speed bump...

Thank you for all of those who were praying for Grace's echo on Friday, unfortunately, we had to reschedule her echo because Grace came home sick from school on Thursday.  Obviously, we wouldn't want to share our germs with any other heart patients, but the other reason we had to reschedule is because when you are sick, your heart must work harder, so there is a high likelihood that an illness could make the gradient across her mitral valve artificially higher than normal and then what do you do with that info (you don't know if you should attribute the higher number to being sick or if it would have been higher regardless of the illness).  We were eager to see how Grace's heart was doing in hopes of getting a better idea as to when we would need to head to Boston, but God had other plans, which we trust is the perfect plan.  Our new echo date is September 22nd.  Will you please extend your prayers to our new appointment?

Grace seems to be doing better, so giant praises that this either wasn't a respiratory infection or hasn't turned into one that put her in the hospital!  The hard part about her being sick is that she just wants her daddy when feeling yucky (she will let me snuggle her some, but Grace is definitely a daddy's girl when she is sick or scared) and daddy works now.  Those two have been through so much together, it's no wonder that he is her source of comfort.

We continue to trust God with the logistics of keeping everyone healthy while both mommy and daddy work (fortunately David gets off work at 2:00 pm and we have family close by to help) because when I try to figure out the logistics on my own it doesn't make sense, the good news is that God is WAY bigger than what my little brain can piece together.  

What do you do when your little sister is sick and cranky...

A puppet show of course!  The only problem is the desperate plea for "MOOOOORE!"  when it's all over.

This is what Grace looks like when she gets her groove back...

In case you are like me and could really use a laugh right now, check out one of our all time favorite pictures that we just stumbled across...

Thank you, sweet Village for all of your prayerful support!

Grace making a joyful sound unto the Lord...

This has been one of those weeks :-/... non-stop business and chaos from a flat tire (that led to replacing all 4 tires) to fever from the flu shot, but as a family we try to focus on having an attitude of gratitude, looking for God in the good, the not so good, and the mundane.  Here are some sweet and funny moments from the week!

-Abigail is a skeeter ninja!  This kid can see and kill skeeters (mosquitos) like a boss!  No joke, there was what must have been a genetically enhanced skeeter in the house one night because it kept trying to get me and neither David nor I could get it, then I heard it...  one of the kids had gotten out of bed to go potty, so I was hoping it was Abigail, so that she could come save us from the crazy, elusive skeeter.  It was her, so she joyfully came to our rescue, locating and killing the skeeter in less than 5 minutes!  That is when I took this picture of the skeeter ninja!

The Skeeter Ninja coming to our rescue after having already gone to bed!

-One of our favorite things that Gracie does...  when our mommy in training (Abigail) catches Grace doing something she isn't suppose to be doing she says "Little Doooooo" with her hands on her hips and Grace gets a big smile on her face and repeats it back to Abigail.  For some reason, any time she does this the whole family can't help but laugh!

-The house was too quiet for all of a few minutes, when I immediately wondered were Grace was...  I heard some noise coming from her room, but the door was closed.  As I got closer I could hear her singing "Amazing Grace", I quietly opened the door and peaked in and she had turned off the light, turned on her noise machine, climbed into her rocking chair with her baby, and was singing the baby to sleep.  I tried to get a video of the sweetness, but when I went to video her my phone turned on a bright light (I guess because it was dark), but Grace quickly stopped singing and peaked around the side of the chair to see what was going on.  I couldn't help but laugh, but it was all kinds of sweetness and I was so proud of her for preparing the room so well to get her baby ready for bed.

-My heart melted when Andrew came to tell me, with the most sincere look on his face, that he "just LOVES listening to Grace sing, she's so cute!"  So simple, but full of perspective, the fact that we get to hear Grace sing is a miracle in itself.

This picture has nothing to do with what I mentioned above, but it is a picture of Andrew trying to make Grace laugh by acting like one of the baby ducks (we found these ducks and some turtles behind one of our new favorite restaurants). 

-Our week ended with a great long weekend- We loved getting to watch Abigail's soccer scrimmage on Saturday and pool time with my parents...

Random picture of Papa and Gracie Doo!

...then we spent part of Sunday and Monday in The Woodlands with my in-loves (David's parents/family) and had a sweet time with lots of laughs.  Too bad I failed to capture any pictures, except for Grace eating ice cream of course :-)!

PRAYER REQUEST-  Grace has her next cardiology appointment on Friday.  Will you please pray that her heart continues to look great and that the gradient across her mitral valve is the same (or better because we know that God can do that :-) as it was 3 months ago?  We know that a trip to Boston to dilate the valve is inevitable, it's just a matter of when her doctors feel that it's time (her doctors thought that she would need it dilated a year after it was placed and we are coming close to two years, so we are certainly grateful for that blessing).  Along with the dilatation comes the risk of complications (a tear in the valve that could lead to a leak, requiring replacement via another open heart surgery sooner than we hope) and as you know, Grace never does things by the book, so that in conjunction with the fact that she's only the 21st child to have this valve in the mitral position, there are still a lot of unknowns, making for what could be an anxiety producing situation.  Will you please pray for wisdom for her doctors and peace for our family as we trust that God knows when is the best time to go (I hate to have to go when the big kids just started school and David just started his new job, but trusting God's timing is always right)?

This picture came up on my Facebook timeline this week...

To God be the glory for rescuing Gracie from her first "crash cart" experience and everything that she has endured (in His strength) since then!

Two busy weeks at a glance...

TWO BUSY WEEKS AT A GLANCE...

-All four kids (big and little) have started school and love it so far!  We pray each year that God would hand pick each of their teachers, so we are grateful to know that His hand has been all over the details.

Grace is in the Blue room...

Andrew is in 1st grade and has an amazing teacher this year, Mrs. Anderson...  Sweet story, one of Andrew's buddies, Wyatt (from his Kindergarten class last year) is Mrs. Anderson's son.  He was wondering why Wyatt couldn't be in his class since his mommy was the teacher, as I tried to explain to him some reasons why they don't allow that, he said "I know why...  probably because he might get in trouble for getting out of his seat too much to give his mommy hugs!"  Love this kid's sweet heart!

Abigail is in 3rd grade and also has teachers that she loves, Ms. Luna and Mrs. Kulcak...

David started working at his new job at The Tenney School and is really enjoying it...

Sad day, no first day of school picture for David :-(

-God blessed us with another year with our Gracie Doo, she turned 3 years old on Thursday, August 27th!!!  I think her favorite part about her birthday was the dog balloon (remember she loves all things dogs) that we surprised her with the morning of her birthday. She also enjoyed making and eating cup cakes with her class at school...

-We celebrated Grace's birthday on Saturday with some special friends, some that have designer genes and some that only have 46 chromosomes ;-).  The sweetness that overflowed at this party was too much for my heart to handle.

It was so cool to see the little ones running, climbing, and bouncing around the playscape and I especially appreciated how much the big kids (siblings of Grace's friends) looked out for all of the little ones so much so that the moms actually got a chance to talk and enjoy themselves!  Abigail in particular was in heaven with all of the little ones with Up's there.  Instead of playing, she spent most of her time taking care of the little ones and loved every second of it.

-Abigail had her first soccer scrimmage of the season with her new team which was very fun to watch.  She scored two goals, neither of which our photographer (papa toot) got on camera, but these action shots were still fun :-).

-We were blessed with the opportunity to spend lots of extra time with our besties that are officially moving to Knoxville tomorrow, Monday!  Saying goodbye has been painful, but also a sweet time to reflect on how God has prepared us for this transition (allowing Abigail and Ju Ju to go from seeing each other everyday at school to Ju Ju being home schooled last year and having to be more purposeful about planning playdates to now living a thousand miles apart, which requires a different level of being purposeful to stay connected, but purposeful we will be) and all of the amazing memories that we have made over the past 10 years.

-Today is David's (my heart) birthday, so we celebrated (and tried to distract our heart broken kiddos after saying the final good bye to the Glass') by going to Rainforest Cafe!  In theory it was a great idea, but Grace was unsure at first when we went into the restaurant, however, she seemed to enjoy herself as I walked her all around the restaurant showing her all of the different animals, etc.  When the animals started to move and the music and sounds began to play, she lost it and was not having it, so we played some games in an arcade and ended up at Red Lobster where we had a great time and Grace told us all about the gorillas and elephants as if she was homies with them and loved them, silly girl!

David's birthday will forever be shared (and often overshadowed) by Grace, since their birthdays are 3 days apart.  It's pretty fitting though that these two get to share birthday celebrations because they are two peas in a pod...

I couldn't pass up on this picture of Grace dancing at the dinner table...

I hope that you have a blessed week and know that you, Village, are loved and appreciated by the Ross Family!