Hello from our new home!

Let me begin by saying thank you for all of your emails, gifts, and letters reminding us that we are still in your thoughts and prayers. Especially, thank you to the Hassinger family (the whole big thing!). I am finally getting a moment to settle down, and write a bit on the blog. My goal will be to update once or twice a month from here on out. I just can't commit to more than that right now...

Yes, our new home! With the government tax credit and what we have been saving we finally had enough to put a good down payment on a house we hope to stay in for a long time and raise our family. It also has room to grow our family, via foster care or whatever means God intends. It is only about 6 minutes away from our old house, but is in a better school district (Northwest Local). It has 4 bedrooms and 2 full baths. Two of the bedrooms are upstairs with a bathroom, and 2 are down. So Abigail has her own bathroom, and we have some privacy from the nurses in our home. Woohoo!

We began the process of bidding and inspecting in April, and moved into our home May 16th. For those of you that know me well, yes, it is all together - complete with pictures on the wall. We only have 1 box left to unpack. Well, Richard does. His tools and random stuff.

Which brings us to Abigail. One thing that could really use some prayer is that we are preparing to get Abigail off to preschool next year. We are going through the IEP (individualized education plan), which is a long process. This will determine the kinds of help and therapies Abigail receives at school. Hopefully, this process will go smoothly...but that is often not the case. I begin the process full force next August, right now I am just gathering therapy records and paperwork. Josiah will also be starting preschool next year at our church 2 days a week, which will give me some one on one quality time with little Levi. They are growing up fast!!

I believe last I blogged we were going to be visiting the neurologist for the first time since being inpatient at Children's. We did that, but have continued to struggle to get her seizures under control. We have been through a variety of new medications, an MRI, and a couple of EEG's. It has been difficult to watch the seizures, knowing that they are out of my control. At the worst point, Abigail was having 4 to 6 full body seizures a day, and several startle seizures, sometimes 5 in one hour. Now we have successful eliminated the full body seizures (for the most part), but still contend with startles on a daily basis. By biggest concern has been loss of function or increased brain damage. At this time, we have seen some setbacks, but I am hoping that as we continue to get the seizures under control and as Abigail acclimates to the new medications, she will be able to relearn those things and more. Specifically, Abigail is more tired and less alert each day. She is less functional with her hands, and does not blink to answer questions as often. She can still play the computer, but needs more assistance and encouragement. Another consequence is that we are losing Abigail's therapies. I am going to pursue some other options. I will keep you posted.

May I also ask you to join me in praying for some dear friends of ours in Mexico. Gustav, who is 30 years old, was just diagnosed with stomach cancer. I am still waiting for more details on his prognosis. He has a young wife and two young children. Life on this side of heaven is just so hard sometimes, and feels so unfair.

As I close, I am meditating on a scripture spoken at our Sunday service last week. We were discussing Nehemiah, and prayer. Basically we need to pray not just once, or for 30 seconds strongly, or for a week, but diligently. It says that Nehemiah prayed morning and night for 180 days!! I struggle with this too, and sometimes get discouraged by the setbacks, but the bible says, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective." Lets be like the widow who wore the judge out with her constant requests, so he finally gave her what she wanted so she would just leave him alone!