Look What I Learned!!!

You know I have to be excited if I update again so soon, right?

You're right!!! I'm excited today!!!


Watch this video taken today, and tell me this isn't a different baby!!! Seriously, a month ago he could not do this at all, and smiles were still pretty random! I hope this blesses your day like it has mine!

Living In Nothing But His Mercy,

The Tannehill Family

P.S. I may have found another intensive therapy in SEATTLE that we have raised enough to do two or three sessions!!! Prayer for this to work out is SUPER DUPER appreciated!!!! We aren't even half way to do one session in California, but if the Seattle one works out we can eliminate a HUGE chunk of the travel expenses!  We are praying huge for this!!

Baby Gussy Update....Finally!

Tannehill Children June 2012

Well "a while" is kind of an understatement but;  it's been a while, eh? I promise I have a tiny bit of a decent excuse. Crazy doesn't quite reach the level of craziness that hit us through the winter. I know RSV is the last of what I have shared about but that was just the beginning! I know, right?

We were lucky enough to have second surgery in the last few months! Yay us! Poor Mr. Gussy decided he wasn't too fond of all of the surgeries and decided to form some scar tissue. Well, I should say his bowels weren't to fond of all of the surgeries. Wouldn't you know it, they rebelled.  Unfortunately, they didn't do what most of our bowels do when they rebel :-o, instead they decided to form a big ol' chunk of scar tissue that blocked his poor little baby bowels 100%! Needless to say, he got quite sick and ended up air lifted to Spokane for an emergency surgery.  Praise the One and Only, he came through well! So, do you want hear the big, fat "Praise the Lord" Miracle on this one? If you haven't noticed the pattern yet, the good Lord seems to think that we need to be on the edge of total collapse often, but He always saves us from that total collapse. Apparently, we're hard headed or something, and need to be reminded of His saving grace often, I dunno.

So, while sitting in the emergency room we are talking to our fab doctor who decides, after calling Spokane and asking their opinion as well, that it is ok for Augustus to go by ambulance instead of flight. As he leaves the room, I look up at Gussy's monitor and notice that his Oxygen saturations are dropping rapidly, keep in mind here that breathing had not yet been a problem. He gets down to the 50's and Luke yells out that we need help... The entire team rushes in, doctor yells for the intubation team to come NOW, (Insert Luke and I having a nervous break down.....HERE), doctor tells them to call MedStar (flight team), he's flying... 2 minutes later intubation team arrives ready to start their business... Nurse comes in and says that MedStar is called... Bam! Sats instantly go back to the 90's!  Just to clarify, the doctor was watching the waveline the entire time and it WAS picking up the signal....

Are you ready for the big "wow moment"?

Mamma and children, June 2012

Fast forward to after flight and surgery... Surgeon comes out and tells us that he was able to remove the obstruction without taking any of his bowels. He goes on to tell us that a very large part of his intestines were already purple and nearly dead. Another hour, maybe less, he would have lost a very large part of his intestines! Do you see it? UH-MAY-ZING!  God dropped Gussy's Sats to get him there on time, to save his bowels! Breathing was never an issue outside of that ONE event that got him there in time! Just like I said, right on the edge, but saved by grace! Thank you Jesus!  I will try my best to get it through my thick skull this time, I promise!

Daddy and Children, June 2012

Wild ride, yes? Yeah, for us too.

First hair curly headed hair cut!

So to move on from that ride we'll go onto our bitter sweet news. Gussy had a trip to his neurologist recently and the dreaded day came. We got our "official" diagnosis. Gussy has Spastic Quadriplegic Cerebral Palsy. Whew, mouth full! We knew it was coming but still the sting of the words were a little hard to chew. So what makes this trip sweet, you ask. She was absolutely BLOWN AWAY at the progress he has made since January when she saw him last! In January he did not move his legs at all. In January he hardly responded at all to her toys. In January all around he was just still at the 1 month old stage of development. Now? He has started bearing weight in his legs a little! HUGE! He grabbed at toys! HUGE! He has some verbal babbling/growling going on! HUGE, HUGE, HUGE!! And to boot, he is on bolus feeds of REAL food, meaning instead of a slow drip of formula 24 hours a day, he has three meals of a blenderized diet of real food! HUGE, HUGE, HUGE!! And get this, HE IS HEARING VERY WELL *WITHOUT* HIS HEARING AIDS!! Oh yeah, on the healing ( please insert horribly embarrassing dance here.)!!

So cool, even in girly glasses!

And then she said it....

The words that brought me to tears and filled me with renewed hope....

I.

Expect.

Him.

To....

WALK! Yes, you read it right, WALK!

Yeah, that's me bearing ALL my own weight! 

MmmHmm!

Does she think it will ever be "normal"? No. But she does think he will do it from her most recent exam, and was not very hopeful back in January!!!!!  Praise you Jesus, You know just when I need that new little dose of hope talk!!!








So for my last bit of Praise ( That I have time to write. My whole life is a praise at this point!)

My sweet baby boy has blessed me to no end....

He learned to smile just so I could breathe...What a good boy! 

I love you too, Mamma, don't worry <3

Living In Nothing but His Mercy,

The Tannehill Family

Ah Sovereign Lord... Augustus Update.

“Ah, Sovereign LORD, you have made the heavens and the earth by your great power and outstretched arm. Nothing is too hard for you.

Jeremiah 32:17

We prayed we would make it through this first year without a major illness. The Lord had other plans; Mighty is His Name! May He be glorified in this plan....

Augustus has RSV. RSV in an adult generally just shows as an icky cold but in a baby, even a healthy baby, can be very serious. For Augustus it is a very bad deal. It attacks by making very thick mucous that creates a plug and makes breathing very difficult. Since Gussy already has a very hard time clearing secretions this becomes a problem very quickly. We serve a mighty God though, Amen?

We were admitted into the hospital yesterday afternoon for observation. It became apparent very quickly it was needed. By around 8:00 last night our sweet baby boy took a turn for the worse. He is now very ill and getting worse and worse. He is now going to the last level of support that can be given here at Kadlec. The next step is intubation and a transfer to Seattle. He had more than one episode last night that almost lead to a crash. They are very concerned because day 4-5 is generally when it gets really bad. Last night was night 2. We are coming into day 3 and he is stable for now. We need prayer. This is a very serious illness that takes healthy infants home to their Savior. Our God is mighty to save though! His plan for Augustus goes far beyond this. I believe he will be healed! I also believe fully in the power of the One who saves Name in prayer! So we ask you again to storm the gates with us with prayer. We have some specific prayer requests.  We are asking for complete and total healing. Also for healing for the rest of the children who are also pretty sick. Lily and Annie both woke up last night with a cough that made it very difficult to breathe. Luke almost took them to the ER but both stabilized after sitting it the cold air outside a bit.  We are also praying that God will be glorified through this and that we will all have peace in our hearts as we wait.

We have some big praises in all of this and I want to be sure everyone sees those as well.  God loves to show us how much He cares for us and is in control, Amen?  Yesterday morning, before anyone, including us, knew Gussy was sick, an anonymous money order, from the Lord on high, was left in our mailbox for enough to cover time off of work this week. It wasn't even a need we were aware of. Once again the Lord makes it possible for us to take time off of work and not have to use savings at all. Praise Him!

My mom was able to come quickly and help with the children as we balance a house full of sick children with one away from home. Praise Him!

I have not gotten sick at all, so I have strength to go on each day and loose sleep without a major hardship. Praise Him!

He is good! We would appreciate beyond words any prayers said on our family's behalf.  Love to you all!

Living in His Mercy,

The Tannehill's



Baby Gussy Update: Hearing Aids, Vision Improvement, and Fundraising, Oh My!!

"Mamma, Can I just say this camera business is getting a little old!"

Wowza! It's been a while since I sat down and really updated everyone about Gussy!  I know I need to be a bit better about this and I really will try harder! So much has been going on since Mr. A's Last surgery! The improvements he has been making are amazing! Glory to God! He is now able to keep his food in his tummy! Yay God! And he's growing now!!! Yay God!!!! Within weeks of being home his little puddin' head grew 4 cm!! 4 cm!!!! That is FABULOUS!!!! But even more fabulous then that, His little chest is sooooo much flatter than it was! Already!!!! His respiratory status has improved AMAZINGLY so!! As a matter of fact, (Are you ready for this?) he's doing so much better with his breathing that we have been able to, for now at least, stop using our night nursing!!!! YAY GOD!! We loved our nurses but it has been soooo very good for our family to be able to have our space again for a while!! We also made our way back to church last Sunday!!! Oh what a blessing it was to be fed spiritually!!! Praise God!!!

The day we have been waiting ever so (kinda, sorta) patiently for has arrived!!! Gussy got his hearing aids! WOW, WOW,WOW!! What a difference! As soon as he had them in, I said hello to him and he turned and looked at me in wonder! It was a precious moment that I won't forget any time soon! I wasn't able to get the first encounter with hearing aids on film but I was able to get a later, super cute moment on film! My cup runneth over y'all, my cup runneth over!

It seems as though the most common question we get is about Baby A's vision. We are thrilled to report that the improvements in that area are PHENOMINAL!! So good as a matter of fact that his therpists now say "He is such a good tracker!" If only the old therapists who saw him when his eyes were still fixed and dialted could see him now!! It's one thing that they don't even really work on now because he does it so well! YAY GOD!! Because it was always a matter of how his brain interpreted what his eyes were seeing, we didn't know what would happen. It can go one of two ways; that pathway will form or it won't. IT DID!!! YAY GOD!  We are happy to report that his vision is in pretty darn good shape!! Glory to God!

We've also been working on fundraising for a very promising therapy in Los Angeles, California. It's a three week intensive therapy program called Cuevas Medek Exercise or CME along with Hyperbaric Oxygen Therapy or HBOT.  You can check out our "Help Gussy Get Therapy" Page to learn more about our fundraising efforts and the therapies we are hoping to do!! We are so thankful for all of the support we have recieved! Financial, spiritual, and emotional! We are surrounded by amazing people who have truly showed us the love of Christ! Please keep praying for us! We have been so blessed by all of the prayers that are being said on our behalf!

Living In His Mercy,

The Tannehill's

It's New Years Eve and I'm a party animal!

Sometimes A Song Says It All...

There are times and circumstances in your life that, at one time, you would think would put you in a place where your prayers would be so detailed and long. I have found just the opposite is true for me. Most of the time I find myself just blustering on not saying a whole lot. I was listening to one of my favorite singers tonight and realized one of his songs is pretty darn close to a lot of my prayers these days. It is simple yet moves me in a way I couldn't explain, even if I were to try to attempt it.

Thank the Lord that He has given us promises in His Word that give comfort when I would other wise feel inadequate to come before Him!

In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us through wordless groans. ²⁷ And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for God’s people in accordance with the will of God.

Romans 8:26-27

Living In His Mercy,

The Tannehill's