Whew!

Well, we made it to Krissa's wedding yesterday. I didn't get very good pictures, but this is what I have...

Unfortunately, we had to leave before they made it to the reception. The natives were more than a little restless! Of course, the wedding was beautiful, but I have to say, Krissa had the absolute MOST amazing bridal portraits I have ever seen. And I can't say that all the credit goes to the photographer...she's a beautiful lady.

When we headed home we stopped by to visit my grandfather, which was right on the way. It was nice. We haven't had the opportunity to go see him since the end of January and I hate going that long between visits. I miss him...so do the children. You should see him play with the little ones - it is so much fun to watch! You'd never know he's 85. He just acts like it's the most natural thing in the world to wrestle around with a 5 year old (or 4, or almost 3, or 1)!

"We will not hide them from their children, showing to the generation to come the praises of the LORD, and his strength, and his wonderful works that he hath done." Psalm 78:4

Never Dull

William reading, so sweet ----- The 3 Amigos

Okay, it's been rather busy around here lately, what with carting Sarah around to complete all of her interviews for the movie, maintaining William's therapy schedule, and preparing Michael, Sarah, Sydnee, and Sherrod for their trip to Georgia for the Father-Daughter Retreat hosted by Vision Forum Ministries. They left this morning, so it's just me, Abby, and the fabulous 5, 5-and-unders! I am thankful that Abby chose to stay home and help me, although I know Krissa's (William's AVT) wedding coming up this Saturday played a large part in her decision! Unfortunately I have a terrible head cold, along with ALL 5 of the younger children! This comes from playing in the park for one beautiful 78 degree day last week, followed by 4 inches of snowfall the next day (and sledding).

(Of course, Daddy always has to get in on the action!)

So, rather busy is turning into extremely busy. In a 6-day period I will driving (2 hours away) 4 times. Whew! Michael just called because, wouldn't you know it, they are having trouble with Sherrod's pump (she's insulin dependent and been on pump therapy for about 5 years). They were trying to give her a bolus, but it was telling them "no delivery." Although Sherrod is very good about managing her diabetes, testing, and changing out all of her own equipment, she doesn't know a lot about dealing with the problems yet. So, I nervously walked them through it on the phone, but we got it working. Yeah! It's always been hard for me to let her go far from me because of her diabetes. I can't believe she'll be 9 in 4 days!

I am very excited about tonight! The children and I will be going to a Cochlear focus group meeting. We'll get to discuss the new Nucleus 5 and what we think of it. I'm so glad William got to participate in that study! We don't have his processors in yet, but I am really looking forward to getting them in.

Michael and the girls get back on Monday, then Sarah has 3 more interviews to complete on Tuesday and one more here to wrap it all up. Then it's on to editing. Oh, and did I mention she's trying to write her first song to be the theme song? Nothing like a little ambition...

Here's a fun one:

Abby was building dominoes with the boys one day and Sarah, with blogging always in mind, was snapping pictures. I think William looks like a bobble-head doll in this picture! I love it!

"Light is sown for the righteous, and gladness for the upright in heart." Psalm 97:11

Movie Title

Thank you, everyone, for voting on William's movie title. Sarah asked that I shorten the days to vote, so we are also updating the poll. Please vote on your new favorite from the following:

* Cause Me to Hear
* Precious in His Sight
* Every Eye Shall See, Every Ear Shall Hear
* Walking with William
* Little Miracle

The results of the old polls are as follows:
POLL 1
William's Walk - 5%
William's Story - 9%
Cause Me to Hear - 51%
In His Image - 0%
No Mistakes - 8%
Every Eye Shall See, Every Ear Shall Hear - 25%
None of these - 2%

POLL 2
Walking with William - 50%
In William's Shoes - 17%
Little Miracle - 33%

The second poll is on adding a subtitle. For example, if Cause Me to Hear was chosen and a subtitle was added, it would read:

Cause Me to Hear: William's Story

Obviously if Walking with William is chosen, it would be weird to add the subtitle.

We really appreciate your help. Sarah is very excited about this project!

We Need Your Help

My oldest daughter, Sarah, is directing a film about William to enter in the film festival this year (http://www.saicff.org/). I have added her email at the bottom of this post, asking for your help. She completed her first interview today and it went very well - thank you, Dr. Norman!

After filming, we went to play in a nearby park and had a lot of fun. As we were leaving, Sarah noticed William's processor was missing. Guess where we found it?

Needless to say, I try not to ever actually leave a place until I check his ears. With the new processors he always told me that one was off, but now that he's wearing the old ones again he doesn't seem to mind if one comes off (in fact, we're back to him pulling them off frequently - I don't know why). I'm sooooo ready for his new ones to come in.

"A cheerful heart is good medicine..." Proverbs 15:13a

From Sarah:

Hello, friends and family! As some of you already know, I am working on making a movie of William's story to enter in the film festival later this year. I would like your help. If you think of any questions for me to ask on camera, please forward them to me. They can be questions about his health, his daily life, his future, us other children, our family, positive questions, negative questions...ANYTHING you can think of. I haven't decided who all I am going to interview for sure yet, but they can be questions directed to doctors, Daddy and Mommy, therapists, us children, friends, whoever! Anything that you would find interesting. If there was ever a question you wanted to ask, now is the time to do it! Sometimes when you are living in the midst of something, you don't see or wonder things that other people might, so that's where you can all be very helpful to me.

Also, I'm trying to determine for sure what direction to take the movie, so please tell me what YOU would find interesting.

I am on a tight deadline, so the sooner you can email me (or blog comment) your questions, the more likely it will be that I can use them. I am interviewing one of his doctors tomorrow and two more next week, along with therapists. I'm not quite sure when I will do Daddy and Mommy's interview yet.

Thank you all so much for your help on this project. It is so important to me and I am excited to be doing it!

Sincerely,
Sarah

Another First

William has made it through his first illness that Michael and I can remember where we haven't had to have him closely monitored by the doctor (or in the hospital). We are singing praises! We are thankful for the vest, as we truly believe that kept his lungs clear through this illness. We upped his vest treatments to 4x daily through the thick of it, then reduced to 3x daily as he got better. After each treatment he always had stuff coming up. We are now back down to his regular treatments, 2x daily, and he is all better! Again, we are thankful for the technology that God has given us.

"For he shall stand at the right hand of the poor, to save him from those that condemn his soul." Psalm 109:31