We have a together legged girl!

Emma got her casts off yesterday. Its like miracle, it truly is. She has together legs! They still bend at the knee some, so they are not super straight but, they are together! She did not much care for the saw they used to cut them off, it made her cry and make really ugly faces. But she made it, and was so brave. When I picked her up to put her back in her chair when they were done, it was like I was holding a new child. I didn't know where to put my hands or how to support her, she was all umm...well she was diffrent!

Xray was nice, they gave her a beanie baby, she liked that. Everyone was so nice to us and despite the fact we spent 6 hours getting it all done if you count the bus ride, it was a very nice day.

Her new wheelchair is here too! They will bring it by the house tomorrow, perfect timing since the casts are gone. I will take pics when it gets here.

Thanks so much for all of your support during her surgery/recovery it has meant so much to us. The prayers were greatly appreciated, and they were answered by God, we have a straight legged girl! I can even make her knees touch now! And I put her in bed and looked at her and she had her legs crossed at the ankle, I think its the first time she has ever done that! Thank you so much Dr Davey!!!

Today could be the day

Leaving shortly to take Emma to her doctors to see if its time for these casts to come off. They said about 6 weeks, and 6 weeks is up tomorrow, so I am hoping the casts will come off. Send us good thoughts and prayers, I really want them off today so we can see what her little legs look like! All dry and scaley I am sure but straight I am hoping. I will bring the camera and get a few pics so check back later tonight for more updates!

Also please say a pray or two for our friend Val, he is having a similar hip surgery today. I know his mom is a nervous wreck. He is a great little boy and I have faith all will go well for him just like it did for us.

Rough night...

At 5am this morning, I woke up to an unusual sound. Emma was crying! She has cried lots before but never woken me up crying, it isnt like her. Her cry is a gurgly, airy yell through her trach. I heard it over the baby monitor I keep on high right by my ear, but when I got to her room she was pretty darn loud without the monitor.

So I and suctioned her trach thinking that might help, but it didn't. Her heartrate was 170 which is very high for her. So I changed out her trach too just to make sure her air way was good. I took her "numbers" (temperture) and they were fine. Diaper was dry, no signs of anything rubbing her our making her mad. I sat with her and talked to her and made sure she could see her picture of Daniel, her angel but that didn't help either.

I am thinking her legs must have been hurting her so she got some valium and some motrin. She still has pain medicine but I thought the valium alone would help and some motrin. It seemed to do the trick, she is still out. She has been doing good for about a week with no meds but I guess she was having some spasms. Poor baby, it was so sad. I hate it when she cries, it breaks my heart.

So I think it will be bedrest today for her, too much moving around this weekend must have made her sore. She is sleeping anyway, when she wakes up we might put her on the couch to see tv for a while, but no going out and having any wild parties!

Just wanted to share some cute pics of Emma. Derek insisted that Nanny take his picture with Emma. He is really warming up to Emma more now, talking to her more, hugging her, reading books to her, that kind of thing. He has always loved her, but its like lately he has found a new friend.

Happy Birthday to my brother

Derek turned 7 today! He is a great big brother and we love him so very much! We made ice cream sundaes for dinner. They were sticky, and messy but very good. Emma even ate some in her mickey button! Above are some pictures. He got all kinds of toys, a martian maker, wall-e dancer, webkinz bat, tons of books, a bookmark, candy, and a spongebob DVD. Emma got him a notebook with Davey Jones from the pirate movies on it, he loves it, he calls it his journal. Ella got him a yoyo with a clutch in it since he has a hard time with regular yoyos


I can't belive he is already seven. He was almost born on 9-11. I went into labor sitting in line to get gas for the car at walmart. He was very stubborn and let me have 36 hours of labor, with an epidural that didn't work, and forceps to help get him out. He was a beautiful dark headed 7 lbs 7oz baby boy. His hair quickly turned blonde between his first Christmas and first Easter and Daddy now calls him a traitor. :-) He was a great baby, crying really only if he was hungry, and that was nothing a little breast feeding couldn't solve. He is a great son, and I am lucky to be his Mommy.

The kids uncle Kasey (Daddy's youngest step brother) got married today in Kansas and now they have another aunt named Amanda! That's two Aunt Amanda's I hope we don't get too confused! We really wish we could have gone up to the wedding, but we were there in spirit and hope the day went beautifully for them. Kasey is a wonderful guy, and we have not met Amanda yet but she must be pretty special, we have only heard good things.

Emma spent half the day up on the couch moving her head around, watching tv and spending time with her Bubba on his birthday. She is passed out cold in her bed now, it was a long day.

Beauitful poem for my beautiful girl

Found this online and had to share...

Wishes in the dark
by Lisa Esmond

Sometimes when she's sleeping
I can see in my mind's eye
the little girl I thought I had,
the one who said good-bye.

Sometimes when she's sleeping
hands folded by her cheek
I close my eyes and see before me
a child who can speak.

Sometimes when she's sleeping
she seems so whole and well
I can't believe she won't awaken
with dreams of which to tell.

Sometimes when she's sleeping
and the tears in my eyes overflow,
I steal what kisses I can in the dark
and wonder what joys she will know.

Sometimes when she's sleeping
and my eyes ache with tears unshed,
I pray she'll always be full of peace
as she slumbers in her bed.

Sometimes when she's sleeping
I can almost hear her say
"I love you, Mom, with my heart
and my soul, each and every day".

But always when she's sleeping
I am full of pride
at the miracle that is my daughter
and the perfection that is inside.

Twin sister gets a haircut

I had to share the pictures of Ella's haircut she got yesterday. She didn't want her picture made so she is pouting in all of them, and almost laughing at one. She was just acting silly. Thought readers might like to see how big twin sis is getting too!

Fun day!

Today we went down the street to Generations church. They were having an open house, at their brand new location. We have been wanting to start church there but haven't due to Emma's surgery and recovery. But today we braved it and went to the party, and tomorrow we plan on going to church there. They are really nice. I took pics above there and at home. Emma is wearing her new dress I got her at the thrift store, she is only able to wear dresses, and she just doesn't have many! This one comes down half way between her knee and ankle but it looks longer in some of the other pics.

They had a moon bounce and a big slide. Derek and Ella loved that. Emma liked the music. Ella won a door prize, a fairly good size die cast "slug bug" car. Its red and she loves it. When they called her name on the microphone Derek went and helped her get it. It was so cute, he was not jealous one bit, he just wanted to make sure his sister got up there for her prize.

We are tired now, long morning getting ready and a hot day. Its almost OU football game time. GO OU! Emma will be watching, right in front of the tv cheering for her team today.

Home and doing pretty well

Emma is doing pretty good since getting home on Thur night. She has had some pain but all and all it hasn't been too bad. They sent her home on a pain killer (Loratab) and something for spasms (Valium). Her casts only come up to the tops of her legs, not the whole waist like they first planned. That is because they did not mess with her hamstrings, just her hips. She looks great. My first reaction in recovery was to cry over how tall she looks! She is just beautiful. The casts will be on for 6 weeks. Daddy had to go buy her some dresses since shorts or pants won't go over her casts. Dresses are a new thing for her since with her old froggy hips she was unable to wear them, but we have together legs now! Posted above are some before and after shots of her legs, plus a cute one of me and Emma.

I will try to keep everyone updated, we have just been busy and there really hasn't been a lot to update. Keep Emma in your prayers and thank you for doing so up until this point.

Quick Update on Emma

Update from Lori at around 11:00 CDT (fourty minutes ago or so)

Surgery is over for Emma and all went well. Around noon they should be done casting her (Purple cast!!) and then Lori/Darren and Donna/Brian can see her. It took about 3 1/2 hours to do the surgery part and well take about an hour to finish up the casting. They didn't lengthen or trim her handsprings because they didn't feel that would be beneficial for her.

Will update later after I have more info. Thank you to everyone praying for my beautiful niece Emma!

Emma's Aunt Lisa (Mimi)

Big day

Emma's surgery is set to start in a few hours. We leave here at 5am (about an hour away) to get to the hospital by 6am. Surgery should start around 7:15. It will take several hours but they say the stay should be just over night, maybe 2 nights at most if all goes well.

They will be clipping/lengthing her hamstrings, not sure which yet but they will figure it out once they are in there. Also be fixing the muscles that make her legs go OUT like they do, and clipping a "capsule" at the joint that will help her have more movement.

Everyone please pray all goes well and thank of Emma today, updates will follow I promise.

Dr visit, surgery is in a few days!!

Well Emma saw her lung doctor today and he gave us his okay for her surgery on her hips next week. He said its probably min. risk for her to be put under since she has pretty good lungs. Her breathing is more of a brain thing and since she will be vented for surgery all should be ok.

Donna and Brian leave to head this way tomorrow! I can't believe that on Friday the day after tomorrow I will be hugging my best friend again and seeing her with my little Emma. I am so excited.

We got supplies delievered today and things are almost ready for us to do the surgery and come home all prepared. Having that cast is going to be a big shock to us all and we will have to get used to it. But we will manage.

Good news is her doctor said she is doing so good she won't have to come back for 6 months!

Some exciting news...

Found out the other day that we are getting company for Emma's surgery. My friend Donna (Mommy to angel Daniel aka Homer, Emma's little boyfriend who passed away in April) and her husband Brian are driving all the way from MI to be with us for the surgery! I am so excited. They are leaving MI on the 14th so they can get here in time to play with Emma and love on her before her surgery. They plan on leaving to go home about the 23rd.

I am so excited for them to get to meet Emma for the very first time. I can't wait to see her getting kisses from Donna, who we have nicknamed Momma2, because we teased her that "Mother in Law" was a name for those no one liked, so she is Momma2. Emma and Daniel never met but had a very strong bond, and they brought Donna and Brian into our lives and for that I am truly thankful. They are family to us and always will be.

Emma had an appointment on Monday with her stomach doctor, who upsized her mickey button (feeding tube) because it was leaking just a touch. No big deal, take the old one out and put in a bigger size, it took all of 2 mins if that. They did it with Emma in her wheelchair and just leaned her back a bit so she didn't leak anything out on her stomach when they did the change. Emma didn't quite know what to make of doing a wheelie in her wheelchair!

All is going smoothly and just as planned for surgery on the 19th. Our next hurdle is her pulmo appointment (lung doctor) on the 13th. He has to clear her for surgery, I see no problem in that.

Thanks everyone for checking out our blog from time to time. I plan on updating often during the surgery time and if I don't I will get my sister Lisa to, so everyone knows how things are going.

Emma's big scare

wanted to blog last night but just didn't have the energy to do it. Wanted to fill everyone in on a big scare Emma gave us.

Yesterday afternoon her pulse ox machine went off, that is the machine that measures her oxygen saturation. It was only at 90 which isn't that low but I thought, ok well suction her trach. Which I did and she dropped into the 80's after I was done, so I did the next thing I was suppoosed to do and that is to change her trach out and put a clean one in. We were having to bag her by hand because her vent was pretty much useless at that point, I had Derek bag her while I got the new trach ready and she dropped into the 60's. Changed trach out, bagged her and she dropped into the 40's. Now mind you all the time she was a very ugly shade of bright purple and had her mouth gapping open and trying to catch her breath, it was so sad. I called 911. I bagged her pretty fast and got her in the upper 60s very low 70's while waiting on 911 They came and got her more stable and took her to the hospital by ambulance while I had to wait at home for Dad to get here and a ride to the hospital. It was maybe 30 mins but it was the longest 30 mins ever!

They gave her breathing treatments and watched her. Suctioned her more there and got a bit of a "plug" (hard mucus) so they said that is what had caused her to do what she did. She left the hospital after a few hours, on no oxygen and doing perfectly. She slept pretty much through the whole thing and woke up about 10 last night after being home for about an hour. She is resting now and I expect she will most of the day.

It was scary, the first real scare she has had since being on her vent. Before when she would have issues I always thought "Its ok when 911 gets her to the hospital they will just put her on a vent and it will help her" but now when something goes wrong its like a vent is no help.



So everyone please keep her in your prayers that she doesn't give us anymore scares like that. We have turned her vent heater way up to help give her more moisture and then are just watching her very carefully. Things should be just fine, but I think I will be very on edge for a while.

Just some pics

Not much to say, life is going good. Emma is doing well. Thought I would post some pictures, some are from the fourth of July the others are just snapshots I took this last week.

Quick update

Hello everyone sorry I haven't updated since Emma has been sick but summer time has been keeping us busy.

Emma's infection is all gone. Thankfully! I really wish we could keep her from geting these dumb old things but apparently people who don't move around a lot and have poor circulation can just get it from time to time.

All is well, not much to talk about. Just counting down the days until we get our hips fixed! Dreading the cast Emma will be in. Things as simple as a diaper change will become a chore. We are trying to plan out things as early as possible, and get things prepared. School starts the day after her surgery so getting Derek off to first grade might be rough for the first few days but we will manage.

I have appointments set up in early Aug. so Emma can visit all her doctors and be in tip top shape for her surgery. We are seeing the tummy doctor, the lung doctor and hopefully her normal doctor too. That way we run into no surprises.

Tonight Daddy is going to be home from dinner, his normal shift is 1pm to 10pm so he misses dinner but Sat is a day shift for him. We are making bison burgers and reg. hamburgers. Not sure the kids will like bison. Not much else planned just hopefully a quite evening at home.

Thanks be to God Emma is getting better!

Well all the prayer are working, Emma's infection is getting better. I was touch and go in my mind of a while, I guess I just don't have the patients to wait for my little girl to get better. But the last two days it looks much better and no more fever.

Daddy works tomorrow on Father's day but is off on Monday and Tuesday. Monday is boy's day. Daddy and Derek and a friend are going to the movies and then on Tue the whole clan is going to the Sam Noble Musuem to see dinosaur bones. Emma has never been, I hope she stays awake for it. Never fails something good is going on and she thinks its nap time. I will take lots of pictures.

Prayers go out to someone online we had been praying for her name is Marissa, she went to be with Jesus last night. She was almost 3 years old an had stage 4 high risk neuroblastoma. We have never spoken to her family but have really prayed hard for her, we ask that everyone please remember her family in your prayers.

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY to all the dad's reading. Hope you have a great day tomorrow.

Emma sick again

We took Emma to the doctor on Monday. She has cellulitis in her leg again. This time its in the upper portion of her leg instead of the lower part. I was going to take some pictures but it goes a little bit on her little bottom and I figured that was kind of private to post on the internet! :-)

Her doctor wanted her admitted to Children's hospital for tests and drugs so he sent us over to Norman's ER first so we could get tests started and transportation to the city. Well we got to Norman and they didn't feel she needed to go to Children's to be admitted. They sent us home with two antibiotics.

So far there is only slight improvement but the good news its its not worse. They told me it could be 3 or so days before we noticed much change. You just have to give the drugs time to work. I have very little patience for that. She isn't in any pain but she does get a fever and sleep a lot and I hate seeing her that way. I just want my big girl to feel better.

So prayers for Emma, if you please. We appreciate all the prayers we can get. We really want this infection to clear up soon so we can enjoy the summer before her hip surgery on Aug 19.

Fun in the Sun

Emma had all kinds of fun yesterday when we cooked out for Memorial day. We had hamburgers and the kids squirted each other with water guns, and did side walk chalk drawings. All was good until Dad was chasing them with water guns, turned around and Ella was right behind him and he fell over her, trying not to knock her down, he really hurt himself. He has a good gash on his knee. He pulled a hunk of concrete out of it (I told them no running on the sidewalk!) Its pretty sore but I think he will be ok. Anyway above are pictures of Emma, I took the chair straps off of her chest so you could see her shirt, she was still buckled in at the waist and her lateral (black things on either side of her) held her in just fine. Not a safe way to travel far, but fine for pictures.

The Toothfairy is coming!/EDIT

Recently we noticed that Emma's teeth were loose, I usually use a toothbrush when doing her teeth and hadn't noticed,(bad Mommy) but was using gauze and it was like they were half way out they were so loose. Well today I was gauzing them and out popped one . I figured the others had to come out and would in the next few days so I went ahead and wiggled them out too. They were all so loose it took less than 1 min total and maybe 2 or 3 slight wiggles each and they fell out. All 5 of her baby teeth she had are gone.

Now I shouldnt be proud her teeth were knocked out due to her toungue pushing them (she doesnt shut her mouth good, tounge protruds) but i am proud, she didn't flench once, I thought if she did or cried or her pulse ox went up even 2 points on her heart rate I would stop. Nope. She did good and my big girl gets to get lots and lots of money from the tooth fairy.

She will go to the dentist hopefully this week, they were trying to get her in anyway, finding someone who took medicad and could see her some time other than 4 months from now! Now we have en excuse to get in sooner. I knew I had to get those enamel knocked ones out since it is memorial day tomorrow no way would we get to be seen.

Here is a pic of her teeth. Keep in mind at 3 you should still have teeth and the roots don't shorten like they do say in a 6 year old who's teeth are naturally loose that way, hers are baby baby teeth and would not have been ready to come out if it weren't for that pesky toungue. I can't believe she was in no pain, I am wondering if perhaps the nerves/roots died a long time ago or something? Her gums are swollen from her phenobarbital too so maybe that is part of it?



Update--Emma got 5 golden dollars and a beautiful note from the tooth fairy. She isn't sure what she will do with her money, maybe save it.