Parker is 7!!!

Parker is 7 today!!!

I don't know how this has happened, but it has ;)  

He is the sweetest, most compassionate little boy I know.  He has such a creative mind and is quite the problem solver.  He has graciously led the way as I learn the ropes of being a mom.  He's a helper, a reminder, a creator, and a jokester.  He's grown up way too fast, but it is an absolute joy to watch him on his journey.  Parker and his daddy have incredible conversations about God and he has such a passion to seek and follow Him.  He has seen a lot and been through a lot for his age, but knowing what God has planned for him, exceeds anything we can imagine, just means we get a front row seat to all the greatness to come!

Since we have lokomat for Tessa tonight, we had an early birthday dinner for Parker last night!  

His favorite place in Yukon is the place with the fire ;)  Tokyo Moon

I love this sweet boy!!

After dinner we headed home to make Blueberry muffins for Parker's class!

He's not a cupcake fan...and was very specific about his bday snack request ;)

 

We set the biggest one aside for a little morning celebration!

So thankful for this litle boy! Love him like crazy!!

~Whitney

Other Weekend Updates

Saturday afternoon was beautiful!  

It was the perfect time to get outside and do a little power chair driving/scooter riding

Tessa had fun trying to chase Daddy and Parker on their scooters :)

I think she was wishing for a sun hat or some sunglasses ;)

She keeps me movin!!

We opened up some happy mail from Tessa's IRun4 runner, Amanda!

She sent Tessa her two medals from her last two half marathons

Just love these smiles!!

Shiny medals are very intriguing!

Amanda was SO SWEET to remember Parker's birthday this week!

He'll be 7 on Wednesday and she got him an anwesome Lego shirt and new Lego set!

These three were attempting a Tessa-Sandwich on Saturday evening

L.O.V.E

And today I walked in front of a mirror while we were out shopping and was like "whoa!"

Baby Weston is getting bigger and bigger!

Just a couple of months to go!

Darin was sneaky and took this picture of me and little miss at church during connection class.

She was having a bit of a rough morning and needed some mommy-snuggles.

This is what we call 'squished prego belly'...

Little miss isn't so tiny anymore, but her snuggles are just as delightful ;)

~Whitney

Cub Scouts' Pinewood Derby

Saturday morning was our first experience with a Cub Scouts' Pinewood Derby!

It was super fun to watch Parker and Darin work on his car together throughout the last few weeks.  I'm so thankful they have these special times together.  Darin is amazingly patient and Parker is lots of fun to learn new things with!

Proud of his car! 

You could tell the older kids put a lot of extra creativity into their cars...they've learned a thing or two over the years ;)

Parker's is on the back row by the blue arrow:

This was Parker's first race...he was in the second lane

He got 1st place on this one!!

Tessa was super excited to have a friend there too!

Miss Ashley was there supporting her big brother and came over a few times to hang out with Tessa

Sweet friends.  

It doesn't take words, just being there

A couple of cuties :)

~Whitney

I Asked the Question...

Last night, for me, everything came crashing down.  Tessa is doing better and we are thrilled...we are seeing improvements with each passing day.  And maybe that's why I asked the question...now that she is improving, maybe my mind has a little more room to think/question.

The question?
......

What if she hadn't been right there???  The emotion and fear was overwhelming.  I was re-living the moments from Friday night during the seizure, that she wasn't taking a breath, when she should have taken a breath.

What if we hadn't laid her down in her nap nanny right there in the kitchen with us Friday night to fall asleep? What if we had put her in her room, in her own bed, to sleep that night?  The seizure was silent.  I only noticed something because I was sitting right there and saw her eyes pop open after she had been asleep a good 30+ minutes.  We only reacted because she was silently gagging and it seemed as if maybe she was trying to cough or maybe choking.

As I was on the phone with the dispatcher that night, he had me kneel down by her and say "now" every time she took a breath in.  I started and went consistently for a bit....and then a break....I don't know how long the break was, obviously nothing serious in the whole scheme of things...but the way it felt in the moment was long enough to think...to question...if she was going to take another one??

What if she hadn't taken another breath?  What if we had put her in her room that night and never knew what was happening?  What if???

How do you experience something like that and not experience fear?  How do you not experience moments of complete despair imagining a different outcome if we hadn't been right there?  It's a lot. It had me pleading with time to stop and stand still while I tried to process it all.  I told Darin through my tears last night that I know we are not in control.  God has made that so powerfully clear to us, time and time again, and we are so thankful that we're not.  But the fear...the emotional toll an experience like that can take on your heart and soul...it can feel impossible to overcome.

It can feel impossible and then I am reminded by the One that loves us and created us...that the plans He has for us are good.

Jeremiah 29:11 New International Version (NIV)

11 For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.

Isaiah 55:9-11 New International Version (NIV)

9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,

    so are my ways higher than your ways

    and my thoughts than your thoughts.

10 As the rain and the snow

    come down from heaven,

and do not return to it

    without watering the earth

and making it bud and flourish,

    so that it yields seed for the sower and bread for the eater,

11 so is my word that goes out from my mouth:

    It will not return to me empty,

but will accomplish what I desire

    and achieve the purpose for which I sent it.     

From Jesus Calling yesterday:

Approach this day with awareness of who is boss.  As you make plans for the day, remember that it is I who orchestrate the events of your life.  On days when things go smoothly, according to your plans, you may be unaware of My sovereign Presence.  On days when your plans are thwarted, be on the lookout for Me!  I may be doing something important in your life, something quite different from what you expected.  It is essential at such times to stay in communication with Me, accepting My way as better than yours.  Don't try to figure out what is happening.  Simply trust Me and thank Me in advance for the good that will come out of it all.  I know the plans I have for you, and they are good.

The exhaustion from the last week and a half makes it very challenging to process anything...especially the intense emotions and the fear.  But what I noticed in scripture last night was that there was nothing but peace and clarity in God's word.  He will accomplish what He desires and His desires for us are good.  His plans include hope and a future.  

The clarity in that message wins the war over fear.  I am human, so the fear will exist...but the critical point is choosing to adjust my perspective so that my thoughts and emotions are ruled by these very promises in God's word.

~Whitney

Sunshine and Smiles!

Darin and the kids had the day off yesterday and Tessa had a really good day!

After Friday, Saturday and Sunday were so rough, it was incredible to see these precious smiles on our Monday evening walk!

I think Tessa really enjoyed the fresh air and the beautiful evening and I loved her precious and entertaining smiles and giggles while we walked!

Recovery can be such a slow process and there wasn't a minute of this that I took for granted.

Tessa's smiles help me navigate how she is feeling...it was a gift after such a very long weekend!

~Whitney

R&R

Yesterday and today we rested.

We were thankful for Tessa's appetite for Biscuits and Gravy!

And we rested some more.

 ~Whitney

Grand Mal #3

These pictures were taken around 9:00 pm Friday evening...

 little miss adorable!

at 10:30 things suddenly changed and by 11:15, this was my view. 

Tessa had a really rough week last week.  Last Sunday she experienced about an hour+ of throwing up.  We kept her home from school on Monday and she had a good day.  We chalked it up to a less-than-24 hour bug of some sort.  

She went to school on Tuesday, and then by Tuesday evening she was dealing with lots of drainage and coughing.  With limited trunk and neck control, these types of experiences take an incredible toll on her little body.  Her nights and mornings were the worst.  Darin and I spent our nights doing everything we could to try and keep her comfortable...not an easy task.  By the afternoons, she would have perked up after clearing most of the mucus out, but then it would start all over again every night when it came time to sleep.  It was of course exhausting, but also devastating to be so limited in the ways we could help her.  

Darin kept Tessa home on Friday in hopes to give her an extra day to her long weekend to help her get to feeling better.  She had a really good day on Friday.  She had an afternoon mapping appointment at Hearts for Hearing that went well and overall, did great that day.  

We had a later-than-usual evening on Friday but as you can tell from the pictures above, she was all smiles and giggles even up until 9:00 p.m. at night.  Shortly after those pictures were taken, she had all of her nightly meds and was fast asleep in her nap nanny.  

Then around 10:30 we noticed something was off.  She had opened her eyes and appeared to be needing to cough or like she was choking or something.  Then she started spitting bubbles out of her mouth.  It didn't take long for Darin and I to realize that she was having a very intense seizure.  Once Darin had picked her up and was patting her back, we could see in her eyes that she was not responsive at that point.  We immediately took her into our room and laid her on her side on our bed.  By 10:34 we were administering her first dose of Diastat.  We gave it the two minutes that we give it to work, and as she continued to struggle to breath, we immediately administered the second dose.  

By 10:36 I was on the phone with 911.  Beginning to end, we think the seizure lasted between 15 and 20 mintues.

The ambulance arrived promptly and Tessa was slowly beginning to breath more normally.  She was still very out of it...not only because of the seizure, but now also due to the amount of medicine we had just administered.  Our protocol to call 911 is due to the risk of respiratory failure after administering that much anti-seizure rescue medicine.  It's not that we don't think the seizure will stop after two doses, so far it always has, but it's because we need medical professionals involved with monitoring her vitals after having to introduce that much medicine to her system.  We also have no idea what things would look like if the seizure didn't stop after the two doses, or if for some reason she began seizing again even after the max dose of Diastat.

Although this is something we could never anticipate, we weren't completely shocked by the grand mal.  It was a little surprising considering how good of a day Tessa had on Friday, but overall, she had been through so much in a week....exhaustion was an understatement.  Her little body was spent and in such a weakened state.  

Tessa's vitals remained stable.  She was breathing well on her own.  While we were at the hospital they ran a bunch of different tests to help determine if there were any underlying issues/illnesses that could have contributed to the onset of the grand mal.

They did a blood draw to check her organ function and blood cultures.  They checked for a UTI, they swabbed for the flu, and did chest xrays to check for pneumonia.  Everything came back looking okay, except that the lung xrays did show signs of viral bronchitis.  This made perfect sense after the week she had, but we were so thankful that no bacterial infections had set in and we weren't dealing with pneumonia.

It was a very long night.  The ER doctor consulted with Tessa's neurologist and after all of the testing they ended up administering Keppra in her IV and gave us instructions to increase her daily dose of Keppra from 5 mLs twice a day to 6.5 mLs twice a day.  We were on our way home by 4:30 a.m.

Saturday and Sunday we rested.  Tessa was still dealing with the viral bronchitis and we were still doing everything we could to keep her comfortable.  

~Whitney