Take a look at our sometimes crazy but always blessed life as we homeschool our eight children, run a homeschool business, and serve God as He leads us. You can also follow our baby Noah as he struggles with some serious health issues - we covet your prayers for him.
Poor little Noah has caught a yucky cold. One of the other dc came down with it first, then a couple more caught it, then Noah fell as well. For the past couple of days it has just been a matter of a runny nose, but today he woke up in the wee hours with a horrendous cough. At times it's hard for him to catch his breath and he obviously feels really yucky. We are praying that this won't get worse OR cause something else awful to happen. His super-scary GI shutdown in Jan. was the result of an energy deficit from a cough/cold, remember?
We have been tangibly blessed in some amazing ways in the past few days and wanted to take a minute to say THANK YOU!! Blog Reader Krista S. and her family sent Mary Faith an adorable shirt and some coupons for baby products (what a clever idea!!). Blog Reader Susan in VA and her family sent Mary Faith a gorgeous hand-crocheted baby blanket. It is a soft, pretty pink trimmed in beautiful soft pastels. Blog Reader Malissa B. and family sent something wonderful as well - a big box full of the most precious birth announcements I have ever seen! She took plastic spoons, put two Hershey's Kisses in the bowl of each spoon, then tied pink-trimmed white netting over the bowl of the spoon using pink and white curling ribbon. A tag was attached to each spoon. The tags have a tiny photo of Mary Faith and read, "A Spoonful of kisses to you from Mary Faith Adele Estes" followed by all of Mary Faith's vitals - date, time, weight, etc. We have had more fun passing these out to family and special friends.
Friday we got a box from Belvue Baptist Church in New Mexico. This church has a Care Bear ministry. They sent Noah a bear that church members had prayed over. They also sent each of the other children a bear and included several paint-with water books which were just the thing on a rainy day!
Yesterday our church photography club had a meeting. They met for breakfast and worship then headed out for the day to take pictures with the theme of "New." Later they met back up to make a slideshow of their photos to share in church. I had planned to go but when Jeff unexpectedly got yesterday off (he's been working Saturdays) I decided I would much rather stay home with him. We have a friend who is a professional photographer and he called us yesterday afternoon. The weather here was terrible and he wasn't finding much that was "new" to photograph. Well, we just HAPPEN to have someone very new at our house LOL and he wanted to know if he could come take pictures of her. I wasn't about to turn down the chance to get some extra-special pictures of Mary Faith so God blessed both of us - he got his "new" photos and I got copies. I made a slideshow of my favorites to share with you all. I hope you enjoy them. The slideshow is under my signature.
We will keep you updated on Noah's situation. Thank you for your prayers.
Kate...absolutely LOVE the picutres on the slide show. More than made up for the bad weather yesterday. Hope all the dc are well this week.
Love, auntie el
What a special group of photos! Brings back many special memories for this mommy-with-almost-grown kids! I'll be praying for Noah (and his siblings!) to quickly heal from colds without any other ill effects.
May God continue to bless you,
Dana
Dana Wilson
Epi Kardia Home Education
www.epikardia.com
Loved the pictures especially the one of Mary Faith on someones arms....to beautiful for words praying for a quick recovery for Noah and everyone else....Blessings,Robin
What beautiful photos of Mary Faith!! Breath taking. What a special treat! We will continue to pray for Noah, that his cold would not develop into anything more or lead to complications, and that God would restore everyone in your family to full health! Are you and Jeff healthy?
What beautiful pics of Mary Faith! Thank you very much for sharing those!
God grant baby Noah feels much better soon! I missed the clothes discussion due to being offline with wind/rainstorm the last few days, but I wanted to mention that overalls have worked well for us when extra tubes and devices are attached. You can even clip to the sides of them. We went to using them when our son was little and still doing the medical thing. They were the only thing that had enough space when he outgrew the baby snap-ons.
My hubby has been wearing mostly overalls the last few years for the same medical reasons - and has gotten heartily tired of them - but they really do work for tubes/lines/bags!
Slide show!!!! She is sssoooooooooooo cute!!! But you all already knew that!
Sorry to hear about the yucky cold bug that has invaded your house - again! And sorry to hear that Noah happen to catch it! Unfortunately, houses with lots of love in them tend to share EVERYTHING - including those sicky bugs! We will pray that he doesn't get the really bad virus that is going around!!!
Thank you for the updates!
hugs & prayers & Blessings from Kiessling family from Fresno, California
As I was reading your post, I was praying that someone from the photography club would choose to come and take photos of Mary Faith and was delighted to see the photos he took. What a blessing! I have several photographer's in our house and I can see this becoming a ministry opportunity. I will pray for Noah to recover quickly and NOT go down the road of another hospital stay. We have 2 sick kids here so when I tend to them I will remember to pray for Noah. Blessings from Sarah K in WI
Kate - After coping with two sick babies and myself this past 3 weeks (still snotty!) please have the drs check Noah for RSV. Out Ped didn't check the first two visits because it didn't seem likely, but on the third visit he tested on a whim and we got a positive. Not much can be done to treat it, but I know in children with other problems RSV can be dangerous. In our case, RSV led to a nasty bout with croup for the babies and a sinus infection for mom. Good luck and God Bless!
Posted by Anonymous 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by 
Posted by