Summer picture of the kids

Long Time, No Hear

I can't believe it has been 7 months since I last posted! So much has happened. We are still recovering from the passing of my mother. The kids had a hard time, but now don't ask about her much. Whenever we pass a hospital, Timothy asks, "Is that where Mamaw lives?"

Brodie is doing well with homeschooling. He is doing 8th grade work and still enjoys having mom as his teacher. He played soccer for Grove Avenue in the fall and is now doing ice skating. He will probably continue that during the winter and then do golf lessons in the spring. He has developed a love of cooking and wants to learn every recipe I know. We are also planning on getting him a guitar and some lessons in the very near future.

Emily has a great kindergarten teacher and other than not wanting to get out of bed, she seems to really love going to school. She is reading now! She has lost 6 teeth altogether, but only 2 adult teeth have come in. She has quite a big gap in her smile. Emily has discovered Webkinz and wants to be on the computer all of the time. We are going to surprise her with gymnastics classes after the holidays.

Timothy is still our little charmer. His smile lights up his whole face. He has been cleared by the neurosurgeon to not need further visits, unless he develops any problems. We were excited about that. Timothy started preschool in September and adores his teacher. He has made a couple of buddies that he talks about often. His favorite things right now are Spiderman and the book Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss.

Bethany also started preschool and is in the same class as Timothy. They do well together at school. She has turned into quite the little fashion model, insisting on only skirts or dresses. She is so attached to Emily, always wanting to be doing what Emily is doing. For now Emily is tolerating it. Bethany has the most delightful laugh and she is completely taken with Barbie and all the Disney princesses.

Charlie and I just celebrated our 20th anniversary this week! He took me on a 7 day Caribbean cruise the week before. We went to Honduras, Belize, Mexico and the Bahamas. It was absolutely wonderful!! Our good friends Mike and Amy Bowles, formerly living in Thailand, moved into our house and took superb care of our four kiddos and their two as well. It was so relaxing and just an amazing time of reconnecting as a couple.

We are just about finished redoing my parents' house in order to put it on the market. It has been really hard getting rid of everything from the house. We have taken down all the wallpaper, painted, new carpets, new floors in the kitchen and foyer, new cabinets and appliances and redone all the landscaping with just family providing the labor. Mom and Dad's good friend Don is finishing up by hanging new doors and touching up. He also redid the hallway bathroom and will be putting in new toilets and such. Unfortunately the market stinks right now, so we are not sure of when it might actually sell. We will continue to pray about it and know that God has the perfect timing in His plan.

We are still in the process of transitioning to career missions. It has been slow with Timothy's medical needs, but now we have complete clearance for him. We decided to delay by one cycle so that we can be appointed here in Richmond instead of in Sunnyvale, TX. Nothing against Texas, but we would really like for family and our church friends to be able to be there. Please pray for us to be able to finish all the paperwork in the next couple of weeks and get it turned in. Also pray for Brodie, who is dealing with great reluctance in leaving his only remembered home and all his friends.

We will be sending out Christmas cards in the next couple of weeks and will give a more complete update in there. Talk to you later!

Much Sadness

Once again, it has been a while since I last posted.

Timothy has recovered remarkably well from his surgery. After a week of him thinking he couldn't walk, he took off and is back to absolute normal. People don't believe me that he had major spinal surgery until I show them the large scar.

Since I last posted, my mother passed away. It was a short 7 weeks from diagnosis to her passing. I was able to spend the last night with her and was present when she went home to be with our Lord. In many ways, it still is not real, though we held the funeral yesterday. I continue to think that I can pick the phone up and give her a call. She will be greatly missed. She was a wonderful lady and a great friend.

This picture was taken Christmas Day at our house. I am so grateful that she spent Christmas Eve and several days with us during the holidays.

While we were at Mom's preparing for the funeral, tragic events unfolded at Virginia Tech, Charlie and my alma mater. A gunman student shot and killed 31 students and then himself. I had Charlie check on one student that we knew there. He was fine. I had forgotten that we knew another student there. She graduated this past spring from the same school that Brodie and Emily attend. I found out this morning that she was one of the victims. Please pray for this family as they mourn the untimely death of their daughter. She was a believer and we know that she is rejoicing with Jesus, but it is still hard for those left to wonder why this kind of thing happens.

While you are praying, please remember my nephew David and his wife Cathy. Since November, they have lost to death their dog, Cathy's father, David's paternal grandfather, both of Cathy's grandmothers and David's maternal grandmother (my mom). Cathy's paternal grandmother passed away just a couple of hours after my mother. They have endured much. They have two young sons, David (8) and William (6) who have had to attend way too many funerals for kids their age.

Thank you to the many friends and family members who have shown such love and support during these difficult days. We don't ever want to miss an opportunity to tell you how much we love you.

Does it ever amaze you how God created our tear glands with a seemingly endless supply of tears?

Update on Timothy

Timothy had his first surgery to repair his spinal cord yesterday. The surgery went well. We had expected anywhere from 2 to 6 hours for the procedure. It was done in 3 hours. The neurosurgeon has been wonderful to work with. Timothy is currently in the Pediatric ICU, but may be moved to a progressive care unit today and possibly to the regular pediatrics ward tomorrow. If all goes well, he should be released on Saturday to come home. He is required to lay flat on his back for three days and then can get up and move about with pain as his guide. We are praying for a speedy recovery and complete healing. At this point, we are not sure about him having a second surgery. The spinal cord does split into two cords in the thoracic area, but there is no bone separating the two halves. This thrills the surgeon, who is weighing the risks of further surgery with the benefits. He would like to do another MRI while Tim is at the hospital, but that is proving difficult to schedule with anesthesiology. Timothy is in moderate pain that seems to be controlled well with the pain medications. He wants to be held and he wants to go home, neither of which are happening things right now.

We will keep you up to date as much as possible from home or the hospital.

Pictures 3/5

These pictures were taken for our 6 month post placement visit happening this week.

Stressful Times

Hello y'all! The last month or so has been a whirlwind of activity. Not only is raising four children crazy enough, but homeschooling has added a whole new level of insanity to our house. Brodie is doing well with his lessons, but I wish I had more hours in the day to spend with him and with the three little ones.

We have had some hard days lately. On February 21, my mom was diagnosed with Stage 4 lung cancer. It has spread to other organs and glands as well. She had her first round of chemo last week and was able to get out of the hospital today. My sister Liz and I have been spending as much time with her as we can. Thankfully, Mom's sister Dottie has come to stay for a while and can give complete attention to Mom's care. Please pray for my mother's healing and comfort as she comes to your mind.

The day is quickly approaching for Timothy's surgery to fix one area where his spinal cord is tethered. In many ways we are looking forward to it, knowing that we have caught it early enough that he has no irreversible nerve damage at this point. Of course we are not looking forward to the pain he will have to endure, nor three days of keeping him from moving. I sure hope the hospital has stocked lots of sedatives! (Some for me would be nice.) :)

Charlie is busy, busy, busy at work. He will be gone a couple of days this week for work related fun and games. He is not thrilled, to say the least.

Brodie and I are going on a trip after Timothy's surgery if all goes well. I will post pictures from our scenic location. Brodie does not yet know all the details, so I must be vague here. I am so excited! I do feel bad about leaving Charlie with the three little ones for another week. He was so sweet to stay home with all the kids while I stayed in the hospital with my mother for a week.

I will post more on all of these things as I can.

All Four Kids

Slackers R Us

OK, so I made a New Year's resolution to keep this up to date weekly. I also made a resolution to lose lots of weight and to keep my house clean. I am really bad at keeping resolutions!

A lot has happened since I blogged last. Timothy had surgery on January 17. He had 5 root canals, 5 crowns and 7 fillings. He also got circumcised. He did great! Unfortunately, he took great delight in dropping his pants to show people his "boo-boo". That didn't last too long, thank the Lord.

After the surgery we jumped back into the paperwork to become missionaries. We only needed a few more medical letters to complete that process. When we called the pediatric orthopedic surgeon to get a letter from him, we were informed that he wanted Timothy to see a neurosurgeon about his spinal cord issues that were discovered on the MRI. We went to MCV last week and met a great neurosurgeon. He wants to do a CT of the thoracic area of Timothy's spine. That will happen on Feb. 23. Then Timothy will have his first neurosurgery on March 14. This will repair the cord where it is tethered in the sacrum. Timothy will spend 3 days in the hospital, supposedly not moving. I hope they have lots of sedatives for him! He will need a second surgery 2-3 weeks later to fix several problems with his cord in the center of his back. I will post when that is confirmed after the CT is done.

I had to go into the blog and delete some posts that had pictures. I had used all my space so I haven't been able to post any pictures in the last several months. I will try tonight to post some new pictures.

All the kids are doing well. Brodie is now being homeschooled and seems to really like it. He is still playing basketball for his old school. The tournament is next week and Grove Avenue's middle school team is in first place! All the kids are growing so fast. It is amazing to watch them.

Hope this fills you in a little!

Happy New Year Everyone!

My resolution for the new year is to keep this blog more up to date. Well, that is one of my resolutions.
Since I blogged last, a lot has happened. Not necessarily in chronological order, we had a huge party for Timothy and Bethany at the local Chick-Fil-A, everyone got sick with one thing or another and Bethany turned three. As for the sicknesses, there was a virus that Bethany had and gave to Timothy and Emily. Timothy gave it back to Bethany and it turned into pneumonia. Meanwhile, Brodie got strep. I had a virus in the cartilage of my ribcage that did a really good imitation of a heart attack. Poor Charlie. I called him at work and told him I was having severe chest pains and could he take me to the hospital, please? He made it home in record time. It has taken three weeks, but the pain is finally going away.
Christmas was wonderful. My mom came down Christmas Eve and spent two nights with us. It was so nice to just stay home on Christmas Day. We usually open presents and then load up the car to go to one grandparent or another's for a day or two. The kids never get to play with their toys. This year was very relaxing. We left Wednesday to go to Charlie's parents' and stayed until Friday. While there, we went and visited our good friends Tim and Diana Tippett. It was fantastic to just hang out for the evening, talk and teach them the game we love to play, Nerts.
Then was the tragedy called the Chick-Fil-A Bowl. We were so excited with the 21-3 lead at half time. The second half of the game was just painful to watch. We are still not talking about it around Charlie, as he is still in mourning.
Last night, we had a great time at church. The church was able to get a copy of the movie "Facing the Giants" to show. Lots of families showed up and the film was awesome. It had an infertility theme to it, so of course I boo-hooed through most of it. Brodie stayed at church for the youth "all-nighter" and had a blast. I had to force him to wake up at 2 this afternoon so that he will sleep tonight!
We are well and happy as 2007 begins. Please pray for Timothy's upcoming surgeries on January 17th. Our IMB approval is still riding on getting medical clearances and Timothy's needs are a great concern.
We love you all and wish you the best year ever.

Happy Birthday, dear Timothy

I know. It has been over a month since my last entry. I am sincerely sorry for not keeping everyone up to date.

I can hardly believe that Timothy is now 3! Much to our dismay, he is sick today and he stayed home from church with Mommy. We will do cake and presents at lunch time. We are planning a joint birthday party for Timothy and Bethany in early December. I am so glad we didn't have it planned for yesterday...we would have had to cancel!

It has been a big week at the Sell house. On Tuesday, Charlie and I celebrated our 19th wedding anniversary. How can that be, when I only feel 25? Thursday was Thanksgiving, which we spent at my sister Liz's. My mom and friend Linda came as well. It was small and quiet, but we had fun. Then yesterday we enjoyed watching the Hokies stomp the Wahoos. And today is Tim's birthday. That is a lot in one week. Only three weeks of school left until the Christmas break! I really need to do some shopping!!

Since I last blogged, Brodie and I spent 12 days in Thailand on a mission trip. I will share details and pictures on that in a separate blog.

Timothy has had his MRI. We will get the results tomorrow or Tuesday. The orthopedic surgeon did try to call and the message was that it wasn't bad. That was encouraging. We will see if anything will need to be done for Timothy's scoliosis or if we will leave him alone. The MRI was done under general anesthesia and he did great. He is scheduled for dental surgery on January 17, also under general anesthesia. Please keep him in your prayers for that one. It promises to be much more painful.

We are still in the process with the IMB and still hope to go to Thailand. Everything is on hold due to medical issues that need to be resolved. Two things have been submitted and hopefully we will hear that they are complete. We need to send in proof of some blood work on all three of the little kids. Then we need to finish up and have final reports on all of Timothy's needs. Hopefully we can go to a candidate conference in March and be on the field in August or September. I am ready to go now! Know anyone who needs furniture, clothes, dishes....?

More later!