Lucy's Chocolate Adventure

Dad spoils his girls! Each girl got roses and a balloon for Valentines. Then after being out of town a few days this week, he spoiled them once again with a box of chocolates. Well, mom found Lucy in the kitchen today and this is what she was up to. Can anyone say sugar high?! She obviously was one satisfied customer!

HIKING WITH THE COUSINS

This is where Matt takes Eliza and Jane on fairy hunts. When the cousin's came for a visit over the Christmas break, the girls wanted to take them to see where the fairies live. If you look close, you may see a fairy or two also. Thank goodness for photo editor! Matt really likes to spoil the girls...

P.S. Poor Matt and Porter. They're always the only boys...even the dogs a girl. Anybody have some boy's they want to loan out??? That would save me nine months of pregnancy:)

A BOY NAMED REESE....

So first of all, I need to give you a little background on our little Eliza. Eliza is a very loyal person. She loves people, so when you make a friend of her, she will be loyal to you to a fault.

Last year in Kindergarten she met a boy named Reese. Since August of 2007 the object of Eliza's affection has been Reese. It does not matter that Reese no longer attends her school or that she hasn't seen him in over 8 months. If you ask Eliza who her prince charming is, or who she is going to marry it is without fail, Reese. Her part in the primary program this year (they got to write their own parts...) stated "I want to get married in the temple to my prince charming Reese and have a happy family forever. When you ask her how she is going to get married to Reese when she doesn't know where he lives any more...she simply says "Don't worry mom, Reese will find me!)

A side note: Jane... during the same time period has already had a crush on Matthew (not dad, although he [dad] wishes he were the only object of ALL his girls affection), Jake, Drey, Mason and now Zach. (She's a little fickle!)

Now that you understand the background, I can tell you about the conversation Eliza and I had today. It starts with Eliza coming up to me and saying, "Hey mom, Ms. Dafoe sometimes gives us a choice about what we want to write in our journal about at school. Next time it is my choice I am going to write about ......................... me and Reese -- and we live in a castle. We have a swimming pool and a hot tub. We have a pond that has a purple sea horse drinking water out of it. Reese and I will have four kids. We will have two girls and two boys. Reese will take care of one girl and one boy. I will take care of one girl and one boy." I then ask "Eliza, who will take care of the kids when daddy Reese goes to work?" She says, "Well Reese can't work on Saturday's because Saturday is the day kids play with their dads. And, Reese can't work on Sunday's because we go to church as a family that day." Then she looks at her fingers and starts singing the days of the week song while counting on her fingers..."Sunday, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday....Thursday....that's a good day. Reese can go to work on Thursdays."

Oh to see the world through the eyes of a six-year-old. My 34-year-old eyes see...castle, swimming pool, hot tub and a pond with a purple sea horse....how are they going to afford all of this when Reese only works one day a week :) Oh to be six again!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD

Make a Smilebox scrapbook

ONE YEAR LATER...

How time fly's. One year ago Eliza came home from gymnastics with a sore foot. She wouldn't jump on the trampoline or walk on the balance beam. I told her to go jump in the bath and that I would be in to help get her clean and look at her foot in a moment. I went into the bathroom and sat down on the edge of the bathtub to help her get cleaned. She stood up and that's when I noticed she was covered in bruises. My first thought was "who abused my baby girl?" Trying to keep my emotions intact, I asked Eliza if someone had hurt her. I got up to go call Matthew and noticed that not only did she have bruises everywhere (legs, hips, arms, stomach) she also had these little red dots all over the place (chest, neck, arms, legs) I knew exactly what they were petechiae.

I stood there frozen. All I could think of was Mason. Beautiful Mason was diagnosed a few years ago with Aplastic Anemia a blood disorder that affects the white and red blood cells and the platelets. Could this disease really be happening to us too?

Over the next two weeks we met with our pediatrician who then sent us to the hematologist/oncologist for tests. Eliza was a trooper. She endured MANY blood tests. Finally, we were told that she had Idiopathic Thrombocytopenic Purpura (ITP). This blood disorder is where the white blood cells in the persons body believe the platelets are a virus and fight them off. So although the individual is producing normal platelets they are being killed off by the white blood cells. When we took Eliza in to the hematologist he said that he had never seen a platelet count as low as Eliza's. She only had 950 platelets left in her body. A normal body has between 200,000 and 4oo,ooo platelets.

Usually no treatment is necessary unless an individual starts bleeding and cant stop it. This disease usually resolves itself within 6 months. We were hopeful that we could avoid treatment. Eliza was given lots of rules. She was told that she couldn't ride her bike, jump on the trampoline, do gymnastics, even jump on the couch (which is already a no no!) But any fall or bump would cause her to bleed and she didn't have enough platelets to stop bleeding on her own. a bump on the head could be fatal. A injury to her spleen or internal organs could too also be fatal.

For the next week we treated her as though there was bubble wrap around her. But even through all of our careful measures, her own body could not fight off this disease itself. During the middle of the night in early December she woke up with a bloody nose. Kept pressure on it, we kept ice on it. She bleed from 4 a.m. until we got her admitted to the hospital around 1 p.m. that day. Eliza was amazing. She was such a trooper. She had received a blessing from our home teacher and her dad and it gave her the strength to endure this difficult experience.

A now........................................a whole year later my baby girl is in remission (7 months now). And enjoying everything a little girl loves to do. My house was blissfully peaceful for those few months Eliza was sick, because there was no fighting for risk of injury...but I'll gladly take a few fights here and there to have my baby girl be able to ride a bike, toss a ball and maybe even a little naughty jump on the couch.

TENDER MERCIES

This week we our family experienced some of the Lord's tender mercies. I wanted to share a few of them with you. With all the turmoil that is going on around us, it is a constant reminder that the Lord loves each of us individually and is always looking out for us.

• Matthew's cousin Ray was baptized. The baptism was beautiful. A nice reminder of why we are here on earth.
• Matthew's Uncle Jim performed the baptismal service. A beautiful reminder of selfless sacrifice.
• Matthew's cousin Merrie had a baby. Sweet reminder of how beautiful life really is.
• Our nephew Nate's life was spared. Gentle reminder of how precious the time is that we have here on earth.

A word about each of these tender mercies the Lord has allowed us to experience this week. Matthew cousin Ray is suffering from terminal lung cancer. With all the things he is experiencing right now, he was able to make a commitment with Christ to follow his example by entering the waters of baptism.

Matthew's Uncle Jim who is awaiting a lung transplant and confined to a wheelchair and on oxygen was able to enter the baptismal waters and preform Ray's baptismal service. A selfless sacrifice and example to each of us who were present.

After having three children and adopting another - a beautiful girl - from Kazakhstan, Merrie and Heath were able to bring a baby girl into their great family. After having three myself, I truly see the ability to bring children into this world a tender mercy from God.

And, last but probably the greatest tender mercy this week our little Nate had his life spared. Instead of celebrating Jane's 5th birthday this week, we could have been mourning the loss of our nephew Nate. Early in the week, Nate was out riding his bicycle around the neighborhood. A driver pulling out of his driveway did not see Nate crossing his driveway. The neighbor drove his truck right over Nate. After being rushed by ambulance to the hospital and many test run and much to the amazement of the ER doctors, Nate went home with a few bruises (in the shape of a tire) and a nasty hole in his ankle. As for the bike, we can't say the same - it didn't fair so well.