Thanksgiving

This year more than ever we have so much to be thankful for. We have had a tough year but God is good. Our boys are healthy and growing like weeds. Stephen and I have a great relationship and are blessed to have great families. There is light at the end of the tunnel. We now have a contract on our NC home and were scheduled to close December 10th. We got a call last week from the agent asking if we would be willing to move the date up. UH YEAH! So Lord willing we close December 7th. It will be sad to let go but we are ready to close that chapter in our lives and finally move forward to begin getting settled back in SC.

All is God's timing

As most everyone knows we have had our house on the market since June of 2008. Stephen accepted a job that moved us back to Greenville. So we moved and started new jobs and began a new chapter in SC. Who would have guesses that the economy would tank. Well of course it would when we needed to sell. We have been living with family (both sets on separate occasions) since May of 2008. We are so grateful to have families who would allow us to camp out with them during this tough year. Many people say I could not live with others for that long. Well you don't know what you would do unless you were in the situation. I will admit it has not been easy but things could have been worse. At least we had each other and we were not homeless. All things happen is God's timing. I know that he had a bigger plan for the Williams family. I will admit that some days Stephen and I both said okay any time now...we get it..a year and a half is plenty of time. I think we have all grown during this past year. Our boys are healthy and that was our main concern. As a family we have prayed that God would bring the right person along that needed our home. And he delivered.

Football Game

Football game!!! That is what you hear my 2 yr old scream this fall. He loves balls and sports of all kinds. To help fan the fire Papa decided Carter would be ready for Auburn football. I made him wait until last year to take Cody (turning 4 at the time) so he would be able to make it. Well we took a chance and the weekend of Carter's 2nd bday we all headed to Auburn. He loved it. He clapped, he cheered, he laughed and had a ball. So he like his brother is now hooked on Auburn football. Papa has two more people pulling for his team and buddies to watch the games with.

Time flies

Wow! Where have we been or what have we been up too since April. I guess since I have not updated our blog since then you can imagine we have been busy. So what have the Williams been up to you ask. Well May things turned around for us regarding the boys health. It was 5 months of torture but just like it came it suddenly went away. Just like that! Stephen and I were completely broken. We had no idea what caused it and how to fix it and neither did any of the dr's they saw. Our pediatrician looked me in the face the day Carter was discharged from the hospital and said our office is just praying for a miracle. Wow...your dr's are supposed to know all the answers right? Wrong! What was it...who knows...what caused it..who cares.....who fixed it....Jesus Christ. I along with lots of family and friends prayed for a Jesus healing, a modern day miracle and I honestly believe that is not only what happened but that God was the only one who could in fact make this end. He is the great physician and my family experienced it first hand. So May, June and July were good months- filled with Mother's day, Father's day, Greenville Drive games, Family vacation, 4rth of July, and family birthday parties. The week after I returned from family vacation I was laid off from Fluor due to the client cancelling the project I was assigned to. But I am so lucky in this economy to have found another job in 6 weeks. September was a very busy month for our crew. Cody, Carter and I all have a birthday in Septemeber. This year we choose to do one big party for both boys. It was a success and we all had loads of fun. The boys are growing like weeds and I can hardly believe they just turned 5 and 2. Wow time flies when you are having fun!

Wee Ball

Cody is playing Wee Ball. It is Tee Ball for 3-4 yr olds. Two Saturdays ago was opening day. They announced each team and all of the players. Cody is on the white team and he is #9. He was so proud to hear his name called out. He loves it so far. He is doing really good hitting and learning to field the ball. It is very comical. It is not uncommon to find several of the players playing in the dirt, run to the wrong base or refuse to play. The point of Wee Ball is for the kids to have fun and for them to get introdued to the game. Carter loves balls and he wants so bad to be on the field with his Bubba.

Dr appt's

Carter had a follow up ENT appointment. He had tubes put in back in September. His ears drain all of the time and he has continued to get ear infections. Dr Phillips does not feel like the tubes have worked as well as they should have for him. Dr Phillips discussed taking Carter's adenoids out and replacing his tubes. He is not sure if that will correct the issues. I was not comfortable all of this. The boys both had a follow up appointment with Dr. Butcher. She wanted to see Carter after his hospital visit and see how the boys were doing. She discussed the results of several test that were run on the boys. So far all test results have come back normal. They have been testing the boys for metabolic/genetic diseases. So far so good. PRAISE GOD! Dr. Butcher does not feel like Carter needs to have any surgery at this time. She does not think he needs his adenoids removed now. We are going to hold off on that at this time. We have had a good week this week with no sickness. Keep praying!

Carter gets to go home.

Carter was discharged late Saturday! He was finally acting more like his normal sweet little self. The doctors still do not know what is causing Carter or Cody's episodes. They both have follow-up appointments and lots of test to come. This will be a long slow process to determine what it is the cause of the boys sickness. Please continue to pray for the boys health and the wisdom of their doctors.

CODE 5

The doctors told me that as they worked with Carter's IV levels to regulate his hydration level it was my job to get him to drink something on his own. That was my main focus for 5 days. I tried everything including playing "drinking games" as I call them. On Friday the weather in Greenville was really nasty. The sky outside our window was dark, trees were blown over, it was raining very hard and power lines were down. I was getting Carter settled for the night so that the nurse could come in and do his medicines before bed when I heard an announcement in the hallway. I stepped out to hear better and they were issuing a CODE 5 telling all personnel to follow procedure. I assumed that it had to be weather related. In less than 5 minutes an announcement was made in our room advising all patients to close the blinds, gather valuables and evacuate to the hall. Carter's door flung open and his nurse grabbed his crib and IV pole and headed to the hall. She told be to get my valuables (She already had that covered as far as I was concerned) and to follow her. The weather service had issued tornado warning/watch for the area. So if things had not been rough enough Carter and I spent 2 hours in the hall with other sick children. I was nervous and called Stephen to make sure he and Cody were ok. I could not believe this was happening but all I could do was laugh out loud. That eased my fear and kept me from crying. The saying is the calm before the storm. Well I have had the storm so COME ON CALM.

Update on the Williams boys

Cody is 4yrs old and Carter turned 19 months last Friday. As some of you know the boys and I got a virus in early January. It lasted a few days and we all got over it. So we thought. Since that nasty virus the boys have not been the same. They have episodes where they throw up or have diarrhea or both every two weeks. At first the pediatricians said they were passing something back and forth. I sent one child and parent to one house and the other set to another. Still they got sick. Then the dr's said well they are relapsing from the virus and yet it continued. In fact it got worse. Cody was having these episodes every two weeks. I knew from the conversations with their doctors that there were 100 different strands of a virus. But COME ON---my children could not possibly get ALL 100 of them. The day it snowed we lost power. Cody was scared so he slept with me. At 4 am he woke from a deep sleep and began to vomit and did so until 10:30am. He had thrown up so much for so long that he began throwing up blood. I was done! I call their dr office and of course it was closed due to weather but the dr on call called me back. I told her that enough was enough and I wanted a GI referral. She agreed and told me what to do at home and they would see us in the am. The GI examined Cody and ordered lots of test. He first believed Cody might have what they call CVS-cyclic vomiting syndrome. He said they would treat him for that while they tried to rule out everything else. At that time his episodes were every 2-3 weeks. Since the appt they have gotten more frequent. Cody is now sick once a week. This past Friday the daycare director called to tell me that Cody woke from his nap vomiting. He was better on Sat am so we figured it was one of his normal episodes that comes and goes. Then Sunday evening Carter had diarrhea and then on the way home from his Mimi's house he began vomiting in the car. I stayed home with him Monday. He was whinny, clingy and really would not eat. At that time he was drinking and having wet diapers. Around 5pm he began to run a low grade fever. He went to bed on time and slept all night. He got up fairly early but his diaper was not that wet. He still appeared sleepy so I put him in the bed with me and rubbed his back and sang to him. He dosed off for a little bit but then coughed and began vomitting. I got him cleaned up and fixed a cup of gatorade to get some fluids in him. He refused the cup. He sat in my lap for about a while but then began to fall asleep again. He was very lathargic at this point so I figured we were going to probably need an IV. The way he looked scared me to death. I called his pediatrican and spoke with a nurse. She said that they would want to see him but would call me right back after talking with a dr to give me a time to come in. The dr called me back within 5 minutes. She listened to me discribe what was going on and due to their history she felt like we needed to go straight to the pediatric ER. She told me to grab my purse, his diaper bag and go and she would call ahead and let them know he was coming. They started an IV right away and drew blood. He was pitful. Stephen met me at the ER and it was a good thing because due to his medical background he is much better in these situations. Surprisingly I held it together even though I was a nervous wreck. He was on an IV over 2 hours and still would not produce urine. The results came back from his blood work and he was severly dehydrated. His level was under 50. The ER dr was surprised that he got that dehydrated that fast based on the few times he got sick. They checked his sugar as well with results under 40. This really concerned both the ER dr and Carter's pediatrician. She decided that he needed to be admitted because he had been in the ER for 5 hours on an IV and had not perked up nor produced urine. I stayed with Carter and Stephen went to pick up Cody and stay with him. He was so upset when Stephen told him that his brother was in the hospital. Stephen assured him that mommy was with him and that the dr's were taking good care of him. Tuesday night Stephen called me around 11:30 to tell me that Cody woke up from a deep sleep again vomitting. SERIOSULY could we catch a break. Cody had Diarrhea all day yesterday. Carter finally perked up late yesterday afternoon and would talk and sing with me but was drinking very littel on his own and not eating at all. The dr ordered lactinex and I was able to get him to take it with some applesauce. The dr's ordered that his IV drip be turned down to a 20. They wanted me to push his to drink on his own. Good luck with a indepentant 19 month old that feels horrible and is tired of being stuck every few hours. His sugar level has finally regulated. He has double ear infections and also tested positive for rotavirus. I changed 14 poop diapers yesterday. The GI dr came by yesterday to examine Carter and discuss both boys. She thinks that the symtoms are GI related but feels like there are possible underlying medabollic issues that may have been triggered by the inital virus. I have taken good notes and tried to find a common denominator between each boy and their episodes. It is very strange that they get sick at the same time or on the same day. Carter was allergy tested 2 weeks ago and his results were normal. No other kid at the daycare has gotten sick. No other family memeber that has cared for them has gotten sick. The did another finger stick this am to check his levels. Carter is not drink enough on his own to hydrate himself and his dyhration level dropped very low again. So the dr increased the IV drip back to 50 and said to hang tight we were not going home yet. They have run a BMP (basic metabolic panel) on both boys this week. Cody's results were normal. The results for the urine test that were ordered on the boys for comparision will not come back for a while. The dr's are very concerned about the boys but stumped because most of their test results are normal. This is very difficult to determine what direction to go next. The dr's said this may be a slow process finding out what the underlining issues are. They have ordered another finger stick in the am to check Carters levels again. Now as if we have not had enough going on I am feeling lousy and running a low grade fever. This is so not fair. I have not seen Cody since Sunday and my beautiful baby is in the hospital. I know that God is the great healer. I have prayed and called out to him to heal my babies or reveal to the dr's what is going on so they can help them. We will continue to deal with the episodes as they arise and try to keep them hydrated as much as possble. I have gotten lots of emails and calls from friends and family checking on us and letting us know that they are praying for us. For that I am thankful. Everyone ask what do you need or what can I do. I can tell you that Stephen and I are at our wits end and terribly frightened for our childrens health. When the dr's have no idea what is wrong or what to do that is scary. I am broken and scared. So here is what I need. I need a good old fashion Jesus healing. We need a miracle. I NEED for friends and family to drop to their knees and pray for answers and healing. It is very stressful. We moved back to SC last summer and have not sold our house in NC. We are still living with family and have new jobs. Both Stephen and I have had to take a lot of time off and in this economy we are so thankful to be employed (and want to stay that way). The cost of all these test and the hospital stay will be a financial challage. Pray for strength for Stephen and I as we care for these beautifl boys.

The Boys

Carter and Cody are like two peas in a pod. They love and enjoy each other. Carter watches everything his big brother does and tries it. Here are some misc photos of them together.

Trip to Disney

M-I-C-K-E-Y M-O-U-S-E. Stephen, Cody and I went to Disney in Feb.with Cam, Kim and Carley. Caroline and Carter stayed with their Mimi's. The kids had a ball. We really had a good time with Cam's family. We went to the Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom and Hollywood Studios.

Prayer Request

We have so much to be thankful for. God is good and has provided. We have still not sold our home in NC. We are living with family and have been since June 2008. Things for the most part have been good but after 8 1/2 months everyone needs some space. We know that it is in God's hands and we ask that family and friends remember us during this tough time and pray that our home sells soon so we can begin to get settled in SC.

Times Flies

Wow! It has been forever since I last posted. The Williams family has been pretty busy. The last 4 weeks have been tough as the boys have been battling the stomach virus. As Cody told his Dr. "I am over it". The boys are growing so fast and keep us busy. Cody is 4 and so independant. He is so smart and a very caring child. Carter is busy. He is a climber and all over the place. He adores his big brother and watches everything he does. God has truely placed Stephen and I with two wonderful little boys. I feel lucky to their mom and it is an honor to raise them.