Homework :)

Rachel's version of homework - look through a doll magazine....

Gabie's version of homework - make sure the toothfairy comes!Micaiah's version of homework - being super cute :)
Eliya's version of homework - the real deal!
At school Micaiah is learning all kinds of new things - although she still is not talking (really at all). The early childhood mom in me is of course worried about this, but the early childhood teacher in me is saying 'don't worry she will when she is ready'. Rachel loves school and is learning all kinds of new things. She even thinks it's fun that her mom is her Spanish teacher :)
Gabie is learning how to properly write things (upper and lower case and positions, etc.) as well as early math concepts and just the general going to school all day thing. Eliya is quickly becoming a fantastic reader. She reads stories everyday - to herself, to her sisters and sometimes to mom and dad, although she still would rather we read to her, especially at bedtime.

New Ideas

Dr. Shephard did not clear Mark yet. He wants to see him post-op 6 months (in December) for an MRI and final check-up before he is cleared. Otherwise the appointment with the neurosurgeon went great, no concerns and most restrictions lifted.

Dr. Martin (neurologist) has a lot of concerns about why certain aspects of Mark's health haven't/aren't improving - specifically the headache, the processing skills and the memory. So he wants to do an MRI right away to take another look at the tumor and try to determine how much of a roll it is playing in these things. It's still not sounding like they want to do much with it even if they do determine that it is the culprit because of the difficulty in getting to it, but we will wait and see on that.

In the meantime we have also been exploring other options - including different brain therapy programs and things like bio-feedback. It's very difficult for us to determine if these programs could/would help Mark because his case is once again so unique. They just don't have a lot of patients that have chiari malformations with spontanious intracranial hypertention and a brain tumor (imagine that!). So the research about which one(s) would be helpful if any is hard to interpret. We are prayerfully considering one option that is available to us here in Huntsville. It would specifically help him to 're-wire' his brain due to the amazing potential that our brains have. I'm so thankful to have gotten my master's degree so recently that actually had entire classes on a lot of the information that this kind of program has, and we are very optamistic about it. It would require a large time committment as well as financial, so we ask for your prayers as we continue to explore this option.

Thanks for checking in on us and for the on-going prayers!

I Hate Stomach Bugs

The minute I hear that there is a stomach bug going around school I flinch and think and hope and pray that somehow it will avoid coming to our house, but with 5 out of 6 of us at school in 5 different classrooms what are the chances??? I actually heard about it last week on Friday (the 2nd). It hit Micaiah in the middle of the night Monday night, so no school for her on Tuesday. By Thursday the other 4 of us had all been 'bit' by the bug. At least it was short-lived! We are all healthy once again and ready for a full week of school (I hope!).

As for the 6th one of us, who isn't at school, we are very optamistic that we have found some help! There is a program that specifically helps people that are either born with brain damage or functioning issues, or helps children with learning difficulties or helps people who have had strokes and things. Basically the program is designed for people who need to rewire their brains due to various factors. Mark did the preliminary testing with them and we meet with them on Tuesday this week to get the results as to whether or not they think their program can help Mark. We are specifically looking for help with memory loss and processing speed. The program is a year long committment, but the great thing is that there is a center here in town. We are so hopeful that this can be the answer to the better but not better problem. Obviously we are still concerned about the tumor, but this would allow his brain to work around it and still function at his normal level - or at least that is the hope. Please pray that we have wisdom to know whether this is the right program for Mark, and if it is that it is successful for him. In addition to this he should be getting cleared from the surgery (neurosurgeon) tomorrow and also sees Dr. Martin (neurologist) to go over any other game-plans there might be in the wings.

It might sound like a small thing, but this is the most hope we've felt in a long time. Hope is a powerful thing. Praise God that we still have hope! :)

A Room of My Own

Ever since we moved in to this house Eliya has been asking to have her own room again (as she did in Wisconsin). But this is a 3 bedroom house so that really isn't possible. But we did finally agree to the next best thing and let Eliya and Gabie have one room to themselves and Rachel and Micaiah share the other. As you can see R & M's room is usually quite bit messier, but they are all happy and enjoying a little more space 'to themselves'.

Experimenting

After the first day of school pictures were such a mess I took some time to play with the camera and figure out some settings. I think I finally figured out what was wrong that day and hopefully will be able to be more successful at the picture thing once again. I experimented on Caiah and these were some of the cute pictures as I was playing.