Odds and Ends

I feel a bit behind on the blog. Therefore, I am just going to try to do one post and catch everyone up a bit on what has/is going on.

**Grace had her last speech therapy session with Susan on July 28th. Susan became like part of our family, as we saw her twice a week. We miss you so much Susan. Thank you for all you taught Grace, as well as her mommy.


**We also had to say goodbye to two of Grace's service coordinators. The EDIS program (early intervention) closed on base. If Grace needs any further therapies, she will be evaluated through the public school system. Thank you LeeAnn and Gaye for all you did to make this transition smooth. LeeAnn, you helped us out tremendously when we were transitioning from Virginia/Korea to here. Thank you for all of the emails and phone calls you put in to us, as well as everyone else involved. Thank you for always checking on Grace when she had her surgeries/procedures. We could not have asked for better, or more loving service coordinators.


**Grace and I joined a MOMS group that is local. We have only been to one meeting so far, but they have playdates and field trips scheduled for each month. There is no requirement, you just attend what you can.

**Grace's G-tube decided to come out this past Saturday evening. Unfortunately, re-inserting the tube is no easy task for us. It generally should be, however the past few times have been pretty traumatic for Grace and she hasn't forgotten. We were able to get it back in, but not without holding her down. We tried talking and reasoning with her first and bribery, but the trust factor just wasn't there. It definitely isn't there after holding her down. Thankfully she calms down immediately once it is back in and acts as if the whole ordeal never happened. We have an appointment on August 20th to get it removed for good. We are SOOOO looking forward to that. It will be one less thing to have to worry about for us as well as her. We have not been using it since December, but because of her heart cath and possible ear procedures, the doctors wanted it left in just in case. Now that all of those procedures are over and ruled out, we can safely have it removed.

**Grace will start a 3 morning a week preschool on August 17th. We have a parent teacher conference this Thursday evening. She will go from 9-12 on Monday,Wednesday, and Friday. We are all a bit nervous on how she will hold up health wise, but are excited for her. All of her doctors involved are in agreeance that she is fine to attend. We had started her in a one or 2 morning a week preschool here on base, but the program changed and she only went for a week or two. So this will be her first true time at preschool.

**On August 25th, we have an evaluation to determine if Grace still needs any additional therapies (speech, physical,etc). If she does, she will no longer be going to the church preschool rather a special needs preschool that will provide her with these therapies during that time. We are going to start her in the church preschool until we find out if she qualifies for any additional assistance. Alot of changes going on for her, but we are excited that she is getting the chance to be with other children (as her health has not allowed it before) and also get the services she needs.

**This past Sunday night was Grace's first time to attend AWANA. Ryan and I visited a small group and look forward to doing a study together and getting to know everyone.

**Grace received this dress (from Honduras) an infant from her Aunt Tammy. She wasn't able to get much wear out of it because of her hospitalizations, but she can now wear it as a shirt. She LOVES it and I have gotten so many compliments on it. Thank you Aunt Tammy! Oh and look who has enough hair to go in complete pigtails now. Mommy is having fun with finally being able to put bows in her hair (though she didn't have any in this picture).


P.S. If your still reading by this point, will you say pray that Grace remains well enough to start preschool. She has some drainage and a really raspy voice, so we are a little worried that she is coming down with a cold. She has been waking up 4 times a night lately and so I think the interrupted sleep is getting to her. We really aren't sure why she has been waking up so much, as she goes right back to bed when we lay her down. I am definitely not use to the waking up every couple hours. My body feels like I have a newborn again, walking zombie and is begging to go to bed by like 8, so I can only imagine how she is feeling. We are hoping the sleepless nights are due to her not feeling the best and not a new phase we are entering!