First day of Day Care

Love it, but found it a bit exhausting.

Chinese New Year!

Playing it up for the crowd.

Me and my friend Olivia before the parade began.

My friend and traveling buddy Sam, I Am.

The Edwards - Proud Supporters of the Chinese New Year!

Sam and Isabell taking a refreshing dip. (Not sure what the face is for, but it made me laugh, so I had to share.)

Julie Parr and her beautiful girls.

Trust me. She has gotten the hang of this "being in the spot light".

Taking a break after the parade - GrandMary, Isabell, Ann and Mary Ellen. A good time was had by all.

What a great New Year it was! We had our friends Susan, Nick and Sam in from Montgomery and our friends from Gulfport, MS - The Edwards - in to help us celebrate the New Year. Isabell road in her new wagon (thank you Grandpa Jim) and along with the help of Mallory threw out goodies to the onlookers. James and Mary Ellen (my favorite pumpkin) were also enthusiastic supporters of the Chinese New Year yelling at the crowd and throwing out goodies.

The parade is an annual event hosted by Children of the World in Fairhope, Alabama. This year it was held on Feb. 16th and we could not have asked for a nicer day to celebrate.

Enjoy the pics and Happy New Year to all!

Happy Valentine's Day!

My stay at the hospital

First, we would like to thank everyone for their well wishes and prayers. Isabell's surgery went very well and she is now recovering. It is hard to hand your child off to be operated on that is for sure. But I must say she did very well. The crying does break my heart when I know she is in pain, but all of this is worth while. As the goal is to get her to be the vital person she is and will become over the years.

Couple of things you might want to know about the surgery:

• Surgery took 2 1/2 hours and we were in the hospital 3 days.


• She finally ate and drank late Wednesday afternoon. That was the goal before we could leave.


• Lots of morphine afterwards.


• A boat load of stitches in the roof of her mouth that will take approximately 3 weeks or so to disolve.


• She can only eat soft food for a month.


• For 2 weeks she has to wear arm restraints to make sure she does put her fingers up in the roof of her mouth and damage any of the work.

Some pics of our stay at Children's Hospital in Birmingham, Alabama. The drive up and back from Mobile is about 5 hours. Luckily she slept the whole way home!

Having fun the night before the surgery:

Right after surgery:

Feeling much better the next day and finally going home!!

Leaving for the hospital today

Dear Family and Friends,

We will be leaving in a couple of hours to go to the hospital in Birmingham for Isabell's surgery tomorrow. She is the first one at 6 a.m. that Dr. Grant will be operating on for the bilateral cleft palate. The operation should take 3 to 4 hours. Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers and I will update the blog with progress reports during our stay.

Many thanks,

Martha and Isabell

Playtime with Friends

It has been a busy week learning how to play with others. Miss Isabell has been playing with her friends Gracie and Hannah and had a overnite visit with her friends the Edwards. The gang had a great time in the tub splashing and taking turns putting Isabell on their laps.

Happy New Year!

Dear Family and Friends,



Sorry we have been a while in posting. We had a wonderful holiday season with my brother, his wife and three boys joining us for the week of Xmas. The boys loved their new cousin and could not have been sweeter to her.



Isabell is doing really well. She is crawling, eating from a spoon and drinking from a sippy cup. As well, she is beginning to pull up (although I am pushing her back down - no need to hurry). But on to the more important stuff...more pics of this cutie!