We're Home!

We arrived home safely early Sunday morning after -in the only snaffu of our entire trip- our return flight was delayed 3 hours. The trip was perfect. We came home feeling so refreshed! The girls had a marvelous time with Granna, E's ear infection symptoms disappeared, and for the first time ever they were both completely healthy the entire time we were gone! Thank you so much for your prayers!

Going... Going....

If all goes well, we'll wake up in 3 hours and be on our way. But the fat lady hasn't sung, so please keep Elizabeth in your prayers! This evening she was complaining of ear pain, and since she's had a virus for 4 days, and a low white blood cell count...my mom will take her to the pediatrician to check it out tomorrow and get antibiotics if necessary...We REALLY need things to settle down and stay mundane around here for a while. We'd appreciate your prayers to that end. We hope the next time you hear from us we'll be more rested, a bit tanner and back home safely from our trip.

Thanks for your prayers!

Love,

Sara & Matt

A tenatively green light...

Thank you for praying for us! Elizabeth's labs went pretty smoothly yesterday and we were able to talk through things with her GI this evening. The good news is, her labs haven't changed. Her results are still concerning, but she doesn't seem to be deteriorating. We'll have to give her iron to help treat her severe anemia and keep her a bit sequestered while her white blood cell count is so low, but my mom can do that in our absence, and we will schedule a follow-up liver biopsy, an endoscopy and an appointment to see hematology upon our return. Sooo baring anything unforeseen, we're planning on flying to the US Virgin Islands for 8 wonderful days beginning on Saturday!

 

We would really appreciate your prayers for our family for the next week and a half. Especially for:

~continued protection of Elizabeth's health.

~a wonderful time of bonding for My mom and the girls. We've never been away from Ruby even overnight.

~safety and a wonderful trip for Matt and I, and that Hurricane Bill (and any other hurricanes for that matter) would be a non-issue!

 

We'll let you know if our plans change at the last minute, but otherwise, we'll let you know when we're home safely and give you an update on Elizabeth's health. Here are a few pictures of the girls today...Elizabeth's discovered that graham crackers and nutella are a delicious afternoon snack. Ruby has discovered inner artist! As my friend Brenda says, "don't get angry, take a picture!"  

 

Love,

Sara

 

 

Elizabeth's Health and our Anniversary Trip

I'm shooting off a quick email to ask you to pray for Elizabeth this week. She hasn't been entirely herself since our wacky California Trip, and her recent hospitalization in July. We got her routine follow-up labs last week and the results were mixed, but altogether not great. Ultimately she's anemic (could she be bleeding from one of her varices?) and appears to be breaking down red blood cells (could she have muscle breakdown revealing some underlying condition we haven't found yet?), and we don't know why. Her liver is not functioning as well as we'd like, and our GI would like to do a liver biopsy to follow up on the ultrasound results that showed she had signs of cirrhosis. The biopsy is still scheduled for September, but in light of these most recent labs we're concerned that it might not be a good idea for Matt and I to leave on a long anticipated trip to celebrate our 10 years of marriage (and take a much needed break after an insanely busy 4 years!...okay, 8 years....who am I kidding??...10 years!).

My mom is coming out on Thursday to care for the girls while we're gone and we have great confidence in her, but we need to know if it's truly safe for us to be far from home right now. And let's face it, neither Matt nor I really wants to leave if Elizabeth's health is more marginal than typical. Would you pray for our family? We'd love Elizabeth to be healed, we'd love for the Dr.s to have clear answers about what's causing the symptoms and what can be done to treat them. We would love to be able to leave my mom with two healthy girls and go on our trip without any concerns. Ultimately, we need a clear and peaceful path. We know there is one because God has promised us one.

Ruby's busy day

Accessorize....check

Help mom install hubcaps...check

provide some soil testing...check

All in a day's work.

Summer Fun in the Water