What we might and might not know....

Last week we requested prayers for our tiny one Riley girl for what we thought was a MRSA repeat. While it's not as bad, she does have a different type of staff infection in her ear that she is being treated for. God is good and has spared us what could have been a much worse time for Riley.

Meanwhile, we are preparing for our big move. This week has been crazy busy with appointments nearly every day and a do list that grows by the minute. The house will officially be rented out to some of our best friends here in CO starting in August. It's hard to believe that in just a month we will be out of CO, in the east coast and my home will be occupied by others who will make it theirs!

As part of the army process to PCS, you have to go through EFMP. The purpose of EFMP is to screen all health issues for each member of the family to insure that for whatever health issues you have, you will receive proper health care in your next destination. It is a mandatory process for each solider and their family and as part of the process as a whole you must get a physical.

Leea and Carson had great physicals. Aside from a few small improvements in their diets they did great. Riley not so much. She weighed in at just 18lbs and will soon be 15 months old. She's in the 1% where she's been for a while now. She still is not speaking a single word aside from a rare "ma." She tries to babble at times but not much. While she is walking, she hasn't mastered any of the 15 month developmental milestones. Her doctor and her ENT have thought for months and still thinks that cystic fybrosis is a concern and valid diagnosis. She was tested for this several times when she spent a week at Denver Childrens Hospital in April but we never were able to get a clear result. Her doctor has confirmed that we most definitely have some hearing loss issues and has ordered a hearing test to see to what extent. She has also recommended speech and developmental therapy for Riley.

We leave in a month for our travels and to being a new life of living out of suitcases which makes speech and developmental therapy kinda hard to do. So, we wait and see what happens over the next few months and we let time tell. Any amount of news wouldn't change our love for her anyhow. It's clear that with all Riley has gone through she has suffered hearing loss, she is tiny but her doctors think that there is more to it. She hasn't been eating for months, even though that sounds very strange...I can't even get a Popsicle much less some organic puree in her most days. So I have to really focus on her diet and on getting nutrients into her, more than I have been. I must take it to the next level as I try to begin teaching her how to talk and function, more so than before.

I think I knew all these issues were there when it comes to our Riley girl but I have pushed them to a far away place in my mind. Not wanting to look at them head on perhaps or was it all of the other million things going on in my head? Either way I faced them today, sitting on a bench and talking to her doctor, wishing Port was here to sit with me and help me sort through it.

God has a plan, I know it. He loves our Riley more than Port and I do, He made her. He holds her future. We may know tomorrow what deeper issues we deal with and we may never know. Our love will never change for her. I've learned by now to cherish her every smile, bit of laughter and milestone she has as her health is so uncertain. Please continue your prayers for our sweet girl.