Happy Grandparents Day!

'napping together'



We are so thankful for our grandparents and for all the support that they've been over these past several months. We love each of you so much and thank God for you. These pics are just for you! (...sorry we couldn't find an outfit for grandpa, we love you both too!)

Happy Birthday Daddy!

Happy 31st Birthday!

To a wonderful husband and now the best dad any two twin girls could have. Look what God has done! 8 wonderful years of marriage, two beautiful (long-awaited) baby girls and now the 4 of us as a family on our way to do what is nearest to our heart: to share the gospel with a people group so dear to our hearts in the Dominican Republic. We are three very blessed girls to have you. Hope you have a great Birthday. We can’t wait to see what all God has in store for us ahead.
… all Glory to our God and Savior Jesus Christ!

4 months old!!!

First Stroller Ride- That thing is huge for them

Kamryn

Taylor

Kamryn

Taylor

The girls had their 4 month birthday today and since it was labor day, Kerri's sister's family came over to eat. Kerri also had a cake for me, since my b'day is this week. Mine is the 4th, and Kerri's and my brother Steven's is the 8th. The girls are getting bigger and we're seeing more of their personalities come out. When we hear them cry at night, we try to guess who it is crying and usually we are right. It's funny how distinct even their cries are sometimes, but sometimes they're hard to tell apart. They clearly look different in person, but it's amazing sometimes in pictures we have to take a second look to see which one it is.
There have been a couple of nights when the girls slept for like 6 hours, but we can't get it figured out how to make it happen every night. Even with the lack of sleep, they bring so much into our lives. When they take a nap, we miss them so much sometimes, it's like we haven't seen them in a week when they wake up. Anyway, enough rambling. The girls have been doing great. Taylor is requiring less oxygen each day, it seems. We are still hopeful she will be off of it by her next pulmonologist appointment on Sept. 9th. We have eye doc appointments Wednesday, and the aforementioned pulmonologist and a pediatrician appointment next week. Thank everyone again for all your prayers and encouragement. We hope to be heading back to Mississippi by the end of the month, so maybe we will see many of you then.

Week and 1/2 since coming home

Sorry we haven't updated lately. We're getting used to our new lives and how to get things done while the girls are sleeping. The doctor's reports have been good. We had an eye doctor appointment a week ago. Both of their eyes look good, but are still not finished growing, so we have to go back for a checkup in a week.
The pediatrician went well, also. They received their next round of shots that day. The main things discussed were keeping them away from crowds (especially other young children), keeping hands clean, and making sure they gain weight properly. That being said, pray for their being able to gain weight on pure breastmilk. The hospital put them on high calorie formula added to the milk before they left. Kamryn had been really irritable and seemed as though her stomach bothered her all the time, and both of them have been irregular with their bowel movements and had lots of gas. We made the decision to take the formula out ourselves to see how they would do. it's only been a couple of days, but they do seem to be doing better. We're also trying some different types of bottles designed to reduce colic. Our main concern is that they gain weight like they need to.
Taylor had a pulmonologist (lung doc.) appt. yesterday, and he said she sounded good and explained to us that she should grow new lung tissue and get better with weight gain and time. He seemed to think it possible that she would be off her oxygen by the next appointment in two weeks! That would be awesome. One of the problems with too much oxygen is that it can cause eye damage.
We are amazed everyday at what God has done through our girls, and we can't help but smile, even at strange times- like when they wake us up crying at night- because we had prayed so long for these children and God answered our prayers in such an unexpected and amazing sort of way. Thanks again for your support as prayer partners and friends.

Both our angels are home now!!

Sorry for being so long on a post, but Taylor got released on Saturday from the hospital. They wanted to wait until Monday, because they said if something happened we would have to go to the emergency room instead of a pediatrician. She had been doing well for several days, so we decided to pry a little, and they decided they would let her come home. We haven't had any problems yet, praise the Lord, and already have doctor appointments lined up. Eye doc tomorrow, ped. Thurs, pulmnologist next week, O.T. in a couple of weeks- it's pretty crazy. Taylor is on oxygen as well at the moment, but is doing breathing treatments twice a day to try and get her lungs better. We're learning that life with twins (especially extremely premature twins) is pretty busy. We are enjoying it thoroughly, but we are walking around like zombies most of the time. We pretty much have them on the same schedule, but they don't understand schedules just yet (ha ha). It seems like they sleep all day, and are ready to play at midnight. By the time we sit down to try and email or blog, it's time to eat again, or something. They are both getting ready to eat again, so they are waking up a little. It is, again, so hard to believe that this time we've waited so long for is here. Thank you again again for all your faithful prayers. - Just to let you know how much your prayers have meant, we took Kamryn to the doc. on friday for a follow up, and several doctors ended up coming in and seeing her. I was concerned if there was something wrong, but the first doc. looked at me and said, "We don't see many 25 week preemies doing this well, so everyone wanted to see her." And if that isn't enough, when we were leaving with Taylor on Saturday, the nurse said to us, "You guys don't know how fortunate you are to have not one, but two 25 weekers doing so well." She said hardly no babies that young get out without having something major like surgery to close the artery in their hearts that you guys prayed for early on, or eye surgery, or a tracheotomy, or a feeding tube surgically inserted in their bellies- something! We had a lot of good nurses and doctors there, and it was almost like leaving family on Saturday. Several nurses that have had them came by to see them both. We also see several new babies come in and see parents asking the same questions we had early on and not knowing what kind of journey they have ahead. We want to remember the things they've been through, lest we forget the faithfulness of our God.

Tired, but So Happy!

Taylor getting closer! We have more pics of Kamryn now, but we will get more of Taylor on the day she comes home :)

Believe it or not, almost 30 years ago Kerri came home in this outfit! Since Taylor is coming home later, we thought we'd let them both wear it home.



Hello all. Sorry it took so long to post again. Kamryn did get to come home Monday around 6:30 pm. We got to the room with her and sort of looked around like, "Okay, now what?" As I wrote before, we did get to room-in with her at the hospital the night before. That was fun, but completely tiresome as the room was not very quiet. Our first night home went well. Kamryn finally went to sleep around midnight, and slept until like 8 am, except of course to eat once. Last night she didn't hardly sleep at all, because we think her tummy was hurting, since she hadn't had a 'movement' in a couple of days. We gave her a suppository today, and she went almost immediately after. She is completely spoiled already, because she loves to be held. We have taken her to see Taylor both days since being home. We think the bonding is good for them, and they seem to enjoy it. Taylor should get to come home this weekend. Pray she can get off the canula first. If not, she will have to come home on oxygen. She is getting really close to getting off of it, and mostly requires it just when she's eating. We are ready for her to be with us here, because it is a little extra stressful and heartbreaking having to leave her there. We can't go to the hospital together as much now, either. Hopefully we only have a couple more days like this, though. Taylor will have to be on a monitor like Kamryn, and she will also have an additional monitor which tells us the oxygen saturation in her blood. Even though the monitors can be a burden, I have to admit it really helps us sleep soundly at night. It sounds loud enough to wake the dead if they stop breathing for 20 seconds, or their heart rate slows too much or increases too much. It is truly hard to believe that the time we have all been praying for for our girls is here.

COMING HOME!!!

The words we've been waiting so long to hear. We were told that if Kamryn remains on the tract she's on right now, she should go home Monday. She will be sent home on an apnea monitor, which we are actually excited about, because it should give us a little more peace of mind while we sleep. Taylor is still working on feeding from a bottle. She's doing well, but still has a little ways to go, and we're also trying to ween her off the cannula she's on. Hopefully she can be home soon as well. Pray that this would be so. Pray for wisdom for us as parents to be able to raise them to be the most Godly girls we can, and just be good all around parents. Thanks for all your prayers, for this day is one we have longed to see- if it weren't for your prayers, I'm not sure we would have ever seen this day!