More family pics to share, except Darren and Derek since they tend to run when the camera comes out. All taken last night at Ella's daisy scout investiture. Cousin Elizabeth is also in the pics.

7 years ago today....

Seven years have passed since Emma first coded on us and died. God brought her back to us, and not a day goes by that I don't thank him for that. That night I witnessed a miracle, and I haven't stopped witnessing it since. Every day she is with us is a miracle, every day I can cuddle with her is a blessing.

That night 7 years ago I prayed for his help, for him to protect Emma. I sought the Lord, and he answered me, and delivered me from all my fears. (Psalm 34:4)  THANK YOU GOD! 

Despite the sick feeling I get remembering how hard that night was, today is a day of Rejoicing! A day to rejoice what the Lord has blessed each of us with... life! 


P.S. The above pic was taken of Emma and me last night at Ella's girl scout ceremony. 

I have just realized that I set an email with this blog and listed it on the bottom for contacts, I totally forgot I had it, so if you emailed me and I didn't get back to you promptly I am sorry. I am trying to answer things now and will make sure to continue to check our mail on a daily basis. You can write us at emmaandmommmy@yahoo.com. We love questions and comments, and don't forget you can comment here as well. I plan on updating the blog a lot more, its just been a dry spell where thankfully everything has been doing wonderfully at our house. No updates usually means no exciting medical news which is ALWAYS a good thing.

Something I found online and wanted to share....

The Brave Little Soul

By: John Alessi

Not too long ago in Heaven there was a little soul who took wonder in observing the world. He especially enjoyed the love he saw there and often expressed this joy with God. One day however the little soul was sad, for on this day he saw suffering in the world. He approached God and sadly asked, "Why do bad things happen; why is there suffering in the world?" 

God paused for a moment and replied, "Little soul, do not be sad, for the suffering you see, unlocks the love in people's hearts." The little soul was confused. "What do you mean," he asked. God replied, "Have you not noticed the goodness and love that is the offspring of that suffering? Look at how people come together, drop their differences and show their love and compassion for those who suffer. All their other motivations disappear and they become motivated by love alone." 

The little soul began to understand and listened attentively as God continued, "The suffering soul unlocks the love in people's hearts much like the sun and the rain unlock the flower within the seed. I created everyone with endless love in their heart, but unfortunately most people keep it locked up and hardly share it with anyone. They are afraid to let their love shine freely, because they are afraid of being hurt. But a suffering soul unlocks that love. I tell you this - it is the greatest miracle of all. Many souls have bravely chosen to go into the world and suffer - to unlock this love - to create this miracle for the good of all humanity."

Just then the little soul got a wonderful idea and could hardly contain himself. With his wings fluttering, bouncing up and down, the little soul excitedly replied. "I am brave; let me go! I would like to go into the world and suffer so that I can unlock the goodness and love in people's hearts! I want to create that miracle!" 

God smiled and said, "You are a brave soul I know, and thus I will grant your request. But even though you are very brave you will not be able to do this alone. I have known since the beginning of time that you would ask for this and so I have carefully selected many souls to care for you on your journey. Those souls will help you create your miracle; however they will also share in your suffering. Two of these souls are most special and will care for you, help you and suffer along with you, far beyond the others. They have already chosen a name for you". God and the brave soul shared a smile, and then embraced.

In parting, God said, "Do not forget little soul that I will be with you always. Although you have agreed to bear the pain, you will do so through my strength. And if the time should come when you feel that you have suffered enough, just say the word, think the thought, and you will be healed." Thus at that moment the brave little soul was born into the world, and through his suffering and God's strength, he unlocked the goodness and love in people's hearts. For so many people dropped their differences and came together to show their love.

 Priorities became properly aligned. 

People gave from their hearts. 

Those that were always too busy found time. 

Many began new spiritual journeys, some regained lost faith - many came back to God. 

Parents hugged their children tighter. 

Friends and family grew closer.

 Old friends got together and new friendships were made. 

Distant family reunited, and every family spent more time together. 

Everyone prayed. 

Peace and love reigned. 

Lives changed forever.

 It was good. 

The world was a better place. 

The miracle had happened. 

God was pleased.

I know this blog has kind of fallen off the map in the last few months, but really there hasn't been much to update. Plus we just got busy living life! I figured since today is the 7th anniversary of Emma's trach surgery I should get on here and at least mention it.

All is going great here, Emma's doing wonderful, everyone in the house has had the stomach flu twice in the last month, except Emma, she just keeps amazing us all with how healthy she is. We put up her little Christmas tree the day after Thanksgiving and just put our big one up the other day. I don't have pictures of our big one yet, but am sharing Emma's little tree. You might remember it from when she had her ulcer and almost missed Christmas by being in the hospital. Nanny brought it to her. This year we switched out ornaments and she got a butterfly topper for it! We also made a picture frame of some of the kids we know that are no longer with us, that way we can remember them. There are so many others sadly, that we could have included. Please pray for the families that have lost their little ones. Christmas is always a hard time.

I know different....

A friend made this for me and I love it so much I had to share, click to to make it larger so you can read it all.

I haven't updated in ages, and really should have but life just got busy. So quick update. Emma and Ella turned 7 in Oct. they had a big party and had a cake donated by Icing Smiles which is an organization that helps kids with disabilities or illness get cakes. It was an awesome cake, wizard of oz themed. Halloween has also come, and Emma went as a bride, Derek went as ghost face from scream, and Ella was a cowgirl. Here are some random pics for you to see, while I think of a few more things to update on in the next few days.  The rainbow cupcakes were made by Emma's Nanny and everyone thought they were sooo cute!

HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL THE DADDY'S READING!

Its been a miserable 2 days. Our ac broke yesterday and it will be tomorrow before its repaired at the earliest. Emma has her very own fan pointed right at her and I have been cooling her down with cloths frozen in the freezer. She is doing fine but the rest of us..yuck! She lost another tooth last night!! The tooth fairy brought her a golden dollar. Tomorrow her Uncle Adam is coming to town, he recently returned from being overseas for the army. Can't wait to see him!

Today we are just hanging out trying to stay cold and watching netflix. No big plans for fathers day, just having fun being together.

Oh Ella wanted me to share her new pink glasses and short hair cut with everyone. We got it cut about the middle of May I guess. Here she is. 2 pics of her in her pool too that I loved. She sure gets jealous if I don't share her on the blog too!

Survived one heck of a hailstorm here in Norman last night. Can't say the same for my memorial garden for Emma's boyfriend Daniel, or my pepper plants. They are all messed up. The angel I had in Daniel's garden lost her wings, and the flowers may be a total loss. We had just under ping pong ball size hail that came down for about half an hour and 80mph winds. We lost a section of fence, but have tied it up until they can come repair it. It was ankle deep through out the yard and drifts of over a foot. Its 430 the next day, almost 24 hours later and I still have drifts in my flower bed! Lots of damage all over town. Walmart lost skylights, tons of power poles down, windows out and signs down all over town, roof damage to homes. But we managed to end up pretty good more or less, had to get the kids away from windows quickly. It was so loud I thought the roof was going to give!

Not much else to update. Emma is enjoying the summer, Derek and Ella too! Here is a pic of Emma I took not long ago.

Emma is doing great, but here's a medication warning that is important

Sorry no update for a while, nothing exciting going on, Emma is doing wonderful as always! I did want to post a medication warning from a friend who's son got very sick because of singulair (used for asthma or allergies) It was such a hard time for their family I just had to pass it on----

Please please read this and send it on to anyone you know who is taking or has a child that is taking Singulair.  It's very important!

My son Tyson Sawyer's sweet happy demeanor changed drastically Friday night, April 22nd.  He became extremely anxious, crying and screaming with no reason why. 

On Saturday, his behavior continued and we took him to the emergency room.  While there they decided that his actions were do to his having a tiny hair in his ear.  After irrigating it out, they sent us home.  That evening, his anxiety heighted to the point where he would not let me (his mother) close my eyes and he would not go to sleep.

The next morning we again took him to the emergency room.  By now, he was flitting his eyes around and screaming as if he was seeing something terrifying.  The doctors did a CT scan to see if he had a brain tumor or a bleed or maybe a stroke to be causing this behavior.  When it came back normal, they sent us home with a prescription for an anti-anxiety medication saying he was just having anxiety attacks.  That night was no better.

On Monday morning, he was admitted to the hospital with severe anxiety and hallucinations.  Doctors were baffled as to what was causing this behavior.  Over the course of a few days it got worse and worse to the point where he was hurting himself--biting his fingers, banging his head, and digging into his skin with his nails.  What ever was going on with him had become dangerous to his well-being and we had the horrific experience of having to put our 4 year old son in restraints tied to the hospital bed.  Infections and toxins were ruled out with several different tests.  Brain cancer, stroke, bleeds, epilepsy...all ruled out as well.  We went through hell for 7 days trying to find out what was torturing our baby.

Finally one of the doctors found that Singulair, a drug our son has been on for 4 years now for asthma and allergies, can cause anxiety, hallucinations, and self-harm behaviors.  So stabbing into the dark since its been 4 years of no such side effect, they decided to take him off of that.  With in 72 hours, our son was back!

I'm writing this now to tell anyone and everyone to get off of Singulair!  It is extremely dangerous.  This "side effect" is not widely known and the doctor who prescribed it didn't even know about it.  After doing some research online, we have found multiple accounts of this exact behavior from other Singulair users, many who had been taking the drug for upwards of 2-7 years and just developing the side effect...and sadly, even some that have commited suicide or cause great bodily harm to themselves while on this medication because no one knew this stupid drug was causing this.

PLEASE take your child off this drug, stop taking it yourself, or if you are not wanting to stop at least be aware of this and watch for this side effect...and pass this on!!!!  Help us tell the world so it doesn't happen again!

**Here's another account from a family who prayed for us during this horrific time.

So very thankful to have you in my life, eventho it's just through facebook! Because of you sweet Ty, you've brought this horrible drug to my attention. Since my son was almost 2 years old he's been taking Singulair. He's now 5 years old and we've always thought that his behavior was just him..after all, thats what his doctors told us. Boy were they wrong, Seth has now been off of Singulair for 6 days and has been happier! He's smiling more, listening better, more energy, not as aggressive..just acts better! He still is scared of being alone, but I'm LOVING the new him!

Wildfires

Very scary day on Friday, we had a grass fire directly across the street from us, the road is the only thing that kept it from coming into our yard. It was terribly smoky, I had to pack up all of Emma's gear quickly and get out, thankful my sister came to get me and we went to pick Ella and Derek up from school. Their school was not letting walkers leave. We are all ok, except Mom has a little sore throat from breathing the smoke. The entire state of Oklahoma seemed to burn yesterday, we were very lucky, many people lost their homes, and I pray for them.

Here is a pic of the Emma's Mimi took from our driveway. At the time of the picture the fire had been put out close to the black fence. It burned up to the black fence, and further out past the fence on the left hand side by the trees. The people in the picture are standing in our front yard. The picture does it now justice, and by the time this was snapped much of the smoke had cleared. I even had soot falling on me in my yard! They say someone threw a cigarette down!

Sissy's glasses

For all of those interested here are pictures of Ella with her glasses and with her eye patch on. She is doing very well with them and we just thinks she is so darn cute! Not the best pictures but we are so proud she is doing well with them, despite breaking the glasses already, she is so rough on things. We did get them fixed and have ordered her a new pair as a back up, they are memory plastic so they will bend without breaking as easily.

Update on brother and sister's school happenings

 Last night we went to parent teacher conference, my sister came and watched the kids for me. We did Ella's then walked to get an icee and then went to Dereks. Here is what I found out:

Ella is branching out and playing with more children, not just her best friend anymore. She is learning more numbers and letters and her teacher is excited to see if her reading gets better now that she has glasses and can see. She is a good girl in class and is very well behaved.

Derek is his teacher's little helper. The class printer is broken so he runs to another class to get printed things for her. She said he does lots of stuff for her and that if she let him he would probably teach the class! LOL  He now does all his work AND turns it in, he used to hide his work in his desk! He tested on a 7th grade level for reading and 5th for spelling, even though he is in 3rd grade. His teacher said he goes the library almost daily, the librarian told me the same thing, I kind of already figured that. His teacher said he is doing awesome. They take standardized tests in April which will hopefully help place him in Gifted and Talented if he does well, since the gifted and talented test alone does not for some crazy reason. They tested him 2 times a year since he started school and every teacher is shocked he hasn't been accepted to the program yet. So the CRT tests will help with that. He is also well behaved and the teacher really seems to enjoy having him in class.

Emma got to sit with me and talk to the teachers, they both thought she was cute, despite the drool that kept running out of her mouth. She was like a faucet yesterday. She made a promise not to tell brother and sister anything the teacher said that might be "bad" but they had no bad things to say!  

Emma got new hair bows from Nanny and Poppy for Valentines and she wore a red one yesterday. Today is shopping day so not sure what bow she will end up wearing, she looks so pretty in all of them. Every time I take her out now people flock to us to look at her and tell me how cute she is. What can I say, I make cute babies. Oh yea I forgot Emma is a big girl now. We are trying to move away from cute "Baby" type stuff because she is 6 now and getting grown up. 

Thanks for reading, I will keep trying to find things to update about. 

Lost a tooth and pics of Ella's glasses

The tooth fairy came to visit Emma last night, she lost a molar yesterday while I was cleaning her teeth. It just sort of popped out. She was happy to find a dollar under her pillow this morning. Yesterday the Respiratory Therapist came to check her vent and had to switch them out (they do that once a year for maintenance reasons) She told us she would get Emma a backpack for her ventilator that would go on her wheelchair, that will be nice since it will hold all the tubes and such out of the way, I sometimes smash them or roll over them with her chair OOOPS!

As promised here are pictures of Ella in her glasses. My sister took them on her cell phone, and Ella was none to thrilled. She was all sweaty from playing at school, and the pictures make her one eye look really big, while her glasses do make her eye slightly bigger looking, its not near as bad as this picture makes them look. Plus her glasses were a bit crooked looking that day, we have since adjusted them. You get the idea though, they are brown with a tiger print on the inside of them. She is doing well with them, her eye patch should be here later this week.

Church and prayer request

Since losing our internet a lot of changes have happened at our church here in Norman. Our lead pastor and his family left, and we are moving to a new building! They moved on to bigger and better things and we are so happy for them. We ask that you please pray for our lead pastor Justin and his wife Sarah, they moved to Kansas to start a new church, taking with them their 3 small children. We ask that you pray they have great success in their new venture and that God will provide them all they need to begin the new church there.

Next week should be our first week in our new building. There were some financial issues and we could no longer stay in our church building so we are moving to another church which has upgraded to a new building so we get their old one to use until its sold. Its a beautiful location, and we are happy to be staying with Generations church through the move. We also request that prayers be said for our church so it can thrive and get out of its debt issues. Its a great ministry and even though its fallen on some tough money times it has not faltered at all in providing a wonderful spiritual experience for all those who attend. We love our church and our church family so much, its become a big part of our lives and its made us super happy to get to do so. Emma loves it there, and I can't wait to take her to the new building so she will have new things to look at!

No, we didn't fall off the face of the planet

Welcome back readers, sorry we were gone for so long, but in Sept we had to drop our cable service to save money, and we are just now getting back on.

As some of you know, Emma's Daddy lost his job in November of 2009. He spent most of 2010 unemployed with the exception of a few temporary jobs. It was a very hard year and we would have never made it through with out support from our friends, family, and church. Thank you! In December he started a permanent job as a dishwasher at our local hospital, so far he likes it and its been a true blessing that he found it.

Since Sept Emma has been doing well. She got another nasty leg infection in October but quickly got over it. She had a wonderful Christmas. Not a lot of news to share about her, she is just growing and her hair is getting longer.

Her big brother Derek just recently got straight A's on his 3rd grade report card and we are so proud of him. He is almost as tall as Mom now, just a few more inches!

Twin sister Ella received a Kiwanis award at school for being a Terrific Kid because she was inclusive. We were proud of her and Emma had fun going to the school to watch her sister. Ella also just got glasses this week and will be patching her eye too. She has Amblylopia or lazy eye. Hopefully in the next few years it will correct itself and she can go on with her life glasses free after that.

Above are a few recent photos my sister took of the kids, some at the awards for Terrific Kids and Derek at the National Weather Service's festival in Oct sitting in the Dominator from tv's "Storm Chasers", thought you might like them.  I will get some pics of Ella in her new glasses and patch soon. Keep reading for more updates, I will try to do so frequently now that we are back online.

8-24-2010

Wow its been a long time since I updated here. Not much going on with Emma she is just hanging out enjoying life. Derek and Ella started school, Derek is in 3rd grade this year and Ella is in all day Kindergarten. That means its just me and Emma all day long! All the fun stuff we can do without interruption now. I am researching things to hopefully start music therapy with her soon, she loves music and I figured it would be a good way for her to learn things. I will be homeschooling her so I figure the more things I can do with her the better. Here are two pictures I took of Emma yesterday, hope you enjoy them. I will try to update more as we home school and look for new ideas on things to do with Emma, if anyone has any therapy tips or ideas for me let me know! She can't really use a pencil or talk but she hears well and learns though touch I think, and of course we are working with her physical therapy and trying to keep her muscles as lose as we can. She likes to get her massages and work out every day with me, its fun for me too!

July 10, 2010

Not much going on around here. God has blessed us with a very uneventful year with Emma so far, which is good considering the way last year went out (the ulcer hospital stay).

Emma got a afghan today from heartmadeblessings.org it was requested by my sister, Lisa. I love this program and thought I would share that link with all of you. Their site says: Heartmade Blessings is a world-wide group of volunteers dedicated to providing hand-crafted items to those people suffering a loss, tragedy, or going through a rough time that need to be reminded of the simple fact that people care.
Heartmade Blessings come from all the wonderful people who donate squares for afghans and bearghans. They are also made possible through the efforts of the warm, caring people who donate their time in assembling and organizing the distribution of these items to those in need. We truly believe these people are nothing short of a "blessing" themselves.

So if you know someone who needs a little comfort check out their page, and if you are crafty and can help make afghan squares please check out how to volunteer your time. Its a great group. We have sent afghans to our friend Jaye and to Emma's boyfriend Daniel before he passed away. We have been lucky to get this beautiful one today and a bearghan for her when she was little.

The summer has been rainy and hot here so not many out door things going on for Emma, tomorrow we will be walking to church, she hasn't been in a while due to various reasons I have had to leave her at home, I am sure she will have to much fun getting back.

June 7 2010

Finally some new pics to post! And a quick update. We didnt make it to our March of Dimes walk back in May. Rest assured your donations did, but we stayed home. It rained a lot and they moved the walk inside to a small gym, with a DJ and music and lots of noise and people. We really worried it might set off Emma's seizures so we did not go. Not to mention we would have had to take the bus in the rain way across town and risk getting her vent wet.

She is doing great! No seizures, no icky sicky's lately. Just hanging out with brother and sister for the summer.

Yesterday we went to cousin Killian's first birthday party. He turns 1 tomorrow. That's where are pictures are from. I had to include a few of him on the blog, because he is adorable! It was a very nice party and we all had a great time.

That's the update for now, nothing earth shattering to tell just enjoying life.