House-check Cami-check

Wanted everyone to know that the house has been paid in full (well until tomorrow when another payment is due,lol) However, we can pay this late. I want to thank every one of you who have prayed for our family, those have donated money to save our home and to those who have done both. I appreciate it very much and I am happy to have all of you as my friend. I start training tomorrow on how to take care of Sissy's trach. It has to be cleaned 2 times a day and changed once a week. It is going to take some getting used to on my part so that I don't make her vomit. Her trach causes a "gag" reflex, poor baby. I hope you all enjoy the pictures. I am missing my little man like crazy, but he is being cared for at his grandparents house and I know he is safe. I can't keep him and learn how to help Cami at the same time. I did have $14.50 left of the money that we were given. I am putting that in Cami's savings account to help her. I am not ignorant- I know that we all have a long journey ahead of us with Cami's health- but I will be right.there.behind.her. I find out tomorrow what "tools" I will need to care for Camryn. I will as have a helper come out when she finally goes home to help me. I will need this for sure as it takes 2 people to change Sissy's trach. I will be honest and say that it scares me to death.

House-check Cami-check

Wanted everyone to know that the house has been paid in full (well until tomorrow when another payment is due,lol) However, we can pay this late. I want to thank every one of you who have prayed for our family, those have donated money to save our home and to those who have done both. I appreciate it very much and I am happy to have all of you as my friend. I start training tomorrow on how to take care of Sissy's trach. It has to be cleaned 2 times a day and changed once a week. It is going to take some getting used to on my part so that I don't make her vomit. Her trach causes a "gag" reflex, poor baby. I hope you all enjoy the pictures. I am missing my little man like crazy, but he is being cared for at his grandparents house and I know he is safe. I can't keep him and learn how to help Cami at the same time. I did have $14.50 left of the money that we were given. I am putting that in Cami's savings account to help her. I am not ignorant- I know that we all have a long journey ahead of us with Cami's health- but I will be right.there.behind.her. I find out tomorrow what "tools" I will need to care for Camryn. I will as have a helper come out when she finally goes home to help me. I will need this for sure as it takes 2 people to change Sissy's trach. I will be honest and say that it scares me to death.

Cami

Since I am not feeling well I cannot go and see Cami today. I have a fever and cannot take a chance of getting her sick. So, I have called there a couple of times and she is fine. My arms ache to hold her again, but I have not been able to since she had the trach placed. I have to learn how to change her trach this next week and how to clean and change the ties 2 times a day. It takes 2 nurses to do this- all the while my sweet innocent baby cries silently. That comes with the trach- I can no longer hear her cry. It breaks my heart that she is like that- but I can't do anything about it. I am a ferocious mama bear when it comes to my kids. Poor Cami has never had it easy and I suppose she never will. So,I can't go and visit her tonight because of my fever. Kevin did go and visit with her and she vomited on him- part of the trach- if she moves her head too much she vomits. I put up a new chip in with the amount still owed. We have almost enough but they want the January payment as well- so we are still short. Please keep Cami in your prayers- the sweet baby never did anything to deserve this.

What is still needed

With the newest donations we only need $1181.28 left to pay the mortgage in full......very, very exciting. We are almost there!! I do not know how to add more time to the chip-in. SO, once this one is over I will start up another.

Pictures & Updates

I went to visit my beautiful daughter last night like I always do. What was different last night? Well.... I think her vision is somewhat coming back. I played with bright musical toys and whereas she used to look around and kind of "try" and find them with her hands, last night she DID find them with her hands on a couple of different occasions. This could mean different things... it could mean that her "seeing" with her ears is getting better or it could be that our prayers are being answered and that she is "seeing" with her eyes- if even just a little bit- it may be happening. I pray that this is what is happening- I hope that she is actually seeing with her eyes again. I didn't have my camera with me last night, I only had my cell phone to take pictures and so, they aren't perfect but I wanted all of you to see what I was seeing. I hope you enjoy these pictures as much as I do. My strong little fighter may just be coming out of this blindness :O) :O) :O) Also, where we were $1402.00 short on the house we are now just $1258.06 short after 3 donations came in through pay pal yesterday. We got $100.00 and 2 $25.00 donations yesterday- so after the pay pal fees were taken out- we are down to $1258.06. God is good and so are all of you for your wonderful prayers and greater donations. I truly love all of you for all that you have done and are doing for our family. Being that I have always been on the giving end with prayers and donations- it is hard to be on the receiving end- but I must say that when you offer unselfishly, it does come back when you most need it. Those of you who have never met us in "real life" but are giving us what you can- whether it be prayer, financial or just keeping us in your thoughts- we completely understand that you are giving what you can and it is so very much appreciated. I give you my word that all of the money coming into our family is going to save our home and any that we are able to raise over that amount will also go into saving our home as well- we will pay all monies that come to us for our house- to our house. I am hoping that we get enough to not only keep us out of foreclosure- but to make a couple of extra payments so that we are "ahead" as well. We have had 2 large donations one was $1000.00 and one $4500.00 and a lot of smaller donations of $10.00, $15.00, $20.00, $25.00, $50.00, $70.00, $100.00, $200.00 and 1 $300.00 from a girl I went to high school with. All donations are so very helpful- no matter what the amount- we are grateful. Because of your selfless acts in giving- you are going to be responsible for saving our home. Pat yourselves all on the back for all of your help to our family. We truly believe in all of you and if there is anything that I can do for you- please let me know. So, I hope you enjoy the pictures of the kiddo's in the last few days. Cody had a friend come and visit him as well. Natalie is my friend's name- we met here at the Ronald McDonald house the first time we stayed here. Natalie has a son named Caleb who has autism and some other issues and she was here for quite a while. Well, she has a daughter named AvreighFaye. Well, Cody and AvreighFaye were born just 2 days apart. Cody was born on 6/26/09 and AvreighFaye was born on 6/28/09. Cody and AvreighFaye became fast friends and though they haven't seen in other in quite some time- they picked up where they left off- they are the same height, have the same color hair and same coloring- so, people assume that they are twins when we go walking. They are too cute together.

Camryn looks so much better

I love all of you. So. much.it.hurts.

I hope you all enjoy the pictures of Camryn, Cody & AvreighFaye- they are all so cute together.

Updates....

I want to start this post out by saying just how much I appreciate all of you. I appreciate your concern for our family- though many of you have never met us in "real life" before. I appreciate all of the love and concern that your emails, letters and cards have shown me. Someone who has become very dear to me in the last couple of weeks wants me to post how much money we still need to pay our house current. I pondered this because I hate to ask for anything- but on the other hand I want everyone to know just how close we are. We have gotten so many donations big and small and one very big. We only need $1402.00more and we have all of the money that we need to save our house. Yes, we needed about $7k and we are down to $1402.00!!! I prayed several times a day that we would be able to save our home and we are that close!! Camryn is doing fantastic as well!! We may even get moved from the PICU to the IMC by next week sometime! I will write more in a little bit- my son is trying to use the keyboard at the same time I am and it is not working out so well for either of us, lol.

My Amazing Baby Girl

Camryn had the first of many upcoming surgeries yesterday. Her ENT is going to slowly re-open her airway. Yesterday she did like a champ- he had to go in to open the airway again and stretch it just a little bit. In about 2 weeks she will go back to the operating room and slowly stretch it again. There is a little cutting involved, but not too much (we hope it continues to stay that way) Cami woke up a couple of hours later and was just as happy as usual- like she didn't have anything done at all. She is such a little champ! I am so proud of her. Her little lips are so full- I have very skinny little lips but Kevin has very wide full lips. She has my shaped lips, but they are full like Kevin's. They are so cute- just like the rest of her. She just kept making bubbles and sticking out her tongue. I was just watching her in awe. She also has a little blue orthopedic chair that OT uses with her. She was in there for a while yesterday. I wasn't there when she was in the chair I had to go and buy Kevin a new cell phone since his broke. Since he is so rough on phones- I just bought him the least expensive phone they had. So, a little flip-phone is what he got and it works just fine. We broke away from the hospital last night and went out to eat at Red Lobster. We put to good use our gift cards that we got in December. It was so GOOD!! I love seafood :O) I worried about Cami the whole time though which I figured I would. I was just a few minutes down the road but none the less, worried. I got a jury duty summons in the mail the other day, I called them and explained that I have a child in the PICU and they just need a letter from the hospital stating that Cami is there. I got that yesterday and I am faxing it to them in the morning and also mailing a copy because I want to be double sure that they get it. Cody is doing fine, I am so happy that he is so healthy because it would be entirely too much to handle if I had 2 little ones that were sick. I know that there are people who are able to do it though.

Surgery Update

Just a quick update to let you know that Camryn came out of surgery fine. I will update more later

Christy

Tonight

Cami had an okay day. She was up off and on and sat in a an orthopedic chair for a few minutes. She goes into surgery tomorrow at 11:15 am cst. Doctor is going to try to widen her airway. This will be one of many surgeries to try and widen her airway so that we can hopefully remove the trach and Miss Cami can breathe through her nose and mouth like she used to. I want to say "thank you" to those of you who have mailed me letters, cards & donations. It means so very much to us that you went out of your way to write us a letter or get us a card- we truly appreciate it. The donation will go toward our home. Thank you to every one of you who have sent donations to us. I haven't thanked you individually and I apologize. I just have not really had my mind in the right place. You are all so great and giving. I can't believe my chip in either- all of my wonderful friends! You are all wonderful- we are overjoyed and cannot believe that our home will probably be saved. There is also a fundraiser going on now for Camryn that I am sure you would be interested in. A fellow online friend is making ribbons, key chains & cute little tu-tu's and 75% of the proceeds come to us. The website is http://momscouponswap.blogspot.com/2011/01/scarlett-and-camryn-fundraiser.html I hope that you will support us. She is so nice to do this for us. There is also another online friend who haso ordered bracelets that say "praying for camryn" on them but they are not in yet. Once I get more info on them I will post it. Thank you all for everything- we love and appreciate you all. Also, about her looking at me- when we talk to her she will turn her head our way. She definitely responds to the sound of my voice. That weblink again is

http://momscouponswap.blogspot.com/2011/01/scarlett-and-camryn-fundraiser.html

Camryn Jean

Pictures

Cody & Cami

Cody is facinated with keys. He knows that they work in cars and in the Ronald Mcdonald house you have to put a key in the wall to turn on the electricity- so, when we walk in he turns and looks at the wall. He is too smart- I love him so much. Cami was awake last night when we went- she is getting used to the sedation meds- so she is beginning to wake up.

My Amazing Monkey Cody

Pictures are out of order apparently- I didn't put them in correctly. I love this boy with all of my heart. It took us 7 years to have this little one. 7 years of infertility- but we kicked infertility's butt!!

Cami

About Camryn.... I called to check on her this morning and found out that her ventilator failed. She had to have a new ventilator brought in and was bagged in the mean time. I thought they lost her 3 times, but now that I have talked with them again (while I was more calm) I found out that she was only really "lost" once. They had to bag her quite a bit- but with her trach I guess things are a little more difficult. We did not receive a call- not on my phone, Kevin's phone or the room phone. They said that my number was called- but I don't show it. Also, there isn't a message. I went to see her and she is still sedated. Her little chest is still red - but that is to be expected. She is still alive though- my little girl is tough :O) I will post more pictures of her later. Thanks for caring about Cami and our family. Cami was born via c-section on August 18, 2010 at 9:41pm She weighed 3lb 15oz and was 16 1/4 inches long. She was born at 31 weeks to the day (9 wks early) We knew about the Hydrocephalus when I was 16 weeks pregnant. We didn't know about her other issues until after birth. I love my daughter any way that she is. I know that some people would not want her because she is "disabled" but I don't just love my children. I am IN LOVE with my Cody & Cami. Since her hospitalization- she has developed a ton of brain bleeds, has gone blind, started having seizures, one lung collapsed due to the machine, etc. She has had several surgeries/procedures and she is still here. She was weighed 2 days ago and weighed 12lbs 5oz. She weighed 11lb 8oz the day she went in. So, she isn't gaining weight very well. She has lost her "suck" reflex as well. Camryn is very sick, but you know what? I LOVE HER!!!

Christy

Pictures Before Now

Cody, Cousin Julia & Cami

Mommy & Cami

Cody & Cami

Mommy & Cami

My Beautiful Baby Girl


I just thought I would put some pictures from a happier time. When Cami wasn't hooked up to machines and things were "normal"

Happy 5th Month Cami

Happy 5 Months Camryn Jean. As of 9:41pm on 1/18 she will be 5 months old. I love you more than life itself baby girl. You are everything to mommy and daddy. You own our heart along with your brother. Happy 5th month sweetheart- we all love you.
It is hard to have you in the hospital yet again baby girl- but we are dealing with it. You don't know it, but you have a whole army of people behind you- all praying for you. You have so many friends that you do not know yet- but they know you my angel. Mommy and Daddy tried for so many years to have you and your brother- we prayed and prayed and prayed and our prayers were answered. Now we pray and pray and pray that you will be healed. You not only have our prayers but so many other peoples prayers as well. You are so very loved baby girl. Sleep tight and have good dreams baby because we are all fighting for you.

Love Mommy, Daddy, Cody, Memaw, Papaw, Papaw, all of your other family members and all of your prayer warriors- there are too many for mommy to name- maybe they will wish you a happy birthday too.