"God Willing"

Jeremy and I took yesterday to rest after the news that we would not be doing the "apartment experience" this week. We decided to take it easy rather than stressed let the enemy have his way. Good decision probably, huh?

So, we decided this morning to take the girls down to see Veiyah for a while and then go back home, celebrate New Years Eve and then come back New Years Day.

Plans changed, AGAIN...

We get here and find out that Veiyah has now been taking her feeds like a champ and is on her bottle feeds again and NO PUMP! They asked us if we wanted to get some teaching in today. OF COURSE WE DO, but does that mean home this week? Dr said she will check with the head Doc and see if she can pull some strings. Jeremy and I started our teachings this afternoon and now know how to give her feeds through the bottle of course, and then through the big tube that leads slowly through her nose and down to her stomach. We also learned how to put the NG tube down her nose. Poor baby girl, but we did great! The nurse was actually proud of us! :)

At 9pm tonight, we started our "Apartment Experience". We will do everything on our own for the next day and a half. God Willing We will bring Veiyah home NEW YEARS DAY!!! So, I was wrong!! YAY, sometimes it’s good to be wrong. From now on, though, I will be saying God Willing. So, God Willing, we will be ringing in the New Year with our precious baby girl, Veiyah Jaielle Karg. I can’t tell you the excitement in our girls tonight. Madi looked up at me and said, “Mom I don’t care if we don’t celebrate New Years Eve with all the cousins, I’d much rather bring Veiyah home”!! “Me too”, I said. We had to figure things out for the girls though, so they WILL be staying with family and having fun partying and then when they come home on Thursday morning, they will have a new little sister at home. Oh how we’ve longed for this day. I've been “pregnant” for much more than 9 months. We’ve been awaiting this day since March 28, 2008. Now, January 1, 2009 we will (God willing ;)) be complete again.

Thank you all for standing with us during this roller coaster of ours. I wrote the post that she was coming home on Sunday night, and had to tell you differently the next morning. Even so, you all stood with us in prayer and encouragement. Thank you for that, and may our awesome God richly bless you.



Can I please tell you all what an awesome husband I have? Please?? …Thanks.

Jeremy has been SO excited. We of course got the car seat and stroller (travel system) from all of your generous gift cards for Veiyah’s shower. THANK YOU!!! So we picked that up and Jeremy kept throwing things in the cart with the left over gift card money. Not just any old things though. He got her a thingy that she can lay on that has 2 triangles on the sides to keep her in place….hehe, yah I don’t know the name of it. We got a bottle warmer, some receiving blankets, paci’s, and now we’re just looking for a really cool Mobile. She LOOOVES mobiles. We want to steal the one from the hospital cause it has little birds that fly around and their wings actually flap and they tweet. SO cute and she loves it.

Anyway, we have to do feedings and meds and he is the first one to race to the bed to take care of her. If I could just take a picture RIGHT now. He’d kill me. But just picture it in your heads. He can look so tough on the outside, but on the inside he’s the most sensitive man and loves children so much. Especially his own.

So, here we are again. God willing we will be home on New Years Day. So what if it’s not New Years Eve, God wanted it to be the FIRST day of the year….God willing. ;)

While I was just writing that last sentence, Veiyah threw up. We have her feeds going as slow as 45 minutes at a time, but I think we raised the tube too high this last time (gravity is so cool) and it was just too much at once. Please pray that she continues to show signs of feeding well so that she can go home and not have any problems. We are here, but it doesn’t mean we can stop praying. So, please join with us as you always have so faithfully, and pray God’s peace over Veiyah’s tummy and peace over her as she sleeps and prepares to go home.

Love you all so much! God is doing awesome things, and I know that there are some of you out there that are hurting through your own tragedies right now. I want you to know that we pray for all of you everyday. We are not the only ones in need of prayer. Each and everyone of you are as well. So please know we are lifting you all up.



Thank you all so much for your gift cards, presents, and overwhelming love and prayers that you have prayed over our family. We love you all dearly.

Next time I write you, God willing, Veiyah will be home in our arms.


Love,
Ani

Change of Plans....Again :(

Well, it is with sadness that I have to write and let you all know that while you were all so excited with us to have Veiyah come home to ring in the New Year, that we got a phone call from her Dr this morning on our way out. The car was started, the car seat in place, the diaper bag packed. Veiyah has been throwing up all weekend. We knew that she had a couple times on Saturday, but thought she was just getting used to her feeds again. They have now stopped feeding her with a bottle, stopped her gravity feeds through the tube, and turned completely to a feeding pump. She eats every 3 hours still, but the feeding lasts 45 minutes so that she keeps it down. They will continuously go down on time throughout the week to see if she can start to handle it again.

As of right now, Veiyah will not be home on Wednesday any longer. She needs prayer for her tummy. She has to start keeping her feeds down. As much as I want to make sure she stays in the hospital long enough for her to be completely ready for home, it makes me feel silly for getting too excited and posting about her coming home too soon. The Dr’s during the weekend, though, told us it was a go. We even felt a little pushed out and I cried because I felt like they were trying to get rid of Veiyah….long story, but it got resolved. Now, we have everything ready and it will all sit here for a little longer. Little is the word I am hoping for.

Thank you all so much for praying us through this, and for sharing in our joy. I feel silly writing this to you now, knowing that I made some of your days by my earlier post. Please take that excitement and use it’s energy for your prayers for Veiyah’s little tummy. At the same time, please pray for Jeremy, the girls and I. We all were so very excited and the girls had their hopes so high. They made little signs and posted them around the house welcoming Veiyah. These signs will stay up. Just for a little longer is all.

Love,
Ani

Your Carriage Awaits...

I have very smart daughters. They learn very quickly and things STICK. They remind me of what needs to be done since my brain is so scattered lately. They always have such fun words though, as I'm sure you all have your own "kids say and do the darndest things" stories. I have quite a few of these, but here are a few that made me laugh a little extra hard.

It is quite stressful being in the hospital for so long. My girls are definitely troopers. They get bored, but you wouldn't believe the things they come up with to do! We have a few things in our Rossi room that make it quite interesting. There is a huge pump that is supplied for me while I stay here. It is so nice to have, compared to any other store bought pump. I of course wouldn’t want it in my house, being how big it is, but I do take full advantage of it while I’m here. (No pun intended) ;)

Madi and Selah will switch rolls between nurse and the patient. They know quite a lot more than your average kid, being that they have been around so much these last few months. The pump becomes the IV poll, the “soiled linens” hamper becomes a wheelchair, and there are plenty of washcloths and towels to become props for fevers or even hospital gowns. I saw Madi lying on the bed with Ipod earphones that Selah had placed on her face, going from under the nose and up over both ears. Oxygen anyone? How clever are they?


I’ve been updating my status on Twitter and on my Facebook implying some sort of surprise I have for all of our blog followers and/or for those praying for us. So, here goes.

Veiyah is now done with her labs and actually had her pic line taken out of the side of her head because she has completed her antibiotic time. She is back on her full feeds plus some. She has had a little bit of trouble keeping down her food that she takes from a bottle, so they have been sticking to tube feedings only and once in a while trying the bottle again.

Today is Sunday. Tomorrow and Tuesday Jeremy and I will be staying in Veiyah’s room for a full 48 hours. This is called an “apartment experience”. It is a teaching time for us that will be just like we are at home, but everyone will be around to let us know how to do things and for any questions. All of her monitors will be turned off. We will be learning how to put her NG tube in (feeding tube) and how to do her gravity feeds. This is where we pour her milk into a tube that sits a few inches above my head, taped to a chair, that slowly goes through the tube and into Veiyah’s stomach. This is how Veiyah will need to eat for a while until she gets the hang of taking full bottle feeds.

We will be watching videos, talking to different doctors, learning CPR and sleeping on chairs and the wonderfully awful couch in her room for 2 days ...so that...

On Wednesday, December 31, 2008, we can put Veiyah in her little car seat and take her to her new home.

She will be ours. Only ours. We won’t be sharing her with nurses or doctors or social workers or anyone else (whom we have SO appreciated) that have a say in her day. She will finally lose her little tubes, wires, cords and anything else attached to her bed that make it that much harder to hold her. She will be set free.

She can lie in Mommy and Daddy’s arms anytime of the day that she chooses. She can get to know her sisters. Her sisters can finally BE her sisters. Jeremy can finally be her Dad, and I her Mom. She can go with us to see her twin sister and feel a certain familiar bond. She can carry a flower and know that Mommy will put it in just the right place for Aderah. She will have a real family. She will know this family. She will be secure in this family. She will feel Jesus in this family. She will feel Aderah nearby through Jesus in this family. She will just be.

I just “be” everyday just like everyone else. Veiyah hasn’t had a chance to just “be” yet. How freeing can that feel? Is it like getting out of jail? Or is it like being in the spot light as a movie star, or President of the United States - to finally getting un-popular or ending your term and going home and not being in the new People or the next joke on Jay Leno. Just being you. Time to yourself, your family, your wife, your husband, your kids, your mom, your dad, your newspaper, your computer, your golf clubs, your crochet needle, your scrapbooking, your blanket, your pillow, your bed, ….yours. Veiyah needs HER things. There are people in other countries that don’t have their time, or their things. Do you understand the emphasis I am putting on YOU (yourself, myself, herself, SELF) here? We, as Americans can sit here all day and do NOTHING if we please. If nothing feels good to us one day, we do nothing that day. Veiyah will get these things for HER and nobody else, in just two (long to us) short days.

We praise you Jesus for allowing us to introduce Veiyah to her things. To her life. God you have opened our eyes to the most precious things in life. Being fearfully and wonderfully made for You and by You and to enjoy the life that you breathed into us. To use the life of OURS to worship You and to bring You joy, that in return completes our joy.

We ask for you to bring a calm to Jeremy and I, to Madi and Selah, and especially to Veiyah. This is going to be a new way of life for us. God we ask that you to make each day not only new, but pure….starting from scratch. That we will be thankful for every breath we have together as a complete family. We ask that you will gently remind us of Aderah everyday, that we will hear sweet nothings from our angel, to help us remember her and to smile, and hold Veiyah that much tighter.

As we enter this New Year as a complete family, we give everything we have to you, Jesus. The year 2009 is a new, clean start. I so wanted to have Veiyah home for Christmas. I tend to forget how awesome You TRULY are. Christmas? Naaahhh, you just wait, Ani. You will bring in the New Year with this little Miracle I have given you. She, herself, will represent New Beginnings. I am THAT good. You are THAT good, Jesus, and we thank you so very much for your little perks that make our lives that much more exciting and passionate.

Love, Ani


We're getting ready for you Veiyah!!! We're SO excited!! I've already packed your diaper bag. I know your Daddy was questioning why I went upstairs to get 4 diapers to put in your bag. Well it's because I haven't been able to do that yet. I get to experience these "small" things now that are so HUGE to me. I love you and I can't wait to be your Mom and make Mommy decisions for you. We've had no control over what has happened in your life so far. Since the day we found out you and Aderah were not in a safe place, I could do nothing but pray. You were in God's hands. Then you were in God's hands AND the Dr's hands. But your care was never in my hands. That's a hard thing as a Mommy. I want to tell people what I believe is best for my baby girl. I want to say "Get that tube out of her throat so she can breathe, dang-it!" I'm so thankful for the people who have cared for you, but I'm so excited for them to hand you over to me and your Daddy for good now. We will have to place you back in their care here and there but we trust them and trust God with them. It's time to come home, baby girl~

Love, Mommy


Your carriage awaits you...

Merry Christmas from Veiyah!

Here are some picture of Veiyah on Christmas Eve. Mama got her a new "My first Christmas" outfit and got her her own stocking with an ornament and some socks inside. :) We bought Aderah the same stocking, and we'll post a picture of them together soon. But for now, Merry Christmas from all of us Kargs, to you. Enjoy our Christmas Miracle....We are so thankful that she is alive and well, that is a Christmas Miracle Gift in itself. Even if she's not home yet, she is still ALIVE! :) As of last week, we are willing to take everyday and call it a miracle in Veiyah's case. Enjoy~ And may this find you well and enjoying your family and celebrating the birth of our Lord Jesus.

Thank you to the University Volunteers, and those who take time to make little hats and booties to give to children that have to spend Christmas away from their families. You don't know what these little blessings mean to us everyday. Thank you and God Bless you all.

Ordinary [awr-dn-er-ee] customary; usual; normal

“Just another ordinary miracle today”

This is part of a song that I always wondered what it meant, until now I can put my own meaning to it. Ehhh, just another miracle, that’s all….an ordinary miracle. Blah blah blah

Veiyah is proving to us that Miracles aren’t that Miraculous! They are so simple for our God. He has amazed us with this little tiny body of a person. When I say that miracles aren’t so miraculous, I don’t mean they are not huge. It just seems like we don’t believe they happen, and when they do, we are so surprised that we gasp and hold our breath and then sigh through our hands over our mouths, “It’s a Miracle!!!”

Yes, it is.

That’s exactly what it is.

No big deal. ….to God anyway~ ;)

My brother Dave says “No big deal” to HUGE things to make it funny. Like, "I just won a million dollars in the lottery, ...no big deal" with a deep loudish voice. C'mon, try to hear it in your head. :) One thing you should know about my brother Dave, is that he can make the dumbest things, funnier than you’d ever know. He had me laughing so hard this last summer, that I was bawling and needed comfort. ??? I'm so not kidding. I'll try to take hidden video of him sometime to show you. ;)

Okay, I’ll get to the part you are waiting for.

Veiyah is our “ordinary” miracle today. The Dr’s took out her ventilator tube at around 3pm and she did AWESOME! She has been awake now for about 2 hours and is just PERFECT!!!!

Her little tongue is going in and out like she is trying to find something to suck on. Her little eyes are looking all around the room. She follows me with her eyes as I go from one side of her bed to the other. Like, “where do you think you are going, Mom?”

She is back to her normal little self, but with a newfound Joy. And another battle wound. She has proof of being a Miracle. Just like Jesus does.

Thank you all for your prayers and continued support. Without you all, it would be a lonely road. We feel so loved and lifted up everyday. Thank you to our families who have dropped everything to make sure we are surviving, for all of the phone calls of concern and love. We love all of you and have realized what good friends and family we do have.

As always, don’t ever stop praying for little Veiyah. These prayers are what God is listening to and answering so faithfully. Miracles ARE just ordinary to God. “Didn’t you expect this of Me?” Is what I hear Him asking me.

Veiyah’s numbers are all great and actually even better sats than she had before surgery! She has now passed gas AND pooped! These are huge things after a surgery ON her bowels.

Praise God!! HE is to be exalted. Him and Him alone.

Love,
Ani

PS. Jeremy has something to share…




Over the last several months as Ani and I have been going through these trials, there have been comments made about how strong we are and that the way we have handled these trials has touched so many people. We appreciate these comments and the support we have received from everyone.

I do want to make it clear that we take none of the glory. We are weak, imperfect, and are always failing. It is only through the grace of God that we make it through any trial. The actions that we have taken, the words we have spoken, and the decisions we have made would all be nothing unless they were aligned with the will of God. So I just wanted to take this moment to say thanks to God for all he has done, and to direct all praise and glory to Him who makes the imperfect perfect.

Love,
Jeremy

Pictures and Videos = PROOF! :)





This is her awake! This is TODAY! How amazing!!!!




She just got the hiccups and we had to share…

Urgent Prayer Needed

Veiyah just had the hardest episode yet. The nurse came in to do her blood draw and Veiyah got so upset that her oxygen saturation went down to below 50 (normally for her, should be 70's and up) and her heart rate dropped from 130 bpm to 30 (thirty) bpm.

The nurse started to balloon air into her breathing tube to help with her oxygen, but when her heart slowed she had to start chest compressions. She wasn't improving, so she continued the compressions for about a minute while pumping the balloon at the same time. Veiyah was pure purple. The nurse yelled for help and everyone ran in and worked on reviving our baby girl.

Madi and Selah were in the room with me when this happened and I tried to shelter them as much as possible. One of the Dr's came in and swept them away and I tried to follow but ended up on the floor outside of our room. I couldn't stand up any longer.

Veiyah finally calmed down and her heart rate jumped back up along with her oxygen sats. She is now sleeping and the Dr's and nurses are all backing off a bit, to give her time to rest. She is still in-tubated and they have a feeling that is why she gets so upset. We asked if we could just pull the tube. Her belly is enlarged because of gas. She hasn't passed any gas or pooped since surgery so they will be giving her a suppository to get rid of the excess gas in her tummy. If she has a gassy belly, her lungs are smaller and they can’t support the breaths she’d have to take. So there is a fine line of what the right thing is to do.

Please pray for LIFE! I yelled for Veiyah to come back and to not leave me. I’m so absolutely helpless.

They are going to do an x-ray of Veiyah’s head soon here, to check for any bleeding that could cause her heart rate to drop. They don’t believe it is what happened, but they have to rule things out.

pray pray pray

We love you all so much, and are so thankful for each of you.

Love,
Ani

Update on Veiyah's Stomach Surgery

Dr's said that the actual procedure went well. They removed Veiyah's appendix as well as tacked down her intestines. The reason for the appendix removal, is that it too, was on the wrong side of her body. If she were to deal with appendicitis (sp) in her future, there would be confusion to diagnose it with it being on the wrong side. This all went well. They did worry about her with the anestesia, though. Her levels were to high?? I believe?? I need to have Jeremy explain things better but they got her to a good number finally and she did fine after that.

Since she has been in recovery, she has had a few episodes. She is slowely waking up so she will show signs of discomfort or even just movement can set off those dang machines. Oh how we've come to despise these machines. Let's just say we don't get along. We've been on the silent treatment for quite a while, and I hope they still know that they aren't on my top friends on facebook. That'll teach em' huh?

Veiyah will wake up and look at us and move her arms around. She has the ventilator tube back in and is not liking it. She doesn't understand what is going on, and that is the hardest part about this. I can't tell her why she hurts, what's in her mouth, what that awful pain on her tummy is, or why she can't cry. She just looks at me and asks why with her eyes.


She took quite a dip in her oxygen this last episode. Our oxygen saturation as healthy bodies, will be around 100. Veiyah sticks around the 70’s to 80’s. 80’s are her good days. This last episode, she dropped down into the 30’s. Her nurses pumped a green balloon into her oxygen tube to help her breaths. Of course a few more people ran in and made it into the newest Grey’s Anatomy episode. And remember, I don’t exaggerate.

Here are some pictures of our sweetie. Print it out and put her on your fridge to help you remember to pray! There’s your homework till next time. ;)

We are so grateful for each and everyone of you. For your love, support, gifts, help with our kids, and most of all, your prayers. Please keep them up while she recovers. She needs the extra right now~

Xoxo

~ani

Veiyah's Baby Shower! Surgery Tomorrow!!

We had a wonderful time at Veiyah's shower today. Thank you all for coming out in the bad weather to join us to celebrate our miracle! :) Here are a couple pictures, but Pete and Amy will send me more soon! :) BIG Thanks to Pete and Amy, Erin and my sista Sarah. You guys are all amazing and thank you SO much for putting together such an amazing shower for us. THANK YOU!!!!

Veiyah goes in for surgery at 8 AM tomorrow (Monday) morning. Please lift her up in prayer whenever you remember. Pray for peace in the surgery room, for the Dr's hands to be divinely directed, for everything to go as planned. Please also pray for Veiyah to get through this time without any pain or much discomfort. She will be put on heavy sedation and also she will be intubated again. It will be so hard to have come this far and then to see her go back into that state. Please pray for Jeremy, myself, Madi and Selah as we await her recovery. We are all here at the hospital and are quite anxious and worried for our baby girl and sister.

Love you all so much and we are SO thankful for your amazing prayers and your incredible hearts to love. We look forward to giving you a successful update and to one day introduce you to Miss Veiyah. (pictures below)

Sincerely,

Ani, Jeremy, Madi, Selah & Veiyah






These toothpicks had little homemade rattles on the ends of them! How stinkin' cute is that??

Other Worlds

I keep up with another ladies blog that lost her baby girl back in April. She is an amazing woman of God. My friend Julie introduced me to her blog as she noticed that this woman and I have quite a bit in common. I look forward to her posts all the time now that I am caught up, and am always on my toes. Her husband just so happens to be in the band “Selah”. Silly but great coincidence in my book. As I read through her stories, I found so many posts that looked SO similar to mine, that I was afraid that maybe my friend Julie thought I was being a copycat.Haha That’s how similar our stories are. There are other women as well. I found out through our wonderful world of Facebook, that a girl I went to school with from K-12, had identical twin girls due at the same time as mine, just in 2007. She lost both of her twins though. There are women like these who remind me of how blessed we are to have Veiyah in our lives. (Hugs Sue!)

You see, we don’t realize the other *worlds* that are out there until we experience them for ourselves. There are whole other worlds of hurt all around us. Not just the worlds of grieving mothers that lose their babies or their babies are in the NICU, PICU, and going through traumatic times. We never know the worlds of Cancer, Suicide, Homicide, Fatal Illnesses that we have no clue are even out there, Drugs, Alcoholism. Those are the heavier ones. Then there are those parents who lose their kids to the world. Their kids are sticking their toes in the deep cold waters and testing them. Those too feel like losses. In so many ways, they ARE losses, especially if they don’t seem to be coming back, if ever.

As I enter the University Hospital so many times this past few months, my stomach seems to drop to the floor each and every time. This is not a fun world. This is a whole world of hurt. And it’s not just one world! This hospital has many worlds of hurt within its walls. Can you imagine the heaviness there? Any hospital will carry this heaviness. Hospitals don’t have a welcome mat at the door with coffee inside ready to welcome you and wish you a good stay. Hey, they might do that literally, and that’s a pretty awesome Hospital. But it will never be a feeling of hope or relaxation. If you are looking for that, I’m sure Iowa City has a nice Spa ready to welcome you for just a few bucks~ ;) And by the way, that has nothing to do with the Dr’s and amazing hospital staff that DO give us hope for life. Any kind of sickness can cause us to go through hurt. Hospitals are for sick people. Even if they walk out of there alive, (praise God!!) they will still walk through their own *world*. (I do have to give props to the University, though. They really do take it upon themselves to make sure we are at somewhat of ease.)

Many of us don’t know that these little worlds around us even exist. Honestly, God forbid anyone should know. Because, the only way you really know, is if you are in one of them. So, maybe it takes people like me, or you who are reading that are in one or more of these worlds, to get the word out.

Let’s play telephone! If I tell you, will you tell your neighbor? If it can just get around the circle of friends that you call without it turning into a conversation about purple elephants dancing with earthworms,(woah, where'd that come from?) then maybe they could spread it to their friends. (I was thinking of telephone back in my day, where the first person would whisper to her friend that she likes a boy named Bobby, and by the time it got around to Suzy, she had already kissed Bobby AND they were planning their wedding AND they were only in 3rd grade.) These *worlds* need our everyday prayer. People are hurting everyday. For me, when I would think about praying for everyone in the world, my immediate thought would go to the children in Ethiopia. You too? I think my Dad did a good job of grinding that one into my brain every time I didn’t eat my spinach. That and maybe I can blame my weight on him for serving me the double portion every time I said I didn’t like it....wait, spinach wouldn't have been the problem... Ahh, someone to blame…how nice. (love you daddy!)

Don’t get me wrong; children in Ethiopia need our everyday prayers. So maybe we should start making a “grocery” list but with different things to pray for. ;) It’s just that there should never just be ONE focus of prayer. Unless God has put a certain *world* on our hearts, and made that world our duty and focus, we should be open to praying for all *worlds*.

We have some dear friends back home in Idaho, that we learned are living in and through their own *world* right now. It started about the same time we found out about the twins. I grew up with this family. Lorie was my piano teacher and lead worship for our church and Eric was an elder. I was always around this family, as my Dad was the pastor of our church, and there was a certain closeness and a friendship that had stemmed. We moved to Iowa 8 years ago and our families now have gone separate ways, but still think of each other often, and will always have a friendship. Eric found out this last summer, that he has pancreatic cancer. Here is this family who have lived their lives for Jesus in every way they know possible, their kids are grown and healthy, maybe they are ready to plan to retire in the coming days and just enjoy each other. God give them these days!!!!

I am telling you about this family because God is so good, and I want to share how God works in such fun ways. God knows we all long to be children at heart, so he does make things fun.

Like I said, we’ve now lived here in Iowa for 8 years. For all of these 8 years, we knew there was a town called “Swisher” just about 10 minutes down the freeway. Oh, what a coincidence! We know the Swishers!! Eric and Lorie! Do you really all think that was just a coincidence? I don’t. I call coincidences…"God". We have had to drive down to the University time and time again since July. Each and every time, we pass this sign that says SWISHER in big white/fluorescent bold letters. This sign is big and its letters are visible in the night so you know what exit to take to get there. Each and every time I pass this sign; I am reminded by our -oh so fun- God to pray for this family. It never ceases! I am constantly reminded of them. What a blessing. Would you look at that as a blessing? What more could I ask for when I ask for God to let me “do” something? Do you ever wish you could “do” something to help people in their *worlds*? Our God is a creative God. He knows we can’t always do physical things to help. So he gives us PRAYER. This word is not just a duty. It is a GIFT. We have prayer to “do”. And to make that even more exciting, he added a bow for me! This sign that I see every time I go to see my daughter who is fighting for her life in the hospital, is a bow on top of the gift from Jesus, to remind me to pray for Eric who is fighting for his life. My girls definitely got in on this gift. They wanted me to share it. They get so excited each time we are about to approach the “Swisher” sign. “Mom, are we almost to the Swisher sign?” Or, "Guess what LaLa (my mom, their grandma) every time we go to the hospital, we pass this sign and….”. As they proceed to tell my Mom about this sign and how they say a little prayer for Eric each time they pass it, I watch them light up. This is FUN for them! It’s something they look forward to everyday.

Can we all accept this gift? It sounds and feels more like a duty sometimes. I’m starting to realize that this gift of prayer he has given us is a fun thing for our childlike minds. It's also an important gift. It’s for all of us to “do”- to help and reach out to anyone that is in their own *world* of hurt.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Veiyah still has surgery planned for Monday. We will be talking with the surgeons tomorrow, Thursday. We will stay at the University through this weekend, go home for Veiyah’s baby shower that we are being oh so blessed with…and then wake up on Monday to face another part of our other *world*…I say other, because we have a few.

Please pray for Veiyah this weekend and into Monday. Also pray for her recovery time. I will definitely be keeping you all updated. I’m praying that a week will be good recovery time so I can get this girl home. So many Dr’s, so many different opinions... Pray that God has His hand in when she goes home safely, but surely.

Xoxo Love you all so much prayer warriors!!

Here are a couple pictures of our Miracle.

Ani

I don't think that smile is gas!!! ;) She's dreamin' of her sisters~







A few short videos that was on another blog I follow, touched me as well, so passing them on.

O Holy Night
By: Selah



Daddy Home for Christmas



Just something to think about~
(Advent Conspiracy)

Our Own Little (Big!) Miracle~