Please pray for Callie!

Please continue to pray for sweet Callie!  Here is an update from her caring bridges page updated last night.

June 28th

Callie had another good day today.  She was able to have more awake time where she was peaceful today. She watched some of movie. She enjoyed her mommy blowing bubbles.  She tried to pop several of them. She took a wagon ride for 10 minutes and she loved it!  She has not had to be on oxygen in over 24 hours and she is maintaining good oxygen levels. She is still struggling with getting aggravated and being scared.  Courtney asks specifically that you pray for peace.

Dr. Donahue visited Callie today and did find some fluid building up in Callie's head around her incision.  He said he would check it again in the morning.  If it is not better, they will have to put Callie under tomorrow to have a procedure to drain the fluid.  He said this is a fairly routine procedure, but please pray that Callie's body will remove the fluid on it's own so she doesn't have to have this done. Callie's swallow test is also scheduled for tomorrow.  However, if they have to tap Callie to drain the fluid the test will be moved to Thursday. Please continue to pray for this swallow test to be successful.  Callie is so thirsty and hungry, but they will not give her any fluids or food unless she passes this test.

Today was an extremely hard day for Phil and Courtney as they met with Callie's team of doctors to discuss the near future for Callie.  Here are some of the important facts from the meeting.  There will be more details on tomorrow's post. Phil and Courtney have another meeting tomorrow to discuss more details.

Callie has Stage 3 Anaplastic Ependymoma brain cancer.  This is the most aggressive form of this type of cancer.  It looks like Callie will undergo radiation.  The type of radiation has not been determined, but what we do know is it will be 5 days a week for 6 weeks.  She will be under anesthesia for 3 hours a day while they do the radiation. Cooks only does one form of radiation.  So, based on what is decided tomorrow, they may be moving Callie to Houston or Oklahoma City to receive the other form of radiation.  The radiation will be very hard on Callie.  There are many side effects and numerous risks with the radiation.  These will be discussed tomorrow.

There is also a possibility for Callie to be a part of a clinical trial.  This will involve 4 months of chemo after her radiation treatment is complete.  This will also have many risks and side effects as well.  This too will be discussed further in the meeting tomorrow.

The doctors said there are 4 criteria that they look at to determine the chances of survival with this type of cancer. 1) The child is over 10 years old. 2) The cancer is in stage 2. 3) The location of the cancer. The Posterior Fossa, where Callie's tumor was located, is the worst location. 4) 100% removal of the tumor.  As you can see, Callie only meets one of the four criteria.  Fortunately, the fact that 100% of Callie's tumor was removed is the most important criteria they look at. The doctors said there is a 40-45% chance that the cancer will return, and if it does it will be fatal.  It usually returns in the first 2-3 years. If it doesn't, Callie will have to be monitored until she is 30 years old.

All of this information is extremely difficult to take in, but this is what the future will hold at this time.  Courtney wanted me to let you know that all this could change if Callie's spinal tap is positive for cancer in her spine.  If that happens, everything will be reevaluated.  The doctors believe it is highly unlikely that the cancer did move to the spine, but it is a possibility. Please pray for this test.  It will take place in about 10 days. 

Please pray for Phil and Courtney to have wisdom as they begin to make these decisions for Callie.  Tomorrow will be another difficult day as they look at the facts about radiation/chemo and what it will mean for Callie.

Finally, I want to share with you a cute little story about Carson.  Courtney shared this with me, and I just had to share it. 

Carson has not said anything about Callie since he went to visit her a few days ago. Well, a friend took Carson to the store to use his "debit card" I told you about in an earlier post. Here is the conversation Carson had with the cashier.

Carson: "Do you take debit cards?"

Cashier: "Yes."

Carson: "Will you take my Star Wars debit card?  I got it at the hospital."

Cashier: "The hospital?"

Carson: "Yeah. My sister is in the hospital and she if very sick.  They had to cut her brain open."

Cashier: "Well, I hope she gets better."

Carson: "She will! The doctors will make her all better!"

Oh the faith of a little child!  HE will make her all better!  We serve an Awesome God who is the Great Physician! He has and will continue to do miracles for Callie. It is hard to hear what the doctors say, but we know who is in control.  My God is so Big, so Strong, and so Mighty! There's Nothing my God cannot do for Callie!

Please keep praying for this precious little girl, her family and the doctors. 

Sweet Maggie

Since most of our last posts have been about Hunter I thought Maggie needed a post, too!  These pictures are from Saturday.  After we went to the pool we had to get a snow cone.  Ben could eat snow cones all day everyday by the way! :)  This was Maggie's first snow cone ever!  She liked it! :)

Notice her hair.  It was wild! :)  Pool hair... and if you touched it, it felt like I put a can of hair spray in it. She also got snow cone all the way down her shirt.  (By the way... Yes, Keri!  This is the onesie you got her I think at her baby shower.  She can still wear it!  And to be honest it's one of my favs!!! :) Don't worry it all came out in the wash! 

So what is Miss Maggie up to these days??  Well she LOVES to climb!  She can climb up a wall if you tell her not to.  We have really high chairs at our table and yep, she can climb up them.  She isn't afraid of anything.  I really think she is going to be my gymnast.  She will show you her handstand if you ask her to. :)  She is so funny!  She is so busy and into everything.  I do wish she would stop experiencing the world with her mouth though.  She still puts EVERYTHING in her mouth.  She is also very loud.  If she wants something, she will let you know!  She is talking all the time, but most of the time we don't know what she is saying.  She wants to talk so bad.  But I will tell you if we are at a store and I have to pick her up because she wants to run off, she will yell "Help Me!" :)  One of her favorite things to do is put away her dirty clothes before getting into the bathtub.  She loves it.  She runs into her room, throws them in dirty clothes basket and runs back.  She will also throw away wet diapers if I ask her to.  Sometimes she throws other things in the trash, too.  You know like DVDs and sippy cups. She is my snuggle bunny.  This week we had a big storm roll through and she woke up.  It was so sweet.  I ended up sleeping in her room with her and she just snuggled with me all night.  She also gives the best hugs.  I love when she puts her little head on my shoulder.  She is still pretty tiny.  Most of her clothes are 6-12 months.  Ben and I forget how smart she really is because she is still so small.  She LOVES to read.  Books are one of her favorite things!  There are times when I am like... where is Maggie??  And she is sitting in her room reading books.  She's still not to interested in coloring much, but I am hoping she is the one who likes to do crafts with me one day.  (Hunter would rather play then color.)  I also painted her toe nails the other night.  She did really well while I was painting them, but decided she did not like the pink color on her nails.   :)

 On Monday Maggie got her fingers stuck in the door of a cabinet in the bathroom.  It was AWFUL!  I really don't know how she did it.  I don't know how she got her fingers in there, but the door was closed on her little fingers and I had to open it and pull then out to get them unstuck.  I really thought we were going to have to go to the ER.  She is totally fine now.  She was moving them and everything afterwards, but ohh man it was scary!  You can still see the mark on her fingers. :(  Poor baby!!  

We are so thankful for our little Maggie Moe!  She is such a blessing!!!  We love you, Maggie!

Pray for Callie

Please join me in praying for a sweet little girl named Callie Cochran.

Callie is 22 months old and she lives here in Abilene with her family.  Her mom's name is Courtney, dad's name is Phil and her 4 year old brother's name is Carson.  Here is what one of my good friends wrote about her on her blog...

her parents are friends who attend church with us. after experiencing symptoms for 3 weeks, the doctors called for a CT scan yesterday and found a tumor in her cerebellum the size of a peach. last night Callie and her parents Phil and Courtney headed to Cooks. today after more tests the doctors confirmed her tumor and are almost certian that her tumor is malignant. they are not sure if the tumor is wrapper around her brainstem or not.

this is an update from Callie's mom, posted on facebook earlier this evening:

"Talked to the drs and she has peach size tumor in the back of her brain that is consuming most of the back portion of her brain. He informed us that almost always these tumors are malignant. He also feels that it is certain that she will have some type of side effects. Our prayers are for a benign tumor that doesn't involve the brain stem, no complications during and after surgery and that she would be the same Callie!!! Please pray for wisdom and skill for Dr Donahue and all staff that will come in contact with her. Our hearts r hurting but not broken. We serve a MIGHTY GOD!! If you would please join us in endless PRAYER And FASTING for our SWEET CALLIE!!"

please stop and pray for Callie. pray for her doctors. pray for her nurses and the staff at Cooks.

pray for Phil and Courtney. pray for her brother Carson who is 4 years old. pray for her family.

cry out to The Lord for peace, comfort, and understanding. You are Mighty O' Lord. You are our ultimate healer and comforter. You are the most high!

most of all, please send this post out to your friends, your Sunday School class, your Life Groups, everyone you know and ask them to stop and pray for Callie tomorrow at 7am as her surgery starts.

I do not personally know this family and can not imagine what they are going through right now.  Please pray for this sweet little girl.  God is bigger than this!  He is the Great Healer!  Please pray for healing with me.  

Pray for Callie!

Go Rays!

Well we had another t-ball game today.  Go Rays!  But can you tell by this face that Hunter's friends weren't at the game?

Poor guy!  His friends Emma and Wyatt had other things this weekend and had to miss the game.  Hunter did great though!  There were only 3 other kids on his team who showed up!  It was kind of weird!  

Here he is getting a grounder before the game. 

That boy can throw a baseball, too! 

1st time at bat.  I only got him batting one time because Maggie was a little distracted at this game.  She wanted to be out on the field, too.   

Hunter got to bat 3 times and had a good hit each time.  His 3 hit was awesome!

Run Hunter, run! 

I am so proud of this little man!  He did awesome today.  It was soooo hot outside.  He really played hard.  The other 3 kids on the team didn't act like they wanted to be there.  Hunter was the only one fielding the ball!  You will have to ask Ben about what really went on during the game.  All I can say is... I am so proud of my Hunter-man!  Oh and come back Emma and Wyatt!!  We need you!!!            Go Rays! 

Like I said before, Maggie didn't have her best game today.  She didn't really want to sit in her chair. 

There wasn't very many people there and so she really just wanted to go out and play, too!  Plus she woke up super early and it was sooo hot.  She just wanted to run around.  I don't blame her! 

But by the time we got home and sat down for some lunch... she was out!  Notice the cheeto still in her hand.  She did finish the cheeto on her way to bed.  So sweet!  We took naps and then it was off to the pool!  

Hope you all had a great Saturday! :)

Happy Birthday, Hunter!!!

I can't believe it!  My Hunter-man is 4 years old today!!!  He is getting so big!  Please, someone tell me how to slow him down!  He is growing too fast! :) 

I really wanted to post a picture of baby Hunter on this post, but all of his baby pictures aren't on this computer :( so... I thought I would share some of his party pictures. 

For those of you who came to Hunter's party Saturday, Thank you so much!!!  He had a blast!  Thank you so much for being there to help him celebrate his big day!  

Here are some pictures so everyone can see...

He decided on the day after Christmas that he wanted to have a Longhorn/Colt McCoy birthday party.  So here we go...

The party table!

Ben made these awesome 4 labels for the gatorade. 

Football cookies... of course. :)

Football cake pops

Longhorn cookies! (You can find a longhorn cookie cutter at Hobby Lobby by the way.)

And his football cake!  I have to say this was the easiest cake I have ever made. He loved it! 

One more picture of the decor.

Yes, I moved all the furniture back last saturday and painted signs just like in high school.  I tried to get Kelly to come down and stay up super late making signs and baking goodies for Matt, but she wasn't able to come. :(  It would have been just like old times...  Maybe next year! :)

Here is Hunter's run-through sign.  Go Hunter!

We made sure they were able to get through it! 

I think they liked it! 

Some of the boys standing by the field goal.  One of the games we were going to do was kick field goals, but I really didn't think about that to much... I didn't realize they would all be barefoot.  It's kind of hard to kick without shoes!  At least Brady got a good field goal!  He was wearing shoes! :)

They had fun playing in the pool! 

and squirting each other...

and some slip-n-slide. :)

Here is a picture of Kylee.  She was in Hunter's class at school this year and Hunter just loves her!  

Sweet Logan!!!  Playing football with the big kids!  He wasn't scared at all! 

This is Emma!  She is such a sweetie!  Hunter is on her t-ball team and talks about her all the time. :)

More pool time...

Hunter loves Logan!  

Even Maggie got in the pool with Brooke.  She loves Brooke!

Sweet Gracie played in the little pool. :)

We got the tires to do the tire run like the football players do... but we ended up just playing in them. Here is Kade hiding in the tires! 

Time for lunch! 

The little kids table! :) By the way they are getting to big!!!  They aren't babies anymore. :(

And now cake time.  We got the candles to light this time, thank goodness! :)

Isn't this a precious picture of little Owen!  He is too cute!!!

Maggie and Owen saying cheese while eating cookies! :)

More pool time...

And some presents.

Hunter had a great party!  He had so much fun playing with all his friends!  Happy Birthday, Hunter-man!!!  We love you so much!!!!

Gecko...

So who get's their tired almost 4 year old up at 10:45 to catch a gecko??  Oh yeah... that we would be us!  Hey it's summer! 

So last night Ben went out to turn off the water and noticed this big gecko.  You see, Hunter has been hunting geckos all spring and hasn't been able to find one in a few weeks.... so I told him he had to go get Hunter and let him catch him!  Hunter slept later than normal and still had a good nap yesterday, so I figured he wouldn't be asleep yet.  Well I was right.  Hunter was super excited! 

He went right outside and grabbed him.  He is not afraid to pick up a gecko.  It doesn't bother him at all! He brought it in to show me and as I was trying to get a picture he dropped it.  He had to get the net to get him inside because Kiddo (our cat) really wanted to eat him.  Anyway... here is Hunter with his gecko! :)

The big gecko! :)  Don't worry after we took pictures Hunter let him go outside and even gave him a june bug to eat.  

What a great night!  Hunter woke up saying he dreamed about geckos! :)  I love that sweet boy!  So my advice to you is... Wake your kids up and let them chase geckos at 10:45 at night!  They are only little for so long and will want to catch geckos with you for so long.  Enjoy it!  Make memories! :)