a sweet girl

isn't that one of the cutest little girls you've ever seen?! her name is Emery.

these are her wonderful parents. her beautiful mama has been a friend of mine since childhood (her sister married my uncle, so in some odd way we are related). her great husband is a good friend of my husband and my families (my mom actually set them up.). they are amazing God-honoring people and we are so blessed to have them in our lives.

the reason for bringing them up is that their sweet girl wasn't feeling so well last week, and like the good mama she is, Sarah, started to notice a few things were off with her usually spunky little girl (see photo below).

she'd had a fever for a few days, was a little constipated (nothing unusual about that with babies), and was a little lethargic. all of that would have been passed off as teething, or just recovering from a cold, except that Emery started to struggle to hold her head up on her own all the sudden. for an almost 6 month old, that is a giant red flag! Sarah & Dave took her right to the pediatrician who recommended they see a neurologist.

as a mama, you never want to hear specialists recommended at the doctors. never. that night i prayed. a lot. please lord, don't let it be what we all fear. cancer.

the neurologist had good news and scary news. it wasn't cancer. praise the lord. it wasn't early onset m.s. praise the lord.

but. it was infant botulism. praise the lord.

i know that sounds funny. but slo county (where they live) has the highest rates of childhood/infant botulism in the nation, so they are very very well equipped to handle a case in their hospital. infant botulism is treatable. infant botulism has a cure.

so this sweet little girl was admitted last thursday to the hospital immediately for fear that she would stop breathing. the recovery time takes weeks, even months.

patience will be needed. praise is due to the Lord our God. prayers are being lifted up as we speak.

according to her mama (who doesn't have a blog but should), she's doing better. her muscle tone is coming back, but it will take months of both occupational and physical therapy to get her back to where she was. she cannot eat (nurse) yet, so they are using a feeding tube, and she just got taken off some of the monitors. they say she's "wireless" now. here's sarah's words:

Emery is improving each day, becoming more like herself. She is charming all of the nurses with her sweet little voice and smile.We have tried a bottle with water the last couple days and she is no where near being ready to eat again, let alone nurse. She may be sent home with the feeding tube but I am hoping that will not happen. I am anxious to start nursing again, I miss that time with her and it is so hard to watch her get hungry and I can't do anything about it.

All in all, things are looking up. I've started to write down the things I'm thankful for in all of this, it helps me when I start feeling weary and discouraged. We have a long road ahead of us, she will be needing a lot of therapy to get back to normal, which will continue well past when we are sent home back into our normal routine. We thank you all for your continued prayers and support. Specifically pray that she will be able to eat again soon. God is faithful.

there is a saying at my parent's church, "God is good all the time. All the time God is good."

it is so true. had Sarah not paid attention, or waited longer to call the doctor, or God not been good the unfathomable could have happened.

please join me in lifting them up. we must pray for patience. rest. peace. healing. and specifically that she won't need her feeding tube soon. i know they appreciate all the prayers and thoughts being sent to them right now.