our kiddos

both are asleep as i type this. 

isaac  is growing up right before my eyes!  he was wearing jeans and a shirt today that made him look like such a little boy!  his hair is out of control...in a cute way.  we're letting it grow, but there are too many moments when the poor kid just has hair hanging in his face.  as soon as we get a pair of hair-cutting scissors, i'm going to try my hand at trimming it!  he runs (yes, i said "runs") around the house in his walker, grabbing everything he can get his hands on.  he opens drawers, pulls my salad bowl and metal bowls off the island, and yesterday he even unplugged elise's nebulizer while she was using it and started chewing on the wire.  (you're laughing a pity laugh right now...and thinking, "oh they're in for it"...i know!)  he's so sweet and loves to snuggle.  what a gem he is!  tonight he started acting funny though...cranky, tired, and he only wanted to rest on my chest for quite a while.  this is so unlike his normal, high energy, smiley self.  we thought he had a low grade fever, though he seemed to be doing better before bed.   hopefully he'll get the good night's sleep he needs.

elise has been sleeping well the past few days, which is a blessing i don't take for granted!  we are "managing her symptoms well" right now...meaning, she doesn't cough much during the day, is eating wonderfully again, is getting her color back, and can sleep!  praise God!  the steroid she's on will be done in a day or two, and the real test will be three to four days after that...will her symptoms return?  if not then, will they return when we start to wean her off the nebulizer again?  only God knows.  justin was just telling me yesterday, how much he loves our sweet little girl.  it's so heartwarming to hear a daddy talk about his girl that way.  it hits my heart in a very special way.  i look at her baby pictures and sometimes can't believe that's the same little girl i talk with everyday.  and oh, does she talk!  yesterday we were talking in the car about who in our family likes chocolate and i had just said how much i love chocolate.  she thought and then said, "and how about you, Daddy?  do you love chocolate too?"  you should see her care for her brother...she's fabulous at bringing him toys (especially when he has one of hers and she wants to trade to get it back)...she tells me when he has boogers i need to wipe, or when he's spit up, and she can make him smile like no one else.  they love each other and i just love watching their relationship blossom.

so, in these days of being home, spending time together as a family, and waiting on the Lord...we continue to trust Him, trying to hold on to faith and not doubt.  even if elise's symptoms reappear, His hand is holding us and guiding us.  we are not alone in this.  even simply reading testimonials of other people's stories has been encouraging to me lately of this truth.

please keep praying for our little girl.  pray for healing.  pray for our faith to stay strong and not give way to fear.  pray for wisdom as we seek more answers through our pediatrician and other specialists if need be.  pray that God brings Himself glory through these trials.  and pray that we would simply enjoy this special season together.

update

for those who have not heard, we have been battling sickness the past few weeks.  it started with elise coming down with bronchitis, which then turned out to be pneumonia!  she went through a couple chest xrays, a lot of nebulizer breathing treatments, and some antibiotics and was doing well...for a few days.  then last tuesday (the day she was going for her final chest xray to be sure the pneumonia was gone...) she started up again with coughing and wheezing...by 6am the next morning, we were in the ER because she was laboring to breathe.  within 5 minutes of hearing her breathe, they had us in and on a nebulizer again.  her oxygen level (which is supposed to be 100%) was only 87% when we first got in.  after that, they struggled to stabalize her, because everytime she'd take the breathing mask off, her O2 levels would drop before our eyes.  they admitted us and we spent the night there. 

all in all, i calculated that she was on the nebulizer for 9 hours that day!  what a trooper she was!  finally, she was able to maintain her O2 levels by herself with neb treatments every four hours.  we were discharged with more neb meds and another liquid steriod to help keep her airways open.  over the past few days of being home, she has slowly regained her appetite, energy levels, sleep, and normal spunk.  her last breathing treatment was at 7 last night.  and after a great visit to the dr today, we're hoping she'll only need it right before bed and in a few days maybe not at all.  as far as anyone can tell, the pneumonia is gone and this was just a virus that hit her hard and brought out the wheezing and breathing difficulties.  hopefully, this does not mean that she is a "respiratory kid" and prone to these asthmatic-like struggles, but only time will tell.  i couldn't resist taking this picture of her getting tonight's breathing treatment and her baby using her "nebulizer" too.  (that's the mask we got from the hopsital...she will not use it though...too many memories i guess)

sitting down and writing what you're thankful for, is one of those things i don't do enough...but when i do, it does so much for my perspective, my outlook and my heart.  through this experience, i can say, i am grateful for quite a bit.  so here we go...
*even though she labored to breathe, she never stopped breathing
*justin was home for it all, so i was not alone
*we had family to take care of isaac and bring him to the hospital every 4 hours to nurse!
*we have friends who called and visited (and even made cookies and brought food for us!)
*both kids did as well as could be expected throughout the entire experience
*isaac had just started sleeping through the night (whew!)
*the treatments actually worked
*the hospital was super close to our house
*we were able to celebrate Christmas before it all happened
*the ER was empty when we got there
*we had fantastic doctors and nurses the entire time
*they had TV's in every room so we could watch distracting shows and movies to help pass the time
*she was content (for much longer than most kids i would think) to have wires galore connected to her
*that they even have those wires and machines to monitor her heart rate, O2 levels, etc.
*for medicines like albuterol that instantly open her airways (what did people do centuries ago when something like this happened?...)
*nurses who really care and take time to explain things, even when i asked the same question two or three times
*great pediatricians to follow up with
*my daughter's sweetness, enthusiasm...i just love watching her grow and seeing who God has made her to be...even through trials like this

so, when life circumstances get hard...may i be reminded to look back and see how faithful God has been and all that i have to be thankful for...and trust that He will once again, carry us through...if He takes care of the lilies of the field and the sparrows...how much more will He take care of us.

moon cake

our girl is 2!!

let the celebrations continue...we celebrated elise's 2nd birthday the day after christmas (her actual birthday)...and amidst the craziness, fun, food, laughter, presents, family, and moon cake (yes, she wanted her cake to look like the moon...she loves the moon)...our little girl has grown a little bit older, right before our eyes. i just said to justin this morning, "she looks older to me today..." and he agreed.

i am thankful for so much in our girl...

*her belly laugh

*her smile

*having nonstop conversations with her

*her kindness

*her love for her Bible

*how she reminds us to pray sometimes at dinner

*watching her play make believe

*going to the grocery store with her in strawberry sunglasses and a pair of wings

*cooking with her

*watching her wrestle and laugh with her daddy

*reading books with her in my lap

*how observant she is

*her endless questions

*her love to write, draw and paint

*seeing her light up when she sees her cousins

*getting kisses and "lisey squeezes" from her

*and so much more...

happy birthday sweetheart!

christmas joy

what a day we had! early morning with oma, papa, uncle robert, aunt laura and nora...brunch with mimi, grampy, aunt mare, and uncle mike...then dinner with oma, papa, all the aunts, uncles, cousins and more! whew! what fun we had...what sleep we lost...and in the midst of it all, trying to keep sight of the reason we were celebrating. Jesus. He was born as a baby, lived as a perfect man, and died in my place to pay my debt. we sang this in church yesterday, and it remains my favorite chorus as well as a reminder of Who we celebrate...

oh praise the One, who paid my debt, and raised this life up from the dead

isaac just barely fit into these special pj's. they were his daddy's when he was a baby...but his daddy wasn't busting out of them quite like izie was...either way, he had no problem figuring out how to open presents...


lisey and her bike...it was free...and it was a hit!

not to mention that he had no problem trying to steal a ride on his sister's big gift...

the eve of christmas

we spent christmas eve with my family, making what i hope may become a fun christmas tradition. we went for lisey's first train ride into the city. we saw the light show, a dickens village, a christmas village of vendors, and then had lunch. it was fun doing it all together and seeing elise's wide-eyed interest at the city and all its sights. isaac was not quite so interested...

back at mimi and grampy's for traditional russian shrimp...

i am grateful that we had the opportunity to spend this special day with my family. those traditions mean so much to me...as well as creating new ones...spending such fun and special time with family is irreplaceable. i'm so grateful for it.

the nor'easter of '09

i love the drama of that title...here's what we were up to while being snowed in for the weekend (our 5 year anniversary)...

december thus far...

well, i finally have some time to write (amidst, baking cookies)...here are justin and isaac warming up by the wood burning stove...aka: our heat source. oh, how we love that thing! we average in the 70's during the winter!




if you haven't heard, elise had pneumonia last week. here she is doing a 15 minute nebulizer treatment. she did 2-4 of these a day for a few days...and was amazing! (with a little help from winnie the pooh, of course!) what a trooper she was during the entire process! i am so proud of her and so grateful to the Lord for healing her.


and here she is "cooking" up a storm in her kitchen. i just couldn't get enough of her ponytail, apron, and seriousness with which she cooked!