Flashback Friday

Let me introduce my sweet friend Shelley to you! God brought Shelley into my life when I needed someone to watch Gabe and Riley for 2 hours/day when I started my job as a Nurse Practitioner at the University. Paul was working evenings and we overlapped by a couple hours every day. I prayed about what God wanted me to do and felt guided to place an ad in the paper. Shelley was a college student at the time (what I secretly was hoping for) and answered the ad. I loved her instantly and she was the most amazing nanny for our kids!! She got married a couple years later and asked our boys to be ring bearers. Here are some pictures of her GORGEOUS Christmas time wedding:

Riley was at that stage where he was really too cool for posing for pictures and wearing flowers. It took some convincing (thank you God for gum), but he finally posed for this picture but REFUSED to smile in any of them! I can laugh now, but at the time it was NOT amusing!
Gabriel escorted the flower girl down the aisle and was so anxious to do whatever he was told. He always desired to please!
Riley was supposed to follow right behind, but was having a melt down because Dad slipped the boutonniere back on him just as he was to start. He refused to take a step. I raced back there and whipped it off and he finally went...boy, when that kid gets an idea in his head...
I was also honored to be a part of the ceremony, reading ICorinthians 13 during the ceremony. Why am I bringing this up today, you ask? I am so glad you did! First of all, Flashback Friday gave me the perfect in to share Shelley's story with you all! I just happened across these pictures yesterday when I was looking for baby pictures of Gabriel. Then, Shelley called me today with some amazing news that I want to share! See, Shelley has remained a friend to me all these years later and has recently become a sister in Christ Jesus! Through MOPS, she came to know Him as her Savior. An interesting detail is that she had a daughter 2 months before I had mine. She named her Alayna. We had never discussed names before and she even spelled it EXACTLY the same way! God is SO funny! Anyway, Shelley and Chuck had another little girl just over a year ago, named Alyson. Shelley shared at MOPS last year when she was 6 months old that Alyson was going to see a Pediatric Cardiologist at the U because a heart murmur had been discovered. I boldly reassured her not to worry, her baby was chubby and growing great, she couldn't have a heart condition. BUT, she did. She would discover that Alyson had suprapulmonic stenosis which is a fancy way of saying that the pulmonary artery above the valve was narrowed. Turns out she was experiencing some heart failure and enlargement of her heart. She was taken for a catheterization and an attempt was made to balloon open the narrowing. This was unsuccessful. Our MOPS table (we were delighted to finally be at the same table!) began to pray diligently for Alyson and ask God for a miracle. Nothing changed after the procedure. Alyson looked perfectly normal, but she quit growing and by her 1 year check she was really behind. Open heart surgery was recommended and scheduled for March of 2009. Yesterday, Alyson went in for some tests in preparation. Shelley was worried that she was having "blue spells" indicating low oxygen in her blood, so she was blown away when the doctor came in smiling, announcing that Alyson's test results were miraculous (his words, I believe)!! Her EKG and chest x-ray were normal, no signs of heart failure and strain like the last ones. The echo showed that the pulmonary valve no longer allowed blood to squirt back in backwards, and that the artery was still narrowed, but not by as much, so the doctors believed she would simply outgrow it! Her next catheterization was cancelled as well as the surgery planned for March. Her next follow up appointment is in SIX MONTHS!!! Shelley reported that Alyson was able to gain SIX pounds in the last SIX weeks, proving this miraculous healing had taken place! The scrawny 15 pound one-year-old is now over 21 pounds!!! All I can say is PRAISE THE LORD! His timing is perfect, His plan is perfect, we will praise Him!!

Alayna and Alyson

Sweet baby girl! Keep praying for Alyson!

You may also want to pray Shelley is not mad at me for scooping her! She hasn't had time to blog about this great news, but when she does, you can check for more details and probably more recent pictures (HINT HINT) of the girls at her blog by clicking here.