Keeping up with the Smith's....

It's not an easy thing to do these days. Just this month I've vowed not to say yes to ANOTHER THING until life slows down just a little. I'm just convinced that if I don't slow down a little, then I'm gonna miss something my kids do. I know I will never sit around and say...."I wish I had accepted that photo shoot" or "I wish I had gone to that meeting" or "I wish we had stayed a little busier during those years"....What I hope to never say is "I wish I had spent more time with my kids. It is the whole reason for my choosing to be a stay at home mom. It is the reason why we sacrifice having the biggest house or the newest car or the most fabulous vacations. I want to make sure I see every moment. And while I think I've done a pretty good job of that, there are days I think we may have too much on the schedule. Compared to most, our schedule is laid back and not that full and I like that. Nevertheless, it feels like we've had SOOOO much going on.

I've done a less than stellar job of keeping you all updated on what's going on with us and I've done so much better in the past. I know you all like to hear what's going on with Braydon especially. So I'm going to try to fill you in on what's been going on.

Jacoby:

Jacoby has been busier than usual for the last couple of months. Besides working and making sure we have all we need, he is singing in the praise and worship band at church and singing at children's church services at Shannon Oaks as well. He really loves helping back there and singing with the kids and I'm so proud of him for that. Here is a picture of him and Chad Houck, Children's Pastor at SOC. These guys do an AMAZING job of entertaining and teaching these kids every Sunday morning!

He also performs at a local restaurant one night a month here in Winnsboro. This is probably the most enjoyable paying job he's ever had! LOL. He just loves to sing and has such a gift. It's good to see him using it and seeing the benefits of it! Here's a picture from his last show.

In March, Jacoby went on his first mission trip to Puerta Panasco, Mexico. He went with an organization call Uthbuild, which helps train and build up youth while also building a house for the disadvantaged. They built a fully functioning home for a family in 4 days!!

He's also doing some mural work, painting and helping out with the designing process of the children's area and youth area of our church, as if all of the above wasn't enough!


Braydon:
So much new info about Braydon, not many "changes" to speak of...just lots of new info. Over the last year, but especially the last 6 months, I've noticed and become increasingly concerned about Braydon's school experience and progress. We've home schooled Braydon for the last 4 years and there are few decisions I am more proud of and thankful for. But over this last year I've noticed that school has become more frustrating for him and his progress over the year has been little to none. For me it was so discouraging to see, because obviously it meant that there was a big problem with him OR that I wasn't doing the right things to teach him. That's a scary feeling. I expressed this concern to two of the three specialist that treat Braydon and they both had the same opinion. Braydon has been diagnosed with ADD which is a learning disability. If ADD/ADHD is severe or untreated it can actually "prevent" the child from being about to take in information properly, retain it, and put the skill to use because the brain is unable to focus on the task and take in all the details of how to apply the concept. Besides ADD, Braydon has seizures. Obviously, seizures happen in the brain. Most patients with seizures have "partial seizures"...seizures that happen in "part" of the brain. Braydon has generalized seizures....seizures that are taking place in the whole brain. The whole brain is seizing. Which means, the whole brain is temporarily shutting down. Because of this condition, which also aggrivates the ADD/ADHD symptoms, the doctors agreed that Braydon is actually "incapable" of taking in, retaining, and putting to use the information I or anyone else teaches him. Until the seizures are under control, it would be silly of me to expect him to progress academically. That's a hard pill to swallow and so frustrating on so many levels, but then again, it takes a lot of pressure off. The thing we are focusing on now is just loving him, character training and prayer for healing.

The doctor did strongly encourage trying a new seizure medication. It's not a commonly used seizure medication. In fact, most commonly this new seizure med, Banzel, is used in children that have Lennox-Gastaut Syndrome. Children with LGS have seizure that are typically resistant to most mainstream seizure meds. Even thought Braydon DOES NOT HAVE LGS, his seizures have also been resistant to seizure meds so that thought this was a good next option for us. We've been on the medicine for 6 days now and I would say we may have seen a VERY slight improvement. Maybe one less seizure a day. But it's also too early to say. Tomorrow I increase the dosage, so we'll see what happens then.

Please please please be praying that God brings healing to him through this medication. We are so tired of seeing him go through these seizures! On the upside, Braydon's shunt study showed the shunt to be working properly and the opthamology and oncology check ups went great! No changes there! STILL FREE OF CANCER. THANK YOU LORD!


Deacon:
Deacon is just being Deacon. Read my last post to see more about what's going on with him.


Me:
Well by reading what all these three have been up to. I guess you know what I've been up to. They are my life. My whole world revolves around them. I'm just keeping their schedules straight, their house clean, their bellies full and praying for them and cheering for them every step of the way. Some would say, "what do you do for yourself"....well, not a whole lot. Every once in a while I slip away for a pedicure or lunch with a friend. I make sure we all have "quiet time" for 1 hour everyday, that gives me an hour to do whatever I choose for a short while. For the most part, I spend my time giving all I've got to these three men and I wouldn't have it any other way!