Dave, Wendy, Alaina, and Leo: January 2008

Wednesday, January 30, 2008

Prayer request for our niece

I just wanted to post about Chris (Dave's brother) and Carolynn's daughter Evelynn. She is having some health problems and they are trying to figure out what is causing them. They have tested for leukemia which has turned out negative. I will copy the letters they sent to us here:

January 28th:

Good Afternoon Family & Friends,

I'm writing with an Urgent Prayer Request for our daughter Evelynn. As most of you know, Evelynn has always struggled with unexplained allergies/ problems. She is 17 months old.
This last week Evelynn has been sick with high fevers, and her spots (hives) have returned with no explanation.

I took her to the doctor today, and they are running a small arsenal of tests. Not the least of which is for Leukemia.

Evelynn is loosing, and Not gaining weight. She has fallen off her chart, for the 3rd time, and is only in the 3rd percentile for weight. Her height is continuing to chart normally, so she's growing, just not in all the right ways. She is dehydrated, sore, and unhappy.

Please pray for total healing, and answers to the plethora of unexplained/ questions. Please pray for wisdom for her medical team, and Peace for her parents. Let's step out in Faith and believe it to be something as simple as a thyroid issue, anemia, or that her internal plumbing is not correctly hooked up. I feel like anything is easier to fix than what I fear most.

I will keep you all updated as more comes in. It's expected to take 2 days for the Cancer test results.

Love,Carolynn & Christopher Johnston

January 28th:

PRAISE THE LORD - It's NOT Leukemia!!!!!The hospital just called to say the results came back (for Leukemia only), but it was Negative! The nurse said the rest would take a couple days, but they wanted to get us that one as soon as they could.This is a Huge Victory! But it leaves more questions... what IS going on? Please continue to pray for answers and Thank you for your faithfulness to the Lord and to our family.

Love,Carolynn

January 30th:

Hello Family and Friends,

Here is the latest on Evie Jean. Yesterday we thought we knew something, turns out today we don't.

They do know it is Not Type 1 Diabetes or Chron's Disease. We thought Cystic Fibrosis got ruled out too, but it didn't because she's going back in for another blood draw, for another round of tests again today. We are hoping, praying, it's something as easy to fix as Celiac Disease. They have overlooked this possible diagnosis because when she was allergy tested, her wheat test came back fine. We're hoping there is a distinct difference between the wheat and gluten tests. If it turned out to be Celiac's, she just has to stay on a gluten free diet for life. We're still planning to try the Gluten Free Casein Free diet with William and Benjamin, for the Aspergers and the ADHD, so this would be an easy fix for us. We're supposed to know about Cystic Fibrosis within a couple days, Dr. Tom said the Celiac test will take about a week.

Aside from today's lab, Evelynn has an Upper GI and a Small Bowel/ Intestinal Test scheduled for Monday, February 4th at 9:00 a.m. She has an allergist appointment immediately following that. Please continue to pray for her, because these tests are scary and painful to her. Please continue to stay in prayer for an easily fixable, and quickly delivered, diagnosis. Our thanks to each one of you; we're blessed to have you in our lives.

Love,Carolynn Johnston

I am sure that they would appreciate the prayers for their daughter. I will post more of their e-mail updates as I get them.

Sunday, January 27, 2008

Left out pictures from the last month

A few days ago, Dave downloaded some pictures from the last month that were saved on our camera's internal memory. These all range from the time he was born to a couple of days ago. I thought I would post them tonight before I go to bed.

This picture is from when Leo was less than a week old and Dave had both babies and the dog cuddling with him.

Grandma shortly before she left...(we miss you!!)

Alaina and Leo on Christmas morning (actually Dec. 30th I believe). No shortage of presents again this year.

Josh (Laura's fiance) with Leo when they came up for the weekend of January 12th and 13th. He is so good with kids!

Leo on Friday night showing off his neck strength. He is getting so big so fast!!

Dave left for Virginia this morning. There were a bunch of delays so even though he is supposed to be in Virginia already, he is currently in Dallas waiting on a flight that gets in at 12:45am. Unfortunately, between then and tomorrow morning he has to go rent a car and get it registered to drive on post as well as get checked into the hotel. It has been a rough day for him, but hopefully the rest of his 2 weeks will go more smoothly.

We all went to drop off Dave at 6am this morning at the airport. Since then Alaina has only slept for 20 minutes or so in the car. She has completely refused to nap. Any thoughts, prayers, or good vibes you could send our way would be awesome because I don't know if I could do 14 days with a 1 1/2 year old who won't nap.

Well, I have 2 sleeping babies (if I can get Leo into bed without waking him...) so I am going to try to get some sleep myself. Hope you all had a good weekend!

Friday, January 18, 2008

More of Leo

I got the picture I was trying for last night while Alaina (and Leo) were napping. Hope you enjoy!

Thursday, January 17, 2008

Baby Pictures I took tonight

How cute is this face??

I love baby feet!!

How cute is a naked baby??

Such a cute profile :)

Our new arrival :)

Hopefully I will be able to get this picture again, but with him on his tummy asleep. I will post more pictures when I get them. Have a good weekend everyone!

"I'm a Big Sister"

Here is a picture of Alaina in my "I'm a big sister" t-shirt that I was given when my sister Haley was born by my Aunt Kathi. Mom brought it for her when she was down in December. It is so neat that Alaina can wear it now.