MOVING

Well, it appears as if we are moving back to the great town of Arp. The house we are currently living in has sold and we have not gotten around to building our dream home!! LOL Jeremy has started a business which is located in Henderson so it will be much closer to the offices. I will still be bringing Burkelyn to her school and dance classes here in Lindale, so everyone can calm down. I sure am going to miss our neighbors and Lindale in general!! Maybe our house in Arp will sell while we are living in it also. Right now it looks like the day after Halloween, we will no longer be residing in Lindale : ( Guess I had better peek up in the attic and see just how much help I am going to be needing?!?

First half of Summer......

Well......I have been horrible about blogging even with all the high aspirations I had for myself. Many, many fun and monumental occasions have come and gone. Let me see what pics I have on my phone.............

Burkelyn Jean at her first official Recital Rehearsal! She looks pretty laid back. I LOVE seeing her up on that stage!!!

Our next door neighbors are the Meador's. MyKylie and Burkelyn watch for each other to come home!! They have so much fun playing.

Burkelyn took swim lessons from sweet Katherine Cowart in June. She only made that grumpy face when I was there to watch. (so I am told)

Burkelyn and Keatyn really know how to enjoy a shopping trip with their moms. I am so lucky to have reconnected with Beth and I love that our children get along so well with one another. God is GOOD!!!

They get along so well.....that we had our first sleepover last week. The girls had a blast, popcorn, movies, stories and oh the giggling until after midnight. I was so tired, but I could not get upset with them. I could only smile while I thought of the wonderful memories they were creating. (That next morning was another story LOL)

My b-day was July 2 and Mom's is July 3. Mom and I celebrated our birthdays this year by getting a pedicure together on her birthday. I cannot believe that we are both in our 30's now.

This was July 3rd we met our "Dadu" (Burkelyn's new nickname for her daddy) for a late lunch. That girl loves her daddy almost as much as I DO! Got some more pics from July 4th and my suprise party post soon..................

This Saturday would be Lincoln's first birthday. I really wish that instead of typing this I were running around frantically trying to prepare for his first birthday party. Since I won't be doing that I will just share some sweet pictures of my little angel with you all. I love you Lincoln Garyt Allen and I miss your sweet little smile and your stinky formula breath. I miss you holding onto my finger and I really miss you keeping me up all night. You were such a good little cuddler and we miss you in "the big bed". I love you to the moon and back Doodlebug.

Lincoln's toes in the sand! When we left Children's we immediately took a family trip to the beach. I really wanted to Lincoln to see the ocean while we had a chance. He HATED the sand!

Lincoln's first pumpkin! I take the kids to the pumpkin patch every year and they each get to pick out their own pumpkin. I think this is actually one of Mimi's. He wasn't really sure what to think about sharing his car seat with that big orange thing.

Thanksgiving 2008

I made our whole dinner!!! We watched the parade while I cooked and then we all watched the game together. Mimi stopped by for a little while. Lincoln was a cranky little turkey and just wanted to be held all day.

No pics of Christmas little Lincoln was fighting to stay alive that day. In and out of surgery twice in 36 hours. He was such a brave little boy. When we took him down for one procedure, he was holding Jeremy's finger and just looked up at him and smiled so sweetly.

This is the sweet little Doodlebug "ringing in" the New Year. Mommy and Daddy and Mimi played games and ate KFC. Later we tried to get a doctor called but the charge nurse in that unit would not page him. Needless to say the next morning we were rushed back to ICU.

Happy Mother's Day

Well, first of all let me say thanks to my spectacular husband. I really had a mother's weekend....He met me after I ran/walked the Susan G. Komen Saturday morning and bought me an I-phone. Which I have been wanting but had absolutely no justification for purchasing. Then we went to OTB and I had a reward of Tres Leches! Then we came home and took a nap! Glorious, although it was only 25 minutes. Then he surprised Burkelyn and I with a trip to Shogun. We hadn't been there in a very long time and it was Pooties first Hibachi dinner. We had such a great time together as a family at our own table with our very own chef. Then on Sunday he surprised Poots and I with breakfast. AND THEN... mowed the lawn!!!! I was ecstatic since this is a chore I have been completing lately. Burkelyn and I went for a late afternoon jog at Faulkner and then watched AFV with our Awesome Daddy! I missed my Doodlebug an awful lot today and am extremely saddened by his approaching birthday. I love you Lincoln Garyt Allen and I miss you so so so very much.

More Tests.....

I swear, just when you think you are finally going to get some definitive answers! Although we know that the autopsy report states that Lincoln's death was due to liver failure, we still don't know exactly why?!? I guess we will really not know exactly what happened and obviously that is the way He wants it. Lincoln was confirmed to have a genetic mutation in his 5 and 19th chromosome. The 5th was a G and the 19th an R. (Not that that information is going to cause any of you to have a sudden realization into the scope of this illness) We could both (Jer and myself) be carriers or we could be "mosaics" or it could have all been spontaneous mutation. We are being encouraged to have genetic testing done on ourselves but the results could be (yet again) inconclusive. AAAAAGGGGGGHHHHH!

We do know that his endocrine system organs were all smaller than average. And his thymine was extremely small for a child of his age. None of these things are usual symptoms of the POLG1 DNA depletion that Lincoln had. So I am delving into research these symptoms hoping to maybe find ....something. This all had to happen for a reason.
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Prayer Request

I know after everything that I have been through this request seems quite trivial, but I am requesting it regardless. Jeremy and I have an appointment with Dr. Casas tomorrow. She is the genetic doctor that Lincoln saw here before we left for Dallas way back in September. We are going in for "genetic counseling". We will be hearing for the first time in detail exactly what was troubling our sweet little angel. All of the labs, biopsies and pathology reports are back and we will be reading those as well. I am requesting prayer for both of us for strength...... mainly. It is hard enough to talk about Lincoln for a few seconds let alone in such depth. We will also find out if we have to undergo further testing and the probability of the other kids passing these genes on. Please just remember our family tomorrow and I will be sure to update shortly. Thanks in advance!! All our LoVe, Nat and Jer

Little Things

I am really easy to please. Honestly it does not take much at all to make me happy. For example, my husband met me and Poots at Cracker Barrel last night for dinner with my grandparents and mother. I thanked him more than 6 times before he fell asleep. I just know how much it tickles them so in turn I am super happy. = ) Then today I am doing laundry. I retrieve the whites from the dryer and every single sock has a match. I was ecstatic. Then thinking to myself, "wow I cant believe I am this happy about the absence of a sock monster". But I truly was fulfilled by this small wonder. Why question happiness however small the wonder that brings it. So I am PROUD to say that I am happy and loving my life.

Thank You Lord for this blessed day that You have given me to share with my family. Thank You for providing for my family and allowing me the opportunity to stay at home while it matters most to my kids. Thank You for giving me moments of peace when I don't know how I will go on. Thank You for helping me to stay strong when I miss my Doodlebug so very much. Thank You for taking care of him and for the promise that I will see him again someday soon.