It's gonna be a boy!!!

Hey, I realized no one has updated in a while. Bettina is pregnant and we have found out that he is a boy. Currently, we are calling him 'jellybean' so as not to call him an 'it'! We are thrilled and yes he was planned. While our family continues to grow, we pray you do (spiritually) as well. Jellybean is due to join us in the air-breathing world sometime in the beginning of November. The church is doing great and we constantly trust in God Almighty. HE forever deserves our praise. Jalen is about to begin Middle School - yikes, while Brenna will begin 5th grade and Bella is about to begin Kindergarten! I know just the other day they were all home all day long because they were too young to attend school - what happened?

Brenna's MRI results

Hey all. Just a note to let everyone know that Brenna's MRI scan was clear again! Praise the Lord, for HIS love endures forever! We are so proud of Brenna and her trust in God. She continues to be the trooper that she has consistently been. Thank you for the prayers and support. We love each one of you. We were followed around by cameras again today...she is quite the ham! (She gets that from her moma!)

Under HIS Wings,

David

Spring Break in Memphis!

Hey friends! We are back in Memphis for scans and check ups. We are here all week and have lots of different tests. Today was her MRI and we'll get the results tomorrow. Brenna is doing fantastic! She is loving life and has not been having any seizures still. We are staying with our friends at Habitat for Hope. The kids have been having a fantastic time playing together. THe weather has been awesome and so its really hard to sit inside the hospital for very long. But, we got back to the Hope House early enough this evening for the girls to ride horses and the boys to play in their fort. We are going to go on a short camping trip this weekend, since it is Spring Break. We hope the weather holds up. Brenna has her last appointment Monday, with Dr. Clarke. I will try to post tomorrow and let you all know MRI results. THanks for keeping us in your prayers. We love you all!

- Oh, and the pictures are from our Fall Break camping trip. Hope to add new camping pics soon!

All is Well!

Brenna's veins were cooperating this morning and the nurse hit it on the first try. Yay! We were thankful for that. They left the IV in and we went from triage into MRI. Everything seemed to progress fairly quickly this morning. It was about two hours later and they were calling us back to recovery. Brenna even woke up from sedation quickly and was bouncin around fairly soon after. She awoke hungry and we went to lunch where she ate a huge piece of pizza and cheetos.

After lunch we went to E clinic and saw Dr. Gajjar. He knew we wanted results so he went on a search for them while the nurse practitioner checked Brenna out. Praise the Lord we have clear scans once again!!! And we have now graduated from check ups every three months to every six months! Woo hoo!! Obviously she's doing fantastic and there aren't any issues that they need to see her more often for. How awesome is that?!!

After E clinic we mosied on over to the Endocrine specialists. They had run tests on the blood drawn and found her cortisol levels kind of off. But, they said that it's probably not an accurate reading because she was on steroids after surgery and now she's on an inhaled steroid for the terrible cough that she's had. She also hasn't grown like she's supposed to. But, we're going to wait until the next visit to re-evaluate and then possibly make a decision about giving her growth hormone. I really just want her to enjoy life right now without adding more medication. And they are supportive of whatever decision we make.

All in all it was a pretty good day. Now we are off to Habitat for Hope. Brenna is excited to see her friend Bella and spend some time playing and we're looking forward to catching up with dear friends. We are so grateful for all of you who have continued to pray for our little princess and our family. God be praised!!

Hit the Ground Runnin!

Okay, so we're not still in Colorado, in case you were wondering. We are back at life in Oklahoma although I look at these pictures and think - man, why do vacations have to end?? We did a lot of hiking and fishing. The weather was great. We hiked up to the top of Cottonwood Pass and it snowed on us briefly while were were up there. The kids thought that was awesome! (So did I). They loved throwing snowballs in July! We also took jeeps up to an old mining town called Crystal. We used to camp there as kids, but it's so hard to get there. I actually thought we might end up at the bottom of the mountain in a heap at one point. What an adventure!! But we made it alright and now we have lots of wild memories to recall when our family gets together! We also hiked up to the Alpine Tunnel somewhere above St. Elmo. That was a long hike, but it was so worth it. The Columbine and wildflowers are gorgeous and Bella posed for me next to some. We got to feed the Chipmunks and see some wildlife - but no bears - bummer. We fished at Cottonwood and Chalk lakes. Not to brag, but I (Bettina) caught the biggest fish. :) I think all together we caught about 18 rainbow trout. The kids did more exploring than fishing, but they loved it.
We did come back to our tent one day after a storm had blown through and our sleeping bags were a bit wet. Thankfully, the campground had dryers that we could use. It could have been worse. Overall, we had an exhaustingly good time. Anyone that's ever been tent camping, knows exactly what that means.
We hit the ground runnin when we got back home. Our church had a back to school night where we gave away free school supplies and then the next day started school. All the kids got the teachers they wanted. Jalen is in 5th grade - wow! He has the only male teacher and he really likes him. He's very challenging which will be good for Jalen. Brenna got the teacher that Jalen had last year and she loves her. I'm just so happy that Brenna is in school and is doing so well. She still works a little slower, but is really doing fantastic and making good grades. She's down to only one seizure medicine now. Praise the Lord!!! It makes such a difference in her mood and personality. She's back to her fun, energetic, bubbly self. Bella is in Pre-K. Her teacher goes to our church and of course, Bella loves her. She goes half days most of the time, but they are flexible and she gets to stay all day on special occasions when they have parties or if we are going to be gone or something. She thinks she's such a big girl. She's growing too fast!!

So, now, summer is over and the air is getting cooler. I love summer time, but I'm always excited when Fall gets here. It's such a nice change and I love the cooler temps. God is doing some amazing things in our lives and I just feel such anticipation at what He is going to do next. Our church is experiencing some good changes and exciting things are happening. I just sometimes sit back in awe and lift my hands in thanksgiving for all He's done. This morning, we left town early, around 7, to head back to Memphis for check ups. It was so awesome to see the full moon setting in the west and the sky streaked with color as the sun rose in the east. What an amazing God we love and serve!

Yes, we are back in Memphis. Today, Brenna saw Dr. Clarke and he said she's doing fantastic. Of course we knew that. He'd like to leave her on the one seizure med for about a year or so. That's normal procedure - well, actually two years is normal - but since she's doing so well, he'd consider taking her off at one year. So, we can handle that. And he doesn't need to see her again until March. Tomorrow, she has labwork and then an MRI. We'll wait around for results and see her oncologist, Dr. Gajjar, in E clinic. Then we'll head over to the endocrine people and talk about her thyroid and growth issues. She's still not putting on weight, really. And I'm not sure that she's grown like she should - so we'll find out all that stuff tomorrow. But, in light of what she's been through, I think this will be a piece of cake.

Colorado Here We Come!!

We are headed to Colorado!! We've been looking forward to this vacation now for over two years! It may not seem like an exciting trip to some, but I can't think of anything better than breathing the crisp cool air, camping on top of a mountain. We are on the road and the kids are already sleeping I think. I think I will be too before long. It will be a long drive, but well worth the trip. We are going with my parents, my sister's family and my younger brother's family. We are going to have a blast!

Brenna has been doing so great! We actually made a super quick trip to memphis a week and a half ago for a check up. Dr. Clarke and Dr. Boop both wanted to see her and check her out to see how she was doing. Of course, she's doing very well and they were both pleased. She is completely off of one of her seizure meds and they are slowly weining her off of another. So she's just on two now. Hurray!! You can really tell the difference too! She's much more alert and bright eyed.

This past week we've been just enjoying life. We went swimming several times and we went to see the movie Wall-e. It's been over a year that she was having seizures so it's like we're learning what normal life is again. Although, I'm not sure we'll ever be normal. Who is??

We are just loving life right now and making the most of every opportunity. Well, we've been on the road for two hours and Bella needs to stop already so I'll close for now.

Stitches and Smiles

We are home now and loving it! We had a great time at Grandma and Grandpa's for the 4th. Brenna even rode the pony (with me) for a little while. She enjoyed watching the fireworks and even lit a few but mostly sat on Grandpa's lap as a spectator. We didn't really have to do much of anything - but just enjoy being together and being out of the hospital and past the surgeries.

We drove home Saturday morning. It was so good to be home!! Sunday was fantastic as we were able to go and be with our church family - praising and worshiping God together. Brenna wanted to go, but at the same time was very tired. So, we went and she laid on my lap during daddy's preachin.

Jalen has been having hives. They actually began before we left for Memphis but have gotten steadily worse. They really flared up big time on the day of Brenna's second surgery. I've ruled out food allergies, but don't know if it's an outdoor allergy or if it's just stress. David finally took him to the doctor Tuesday and she put him on steroids to get them stopped. He also is taking benadryl every four hours. It looks like he's been attacked by giant mosquitoes when they flare up and he's just been miserable. Hopefully, the steroids will get them under control. If it's stress related, hopefully, now that we're home and Brenna is doing well, they will go away.

Other than a few headaches - Brenna's been doing amazingly well. Her incision itches a lot and that bothers her, but she's not complained too much about it. The part that hurts the most is right above her ear. I wonder if that will bother her and keep her from wanting to wear sunglasses and even regular glasses if she needs them some day. I had to cut off part of her hair in places where the blood and gunk had matted it terribly. It just wasn't worth trying to comb it out. I did not want to cause her any pain just to comb her hair. Eventually - I'll trim it all so that the part they shaved can catch up. I really try to not focus on that though. Whether she has hair or doesn't have hair -she's BEAUTIFUL! I want my kids to know that it's their character and how they live life and love Jesus and love people that makes them beautiful. And she knows that. I try to make her wear a bandana just to protect her stitches from dirt and the sun, but if we are inside -she's totally comfortable taking it off - even when people gawk. I'm so thankful for her and what she's teaching me.

The kids and I are getting ready to paint Bella's room. That's something that we've put off for over a year, just because life has been so crazy. Hopefully, we'll get more paint on the walls than on ourselves, but we're still going to have fun and enjoy every minute of it.:)

We are praising the Lord, daily, for what He has done but mainly what He continues to do every day in our lives. I see His hand every time I look at my kids, my husband, my family and church family. He is Living and Moving and Working and I am excited to serve and praise His Name!