IT'S TIME.....

LITSAFALDA

Prayer Angel, Moderator
TO SING PRAISES but also ask for tons of prayers. (excuse the length)

Forgive me as I've been dreading posting due to my own personal struggle and also the feeling of yet one more thing to do. I have been checking in on everyone, but only been in contact with a select few due to things beyond my control but not God's and He keeps trying to get my attention.

Where to even start, my husband decided he was unhappy in his job so he started looking a while pack and then this past December was offered a job he felt he could not pass up, but made us have to start the relocation process. This job also has the possibilities of keeping me at home raising our family and not working too often.

I should also say before continuing even though it was not my hearts desire to move God kept showing me that this was His decision not mine.

Due to the special needs of our little girl and the need of insurance which wasn't going to be available for several months due to probationary time; myself and our baby stayed in Tennessee while my husband took up temporary residence in Florida. So I became a "single mom" taking care of a special needs baby plus trying to keep up with my commitments to my jobs. One that is seasonal and the other which was my "full time" before my baby came home from the hospital.

So from January until July, with a little help from friends and occasionally my mom visiting and hubby being home 4 days out of each month, we kept pushing on. Even though we are blessed with a generally happy baby, some days things are just a bit much for any one person to deal with by oneself.
We finally got through RSV season, very bad respiratory disease and more harmful for preemies, and so we went to Florida for a visit and started the process of looking for a new house.

We had less than a three week period to get things figured out and moving ahead. So during the daytime the realtor took myself and the baby around looking at houses, and in the evenings then the more promising ones we went and showed my husband. We were almost settled on a house, one that would take a lot of work and not as big as we needed, but we decided to expand our range just a bit more. No house is the perfect house but we found one that would meet our needs. After negotiating price and problems everything except the final closing was done......WITHIN our three week time frame. Also the old owners liked the timing for closing on the house as well.

So this all finalized on July first and we got moved to the "Sunshine State" the middle of the month. We're still gonna let the baby be a Volunteer and a Gator hater for those of you who follow college football.

During this whole time period, I have been totally stressed out and reserved about moving. I have been trying to embrace this whole experience, but again it takes a lot of work to pack up and then unpack a whole house while trying to get all of the necessary things set up with doctors, insurance, and job transfers, etc.

I KNOW I am supposed to be praising God and thanking Him for His goodness and mercy and all of His blessings. That has been a very difficult thing for me to do. I still have to work on it every day.

Now for all of the prayers. I have a mostly healthy 19 month old little girl. She can be sweet as sugar or let out a scream that would scare away any monster. She still needs lots of prayers and improvement to start catching up with her real age. ( Most preemies catch up with normal baby standards by their second birthday.) She is still very petite and is not as big as everyone keeps telling me she should be. (As of last month she still wasn't quite 19 pounds.) She will be going to an endocrinologist next week to check on her thyroid as its function has been low for a while now. She has baby glasses, to correct some cross eyed problems, that she won't keep on and would rather chew on them or pop the glass out. She still isn't walking and in the past some doctors were considering braces for her legs to help. This last visit her old pediatrician said she needed to be back in physical and occupational therapy and to add speech therapy as well due to her severe gag reflex. ( Don't ask but sometimes it is not pretty, especially when you work SO hard to get food in her.)

I have a few personal things needing prayers as well including finding new friends. The church that we will be attending is a lot more contemporary than I am used to and has thrown me even further out of my comfort zone. I am more used to a more traditional service and worship style. They have one but it is very early in the morning and still hard for us to get going for that one. I have grown accustomed to a church that felt like part of my family and restarting from scratch is a bit difficult. Also there are many things I need to get finished at home as well as getting some things back on track here for CGA.

I was not able to get our old house ready to sell while still living there so we have two mortgages. We really need prayers for God to send the perfect buyers for us. We would prefer not to have to go so low that we still have debt associated with it.

I know there are several more things and many updates that I have not given about my little girl. Most parents would tell you how they cannot believe how fast they grow and change every day. We would appreciate the prayers but especially the PRAISES for the things that have been going on these past months.

Blessings and Hugs, "Angel"
 
Shoot fire, I thought you were using a pre Columbus map and fell of da edge! wOOt glad to hear from you and yep u ask we pray!
 
Hey, good to hear from you...

She is still very petite and is not as big as everyone keeps telling me she should be. (As of last month she still wasn't quite 19 pounds.)

I was 4 lbs when i was born (6 weeks early)... i heard it was tough but eventually normality kicks in. I am sure everything will be fine in time... (if you consider me normal o.0)
 
praying for you too. (actually, you and little angel have never been far from my thoughts. I know it's hard when babies do what they want instead of what is best for them (my little one kept pulling her oxygen tube out when she was in the hospital and chewed on it :) )

I can only trust that God is going to bring some really special people into your life who are going to help you in ways that only He can fathom. That they will show you aspects of Him that will amaze you beyond words and they will minister to you and restore you soul

Gen
 
praying for you

im glad things are going pretty good, you have gone thru alot in the past year and a half. I agree with Genesis, God has a rlly good plan for you and will most definitley bring amazing ppl in ur life to help not only u, but ur baby and ur family.

can i ask what church ur going too now? When you said casual the first thing that popped into mind was my church, Vineyard. They have a bad rap from alot of ppl due to them being overly accepting, to the point of not witnessing, but the one we go to is rlly nice.
 
A small update.....she went to a new pediatrician here in Florida this week and today she had her endocrinologist appointment. She now is 30.5 inches long and 20 lbs 9 ounces. This puts her in the 8th percentile for height and the 3rd for weight. Which means as of her height she's on normal charts instead of preemie. The new pediatrician felt she looks great as well as the endocrinologist. Also she does not have a thyroid problem as was suspected by her last pediatrician. All of her food is going to her bones and muscles so she still looks small. Also something else I noticed this week is that her hemangeomas, not really birthmarks but best way to explain it, are shrinking and going away.

We still have a long way to go to get her all of the way caught up. We did get some local phone numbers of people who may be able to help us with some of the services she needs or will need in the future. Insurance just drives me crazy with limits and such when it comes to your health or your child's.

Please keep praising and praying for these improvements and for God taking care of His child like He has from the start.

A few extra prayers for selling our old house would be helpful too. I really would prefer not to have to go back and work too much plus we really need more family time to get reconnected from being mostly apart this year. Those of you who are married will understand this better than some of the younger folks. (HMMMMM maybe WarHammer will do it.)

Thank you for all of your prayers and praises.

Blessings and Hugs, "Angel"
 
Brief update here:
We'll our "little angel" is making a small amount of progress, if she doesn't think about it she can walk on her own but will not do it. A few steps without hanging on here and there so hopefully she will progress more soon.

We are on our second offer for our old house. It is nice to know people are looking and wanting it. The only problem is the offers want us to give them the moon and the house. We really are not working for a bit profit, but need to get enough out of it to at least break even. We're still hoping for the perfect people to want to buy our house who are a bit reasonable.

More praises and prayers would be appreciated.
Blessings and Hugs, "Angel"
 
Well we are still trying to find someone to buy our old house, but maybe with all of the "crisis's" out there things will get better soon.


Finally right before my mom came for a visit our little one here decided she was gonna become more independent. So around Sept 7 to 10 she started taking more steps and doing thing alone even though she still liked grabbing on to our fingers to walk through the house. When her Nana ( my mom) got here on the 11th I set her down and told her go walk to Nana with a bit of coaching that's all it took.

The whole time my mom was here the baby just ran around like crazy. Now she doesn't stop for anything even though she still likes to hold on to our fingers at times. Oh and she tries to do somersaults....they make her very happy. I guess soon it will be time for gymnastics.

Thank you again for your prayers and praises. Please keep them coming. So far we are still making it financially, but soon things will get where it will be very difficult to deal with both mortgages and other house type things. We have to keep the electric and water on and still have insurance and taxes on the old house.

Blessings and Hugs, "Angel"
 
Well let's see what to update now. Thanks to being a moderator here, I sort of fell into a "contract" type job moderating on another forum. "Contract" meaning it is paid like self-employment so I end up paying the taxes etc. Due to my seasonal job preparing taxes, I know that I really do not have any expenses that I can actually take off to help bring the income down some, but at least this helps to pay a bit for groceries.

I am back doing a small amount of paid training for my seasonal tax job, but still have not got transferred from Tennessee from my more permanent job. With the economy, there just aren't any hours to spread around. I at least have some contact people's names and emails to see if they can find me a few hours now and again.

My little one is still having a blast running around everywhere and doing somersaults and hollering lots of words.....for the past month or so most of them have been B words....ball, baby, bellybutton, Big Bird, book, etc. She can point to most of her body parts correct and loves to look at books and watch PBS and Sprout TV. She tries to sing a lot of the songs when they are on. She still is petite but will usually try anything at least once or twice from Chinese, to Mexican, to Indian, etc. She is also getting a bit of a mind of her own and wanting her way etc. My mom says it's just because she's almost two......I can't believe that.....two years old on Epiphany.

One of the best bits of news is finally our house is sold and we are finished with all of it. Now we are just waiting for the money to get in the bank. This has been a very long and drawn-out process and one we do not want to repeat any time in the near future. One less headache for me to have to worry about though.

We will still be a bit in debt, but things will be a lot more easy to manage. Especially since I will be bringing in a little bit more income as well. I am hoping that within six months or less we will only have our new house payment, basic monthly bills, and a bit left on my husbands truck.

Now that things are becoming a bit calmer and after a few tests, we are hoping that it will be possible to add to our family in the very near future. Our little one now just loves babies and pupas (puppies) that we think she would enjoy having a sibling. I have always wanted to have more than one so I have hope that this will become a possibility very shortly. (For those of you who have been members for awhile in CGA, you have heard the struggles and other trials.)

OK sorry again for such a LONG update, but some days it's easier to just start typing a whole bunch of things instead of things here and there.

Keep PRAISING and PRAYING in everything you do because eventually GOD does answer our prayers, needs, and even wants just when it's HIS time and for HIS purpose.

Blessings and Hugs, "Angel"
 
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