THANK YOU!

Where do I begin....? We have so many people to thank for all they have done since this whole journey began. From the beginning of October when I was first placed on bedrest, all through the twins hospital stay and even up to now. So many people have done so much for our family and words will never be able to express our true feelings of appreciation for all of you. But I shall try....
I want to thank everyone most of all for your prayers that covered us during this time. I knew without a doubt that someone was daily praying for the boys and us. Thank you to our church family, Central Baptist-Sulphur Springs, for all the meals you provided our family while I was on bedrest for 2 1/2 months. What a blessing!
Thank you to everyone who saved and sent coke tabs for the Ronald McDonald house. We received coke tabs from all over the country, including: Bowie School-Sulphur Springs, Como-Pickton School, Gladewater Church of the Nazarene, Green Acres Baptist Church-Tyler (the Adult Choir and Kidzpraise-especially Angie Smith and Vickie Johnson), West Texas, Mississippi,  and Pennsylvania!! Awesome! Thank you guys so much! We were unable to use all of the tabs we received so we have passed them along to some families who have some children who are very sick and could really use them.
Thanks to everyone for the calls, cards and gifts.
A special thanks to families at Green Acres and Central Baptist for their generous gifts that helped with food and gas on our many trips to Dallas.
Thank you to my family who pitched in and helped when they could. My sister, Bethany, who traveled from Tyler once a week to clean my house.....what a gift! Thank you to Rob's parents for making sure the kids got back and forth to school every day and piano lessons, etc.
A huge thanks to Rob and my kids! They learned jobs they've never had to do before and I learned how to let those jobs be done and accept the outcome. They were all troopers!
I hope I haven't left anyone out. If I did, I'm so sorry and if I think of it, you'll get your very own blog post:-) Most of all we are so thankful for the prayers, for we know the miracles we have been blessed with! We are amazed at God's awesomeness and his blessing of entrusting us with 2 more of his angels!! Thanks everyone!

Eye Update

Just a quick update about our visit to the eye specialist. Josiah's eyes are great. The vessels have developed the way they are supposed to. Gideon's still look the same as they did 2 weeks ago. The doctor  said he has a "funny-looking vessel" in each eye that he is wanting to keep an eye on, but he doesn't need more shots at this point. He feels pretty confident that the vessels will eventually develop correctly, but wants to continue to monitor them. So we go back in 3 weeks. Dallas was much less stressful than Paris! Crazy, I know! I was one of only 4 people in the waiting room! It was awesome! So I'll take the traffic over the "standing-room-only waiting room"! Thanks for the continued prayers!

Other than that, the boys are doing great! They are weighing 8 lbs now! Josiah got the great honor of being circumsized a couple of weeks ago. It has taken a while for that to heal and not be painful to him. So, Monday, Gideon gets the same honor. Heaven help all of us! This has been a great educational experience for all the Stanley children. It helps to have a "before" and "after". So everyone wants to see Gideon and then Josiah to see what exactly he had done and why. It's great (insert sarcasm). Especially for Isaac. He has been going around telling everyone that Josiah had his wee-wee cut off. Nice. I tell him,  "No, he hasn't. He had it fixed where it looks just like yours." Isaac's response, "But, my wee-wee's not cut off!" The logic of a 3 year old :-/

Tornadoes, Easter & Doctors...Oh My!

Well, I've gotten a little behind, so I'll try to briefly update on the past two weeks. Last Tuesday was packed with excitement for us. Personally, I've decided I can live without ANY excitement in my life...but it's not to be. We knew that storms were supposed to be heading our way, so we were keeping an eye on the radar at my office. It was looking like it was going to hit us about the time the kids got out of school. About 2:30, it was getting very dark, so I decided to go ahead and pick Isaac up from the day care that's only about 3 blocks away. As I was running out with him, the rain began. We went back to the office, where Rebekah got dropped off at 3:00. By then, the rain had stopped, so as soon as I got her, I flew the mile down the road to pick up the twins. Still not raining! I headed to the middle school to get the 3 big kids. About 3:25, it's still not doing anything, but getting darker. I was texting Rob and he told me they were holding their buses. Great, I thought. So I asked him if I should go home or stay in town. He told me to stay in town. We live about 20 miles outside of town and it looked worse at our house than in town. By now I knew we were under a tornado warning and I just began to pray that the weather would hold off 10 more minutes and the middle school would let the kids out. I considered going in and getting the kids, since I saw some parents doing that, but hated to leave the 4 little kids in the suburban. I was in a quandry and beginning to feel just a tad bit anxious. At 3:30, it began to rain (of course) AND the sirens began to wail all over town! OH MY WORD!! Full-blown panic was trying to set in! I did not have all my chicks under the protection of my wings and I was not dealing well with it. SO, I decided I was going to get the other chicks! I got Rebekah, Isaac, Gideon and Josiah and we headed across the field in front of the school to go get the others. Once we got inside, we heard that they were not letting any of the kids go....they were under lockdown, also. There were kids and parents lining every hallway. We hung out 5 or 10 minutes when the school said the threat was over and we could get our kids. So I had them call all 3 kids to the front. Aaron made it, but the other 2 did not. The sirens started again and they made the kids go back into the hallways. Now what do I do? I was letting the fear overwhelm me and keep me from thinking clearly. All I wanted to do was get ALL my kids and go home! Once I realized they weren't going to let the other 2 go, I sent Aaron to the suburban with 3 of the little ones. I soon followed with the other because I was more concerned about them in the car then the ones in the school. We sat in the car about 15 more minutes when I decided it was enough. I was going to get my kids! They told me I could go get my kids, I just had to find them. I knew about where they were...the hall that was the farthest away! So I was finally able to gather them up and get everyone together. Thank you Lord! That was 4:30 and they let the kids go at that time. We made it home in between storms, but a bad one was headed towards our house. So I put everyone in the laundry room and we hung out there while a fierce storm passed over us complete with hail hitting the windows. Thankfully, that was the worst of it. Rob was still not home at this point. They had put the kids on the buses to bring them home and the sheriff called and told them to get them back in the building. He finally got home at 6:45!! Man, what a day! God protected us and kept us calm, even through my anxiety and fear. The babies slept through it all:-)
Easter weekend was great. The kids showed their steers in Mineola and did very well. Sunday morning we actually got everyone dressed up, took a picture and made it to church on time. WOW!
Update on the boys' eyes: We went back to Paris to see the eye doctor. UGH! Our appointment was 12:15 and we saw the doctor at 2:15 and, yes, the waiting room was standing room only again! Josiah's eyes look good. Gideon's was not so good. The doctor is seeing signs of the eye disease coming back and he may have to have the shots in his eyes again. We go back in 2 weeks for him to check again and decide what to do. I respectfully requested to be sent to the Dallas office and not to come back to Paris:-) I may regret it, but 2 hours in a full waiting room with 2 hungry babies is not my idea of a good time!
The boys are doing really well. They slept last night from 11:00 until 5:00. Sweet! Ok gotta go clean up the 3 year old and feed the babies. A mother's work......

The Suburban Blues

Let the drama continue.....You ever have a day where you KNOW you should have stayed in bed? Friday was that day for me! I have gone back to work this week so when Rob leaves to drive his school bus, I have about 20-30 minutes to get the 7 kids in the suburban or we will all be late. I don't think I mentioned that we bought me my very own suburban over Spring Break. I love it! It is very nice and even has a button I can push that brings the brake and gas pedals closer to me! Awesome for short people like me:-) BUT I can't drive it right now because we don't all fit in it. We need a bench seat in the middle-hopefully that will happen next week. Anyway, so I've been driving Rob's suburban this week. So we all get loaded up Friday and get ready to leave and as I walk around to get in, I notice the front tire-----it's flat! Nice! So I tell the kids unload and move to my suburban and they can just squeeze up in the back. So we unload car seats, car seat bases, kids, backpacks, trumpet, clarinet, lunches, etc., oh yeah, babies too:-) We get everybody in my suburban, I go to crank it.....Nothing! No click-click, no wrrrr-wrrr, complete silence! Really??!!! Yes, I can't make this stuff up. I honestly considered going back to bed, but I had a meeting at 1:00. So I knew I had until then to figure out what to do. One problem, my brain wasn't functioning on a full night's sleep so no solution was even coming to mind. So we unloaded again and went in the house. Then I decided that we just needed to change the tire. So I got to work with the kids helping me. We didn't get very far when Rob called and told me to air up the tire and pull over to the other suburban and jump it off. That's why I keep him around! It took about 15-20 minutes, but we got it aired up enough to move it next to the other one. But, alas, the riding lawn mower was in my parking space and had to be moved. Guess what? It had a flat and wouldn't crank:-) So the boys and I just pushed it out of the way. That was my first time to jump off a vehicle, so I was very excited when it cranked and nothing exploded! So we loaded back up AGAIN and got the kids to school by 9:30. The babies slept through it all!
The boys have had a good week. Josiah rolled from his stomach to his back 2 times tonight. Gideon is almost 7 pounds. They are growing so fast already!

Home at Last

Gideon is finally home!! He arrived Saturday and as many of you said "Let the fun begin!" OK, well, I'm still waiting for the fun:-) Three hours of sleep last night....not so fun:-( And Gideon isn't the problem, Josiah is having some tummy issues or he really has me snowed and thinks he should be held 24/7. Right now I can tell them apart, but the kids are really struggling. If you just take a quick glance at their faces, they are hard to tell apart. I have to look at the shape of their head. I'm trying to refrain from using the permanent marker, but we haven't ruled that out yet:-) Isaac is constantly asking me, "Is this Gideon or Josiah, mama?" The kids have been awesome with them. They love to hold them and are really good at calming them down when they are fussy. The boys are on the same feeding schedule, at least. Josiah will polish off a bottle in 10 minutes flat. Gideon likes to savor his and take about 30 minutes! Gideon weighs 6 lbs 8 ozs and Josiah is 7 lbs. They are continuing to grow and thrive. AND Josiah rolled over Friday!!!! What??? He's too little for that, you say! That's exactly what I said. They scoot in circles on the floor and off their blanket. Amazing! I have to keep reminding myself they weren't born last week, even though they look like it. Stay tuned for updates on their eyes and my expression of thanks to everyone!

Rachel's Story

We were supposed to pick Gideon up Wednesday. We kept the kids out of school and were planning to go get him and then go to Rachel's doctor appointment. As we were getting ready to walk out the door, the doctor called to say he couldn't go home today. He got a "little" upset during his eye exam the night before and they had to give him oxygen, so he wasn't ready to let him go home, maybe Saturday. So we are just in a holding pattern, praying he doesn't have any more episodes and we can bring him home this weekend. We shall see.
We still had to take Rachel to Scottish Rite for her appointment so we all loaded up to go do that. For those who don't know, Rachel is our other miracle. She is our 12-year old daughter, twin to Samuel. When she was 8 years old, she began to have trouble getting around. She had to have help brushing or washing her hair, tying her shoes, getting up from the floor, going up and down stairs and she would fall easily. We finally found out she had dermatomyositis. Her immune system was overworking, attacking her muscles. This is why she was so weak. She was trying to get ready for the soccer season, but she just couldn't keep up with the other girls anymore. The doctors immediately started her on IV and oral steroids and methotrexate shots. She did the IV steroids for a year and was gradually weaned off the oral steroids about a year later. She is now being weaned off the methotrexate as well. God has healed her body and she is now in remission. At her last visit, the doctors changed her meds to pills instead of the shot. Yesterday they lowered her dose to 4 pills once per week. In 4 months when she goes back, they'll lower it to 3 pills. So by next August (2013), she should be off all meds completely! That is an amazing answer to prayers! I'll never forget our first visit to Scottish Rite and she couldn't even bend over to pick a pen up off the floor. Now she aces every muscle test they throw at her. Last year, she had her best soccer season yet. Through it all, she has kept a positive attitude and a smile on her face.
So if anyone ever tries to tell you God doesn't perform miracles any longer, just send them my way. I've got 3 beautiful miracles (well, 7 actually) to show them:-)

More answered prayers

Just a quick update to let you know that Josiah's eyes are much better! The procedure worked and the disease is regressing! Thank you Lord! The eye doctor doesn't need to see the boys for 3 more weeks. Josiah is continuing to do well. We are hopeful that we will bring Gideon home this week. It was supposed to be early in the week, but he had a couple of bradys on Thursday so they want to watch him until this Thursday. He's on "brady watch"! Sounds like something between the Brady Bunch and Baywatch, idk! Crazy! Anyway, so hopefully Thursday will be the day. The eye doctor is supposed to look at Gideon tomorrow when he's at the hospital, then I can take them both to see him in 3 weeks. Taking twin babies to the standing room only doctor in Paris doesn't sound like a good time to me;-( But it will be entertaining, I am guaranteed that!