Sarah enjoying the snow!

I took this, this morning!

Sarah really loves the snow but the reason i wanted to post this is because this is where the scar is, but you can hardly see it!! She truly is our walking miracle!!

I would like to take this time to say a heart felt, "Thank you" to each one of you who prays for this little girl. we don't know what God has in store for her in the years to come, but I do know that it is VERY evident that God has is hand on her!

This Holiday season is the first one for Sarah and us as a family to Really have fun at home. Last year, well she was just getting use to living life with no tumor, she was just re-learning different tasks that she thought she has accomplished...

But to look at her today, she seems like any other 2 year old! she walks around singing, teasing, laughing, crying!! figuring things out on her own!!

I plan on taking pictures on Christmas and sharing it on her care page and here. So many of you have had such a big part in her little life. That i want to share it with you.

From this Mommy's heart, i wish i could personally meet each and everyone of you, to hug you and say thank you. to let you see our little miracle running around and enjoying the life that almost was not.

My prayers for you during this Holiday season is that you will draw close to family and just enjoying them! if you don't 'live near family, call and let them know you are thinking about them. let them know that you love them..

MERRY CHRISTMAS from this Hoffman home

God is watching over her!!

we have officially moved into the home with no bottles and man the stack of diapers are lasting forever these days!!

the other day we watched as Sarah's nipple to her bottle, fell off in her mouth!! man was it scary! she wasn't sucking too hard, she was more like chomping and all it took was one good chomp... and off fell the top part of the nipple! thankfully we were right there watching her this time. That was literally her last nipple in the house. Jacob and I both agreed that they are both old enough to just cold turkey...stop the bottle!! it's been a few days now and we are surviving it!! they are sleeping better through the night and waking up dry!!

My babies are being forced to grow up!! what will life be like this summer? we may be having a family trip to a far away land!! it's in the workings...but more on that later!! Sarah's siblings are home from school today because of a snow storm. we are going to make more cookies and maybe later go play in the snow!!

cookies and crafts

We are headed to see some doctors on Tuesday. we liked to visit them once in a while when Sarah is not sick!!and what better time then now...we made brownies and cookies for the Doctor and nurses that delivered Sarah and her sister. it should be fun!

Sarah even helped put the sugar into the mix! And what kind of mother would i be if I didn't let all four of my kids try it?? Sarah loved it!!


but today Sarah enjoyed doing some crafts with stickers.

if I'm able to I will take pictures of tomorrow's outings!!

enjoying her pony and teddy bear

the girls got one of their gifts early so that mommy could use it to distract them...and it works every time!! the ask me to take pictures!! I LOVE IT!!!Horses like apples right, so why not try apple juice?




and then some fingers to go along with it!! and then there is her fascination with books, puppy's and this brown teddy bear....








i'm so glad this cute little girl is mine!!!

to cute to pass up

what do you think??

some catching up to do.

we we made it through Thanksgiving and Sarah broke her tradition...of being in the hospital!! i thought you may enjoy seeing her eat her first Thanksgiving meal!! We were joined by a very special uncle who Sarah doesn't see often. by the time he was getting ready to go back home Sarah was warming up to him!!

she loved her turkey. the day after Thanksgiving we put up the tree. Sarah loves it! hope you enjoy the pictures.

this one above is my favorite by far

oh and we wanted to pass along the news about her next MRI...it is on January 14th, so please be praying that all goes well!!

she's two!!!

This week has been kind of emotional for me. When Sarah turned one she was in the hospital being air lifted with what the doctors thought was bleeding on the brain. But with God's grace and mercy she is here with us to celebrate her 2nd birthday. (if you are new to this blog and want to read her complete story please start at the beginning of this blog. or start at the post dated July 6th and then go to the post on July 15th)

and celebrate we did!! here are a few pictures of her party and some other pictures of Sarah at home with her twin!!

this one above..this blanket hold a lot of memories...it was the blanket that was given to Sarah when she came out of surgery!

can i brag!!?

Is it okay if I brag about our little miracle girl!!?

she is shocking the pants off us! two days in a row now she is dry! tells us when she has to go potty and goes like there is no tomorrow!! she wakes up and first thing she does is walk over to the little potty!

these two girls go back and forth, right now Sarah is putting her older sister(by a minute;0)) to shame...with this potty training thing!!. don't get me wrong her sister goes all the time, but Sarah is more consistent with, lets see how should i say this....going #2!! I haven't changed a messy diaper with Sarah in DAYS!

I had wanted them both potty trained by two...well they still have 10 days!! and if they continue on the road they are on now...it will happen!!

PRAISE JESUS!! can we say altogether.."diaper days are coming to an end..."hey, i heard that, little voice saying, yep just in time to have another..... nope Jacob and I are not even thinking about #5 right now!! we are very content with our four little blessing!!

This morning Sarah PT came by...it had been almost a month since are schedules lined up and Mr. Matt couldn't believe how well Sarah is getting around!! it was music to this momma's ears!!

well that is all the bragging i will do this time..enjoy these recent pix of Sarah and her crazy, silly brother, Josiah...who is becoming VERY affectionate

EEG is done

We went the hospital this morning...this time with no REAL problems getting there!! PRAISE THE LORD;0)
Sarah was the life of the office...walked right in waved at everyone!! and then found herself a nice a comfortable spot to play inside a little tykes house (if anyone wants to know what she wants for Christmas....I'm sure she'd love one of those!!This one had everything including a fake fire place with a porch on the side..kinda made me wish I was a kid again;0)! she was so funny this time!!
anyway
The fun and laughter stopped as soon as we went into the room with the bed!! she really was better then I had imagined she would be. yes she screamed and cried but it was just because she was strapped down...once she was all wired up we turned off the lights, I actually laid beside her for the testing and the tears turned into actual giggles...
I have to explain. When this appointment was scheduled they asked if Sarah had a bottle or something that comforted her when she was upset...she still takes a bottle once in a while so I brought it today with hopes that it would calm her down...so the lights we off there was the hum of the machine and a little girl snug as a bug with her momma laying beside her, we were trying to get her to go to sleep, so I was holding her bottle for her because she couldn't use her arms..while I was holding her bottle, I was rubbing her cheek bone, this made her giggle, and when I’d stop, she'd say "more" it was the funniest thing!
one the way out she wanted to stop and give everyone behind the desk a kiss....
once the EEG was done we headed down stairs to the doctors appointment where the results were being sent...
The results showed ABSOLUTELY no seizure activities!!
So what's next?we start to wean the Phenobarbital and go back in 3 months to see just the doctor, by that time Sarah will be completely off the medicine.
So I am asking you to please keep Sarah in your prayers for safety and that there will be no seizures, and for us as her parents that we will be very tuned in to Sarah if by chance she does have seizure. We are praying that the seizures do not return, and that this is one more door that is closed behind her!!

pictures of Sarah and her siblings!!

this last one makes me laugh...Sarah was screaming the entire time while i was trying to take these pictures..and then a car drove by long enough to distract her (I took advantage of this distraction, putting my camera on auto and took about 15 pictures...)and the minute the car was out of her view...she started up again!! we are off to the hospital on Thursday for her EEG. We will let you know if anythign changes and how it goes. thank you for your prayers.

pumpkin fun and catching up!

just wanted to share some fun pictures of Sarah.

this is her, last october with her siblings (it's hard has a mom, to look at pre-operation pictures),

and this is her this year, and yes, she is in the pumpkin!!!


here are some other fun things we have been up to these last few days...

she has gotten so brave over these last few weeks, I will admit, it is fun to see her breaking out and letting her little personality shine!!

and here are some still pictures

soon we will passing along winter pictures!!!

but for now i'll sit back and enjoy the nice fall colors!! and times when we can just throw on a lite jacket!! thanks for checking in on her!!

EEG is scheduled

just wanted to fill you in on what will happen now. Sarah needs to be checked to see if she is still having seizures, they will do an EEG on Sarah to see if there are any brain waves that show seizure activity. this is a painless procedure, well..i should say no shots.

for those of you who don't' know what they will do, let me explain...

Sarah didn't like the last one she had done and I'm sure she won't like to go through this one either :0) they will have to attached little wires that have some king of gel substance on one end to her head, (Seems likes at least 40!) but I'm not sure how many to tell you the truth.

then once she is all hooked up they read her brain activity, from the info they collect, they can tell if Sarah is having seizures still, Let me back up for a moment, the doctors do think that the brain tumor was causing the seizures and since the tumor is gone, they now have to see if there have been any, while she is on the medicine for seizures, they will have to wean her from the medicine and do more testing like this as time passes.

From start to finish the EEG takes about 2 hours. about an hour for hook up, if you will, and then and hour for brain activity... this will take place on October 27th at 9:30 in the morning. we will let you know how it goes and I'm sure i will remind you guys to please pray for safety on the road as it seems like we always run into something to try and get us off track...



It really is a painless procedure but for a 2 year old who doesn't like doctors and who will be pretty much in a kangaroo pouch, not able to move, it's going to seem as though they are hurting her...so if anyone out there would like to go with me to support mom...I'll take the support, dad, can't make it because of his job!! let me know!



let me end with this picture, it is Sarah just a few days ago..and this is her scar...

Doctor did an AWESOME job and Jesus healed it up nicely!!

recent pix

these are just a few of my favorite recent pictures

MRI RESULTS

It's Wednesday night.

we got the phone call yesterday about the MRI.

PRAISE THE LORD, their is no sign of the tumor growing back!!! The next MRI will be sometime in January, but more on this at at later time. it's been a LONG day andmy bed is calling me!!

thank you all for your prayers

10 months ago...

this was Sarah...wow God has been so faithful to us and to our little girl. In Two months we will celebrate the girls 2nd birthday. Little Sarah has gone through more then i have in the 2 short years (then i have in my 32 years!)that God has allowed us to have her.

What a life, What a testimony! I never thought I could love someone as much as i love you. You are God's and we know that God has a special plan for you.

I thank the Lord for carrying us through these last 2 years. We are still listening to the Heartbeat of Jesus. and we still feel his arms of love wrapped around us as we hold her today.



this is Sarah today, full of life, laughter and trouble...
we love you little girl and are so proud of who you are!! May Jesus continue to watch over you and protect you in all that you do. May you grow in the wisdom and knowledge of your Healer and Savior!

How the MRI went...

Will the ride to the hospital ever go well??? A little side note before I get to Sarah's MRI...

We were driving for about 45 minutes again when out of nowhere came this thick whitish fog that smelled like rubber burning... I began to think...this is going to be a horrible accident, good thing we left early! Despite my thought we continue to drive without seeing more then 20 feet in front of us, all we could see was the car's (in front of ours) flashers. they were moving but a t a REALLY slow pace, I thought I can't stay here and I don't want to keep going if we re going to have to sit in this smell, by this time my windshield looked as though some one was sifting black powder sugar right over my car.... and then the "fog" was gone but the smell remained...it cleared up outside though my windshield was a mess. I look up and I saw this tractor trailer in front of us pouring what seemed to be steam coming from the top of his truck. And then it was white again....I thought to myself, I just have to pass him and try to pull of off I 81 into a gas station...God’s hand protected us and we got to a gas station. The front of our vehicle was BLACK, and the windshield was covered in what appeared to be grease. Some thing told me not to touch the windshield wipers while I was driving, thank the Lord I didn't. When I parked the van, I turned them on, I would have caused a HORRIBLE accident if I had tried to do it when I was driving, I literally could not see the front of my vehicle.We had to use bleach to get it off the car....It was such a mess but praise the Lord he protected us and other drivers that were also driving into the "white fog". Thank you to those of you who lifted us up in prayer... The angels were surrounding us and it was evident!!

We finally got to the hospital with little time to spare...

I absolutely loved the team that worked with Sarah today, I felt like they really cared about us...and although they had a hard time starting an IV Sarah was okay with it. She didn’t like it too much when they tried to flush the first one and it wasn’t flushing...but Sarah was a trooper. They did their best and got one started with out to much poking...
Anyway She made it through the MRI just fine and we will hear back from the doctors in a few days, if not I will be calling them about the results; I will pass it along to you.

this was Sarah waiting for her appointment

please don't mind the half naked girl..she was soooooo angry after it was all done the she wanted nothing to do with anything:0( as you see she didn't even want her seat belt on properly) i do promise you though we started off with it on the right way...(Shawni..this one reminds me of your daughter!!)

She got her self so worked up that i thought she was going to need a breathing treatment. after about 15 minutes of screaming...she cried herself to sleep..and this was the scene the rest of the way......

thank you to all who remembered us in your prayers, please check back for the MRI results in a few days

we are off...

once again

Wednesday the 24th we will try once again to get this MRI completed....will let you know how it goes.please pray for safe traveling and that all goes well during the MRI!

another day

we were in the car and had been driving for about 1 hour when Jacob's cell phone rang...the hospital had called him and told Jacob that they had to cancel Sarah's MRI and that they would be calling us later in the day to let us know why it was canceled and when it would be re-scheduled. But we never heard back from them…is it okay for me to say, “I’ve had enough!!?” but lets look at it on a brighter note…Sarah was sick so most likely they would not have done the procedure anyway, but because they cancelled we will get it re-scheduled in a quicker way…right??? Well that’s how I’m trying to look at it.
We did stop at the children’s hospital in Wilkes Barre and say “thank you” to Dr. Allen and the nurses who worked that night that Sarah had her seizures…to my surprise they remembered it like it was just last night…that met so much to me. I wanted to take picture of Sarah with Dr. Allen but as I was taking the picture my batteries died...so next time there will be pictures.

So I will let you guys know when it is re-scheduled.

Sarah's MRI

we will be off to the hospital for Sarah's MRI on Wednesday. They will be checking to make sure no tumor is growing back. Her appointment is at 1:00, which will be little bit of a challenge, because Sarah will have to fast starting 6 hours prior. We are hoping to keep her busy so she won't realize she's not eating!Mom and Sarah will leave the house around 10:00 our plan is to stop and finally see the Doctor who noticed Sarah having that seizure that sent the red flags up! we have not been bale to meet with him to say "Thank you" to him or to the nurses either, they knew about Sarah' needing Brain surgery and that she made it through okay , but we have kind of lost contact with that hospital. so We are hoping to sneak in and briefly say hi....we will let you know how it goes when we find out anything

please keep us in your prayers.

9 months later

9 months today Sarah was becoming a "cancer free patient..wow where has the time gone!


so where is Sarah today? thanks for asking, let me share.


she is 32 pounds,
as far as we know cancer free!
learning sign language,
feeds herself,
going potty like a big girl,
loves to play with her siblings, once in awhile you'll hear a giggle or two..usually means someones doing things they shouldn't ! but praise the Lord she is here and is able to get into trouble!

(know come on just look at that face...she is a perfect angel ALL the time!!!)

no longer a crawler!
loves her fruit,

loves almost anything we give her in fact!!

loves to play in the tub,

like to jump off things! (Thanks for some gray hairs Sarah)
walks up the stairs,
likes to tease her sister and pull her hair, Victoria does deserve it at times LOL
does sleep through the night at times!! (we are still working on this)
is getting ready for her 2 MRI in a few weeks!
she is such a little miracle and her story has been told to so many people, I thank the Lord that he has allowed us to go down this road, giving us the strength to turn it around for His glory!! we don't know what the future holds for Sarah but God does and he will be right here next to us every step of the way and because of this promise I know he will not give us more then we can handle!!





we love you Sarah! and we are so proud of who you are already!!