Best Wishes Jesse and Karen!!

My very close friend Karen got married to Jesse on Saturday night. I had the honor and privilege of taking some wedding photos for them. Best wishes, and we love you both!!

Matthew's First Birthday Party

We had Matthew's fist birthday party last Saturday afternoon. He was such a little joy all day!! As you can see...mom opened all the gifts, as Matthew inspected all the instruction manuals, cards, and envelopes. He is interested in all things paper these days. He eats it actually. Finally Greg was able to tear him away from the paper to play with his new cellphone, which is his other favorite item of ours to eat!!

Baby Sign Language

At almost exactly one year old, Matthew has begun to understand and sign back to me! This is so exciting! I have been using sign language for some of the words he would use everyday since he was six months old. Here are a few that he has mastered.

All Done!








More Please








Milk








Eat








And Finally...
I don't know what you're thinking, but clearly you are talking crazy!!








(Just kidding, of course) But if there was a sign for that...this would be it!

Chuck-E-Cheese

Greg and I took Matthew to Chuck-E-Cheese for the afternoon. Here are some of our day's highlights. Matthew seemed surprisingly calm around the 8 ft mouse!! He even reached out to bonk him on the nose. He loved riding all the pretend cars too. He was so tired at the end of our outing, he fell asleep right in Greg's arms in the middle of the chaos of the place. What a great day!!

Aunt Kim Came to Town January 2008

In late January, Greg's sister Kim came in for a visit. She had not seen Matthew since he was three months old, so needless to say, they had a great time getting to know each other. She was such a blessing to have around that week. It's always great to have an extra set of hands, and it's so nice to visit with her. We even took her out to our Kindermusik class :-) Here are some photos from her visit!!

Christmas With Corina

Just a few days after Christmas, we celebrated with Corina and her family. Here are some highlights of that day.

Not late for 2007...but early for 2008 Christmas Photos

Well, I dropped the ball on getting these posted on time. Blame it on the fact that my flash card reader broke in Mid-December and began erasing all our photos. Christmas was wonderful as expected. Matthew loved looking at all the Christmas presents and Christmas lights. Of course, he loved seeing all our family and friends too. At the end of the day though, he was one tuckered out little guy!! Here are some of our favorite photos of that day.

So Many Things To Post!!

ave about two weeks of catch up posting to do, including today's birthday photos, which I hope to get to tonight...but I like to do things in order (if you know me, you know that about me :-) In the meantime though, I thought I would put up a few recent videos. I will warn you to turn down your volume (quiet, but not off completely) for the Squealer video.

BTW, if you have any advice for how to stop the squealing, we are eagerly open to suggestions!! Though it may be cute, I'm certain we have had some degree of permanent hearing loss as a result of it!

PS: Saying "No scream please Matthew, makes him laugh
PSS: Ignoring it makes him scream more.
PSSS. Screaming back makes him cry.

The Squealer:



The Kiss:

Prayers Answered

Nathan is back home and doing well. I received this email from Keith earlier today, and he asked that I share it with all who were praying. Thank you all!!

Well after 2 days at the hospital waiting on tests they finally got the EEG done and it showed nothing because he was already on the seizure medication. Thats why they were supposed to do it the day before, but any rate the MRI never happened. We will have to go back for the MRI but they started him on a medication called Keppra which is a pretty good seizure medication. The major side affects would be hyperactivity and behavioral problems such as anger. Ok so they just defined every 3 year old boy with a little brother that I've ever seen. So all in all God is good and my son doesn't have any signs of brain damage. He will be on the medication for 2 years. Thanks everyone for praying and thinking of us it was a real blessing to know that within minutes of making a few calls that the plea was answered by so many of you that i am overwhelmed with gratefulness. As I was driving to the hospital on Monday when we had called 911, Debbie was in the ambulance with Nathan. Once again I felt like God was asking me if I trusted him with Nathans life. The scary part of God is that the answer to prayer isn't always yes and isn't always complete healing. So through tears of anguish I let God have Nathan once again and asked that his will be done. And that all of the decisions would be clear for us at the hospital. Dependence and Faith are not easy especially when it involves your children. But God is good and all answers came without us having to make a decision. The cat scans came back normal as did all the other tests so the MRI is merely a formality for them to make sure that there is nothing that was missed in the Cat scan. Nathan has periodically thrown up in his sleep over the last year and a half. We were concerned that he might have been having partial seizures in his sleep. Debbie had been praying for guidance on this matter at the very time that Nathan had the seizure. Answer to prayer? Like I said before Gods answers aren't always yes and are not always complete healing. They put him on the medication without us having to make the decision Guidance? So I stand by the fact that God is good and faithful and he gets the job done one way or another. Thank you guys so much for praying for us we love all of you.

P.S. Withing five minutes of getting calls from three to four people that started my prayer chains Nathan started getting movement on his left side in the ambulance on the way down to the hospital. Thank you for the prayers I was reading in James 5: 14-15 Ara any among you sick? They should call for the elders of the church and have them pray over them, anointing them with oil in the name of the Lord. And their prayer offered in faith will heal the sick, and the Lord will make them well. Thanks for the Faith and prayers

Keith Valentine

Prayer for Nathan (my godson)

Please pray for Nathan. He was rushed to Children's Hospital in Detroit this afternoon after he awoke from his nap with no movement in his left side. They took him by ambulance around 1pm today, and the doctors are keeping him overnight for an EEG as he sleeps. They are suspecting that he is having Grand Mal seizures again, which is a huge step in the wrong direction!

Please pray that his shunt does not malfunction and for protection against any form of brain damage from these seizures. We are also praying that this was not a stroke, and that his movement will be fully restored.

Thanks for your prayers. Please ask all that you know to pray as well.

Blessings

I think...Sometimes God gives us circumstances beyond our control, so that we can grow in faith and become stronger...maybe open our eyes a bit. This past weekend, Greg and I walked through one of those faith testing experiences. What we found in the middle of our loss was this amazing peace, the kind of peace that makes no sense in light of everything going on around you!! At first I thought maybe the peace came from going through this kind of loss before, but I'm not so sure that is the truth. I guess what I want to say is that something that has rocked our faith and brought great sadness, anger and confusion in the past, has now brought clarity, peace and a joy for all the blessings we already have in our lives.

I guess it's through the hard times that you are able to see a clear reflection of who you are, and you realize who you have to lean on. We were absolutely overwhelmed by the amount of loving friends and family that came to stand beside us. We are even more overwhelmed by the great thing we (Greg, Michelle, Matthew and Sierra) have as a family. I cherish both Greg and Matthew even more after going through this storm. Even Sierra was there by my side all weekend!! Today I am thanking God for all of you!! Know that you are all so loved, and that it meant so much that when we needed you, you were there.