Neurology/Adoption

We went in for our follow up appointment to get the results of Chavalah's MRI!

Pretty much what we've all heard originally! There IS microscopic damage to the right side of her brain, just hard to visibly see. This will cause the weakness on her left side and need for more therapies as I had mentioned in my earlier post. Only other thing that did come back "concerning" in the doctors words, was that her brain is definitely not at the age developmentally as she! It was almost 4 months behind in development. Again, not much we can do about that at this point, but it just is an indicator of future delays that CAN BE HELPED with continued therapies, patience and more exams. We will need to watch the continued growth of her head circumfrance as well as her development to make sure it doesn't get SO FAR behind that it will be difficult to "catch up." These were just things she noted and will document, and we follow up again in 4 months, then go from there. She definitely wants to follow her for several more years though to make sure we are headed in the right direction!

I know many have been continuously praying for us in this regard! We can feel your prayers! THANK YOU! I have to admit, my anxieties about these types of appointments are more than I will probably every want to admit, but just knowing people are praying takes so much of that away! THANK YOU!

On an adoption note! We have signed our verification of the "draft" of our Petition that our attorney is going to be filing for us. We had to mail it today, and when she gets that in the mail, their office will notarize the signature page and print the FINAL "to file" copy and get it filed with the court in Pinal County! Once filed, we should be getting a date for the actual court hearing when we finally get FULL LEGAL CUSTODY and are named MOM & DAD, and her name officially becomes CHAVALAH LYN BALTZLY!!!!!!!!!!!!! YIPPEEE! I'll keep you posted on the date!

Pumpkin Patch Day

APPLES!!!!!!!!

Brothers! Sweetest thing!

Our family (almost completely official)!

Eating an apple from the orchard! For those of you that don't really know Ezra, he eats an apple EVERY DAY, the entire apple, not cut up, literally to the core! LOVES apples!
His little Hershey kiss eyes were as happy as could be when he saw all the apples on the trees and on the ground! You should have seen his face! :)

Playing in the orchard!

Mama's girl! KISSES!

Our picnic!

GOD IS SO GOOD! Look at these miracles!
I just can't say it enough! One proud mama!

Hard to see, but this was what the field looked like.

Precious boy! LOVE him!

This one accidentally got out of order, but it's the ice cream maker!

Daddy and Laine at the "Challenge Maze" entrance!

Sunflower field! I managed this picture with out ONE bee sting!

Cutting the pumpkin from the vine! Neat!

Ezra trying to pick up his pumpkin!

Chavalah having a HAY DAY in the corn bin!

My three little cuties (miracles)!

And................again!

Last year, we found a really neat Orchard/Pumpkin Farm (Apple Annie's Orchard) down south about 3 hours. We had a ton of fun last year with our dear friends J, D & D. This year, they weren't able to join us, but we still made the trip and had a BLAST! SO MUCH FUN! We left around 8:30, got to the Orchard around 11:30, smooth trip with the kids, then walked through orchard upon orchard upon orchard! It was GREAT! UNBELIEVEABLE weather! We couldn't have asked for a more perfect day! It was about 75 all day. Sunny! GORGEOUS! Nice break from the 90's we had been having! and are continuing this week actually! :( After walking, we took a hayrack ride around the orchard. Kids LOVED that! Then we found a picnic table to eat our picnic lunch at! I had packed our lunch! Cheaper in the end! :) It was yummy! Kids all agreed! :) Once we were done eating our lunch, we spoiled ourselves with fresh out of the oven and creamery desserts! WOW! Worth EVERY penny! Benjamin chose pie, and I chose Apple Crisp Ice Cream. Yumm-O!

We then left and drove a few miles to the other part of this business, the pumpkin farm. Our first item of business there was the corn maze! FUN, FUN! Benjamin, of course, wanted to take the "challenge" route, which I was alright with! It gave us something to do! Everyone that goes through the maze gets a "passport" that helps you as you find "number" signs. If you answer the questions correctly, then turn in the direction your answer says. We chose a "spritual" passport and oh my goodness, we had SO MUCH FUN! Laine knew absolutely EVERY single answer to every single question! Was SOO proud of that boy! AWANA is amazing for more than one thing! :)

Anways, we finished the maze in about 45 minutes! What a blast! Then we walked through a big HUGE sunflower field! AMAZING! Gorgeous! Then we took a hayride again out to the pumpkin patch to cut and pick our pumpkins! Then hitched a ride back. Walked back to the "produce barn" and just looked around a bit at all the fun and yummy stuff. Didn't buy anything, but it was fun to look at nonetheless! Headed lastly over to the big barrels of corn that the kids can dig, throw, bury themselves in, etc. They all three played for a good 30 minutes, then it was time to go! :( We are still finding kernels of corn around the house and in the car! :) Long drive home, however, we stopped in Tuscon, about halfway for a bite to eat and a break from the car. Got gas, then got home about 9:15! GREAT AND FUN DAY HAD BY ALL! As you can see from our pictures! :)

Laine's 6th Birthday

Daddy and Laine waiting patiently for the go karts!

Daddy & Ezra

Opa & Laine go-karting!

My sweet nephew, Oscar! LOVE HIM!

His cake!

About our 30th attempt at a family picture! :) LOL!

#1 tuckered baby - my sweet nephew Oscar

#2 tuckered baby!

Can you tell if he's having fun or not!? :) Bumper Cars!

Laine being tender with his cousin Jack!

The whole group! Thanks family for coming!

Birthday boy! Isn't he handsome and sweet!?

Proud mama and the birthday boy!

Went bowling!

PURE SWEETNESS!

Daddy finally did it! Only his 2nd attempt! YAY DADDY!

Our family got together on Labor Day to celebrate Laine's 6th birthday and went to a place in town that was SO COOL! It was called Amazing Jake's, and it is an indoor amusement park, and an all you can eat buffet. We got there when it opened, and left when it closed! LONG DAY, but we had so much fun! Laine asked for a dinosaur cake, and I was stumped! Truly stumped. Good 'ol "google" saved the day! Turned out darling! I was pleased! :) And I think he was too!

MRI

I stepped away from the bed and this was her reaction!

SERIOUSLY! Can she get any cuter!?

Still asleep!

Up and playing around about 2 hours after her MRI!
(Thank you Benjamin's family for the sweet outfit!)

Most of you know Chavalah's MRI went through well! No glitches! So thankful! These small things make me "uneasy." We go back to the Neurologist on October 15 for our results, but I have a feeling we'll not see much, just as our doctor has predicted, but we shall see! If she isn't able to see the damage, that's not to say it didn't happen. That's just to say it got covered over by the brain cells that are multiplying by leaps and bounds right now to help REPAIR that damage! Which we would be grateful for also! :) She'll still need everything she's getting right now!

Here are a few pictures from that day!

A little piece of "home."

I AM HOME................................SICK! WOW! Miss the weather, miss the people, miss the state, and miss my babies! However, every once in awhile, out here in AZ, we get a small piece of "home" presented to us and for these moments, I am forever grateful.

We participate in a local produce coop, have for almost two years now, and LOVE IT! Every other week we contribute $15 and get an entire laundry basket FULL of a variety of both fruits and vegetables. And SOMETIMES, they have different offerings seasonally of different produce by the "case." I usually participate in the raspberries, strawberries, HONEYCRISP apples (which are happening right now for 75 CENTS a pound), and corn! LOVE IT! Here you are looking at our case of corn processing! :)

Daddy and Laine did most of the husking and shucking, and little Erza was our delivery boy! Funny thing is is that he'd manage to take a bite out of nearly every cob before reaching ME inside the kitchen boiling and preparing everything. Looked like we had our own pet worm! :) It was so precious! And his face was all sticky and starchy! TOO CUTE! Didn't get a picture of either the cob or the mustache, wish now I had! I guess this will have to do! :)

Kids & Sports

We've tried our hand at another few sports lately with the boys! And I am having SO MUCH FUN! Not sure who is having more fun, me or the boys! :) Laine is in Karate! Best thing we could have done for the boy! HE LOVES IT! And is JUST SO PROUD! And so is mommy! Pictures are hard to capture, but here are a few!

And, little Ezra! He may look little, but let me tell you something! THAT BOY IS SOLID! Seriously! Unbelievable! I think he weighs about 28 pounds now and is ALL MUSCLE! We started this little man in Gymnastics and he is ELATED! LOVED it! Unfortunately, I only signed him up for a three week "Tiny Tots" class through the city not knowing how a two year old would do with "listening" "doing" and all that stuff in Gymnastics! HE BLEW ME AWAY! He was the only kid in his entire class that walked around with a GRIN from ear to ear doing exactly what the teacher asked him to do, and doing it WELL! As though he had practiced a million times already! UNREAL! He was AMAZING on the rings! That boy has it in him! I'm hoping to continue him in weekly lessons. I think I've found his "niche." LOVE it! So here are a few pictures of that as well! ENJOY!

Kate McRae

So, many have heard me talk about, ask for prayer, update on a dear friend of mine's daughter, Kate McRae! MY HEART IS HEAVY! And has been since the day I heard the news. I went to school with Kate's mother, Holly, at Walnut Ridge, and have had the PRIVILEGE of briefly reconnecting with she and her husband as he is one of the pastors on staff at our church in Chandler! TALK ABOUT A SMALL WORLD! Anyway, they keep a blog for Kate at www.prayforkate.com if you'd be so kind as to go visit the blog and read and PRAY OVER HER for COMPLETE healing, and NEW LIFE! I am a believer in MIRACLES! To this day, I still believe our daughter, Grace Priscilla's life of TWELVE DAYS at only 10 ounces (no pounds here) was nothing short of MIRACULOUS! And I am BELIEVING that God is going to bring Kate through this battle. Some days, I'm weary, and just can't pray another day further, and there are days where I am on my knees MUCH of the day BEGGING and PLEADING with God for a miracle here.

Back in July (July 4 if you want to read the exact entry by Holly), Holly wrote how after surgery, the surgeon performing her surgery was so careful to cut and make the incision close to her bang line so that the scar wouldn't show too much as Kate was concerned how people would look at her or talk about her or laugh at her (this is from memory, but this is sort of what I remember). FROM THAT DAY FORWARD, I felt very convicted in my heart about DONATING a good portion of my very own very healthy and long hair to an organization most are familiar with, "LOCKS OF LOVE" IN HONOR of Kate McRae. Though she is not the actual recipient of my own hair, she is why I chose to donate my hair.

I DID IT, yesterday. My dearest cousin, Andra Good, helped me accomplish this task! SHE IS AMAZING! Absolutely LOVE her passion for what she does, and the amazing job she does with her talent and gift that God has so richly blessed her with! Andra knows Kate as well and also has the same praying spirit on her behalf. So it made it extra special!

Please continue to pray for this family and for Kate!

Before

Measuring

YIKES! No turning back now! :)

I will admit, I was quite nervous about this!

YAY! I did it! I'm in shock!

Cutting my new style!

I LOVE IT!

My dear partner in crime! Andra Good!

Sent that off in the mail today! HOW REWARDING!
And YES! I'd do it again!