Psalm 103 continued. . .

An update on sweet Hayley. Sunday things went from good to really bad again. We were sent to the emergency room with her Sunday night b/c she was hurting so badly and hadn't urinated from around 10am until 8pm. Long story short, we took her over to the urologist's office in Dallas this afternoon, had to do ANOTHER cathedar to get more urine b/c the results from Thursday's culture were negative (just got those this morning). The nurse's words were, "She has a raging infection." It has been a very traumatic day for all of us. I believe God was merciful to Hayley on Saturday by giving her a day of relief from her pain. We are still, of course, praising His Name as much today as we were Saturday when we thought she was okay. I keep thinking of the story of the "fiery furnace" when Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego said to the king, "If we are thrown into the blazing furnace, the God we serve is able to save us from it, and he will rescue us from your hand, O king. But even if he does not, we want you to know, O king, that we will not serve your gods or worship the image of gold you have set up."

The Lord did not heal Hayley completely from her infection or (as far as we know) from her kidney reflux. . .yet. We believe with our whole hearts that He will. Our prayer is that He will heal her before she has to go through the surgery to correct her reflux. We believe He can. We also know that it could be His plan for us to go down the road of doing the surgery. Please pray for us to be in tune with God's direction and wisdom regarding that decision, and that we will use this as an opportunity to tell nurses, doctors, people in waiting rooms, about what a MIGHTY God we serve and that others will come to know Him or grow closer to Him after encountering our family.

On a lighter note. . . I have the most INCREDIBLE sister in law. I actually have 3 of them, but today I am talking specifically about Tara. She has come to my rescue with keeping Jack twice over the last few days while we have taken Hayley to dr.'s appointments at a moment's notice. She has totally dropped what she was doing to help us out and met us with a smile on her face at the door as we blew in and out like a tornado trying to get to the doctor and then home again. She never complains or acts like it is any kind of inconvenience to help out. What a BLESSING to have that sweet woman in our lives. (her husband and son aren't all that bad either) : )

She lives out the verse, "Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men," Col. 3:23

What a gift you are in my life! I love you, Tara!

Psalm 103

Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within me, bless His holy name! Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all His benefits---Who forgives all your iniquities, Who heals all your diseases,Who redeems your life from the pit and corruption, Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you with lovingkindness and tender mercy. (verses 1-4)

Thank you for praying. We truly believe that the Lord has healed Hayley of whatever the problem was on Thursday. She was back to normal Friday and has done great all weekend. We'll get the results from the culture on Monday, but as of Friday nothing had started growing. All glory and praise to Jesus Christ alone!

Prayers Needed. . .

I picked Hayley up from school today and she was burning up. I got her home and the fever was 105. She was just limp and wouldn't talk. She would only shake her head yes or no. THANKING God for Motrin!! It brought the fever down and she came alive again. Took her to the dr. and had her tested for flu (negative) and had the traumatic experience of cathedarizing her (I wasn't allowed in the room, but could hear her screaming down the hall----ripped my heart out) and the urine test was also negative. We will get results from the urine culture w/in the next 48 hours. I'm almost certain it is a UTI (urinary tract infection). She has kidney reflux and is on a low dose of antibiotics daily. It is hurting her to go potty SO badly. She just screams in pain. Thankfully tonight after she woke up in hysterics b/c she had to go to the bathroom and couldn't I thought about putting her in the bath (thank you, God, for that thought!) and she was able to go potty and feel better immediately.

So---please pray for the doctors' wisdom. Pray that her urologist can get her in quickly when I call in the morning. Pray for peace for Tra and me. It is SO HARD to watch your baby in SO much pain!!! And pray for COMPLETE HEALING. We believe God can heal her kidney reflux and we are boldly asking for that. I am so thankful that it is not something worse or life-threatening. But it is still gut-wrenching to see her hurt so badly. : (

A Big Week

Hayley decided this was going to be the week to potty train! I've been working with her on it for several months but I have let her just go when whe wanted to. My plan was to take year #2 to familiarize her with it and by this summer if she wasn't potty trained I would hit it harder. I think it was peer pressure at her school/BSF/church that led her to this decision. She has had dry pull-ups every day this week! Today she wore big girl panties all day (except for our trip to the mall---pull-ups) . It is a big adjustment for me trying to train myself to start asking, "Do you need to go potty?" everytime we leave the house.

Jack decided tonight was the night to start self-feeding! The boy will NOT put anything in his mouth on his own---until tonight. I put a piece of cheese on his tray at dinner thinking, "Maybe tonight will be the night." Sure enough, he just picked it up and put it in his mouth like he had been doing it his whole life! My jaw hit the ground! I gave him another piece and he did it again! WE CELEBRATED in the Willbanks' home this evening!

So that is 2 pretty major milestones all in one week. My children have this thing with wanting to do things their own way in their own time. We're not sure where they got that! : )

Jack's latest weird quirky behavior is wanting to be up on the couch and bury his face in the pillows. He is not happy anywhere else. He'll just throw his head in the pillows and lay really still for a few seconds and then pop up and look at us with this look like, "Am I not hilarious???" He'll occaisionally laugh at himself. What a stitch! Oh---he has also started crawling on his hands and knees over the past couple of weeks too! The army crawl is still his favorite, but if you watch him long enough he'll bust out into a full-on crawl! It is wild to watch the transition from baby to little boy!!

The other day, Hayley randomly said, "I like your earrings, mom." It was the first time I had ever heard her voice her own opinion on something. So cute! Actually, I take it back. One day in October or November I went in to wake her up one morning and she said, "I not like that shirt, mama! Take it off!!" I'm sure that won't be the first time in her life that she doesn't like my outfit! : )

Tra came home from work early today with a stomach ache. It has turned into an UGLY stomach BUG. I'm PRAYING it doesn't get me, Hayley, Jack, or anyone else at Anchor. YUCK.

Last thing: Hayley's latest thing is going into Jack's room when she wakes up and getting into bed with him. It's so sweet to see them play together and love each other!