Update on Heidi AND I'M OFF ON VACATION!!!!

OK, Heidi first, because she is definitely the most important!! She is taking her bottle well!! That is great!! Out came her feeding tube!!! They are starting to ween her from her seizure medications slowly so please pray that she holds her own there! If all goes as it is now, the Dr's are saying that she may be released in 7-10 days!! Mommy is a little nervous about the full care, but by God's grace, Heidi will come home as healthy as any other little darling baby!!

Now, vacation!! We are flying out tomorrow to visit my Dad in Ohio!!! My sister, Candi, paid for Cherish and I to go with her to spend time with our Dad, then Stephen crashed our party and bought himself a ticket (don't tell him, but I'm really glad, I hate being away from him!) I'll update with pictures of our time when I can!!! This is a time we always look forward to. He lives on several acres in the country and we just totally relax there. No pressure!! The last time we were there, there were peacocks just roaming the property!! Hmmmm.....sounds so good!! Our trip tomorrow is.............3 hour drive to San Francisco, 3 hour flight to St. Louis, 2 hour layover, 2 hour flight to Dayton, Ohio. Hopefully, Cherish will be on her best behavior!!!

Text about Heidi on Saturday!

We had a pre-schedule Sunday School Seminar with the McCools today, which by the way was fantastic!! While there, I text messaged Sis. Loretta this,

"Hey, it's Sis. Hill, I'm sitting in a Sunday School Seminar. How is Heidi! Anything new?"

The immediate reply was this,

Loretta Willman says, "Heidi is doing well!! She got her head dresses off today, and I fed her which means I held her!"

My reply was this,

"Yeh, Thank God!"

Heidi's Mom's Update

Heidi's mother posted the following to her blog tonight!!

Heidi Update
Heidi is coming along well. The doctor has her on Phenobarboltol to help keep her seizures away and she hasn't had a seizure all day. We talked with the nuerologist, her doctor, and the genetics specialist today and all of them had a postive outlook on her recovery without being too optimistic. I guess you could say that we are not out of the woods yet, but the bears are all in their cages.She has no sign of infections, no heart conditions, no bleeding on the brain (she did at birth sometime), and is otherwise functioning well. The area affected with oxygen deprivation is a very small area and the doctor said that it probably didn't last over a minute. That's good news. She still has little electrodes all over her head because they are going to watch her EEG overnight again. I may actually begin feeding her tomorrow. That means I'll be able to hold her too. Overall, God is good and merciful. Little Heidi is a special gift and we are so glad to be able to know her. She is recovering well and by God's grace will have a bright future.Thank you for all your thoughts and prayers!

Update!!!

I've added a couple of pictures of Heidi from today!! I got to see her!! What a doll!! She sure looks like a Willman!!! No denying that she looks like her gorgeous sister at this point! Who knows though, they sure change! Anyways, everyone know how I love babies, so I'll go on now!! Heidi has not in any way declined!! The blood has not increased and the seizures are under control at this point! The Neurologist at this point feels that the next few days will level out and that the poblems all were a direct result of trauma during birth! To God be the glory!! We must continue to pray that there are no more seizures, that they cause no long term damage, and that Heidi gets better with every moment!!! I was overwhelmed with God's keeping hand today, as I saw all of the tiny premature babies all around her and she looked so big and healthy!! I know that He has the power and will find in His will to just continue His safe keeping!!!

Prayer For Heidi

Heidi & her mommy, Loretta
Little Doll, Heidi

Her Pastor with her!!
Heidi just after birth!

A beautiful baby girl was born to our church on Wednesday night. Heidi Leanne Willman is the daughter of John & Loretta Willman. She is having complications and was taken from the hospital of birth to Valley Children's Hospital and is in Neonatal ICU. Heidi has been having seizures and the doctors are trying to discover the cause. There are 2 areas with blood on her brain and signs of lack of oxygen. Her parents are very strong and trusting in God, in fact as her mother lay in the hospital bed at a separate hospital yesterday, she said to me, "She is in God's hands now!" But it was obvious that her heart ached for the little one. Please keep Heidi and her parents in your prayers! She has two young siblings and the next couple of weeks are going to be extremely taxing on them all. I will update on little Heidi as I receive information!

A Day At The Zoo

Last Saturday, we decided to go to the zoo! It was to be a nice day of 82 degrees! That's great since today is 96! We called "the kids", our daughter and son-in-law, Misti and Adam, off we went!! It was a gorgeous day and we had a blast!!! Cherish loved all of her "fwiends!" (We shared a Corn Dog!!!)

Seeing the "Ewephants"

Petting the goats! She was amazed at the tail!

S.I.S. Conference

I just got back yesterday from S.I.S Conference! SIS stands for Safety in Sisterhood. It is a conference just for ministers wives and was in Tulare, California this year. My friends and I rarely miss one and we look forward all year to it. It is designed to be a retreat and to speak to our hearts specifically. Sis. Laquita Mullings heads this up with a large committee helping her out! I have always enjoyed it, but I have to say that this year will be a highlight for me! Sis. Cindy Miller from New Jersey was the speaker and she spoke to us about finding out who we are individually and being that person. We are too stress driven and we need to do the best at what we were designed to be! Boy, did I need to hear that! I try to be all things to all people and only God can do that!

Ok, to the fun stuff!

The theme this year was,
The rich things in life....Friendship and Chocolate!

Yes, chocolate!!! Yummmm, they had chocolate EVERYWHERE! On the benches when we came in each session, in our packets, on the tables, and the best of all, both nights there were chocolate fondue fountains!!!! Dark Chocolate, Light Chocolate, and White Chocolate (my favorite) and there were plates overflowing with fruit, graham crackers, marshmallows to dip in the chocolate! Oh, yes and there was food, too! Scrumptious!!!

Then, on Tuesday night, they had brought in 2 massage chairs & massage therapists!!! Yes!!!! The girl who did my massage was fabulous!!! Then there was paraffin wax for pedicures and manicures. It was too wonderful!! We were pampered and then pampered some more!! And what a time of friendship, laughter, and CHOCOLATE!!!

I went with my friends, Lori Domingues and Lorraine Bertram, again! We had a great time and no I did not take Cherish! I got to sit through entire sessions with out going out, I got to eat entire meals without interruption!!!

But I did miss her terribly!!

I'll add a slide show below of the fun!! But first, to Sis. Pat Keyes, "Thank you for helping me go!" You and "Papa" mean the world to us and you and I are going to go one day and we'll have real massages and pedicures done! You will love it!!

The Piano

My mother-in-law did the sweetest thing recently!! We had no idea, but she had bought Cherish a black baby grand child's piano!!! She called the day that it was to arrive and told us that she had shipped something (she lives in Houston)! She told us that we would have to put it together (I had no idea what it was at that time) and that she had gotten insurance on the shipping. OK, sounds good! The delivery man rang the doorbell, I answered and the box was almost too heavy for me!!! I got Cherish, set up my camera to video clips, position it and Cherish to capture the moment. We made a huge production out of the whole thing! She had even printed a 5X7 picture of Cherish and taped it to the box. It was a lot of work!! Well, I started cutting the tape, removing Styrofoam, and pulling out a tray of legs, the top of the piano which way about 2 feet by 3 feet. This was a big thing. Then I got to the main part of of the piano. It was broken into pieces! The keys were everywhere, the wood broken, etc. Cherish was devastated! I quickly turned off the camera! She kept crying and saying, "Mommy, fis (fix) it! Can Daddy fis it?"

Of course, there was no way to "fis" it! Cherish cried for days about that silly piano. Of course, when we tried to find a new one, the manufacturer stopped producing this one, they only make it in white!! We finally found a Schoenhut one that is darling. When Cherish and I walked in the house at 1 o'clock in the morning from our LA trip, there in our entry way covered with a blanket was the new one all put together waiting on our little concert pianist. Here is the new one and Cherish after riding for 5 hours from LA!! Be sure to see the video clip of her playing!!

Play Cherish, Play!

Thanks Mom, for making a little girl happy! Oh, the new one is getting scratched up! She is at it 3/4 of the day!!

L.A. Pictures!!!!!

To Lorraine and Lori, it is amazing how we all look so different, have different tastes, and can be apart for extended times, but we all have the same heart and that heart spans the tastes and time! You guys will be dear forever! I think often of the quotes about true friends and I know that we three will always be just that! Before my dear friend Denise Smith passed away, she gave me a framed picture with a little quote that said,

"Friends are there when good times aren't!"

I think that all of us feel that way about one another!! We "are there!"

Here they are!!! I have finally sat down long enough to get the pictures downloaded!!! What a wonderful trip! I even bought some things!!! I rarely buy for myself! I buy for Cherish and Misti, not this time!!! I wore new things BOTH services yesterday!! Oh, speaking of Misti, she keeps bringing up the fact that I didn't get her ANYTHING!! LOL I started to a couple of times and then I would put the things back and think, "No, let Adam do it!!" What a great feeling!! Oh, by the way, when I got home, my house was spotless!! You can tell that my sweet hubby missed us, he had vacuumed, dusted, did the dishes, cleaned mirrors, etc.. Thanks, babe!!


Back to the trip, it was a lifetime memory in making! Next time, Cherish is staying home!! That will free me up even more!

Dear Ma & Pa

Dear Ma and Pa,I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled. I was restless at first because you got to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. but I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. Men got to shave but it is not so bad, there's warm water. Breakfast is strong o n trimmings like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again. It's no wonder these city boys can't walk much. We go on 'route marches,' which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it's not my place to tell him different. A 'route march' is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then, the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks. The country is nice, but awful flat. The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The captain is like the school board. Majors and colonels just ride around and frown. They don't bother you none. This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don't know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don't move, and it ain't shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don't even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.Then, we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain't like fighting with that ole bull at home. I'm about the best they got in this, except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I'm only 5'6' and 130 pounds and he's 6'8' and near 300 pounds dry. Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.Your loving daughter,Alice

Another Spontaneous Trip!!

I think the only way that pastor's wives will ever get away is to be spontaneous! Planning never works! On Tuesday morning, Lorraine Bertram called to see if Lori Domingues and I could leave asap and meet in Los Angeles for a 4 day getaway! We did it!! Within 12 hours we had all washed our hair, packed our bags (Cherish's, too by the way!!) and driven to LA and were checked in to a hotel at Disneyland. At this point we do not have plans to go to Disney, however, we have NO PLANS AT ALL!!! Today, we got up late after going to sleep at 3 am, we slowly got dressed, at lunch, and went to the garment district !!! Yes!!! I bought 3 things for myself!! That is a NEVER!! We came back over by Disneyland and ate at the Cheesecake Factory! We even ordered dessert which is another NEVER!!
Oh, about dessert, when they sat it down, Cherish started saying, "Happy
Cake!" "Sing Happy Birday!" So, we very quietly sang it!! Well, the waiter was great, he came by and said, who's birthday! We explained that it wasn't anybody's, that we were just entertaining her. Well, in about 5 minutes, here come the waitstaff, with a hot fudge sundae in a tiny little sundae glass, with a candle lit on top, they all sang happy birthday and Cherish was beaming, she kept blowing out the candle while they were singing and they kept relighting. It was so cute!!!
OK, back to our trip! Here we are, Cherish is asleep, Lorraine and I are blogging, and Lori (who doesn't have a laptop) is reading a magazine and talking to us as we type!! LOL!! What a wonderful time! We have no plans from this moment on! All I know is that I will be home sometime Friday!!! I'm taking pictures and will add them sometime!!

Labor Day on the lake!

Our day was spontaneous!!! First, Stephen and Adam (our son-in-law) helped someone move furniture. Then we decided to go to Oakhurst, which is the mountains to eat Bar-B-Q! On the way there, Lori Domingues called and said that they were doing a crazy spur of the moment thing! We always do that with them!! They were going to the lake (at Oakhurst) to rent a boat!! Now, it is 3:30 in the afternoon! So.......we met them, rented a larger boat! It was Cherish's first boat ride! We had a wonderful time! We played games, fed the ducks and just enjoyed ourselves!!!

What a wonderful Labor Day we had! I'll tell you more tomorrow!! Unplanned fun with dear friends can sometimes be the most wonderful!!!!