Prayer Request for Gracie

***Update as of 1:45PM - Gracie is off the heart and lung bypass machine but she is still fighting for her life.

Currently they are trying to get her bleeding to stop before closing her chest. Also her oxygen saturations in her body and in her brain are low and they are trying to get them up to an acceptable level.

She is not out of the woods yet and continues to need much prayer!***

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***Update as of 10:45 AM - The surgery is still going on and the doctors are disappointed to see how small Gracie's pulmonary arteries are.

These are the arteries that will have to carry the blood to the lungs after the surgery. The doctor is attempting a procedure to enlarge these arteries as much as possible with extra tissue.

Please pray that when she is ready to be taken off the heart and lung machine are Noon that this improvement to the arteries will work. ***

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Gracie's surgery has been MOVED UP from this Thursday morning to TODAY. She is scheduled to go into the operating room at 6:30AM.

The doctor's felt like this was the right thing to do since Gracie has been doing so well the last week and the operating room is free all day.

Please pray for Gracie and her family!

And if you are interested, Amanda has posted Gracie's history on the latest journal entry at their CaringBridge site.

Thank you so much for your prayers!

Miracle Monday

It's Miracle Monday again and, I'm asking you all to pray for a miracle.

Gracie needs your help. Her mom, Amanda, posted an entry on Gracie's CaringBridge Journal on Wednesday that broke my heart.

The family met with all the doctor's involved in Gracie's care and said that she wasn't getting any better and without any action, she would die. So they recommended that Gracie have the Glenn procedure on Thursday, October 2nd.

They are only giving Gracie a 10% chance that she will survive this surgery. (This number is taking into account that even if she doesn't die on the operating table, she could still die shortly after the surgery due to her body shutting down.)

If Gracie takes a miraculous turn for the better before Thursday, then this surgery will not happen or if she is sick on Thursday then they will postpone it.

Todd and Amanda are asking for a miracle before Thursday so that Gracie doesn't need the surgery and obviously, if the surgery does happen on Thursday, they are asking that we all pray that God sees Gracie through it.

Amanda posted that information on Wednesday and all of the subsequent posts have been about the wonderful days they are having with Gracie. (They are finally able to hold her for extended periods of time.)

They are enjoying Gracie and they are trusting in the Lord.

Please pray for Gracie.

If you have a miracle to share, it's easy to participate.Just post a miracle on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below. Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

PLEASE NOTE - when linking make sure to link to your Miracle Monday post. Do not link to the front page of your blog.

This edition of Miracle Monday is now closed. If you have a miracle you would like to share, please come back next Monday. Thanks!

Those darn baby doll tops!

Right before leaving for church this morning, Sarah looked at my outfit, turned up her nose and said, "You look like you have a baby in your tummy!"

I knew it! I knew those baby doll tops made me look pregnant!

Hmmmm...maybe that's why they call them baby doll tops!

It was only out there two and a half days before I noticed...

On Tuesday morning, I purchased a new Dwarf Alberta Spruce to replace the one that died.

I went out to the front porch last night to check to see if a package I was expecting had been delivered.

There was no package waiting but as I was admiring my new green evergreen, I noticed something blowing in the breeze.

Take a closer look.

Minnie Pearl would be so proud.

Works For Me Wednesday - Pizza Night with No-Rise Pizza Dough

When my husband was growing up, Friday night was pizza night at his house. And actually even now whenever we are visiting, Friday night is still pizza night! Talk about a long-lasting tradition!

So we have started having pizza on Friday nights at our house. But as much as I love Domino's, I don't want to spend $15. So I started making the pizza from scratch.

I've been playing around with several different dough recipes and this one is by far my favorite because it is a no-rise dough!

Follow these simple directions and you will be making your own pizza in no time!

No-Rise Pizza Dough
1 Tbsp. active dry yeast
1 cup warm water (105-115 degrees F)
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. salt
2 Tbsp. vegetable oil
2 1/2 cups flour
1 tsp. basil (optional)
1 tsp. oregano (optional)

Dissolve the yeast in the water. Add the sugar, salt, oil and spices. Gradually add the flour until you have a nice stiff dough. Knead the dough for about 4 minutes.

Roll out the dough and press onto a greased pizza pan. Bake at 450 degrees F. for about 8-10 minutes.

I then take the crust out and cover it until Dan comes home. Sometimes I do this several hours in advance depending on our plans for the afternoon. When I'm ready, I add the toppings and bake for another 10 minutes or so until the cheese has melted and the sauce is bubbling.

Alternately, you can make the dough and top the pizza and then bake all in one step for about 15 minutes until the whole thing is done. I prefer to go ahead and bake the crust earlier in the day, it gives me a little more freedom.

What could be easier than this? Now you can start your own pizza night!

For more Works For Me Wednesday tips, visit Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer.

The good old days.

On Sunday afternoon, I went outside to check on the kids. They were playing with the next door neighbors and things had gotten quiet - a sure sign that something was amiss.

They had been racing through the backyard with wagons and dump trucks and bikes for almost 3 hours. When I found them, they were just quietly milling around.

Peter was muttering and shaking his fists and looking up to the sky and Caleb was looking down and kicking up loose dirt with his feet.

They looked like two old farmers who had finally given up on their crops and were mad at God for not sending more rain.

I asked what they were doing and Peter replied, "We're mad! We want to old days back!"

The old days? Bottles, diapers, crawling, potty training, I thought. What are they talking about?

"The old days? What do you mean?" I asked trying not to laugh as the dirt was billowing up from their kicks. I even had to duck a few times as their fist shaking was getting mightier and mightier.

"We miss the golf cart and the trampoline."

Ah,yes. The golf cart.

Jacob and Caleb's grandfather brought an old golf cart to their house over the summer and left it for several weeks for them to play with. The kids would pile into it and do lap after lap after lap around the backyard every afternoon.

I got conflicting reports on the whereabouts of the golf cart. Jacob told me his grandpa took it away because his mom said it was killing the grass. Caleb said he took it away because it needed to be repaired.

I'm not exactly sure where the beloved golf cart went but it disappeared right around the same time the trampoline did.

They all seemed pretty nonchalant about both items when they were initially removed, so I was a little confused as to why all the fist shaking and dirt kicking was going on now, a month and a half later.

But then it hit me. They do miss the trampoline and the golf cart but maybe in their own little way, they were shaking their fists and kicking the dirt because they really miss summer.

They miss staying up late and sleeping late. They miss playing for hours and hours on end. They miss the freedom of summer and the hot sun.

So as the late afternoon sun was casting long shadows, they were trying with all of their five-year-old might to tell summer not to go. And to warn fall that they weren't to be messed with.

Don't try to come around here fall, each fist shake was saying. Stay away cold weather, all the dirt kicking cautioned.

Or maybe they really just miss the golf cart and the trampoline.

Baby Gracie Update - Urgent Prayer Request

Please read Gracie's CaringBridge page.

Gracie's mom, Amanda is asking(begging) for your prayers.

A representative from the hospital ethics committee met with them today and told them that the doctors feel like Gracie is dying and that Todd and Amanda are just prolonging the inevitable.

Please read this update and pray for them.

Miracle Monday

It's Miracle Monday again!

This is a really cool miracle that Laura over at Catholic Teacher Musings wrote about a couple of weeks ago. Was it an angel? You decide!

(This is Laura's story and is taken directly from her site.)

"When I was 19, taking a semester off from college and working downtown, I rode public transportation on most days of the week.

My daily trip included both the Metro rail and the bus, and often meant I would walk home alone from the bus stop at night.

Since my surroundings were quite familiar to me, I never really anticipated danger lurking nearby, but one evening it seemed to be.

Immediately after leaving the bus on this particular night, I walked, as I usually did, by a neatly trimmed row of bushes near a fenced parking lot, and I was startled by the gravelly voice of a disheveled and suspicious looking man on the other side of the bushes.

He said he wanted me to wait for him so he could talk to me; instead I crossed the street and kept my eye on him. I saw him climb into a beat up vehicle, and pull out of the parking lot, driving fast towards my side of the street.

He slowed down, honked, then yelled something angrily out his window, so I panicked and desperately looked for a way out, a car, another pedestrian- anything, but of course as stories like this go- no one seemed to be around that could help me in case serious trouble ensued.

I ran across the main road again and considered venturing up a steep hill and into a nearby church to safety while at the same time I observed him speeding up to a U turn area to come over to my side of the road again. I continued to keep watching him- as he continued to keep watching me.

From what seemed out of nowhere, a cab came crawling along the right lane of the highway, and it stopped; I didn't hail it. It stopped.

The sweet faced driver asked in his musical, Jamaican accent, "Do you need a ride somewhere?"
I gratefully hopped in, ducked down, and told him my address.

Okay, I know this doesn't seem that out of the ordinary, but I lived in the suburbs. Cabs just weren't a regular presence in or around my neighborhood. It was odd. Good odd.

And after this kind driver took me to my home, he said that I didn't have to give him any money for fare. When I insisted, he relented, smiled, and charged me one dollar. One dollar.

And so you see, though it may give others pause to hear me tell it, I conclude that I came into contact with a special being that day- could have been just a nice man seeing my duress and wanting to be helpful- but I choose to believe it was more than that."

If you have a miracle to share, it's easy to participate.

Just post a miracle on your blog and link it back here using Mr. Linky below. Please mention "A Mom's Life" and my URL in your post. And if you want, you can use the Miracle Monday button in your post as well.

PLEASE NOTE - when linking make sure to link to your Miracle Monday post. Do not link to the front page of your blog. If you have any questions, email me and I will be glad to help you. My email address is in my profile.

Have a great Miracle Monday!

This edition of Miracle Monday is now closed. If you have a miracle you would like to share, please come back next Monday. Thanks!

Save Lori's House

I was blog hopping tonight and ended up reading this story.

It made me sad. It made me want to hug my kids. It made me realize that we don't know what twists and turns our lives might take. It made me want to help Lori.

Please help Lori if you can.