Thank God for Basil!

It's been a while since we updated you on the happenings here, and I wish I could say that after the last update things turned around completely. Unfortunately our circumstances haven't changed much, but little by little, we're learning to press on despite our circumstances and "just trust God" with so many of the details that are simply not working. As trite and simple as that sounds, in doing so, have found some measure of peace and grace.

Elizabeth's feeding: We're moving forward with the "feeding guru" we've heard about in the Bay Area, and will have a phone conference with her next week to discuss the video we sent her of Elizabeth eating a meal. We're praying that she has some insight and wise counsel. In the interim, we've made some progress which has helped my attitude quite a bit...she's taking 3-5 meltable gerber stars before each meal...and actually learning to chew them with her molars as they dissolve (BIG step towards age appropriate eating). We've been able to get her to close her mouth around the spoon...so I no longer "pour" her puree into her mouth one spoonful at a time...she actually takes a bite now! And, she's allowing us to put a vibrating wand into her mouth and explore around her cheeks and tongue, which in the long run will help desensitize her to textures. All of these are actually very big steps and we're so proud of her progress. She still vomits daily, and we're convinced she is "volume restricted" for some unknown reason. We've met with her new Gastroenterologist and are pleased with him so far. As I told Matt, "He's old enough to have some experience and wisdom, but young enough to really engage in getting to the bottom of some of Elizabeth's chronic issues". We're praying that God will give him unique wisdom for treating our daughter!

Additionally, we've now got Elizabeth's Physical and Occupational/Feeding Therapies set up and we like how things are going so far. Elizabeth loves the therapists, and they've got some good ideas! As an added bonus, the sessions are in our home...which is LOVELY. The fewer car trips the better! These are two recent pics that melt my heart. The first is her playing with a cart we borrowed from our OT. She loves toddling behind it dispite the sour expression. :) The second is of Elizabeth pretending to give herself her meds. She's pretty good at it after watching me do it for the last 22 months!


My pregnancy: We had our first appointment with my new Perinatologist (an OB for high risk pregnancies) and were told that my previa is pretty severe and unlikely to resolve. While that's disappointing, we're choosing to focus all our prayer energy on asking God to keep me from bleeding. Bleeding is a high risk in the case of Placenta Previa, and has all sorts of possible outcomes (including premature delivery). The difficulty is, if it starts, I have to be admitted to the hospital. Obviously a hospitalization doesn't fit so well into our life right now, so we're asking God that he would protect us from that AND help us to meet some really nice folks really soon, so we'll have potential babysitters lined up if the need arises!

Finally, Matt's job remains a disappointment. There's not much to say except we're desperate for God to give us His perspective on a seemingly hopeless situation. The good news is, we are certain that we came here with God's guidance and blessing. The challenge is, WHY??? We're guessing this is a bit of how the Children of Israel felt when they got to the edge of the Promise Land and discovered they would have to battle the giants of the land in order to inhabit it. We are determined to walk by faith and not by sight and of course need heaps of grace in order to do so!

A few nights ago, Matt and I were reflecting on our life here and the fact that the new herb garden he planted when we arrived is 1 for 3. So far, it has only yielded basil. So as we were falling asleep, Matt said, "Let's name our basil." And so we did...Thank God for the things that have gone right so far: Air Conditioning in the midst of record breaking SL heat, cars that are working, Elizabeth's delightful spirit and obedient heart, a great co-fellow for Matt, a great lead on a home church for us, only blocks from our home ( www.journeyon.net), a basement, a healthy baby inside of me, a washer and dryer inside our house, a refrigerator with one of those door dispensers for ice and water...lovely, a BBQ grill which is making dinners so much easier and fun!, the support from afar of family and friends & God's faithfulness through it all.

We'll keep thanking God for all the basil until the other herbs arrive...