And the -Oscopy goes to...

(Look at him in his cute tiny hospital gown!)

Benjamin had his "endoscopy/flex sigmoidoscopy" early this morning and he did great! As an obvious response to our anxious prayers, the anesthesiologist was a wonderful Dr that goes to our church and is a close family friend. Now I am feeling dumb that I didn't think before to ask for him specifically, but it all worked anyway. The gastroenterologist said that he didn't see anything to be concerned with by his visual inspection but that a few tissue samples were taken from different areas of his digestive tract for testing and they should have the results in the next 2 weeks. Ben only cried for a minute or two as he was coming out of anesthesia in recovery. Thank you God for assuring that today went so smoothly!

Thank you for your prayers about this- they are much appreciated! We'll keep you posted on the results.

Prayers for Benjamin

I was just thinking the other day that I don't blog anymore about one of the main things that consumes my life. I have mentioned it before, but not for awhile... it is Benjamin's eating & growing issues. Well, he still isn't growing on a normal curve according to the growth charts. After months and months of visting different specialists, his pediatrician and the gastroenterologist are in agreement that he needs to undergo a procedure. This coming Monday Benjamin is to have an endoscopy/sigmoidoscopy performed under anesthesia. I think we are most nervous about the anesthesia part. Tissue samples will be taken from different parts of his digestive tract and sent to the lab... looking for celiac disease. I think that there may be other things that he would be tested for- I don't want him to have some serious life long illness of course, but some answers would be nice. My fear is that we will STILL not have an answer after we put Ben through all this. Anyway, please pray that the procedure goes smoothly without complications.

On a lighter note-

Giving kisses. They are so sweet to each other... most of the time.

Third times a charm

This is literally the third time I have tried to post this week. I'd write something and then realize that it was not interesting or informative and then give up. I couldn't remember what all we have been doing to keep so busy... until today when I finally got around to downloading pictures from the past week.

For sure the highlight of the past week was last Friday. Paul took off work and we met up with some out-of-town friends at SeaWorld! Between the three families there totalled 9 kids all under the age of 5. A friend of Paul's works with the Killer Whales and so our little party got to pet baby Shamu. Actually her name is Haylen, but when I say baby Shamu you have a better idea of who I am talking about, right?

7 of the 9 kiddos

the other 2

Well, Paul had made the rookie mistake of telling Ashlyn the day before that we were going to be able to get close and touch Shamu... so for that stretch of time she was certain she wasn't going to touch something with that big of teeth. However, when the time came she gladly took her turn. Maybe because it was only the little tiny Shamu.

I think all the kids except the babies were brave enough to have their turn. I didn't think about it until later that I wanted to pet baby Shamu too. All of the adults were either holding a small child or taking pictures, so I guess we weren't really available to participate. We were like the paparazzi- all the pictures being taken with this crowd of children since something exciting was happening. Happens all the time... and it always makes me laugh.
Such a fun and memorable day!!