Sophie Kate’s Journal

Sophie Kate has been spending some time in the exersaucer lately.  It gives her a new experience with different toys and also gives her a chance to put some supported weight on her feet.  She actually pushes herself up in it and will stand with some weight on her feet for short periods of time.  She is really enjoying it, she even smiles a little bit when she stands up, I think she’s proud of herself.  I am certainly very proud of her. 

We are still working on sitting up and doing lots of tummy time.  Sophie does a great job holding her head up, don’t lay that girl down, she wants to be up and looking around.  She still needs assistance when sitting up, but she is definitely trying.  She was also very close to rolling over (from front to back) the other day so we are working on that now too.

We are getting in our last week of physical therapy and occupational therapy for a while.  We leave for Atlanta on Sunday with our first Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatment starting Monday (June 2) morning.  Please be in prayer for this.  We will be having 2 treatments a day for 4-5 weeks, (40 treatments total).  I am excited, nervous, anxious and hopeful all rolled into one.  Please pray that God will use this in a positive way in her life.  Pray that she will tolerate the treatments well and that she will be happy and content during the treatments, a lot of this depends on her reaction to things, as does pretty much everything around here, if Sophie ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy.  Isn’t that something, the smallest one has all the power!

I tried to capture some of her smiles if you look very closely you might can see them…

Thank you all for your continued prayer and support.  This is going to be a life long journey for us and so many of our family and friends have committed to be in this with us.  It is not an easy committment but one that many have taken on without hesitation.  Thanks especially to our parents for keeping our boys while Sophie and I are in Atlanta and while Chad is at work.  We know they will be well loved and well taken care of.  Thanks also to Chad’s sister, Aimee and her husband, Brad for giving Sophie and I a place to stay while in Atlanta, sooo much better (and cheaper) than a hotel.  Thanks, guys. 

I will be doing updates from Atlanta and letting ya’ll know how things are going with the treatments and we will be coming home on the weekends.  Please pray for Sophie Kate during this time, we know that this is not a cure for her, our hope certainly does not lie with this treatment.  We don’t know exactly what these treatments will do for Sophie.  What we do know though, is that God has led us every step of the way so far and we also feel that God has led us to these treatments.  Our hope is in Him and we will not waver in that, He is in control and we give Him all the glory!  

Just thought I’d share some recent family pictures with ya’ll…

We’re so proud of our graduate.  Way to go Jacob!

My sweet Sophie Kate

Sophie loves her baby

Grey swinging his blanket at the park

Cooper’s Baptism

Jacob’s Baptism

Boys, your daddy and I are so proud of your decision to make Jesus the Lord of your life.  It is the most important decision of your life, more important than what college you will go to, who you will marry and what you will be when you grow up.  You boys have gotten it right, God will now lead you in all of these other areas as you continue to follow Him and seek Him with all your heart.  We love you so much!

Have a fun Memorial Day weekend everyone, enjoy your families!

Sorry about the website everyone, we’ve been on them all day to fix it. Anyway, we saw Sophie Kate’s doctor today (May 21) and had the upper GI done. Everything is fine with the surgery, it is completely intact and functioning as it is supposed to be, HUGE answer to prayer! There are a couple of theories as to why some of the formula is forcing its way back up when it really isn’t supposed to, but I won’t bore you with all that. The result is that Sophie is going back on her reflux medication, in hopes of settling things down in the stomach and that we have got a new feeding plan, just tweaking things a bit so that she doesn’t get too much formula on her stomach at one time.

There is talk of having to go back in and tighten up the valve that they made during her surgery, but we have several lines of defense to go through, medication wise, before we get to a second surgery.

Definitely a praise that everything is intact and nothing has to be done right now, surgery wise. The doctor talked like we have a 50/50 chance here with the medication working versus having to go back in and do another surgery. I thought to myself, thank goodness my God is not bound by your statistics or any of the other doctors statistics for that matter. He’ll see to this I know He will.

A sweet friend of mine sent me a note this week and I wanted to share something she wrote. I just love it…”Sorrow looks back, worry looks around, but hope looks up.”

Thank you all for your prayers, please keep them coming.

We are going to see Sophie Kate’s surgeon tomorrow morning(May 21) at 8:00am.  Over the past 2 weeks Sophie has started throwing up her formula, it started out just here and there, but now has progressed to several times a day.  The surgery she had in March was supposed to have stopped this from happening.  There seems to be some concern that something could be wrong with the surgery.  It seems to me like her reflux is back she is crying like she did before she had the surgery, painful crying into the night and wee hours of the morning like she used to.  It is very discouraging, we thought things were going so well since her surgery.  She is having an upper GI done tomorrow morning and then we will see the doctor after that.

Please be in prayer today and tomorrow for her and for her doctors.  I will update when I can.  Thanks guys.

Big news guys this Wednesday (May 14) Sophie Kate smiled for the first time!  She even did it 3 different times so I know that it wasn’t just a fluke.  They were deliberate, engaging, purposeful smiles.  I wish I could have caught them on camera, although I personally don’t need a picture of them, I will never forget them, but I do wish I could have shared them with those who weren’t there.  We were at Sophie’s Occupational Therapist and we had both just commented that Sophie had a very pleasant look on her face and then Sally said “Is that a smile I see?” and I said “Is it or am I just imaging it?”  It was such a sweet moment and one that I had been waiting for for some time knowing in the back of my mind that it might never happen.  For 6 months she has hurt and cried and been in such pain, just to know that she can experience joy and happiness and times where she is not in pain and is not hurting and also that she can then show that means the world to me.  This is such a postive step for her. 

We have since seen a couple of other smiles so I know that this is only the beginning for my sweet Sophie.  Hope, God has certainly renewed our hope, not that we had lost it altogether, but sometimes you just need a boost, you know?  God knew, He always knows what we need just when we need it.  Thank you, God for this dear sweet blessing.       

Sophie Kate had her six month checkup with her pediatrician last Friday (May 10). She weighed 14 pounds 8 ounces and was 26 inches long, that is a great increase for her. The most important increase though was her head circumference it went from 14 1/2 to 14 3/4 inches. I know you may be thinking a quarter of an inch isn’t really that much, but for someone who was told it really wouldn’t happen, it’s HUGE! Thank you Jesus, we are so happy for that increase. It is a huge boost for us.

It was a good visit, everything went pretty well. Sophie will be seeing a pediatric opthamologist (sorry about the spelling) in July. That will be a very important trip for us. I am really not up for going into the “why” of that right now, so please please be in prayer for this appointment.

We are still busy with lots of therapy appointments during the week, PT, OT, and wet tots. They are all still going well and Sophie is getting lots of stimulation from them as well as from the normal activity from the house. Did I just say “normal?” What I meant to say was abnormal, out of control, loud to the point of not stimulating at all but rather annoying and on my last nerve kind of activity, yep that about sums it up. Sophie Kate really does know when her brothers come into the room, of course how could you not, but she does try and turn her head so that she can see them, it is really sweet. It’s not just with me and Chad anymore, it’s like she is really getting to know them too.

Lastly, June is fast approaching, which means summer to most people, but here it means the start of Sophie’s oxygen treatments in Atlanta. She will be receiving 40 treatments, 2 per day for 4 weeks. Please pray diligently for this. There are lots of things that I could list concerning this treatment, but first and foremost I ask that ya’ll pray for God’s hand to be upon Sophie during this time. We do not want to embark upon anything on our own. We will not place our hope in anything but our God.

Please continue to pray for Sophie’s healing and her development. She is working really hard right now on pushing up with her arms and lifting her chest off the ground when lying on her tummy, rolling from front to back and also on sitting up without assistance. These are a few very specific things that we are working on a lot right now.

Sophie on the day of her dedication, Mother’s Day…more pictures have been added to the photo album.

Thank ya’ll for loving us and praying for us, please don’t stop.

She’s My Daughter
Written by Mark Schultz

I’m down on my knees again tonight
I’m hoping this prayer will turn out right
See there is a baby girl that needs Your help
I’ve done all that I can do myself

Her mother is tired
I’m sure You can understand
Each night as she sleeps
She goes in to hold her hand

And she tries not to cry
As the tears fill her eyes

Can You hear me?
Am I getting through tonight?
Can You see her?
Can You make her feel all right?
If You can hear me
Let me take her place somehow
See, she’s not just anyone
She’s my daughter

Sometimes late at night I watch her sleep
I dream of the little girl she’d like to be
I try to be strong and see her through
But God who she needs right now is You

Let her grow old
Live life without this fear
What would I be
Living without her here

She’s so tired and she’s scared
Let her know that You’re there

Can You hear me?
Am I getting through tonight?
Can You see her?
Can You make her feel all right?
If You can hear me
Let me take her place somehow
See, she’s not just anyone …
Can You hear me?
Can You see her?
Please don’t leave her
She’s my daughter

How is it possible that you break my heart so deeply yet fill my heart so completely? That is the power of the relationship that God has formed between us as mother and daughter. I long for so much from you, a smile or a sweet baby sound, yet you have already given me so much. You have brought out strength in me that I never knew I had, you have given me a deeper understanding of love, you have laid out before me what truly matters in this life. I know that God has worked all these things together through you. My relationship with Him is so much stronger because of you. What a privilege you have to be used so powerfully and so strongly by God Himself. The range of emotions I feel over you cannot be put into words, they are so deeply and passionately felt by the heart and soul. This Sunday, Mother’s Day, your father and I will publicly dedicate you to our Lord, there is no doubt though that you have been in His hands from the beginning.

My gift this Mother’s Day is the completeness and wholeness God has given me in allowing me to be the blessed mother of these four children. By His grace and mercy, may I see this journey faithfully through, may I find a way to experience genuine joy in life once again regardless of what the future holds, may I always hold tight to the One who has never let me go and may I be a faithful servant of all He has entrusted me with…Cooper, Jacob, Grey and Sophie Kate. I love you all, my precious babies.

Happy Mother’s Day to all the mamas out there, we are so blessed to be loved by so many!

Our baby girl is 6 months old today (Sat. May 3)!  Happy Birthday sweet Sophie.  Guess what your present is. . . you are spared 2 baseball games today, b/c it is pouring down rain here today.  It’s the little things you have to be thankful for, right sister?  It’s dark and raining here so we are all going to wallow in our pajamas and be lazy as long as we can get away with it.  Hmmm… is that a present for Sophie or for me? 

I also just realized that today is Saturday and that is the actual day that Sophie was born on.  I wish it were harder to remember that day than it really is, but I believe that is so I will never forget how far the Lord has brought us.  Things are better now than they were then and for that I am truly thankful.  God has brought us so far since that day and I know He still has so much to accomplish through her.  My prayer today is that as a family we will be obedient and faithful followers of God’s plan for our lives.  Through you, baby girl, God has changed us and by His grace and mercy we will never be same again.  Happy Birthday, sweet Sophie, we love you!

Inchstones-kinda like milestones, but smaller

Wow, what busy weeks we are having!  It seems with school coming to a quick end everything is in full on speed mode.  I feel like there is no time to do anything.  Anyway, we are continuing to do Sophie Kate’s Physical Therapy 2 days a week that will probably continue through the end of May.  Sophie’s PT is doing an intense treatment on her called Myofascial Release, it is the neatest thing to see.  It is way too involved for me to go into online, but it is so cool to see Sophie respond to it, it’s kind of like traditional PT combined with alternative PT.  I know that gives ya’ll no details but it is really hard to describe and I had to talk about b/c it is such a big part of our life now, 2 days a week.  Sophie is doing really well with it.  Praise God and our PT is a Christian isn’t that neat!

The occupational therapist(OT) that comes to our house through Early Intervention(EI) was with us this past Tues.(April 29).  She did some new things with Sophie that are very encouraging.  One was assisted sitting and I mean very little assistance, Sophie was even sitting up by herself for a few very brief moments.  I didn’t know Sophie Kate could even do anything like this, we have been working so hard on “tummy time” and helping her to strengthen her head and neck muscles that I didn’t even know this was a possibility at this point for her.  Now I know it doesn’t sound like much, but Sophie was actually showing signs of trying to balance herself and keep herself from falling from side to side while in the sitting position, she doesn’t have the strength to do that yet but it seemed like she was trying!  She also lifted her head and looked all around while in the sitting position.  Thank you Jesus that’s a BIG deal to us.

We’ve had to cut Wet Tots back to one day a week b/c of our 2 day a week PT appointments, but we are still doing it and Sophie is still loving it and I am still doing it b/c I am loving Sophie, so I think that about sums up Wet Tots.  Have I said before that those are great people there, I think I have, but really they are fantastic. 

This Friday (May 2) we are going to see Sophie’s surgeon, the one who did her fundoplication and gtube back on March 3.  Yes, it has been 2 months and we are going for her checkup, can ya’ll believe that?  I can it seems like it’s been forever, has it really only been 2 months?  Wow.  Oh, and did I mention that I get to be taught how to change her tube out myself?  Yeah, they told me that after she had her surgery, “oh and mom you’ll be taught how to do all this yourself at the 2 month checkup.”  Great, can’t wait. 

Well, I know it’s alot of stuff to throw at ya’ll, but please be in prayer for all of these things as well as our Hyperbaric Oxygen Treatments coming up in June.  

Also, I am looking for a new Bible Study so if any of ya’ll have one that you loved and meant a lot to you please let me know about it.