Home from the hospital...

      Two days ago, we returned from an adventure in the hospital. My sweet oldest daughter, Becca-boo, was knocked down by Daddy who was knocked down by a horse. You heard me right. Tony has never had a horse do this, but he had a horse come after him while he was holding Becca's hand. Instead of the horse getting to Becca(praise the Lord), Tony made sure to intervene and his knee went into her back. She's such a scrawny little thing that it was enough of a blow to cause damage to her liver. All of you that have followed these events, have been incredibly encouraging and the Lord has answered every prayer along the way. We spent 3 nights in the hospital and having so much time devoted just to our one oldest child, we remembered what a hoot she is.

Becca was a very brave patient. She truly does like to "mother" anybody and everybody and our sweet Peds surgeon came in and she even told him what to do. I think she won his heart over, though, because he told us he would take her home if he could. He gave us very specific discharge instructions..."no bronc bustin or bull ridin." 

She was more disturbed by the IV's in her arm than the pain in her liver. She thought she was in the hospital for this reason. She told me to take this picture because she thought that her brothers would think it was crazy.  During one of her panic attacks about the IV's, a sweet nurse told her how the needle doesn't actually stay in the arm and it is actually a straw that stays. So, every nurse and doctor that checked on her, she informed them they were not going to use anymore needles or straws. 

One of the more difficult parts was keeping her from eating the first 24 hours. They are very careful about what the liver has to process during the first day. She was finally given the go ahead to eat and this is what she wanted. We all know she loves her big breakfast!

This is our dear friend, Caroline, who used to work at the ranch. She had bought Becca all types of games and puzzles. Her favorite was princess bingo. We played probably 100 rounds of bingo. My favorite memory was watching my cowboy, Tony, play with her. (I think his favorite was Cinderella.)

This is Becca's friend from our Bible study, Sojie, and she came to visit too. She was a great bunk mate for a while.

I had never had to stay at a children's hospital, but my goodness was it nice. They think of it all. Everyday a volunteer would come by and do art projects, take Becca for a roll, or bring her new toys to play with. This was the last day she was at the hospital and was obviously feeling better.

When you live an hour and a half from any hospital, the logistics are daunting. The boys stayed at the ranch and Tony drove back and forth alot. When I found out we were going to have to stay one more night, I just asked if the boys could atleast come see us and they did. The next day Will told his Daddy that he was sick like Becca and needed to go to the doctor. I think he just needed his sister and his mama.

When we told Becca it was time to go home, she informed us that she wanted to just live there. Of course, 100% attention on her, meals in bed, princess movies around the clock, and an incredible play room right down the hall. I don't blame her. She was a brave little soldier and we will never forget the journey we've been on. Thank you, Lord, for taking care of one of the most precious gifts we've ever received.

"The icing in the cake"

       Before we left for a beach trip with my family I had an appointment to find out the gender of our fourth child.  I scheduled the appointment weeks ago, but also knew that it was summer at the ranch and the chances of Tony and I both being able to get away was not likely. So, I devised a plan for our entire family to find out in a fun way. The ultrasound called our baker after the appointment, told her what the gender was, kept it a secret from me, and then our sweet baker baked a cake with either blue or pink icing in the middle. I just assumed it would be the kids and us after dinner and a few staff who would be pretending to be interested just because they love us well. Instead, we ate in the dining room and Bob announced the unveiling to all of our guests as well. I couldn't believe how many people watched us cut that cake(a little terrifying) and this is what happened...

That's right...IT WAS PINK! We are so blessed to be having another girl! That makes it 2 boys and 2 girls and we are ecstatic!!