Pumpkin Patch Fun!!

Wow! It has been a long time since I have posted and I apoligize. We have had a rough couple of weeks in regaurd to our Danielle! I cant believe this much time has gone by....

Anyways on a happy note, Saturday I took the kids to the Pumpkin Patch in Monks Corner and we had a great time! They had hay mazes, hay rides, a petting zoo, pumpkins, a milking cow and much more. They even had a food stand with BBQ! It was a great time! We went with my Aunt who loves to go with us to these types of things and we enjoy her company! Thank you Diana for joining us!!!

Rylie and Danielle both really enjoyed the hay ride the most. Rylie was running around all over the place and Danielle was just as happy as can be! I loved, for once this week, to see my children smiling! The day-to-day around here is not the best it can be with a BD child living here!

Anyways, I will be posting some pics up so hope you all enjoy!

Until next time,

Jacki

Cold weather & Holiday planning

We are finally wearing our winter clothing! Its only 69 degrees to day!
Having fun At Rollie Pollies on a rainy day

Good morning!

I hope eveybody had a good weekend. We have had an okay one but thankful none the less. We are starting to plan the holiday festivities and with the cold weather this weekend it seems like they are already here!! Once Halloween gets here, it's all a whirlwind from there. I just hope and pray that we dont loose sight of what each holiday is really about. We will continue to pray that we never loose sight of the real meaning of each holiday and that each one we celebrate is a gift from Him! And also that we are thankful for everyday we spend with each other, weather it is good, bad or just plain miserable. (We are having less bad and miserable days lately.) :)

Danielle update: She has had a couple of bad days this week. She missed school 3 times and has been really down. We have just been loving on her and trying to show her that no matter what is going on inside her she is still loved and cherished just like Rylie and everybody else. I think she just thinks that she is "Bad" or "Too hard for mommy to handle" (these are things that she has said to us). It is heart breaking to hear these things but it is all part of the disorder. We constantly pray for her understanding and a peace that will get her through each day. It just seems like no matter how much we pray, it still isnt enough. If I could and had time, I would pray for her all day! And night! On a lighter note, we still havent had a visit from the tooth fairy yet. It is still hanging on by a tiny string and she wont let us pull it! So when it does we will post a new posting with all of details.

Family Update: We are super excited about the Holidays!!!! I love to decorate and this year I might just learn to cook my very first Thanksgiving dinner and my very first Christmas dinner!!! (No more Honeybaked Ham Store food) !! Kevin and I are actually starting to plan details! We are going to be missing my family, but maybe his family will be here! We dont know. We are just so excited to have Christmas in our vey own house this year! What a blessing from God!

We are also getting ready to redo the Master bedroom. We are still picking out colors and we think we might just refinish our furniture instead of buying new stuff! Wish us luck as we have zero experience in "Redoing" anything in a house!!! :)

Rylie, oh Rylie....she is something else! I think she should have been my boy! I dont remember Danielle ever being as wild as Rylie is! She is everywhere all the time!! Always into to something! So my days usually include being on the floor doing damage control! I dont know why I do it because it just gets all messy again! Oh well I love every part of being her mommy though. I really took for granted these things with Danielle, but after so many losses I fully take in everything that Rylie does and I try to remember it and revisit the memory often. I am very thankful that God gave me an ability to scrapbook because I can revisit Danielles memories as well.

Well, its lunch time in the smith house and that means grouchy children, so its off to the kitchen!

Until next time, have a blessed day!

jacki

Danielle's first loose tooth....

Guess What???? Yup, you guessed it! Danielle has her very first loose tooth. We haven't had a visit from the tooth fairy yet but we think it should be sometime this weekend. We will keep everybody updated.

It is so exciting to have a first happen for Danielle these days because usually we are excited about Rylies firsts because most of Danielle's first have already happened. I guess I forgot about the first loose tooth! Silly me!! Well while I am just extatic about this I dont think Danielle is. She is absolutely terrified that she will bleed.(And she will) But we explained just a little and that it would feel better once it came out. We shall see though how it goes! Keep checking for updates!

Family update:
We are all finally healed from the illness that lingered forever it seemed. We will continue to pray for a healthy winter!! :) And as for our new life, we are adjusting well. With gentle reminders from the Lord that He is always near, our life has been somewhat pleasant. Praise God!!

Well off to start the day....until next time,
Jacki

Pregnancy & Infant Loss Awareness

Please pray for all babies that have been taken from their mothers and fathers to early. Thank you!
Jacki

God is AWESOME!!!

Being in the car this week has been a learning experience from the Lord. A friends of ours introduced us to the radio station 100.9FM and it is so AWESOME!!! Everyday the announcers read from the Bible , maybe only a verse or maybe a couple of verses, but its always a joy to reminded that while I am out in my car with the typical background noise of two precious little children, that I can hear from the Lord. While I was out and about today in the car running the typical weekend errands, I was reminded after a very hard weekend with Danielle, of His love for me. Not only me but for all of His children. I have been crying out to Lord for strength and knowledge, patience and peace and I was starting to feel like my crys for help were going unheard. ( I know he hears them, but the devil has been working overtime on me with this whole Danielle thing.) When I am in the car I am usually taking that time to pray with the kids or just pray ( I know this might sound selfish, and it probably is) for myself and Kevin. So when this reading was announced I was in a Walmart parking lot and on the verge of crying. I had been feeling overwhelmed and like my world was crashing down on me. And then just at the right time He spoke to me. I know it was for me. It was my answered prayers. It was a reminder that he hears my cries. He knows every tear. Praise God!! Glory in the highest!


5 Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; your faithfulness reaches beyond the clouds. 6 Your righteousness is like the mighty mountains, your justice like the ocean depths. You care for people and animals alike, O Lord. 7 How precious is your unfailing love, O God! All humanity finds shelter in the shadow of your wings. ---Pslams 36:1-7 NLT

Isnt God Awesome??? Needless to say my day has been a lot better....and so has Danielle's!

Finally feeling better

Good evening,
So basically I am better. I am done with my antibiotics and the cough syrup is really nasty but works so good. Enough of that. Thats crazy! You can tell I have been couped up this week.

Family update: We are all starting to feel normal again. The whirlwind of emotions has started to subside and reality has set in and we get it. We get that not very many children get this diagnosis at age 5 and also that there are not many support groups for families that suffer from this wretched disease. I am actually thinking of startinga support group for our area. I have to get my family stable first, but I think that after we do we need to reach out to other families. It's really hard to accept this diagnosis when nobody can even imagine that your child could even fit that diagnosis. So basically we are all in it alone. And that sucks! For us, we have found strength in our Father. We pray a lot. We cry a lot. We pray a lot more and we look for the blessings in the horrible situation. And believe it or not we have. They are still unfolding but as soon as we know the full extent of what they are we will be glad to share them!
(Sidenote) Some of you dont know that Kevin and I have had several miscarriages and 1 late term miscarriage(I hate this word). This month is pregnancy and infant loss awareness month. Please keep us in your prayers as we mourn our loss. We recently lost one of our angels the day before our 3rd wedding anniversary in July and we are still sad about this. We love every one of our babies from conception to death and we know we will see them all one day in heaven and they will wipe all of our tears away. But until then we will queitly mourn them on October 15th at 7pm by lighting a candle for each one of them. Please feel free to do the same. Thank you!

Okay...Danielle update: She is on her way down. Unfortuantly she has been reminded of a trauma that happened when she was really little invoving firemen and since this week is fire prevention week at school she has been exposed to them all week. The therapist says that it is "stiring things up inside her" which is good in one way but not in others. We will be at the therapists office 2 times next week to battle this one. As far as her behavior though, she has done well with boundries. We have been extremely consistent with discipline and it has worked. We have a little more patience with her then before and that helps as well. (That is definitely a blessing from God). So overall she is making progress. We know that we have a long way to go, but if we can make this kind of progress in 1 month then we can make great progress over the next 6 months and hey, she might even be completely stable! YEAH!!!!!! WE are looking foward to that day.

Rylie update: A little stinker but totally worth it!!! She is everywhere! She is really starting to talk...A lot!!! It is hilarious! And she nods her head yes and no now too! She is growing up so fast! I will have to get some video of this and post that! Maybe tomorrow....until next time,

Have great night
jacki

Strep throat!!???

Hello everyone!
Just thought I would let everyone know that I actually took a turn for the worst yesterday and I ended up in urgent care for 2 hours. Well come to find out I have Strep throat and Bronchitis! What!! Where in the world did I pick that up from???? I know it was the grocery cart or maybe the gas pump....either way I hate this. My house is a wreck and my children are running around like banchies destroying what they can reach. And you're probably wondering "Wheres Kevin?". He is at work! Yep. He is at work. He cant miss any work for illnesses because we have to keep his time available for Danielles episodes.(Yes, thats part of our new life. Waiting to see if Danielle will have an episode runs our daily life.) Please God, help to to be grateful for your blessings and your grace.

So anyways....while I am suppossed to be resting I am chasing Rylie, Typing this post and coughing my head off. So I know I can eliminate 2 of these thinga if I lay down so thats all for now! I will post tomorrow about how I am doing. Good night!

Still stuffy...

Good morning everybody!

I thought I should write and say that I am still here. However I am still sick! The family is on its way to being better, but I am not! I am hoping that I will be able to kick this thing before the new week starts considering that I have so much to do from now until Halloween!

Alright, enough nagging...update on Danielle. She is in what the therapist calls a "hypomanic state" right now. We have been reading several natural remedies books and researching what we can do without medication. We think we owe Danielle that much considering we cant make this thing "go away" or "make her better". She is still our Danielle no matter what diagnosis she is given. Overall, we are doing very well adjusting to our new life. It is definitely not anything close to what we are used to but it's our life and we are learning to appreciate everyday that we have with our children. Good days and bad days!

Update on life in the new house....We are totally excited about the holidays coming up! We are going to have our very first Turkey day celebration and then our very first christmas! We are amazed at the yard work, the fact that no matter how long we work at completing the "honey-do list" we are never done, and that we are still not totally unpacked yet! WOW!! We cant even believe that we have been here 4 months already! Well it's all worth it! It is definitely rewarding to pay a morgage payment and not a rent payment! We are grateful for that, and for Kevins job! His job has been so good with everything that has been going on with Danielle! Praise God for all of his amazing Grace and the life that he has blessed us with!

Alright off to the grocery store now! Until next time....

Kevin and Jacki Smith

Oh yeah...I have an adorable video of Rylie in our kitchen window that I will be uploading soon! It is so cute. It might be in the next post though!

This is Rylie's new thing. We cant get her to stop doing this! When can we start timeout??LOL Needless to say she didnt get down and she protested when we finally got her down!