Blessings

I was encouraged by my mother and a dear friend to listen to the song Blessings by Laura Story.

The lyrics of her song challenge me to daily see my blessings as I wait for the Lord's healing for Owen. We are in a valley, but that does not mean God's hand is out of reach. It's almost been a year since we found out there were complications with  my pregnancy. In that year I have seen God's hand work in mighty, mighty ways. Wether it be the tight bond I have with my husband who has encouraged me and caught every tear falling from my eyes, or from the friends that have prayed for the first time in their lives because of Owen's story, or for the new lease I have on life and the deep friendship I have strengthed with my God. He's blessing me. He's blessing Owen. It's all a matter of how you view "blessing". Could Owen's blessing be not being healed by a miracle? Our strength will rise as we wait upon the Lord. 

I encourage you to read the lyrics before listening to her sweet song:

We pray for blessings
We pray for peace
Comfort for family, protection while we sleep
We pray for healing, for prosperity
We pray for Your mighty hand to ease our suffering
All the while, You hear each spoken need
Yet love is way too much to give us lesser things

‘Cause what if your blessings come through raindrops
What if Your healing comes through tears
What if a thousand sleepless nights are what it takes to know You're near
What if trials of this life are Your mercies in disguise

We pray for wisdom
Your voice to hear
We cry in anger when we cannot feel You near
We doubt your goodness, we doubt your love
As if every promise from Your Word is not enough
All the while, You hear each desperate plea
And long that we'd have faith to believe

When friends betray us
When darkness seems to win
We know that pain reminds this heart
That this is not our home

What if my greatest disappointments
Or the aching of this life
Is the revealing of a greater thirst this world can't satisfy
What if trials of this life
The rain, the storms, the hardest nights
Are your mercies in disguise

I don't know what God has in store for my family. But I know He desires to bless me. Maybe not the way I would envision a blessing. But, if I only had a small taste of Heaven, and could catch a glimpse of His plan-wouldn't I want HIS choices to be mine?

I pray that I as walk this valley, and endure this trial, that my suffering will be pleasing to God. I pray that I am follwing and seeking God's will not only for me, but for my son's life. I can't explain how much my heart longs to see him healed and made whole by the healing hand of God. My God is SO much greater than this. But, could this be my blessing?

My devotional had a great challenge: "Not simply to endure God's will, or to choose God's will, but to rejoice in it."

Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy,  for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls. 1 Peter 1:8-9

Enjoy your blessings today, and look for those you've been waiting for, they may come in disguise!

Happy St. Patty's Day! (And a little good news!)

My sweet little Irish Boy has been celebrating St. Patrick's Day for 3 days now. (We had to fit in all the cute outfits-right?!)

Here's a recap:

Tuesday: Squeezing in some extra kisses!

Wednesday: Just hangin out like Snoopy. :)

Thursday: Posing with this silly headband from my crazy Mom!

The "luck of the Irish" must have been upon us when we were blessed with sweet Owen! :)

Just FYI: Owen's name is actually Irish (no-we didn't know!) Owen was named after my sweet, wonderful grandpa, Owen Lawson. (He bears his Daddy's name for his middle name.) However, Michael does have some Irish heritage (if Daugherty didn't give it away for you. :)) One of Michael's family members who studies their genealogy actually owns the deed to the first Owen Daugherty's house that come over from Ireland. Pretty cool, huh?!

Oh, and the little BIG good news we got this week: Owen's labs have much, much improved! I mentioned in my last post that Owen had been having some "yucky" labs. That is his BUN (a number controlled by your kidneys) has been very high. Owen's BUN will never be "normal" until he has a functioning kidney. BUT, they like to keep it as low as possible with dialysis. Well, after a little extra dialysis and some fervent prayer...Owen's BUN is much lower! Yay! His last two labs Owen's BUN was 96 and then 108. Yesterday's BUN.....48!! Woohooo! He's feeling so much better, too!

We're off to enjoy the sunshine on this beautiful day...hope you're sporting your green today-which by the way is the ribbon color to support kidney disease!

7 Months

Owen has now reached the point in his life where he is over halfway to being a one year old. It pains my heart to type those words! I am so, so grateful for a thriving baby boy, but long for these sweet, tender baby moments to last forever.

Owen celebrated his 7 month birthday last week.

You might notice that as he is getting older he is also getting much more opinionated as well....as in he is very vocal with me when he is NOT happy. I'll let the pictures tell the story:

"Yay! I'm 7 months old today!"

"Mom...I'm getting a little bored with this...."

"I tried to tell you I was finished wit pictures!!"

In general (that is when I'm not making him pose for multiple pictures) Owen is a sweet, very laid back boy. Although he is very "busy" with the care that he requires, his personality is a easy going, go with the flow type of boy! He is, of course, a Mama's boy. :) He is now becoming aware of "stranger danger" and isn't quite as open to having new faces around. He doesn't really throw fits, but he is a bit more reluctant to flash his "clown" smile. :) Our therapists have said that is a good part of natural development. :)

As far as Owen's development goes...he is (as you can tell) growin' like a weed! He weighs a little over 18 lbs! Although that may now be a large amount for a 7 month old, you have to remember he started out a mere 5 lbs 14 oz! Since Owen was a premie everything is "adjusted" for him. So for his "adjusted age" yes, he is very big! :)

Owen is lagging behind a bit in his length. This is a common problem for kidney babies. Our next appointment in Cincy is this week and our doctors are going to be evaluating him to see if he would qualify for growth hormone shots. As much as I hate giving Owen shots (he gets one bi-weekly for red blood cell counts) I know it is very important he is long enough at transplant time to accommodate an adult kidney.

We have had to do a bit more dialysis the past few days due to some yucky labs. Our docs think it because he was having great labs for a while and we didn't move up...and now he is growing quickly and our dialysis needs to catch up! We are going for repeat labs tomorrow to double check.

Speaking of labs, Michael and Owen had their Transplant Phase 1 labs drawn last week. Unfortunately Michael's blood wasn't labeled properly so he had to have his redone today. So it will be a bit longer before we hear any results. Please continue to pray that God is directing our path to transplant and that we will seek His will through this process.

I will leave you with a few shots from Owen's latest professional photo shoot. This was his six month photo shoot- a month late. :) We used a wonderful photographer recommended to us by our friends. Moonko is great...you should check her out! moonkophotography.com

Are those just not the sweetest pictures you've ever seen?! Thank you for walking this journey with us, for praying for and with us, and for loving our sweet miracle.