Longer version...
Hannah
Hannah enjoyed her 10th birthday celebration. Can't believe this girl is 10!!! She had some friends from her girl scout troop come spend the night and they stayed up all night and had a blast.
Hannah also had the tube put in her left ear mid-September. She did great with that. The ear drops afterwards were not so fun, but she got through them and has been fine since. I'm not convinced it has helped her hearing a lot yet. Maybe? So hard to tell sometimes. We'll go back to have it checked in a few weeks.
Sadie
Well let's see. The fun stuff first. Sadie is LOVING 2nd grade. She loves her teachers, her school, and her friends. She's been out of anything active since her surgery August 2nd (including dance, PE, recess). So that's been her only "bummer", but she's handled it well. She did become a brownie Girl Scout, something she's been wanting to do. Her leaders and troop all seem super sweet. So far, they've had their bridging ceremony and 1 meeting. I just brought her home from the meeting and she told me all about it and said "I love love love my troop!". I think it will be a really good experience for her.
She continues to do amazingly well with her fixator. With the exception of 1 bad day last week, she's rarely mentioned it hurting or causing any pain. She just goes on with her happy self. We're cleaning the pin sites twice daily and turning it once daily. But we haven't had to go to Atlanta quite as much this past few weeks. We've started getting local xrays and e-mailing them to her surgeon. He's really good about responding and telling me what adjustments to make. The latest is that I have about 3 more days of turning to do and then we should be done. Then I'll schedule her next surgery to remove the fixator and centralize her wrist.
Meanwhile, Sadie now has a new nepherologist. The short version of the story is the previous dr. was good. I believe the information he gave me was accurate and that he was caring for Sadie well. But for whatever reason, I wasn't thrilled with communication, especially if I had a question or needed something outside of our yearly visits. And I just sensed a nudging to look elsewhere. So when I needed a letter from him for upcoming surgery and it was proving challenging to get, I looked elsewhere. Sadie had her first visit with the new neph last week and it went great! I left with a better understanding of Sadie's kidneys (which are working great by the way), the name of her diagnosis which will be helpful for communicating with her other doctors (and which wasn't new, but I just never knew exactly what it was called), and a really good feeling. I loved the new doctor and his staff. And less than 24 hours after our visit, I had the letter I needed for Sadie's upcoming surgery in my hands. Sadie left with a lollipop from the receptionist and a chocolate chip cookie from another patient's family. So she came out feeling good about it too. And yes, this picture below is how she made her grand entrance into the new office. :)
And the BIG news for Sadie is her 8th birthday is coming next weekend. She has a really fun party planned with a few friends. She's having a "Super Science Party". Messy experiments, lab coats, and a chocolate fountain are in the plans. Check back soon for pictures / update. :)
Prison
I had the wonderful opportunity last month to serve in a women's prison for Kairos. Those who know me know I've been involved in Kairos ministry for quite some time. It's an incredible ministry and God amazes me every single time. There are certain moments that get to me each time..the presentation of our paper prayer chain, where each link represents someone praying for the women, a very powerful Saturday evening "Forgiveness Service", and more. But this time the moment that touched my heart the most was a very simple, easy-to-miss one. We had been at the prison for 2.5 days (starting Thursday afternoon). And the team was singing "When the Saints Go Marching In" on Sunday morning, our last day. While we were singing, the 36 participants were coming into the prison chapel to join us for the day. They were singing, marching, dancing, and laughing. It was a very upbeat moment. And everyone of them walked, danced, or marched by me as we sang to them and the look on their faces was priceless. They were changed ladies, touched by the grace of God. They were most definitely not the same people that had walked into that same chapel on Thursday. And we were also not the same people that had walked in there as well. It was just a beautiful moment of seeing God's grace in action. If you read this and smiled (or even if you didn't), will you please take a moment to stop and pray for them? For we know that they were changed, but their environment was not. And they have the challenge of trying to live this new life out in the midst of a difficult, dark, and bitter environment surrounding them. Please pray that they will lean on Christ and seek His face always. I can't wait to go back!!!
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