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!!

sorry for the lack of posting

i have been very busy but wanted to let you guys know that Sarah will have an MRI on September 17th. please pray for her that all goes well. She is to have these MRI's for the next 4 years. they are checking to make sure no tumor is growing back.. i will let you know how it goes...

Sarah continues to improve with her walking. She is learning sign language and is doing well. i have to video her signing the things she has learned...stuff like; more, thank you, help, baby,all done... it's amazing to see this little 19 month old communicating with signs....
have to get going....

the fun has begun!

Let the fun begin...
we started Physical and speech therapy with Sarah, which is helping her speech, not to sure if it's doing anything with her walking! She has just decided that the little things at the end of her feet are there to walk on!

We are teaching her sign language and we are noticing that she is trying to speak now. she gets her point across... especially when she has to go potty.... we hear you loud and clear little girl!

here she is walking, in the video below if you've joined this blog by the link of http://www.glhoffman2004.blogspot.com/ you have already watched it! but as a mother of this daughter, I could sit and watch it over and over, each step she takes reminds me of the miracles God has performed already!

Sarah started to take steps a few weeks ago, but now we are noticing that she is choosing to walk more then crawl, and even does a "side walk" up the stairs! so far we have had no mishaps! going up and down the stairs or falling into something! keep praying about that this will continue!

We are headed to a little carnival later, I'm hoping to post pictures of her later. so please check back, and once again, I thank you for checking in on our little girl!

where she is today!

this is Sarah today....

she has gone through so much to get to where she is, but With God as her strength already she is doing it! Sarah one day you will read this and so i just wanted to share some of my heart with you....

the day we found out you were going to be ours was a day like no other, God formed you in my womb and He choose not to reveal that you were there! from that point on I realized you were full of Secrets!!

The day we got to see you face to face was like no other day...

the moment you held our thumb was like no other day....

The day you stopped breathing was like no other....

the day we got to go home as a family (wires and all)was like no other...

the days that you were back in the hospital were like no other...

God had a plan for you, like no other...

The day we heard the words, "she has a brain tumor (thankfully) were like no other...

The day we found out that the operation went well, was like no other...

The day we found that you were no longer a cancer patient was like no other....

God has a plan for you, like no other....

The day we brought you home again, was like no other...

The day I kissed your 25 stitches, was like no other....

The moment you smiled through your swollen face, was like no other...

God has a plan for you, like no other,,

Our Christmas of '07, was like no other....

The day you began to sit up, was like no other...

My Mother's day of '07, was like no other...

God has a plan for you, like no other...

The Day you began to crawl was like no other

Father's Day of '07, was like no other...

the day you began to sit up, was like no other...

The day you began to crawl, was like no other...

God has a plan for you, like no other...

The day your first MRI came back clear, was like no other...

The day you took those first steps, was like no other...

Sarah you have been a fighter through your short life, I am sure that you have put a smile of the face of Jesus! all heaven rejoiced when you came through the surgery, man part of me wishes i could watched as heaven cheered you on! It is not done yet, every accomplishment you do, they rejoice and Jesus is saying,"that's my girl!"

Sarah you are blessed with so many miracle stories, that i believe God is going to use to reach others, keep accomplishing the tasks set before you and greater will be your reward some day. Always remembering it is God in you giving you strength to press on! with out him you can do nothing little girl. mommy and daddy love you more then you will ever know!

more then what they thought...

Sarah is definitely a little miracle girl! I know that all babies are miracles....but there are some that you sit and you think, they are here after they've been through all of that....

so many times i find myself just looking at pictures and watching Sarah as she has grown and think, what is God up to with her life.

Sarah began putting on the weight at around 3 months. We began to notice that she wasn't doing what her sister was. Developmentally Sarah as falling behind. And i also know that each child is different and that it's not fare to compare, but come on, parents do and somehow that makes it okay, right?

WE noticed that Sarah wasn't eating anymore then her sister but yet her weight was becoming an issue, and with the weight issue came the "problems" Sarah wasn't able to support her own weight at all, she wasn't even trying.

She was in and out of the hospital for breathing problems, (if you want to know more about this then read some older post..)

Sarah had made it out of surgery and the Doctor explained that when he got to the tumor there was calcium all around it, meaning that the tumor had to of been there for a while, and seeing that she was only a year old, she may have had it there her entire life.

At the time of surgery Sarah weighed 30 pounds...go ahead and say it, it's okay..."wow that 's a big girl!" she weighed as much as her 2 .5 year old brother. no wonder she couldn't move around, right?

the awesome news is that it's going on 9 months and Sarah still weighs 30 pounds, she hasn't gained a pound and it's not a concern!!! and she has not been admitted back into the hospital for "breathing problems" God has been so good to us! We miss the nurses at the hospital, in a way but it's a good thing right?

okay now onto the a more serious note.

the last post i mentioned that the tumor was being sent away....well it only took a few days and it was determined that is was a low grade cancer tumor. At this point a parent must make a decision, focus on the good or the bad. WE as parents choose to rejoice...

I rejoiced that God allowed us to find this nasty tumor before it went on any longer, I praised the Lord that He kept me back from going with my daughter in the ambulance to the hospital when this all started. I praised the Lord that DR. A's eyes were still open to my daughter. Although He and the nurses had seen Sarah 3 or 4 days per months they didn't treat her like she was a regular patient. they were attentive to her.

I praised the Lord the He opened the door for the Doctor to have an opening to perform the surgery a day after we found out Sarah had a brain tumor, this never happens unless it's a God thing! God was in it from the very beginning! He saw Sarah through it and is still seeing her through it.

Because it was a low grade cancer tumor Sarah has to have MRI's every few months to make sure the tumor is not growing back. They do this to make sure no radiation or chemo is needed.

the song that goes through my mind at this point of the testimony is, " His report says VICTORY..whose report will you believe, His report says VICTORY!!!"

Sarah is walking in the Grace of God. Her name is so fitting and ordained by God..."Sarah Grace" here are some picture of Sarah...then and nowwe had just got her stitches out and were finally able to celebrate the girls 1st birthday (below)...Sarah had to be isolated until the stitches were removed.....

we found our right before this picture (below), that Sarah's MRI came back with Great news! no tumor was growing back!

We are coming up onto our 2nd MRI in a few weeks.

and this is Sarah now:

you can't even see the scar!

surgery

I the night before Sarah's Surgery i was very busy emailing and calling people. letting them know that Sarah was going to need surgery to remove the brain tumor. Jacob stayed with me in the hospital. and we were preparing ourselves for the next day.

Our other 3 three children were taken to Grandma and Grandpa's, so that our attention could be solely on Sarah. She was such a trooper.

This is Sarah and Daddy the morning of the surgeryand this is My parents with Sarah. They wanted to be with us to help us through the day and to just be our support. this pictures is just a few minutes before we headed downstairs the the OR.


WE said a prayer for the Doctor and for Sarah and then we were off.

Those last few minutes we had with our daughter went way to fast!

The Doctor came out and showed us exactly where the incision would be and how long it would take. Sarah was then placed in the nurses arms where we watched as Sarah looked at the nurse and then looked at us, instead of crying she let out this squeal! she mad eye contact with the nurse and never looked back at us again.

God was so real at that moment. We asked that he'd give Sarah peace as they carried her off and that peace was so evident! it would have been heart wrenching if Sarah was screaming as they took her away, I didn't want to see my Daughter like that before the surgery.

We knew that God was in control, but we had no idea what His plans were. But we placed Sarah in His Arms and humbly asked that he would simply prepare us for what the "plan" was.

God was working, we had the peace that surpasses all understanding. She is not ours, she is a gift from God. We get the privilege to "rent" our sons and daughters.

we were told that the operation would take 4-5 hours. and that we would be called when she was done.

we had decided to go someplace. I didn't not want to sit and wait, so we did the next best thing...we went shopping at Walmart!!

Those 4.5 hours went so slow! and then the phone rang.

Sarah had made it through the surgery and was headed to the PICU.
The doctors told us what we were walking in on, more so that we wouldn't freak out! Sarah was sleeping and was resting comfortably. she was placed on Morphine and so it was making her sleepy. she had 25 stitched, and her eye was pretty swollen. she could not open it.
As I walked into the room, i looked at her and i saw nothing more then a miracle baby that was so beautiful!! She is a big/little girl with an even bigger plan from God on her life!!.

She was fighting the bandage on her head and the nurses decided to tie her arms down, which just made Sarah more mad! she was able to get out of everything they tried. finally i spoke up and said, just take it off her head, she will leave it alone. when they finally listen to my advice, Sarah did exactly what i said, she left her head alone!
The next 24 hours would be crucial. she needed to eat and make eye contact.
At first we couldn't get her to drink anything and their was a concern that she would need a blood transfusion. I got on the phone and asked people to believe with us that this wouldn't need to happen. with in 4 hours of asking for prayer Sarah showed signs of getting better.
She was moved to a normal room.
the plan was to begin weaning her from the morphine and the first day she could go with only Tylenol as needed, they would discharge her with in 48 hours.
the very next day she was off of it, but needed Tylenol every 4 hours. so we were just playing a waiting game..meanwhile Sarah become more and more like herself...





this was Sarah a couple of days after her surgery!

the floor actually put up the Christmas tree and had the children in each room call Santa!The lady holding Sarah by the tree quickly become both mommy and Sarah's favorite!

She was another one of our favorites!

This was the team...The surgeon on the left was the one who was in charge!! Sarah was doing wonderful until this group of white coats walked in!! she was not a fan of them!!!

they doctors and nurses where all amazed at how well Sarah was doing! and how quickly she got off of the Morphine! It was truly a testimony of How God uses doctors sometimes! I truly believe that God can do all things, but at times He chooses to use Doctors. Dr T did not heal my daughter, God used him, used his hands to heal my daughter.

We had to now wait for the biopsy to come back. but we were just rejoicing that God allowed us to have our daughter a little longer! She is a fighter and i tell everyone, God has a huge plan for this little girl!