A 5 year old boy named Noah Biorkman is in the last stages of a 2 1/2 year battle with Neuroblastoma cancer. The family is celebrating Christmas this weekend and Noah’s request is to get lots of Christmas cards. Please consider sending Noah a Christmas card!

Noah Biorkman
1141 Fountian View Circle
South Lyon, MI 48178

I checked this out as I don’t usually pass along the mass email/facebook stuff but this is legitimate. We are going to send Noah a card tomorrow. Click here to view Noah’s CarePage site. Carepages requires you to register before viewing their sites.

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Carmen update: Carmen is doing better. She is still congested but isn’t coughing all day long and is tolerating formula.

Hope and me: Contractions have settled down. On Wednesday my doctor said, “Let’s get you to 34 weeks and we will all be happy!” So, I am staying on strict bed rest with the Terbutaline pump and contraction monitor.

Thanks to Athos and Helen for the medical supplies for Carmen (I’m excited about all those Little Suckers!) and the pupusas for dinner! Pupusas are thick corn tortillas filled with cheese, beans, pork, etc. and are served with a red sauce and cabbage salad. They are very popular in El Salvador (and this household!).

Thanks to Edi for the wonderful chicken pot pie, tomatoes and apples! That was the best chicken pot pie ever! (And I adore tomatoes!)

Thanks to Monica and Karen for bringing Dave a Caramel Macchiato this week. He is always happy to have his favorite Starbucks drink!

Thanks to Rebecca for taking me to the doctor this week! Thanks to Reena for all the adorable girl clothes. Hope is going to be one well-dressed little lady!

I wrote this for my MOPS group newsletter. I wrote it the day we found out we are having another little girl. I can share it now since the MOPS moms have all seen it!

Dear God…

After telling 5 year old Lauren that she is going to be a big sister again we had the following conversation:

Lauren: Hooray! I am going to have another sister.
Me: Lauren, the baby might be a boy.
Lauren: Stop saying that! It is going to be a girl!
Me: Well, then you are going to have to talk to God!
Lauren: Fine. Dear God, please help this baby be a girl. Think you can do this for me? Ok. Amen.

I remember saying a quick prayer in my head, “OK God, this baby is already a boy or a girl. And you know what is best for our family. You know Carmen is going to die and that Lauren will lose her sister. She has the faith of a child right now. Can you please answer her prayer?”

Our three year old daughter, Carmen, was diagnosed with a fatal degenerative neurological disease, Tay Sachs, AB Variant almost two years ago. Since that devastating day, we have seen God work in so many ways.

Carmen can no longer see or move or even cry but God has used her in so many ways to strengthen our faith. He has taught us that His ways are higher than our ways. His plan is perfect. His plan is sometimes painful and not at all what we want, but always perfect.

Today Dave and I went in for the 20 week ultrasound. We were excited to see the baby again and to find out the sex.

Apparently the baby was ready and waiting because as soon as the technician started the ultrasound she asked, “Are you ready to find out the gender?” We said yes and she said, “It’s a girl.” That’s when I realized just how much I was hoping for another girl. That’s when the tears started. I don’t remember much about the rest of the ultrasound because I couldn’t stop crying! I peeked over at Dave a couple of times and he had tears in his eyes too.

The doctor looked at all of the ultrasound pictures and said that everything looks great.

As we anticipate the arrival of another little girl, we pray for God’s perfect plan for her life. We thank Him for answering a 5 year old’s prayer for another sister.

• Carmen slept all night and morning and seems comfortable (see below for long narrative about yesterday).
• I am 26 weeks pregnant today!
• Tonight Dave is going to pick up something awesome for Lauren’s Christmas present. Found just what I was looking for on Craigslist. I hope Lauren is as excited as I am!
• I love gaining an hour of sleep. Falling back is much better than springing forward.
• No more Terbutaline side effects! Everyone who said the Terbutaline pump in my tummy would be so much better than pills every 4 hours was right. No more headaches, shaking hands, pounding heart, insomnia, extreme heat, etc.
• A clean house. That makes me very happy!
• Dave, who is functioning at warp speed and doing a super job!

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Carmen had a very rough day yesterday. Around noon, she suddenly started coughing. She coughed for the next 8 hours. Dave suctioned and repositioned her but she kept coughing. He tried the Vest treatment and nebulizer. He set her up next to me and I suctioned her all day long, about every 5 minutes. We gave her Robitussin to help thin her secretions. We did not want to suppress her cough because even though her cough is weak, she can sometimes get mucus out. Because she couldn’t stop coughing, she did not sleep at all during the day. At 6:30pm, we decided that we had to try something else. Suppressing her cough or sedating her, even if it meant the mucus stayed in her lungs, seemed far more merciful than letting her keep coughing. I called Hospice and the nurse said to go ahead and give her Morphine. The Morphine seemed to relax her a little. At 7pm, Carmen’s night nurse arrived and Carmen got her evening Vest and nebulizer treatments. The nurse set up her nightly feeding but used Pedialyte instead of formula (formula can make her more congested). At 8:45pm, she finally stopped coughing. And then she slept and slept and slept. When I went to bed at 11pm, I checked on her and she was sound asleep and perfectly peaceful with her oxygen at 100% and heart rate in the 70s and 80s (very, very good for Carmen). She slept all morning too.

Recently Dave said, “For Carmen’s sake, I hope she gets to go to Heaven soon.” That made my heart hurt but I feel the same. Keeping Carmen comfortable is getting harder and harder. We are faced with so many decisions about how to treat her and what to do/not do. I could be wrong, and Carmen has proven everyone wrong in the past, but I suspect she is getting tired. Please pray that each decision we make for Carmen is really what is best for her, even if it means she doesn’t live. We know when she enters Heaven, she will instantly have a perfect body and never suffer again. I’m glad we know that.