A long month..

Best buds!

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Don't ask:)

Kailee's school Thanksgiving feast! Too cute!

Well, it's been a long while since I've wrote on here. There have been many things going on this past month that I would now like to share with you.

The day after we could not see the sex of the baby, we found out that she would not live. Faith Hope Staniland died 10 days later.

It has been truly surreal to go through this, yet at the same time,it has been hopeful, powerful, faith building, trust building and humbling. God has truly held Jeff and I every step of the way. HE guided our decisions, and brought us to a place of peace, when I didn't think it was possible.

I had a D and E done to remove Faith's body on Dec 2, and I am recovering fine. I feel back to normal now and healed from all physical wounds. The emotional scars are still there, and I know the will always be with me. Faith Hope will always be in our hearts, and I cannot wait to see her someday in Heaven. I know she is waiting up there smiling down on me as we speak.

As I write this, I tear up with JOY, knowing that our Heavenly Father is taking care of her, and knowing that she will NEVER feel pain and hurt like we do. She is safely in our Father's arms...for eternity!

I thank so many of you for your thoughts and prayer sand support over these past few weeks.. Jeff and I could not have done this alone. I know you are in our lives for specific reasons..so THANK YOU!

Faith Hope had Turner's syndrome. ( You can look up the specifics..there is a lot of info).

Many children can live a healthy life with Turner's, and many can live a limited life with Turner's. Faith's conditions was a bit too severe for her to make it full term. Turner's syndrome is chromosome related and it was a complete chance that we had a baby with this condition. I think this stat gives me hope for future pregnancies. We know our family is not complete yet, and we are looking forward to our next baby, whenever that day comes...

Kailee has been doing AWESOME. In these last 6 weeks, she has progressed SO MUCH! She is talking like crazy! She is understand and comprehending SO MUCH more then she ever has, and it is a true blessing to watch. She is a miracle! We had her next surgery scheduled for Jan 4th, but that will now be pushed back to sometime in the spring. We decided to wait a bit after all that has occurred.

Here are pictures of the last weeks...I hope you enjoy our goofy girl:)

With love, Stephanie

AHHHHH

We went today to have our ultrasound of the baby. We were so excited to find out the sex, not to mention how the baby is doing, and the exact due date, etc.

The tech guys couldn't tell us anything, and now I have to wait till my next Dr. visit just to hear how the baby is doing!!!

The stinking baby had it's butt all the way down, and the technician couldn't see the "area".

Jeff and I are now contemplating on waiting to find out. A surprise would be great!

Of course, if we end up finding out, I'll post it!

Kai is doing great...as always!

Surgery Date

Hey All!

We have a surgery date for Kailee's right cochlear implant.

It will be Jan 4, 2010, almost exactly ONE YEAR from her first surgery. I cannot believe it's been that long!

Jeff and I were hoping to get the surgery done before the holidays, but we feel blessed that she is able to get it at all.

Thanks for all your prayers for us as we made this decision. We are excited for Kailee and her future.

Kailee girl is sick this week, so we've been staying in and laying low! I hope she gets better soon. I hate being inside, so does Kailee! At least she doesn't have the flu!

Blessings...

PUMPKIN PATCH

This week we went to TWO pumpkin patches! Once with Kailee's class, and once with some good friends.

The first day was UN-eventful and NO SMILES from Kailee. All I wanted was a smile!!! My mom came with, which was a lot of fun.

The second adventure to the pumpkin patch was a little better, but came with a little girl who ran away from me the whole time!

I don't know what it is, but Kailee likes to play chase... NOT GOOD.

We have been having a hard time trying to help her understand that running away from us is BAD. She hasn't gotten that yet.

We had a great time with some good friends, and it ended up being a nice day.

No updates with her second ear yet. I will keep you posted. Also, we find out in a few weeks what the sex on the baby is! Yeah, that will be fun!

Here are a few cute pics I've taken this last week..

And a few Kai took as well.. maybe she'll be a photographer? I won't hold my breath!

Today was such a sweet day with Kailee.

I took her to school, and got GREAT news that she is doing terrific in her class. They say she is really talking a lot and jut really outgoing and friendly. It's nice to hear good things about your kids..:)

We went to the park for lunch and played for a while. She was so loving to me and wouldn't stop hugging and kissing me. Maybe she misses me after a morning at school? Whatever the reason, I'll talk the lovin!

We go to UCLA for our "last" apt. before possible surgery. PLEASE, pray for us during this time of decision and unknown. We are still torn with the decision for Kailee to actually have the second ear done. Pray that God will make it apparent to us the road which to take:)

Baby #2 is growing...as I can now not hide it! I am very excited and feeling pretty well. I am 13 weeks and it already feels like I've been pregnant forever! I think the only thing that I miss is not being able to work out hard, and sweat!!! I love to sweat!

As soon as I know the sex, I will post immediately. That will not be for a few more weeks though!

Pre-School

I dropped Kailee off at her first day of pre-school yesterday! Wow, was that weird! She did GREAT. I walked her in, played with her for probably a minute before she was literally pushing me out the door. She kept saying "bye, bye". Why all the other kids were crying in their mom's arms, Kailee was pushing me out the door. Interesting..

I have to say, it made leaving her a bit easier! The teachers said she did great and is very social...I think we already knew that!

Here are a few pics of the morning.. nothing spectacular..She was a little busy looking at all her new friends.

My crazy girl!!

Well, it's official! Kailee is crazy! Today we went back to UCLA to have what was supposed to be her last apt. before surgery. That didn't go so well! I have never in my life seen such a crazy, un-satisfied little girl. She literally would not sit still! She would not listen to ANYONE, and they didn't get any of the info she needed for us to proceed with the second implant. Now, we need to go back at least one more time, if not two to finish up the testing.



I guess there are worse things in the world, but today was a long day.:) Please pray that next time we drive and hour and a half, then sit in the Dr.'s office for two hours, that my beautiful, but stubborn daughter will behave!

On a GREAT note... Kailee said " Love you momma" to me the other day, and today she told my mom "thank you grandma". Two-three words in a row is awesome! Praise God.



We are now down south with my folks and brother for the weekend.. have a good one!

Ear updates

We went to UCLA this week to have Kailee's right ear tested. Basically what they have to do is test her right ear to see how much usable hearing she has with and without her hearing aid. (We already know she cannot hear anything), but they have to go through certain steps in order to be approved for the second implant.
We will go back next week again to hopefully finalize the testing process and get her second surgery scheduled.

We are very excited, especially because Kailee is doing SO WELL lately with her left implant. GOD IS GOOD!!!!

Thank you for all your continued prayers and support..they are much appreciated!

OK.. SO I OWE EVERYONE AN ANNOUNCEMENT...

WE ARE HAVING ANOTHER BABY. I AM DUE LATE MARCH! WE COULD NOT BE MORE THRILLED. PLEASE PRAY FOR A SAFE AND HEALTH Y PREGNANCY.

Lake Trip

We just got back from our vacation to Lake Almanor with Jeff's family. What a trip!

All in all it was a great, semi-relaxing trip full of great weather and family. Besides Kailee getting swimmers ear( only lasted a few days thanlfully), she had a great time. She was the boss all week! I don't know how your children are, but my child decided to NOT listen to me or Jeff the entire trip. She had too many other people around her to spoil her:) Kai added two more words to her vocabulary list. FISH and BOAT. It's very cute! I am glad to be back home now, especially to have Kailee back in her own environment. Vacations are wonderful, but there is nothing like being home! I know it's been a while since I blogged, I promise I'll do better!

We see UCLA next week, so ill have more EAR updates then!

BIRTHDAY GIRL

We had a little BBQ party for Kailee on Sunday. What a blessing it is to have friends and family around her to love and care for her. She had a great time and definitely knew it was HER day.

I cannot believe she is 2 already! Time has flown by and we are so grateful for her. She is truly a gem, and I cannot wait to see what the Lord has in store for her in the years to come HAPPY BIRTHDAY BABY!!

Big News

Pam ( Jeff's mom) and I took Kailee down to UCLA today for our "big apt." with the Dr. As it turns out, he WILL NOT have to go back into the implanted ear to re-do anything on the left side. Everything looks great and is healing as it should. PRAISE GOD.

On another note... we found out that if we wanted Kailee to get the second implant on her other ear, that we can. The Dr. thinks it would be more difficult then a person with a "normal " inner ear, but he said he could do it.

Side note: When Kailee had her left ear done, there were some malformations in her ear that could have been hard for the Dr. to operate on. ALL went well with that, and we have every reason to believe that Kailee could have a very successful right ear implant.

It is definitely a lot for Jeff and I to think and pray about right now. Please pray for THE BEST decision to be made for Kai. We know she is doing great with one, but TWO implants would do wonders for her ! It is just hard to picture our little girl going into surgery yet again.

Here are some pictures of Kailee getting a little bored while we waited for the Dr.:)

We took Kai to the zoo yesterday for the first time. After a few melt downs before we left, we were wondering WHY we were doing this?

She had so much fun! Naturally, our little girl loved the birds the most. She was obsessed! I don't know what it is with those birds!!

SB zoo is small, so we finished pretty quickly. I think Kai was a little too young, but I am really glad we went.

While there, we met a man who had two cochlear implants! Small world. He told us his story about how he lost his hearing at age 4, then wore hearing aid for 38years before he was recently implanted! He spoke beautifully and it was a really neat surprise to meet him.