And while I visited with Ge & Granddaddy, the kids took my camera and got these pictures.
They were passing the camera back and forth but I think a majority of these were from Zoe. Not bad if I do say so myself.
Afterwards, the wife took the kids to her flower field and helped them pick and cut flowers. We had a gorgeous bouquet when we got home.
This was our haul! The peaches were actually a part of the 90 lbs we purchased from a neighbor who worked near peach fields. That’s actually two full bags of blueberries and one bag of black berries. Not bad for about an hour of picking! Many hands make light work indeed.
The Lego creation of Atlanta was super cool for me. I grew up visiting Atlanta and seeing so many of the places we visited, brought back lots of great memories. I believe the kids tired of hearing my memories but oh well.
This Lego police motorcycle was a major hit for our community helper-truck lovin’ boy. He even pretended to write me a ticket. Bless him! All I was doing was taking pictures of him. He stayed here pretty much the whole time.
Papa & Grandmere made a special trip out to meet us which thrilled our boys to no end.
We ate lunch just outside of the mall and Papa & Grandmere brought gifts for Bryant and Ace.
And then Ace was allowed to take all his birthday money plus a set amount from us to pick out a set. He had that overwhelming face of excitement the entire time we were there. I mean it took him a good hour to decide what he wanted.
Something to note if you ever go to Legoland Discovery Center. Due to space and fire marshall codes, they can only allow a certain amount of people in at a time therefore they have a policy that you can not re-enter. That would have been fine but we purchased group tickets and the site for group tickets said nothing about that. Nor do they have that posted as you go in or as you are about to leave. So, be prepared. Also, it is in a mall so don’t expect the giant Legoland theme park experience. It was fun and worth it for all our Lego lovin’ crew.
Check out what is going on at Lilla Rose. Until 5 pm today!
We were going to go to the free summer movies to celebrate his birthday, however, we had a few kids fighting a virus (high fever), so we opted to keep our germs to ourselves and had a Character House of Movies!
The kids get to pick out what kind of cake they want each year. This year he voted for a strawberry cake with chocolate icing and elephants on top. Thus he got this.
I added the graham cracker crumbs on top to make it look like a desert (a desert dessert…see what I did there?) We had church that evening so I made a few extra cupcakes to ensure we had enough
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The birthday boy, cake decorator, and his trusty sidekick.
So much fun even the cops show up…okay, actually that is a friend of a church family member.
Some awesome members from church who willingly served and helped get everything together.
-Emmie had her MRI on August 16th. She did amazingly well and Mark and I pulled through with a few tears but we made it. It helped that she fought the sedation instead of going in to a deep sleep. She’s a fighter.
-The MRI showed NO neurofibromas (tumors) on her brain or optic area (a concern with NF).
-What we thought was a plexiform neurofibroma, is a plexiform. It extends down to her spinal cord but is not yet pressing on anything which would cause problems.
-Because of the location and the fact that the plexiform is increasing in size, our pediatrician was anxious to get the MRI scans looked at by a pediatric neurosurgeon. Our geneticists were already working on this.
-We heard back from the neurosurgeon today and he did not feel she needed surgery at this time! We will be following up with a neurologist very soon.
-Just because she does not have to have surgery at this time does not mean she will not have to have surgery in the future. Especially if it continues to grow.
We are praying and praising God that at three months she doesn’t have to face surgery right now. The older and bigger she gets the better it will be for her surgery. So, please pray that she continues to grow strong and healthy and that the plexiform will slow down its growth.
What we don’t know:
-When she will have to have surgery or what will constitute the need.
-What NF holds for Emmie on a day to day basis.
-If her tears are normal baby cries or cries of pain (seriously makes it harder to be mommy when I just can’t tell some times).
-How this will affect her or our family in the immediate and far off future.
We are trusting God and leaning on Him as He holds our hands (and sometimes carries us) through this journey. He has already blessed us with amazing people in our path, my best friend from high school who just “happens” to be a doctor at the hospital that we are going to and a pediatrician who we consider a friend and who takes lunch breaks and after hours to work on advocating for us and getting answers. And who we know is praying for Miss Emmie as we walk this road.
A friend recently commented that she didn’t know how we were doing this. Honestly, some days I just get really angry and others it’s just a normal day. But on the vulnerable moments I bow my head and pray. And I know that I couldn’t get through any of this without God’s love wrapping around us. I’ve said it before and I’ll probably say it again, we are so blessed that God chose us to be Emmie’s parents and to be Zoe, Ace, Liam, Josiah, Ceili Rain, Bryant, and Malachi’s parents too. What a privilege we have to love them the way Christ has loved us!
And if you are wondering, this is still a blog about our whole family. I definitely have plans to post more happenings because in the midst of all this uncertainty, we are still living and doing. Hopefully, I can get more pictures up soon but again, we are living and doing and our life is so full right now. I wouldn’t have it any other way.
