, and passionate about what God has in store for the year. Here are some of the highlights from our trip...

EEEEEEEE!  Waiting for the gates to open!!!

GATES ARE OPEN!!!

-Now wouldn't you know, the attacks continued...within our first hour after arriving at Family Camp, we were unloading our suitcases for the week and our sweet mommy in training, Abigail, was trying to keep Grace out of the bathroom and accidentally crushed Grace's pinky finger in the door.  Her response of hysterically crying and screaming as she looked at her hand seriously led me to believe that Grace had lost a finger.  After counting her fingers, I quickly saw the very smashed, deformed looking pinky with skin hanging off of the sides.  My heart broke for Abigail because she felt so bad, but I was also super bummed thinking that it was likely broken.  By God's grace, one of the other families (whom I ADORE) that attend week 4 of Family Camp with us happens to be an ER doctor.  As I'm trying to collect my thoughts to find their phone number, David said that he thought he saw the husband (who is the ER doctor) by the pond fishing with his kiddos.   Wouldn't you know that as I opened our front door, there he was (standing on the edge of the pond right in front of our cabin)!!! I frantically called him over and based on his assessment of her pinky he didn't think that it was broken and told me what to look for.  We were so super grateful that she wasn't going to need to spend all of Family Camp with her hand wrapped up (since it's impossible to keep a splint on a toddler).  The next day Grace and David were on a nature hunt and she fell and banged her chin on some rocks, but no stitches or glue was needed, again much praise and thanks to the Lord!

Praising the Lord that we didn't have to visit the hospital!

-Grace actually slept in a big girl bed for the first time and LOVED it!  It's hard to explain the joy that this little milestone brought me, but it was so hard for me to wrap my mind around her being in the bottom bunk all by her self (with railing of course).  A few mornings she would wiggle down out of the bed and I would wake up to the most precious hands and smiling face peering at me over the side of the bed while standing on her tip toes.

***Disclaimer:  95% of the rest of the pictures were taken by the Pine Cover photographer, not us.  What other vacation can you take were they help you document it with both pictures and a video?!?!

We had family worship... 

...and family devotionals each morning where "Bumpz" became part of our family!

-David and I enjoyed a breakfast trail ride and one of the highlights of our trip the past two years, the CATTLE ROUND UP!  The cattle round up is where a group of us get on horses and go find the 25+ cattle that are roaming around and herd them a good distance, through all kinds of brush and water to a pen on the other side of camp.  David is way more daring than I am, so when the head wrangler said that he needed a couple people to go catch some of the cattle that had gone astray David couldn't get his horse "Cy" turned around fast enough to race to the opportunity.  David was on cloud nine getting to go fast on the horse and do all sorts of maneuvers trying to round up some rouge cattle.  I was amazed when we heard the wranglers I was with say that the other group (that David was in) had found the cattle and were driving them, to where we were waiting on them to join us before moving on, and all of a sudden some very fast moving cattle come running down the fence line with David and two other guys following them closely.  They were men on a mission for sure!

-Each one of the kids' counselors loved on, encouraged, and ministered to them in ways that spoke to their hearts in a very personal way.

"Singa" was Andrew's counselor.  It brought tears to my eyes on many occasions as I would witness "Singa" always looking for ways to bless Andrew with his time and energy.  Anytime there was free time you could find Andrew and "Singa" trying to catch lizards or frogs, wrestling in the pool, racing in an obstacle course, just to name a few.  They had such an amazing bond that exceeded any expectation that we could have hoped for!  Andrew and I have committed to praying for "Singa" everyday until we, Lord willing, see him next year.  We have been praying that he would get accepted to nursing school and we were elated to hear last night that our prayers were answered, "Singa" is headed to nursing school in the fall.  It is so powerful to watch Andrew cover his buddy in prayer and then getting to celebrate when those prayers are answered!  On to the next prayer request :-)

At the end of the week the kids are given CQ's which stand for Character Quality Awards.  Their counselors affirm character qualities that they see in them throughout the week.  Here is Andrew's...

-Abigail's counselor was "Paw me" and in typical Abigail fashion she fell in love with her.  The things that made the biggest impact on Abigail's heart wasn't just the bible study that they did, but the fact that she got to witness "Paw me" show her Jesus' love in tangible ways.  One when she got bit by ants while they were doing a giant slip and slide and "Paw me" took care of her and then led her to safety by walking in front of her (and the other girls) to ensure that each step she (and the other girls) took was ant pile free.  Then Abigail tried the power pole for the first time this year (you climb up a very tall poll to a very small platform at the the top and try to jump off and grab onto a trapeze bar).  Abigail got half way up and became terrified.  David and I tried to talk her into letting go of the pole and allowing herself to swing backwards, but she wasn't having it.  She was literally paralyzed by her fear until she heard "Paw me's" voice off in the distance and then soon "Paw me" was standing at the foot of the pool reassuring her that she was right there with her and not going to leave her side.  "Paw me" proceeded to climb up the pole to touch Abigail's feet and let her know that she was right there with her.  Abigail finally let go and in that moment I realized that for the first time since becoming Abigail's mom, someone else played the role of comforter and encourager in her life.  For a moment I felt sad, until the Lord reminded me of the value and blessing it was for Abigail to have such an incredible godly mentor in her life who met a need in Abigail's life that God created and equipped her for.  We want our kids to see what a young person's life, sold out for Christ, looks like and these Pine Cove counselors are just that in the kids lives (and ours).

Abigail's CQ!

-One of the craziest blessings of all is that Grace LOVED going into her class!  She would tell me "Grace play" and point to the building that her class met in.  They spend 5 to 8 hours a day with their counselors, so the fact that she found so much joy in being with her counselors and two little buddies in her class felt like a modern day miracle.

-We had three theme nights, to include... 

Cowboy glitz

Love the little photo bomber at our feet :-)

Holidayz (we represented Valentine's day of course because Abigail and I love all things hearts, thanks to our Gracie Doo)!

and Sportz night...

Grace and her buddy Ellie!

My USA family...  YES!  I'm totally rockin' the staff polyester onsie!

We even had a date night and adult banquet night!

-We all enjoyed activities like horse back riding, wake boarding/tubing, zip lining, rock wall, pickle ball, dodge ball, water slides, the lagoon, etc!

Pickle ball...

Zip lining...

The critter room...

More pickle ball...

Mad scientist...

Worship at "Club"...

Tubing... Didn't get a pic of David wake boarding :-(

Finger Blaster War...

Hangin by the pool with friends...

Making the trek to the top of the zip line platform...

Trail ride...

Games...

Andrew got do do the trail ride this year too...

Giant slip n slide into the lagoon...

Popsicles...

The beloved, DODGEBALL!

David going down the slide with Grace...

Canoeing...

ICE CREAM FOR ALL!!!

-One night there is a talent show where Abigail's class does a little dance that they learned that day.  This is definitely one of Abigail's favorite activities :-).


To sum up how the kids (and us) feel about Family Camp, when we ask them if they would rather go to Family Camp or Disney World, they continue to choose Family Camp without a second thought.

Each family represented in this picture are truly treasures in our lives!  

This year was extra special because one of our dearest friends trusted us enough to give Family Camp a try and they are hooked!  Grace and Presley both share Designer genes :-)

Second to Jesus...  the heart behind what makes Pine Cove, Pine Cove...

The counselors!!!

The kids had their second to last swim meet on Monday.  Andrew finished 1st in his heat for freestyle and Abigail finished 2nd (less than a second behind 1st place) in her heat.  They certainly aren't the fastest swimmers in their age group, but it's been a blast watching them get faster and love to race.  

My favorite part about the meet is represented in this photo that one of the photographers caught...

We celebrated the 4th of July with a fever and pink eye for Abigail :-(.  However, again the hidden blessing has been watching Andrew care for his big sister by covering her up in blankets, hugging her to keep her warm (no wonder we transmit germs so easy in this house despite my best lysol, hand gel, and oils effort), and trying to find ways to serve her.  

While our 4th of July plans had to be altered, the kids got to have a low key play date with my parents and we were still able to spend time with some dear friends!  I haven't gone to bed until almost 2 am in a long time, but it was worth the exhaustion :-).

Proud to be an American!

Will you PLEASE pray that Grace (and the rest of us) stay healthy, we are so over illnesses?!?!

We can't wait to cheer on Team USA very soon!!!

We love and appreciate you, Village!

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...

Scariest minute of my life...

The scariest moment of my life took place on Tuesday at 7:00 pm...  Grace was eating a snack and Tucker (our 12 year old miniature schnauzer) was following her around in an attempt to sneak  a snack out of her hand as he some times does.  He is such a sweet little guy (he lets Grace do just about anything to him, including sit on him while he's laying down), when he tries to take her snacks it is a very gentle approach; however, Grace gets very upset at him when he does this.  As Grace was eating grapes, Tucker had already tried to nibble a piece out of her hand once, so she was upset and telling him to get away.  She followed me into our master bathroom in an effort to get away from him, but he followed us in there and I assured her that Tucker wouldn't come near her.  I heard her cry and when I looked at her she was bright red, mouth wide open, and silent crying, so I got down to comfort her and as I went to pick her up, her eyes rolled back, she slowly fell backward, stopped breathing, turned blue, and her body went limp.  I scooped her up, her body was like a rag doll, and began screaming for David; it was at that moment that I was convinced she was dead because she was literally lifeless.  David rushed in and began hitting her back, in case she was choking on a grape or something (remember she choked on something a few months back? requiring the Heimlich  :-/ ).  It was about that time that she regained muscle control and started to breathe again.  She cried a bit and was a little clingy after that, but by God's grace she was back to her normal self within about 10-15 minutes.  I had her do every trick I could think of (smile, raise your arms, jump, talk, obey a command, etc) to make sure she was indeed back to her normal self and she passed the test with flying colors.  After paging her pediatrician, she suggested that we take her to the ER because.... because she's Grace and we wanted to have her evaluated to make sure there wasn't anything else going on.  Five of many evidences of God's presence in this situation:

1) The big kids happened to be at my sis-in-law's house the night that this horrifying episode took place (it would have been so traumatic for them to witness).  They were attending a sports camp at her church for a couple nights.  David and I had been looking forward to some date nights (with our sweet tag along in tow...  i.e. Grace); however, Grace the date crasher had other plans :-).

 Reunited again... Grace missed her Tither and Bubba in a big way while they were at Camp Aunt Becca!

***I wrote this on Saturday and unfortunately on Saturday night it happened again, but not nearly as bad as the first time.  This time the culprit was a giant bug on the outside of the widow that Grace was sitting next to in the car (she HATES bugs).  This time Abigail and her friend were in the car with David when it happened.  Abigail tried her best to calm Grace down until David could stop the car and get in the back to help, but when she saw Grace's eyes roll back she got really scared and hid her face so she wouldn't have to see it.  In some ways, I'm glad she was able to see a more mild version happen so that we could talk to the kids more in detail and practice what role they can play to help Grace be safe during a breath holding spell.  I'm really praying that this doesn't become a new "normal."

2) The wait time at our ER can easily be 5-10 hours, however, when we walked up to the ER at about 8:00 pm, David and I wondered for a moment if they were closed because the waiting room, that is usually swarming with people, was completely empty.  We were in a room within 10 minutes of arriving.  That's unheard of (even when we play the high risk heart baby card)!!!

3)  I kept reliving in my head what had happened to Grace and could hardly control random bouts of crying because it was so scary.  Also, I hated to think that we would now have to follow up with neurology to manage seizure activity, etc.  However, with a single Facebook post, I was assured that our Village was standing in the gap for us, praying diligently for favorable results, and once again your prayers became tangible as I felt God's peace sweep over me.
4)  Every Dr. and nurse that interacted with Grace that night in the ER worked hard to win her trust and it worked, she cooperated with all them and had a great attitude about being in a scary place where she knows she is usually poked and messed with.
5)  We were elated to hear that what Grace had experienced was a "breath holding spell", not a seizure (HUGE PRAISES)!  Apparently, this can be triggered by being frightened which is what happened in Grace's case, she was worried that Tucker was coming close to her while she was sitting on the floor eating, so she began crying and sort of hyperventilated.   As they were about to deliver us our discharge paperwork at about 3:00 in the morning, I asked the Dr if he was at all concerned about her oxygen sats being in the low 80's while she was sleeping and that is what caused them to get a chest x-ray and ultimately diagnose her with pneumonia.  Had Grace not made a big statement by turning blue and passing out, we wouldn't have gone to the hospital and received the pneumonia diagnosis as early as we did (at that point the only symptom that she had was a cough).

She broke out...

  In case you have never heard of a breath holding spell (like us), here is the hand out that the hospital gave us about it.  I would especially like to draw your attention to the section titled "Treatment after attacks of breath-holding"...  you are suppose to "give your child a brief hug and go about your business."  Ummmm...  yeah, that's exactly what I did :-/.

EVERY year for the past 4 years the enemy has tried to keep us from going to Pine Cove Family Camp!  Maybe I should put it in my calendar each year, so that we are ready for the attack.  The first year we went to Family Camp we got the diagnosis of Grace's very broken heart two days before leaving.  I didn't want to go because I didn't think that I could slap a pretend smile on my face when my heart was broken inside.  Despite my desire to skip Family Camp all together, we went and to my amazement the families and camp counselors that we met there helped to mend my broken heart by praying over us and encouraging us with God's truth and love.  The next year Grace was just a few months out of her second major open heart surgery, so it seemed CrAzY to take her to Family Camp where I couldn't control the germs and we were still learning what her new "normal" was.  Last year, Grace had parainfluenza 3 which put her in the hospital for 9 days and she discharged just days before we left for Family Camp and this year, well you know the story!  Will you please, please, please pray that the attacks for this year are over and that we will be able to not only attend Family Camp (we leave a week from today), but that we would have a phenomenal, uneventful time?

-in other news...  the kids had their first swim meet this week and they did great!  It was long (5+ hours), HOT, and a blast!

 -We have LOVED watching the Women's World Cup! We especially love to cheer for the short players ;-).

PRAYER REQUESTS:  Grace has an ultrasound on her liver this week to check on a spot that has been there since the liver injury that she sustained at one week old (when her umbilical line migrated and punctured her liver, dumping everything she was receiving intravenously into her liver).  Will you please pray that her liver is completely healed and that God would get all of the glory?  Grace also has her next cardiology appointment this week.  Will you please pray that she does well for the unsedated echo, that the gradient across her mitral valve has not gone up at all and if anything has gone down, and again, that God would be glorified?

THANK YOU, Village for your fervent prayers!  We truly covet them!

This is the story of our lives :-)