Madelyn Kate

Sweet Madelyn Kate still needs our prayers. She is stable, but on a ventilator in the NICU as the doctor's are unable to determine what has caused bouts of apnea.

Her amazing aunt, who is so in love with this baby girl, even from 8,000 miles away, wrote this prayer. Pray it with her. With us.

Father, You alone formed Maddie. You created her. You designed her every part. You put that beautiful brown hair on her head, her sweet eyes, and cute little nose on her face. You designed her uniquely and perfectly for You. You wove her together, every cell, every organ, every centimeter of her little body. We thank You for her. We thank You for this precious baby You created for You. We praise You for each breath she takes, for each beat of her heart, for each gaze into her mommy and daddy’s eyes. We thank You for the life You have given and for the lives that have been touched through her. We know she is not hidden from You. You, Lord, knew the complications that would be faced before we even knew about this baby girl. You know each and every detail about Maddie’s life. Father, we are trusting in You. We are thankful that You have written each day of her life. We thank You that she is in Your hands. Father, she is Yours and You have allowed us to be part of her life. Continue to strengthen her lungs. Continue to heal her body. Father, restore her. Father, help her to breathe on her own. Father, HEAL her. HEAL her. HEAL her. You are the Healer. You are the Great Physician. WE trust in You. May You continue to draw people close to You through this time. Continue to show Your love, mercy and comfort as we sit and pray for this baby of Yours. We trust in You. We are thankful for Madelyn Kate and the life You have for her. The divine purpose You created her specifically for. We thank You for her parents, Kathryn and Luke and for their love for You. Pour out Your love upon them as they stand next to their baby girl, Your baby girl and wait for a touch from You.

Heal her Father. Heal her.

In the Name of Jesus, Amen

Ask other Believers to pray for Maddie and her parents, Kathryn and Luke, extended family, doctors and nurses.

For those interested, the Madelyn Kate Bilberry Medical Fund has been established at Southside State Bank, 6201 South Broadway, Tyler, Texas 75701, Attn: Amy Green. Please make checks payable to Madelyn Kate Bilberry Medical Fund.

Prayer for a Precious Girl

This is Madelyn Kate. Madelyn was born last Thursday, September 24. Her mom is not only a blogging friend, but a real-life friend. Maddie had her dad wrapped around her finger from the first sonogram.

Maddie was born about two weeks early without fully-developed lungs. Not only were her lungs not developed, but somehow she contracted pneumonia. After a few days of appeared progress, Maddie went into distress this morning. She's been moved to the Neonatal ICU at an area hospital and is on a ventilator.

Please pray for this new family: Luke, Kathryn & Maddie. Pray for their extended families, specifically Kathryn's sister--and my close friend, Rachel--who is serving in South Africa. Pray for the doctors, for wisdom. Pray for healing.

At times today, I felt like I couldn't pray for anything else. I'd cried out to the Lord for this little life. He brought this passage from Romans to mind; I especially like it from The Message:

Meanwhile, the moment you get tired in the waiting, God's Spirit is right alongside helping us along. If we don't know what to pray, it doesn't matter. He does our praying in and for us, making prayer out of our wordless sighs, our aching groans. He knows us far better than we know ourselves, knows our pregnant condition, and keeps us present before God. That's why we can be so sure that every detail in our lives of love for God is worked into something good.

Pray for this sweet family. Pray for healing. Pray until you can't pray any longer; then allow the Holy Spirit to intercede.

Monday, Monday

It sure was a Monday, today. Not so much at work; that was productive. But over my lunch break, I ran errands. Let's review the happenings...

I really need another pair of jeans to take on the honeymoon. I don't really like jeans or pants. During the winter, I wear skirts with tights. And I feel super cute. But walking around a major city might not be comfy while wearing tights with cute shoes. (I did promise J that I would take comfortable shoes. I sort of have a reputation of wearing shoes that cause blisters. All for the sake of a cute outfit.) So, I have this one type of jean that I found a couple of years ago, and I love them about as much as I can love jeans. For some reason, Tommy Hilfiger decided to change the make-up of his American Freedom jeans. And they don't fit the same. And I don't have time to do the whole try-on-72-pair-of-jeans-until-you-find-the-best-fit thing. I needed a standby, but it didn't happen. That was a super-quick, non-productive stop that now has me worried about how I'll ever have enough pants to take on the honeymoon.

Right now, I'm sort of fanatical about clean hands. I cannot get sick until November. And everything is going around our school. Everything. I considered Lysol-ing every student that came into our office today. Then I thought about wiping myself down with Clorox wipes. Instead, I decided that I needed antibacterial lotion so that I moisturize whilst killing germs. A trip to the mall was added to the lunch-errand list.

I walked into the mall through JCPenney. Now, I've bought about four things from JCP in the past six years, but I thought I'd try on two pair of pants I saw in the aisle display. As is usually the case, they were too long, and since there was detailing on the cuff, it wouldn't be worth getting altered. I walked out of the dressing room to three employees, carrying my two pair of pants. (Numbers are important at this point.) I looked around and didn't see the rack to hang the rejections, so I laid them on the counter in front of the three employees. At which point one of them looks at me and says, "Ma'am, can't you hang those on that rack over there?" Seeing as how I never saw a rack, I certainly thought she was mistaken in asking me to do this. My response: "I'm sorry. What?" Her: "There's a rack over there, can you hang them on it?" This is where my assertive-nature shined through, and I explained that with three people, surely they could handle hanging two pair of pants on a rack. I mean, I was the ONLY customer in the fitting room. I didn't leave the clothes wadded in the fitting room. I hung them nicely on the hanger and took them out for the employees. Who are paid to put things on a rack.

Okay, enough of that.

After my stop to stock-up on hand sanitizer and antibacterial cleaners (which, by the way, if you disagree with the use of these, please realize I'm the bride in a wedding in 19 days--I can't get sick), I stopped at Chick-fil-a for a quick lunch-to-go (yes, I know I'm a bride in 19 days, but it's a corset back AND I've lost two surprise pounds). This is when I realized that the mall, on a weekday, is full of interesting people. The group behind me was quite odd. Three people: a mom in a motorized wheelchair, her grown son of about 40, and an extra lady that could have been on a date with the grown son. Whose mom ordered his lunch while he went to the arcade. The extra lady had never been to Chick-fil-a. And had never seen waffle fries. What?! So strange.

And one last thing...if there's one thing Tyler is known for, it's the plethora of red-light runners. It's so bad. Today, a driver behind me honked when I stopped at a red light. Not green or yellow, folks. Red.

It's been a day full of stories. I'm headed to flag football. Either to play on the faculty team or chase the kids down with a can of Lysol. I know which one would be more productive. And maybe it will stop the spread of germs!

A Taste of Fall

I love apple cider. I prefer it over hot chocolate most days. That says quite a bit because I never turn down chocolate. Apple cider is just so fall-ish with the apples and spices.

I found this tea at a specialty shop yesterday, and it did not disappoint. It has the taste of apple cider without the sugar. And it's caffeine-free. Which is important to someone who is becoming more mamaw-like everyday.

Warning: Lots of Miscellany

I get annoyed with bloggers who don't post new blogs for weeks on end. I mean come on. What else could be so important?

Of course, for the nine people who actually read my blog and have blogs of your own, I would never feel this way about you. Never ever. Unless it's been more than two weeks. Then I wonder if your life is so much more exciting than mine that you don't have time to post. Because that makes me jealous. Not annoyed. And, yes, I do realize that total readership is probably more like four, but nine sounds better.

Since I'm hitting the two week mark since my last post, it's time to write something. But be forewarned, it might get boring.

We're at less than five weeks until our wedding. I'm excited! In fact I'm so excited, that I choose to forget the million things I need to do. You know, like choose songs, decide on order of service, design the programs. I did choose a cake today. Which is good since my mom owns a cake shop. People have always asked if I knew what I wanted. And the answer is no. When you see three wedding cakes every week for however many years, nothing really stands out. But I found one.

This weekend, the showers began. It was fun seeing ladies that knew me growing up, and now get to celebrate this special time in my life. It was also fun getting new, pretty things! Possibly my favorite is the red Kitchenaid mixer. It's wonderful. And beautiful. I've looked forward to getting it ever since I was told it's something you get when you get married. A Kitchenaid mixer in any color and a husband. Doesn't get much better than that?! Can you believe that only two things we got weren't on a registry? And I loved those so much that I thought they were on a registry!

I also had a fun lingerie shower. I loved hanging out with a smaller group of ladies. We had Mexican food and margaritas. Of course, that's never a bad combination. Unless one drinks too many margaritas. Which did not happen. Again, I liked everything I opened! I really didn't expect that. Especially at this particular shower.

Jeremy & I were supposed to have our reshoot for engagement pictures on Sunday, but since it was raining, we rescheduled for the reshoot. Now, I'll have school pictures and engagement pictures on the same day. Which makes me have to decide how to wear my hair. I wanted to wear it straight for school pictures so that it doesn't look too big in the yearbook. But I think I need it curly that afternoon so that it doesn't frizz up while wear outside doing engagements. Oh, the decisions!

This week should be full of other excitement like Back-to-School Night and lunch duty. I bet I'll have lots of stories to post by Friday. Stay tuned!