please, please say a prayer for Kate.

please pray for Kate- i have been following her story for a while now. i can't even imagine what this sweet family is going through. please take time out if you are reading this and pray for one of the prettiest little girls that is in a horrible battle for her life.
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mcraekate

this is one of their last posts- get the tissues, you will cry- please, please pray for Kate.
Sunday, August 30, 2009 10:23 PM, MST
I don't want to blog tonight, yet I feel compelled to keep Kate's story in the forefront of peoples minds. To keep prayers for our daughter on everyone's lips. Tonight I am frustrated and angry. No, not angry at God, angry at the evils of cancer. The chemo went terribly tonight. We had to coax and try amidst tears and screams and Kate saying we were "hurting her feelings". Finally, after about 40 minutes we were able to get it in, only to find it being vomited everywhere 2 minutes later. All over Kate, myself, Aaron the couch and the carpet. This only further intensified her misery. She cried even harder and kept apologizing. Apologizing that she vomited the medicine everywhere and frantically wondering if she had gotten it on her broviac (which would mean a dressing change, which always leads to terrible itching for her). We then had to tell her we had to retake the dose. Not what a tired, frustrated, upset, sick 5 year old wants to hear. The tears started afresh as we started the arduous battle again. Being at home is wonderful, but there is always a catch it seems. This time, oral chemo. She just landed in bed and I pray she keeps it down for the rest of the night. We do pretreat with nausea medicine, but tonight it didn't seem to work. I need a good run, a good scream, not sure what all of our new neighbors would think. And to be honest, I am too exhausted. I probably couldn't make it out the door. The battle never seems to let up. And if it does, only for a short time, enough to catch your breath and try and brave the next storm. And yet, even if you seem to catch a little reprieve, the thoughts, the wonderings, the pain, the sorrow are never far only maybe slightly misplaced. That is something extremely difficult. There is no running, no hiding, no escaping. When it is your child, it is always there, always a thought, always a heartache. So tonight we pray with even more boldness, God please heal our daughter. And we ask you please, will you engage deeply in this battle with us? Not a random thought, or a random prayer of pity. But heartfelt cries to God on behalf of our daughter. Fervent and over and over again. In a book I am reading it talks about God loving importunate prayer. And the reason that He loves such a prayer is that He loves us and knows that it is a necessary preparation for our receiving the richest blessings that He is waiting and longing to bestow....... We are asking for that richest blessing to be Kate's full recovery. We know He is able, and we believe He welcomes our prayers. I will write more about our weekend tomorrow and about her Dr's appointment tomorrow. For now, I have to go finish cleaning up the vomit. Knowing what chemo does to her body, I have no idea what it does to a couch and carpet. Thank you for loving Kate and battling with her through prayer.

nothing better than this...

Baby Shower given by our small group family!!

we had a baby shower last week given by our small group family. They are so awesome!!! It was a shower for our baby and rebekah and grant's little luke :) what a wonderful day, we were just overwhelmed with love:) no idea what i would do without these women. they are our family here- always will be.

Baby Shower #1 for Whitney Rose :)

this week my "old school" baptist girls gave me a shower for sweet whitney. i met them when i started working at baptist when i was 22 years old. non of them work there anymore except sarah, but she works at the one in north little rock. they are great women and i am blessed to call them friends. thanks kathy, jenny,miranda, and sarah!!!

congrats to My cheryl

just wanted to remember that my dear sweet friend, lifelong friend cheryl graduated from nursing school this past weekend. I am SO very proud of her i can't even stand myself. she lives in san antonio, tx and i was there in my thoughts. congrats cheryl- you deserve it!!!!!!

31 weeks tomorrow!!

this picture was taken this weekend at our dear friend hannah's birthday party. ( love you hannah)- we had a great time. thanks to chas and darby for taking care of our sweet mary claire.
i am going to be 31 weeks tomorrow. can't believe it. this pregnancy is going by so fast.

i plan on having a repeat c-section since i unfortunately had to have one the first time. my doc. says he will do it about a week early. that means i may only have 8 weeks left. kinda scary. i know going from 1 to 2 children will not be easy, but i know paul and i can do it and we are a really great team. i love him and i am so happy we get to be parents together.

i love this girl :)

playing in the rain

mary claire had a great time today playing in the rain, and we had a great time watching. oh, to be 4 years old, in the driveway, in your panties, playing in the rain :)

(pause the music at the bottom of the page to hear)