Human

I was singing this song called "Human" by Natalie Grant.



The song had been stuck in my head and I was singing: "I'm human, you're human... we are... we are human." Every time I sang that Heidi said, "We're not huban! We're Heidi and Mommy!" So I said, "Yes, we are Heidi and Mommy, but we are also human beings." She said, "No, we're not huban beans! We're Heidi and Mommy!" Ha ha... I guess I will wait a little longer to explain what human beings are. :)

Heidi's joke

I have heard Heidi try knock knock jokes before but she can never quite get it quite right. Of course she gets confused as to who is supposed to say what. Today, she was trying out a knock knock joke again, but never had a punchline really. Tonight while she was in bed playing and talking before going to sleep, Clint overheard her saying a knock knock joke to herself. It went something like this:

Knock knock!
Who's there?
Boo!
Ahhh!

Ha ha! She is hilarious!

Blog for Leslie and Update

A friend of Leslie's has started a blog. It has some more information about her situation that I had not read before. Check it out if you would like to read more updates about her status.

http://www.lesliejoyevans.blogspot.com/

Update Saturday October 2nd 1:56 p.m.:

Initially the doctors thought she had an amniotic fluid embolism. Currently they think it was a blood clot that traveled through her heart and got stuck in her lungs. This deprived her heart of oxygen and caused her heart to stop.
Sunday after Leslie was revived, the doctors were optimistic. Leslie is young and healthy and should be able to bounce back from trauma fairly quickly. So everyone waited. Many friends and family members went to the hospital to pray with the family and be there for support.
By Sunday evening, the doctors were not receiving the results they were hoping for. Due to her brain being without oxygen for 17 minutes, they realized it was not a good sign for her.
On Monday, Leslie's kidneys had shut down. They started doing dialysis Monday afternoon. She is still on dialysis because her kidneys aren't working like they are supposed to be. But the biggest problem is Leslie's brain. Her brain being without oxygen for 17 minutes can do serious damage.
A neurologist has been running EEG's on Leslie daily. She has also had CAT Scans. The CAT scan shows no swelling in the brain and no bleeding. The EEG on Monday seemed optimistic because she did have a little more brain activity than she did on Sunday. But it still isn't where she is supposed to be. In the first 72 hours, she should have shown response to pain, and she did not. To the neurologist, this was a very negative sign.
During this past week, her vitals have improved with support but she has continued to not respond to the neurologist's tests. The neurologist has told the family that he expects no chance of meaningful recovery. A second neurologist is coming to see Leslie today, but they don't expect his opinion to be any different. At this point, the only hope for Leslie's full recovery is by prayer.
Taken from www.Lesliejoyevans.blogspot.com

 Update Saturday, Oct. 2nd around 8:00 p.m.:

After I was there this evening, the new neurologist will have Leslie's sedation medicine cleared from her system by dialysis, there will be no more visitors other than close family members allowed in her room as of Monday. They will watch her brain activity from this point and keep her stimuli down. A decision is being... requested with in 48 hours. Prayers are still very much needed! Don't forget to join us tomorrow at Norman Health Plex at 4pm!

Eph 6:18 Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints;
~ In Christ, Erin

Not Much Change

There has not been much of a change in Leslie's status. She still remains comatose and unresponsive. The neurologist continues to say Leslie will not wake and if she does, she will suffer severe damage. Leslie's body remains well, however, her brain is not showing significant improvement. Drs are pressuring family to make a decision. I have not yet lost hope. I remain confident that this (loving Leslie- a group on facebook for Leslie) is what brings his people together as one to praise His name and worship Him and learn to pray with out ceasing!

God have mercy!!! Keep up the prayers! No matter... God is moving!!!

Sending Cards and Encouragement

If you would like to send cards of encouragement to Leslie and her family you can send them to:

Leslie Evans
HealthPlex
3300 HealthPlex Parkway
Norman, OK 73072

Please do not send flowers. I read a note somewhere that she cannot have them in her room.

Loving Leslie

I have been posting prayer requests for my friend from high school, Leslie (Bond) Evans on facebook all week. I decided to add it to my blog so maybe more people out there who haven't seen it on facebook can be praying about it too. We were in choir together and I have so many wonderful memories of her and the whole choir doing such fun things together. One of the highlights, of course being that we traveled to Italy, Spain and France the summer after I graduated to go to a choir contest which we won. Those memories, times and people are forever in my heart, including Leslie. She is a beautiful Christian woman of faith. Please pray for her. I will try to post updates as soon as I hear them on my blog.

Update written on Wednesday:

Leslie was pregnant with twins. Her water broke when she was at 19 weeks. They were able to stabilize her and the babies up to 21 weeks. Then baby A, a girl, was born stillborn this last Sunday. They tried to keep her from having baby B and she unfortunately did and that baby was unable to make it due to lack of lung function. Leslie, had an amniotic embolism which supposedly hasn't been heard of since the 40's and only one recorded time since this. But, she had a heart attack, and was without oxygen for 17 minutes, her kidneys have failed and she's been put on dialysis, she's been placed on a ventilator and started at 100% oxygen but has started breathing at 60% on her own, which is good. She was seizing but that has decreased, and her blood pressure was low, however, that has gone up to normal and meds have been reduced which is good. There is risk of brain damage, heart problems and other organ damage. EEG shows improvements and stabilization, Leslie hasn't responded to touch or sound but her pupils dilate with light- which is good. We are praying for complete healing and recovery. We need a miracle!!!

Update from Thursday:

There was very discouraging news today from the neurologist. HOWEVER, I have not given up hope due to the news. WE STILL NEED A MIRACLE!! for those of you who know Leslie and what her family has suffered through recently and what her husband and step children have suffered, now would be a truly needed time for a miracle!!! 

The report from the neurologist was this: They had hoped to see more changes and more brain activity in the last 72 hours than they had seen. The neurologist made a prognosis that stated, Leslie will most likely not wake, if she should, she would most likely suffer severe brain damage and be in a vegetative state. He also mentioned that if this were his daughter, he wouldn't give up treatment because there's always hope.
Once again, though this news is heartbreaking and discouraging, I refuse to believe or something within me refuses to believe that God isn't capable of turning this around and providing a complete miracle!

Heavenly Father,
Please hear the pleas that go up on behalf of my dear friend Leslie! Please perform a miraculous work! May it all bring you Glory and honor and Praise! Rom 8:25 But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.


Rom 8:26 In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express.


Rom 8:27 And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.

Rom 8:28 And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.

Update posted at midnight last night:

I don't want anyone to be discouraged or dismayed for what report I posted per the neurologist- rather, to stand stronger in Him and His word and Pray with out ceasing!!

I forgot to mention, that tonight while I was in her room, I held her hand and talked to her and shared with her the dream I had about her waking and telling me she had been awake but just needed rest, I felt the slightest movement as if a squeeze of her hand... I doubted at first then it happened two other times, It wasn't from any sort of seizure or jerking, it felt deliberate... so I said to her, " Leslie, if you can hear me, and you are trying to squeeze my hand, keep trying, because I can feel it." I didn't feel anything at that moment but her cousin who was holding her other hand looked up at me and said something along the lines, " I don't know if it's hope or power of suggestion, but I just felt as though she tried to squeeze my hand."
I don't doubt that she was trying! In that moment I felt the rush of God's presence and a hope like I've never had before!
 

Mar 9:23 Jesus said unto him, If thou canst believe, all things [are] possible to him that believeth.

Patio Furniture

Today our patio furniture was delivered! We got it on sale at Family Leisure. We are very excited to use it. I think we will this weekend!


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Momma's cooking

Tonight Heidi was eating dinner and said, "Mmmm, that's good!" I said, "Good, I'm glad you like it!" Then she said, "Gwatuwations!" (translation: Congratulations)

She's so funny and cute and I'm so glad she likes my cooking!

In case anyone was wondering I made Creamy Tomato Basil Pasta with Shrimp. I'm not sure why Basil is in the title though since I didn't use any... ? It was very tasty and Heidi kept asking for more!

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Freaked out

Ok, I'm sure a lot of you will laugh at me, but I'm totally freaked out because I found a teeny tiny snake in my house. Yuck!!!! Snakes are probably about 100 times worse than spiders and I don't like spiders either. It took all the courage I had to take a broom and sweep it out the front door. Phew! I'm so glad that's over! Ok, you can laugh now. Here is a picture of the tiny thing that nearly gave me a heart attack today. Laugh away!




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Re-entry shock still fresh?

I know that this is completely irrational and my head tells me it is completely untrue. But sometimes my heart feels like no one really cares about the things that are important to me, a.k.a. my time in Germany and the emotions I still feel about coming back to the States. I know this is probably mostly due to the fact that no one really "gets it" because they didn't have the same experiences I did. I get that. But I guess somehow my heart still feels deep down this aching feeling like no one cares. I just thought it would be good to get some of these feelings out there to share. Maybe some of you can share your similar feelings that have been through this too.


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Proof of the bumps and bruises

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One year

I am really missing my Chemnitz friends today. I had to say goodbye 1 year ago today. I can't believe it has already been that long. It still feels like we just got here sometimes. I'm really hoping that we get to see you soon! We love you all so much!

Ich vermisse meine Chemnitz Freunde heute. Ich musste vor einem Jahr mich verabschieden. Ich kann nicht glauben dass es so lange her ist. Manchmal fühlt es als ob wir gerade angekommen sind. Ich hoffe dass ich euch sehr bald sehen darf. Wir lieben euch so sehr!


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Bumps and bruises

Well, along with childhood comes bumps and bruises. I knew it would come eventually... This week has been kind of rough for Heidi. First she fell off a chair Sunday night at church and got a little bruise on her forehead. Today we were at a splash park and she fell and got a bloody nose, a scratch on her upper lip and maybe even somehow scratched her gums?? I will have to try to take a closer look after nap time. Thankfully it didn't bleed too much, but it was definitely the most blood I've seen come from my sweet baby before. Poor girl. :(


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Back on track?

Yeah, so I really want to post on here more often. Especially about things that Heidi says and does. It is pretty much my only way of documenting her life thus far. I am hoping to actually work on her baby book soon. I'll let you know how that goes.

It's late and I just figured out how to get my background back to normal so I won't write a lot tonight. I will, however, leave you with one funny thing that Heidi did yesterday.

We are working really hard on potty training this week. I decided after our vacation week I would start up again and really stick to it. I think she is much more ready now so it is just a matter of time until she will get used to it. She has really only had a few accidents so that is good. I have been setting my phone alarm every 30 minutes to take her to the potty so she can get used to doing it often until she starts doing it on her own. It has worked out pretty well for the most part. Of course she is usually in the middle of playing, watching a video, or just doing something else that she would rather be doing than going potty. So, a lot of times I have to tell her to put down the toys or things that she has before she goes into the bathroom. Here is how our conversation went yesterday:

Mommy: "Heidi, put that down and come in the bathroom."
Heidi: Giving me a look I give her all the time (cocking her head with eyebrows up)... "Can you ask nicely?"
M: Trying not to laugh... "Can you please put that down and come in the bathroom?"
H: "Oh, ok, you asked nicely! Ok, I'm coming!" and she put her toy down and came.

I think she has heard this just a few times from us.... ha ha ha

But seriously... she had a good point. If we always ask her to ask nicely or politely then I guess it wouldn't hurt for us to ask her nicely... :)

Quotes from Heidi

Here are a couple of quotes from Heidi lately:

Heidi: "I'm a grandma!"
Me: "Oh really? You must be the youngest grandma ever!"
H: "Yeah, I'm a grandma. Elmo's a grandma!"
Ha ha ha! Who knows where she gets this stuff!

Last week was the first time I attempted putting her hair in pigtails. When I was finished, she looked in the mirror and said, "I'm Claire!" Ha ha ha.... she thought she looked like her cousin Claire because she wears her hair in pigtails a lot. :) So cute!

Best Moment on "The Office"

Just had to share my favorite moment on the show "The Office." I love this scene. Dwight and Andy are trying to impress Erin.  Enjoy!

Heidi's first prayer

I think Heidi has tried to pray before, but it was usually just mumbled words that we couldn't understand. Tonight though, she asked to pray after we had said a prayer at bedtime. So her prayer sounded something like this: "Thank you for Daddy and Mommy and toys and bunnies and Momma bunny and baby bunny and Elmo and bears!" It was sooooo sweet! I love that girl!

My Surprise 30th Birthday Party!

My husband is a sweetie! He planned a surprise party for me and I had no idea!

We just bought a grill the week of the party and so we had talked about "breaking it in". I asked Clint if he wanted to invite someone over to use it. Little did I know he had already invited a bunch of people over to help us break it in! So he made up a story about some friends of ours coming over and we started setting the table and he had the grill fired up. A little after noon, I happened to look out the window and saw our friends Josh and Amanda and their two kids walking up to the house. Our neighborhood was having a garage sale so there were a lot of people in the neighborhood that day. I told Clint, "Oh, maybe they were looking at the garage sales and decided to stop by." Ha ha... then, I saw several other people following them. I went to the door and when they came in they said, "Happy Birthday!" I was still unsure what was going on for a few seconds... I was pretty shocked! But then I realized what was going on... I was shaking and nervous and I started crying! I was a mess! But they were happy tears! Here are some pictures from that day. If I could post all the pictures I have from that day I would, but that would make this blog post really long. So if you want to look at more photos check out my Flickr site! :) The link is on the left.

My niece Lydia and Heidi played with baby Liam and he enjoyed Heidi's old exersaucer

 Our fun new friends John and Emily were there!

My sister Amy and niece Ashlyn drove from Houston! I was very surprised to see them!

Amanda and her sweet baby Liam

 My niece Claire and Heidi- such cuties!

Dad and my niece Lydia

 Me and my sis-in-law Lana

Dustin and Scott (Heather and Megan were there too) Heidi loves playing with Scott and Megan!

Josh, Courtney, and Dustin enjoying conversation

Jeremy, Kristi and Jacoby came...Tessa was running around somewhere!

My parents, Claire me and Heidi with my birthday cake

 All the cousins- couldn't get Ashlyn to smile

 Me and Courtney

My sister, Amy, and me

My brother Jonathan and 3 giggly girls

Also I was surprised when Clint played a video for me of the Chemnitz church singing Happy Birthday to me! It made me cry! Thank you all for making this day so special for me!

Easter

We had a great Easter weekend. The weekend started out with the Mike McDonald Eagle Run at Oklahoma Christian. It is a 5k race that is in memory of a family friend of ours who passed away in 2003. He was an avid runner and loved OC. This race helps support a scholarship fund for students of OC. Clint, Heidi and I took part in that race. Clint and I took turns pushing her in the stroller. We didn't, however run the whole thing. We walked some and then we actually only did 3k because they had an Easter egg hunt that we wanted Heidi to go to. So we headed over to the egg hunt and Heidi was able to grab a lot of eggs. I think she had a pretty good time! After the egg hunt there was a pancake brunch. We got to see lots of friends and visit so that was very nice.

Later that night we dyed eggs with Heidi! This was the first time Heidi has done this and I think she enjoyed it!

The first couple of eggs didn't get get very dark because I didn't put vinegar in the dye, but the others were a lot darker and looked better. Heidi also got to put stickers on them that came with the kit we got.

On Sunday, my parents went to church with us at Westwood and then there was an Easter Egg Hunt after church. Then we all went out to eat. We also headed to Yukon for the afternoon and evening and spent the rest of the day with my parents and my brother and family. It was fun! Heidi and the girls had another egg hunt and enjoyed playing together.

 Heidi finding her Easter basket

Heidi in her Easter dress

Getting ready for the Easter Egg Hunt at church

Unfortunately we didn't get a very good family photo

These are honestly the best shots we got... it was windy. :)

Our little Easter Bunny!

The girls hunting eggs at Mimi and Papa's

The girls with Mimi and Papa

New blog format and a random story

Thanks to Amy Nickerson we now have a really cute blog format and new header! Thank you Amy! I am completely clueless when it comes to doing stuff like that so it was great that Amy was willing to figure it out for me! :)

Random story of the day:

Heidi and I went grocery shopping at Crest today. I got all my items and we headed to the checkout. The checker was friendly and making conversation and a woman came up and started bagging my groceries and then started talking to Heidi. Then as I was paying she asked if Heidi could have a balloon. At first, thinking... "I guess" she began to say.... "that big balloon?" I looked over at a GIANT balloon. All I could say was, "uhhhhh" and before I could actually say anything she yelled at a guy and said, go get that balloon for this little girl. She brings a big red balloon to Heidi and Heidi just stares at it, almost like she's scared. So the lady says, I guess she doesn't want it. (I'm secretly relieved and say... oh well... say thank you Heidi!) Then Heidi says "I want a yellow one!" Ha ha... so the lady yells at the guy again and says, "go get the yellow one for her!" Meanwhile, I'm starting to get embarrassed and the people behind me in line are all looking at me and laughing, as I have this slight smile, but yet embarrassed look on my face. The checker says, that's a really big balloon and I'm thinking the same thing... wondering if it will even fit in my car. Then another guy that works there says that they put a special kind of helium in it that makes it last for months. Great... The lady comes back with a huge yellow balloon and says, "you better tie it to your purse so you don't lose it!" So I tie it to my purse and as we walk out to the car, it keeps hitting me in the head and I just know everyone in the parking lot is staring at me. I am surprisingly able to shove it in my car and it takes up the whole passenger side. Here's a couple of pics so you can see how huge it is. I ended up tying it to Heidi's play shopping cart at home so she could push it around the house because it is quite strong and I doubt she could even hold very well or for very long without it floating to the ceiling.