Great Story!

Please read before viewing picture - it's worth it!

A picture began circulating in November. It should be 'The Picture of the Year,' or perhaps, 'Picture of the Decade.' It won't be. In fact, unless you obtained a copy of the US paper which published it, you probably would never have seen it.

The picture is that of a 21-week-old unborn baby named Samuel Alexander Armas, who is being operated on by surgeon named Joseph Bruner.

The baby was diagnosed with spinal bifida and would not survive if removed from his mother's womb. Little Samuel's mother, Julie Armas, is an obstetrics nurse in Atlanta. She knew of Dr. Bruner's remarkable
surgical procedure. Practicing at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville, he performs these special operations while the baby is still in the womb.

During the procedure, the doctor removes the uterus via C-section and makes a small incision to operate on the baby. As Dr.Bruner completed the surgery on Samuel, the little guy reached his tiny, but fully developed ha nd through the incision and firmly grasped the surgeon's finger. Dr.Bruner was reported as saying that when his finger was grasped, it was the most emotional moment of his life, and that for an instant during the procedure he was just frozen, totally immobile.

The photograph captures this amazing event with perfect clarity. The editors titled the picture, 'Hand of Hope.' The text explaining the picture begins, 'The tiny hand of 21-week old fetus Samuel Alexander Armas emerges from the mother's uterus to grasp the finger of Dr. Joseph Bruner as if thanking the doctor for the gift of life.'

Little Samuel's mother said they 'wept for days' when they saw the picture. She said, 'The photo reminds us pregnancy isn't about disability or an illness, it's about a little person.' Samuel was born in perfect health, the operation 100 percent successful.

Now see the actual picture, and it is awesome...incredible....

Thank you!

Just want to say thank you to all of you who are so supportive and who have so much faith in me. That is what this one will take is a lot of Faith. Thanks again.

Here we go round the Mulberry Bush!

Okay, I am only going to say this once so listen up. Most everyone knows that while I was pregnant with TC, I got a blood clot in my leg, DVT (Deep Vein Thrombosis) and parts of the clot broke off and traveled into my lungs, making it very hard to breathe and of course was life threatening. I spent the next couple of weeks in the hospital and the next 6 months giving myself 3 shots of blood thinner everyday. My doctor told me that I would have to take these shots with each pregnancy if I wanted to have more children. I did want to have more but the doctor has also told me that even taking a blood thinner, I am still susceptible to getting another blood clot. My doctor also advised me to be on birth control so that I could plan (haha) each pregnancy or if I chose not to have anymore children. Since I am somehow (cause still unknown) still susceptible to blood clots I cannot be on a birth control with hormones, so the IUD was the best choice since it is 99% effective. With all of that being said, we were surprised in December of 2003 and again in May 2006 that each of my IUD's had failed and we now enjoy, AJ and Dakota as a consequence. One would think that it was time to move on to a different type of birth control but the doctor still reassured me that even with a different or second birth control that my chances would still probably be the same getting pregnant. So, I chose another IUD also knowing that they have worked for at least 18 months on both occasions. Well, we have been surprised yet again. We are very excited to invite another member into our family and love the blessings that come along with being a parent. I don't feel like I have to give everyone an excuse for my pregnancy so soon after having Dakota, I just feel like I need to explain why I keep choosing an IUD as my form of birth control. It can be dangerous for the IUD to still be inside my body with the baby and we still need to be careful. Many of you will say that it isn't anyone's business anyway, and maybe it isn't but I do want everyone to know that we love our babies even if I have a bit more to suffer through. I continue to pray for good health and we look forward to June of 2008 and are very excited to be close to family again for the birth.

funny!

I need to record this because it was so funny. When we were coming out of Boo at the Zoo, I asked TC and AJ what their favorite thing was that night. AJ tells me "the movie." I said, "we didn't see a movie." His answer was, "Dang, it!" We will keep getting AJ checked out for possible head injuries. What a cutie!

Happy Halloween!

Ok, I think AJ had enough chocolate last night to send him to the moon. He was running circles around our van last night while Steve tried to hand out as much candy as possible. We had fun and we got to spend halloween with Steve's sister, Darcey. The kids loved having her over. They love their aunt. TC was suppose to be spider-man but decided at the last minute that he wanted to be Dracula. WHY ME? I tried to throw together an outfit that would look like dracula and colored the sides of his mouth red with a marker. I guess it worked. AJ had to have blood running down the sides of his mouth too, of course. Not that you could see it since he was wearing a spider-man mask. Oh, well. Anyone for chocolate?