The Implant's In!

(Above)-  Laurel AFTER her Tylenol with Codeine!! 

(Above- Asleep with a cracker in her mouth-yeah safe.)

In the Hospital 

Just waking up in the hospital-not too happy

We are done and Laurel is home. We were actually home by 12:30. That's because we had to be there at 7am. It was exhausting but it's over! The implant is in. The Doctor said they had a bit of a tough time getting it in because of the anatomy of her ear. Apparently, all of the ear infections that she had the first 2 years in the orphanage have scarred the inside of her ears so it made things a little harder. However, it is in place and we will get it turned on in 4 weeks and will hopefully know at that point if it's going to work for her. Please continue to pray that it will help her.
Laurel has to wear her ear bandage for 3 days (that should prove challenging) and is on 10 days worth of antibiotics. Tonight she felt like little bugs were crawling on her..... not sure which drug causing that. Hopefully tomorrow we'll be off the Tylenol Codeine. When she woke up from the surgery she was a bit loopy but asked the nurse if "She'd put the Ear Plant in yet?"
Thank you all for your prayers. We felt the Lord's peace.

It's Time

It's time. The day is here. Laurel goes in to have get a Cochlear Implant in her left ear Thursday at 7am. I would not be being honest if I said I wasn't nervous, not so much for her safety but WILL IT WORK? No one knows for sure. She has Auditory Neuropathy which is complicated (light switch on/off) but the consensus is that all things being equal it should help her. 
      A while back, I asked God to make the decision for me. I didn't want to have to make the decision of taking her residual hearing away to try the implant. He answered. Shortly there after her testing came back that her hearing in her "good" ear was failing. She was having trouble hearing those tricky high frequency "f" and "s" sounds. It was time. 
     It was no mistake that 2 weeks before she was referred for an implant that she was accepted into a grant that will pay for most if not all of her $40,000 per ear implant!! That is "exceedingly abundantly" ABOVE all we asked of our Lord.


"Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly beyond all that we ask or think, according to the power that works within us." Ephesians 3:20


So, we are excited for what this could mean for Laurel. We are a bit nervous but come boldly before the throne of God asking for healing for her. We know she is His child and has His hand on her. What more could we ask for.


Thank you for your prayers.

Birthdays, Soccer & Vacations... Oh My!!

HAPPY 40TH MIKE!!!

LAST DAY OF SOCCER

 

BROTHER & SISTER

HAVE YOU SEEN NOAH & LAUREL??

THE AVIARY WAS OUR FAVORITE!

COOLEST Animal Park EVER!!!!!

WEIGHT LOSS MOTIVATION

Not Stonehenge but FOAMHENGE :)

My baby lost his first tooth (naturally). The tooth fairy even found us on vacation!

Natural Bridge- one of our favorite places

1st time Camping- They LOVED it!!

Swimming at Cave Mt. Lake-cold but fun

Wow. Where to start. This post will probably have 2 parts because of all the pictures I've taken! The weekend started with Mike's 40th birthday party. Noah picked out the deer antler cake & we had a fun time with family & friends at Nana's pool. Then, Sat. we had the finale to the kid's Upward Soccer. They had a really good time and it was a great experience. THEN we packed up Sunday am and went on vacation to VA. One my favorite places to vacation when I was little was Natural Bridge, VA.  It is an amazing place and now I get to take my kids there. They loved the Drama of Creation Night Show, the Caverns and the hiking but not the Wax Museum so much.....it was a little to life like! :) 
We stayed a few nights in the beautiful hotel and then moved on to our first family camping trip at Cave Mt. Lake. Very cool lake & beach surrounded by mountains!! Beautiful! Our campsite was right beside the creek so we played Go Fish in the tent till we fell asleep to the sound of running water. I was spoiled and slept on a air mattress and slept like a log. Laurel did too, as we had to wake her up at 10:15 the NEXT MORNING!! We will definately be doing more camping together.


 One of the highlights of the trip was going to the 180 acre Wildlife park. You could feed the animals right from your car the whole way. We laughed until we cried! The ostriches were crazy & creepy. The llama's were just downright rude and the camels stole your buckets and chewed on them!! It was one of the most fun things I've ever done. We rode through it twice. I would highly recommend this park to everyone. Where else can you feed and pet a Yak out in the open while sitting in your car??

About Turkeys....

                                                                BABY DUNCAN

                                       LAUREL ENTERTAINING DUNCAN (BRIEFLY)

 Candeling the Turkey Egg..... you can see the baby moving in there!!!!!

                                                       Mini Homeschool Lesson

So, I should have known. As soon as I wrote the last post on a restful catchup, the bottom kind of fell out around here. Things have been crazy, busy but the Lord has taught me a valuable lesson about Him giving me rest. If I have heard in my brain "Be still and know that I am God" once I've heard it a thousand times this week! God is good ALL the time. 
Anyway, Laurel is all set for her surgery on the 21st, colors picked out and everything! I am asking for your prayers for the surgery because it is definately not a sure thing. The concensus from all of the professionals is that it will help her. However, no one knows because of her Auditory Neuropathy with complicates matters. Our God knows the outcome so I pray for peace in whatever that is. 
So, about the Turkeys.... Rach has come into so turkey eggs and of course, us being the bleeding hearts that we are, are determined to try and hatch them. Rach has done the hard work with the incubator until now and I'll take over when they are hatched. It's been neat for the kids to have aunt Rach show them how to candle them so you can see the babies inside the eggs. It's so cool to watch them move.
Vacation is coming up!! Can't wait  to see Noah & Laurel have so much fun!


2 Quotes of the Week:
1. Laurel and her cousin Eliza were pretending to plant a garden in the dirt. Laurel brings me her big box of dirt with sticks stuck in it and says "Look Mommy, a Kindergarden!!" :)
2. Noah anticipating the upcoming vacation.... "Mommy, I don't like a few days because the nights are so long"