11/7/10 Update

I guess I know I am not sending enough updates when I feel the need to apologize at the beginning. The only way I know to make up for it is to include a picture or 4. Luke turned 3 on 10/16 and got a battery powered John Deere Gator for his birthday. Since it was not charged then, He and Carissa took turns "driving" it. Since then Luke has made dozens of trips around the yard and back and forth from the barn to the yard hauling stuff around and just generally speeding around.
You can see from the pictures that Carissa has made huge strides physically. She has been in occupational therapy for a few months (I didn't even know she had a job) and started physical therapy a couple of months ago. After the physical therapist said that if we worked really hard we might see Carissa crawl by Christmas, Carissa surprised us all by starting to crawl some around a month ago. She is also pulling up and standing up while holding on like you see in the pictures above. The "Texas Tough" shirt Carissa is wearing is actually the first non-hospital issue item she ever wore. What a reminder of how far she has come.

We have been blessed in that Carissa has continually come up negative for any genetic defects. This past week she showed growth in both weight and height over the past month or so and her doctors were encouraged by that. Unfortunately her anemia was pretty severe so she had a transfusion on Friday for the first time since 6/25/09. We are very thankful that Dave Walton, Trendmaker's Director of Purchasing, made time to donate some of his blood last week during a crazy busy week for us at Trendmaker. Therefore, Carissa was able to use his blood that was also used in her last couple of transfusions. That was a very comforting detail during a challenging time.

Carissa's doctors decided on the transfusion because they want her strength up for proposed upper and lower GI tests on this Tuesday. Although we really didn't want to do these tests since they will require Carissa to be under anesthesia, the severity of the anemia shows that she may have something going on that needs to be found and to be dealt with to help keep her from having setbacks. Thanks in advance for your prayers for Carissa's safety and healing. Carissa has been fighting a cold for several days now. She needs to clear up on that to avoid going through all the nasty prep for the endoscopy and colonoscopy only to be told to not have the tests on Tuesday. We definitely do not want to have to repeat that prep. I will update this week after we have heard back from the doctors.

• Please thank God for everything He has brought our little "Texas Tough" Carissa through
• Please pray Carissa will be well enough to undergo the tests
• Please pray that the prep goes as well as it can and that we can keep her very sensitive bottom from getting torn up during the forced diarrhea
• Please pray for the anesthesiologist and that Carissa gets through the procedures and recovery with no challenges
• Please pray for wisdom on our part and the doctors on knowing what to do with the results of the tests.
• Please pray that Carissa can produce and maintain all the correct blood components and that the anemia improves and disappears.

Yours and His,

Terry