Ups and downs of life . . .

I’m not sure how many of you remember that my sister-in-law and brother-in-law were in the process of adopting a child. Well, on Wednesday June 27^th, 2007 we were blessed to have Jennifer Catherine come into our lives. She is a beautiful, precious little girl and we’re all madly in love with her. Almost immediately we all began to notice strange “seizure” like behavior. None of us were overly worried, but we were concerned. All the medical personal at the birth hospital assured us that there was nothing wrong and she was just absolutely perfect! The “seizures” continued throughout the weekend and on Monday Jennifer was scheduled for her first well visit at the pediatrician. She checked out perfectly, but the Dr. was concerned about the “seizure” like behavior and contacted a neurologist who ordered an immediate cat scan. And that is really the beginning of the nightmare which became our lives about 3PM Monday July 2, 2007. The cat scan technician saw something right away, called the neurologist who ordered immediate admittance to the hospital. To make an already long story a wee bit shorter, after much testing our precious Jennifer has been diagnosed with Early Infantile Epileptic Encephalopathy AKA Ohtahara Syndrome, an EXTREMELY rare disorder. You can go to Google to learn pretty much all that is known about it. There is no cure and the prognosis is not a good one. Not a good one at all. We don’t know how long we’ll have precious Jennifer with us, but we do know that God blessed us with this precious child because he knew we would love her and take care of her until He called her home. I ask that you please pray for this precious little girl and our family. Also, please go hug your kids and let them know how very much you love them and how thankful you are for each of them. Thank you.