Updates

Well, it has been a while since I've actually written anything so I'll try to sum the past month up in a nutshell. We have been very busy as you can tell by the pictures. Ellison has been a trooper with all of our outings. He does good in the car for the most part unless he's hungry.:) We have been to the lake with Mama and the Crowls, visited grandmommer and pops and Q & A, hung out with Chad, Sheila, and the kids, and visited with the great grandmothers several times.
Ellison is doing great. He is sleeping up to 6 hours at night now. Sometimes he has a slip up but in the morning I forgive him...:). He is all smiles now and not just while he is sleeping. He even looks like he wants to talk to us. At our last doctor's visit he weighed 14 lbs and 3 ounces. His hair began to fall out a couple of weeks ago, but it is coming back in now.
We visited Dr. Abram's yesterday. He wants to see Ellison on Aug 5th and at that appt we will schedule his first surgery. This surgery will be the reconstructive part where he will form the anal opening. He should be in the hospital a couple of days. We will then have to wait anywhere from 2 1/2 months to 6 months to have the 2nd surgery which will be the reversal of the colostomy.:) He will have to be in the hospital for one week after this surgery. Dr. Abrams was pleased with Ellison's progress. He is always so encouraging when we visit him.
Up until last week, we have been doing pretty good. We had some alarming news when Ellison's newborn screening (which had to be repeated 3 times now) came back with abnormal results. The GALT enzyme was low which means your body can't metabolize a sugar in milk called galactose. We were very surprised b/c Ellison is not exhibiting any of the signs/symptoms of the so called Galactosemia. We have since repeated the test b/c the doctors say that there are often a lot of false positives. We are all hoping this is just that. I am trying to be patient because the results were supposed to be back on Monday, but now they will not be back until tomorrow...something is wrong the lab equipment so there has been a delay in the results.
Anyway, God is good...I have to remind myself of that all of the time b/c the devil trys hard to make me believe otherwise. We visited Scotty Hagar's (Matthew's roommate from college) church on Sunday. I was reminded of several things that I need to concentrate on during all of this but one scripture stuck out in my mind. "Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might" Ephesians 6:10 I am glad that it is by His might and not mine!!!
Please continue to pray for us!
Love and prayers for you all! NV