The Month of November

November marked the one year anniversary since Rachel's bone graft and nasal revision surgery. We're happy to have that behind us. Rachel continues to have Speech Therapy, but it looks like we're heading towards a graduation/celebration ceremony. We're now going every 2-3 weeks in between sessions.

This month was a quiet one for Rachel. Nothing big to report or share. The girls had the last two weeks of November off from school and of course, that found us at Disneyland to enjoy the Christmas season. We found "Gramma" at Disneyland, a rare spotting, and always a treasured picture opportunity. (The four granddaughters think my Mom looks like the Fairy GodMother).My van was due for an oil change this month. Usually I take the car in while the girls are in school, but this time Rachel was with me. Our mechanics were happy to see Rachel and let her in on the fun of adding oil to my van! She LOVED it!Taking a few minutes to slow down and take a picture with Papa.

It's Saturday!!!!

Our school put on a huge performance this week, thirteen classes participated in ten different performances. This type of show has become a new tradition in recent years and it's proved to be a great evening of entertainment.

The official performance was last night, however, there was a dress rehearsal yesterday morning whereas they run through the entire production working out technical glitches, etc. I was there videotaping for the school. :X

Rachel's class combined with another to do "The Saturday Song". Their costumes were their pajamas and it was absolutely adorable!!

Little Girl Sees Smile for the First Time

One of our cleft friends posted this video on her Facebook page a few days ago, of course it touched my heart, as I'm sure it will yours.



We fell in love with Rachel's wide smile on August 31, 2004, and fell in love again with her new smile on January 26, 2005.

Photo Shoot

A little over a month ago, I received an inbox message on Facebook from a longtime friend who works in the Marketing Department at Loma Linda University Medical Center. In addition to attending our previous church together, Shelly was one of my church camp counselors when I was around twelve years old.

Anyways, we talked on the phone later that day about a project that she is working on at work and Rachel came to mind when the project started to evolve.

In the main corridor of the hospital, on the ground floor, the hallway that leads to the cafeteria, they are working to create a project for the halls of that hallway. It will become the "I AM HALLWAY...".

They were searching for past and present patients that had a story to tell, obviously one that included Loma Linda University Medical Center.

Each patient will have an "I am" statement. For example a cancer survivors statement might be "I am a Survivor". And then they will place that statement with the patients picture and include a paragraph about that patient and their "I Am" Statement.

Today, we went to the professional photo shoot! It was pretty exciting. It's always been my intention to share Rachel's story to give hope and encouragement for other parents walking the same road, and always giving the Lord the glory for what He's done in her little life. So to be a part of this project is exciting!

When we arrived, of course there were consents to be signed. And then Rachel and I were given a list of "I AM" Statements, whereas we had to pick five that best described Rachel. I read all thirty of them to her and the ones she came up with were, and in this order : "child of God" (and I explained to the lady taking Rachel's story that not only does Rachel have Jesus in her heart, but for each and every one of Rachel's surgeries and throughout her journey, Rachel had people praying for her), "loved", "confident", "beautiful", and "brave" (for having gone through 5 surgeries already in her short life). The project team will go over all the statements that people chose, etc, etc. And then once a statement is chosen for Rachel, a short paragraph detailing her story and tie in with her "I Am" Statement will be published with her photo and placed on the wall!

Here Rachel is in make up. The make up stylist applied some powder to help with the glare of the lights on her face and a little bit of shimmery lip gloss. Shelly had told us to feel free to bring a couple outfits, and/or a stuffed animal, etc. What ever Rachel wanted to do to make the experience more comfortable for her.

I wasn't worried about Rachel not cooperating. But after watching her today, she's a natural for the professional camera! LOL. I stood there almost wondering if modeling or something even greater might be in her future. Here she is in position for her session with the camera.

The teddy bear she is holding is the one that Papa gave to her last year, the night before surgery. This bear not only went with Rachel to the hospital, but he got his own ID band and got to go to surgery with Rachel! The people we shared that story with today really got a kick out of that! And it is for that reason that Rachel chose to bring this bear with her to her photo shoot. And here, the photographer makes some adjustments and repositions Rachel for more pictures. She had changed outfits by this point. And here is Rachel at the end of her session with Shelly! Thank You Shelly for thinking of Rachel for this project! We are honored and cannot wait to see the end result!!Half way through Rachel's session, they wanted me in make up so that the photographer could snap some pictures of me with Rachel! I was NOT expecting that! Otherwise I would have dressed in a different shirt! But thankfully, after being assured by my Mom over a phone call on the way home, she loved the color shirt (lime green)I was wearing today! So I got make up and my hair softened up just a little bit. And hopefully in this day and age of technological magic, photoshop can work a little magic on me!

We cannot wait for the project to be finished and for the day we can go see our little Rachel gracing the walls of an institution that has played a major part in her life thus far.

Student of the Month - September

Our little smarty pants came home with a letter a few days ago congratulating us on Rachel being Student of the Month in her class for the month of September!! She was very excited as she's been trying so hard to obtain it!

Here she is being congratulated by our principal, and then by her teacher. And here is an up close shot of our big girl. She was so excited to get a special pizza lunch today and all the goodies that come inside this folder! Way to Go Rachel! We're Proud of You!

Update: Speech Therapy

Rachel has had speech therapy on a weekly basis since May 2010, with the exception of maybe four or five times we went two weeks between therapy, and those times were due to vacations, Rachel's surgery last November, as well as another time or two. But for the most part, it's been every week for the last 18 months!

We had a normal therapy session on September 14th. And at the end of that session, Dr. D'Antonio thought Rachel was making enough progress in her carrying over and conversational speech that we could stretch to two weeks.

Today marks two weeks since our last Speech Therapy session. At the end of our session today, Dr. D'Antonio thought Rachel had made remarkable progress in her carry over and conversational speech that she suggested we go three weeks in between sessions.

I must admit, I was a little nervous when she said that. We've spent far too much time, energy, and money(!!!) the last 18 months for all of Rachel's speech to go to the way side now. So as she left, we left it at three weeks for therapy, but if I noticed any backsliding or regressing all I had to do was contact her and we'd go two weeks.

So that is where we are with Rachel's speech. Exciting times. Nervous times. At this point, Rachel's next speech therapy session will be in 3 weeks!!

Tae Kwon Do Tournament

This evening, Steven and the girls had a Tae Kwon Do Tournament. And all did very well. Here, Rachel performs her Green Belt Form.
She places 3rd in her division for Form!
Rachel also placed 3rd in sparring. She had a little bit of a panic in the midst of one of her sparring competitions. Her opponent had punched her in the nose! You know, the nose that had a nose job on last November?? The nose that is still pretty tender?? Yea, that nose. But after some tears were shed and after she was looked over by Mom and Dad, she went back into the ring accompanied by the support of clapping onlookers.She had already taken off all her gear by the time this picture was taken.

She did a great job and was VERY pleased with herself and her accomplishment!

2nd Grade Picture

Rachel
7 years old
2011-2012

Cementing Her "D"

We were really at a critical point with Rachel's speech, so we decided that despite it being her birthday, we were going to proceed with our normally scheduled Wednesday afternoon speech session.

Rachel has been having problems with making the "D" sound in her words, especially when they are in the middle of the word (DADDY) and when they are the final letter in a word (hard, card, etc). So for the few weeks leading up to speech on Wednesday, we've really been working on the sound of "D". Drilling it, reenforcing it in our everyday speech, etc.

This last Wednesday, after a little bit of drilling to see where she was, and how she was doing, it was determined that Rachel was ready to 'cement her "D" sound". She'd been hitting it about 90% of the time and it was was time to make it permanent. Thus the reason/need to cement it.Rachel was very proud of her accomplishment, as you can see by the expression in that last picture! It was a fun speech activity to do, even if it was her birthday! :)

Birthday Celebrations!

Rachel's birthday fell smack dab in the middle of the week this year. So her birthday ended up being celebrated all week long!

Her celebration began on Sunday, when I took cupcakes to her Sunday School class. When you turn 7, you move up to the next class, so this was kinda like a 'send off' for her to the 'big kid class'. Her teacher brought balloons and a gift bag with some fun pencils and a notepad. Wednesday was Rachel's actual birthday. She was up and dressed and ready for school in no time, especially when it meant opening presents from Mommy and Daddy and a package that came in the mail from Great Grandma!When Hannah was in 1st grade, it became my tradition to bring the girls lunch on their birthday. Of course Rachel picked McDonalds. And that is what she got! Hannah scored as well, because it was minimum day schedule, her lunch was immediately following Rachel's, so she scored a couple double cheeseburgers as well. :) Rachel had speech following school, and her and Dr. D'Antonio did a special activity, which I'll blog about separately. But later that evening, we went to Applebees for dinner with Gramma and Papa, which is where Rachel picked to eat!

Friday night was the "official celebration event". LOL. It was small and intimate, just the family (grandparents, and cousins) and became even more intimate when Auntie fell sick, Uncle Robbie had a gig with his band, and Gramie couldn't make it down the local mountain pass and it was completely shut down due to an out of control wildfire. But Haylee and McKenzie were spending the night and having the cousins around always makes everything just fine. Rachel got a guitar from Gramma and Papa. And is already rocking out and creating some tunes!Rachel had a great week of birthday celebrating! She's one blessed kid!

2nd Grade!

Hard to believe but the baby of the family started 2nd grade today! Wasn't it just a short time ago that we found out we were pregnant with her?!?We stopped by the school midday Saturday to check out the class lists. I already knew who Rachel's teacher was thanks to the modern day of texting the night before (we were at Disneyland). But it's always fun to see who your classmates are, or aren't! Rachel is in Mrs. Dietz' class. She is one of the two teachers I requested. I'm very happy she got Mrs. Dietz. She's been teaching 5th grade for the last few years, but had taught 2nd grade for many years prior to that. She says she loves this age and is very happy to be back in 2nd grade. It looks like Rachel has a great class this year. There isn't the one classmate well known for his troubles and poor behavior, which was a relief. For the third year in a row, Rachel and Isaiah are classmates once again, and Rachel is happy to have her friend with her once again.

And Off Come the Training Wheels

A few weeks back, Rachel decided she wanted Daddy to take off her training wheels on her bike. And so he did. And after a few tries and Daddy running behind her, she was off....and she's been riding training wheel free ever since! She's a pro!!

To Reschedule or Not to Reschedule the Procedure??

After talking over the events surrounding yesterday's attempted procedure and a few other details surrounding the recommended procedure, with a friend and trusted medical professional, we are going to not reschedule the procedure.

Dr. Martin did not see visible fistula upon examining Rachel's palate so at this time we're going to wait and see if the hyper-nasality continues to lessen.

Procedure Update

Knowing that Rachel's procedure was fully covered in prayer this morning, it didn't feel right when so many things were wrong.

They Rachel scheduled for a procedure that required sedation!!! The insurance coverage wasn't what I thought it should be. And there was just a lot of confusion surrounding all the financial stuff.

So I opted to not have the procedure done and we came home.

Thank You all for your prayers surrounding this appointment, they really were appreciated!!!


"For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace..."
1 Corinthians 14:33

Prayers for a Procedure

Tomorrow morning, (check in at 9:00, procedure at 9:30), Rachel will be having a special procedure done to rule out the possibility of a fistula (hole) in her palate.

The procedure is called a fistulagram and it involves her swishing contrast around in her mouth and then having a special Xray done to see if and where the contrast travels, thus ruling out or confirming a hole, depending on where it travels.

I'm starting to get a little nervous about how she's going to react to having to swish the contrast around in her mouth, I'm sure it tastes nasty.

Would you please be praying that 1) Rachel cooperates with taking the contrast and swishing about and that 2) the results would be negative for a fistula (no hole). Prayers would be very much appreciated! Thank You!!!

When we get the results, I'll be sure to share them.