January!!!!

We have done a lot of fun things since Christmas break ended! First, we got bunnies!!! The one in the picture above is Butterball. He is two-years-old and very sweet! The other one, which I need to get a picture of is Jazzel. She is about five or so. She is also very sweet, but doesn't like to be picked up like Butterball.

The girls love their bunnies!Leah has done so well in school! She loves to draw a picture and write a story about it! In this story, she is telling about the Shepard's and their BIG star they followed to find baby Jesus.

I love her love of writing, and I love her love for Jesus! She is really starting to show how God is working on her heart. At dinner tonight she said this prayer " Dear Jesus, thank you for this wonderful day ( I love how descriptive she is becoming in her vocabulary) thank you for our food and our bodies, please save my sisters, because I love them and I don't want them to go to hell, I want them to go to Heaven with you Jesus, Amen! "

It really warms this Mamma's heart to hear her pray that, and to know that she truly understands salvation and to see her concern and love for her sisters. I know God has a special plan for that sweet girl! : )Madelyn Kate turned Three-years-old on the 8th of this month! I can't believe my youngest and baby just turned three!!! I love seeing her personality! She is so funny! She loves to laugh and to make others laugh too! She is also her sisters little shadow, which is sweet to watch the three of them play together. I can see three best friends when they are all grown up and have families of their own. What a sweet time that will be!

What am I to do with no little babies and three potty trained children?!?!?



My Emma Grace went and had her MRI done last Tuesday and we went to see her Doctor yesterday to get the results of her test.

Emma's ball joint in her shoulder is permanently deformed. Because the nerves of the Brachial Plexus on the left side of the neck and arm were over stretched at birth, her arm lacks in what they call a balanced muscle. The muscle in the front part of her shoulder is over working, therefore it is a lot bigger than the muscle in the back part of her shoulder. So the muscle in the front is pulling her shoulder inward and down. So she has what they call inward rotation.

She has NO external rotation.

Their plan of action is to slow down this process of inward rotation, by going in surgically and cutting the muscle in the front and moving it to the back of the shoulder to create a balanced muscle in her shoulder. Hopefully it will pull her shoulder back some and give her some more function. It will not solve her problem, but we hope it will slow down the internal rotating of her shoulder. Her Doctor was very straight forward with us, which I like. Because, Emma's socket has been reshaped from a normal "c" type shape to more of a side ways L shape, her arm will continue to turn inward. The only other thing they could do for her as she gets older and if it gets extremely worse, is to do a reconstructive surgery of her shoulder. They would go in and cut her humerus bone and move it to a position that would give her better external rotation. : / We are praying that this surgery will not be needed and that the muscle transfer will take!

Emma is scheduled to have surgery on Monday February 13th. Please keep her in your prayers!

I don't know why God has lead us down this path, it breaks my heart to see Emma suffer. But, I know that God has a plan for all of this, even if I can't see it right now,and honestly can't understand it. He loves her more than I can even imagine! Thankful for His grace, thankful that his mercies are new EVERY morning!

"Because of the LORD's great love, we are not consumed, for His compassion's never fail. They are new every morning; great is your faithfulness". Lam 3:22-23

Emma Grace~ Erb's Palsy

A lot of people ask me why I take Emma to therapy and what is Erb's palsy. (what Emma has) So I thought I would blog about it! : )

Every child is a miracle don't get me wrong! When Emma was born her birth was very difficult, Dr's fancy talk "Severe Shoulder Dystocia" Basically Emma's left shoulder got stuck on my bone and they couldn't get her out, after several different maneuvers, one broken arm, a very over stretched brachial nerves in her left arm, she was born. : ) When Emma was born they had to resuscitate her twice and then after a very quick peek at our new bundle of joy they whisked her off to the NICU for the night. They told us what went wrong and what to expect, that she may never be able to move her left arm........it was a big shock to Tim and I. We had NO idea how much our lives were about to change. Emma's broken arm healed perfectly fine. But her left arm was and is a slow process. She was not able to move her arm for the first four months of her life. She has been in physical therapy since she was 8 weeks old.

I am very grateful to God for her and all the miracles He continues to do with Emma. First they didn't think she would be able to move her arm, at four months she was able to move her forearm for the first time. : ) Then they thought that that would be the extent of her function, well at six months she was able to move her shoulder. God definitely has His hand on her. She did really well and compared to most kids who have Erb's palsy (that's what they call it) she is remarkable.

What is Erb's Palsy??

Erb's palsy is a form of brachial plexus palsy. It is named for one of the doctors who first described this condition, Wilhelm Erb.

The brachial plexus (BRAY-key-el PLEK-sis) is a network of nerves near the neck that give rise to all the nerves of the arm. These nerves provide movement and feeling to the arm, hand, and fingers. Palsy means weakness, and brachial plexus birth palsy causes arm weakness and loss of motion.

These nerves carry the signals from the brain to the muscles that move the arm. The nerves carry signals back to the brain about sensations such as touch, pain, and temperature.In some children, the affected arm is noticeably smaller than the unaffected arm. This occurs because nerves do have an effect on growth. Although the affected arm will continue to grow as the child grows, it grows at a slower pace, and the size difference will become more noticeable as the child gets older.

In Emma's case her elbow is slightly locked meaning she can't straighten her left arm out. So IF Emma stood still : ) and you looked at her you might would notice her left arm stays slightly bent. She also has internal rotation of her shoulder. The back of her shoulder lacks in muscle, so her shoulder is turning inward and her shoulder blade wings out because there is not enough proper muscle to hold it down. The supination in her left hand/arm is not very good. She can not turn her palm up in that arm. She can go as far as turning her thumb up. But, again Emma is doing VERY well with all of this! If you researched kids with this condition, you would see just how bad it could of been. We are so thankful to God that this is all we have to deal with, she can still do things, she might have to do some things differently, but she can do them!

It's been hard (for me) to deal with this. I do feel a lot of guilt, not that I could of done anything different, I just wish I could take this for her and she wouldn't have to deal with any of this. I wish I could take her place ( although I still have my own physical issues because of the birth)! I have been told that it is a long process of surgeries, therapies, and waiting. She may need surgeries through out her childhood to help her arm lengthen and grow as she grows. I was told by her Dr. that Emma will probably need to have a muscle transfer surgery, where they would take some of her good muscle from the pectoral area and transfer it to the back to help pull her shoulder back and possibly give her some more supination in that arm.

It's hard for Tim and I to make this decision of surgery now or wait or no surgery at all! It scares me to hear the DR say that if we don't transfer muscle, her arm will slowly turn all the way inward, not only would it look bad, but it would have no more function, and I'm sure be more painful. We think about how this is going to effect Emma's future, the physical scares she will have, being a girl how is this going to effect her self esteem when she is a teenager! Will she be able to drive a car when she gets older, will she be able to hold her baby one day with both her arms. How will she do everyday task that we do and don't think about like, reaching up with both hands to get something off a high shelf, or even button her shirt! She already struggles to get her shirts on and off because she can not turn her arm the way she needs to to take it on and off.

Oh the worries of this Mommy's heart!

So thankful for God's word and how it gives me peace!

Please pray for us! Emma is going on Tuesday for a sedated MRI. It is suppose to take three hours, then next Tuesday we are scheduled to meet with her Orthopedic Surgeon to discuss the findings of her MRI. Whether or not it is the right time to do a muscle transfer surgery or if we should wait and watch a while longer. It's a hard decisions for Tim and I to make. We have noticed that since Emma has gotten bigger her left arm is smaller, bent up, and turned inward more. She is having more and more difficulty with dressing herself. We appreciate all of your prayers!

She is a blessing and a miracle to us! ( all our girls are :) ) Thankful to God for all His blessings.