Praise

Our God is so good. He tangibly answered prayer and I feel like He's holding my hand. With all the illness going around I was so afraid Emma would get sick before her competition last week. I prayed and prayed for her to stay healthy at least until Sunday. I knew that if she did get sick it wouldn't be the end of the world, but I just didn't want to put any more pressure on her dance teacher or fellow teammates. The little ones just don't adapt as well when one person is missing in the formation. Well, let me tell ya - not only did she stay healthy through competition, she's stayed healthy entirely! The rest of us all had something. Three of us had strep, the boys had the flu, and yet Emma remained completely unaffected. How amazing is that? I'm sorry, but you just cannot deny God's hand in that. By any logical expectation she should have gotten something, but she didn't. And her dance team took first for both tap and jazz in their age group, and their tap won third place overall in the junior division. Very exciting!
Another reason to praise our loving God is Emma is growing! We had a follow-up appointment with her endocrinologist yesterday and she has grown almost a full inch in 6 months. Her dr. said they should grow about 2 inches a year, so she's right on track. So for now we're in a holding pattern and just letting her be. If she has another drop in growth like the one that dropped her from the 50-75th% to below the 3rd%, then we'll go ahead with the growth hormone study to see if she has a deficiency. If she does, then we would go ahead with the replacement hormone most likely. If she does not, and the hormone replacement would be solely for esthetic purposes then we would forego that option. But who cares about that for now! She measured in at 45 inches tall and 47 pounds (although that was fully dressed in jeans and two shirts, but hey - we'll just ignore that fact). Those measurements still keep her below the 3rd % but she's maintaining a steady pattern and that's all that matters for now. Yay!
Jackson, while the sickest of us all, remained in good spirits throughout his quarantine. He never complained, ate well, took his medicine without a fight, and kept busy most of the time. You'd never have known he was as sick as he was if the Dr. hadn't told us. He's such a good little man! I'm just so thankful he wasn't miserable.
And just one more reason for praise(really there are too many to post). Brian is potty trained! And he did it himself! We still allow him to wear pull-ups simply because he's afraid to poop on the potty (sorry for TMI), and he's constipated most of the time so we never know when he'll go. I just don't want to clean up that mess. But he hasn't peed in his pull-up in almost a week, and he's telling us when he has to go now. So I'd call that done. I'll be honest, I was a little sad to see the last diaper go. I know, I'm pathetic. But I LOVE having babies and I think the Lord knew I needed a cutoff made for me because I'd have probably had at least one more if it hadn't been decided for me.
The kids have spring break next week but we'll be staying home this year. But Dave and I will be traveling in May on a much needed vacation. Our first "true" vacation since our honeymoon 12 years ago. We're both soooo excited.

Well, that's about all I have for now.