McKenna's ready to go...

apple picking in her cute apple shirt!!

(If you click on this one to enlarge it you can actually see her first tooth on the bottom. I'm so excited that I finally got a picture of the tooth!!)

A little light reading and a movie night!

It's not what you think....we got our donor packet and DVD yesterday. So Ryan and I spent the evening reading and watching a movie about stem cell and bone marrow donation. Please by praying for Ryan over the next few days as he navigates through this process. He has a huge decision to make. They have asked him to donate stem cells and we thought that would be the best choice because it's not a surgical procedure and it's less invasive. But now that we've educated ourselves a little bit we're not really too excited about him donating stem cells. In fact we really don't want him to do it. We would really prefer it if he could just donate his bone marrow. The main reason we don't want him to donate stem cells is because they would inject Ryan with a drug that is experimental and not approved by the FDA. It has some scary side effects that might complicate some other medical issues Ryan already has, so it's not the best choice for Ryan, but it might be the best choice for the patient. So we've got to weigh all of these things and figure out what to do. He WILL do one or the other, at this moment we're just hoping he can donate bone marrow. We could change our minds as we talk through this with all the different bone marrow representatives. So just PRAY that Ryan will make the best choice for himself and for the patient.

And now a little info. about the patient. They've told us everything that they can tell us. The patient is a 59 year old female with AML Leukemia. We have no idea where she lives. She might not even live in the United States. The National Bone Marrow Donor program is a world wide registry. Now that we know something about her I've found myself thinking about her a lot and sending little prays up to Heaven for her through out the day as I change diapers, fold laundry and pick up toys. For some reason I'm picturing her with kids and grand kids. I'm figuring that she's fighting hard for her life because she wants to see her grandchildren grow up and she doesn't want to leave her children. I guess I'm picturing someone like my own mom and that makes me really excited that Ryan is doing this. And oh how I'm praying that it works! So please pray for her too!

Here she is!

Ryan picked up Amy tonight and brought her over for dinner. Thanks so much for the yummy meal Millicent!! Notice how Amy's leaning on the ledge...still feeling pretty weak. But she did take a shower and put some make-up on just for us, so she is starting to feel a little better. She still can't stand up for more than 5 min. at a time. She's just so weak from loosing so much blood, so it's just going to take some time to regain her strength. She found out today that her co-workers all donated a few hours of sick time to her so she can stay home this week and next week to recover (which is what her doctor told her to do)! I can tell she's much more relaxed now that she doesn't have to worry about the financial aspect of this! God is so faithful in every little detail.

Apple Art

Today we did some apple art in preparation for our upcoming trip to the apple orchard. Our friend Kate came over! Shhh...don't tell Abby. She would be devastated if she knew her b.f. Kate was at our house while she was gone!
We don't really do too many crafts in our house and we're going to have to remedy that because Christian loved it and kept asking to do more crafts all day.
He finally got over his dislike of having paint on his hands (and feet) because Kate went first and thought it was so much fun!
Christian's apple tree!
Another apple tree made with a foot print, two hand prints and some finger print apples. I should have taken a picture of Kate's because it turned out much better!

I didn't come up with any of these ideas myself. Click here to meet a super creative mom who puts me to shame when it comes to crafty kids stuff!

He's the MATCH!! Updated @5:30pm

Oh my word! We just got the call and Ryan is the bone marrow match! I can't even get my mind around it right now! We don't have many details. They're overnighting us some info and a DVD to watch. Lots of consent forms. No question about it...he's going to do it. There is a family somewhere who has been hoping and praying for this moment. That very human and weak side of me immediately thought "oh no, not right now. we can't do this right now." But we'll figure this out. We know that this is bigger than us. This is a God thing for sure!!

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Psalm 139

For you created my inmost being,

you knit me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;

your works are wonderful, I know that full well.

All the days ordained for me were written in your book

before one of them came to be.

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I can't get this verse out of my mind. Did you read that last part? That means that before Ryan was even created God knew that this day would come. He created Ryan with this in mind. Very exciting!

Click HERE to read the story from the beginning!

UPDATE:

I'm feeling a little better now that we have a few more details. You know I love to be organized about things and it was driving me crazy this morning that I couldn't start planning for this medical procedure for Ryan. I want to know exactly when it's going to be, where, how long, who's going to watch the kids, will we have to travel for it, side effects, etc, etc, etc! So here's what I do know: The procedure will take place at a medical facility in Fairfax, VA that specializes in this sort of thing. Ryan will go there this Thursday for a complete physical. When I say complete, I mean complete! It even includes a chest x-ray and EKG! And thankfully we don't pay for any of this! There are two ways that you can be a bone marrow donor and in this case Ryan gets to make a choice of which procedure he wants to do. He can just donate his blood cells or he can donate his bone marrow. Donating blood cells is an outpatient procedure that takes about five hours. They take blood out of one arm, run it through a machine that takes the stem cells out of it and then the blood is put back in the other arm. This is probably the procedure Ryan will choose to have. It's less invasive than the alternative. Donating bone marrow is a surgical procedure where you're put to sleep and a small hole is drilled into your hip bone to retrieve the marrow down inside your bone. This involves an overnight hospital stay, a longer recovery, and greater risk for complications. Both of these procedures will involve lots of medical visits before hand and afterward and both will involve prep work to be started ASAP. They would like Ryan to donate sometime during the first week of November. We don't know anything about the patient yet, but hopefully we'll be able to find out a little something about them sometime soon. So that's the latest. I'm going to apologize ahead of time...you're probably going to be hearing a lot about this over the next couple of weeks! Sorry, but it's just where we are right now!

Firetrucks, Pumpkins and Power Wheels!

Our Saturday!

Saturday morning was the open house at our local fire station. Christian was so excited about going. He had his fireman boots on for over an hour before it was time to go! He couldn't stop talking about going for a ride on a fire engine, seeing the firemen, etc.

And then we got there and it all changed. In typical three year old fashion, he decided he did not want to ride on a fire engine, he did not want to eat cotton candy, he did not want to talk to the firemen, he did not want a fire truck coloring book, he did not like any of it! Grrr...

This is Christian refusing to even check out the helicopter.

I think there were just too many wild kids there and everyone kept talking to Christian (since he was basically the only kid dressed up) telling him what a great fireman outfit he had. I think the whole thing was just a bit overwhelming, which is why I'm really glad we did it. He needs to learn to handle those situations. And despite his bad mood we stayed for quite awhile and even enjoyed a yummy lunch of hot dogs, chips and cup cakes. Fire fighters do know how to throw a party!

By the time we were ready to leave Christian was starting to enjoy himself. Although by that time there had been an emergency and most of the fire fighters had to go out on a call and the fire truck rides stopped.

It was annoying, but I'm still glad we did it.

Next we headed to our most favorite fall spot...Reynold's Farm!! We never even made it to the pumpkin patch. We were too busy enjoying everything else.



We go to Reynold's Farm multiple times during the fall and we could seriously stay there all day. And Christian loved it! Much more his style...lots of running, exploring, sand to play in, hay bales to jump off of, a huge slide, goats and sheep to feed, swings, ladders, tunnels, corn mazes, wagons, pumpkins, apple cider, so so fun!

We ended the day by charging up the Power Wheels jeep. It's been about 9 months since this toy has gotten any use mainly because we can't find the power cord to charge the battery. So we borrowed one from our neighbor who just got a Power Wheels four wheeler and Christian had so much fun. He actually knows how to steer it now, which means we can sit and watch him drive around instead pulling him out of whatever tree or bush he ends up in.

Family

My new favorite picture! (I'm very sad that McKenna wasn't in it).

We've had a great family weekend.

The latest on Amy

Considering the number of emails, phone calls and texts that I've been getting, I thought I would give you all a quick update on Amy. She's feeling pretty rotten! She was running a fever this morning, which for right now is just something to keep an eye on. She's been spending almost all of her time sleeping. Getting around is extremely slow and painful for her and someone needs to be right with her because she's very light headed and shaky! She lost a lot of blood (so much that they considered giving her a transfusion) so all of this is to be expected while her body begins to build back up it's supply. Keep praying for her. It's going to be a while before she's feeling good again.

It's been a blessing that Amy's kids are with their dad, although I must say it's rather strange. Three different times today I had to remind myself that I didn't have to get Emma off the bus. Christian seems a little lost without his "friends" but it's good for him to have a break too! I actually went out to lunch with Ryan today which never, ever happens. It was so nice to be able to sit and talk. I don't think we've had a real conversation in two weeks. Christian was with my mom and I had to take McKenna to the doctor (just to check her ear that was infected last week...don't worry nothing's wrong with her) and Ryan had time to meet us for lunch. May I just say that I love that man!! I set up appointments today for all five kids to get flu shots! Enough is enough, I have already decided we absolutely won't be getting the flu this year! So that's the latest!

I hope everyone has a great weekend. Fall has arrived here in Pa! I love, love, love summer, but I'm excited about all of our fall traditions and we're kicking it off this weekend with some great family time, so stay tuned!

Fall is Here!

Getting back to normal

I should start by telling you that Amy is home now! She's tired and sore, but doing great. My mom is with her!

We headed back to the duck pond today. This time Nathan DID NOT fall in!
What you can't see is that McKenna was wearing her very first pair of jeans today! So cute!
Our friend, Caedmon, checking out a log cabin!
Abby and the boys! It was so funny - there must have been thousands of sticks around and Nate kept stealing Abby and Christian's sticks. For some reason their sticks were much better than the ones laying around in the woods. Seriously, who would have thought we'd be fighting over sticks!

And this is how they spent their time; digging with sticks, picking up logs, getting grass stains on pants and lots of exploring.
I love this picture of Abby running down the trail! She's always ahead of the pack!

It was a beautiful crisp morning! Fall is definitely here!

GOOD night!

Things are peaceful right now! Amy is still in the hospital. Emma, Christian and McKenna are sound asleep at my house. Grandmom has Abby and Nate over at Amy's house! Ryan is home and will handle getting Em to school in the morning! We're expecting Amy to be discharged sometime tomorrow. She pretty drugged up right now, so she's still feeling good.

For those of you who don't know, Emma, Abby and Nate's dad just moved to Pennsylvania a week ago. He lives about an hour and a half away. The timing couldn't be better! He's going to pick up the Marshall kids tomorrow and he'll have them until Sunday, so that gives us all time to just take care of Amy.

Emma told me tonight that she thought I had pink eye! I just laughed and told her that my eyes just look like that because I need some sleep! So that's it for now - I'm heading to bed!

Thanks for checking in over and over today! My mind is way too sleepy to think of the right words to tell you how much it means to have friends who care! But thank you!

Good Night!

Whew!

It's me again!! I'm home right now with Christian, McKenna and Emma. I've gotta go get the other two kiddos from daycare in an hour, but I've got an hour! My mom is here and I literally could not do this without her. We decided to divide and conquer and she is going to take care of Amy and I'm going to take care of the kids (I don't know if that's divided equally, but it'll work).

To make a long story short; Amy had an ovarian cyst that must have been quite large. It ruptured and kind-of wrapped itself around her ovary causing intense internal bleeding. The surgeon removed the ovary and fallopian tube and they expect her to make a full recovery. This is a quote from her surgeon; "She is one strong girl. I removed over a liter of blood that had pooled in her abdomen. I can't believe that she wasn't screaming and writhing in pain." Well, I won't go into all the details but I could hear her as I walked down the hall of the ER to get to her room. They were examining her and I have never seen her in so much pain. She was in surgery within an hour. The surgery itself took over an hour. She's not supposed to go back to work for two weeks, so that is going to complicate things quite a bit for all of us.

So it's been a long day. I'm frustrated that we're going through yet another trial. I'm so tired. BUT I have definitely found that you can see God's hand so much more clearly when you're in the middle of a storm. It makes me think of Peter on a boat in the middle of the storm. Peter was terrified until he saw Jesus! I can see Jesus. I really can. He's in all the tiny details of this!Ryan just got on a flight home. He had to run to catch it (and his bags probably aren't with him) but he's coming home. Thank you God. I had two juice boxes this morning for Abby and Nate's lunches and I never buy juice boxes, but I just happen to have them. Thank you God. My dear friend Heidi just happen to check my blog first thing this morning. She called me by 7:30am to say that she would take Christian for the day. Thank you God! Sarah prayed with me over the phone while I sat alone in the surgical waiting room waiting for word of Amy and she updated my blog. Thank you God! Sweet little McKenna is finally getting her nap! Amy's boss sat with her in the ER for a long time until I was able to be with her! And I haven't even listened to all my phone messages from precious people who love us! The list goes on and on! God is Good!

I'll keep you posted!!

Amy's Out of Surgery

Okay, Amy is out of surgery and her mom has arrived! Judy is on her way to pick up Christian and then head home. The Dr said that Amy had an ovarian cyst that had ruptured so they went ahead and removed the ovary because if they didn't it would have dies and become infected. Here is the amazing thing.... they removed over a liter of blood from her abdomen, the Dr said she couldn't be live she was conscious when she saw how much blood had already spilled into her abdomen. It is truly the hand of God on Amy's life that she went to the hospital when she did and had the surgery. She might be home later but they aren't sure. She is also anemic, gee I wonder why, she lost a lot of blood! They will watch her and see if she needs to stay overnight tonight. Judy will be caring for all the children and Ryan is on his way home, he left a day early to get back and be there for Judy! Judy and Amy's Mom will care for Amy until she is feeling better. I am sure Judy will be back to blogging as soon as she gets everyone and everything settled at home!
Why don't you leave her a comment, a bible verse for her to draw strength form would be wonderful if you could. She needs the encouragement right now and I so wish I could get in the car and be there to give her break!

UPDATE on AMY

Hi, this is Sarah, Judy and Amy's childhood friend. Judy just called and asked me to update you all on Amy. She is in emergency surgery right now to have her right ovary and tube removed. The CT showed her ovary to be enlarged to 12cm in size! That is rather large and there was a chance it would rupture and cause internal bleeding. They won't know why it is that large until they get inside Amy and can look. PLEASE PRAY! Pray for the Dr's and nurses to have steady hands and wisdom, pray for Amy and pray for whatever it is that is causing this to happen in her body. Also, pray for the children. Emma is at school, Nate and Abby are at daycare, Christian is with a friend and Judy has McKenna with her at the hospital... and yes, Grandmom is on her way right now. As. soon as I hear from Judy again I will let you all know what is happening... just pray until you hear something form us.
Judy, is truly amazing... she is full of grace and wisdom beyond her years. I know her well enough to know that she is overwhelmed but you wouldn't have know it if you were just speaking with er. She has had an incredible amount on her plate lately and by God's amazing grace has persevered. Please pray for her to have all the strength she needs to get through this day and the next few without Ryan home.

MORE CRISIS

I can't sleep, so I'm going to blog!

It's never good when your doorbell rings over and over at 2am! That's what happened last night. Ryan's not home, so this freaked me out just a bit. I found Amy's neighbor standing on my porch. Amy was in an ambulance on the way to the hospital and I needed to take care of her kids. Amy had tried to call me, but all my phones were downstairs (Does anyone else have this problem? I never have a phone where I need it! Maybe I need to get a corded phone for my bedroom.) Amy was having severe abdominal pains and she thought she was going to pass out. It's been about five hours now and Amy is currently still at the hospital and is waiting for her cat-scan. They're thinking that her gall bladder might have to be removed.

Right now my mind is full of trying to figure out the plan. Get Emma to school because she has a field trip today. But I've gotta get clothes from her house first because I only have summer clothes for her here. Pack lunches for Abby and Nate and drop them off at daycare. Find someone to watch Christian (who wet the bed in the middle of the night for only the second time ever and now he's going to be grouchy because he didn't get enough sleep). Take McKenna and head to the hospital to be with Amy who's been by herself all night. Hmmm...somehow I've gotta get a shower too. I guess it's time to stop blogging and get moving.

Please pray for Amy. This was scary for her. She needs healing and she really can't afford to be missing work, so that's another huge concern for her. Thankfully we serve an awesome God who cares about the little details in life and this is just another opportunity for Him to show us how faithful and good he is! Oh I'm so thankful for friends who will pray and for a God who hears!

Just a note: Please don't call Amy's cell phone to try to talk to her. She has it on so I can get in touch with her, but she really can't be taking calls right now! Don't worry!!! I'll keep everyone updated!!